It is sometimes unclear to recollect the exact moment that a comic idea comes to fruition. Sometimes a comic emerges out of ton of quickly drawn doodles over a span of time before any of the characters have names or the story has a title.
I can recall the exact moment that the idea for my webcomic became something more than a series of doodles. I once worked as a cashier at a student store and whenever we were not busy or talking to customers, I would make quick sketches on the back of receipt paper and even plastic bags with a sharpie pen. One day I started writing large hiragana letters under my sketch (Ka-Wa-I-I Da-I-Ga-Ku-Se-I) and the name of my comic and Drunk Duck username was born in an instant.
I still love finding any traces of the old sketches that I managed to draw on receipt paper. They are older relics that are evidence of the evolution of my art style. Old art is proof that my comic has a history and are the original concept drawings before I even had a comic story to tell.
Originally, I did not even imagine that my comic would become a webcomic. The main reason I even ventured into webcomics was because I read a lot of them on a daily basis and some of my biggest heroes and role models were webcomic creators and I thought it would be cool to follow in some of their footsteps.
The beauty of concept art is that it is really a blueprint that a more fleshed out idea or refined drawing does not necessarily have to follow. It is one of my favorite steps because it is the loosest part of the brainstorming process.
.::.
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A Comic Idea Is Born
kawaiidaigakusei at 12:00AM, Sept. 12, 2016
7 likes!
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VinoMas at 9:24PM, Sept. 12, 2016
You know what's weird. I have what I believe to be the first drawing of Princess January (not too unlike how she looks now, but I can't remember how she was formulated. How she came to be. I think I wanted a kooky Scooba Doo Vampire girl who ended up turning into a Disney Princess obsessed pop-culture wearing and living evil crazy cakes. She steals people. She chops off heads. And all with a zany smile. Loved your article this week Kawaii.
Ozoneocean at 7:20PM, Sept. 12, 2016
And Bottomless Waitress started out on discussions on the Quackcast XD
usedbooks at 11:54AM, Sept. 12, 2016
I also have nearly every sketch and script ever.
usedbooks at 11:53AM, Sept. 12, 2016
Mine started with characters -- my roommates. We watched a lot of anime and got a kick out of picking out characters for each other (that one is YOU). On a mall trip in November/Decemberish of 2006, one of my friends was being a real character. So I bought a how-to-draw manga book and started developing anime-esque characters my friends would be. I had sheets of info anout them and my crude-attempts at anime style. We laughed about it and I said if I had talent or knew someone who did, we'd make that show. One day, I realized that, talent or no, I could draw storyboards for nonexistent show to amuse us. So I did that. I drew 5+ pages of storyboards a day to share with my roommates. (My brother later talked me into uploading them. My thought was it would be a good backup. I never read webcomics before I joined DD and people were strangely supportive of my barely discernible "drawings.")
HippieVan at 8:17AM, Sept. 12, 2016
Both of my comics started similarly - with doodles of characters who were drawn enough that after a while they were also given stories.
Banes at 7:41AM, Sept. 12, 2016
It's so gratifying to find those early sketches that eventually led to full stories or comics! I don't save mine, but occasionally find a little sketch of earlier character designs or moments that eventually ended up in a comic. Ditto when finding old story outlines that are now completed.
mg78 at 6:26AM, Sept. 12, 2016
i do preliminary sketch and then i set all of them in a sort of "archive". the problem is, ive got a lot of "archives" and i have no wish to loose time searching them lol
KimLuster at 4:58AM, Sept. 12, 2016
That is so cool Kawaii!! Of course I've related here on DD how my story came to me (on a long power hike...). I never did any preliminary sketches - the start of the comic was my initial sketching, as is painfully obvious to anyone who looks! :D