How Not To Make It In Webcomics - Part 2

Premise and Target Audience

Nerds? Students? Alcoholics? All of the above.

It’s important to know the demographic you’re trying to appeal to. Want to attract nerds? Throw in a sparsely clad hot female character, preferably with cleavage in your comic title, and you’ve got a winner. If you’ve ever been to a comic convention you’ll know how far a simple pair of tits can get you. (Pretty far). This all plays into your premise.

Inspiration! Two Roommates who play video games together and make lots of obscure pop culture references! Odds are it’s been done (See: 90% of all webcomics ever made).

What makes your comic memorable? Does it’s twist give you the freedom to explore all the topics and situations you might want to? Does your concept lean entirely on a cliché? (See: following)

List of played out genre’s in Webcomics:

• Anything relying on video-game references, RPG’s, MMORPG’s, or elves.
• Cat-girls, Fox-boys… any human-animal combination, really.
• Vampires, zombies, angels, demons, evil spirits, and the hunting of said creatures.
• Nympho school-girls, homoerotic schoolboys, samurais, ninjas, and/or any other shittily-drawn manga-styled comic about a kid with special powers.
• Penguin sidekicks.

What’s really important here is that the comic draws from a well-supplied source of inspiration, one that doesn’t rely on the theme it started out with. The characters will all begin with a stereotype and grow into complex personalities of their own accord. Make sure they have room to grow and explore new sources of humor. Any previously used cliché can still become a successful premise for a series, but you have to be sure that you set yourself apart from the genre with some unique take on the situation.

If all else fails, pick a sweet name and throw in some more boobs for good measure.