It Doesn’t Matter if Your Webcomic Is Ugly

Nami
Nami
Aug 8, 2017 · 2 min read

Quality isn’t important in webcomics.

Or, it’s less important than you might think. I should add a caveat: you do want good image quality. By that, I mean that you should scan your stuff, rather than photograph it — that, or you’ll have to photograph and edit it so well that it looks scanned. Your drawings can be ugly, but if they’re crisp and clear in their ugliness, then you’re fine.

The sad truth is that people will almost always go for a badly-drawn but well-presented comic over a beautifully painted, crappily photographed one. People’s eyes trick them: they tend to favor what’s presented best, rather than what actually is the best. That’s why companies put so much effort into packaging stuff nicely. You need to “package” your work well, too.

When I say quality doesn’t matter in webcomics, I mean that you shouldn’t worry if you’re bad at drawing. Your drawing skill level is irrelevant to whether your comic can be successful.

Cases in point: the guys who started Attack on Titan and One-Punch Man both sucked at drawing when they started. I mean really, really sucked. One-Punch Man started off as a webcomic drawn by a guy who didn’t know how to draw literally anything, but did it anyway.

If you’re thinking about starting a webcomic, chances are you’re a better drawer than both early-career Hajime Isayama and ONE (OPM’s original artist). ONE actually still is pretty bad. But both of these guys are now internationally acclaimed for their work.

As I was writing this, I initially thought I was going to have to add that if you’re as bad at drawing as Isayama and ONE, you might want to at least be a decent writer to make up for it. But then I thought about it some more, and I realized that there are actually several successful webcomics out there that are badly-drawn and badly-written. I won’t name them for tact’s sake, but some of the longest-running webcomics successes in the game fall into this category.

The keyword there is “longest-running”. All this is to say that as long as you’re putting work out there often enough for people to see it, on a consistent basis, there’s someone out there who will love your weird, ugly style.

Nami

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Nami

I’m Nami! I write about autism and comics — less often than I should, but when I do, I try to make it worth your while. Twitter: @breezecast