Ideas for Webcomics

[Jumpman]

So its been my dream forever to create a webcomic. I'm an art major in college, with a great sense of humor, and the personal drive to actually devote time and effort to it. The main thing I'm struggling with now is the theme. I definitely want it to be about gaming, but not feel like penny arcade or CAD. I'm toying with the idea of setting it in an actual game, maybe WOW... but I'm also worried about copyright issues. Assuming my comic ever became popular, I'd like to be able to make T shirts or something without getting sued.

Anyway, do you guys have any ideas on what to make it about? Maybe something you've wanted to see in a webcomic but haven't. Or, alternatively, are there aspects that you think are overdone or cliche in webcomics? If their centered on the same hobby there's going to be some inevitable crossover, but are there any glaring cliches that you hate?

 

[Souplex]

The protagonist tries to conquer the world by raising an army and going the good ol' brute force way.

 

[Uberjoe19]

I've got a good story on deviantART that I think could be made into a webcomic. It's very serious, though.

http://uberjoe19.deviantart.com/art/Trade-Secrets-110241465

 

[Jumpman]

sorry, to be more specific, a funny idea for a webcomic? I realize there are alot of very good serious comics out there but I think my personal skills lean more towards the humorous end of the spectrum.

 

[Uberjoe19]

How about you do an "Ethnic Foods" joke?

Like this

 

[superbleeder12]

I'd recommend not making it story based if you're not 100% devoted to keeping a constant update schedule. You'll lose fan-base if you don't update regularly.

I know how cliche it sounds, but Penny Arcade has a really good formula now. They have a few gaming strips that are standalone jokes; a few random, funny strips which are standalone; and then once in a blue moon they'll have an ongoing strip that lasts for about 5-6 strips.

You should make it an effort to make your comic stand out. I mean if you look at a lot of the comics, there's some pretty standard archetypes that make avid readers of comics bang their heads against walls. There's the one idiot who really shouldn't be alive due to their stupidity. Then there's the calm one who always has something witty to say at the right moment.

I know its difficult to form something that doesn't fit into cliche or tropes, but try to shy away from them as much as possible.

 

[Jumpman]

I'd recommend not making it story based if you're not 100% devoted to keeping a constant update schedule. You'll lose fan-base if you don't update regularly.

I know how cliche it sounds, but Penny Arcade has a really good formula now. They have a few gaming strips that are standalone jokes; a few random, funny strips which are standalone; and then once in a blue moon they'll have an ongoing strip that lasts for about 5-6 strips.

You should make it an effort to make your comic stand out. I mean if you look at a lot of the comics, there's some pretty standard archetypes that make avid readers of comics bang their heads against walls. There's the one idiot who really shouldn't be alive due to their stupidity. Then there's the calm one who always has something witty to say at the right moment.

I know its difficult to form something that doesn't fit into cliche or tropes, but try to shy away from them as much as possible.

yeah, I definitely don't want to fall into the slapstick character/straight man niche. And I like the idea of having occasional non sequiter jokes that have nothing to do with the current storyline. Itll be nice for when I get a really funny idea that I have no way of working into the plot.

 

[VoleurdeThym]

Awww, an art major? You probably wont like this, then. Still, kudos though.

Well, here I go anyway- A webcomic based off of the regulars on say, a fairly small forum site. It'd never show the actual people, just the posts images, ect. Hence, why you'd mostly no like it. I think people would like it, and relate to it, though.

 

[Souplex]

Stuff blows up: The webcomic. A lot of explosions and no explanation behind them.

 

[Locust]

If you're avoiding feel like CAD or Penny Arcade, that likely means what you're avoiding is your comic seeming to related to the real world.

People tend to go to webcomics or flash movies for laughs, so the further away it is from the stresses of real life, the better. I personally don't like CAD or Penny Arcade, and I find entertainment which is more distanced and colourful (For example, VG cats or Unforgotten Realms) to be humorous and a better escape from real life. Penny Arcade and CAD however are based on regular gamers in a regular world, so anyone who reads them is going to feel related to the characters or their lives.

Therefore, I think you should do a general gaming comic with colourful characters. You can achieve this by either making them anything but an average joe, or by making them something other than just a human. Robots, aliens, animals, video game enemies and more all fit the bill. Keep it up to date and based on the latest games, jokes based on old games tend to come off as stale and boring really. Once you've got that down, you just need to keep the humor intelligent. It's possible to just base your webcomic on one game like WoW, but the problem is that you severely limit your fanbase and creativity, and even if the game is popular enough in itself like WoW, it probably already has too many well established webcomics devoted to it already.

 

[Jumpman]

Awww, an art major? You probably wont like this, then. Still, kudos though.

Well, here I go anyway- A webcomic based off of the regulars on say, a fairly small forum site. It'd never show the actual people, just the posts images, ect. Hence, why you'd mostly no like it. I think people would like it, and relate to it, though.

thats a cool idea, sorta reminds me of You Suck At Photoshop, only in comic form, not video. I really would prefer something I can draw though. I think I'd get too bored just writing the dialogue. good idea though.

If you're avoiding feel like CAD or Penny Arcade, that likely means what you're avoiding is your comic seeming to related to the real world.

People tend to go to webcomics or flash movies for laughs, so the further away it is from the stresses of real life, the better. I personally don't like CAD or Penny Arcade, and I find entertainment which is more distanced and colourful (For example, VG cats or Unforgotten Realms) to be humorous and a better escape from real life.

Therefore, I think you should do a general gaming comic with colourful characters. Keep it up to date and based on the latest games, jokes based on old games tend to come off as stale and boring really. Once you've got that down, you just need to keep the humor intelligent. It's possible to just base your webcomic on one game like WoW, but the problem is that you severely limit your fanbase and creativity, and even if the game is popular enough in itself like WoW, it probably already has too many well established webcomics devoted to it already.

true, true, the few times I've tried to brainstorm about videogame players as characters, they always start to emulate CAD or PA. The genre is so well defined its very difficult to not be influenced by them.

 

[Uberjoe19]

Why don't you make a comic called Ultra Gore Death Chainsaw 3000?

 

[Jumpman]

Why don't you make a comic called Ultra Gore Death Chainsaw 3000?

nice. lots of cadmium red.

 

[Locust]

true, true, the few times I've tried to brainstorm about videogame players as characters, they always start to emulate CAD or PA. The genre is so well defined its very difficult to not be influenced by them.

It's still possible to have videogame players as characters, but to keep them different from CAD, they need something to make them seem so outlandishly weird or funny as opposed to a regular person. For example, in VG cats the characters all talk about games, they play them, the humour is based solely on it, but the main thing seperating it from CAD is the characters are so unrealistically different. The two main characters are well, cats, while the rest of the cast consist of super heroes, monsters and hobos.

Therefore, the best way to get around the problem is to make your characters similar to this. Whether they're aliens, robots, animals, characters and monsters from video games or more, that's usually enough to set them apart. After that, make sure they're in a fitting environment. Something bright and colourful like a fantasy world or a futuristic metropolis combined with the cartoony wit should work perfectly.

 

[Sewblon]

If you want to make a comic set in an actual game just do it. Lots of people make comics about WoW and blizzard doesn't seem to mind.

 

[Jumpman]

Depends, do you want to keep it serious/philosophical or just for fun and rather obscure?

im leaning more towards just for fun. especially if I set it ingame.

 

[RPJesus]

Stuff blows up: The webcomic. A lot of explosions and no explanation behind them.

Or better yet, spend one strip explaining the plot, and then nothing but fight scenes. For 1000 strips.

 

[Uberjoe19]

Why don't you make a comic called Ultra Gore Death Chainsaw 3000?

nice. lots of cadmium red.

Don't forget the liver and brains flying everywhere!

 

[Uberjoe19]

How about Totally Unoriginal? You could make fun of people and the games that they play.

 

[The Wooster]

I'm currently penning a webcomic (I long gave up trying to actually draw and instead I simply latch onto artists like a leech) about life on the Death star. It's called "Semi Operational".

I did about 100 pages of a webcomic a few years back (Story and art) and the best advice I can offer you is make sure your idea has a lot of potential. It may seem like you have a lot of ideas to start off with but by comic 63 the creativity tank will be pretty dry.