Help creating my own 'manga'

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I have multiple drawings over the years, but every time I try to scan them, I can barely see the lines, and all details are faded.
It's most likely that the paper is too thin and the light of the scanner too bright, does the scan look too white? It's probably that, i would suggest putting another piece of paper on top to block the light from passing or drawing again in a thicker paper.
 
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@WhiteEkans

Few pointers:
In regards to art:
-If you need a good art program, I'd recommend photoshop/illustrator if you own adobe. If you don't, and don't want to "sail the seven seas" as it were, GIMP is free.

-A tablet isn't strictly necessary but I would highly recommend it. It takes a lot of practice to get used to draw with a mouse and if you're not used to it, I'd avoid doing so.
-Keep in mind that your art doesn't need to be spectacular. All artists slowly will improve with time and effort, and you will eventually look back at what you did first and cringe. That's a good thing because it means you've improved. Try your best, don't be afraid to use reference and try your hardest. A good story and good writing will outshine bad art, so focus your efforts into that front.

In regards to story:
-The key to romance is strong characters and strong chemistry between them. We as the audience need to see how they fell in love, how their relationship develops, what motivates them, how they'd react in any given situation, and why they are attracted to one individual specifically, and what about them draws them in more than a superficial reason, which may start a relationship, but won't keep it going.

-Your characters should have distinct traits that define them. The most common pit fall is "generic loser MC" which usually leads to a boring manga. It's more interesting to have a distinct main character with flaws, strengths, weaknesses, fears, goals, and aspirations rather than an "average joe" mc or a mary stu. DON'T MAKE THE GIRL/GIRLS INSTANTLY FLAW FOR HIM, as that just feels lazy and contrived. It's more satisfying if they both have to work for the relationship

-Don't have every character be involved in the main romance and have characters outside of the relationship that can give the characters in it advice. Have two childhood friends, for instance, where one's male and one's female and they're dating, or have a few guys that can help MC out with his relationship. If you skew the genders too much, it takes the auidience out of the experience

-Keep in mind the main themes and central ideas of your story. Everything should be working up to a reoccuring central idea or concept that all the characters are dealing with in some way, whether it be a philosophical dilemma or some sort of belief about themselves. It's not strictly necessary, but it makes the work feel more holistic and complete.

-Make sure that both your characters are always in-character and avoid plotholes and contrivances as much as possible. Try to make your story feel natural as if it's run by logical people. This is why people hate misunderstandings or people who don't act logically with the information they have. If two characters have an issue, it's better they have some communication, or if they're stuck in a situation, they need to have a logical way that they can get out of it within their character traits.


That's all I can say without further details, but I wish you luck
 
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-Make sure that both your characters are always in-character and avoid plotholes and contrivances as much as possible. Try to make your story feel natural as if it's run by logical people.
This is very important, you go to many different comedy romance mangas that are here and 80% of the time (if not more) lack of comunication and deduction skills (by the author) are the start of misunderstandings, but most of the time, it feels very forced.
 
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The Mangadex gang!
Only missing a few more,
suddenly shy now?

This is very important, you go to many different comedy romance mangas that are here and 80% of the time (if not more) lack of comunication and deduction skills (by the author) are the start of misunderstandings, but most of the time, it feels very forced.

Forced romance just sucks.
You can see it miles away
and it's rather bland.
 
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invensting in a GOOD pentablet is a good idea. just remember to not pinch your wallet on it, my sister already suffered because of this. cheap ones tends to do badly or breaks easily.
if you want still want to draw on paper, there's a kind of paper specialized for it. the thicc and heavy one (also the pen, my sister used to enslave me to buy these drawing pens). also be mindful to do adjustment on your printer/scanner, refer to their official guide on it. <- if this doesn't fix your problem, then your scanner sucks harder than some certain person's waifu.
but take this with grain of salt, i'm neither pro at drawing or getting enslaved by people who draw

also there's some thread specifically talks about how to write good story. you should start your gravedigging soon
 
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Well pretty much anything I would've said has been said so good luck on your endeavor man.
This is one of those threads where I ask myself is it a good idea to derail.
What do I do lord?
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I AM HERE to provide my invaluable input!

Just kidding, I don't actually have knowledge or experience on the level as most of the users above apparently do, judging by their studied responses. But there is one thing that I find to be well worth acknowledging. That being...

Planning/outlining. I can't stress this enough, but when foreshadowing is done well (e.g. when previous occurrences, whether they be events, character/relationship developments, cryptic dialogue (but not cryptic to the point where it's cringe-inducing lol), etc.), competent readers of the story appreciate the work tenfold. There is almost nothing more satisfying than a multitude of plot points, story arcs, etc., amalgamating into a logical and satisfying conclusion.

'Good' stories, of course, do not necessarily require exceedingly intricate levels of planning. But the level of planning can become very apparent when it comes to the far ends, e.g. stories that are written chapter-to-chapter, with little to no outlining; or on the other end, stories that contain extremely well-assembled outlining.

Visualizing the level of outlining will most certainly ease the complication of the entire process. Focusing on outlining only the current/next few arcs of the story that you're writing is a fine and effective approach, and it ensures that even if you're not entirely certain how you would like to end the story, you still have some plot points to work towards. To elaborate on the manner of visualization, picture the main plot points you would like to execute. From there, zoom into each plot point (starting with the earliest occurring one) and attempt to conceptualize the smaller events that will lead towards the bigger plot points.

All of this isn't essential to an enjoyable or well-written story, of course. Nor may it be applicable to the scale of intricacy you plan to embed in your future narrative. But I figured I may as well add something since I'm part of the General Forum Squadtm, so if it helps then that's great.

And one last thing; you can even use my premise for an isekai if you'd like. I only wrote the title for it (in the Write a Manga Title thread), but anyone can easily surmise the premise from the title alone. Here you go:
I Spent Eight Years in College, Although It Felt like Eight Hundred, in Order to Become a Proficient Architect, and After My Third Failed Attempt at Landing a Job in Architecture, I Cried on My Sofa for Four Hours, Until I Felt the Urge for Pineapple Soup, Which Was a Dish That My Late Mother, Who Passed Away in a Band Accident Eleven Years Ago When I Was Only Fifteen, Would Regularly Make for Me After I Came Home from School Each Day After Being Bullied for My Rather Large Nose, but After Checking My Fridge and Realizing I Had No Pineapples Left, I Resolved to Go to the Supermarket to Sate My Cravings, Where I Found That Not Only Were They out of Pineapples, but They Were Also out of Patience for Dealing with My Rather Large Nose, Which I Would Accidentally Knock Produce on the Floor With, and I Was Rudely, but Understandably, Kicked out of the Supermarket, Only to Meet a Strange Man Who Smelled of Pineapples, Who Ended up Revealing Himself as the Pineapple God, and After Sending Me on My Way, He Showed up at My House the next Day, and Informed Me That, Because He Had Been Drunk the Night Before, He Had Accidentally Revealed His True Identity as the Pineapple God to Me, and to Prevent His Secret Identity from Being Known, He Sent Me to Another World, a Fantasy World, Against My Objections, Where I Immediately Died by Tripping over My Shoelaces and off a Cliff, Only to Be Reincarnated in That Same World with My Memories Intact, Allowing Me to Fully Assimilate into That Fantasy World and Work My Towards Becoming the Renowned Architect I Had Always Dreamed of Being, And, as It Turns Out, I Was Also Reincarnated with My Tremendous Fucking Nose, Which Seemed Unfortunate at First, Until I Learned That Gargantuan Noses Were Seen as a Sign of Beauty in the New World I Inhabited, Leading to Me Being Well-Admired by Men and Women Alike, Although I Would Always Reject the Advances of Men, as I'm Not Gay Lol, and After Finally Becoming a Famous Architect with a Harem of Goth Elf Big-Breasted Fairy Elf Lolis, I Was Tasked by the Kingdom's Ruler, Who Also Had a Large Nose, Although Not Quite as Large as Mine, to Defeat the Demon King?!
 
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I would suggest asking for help in the Literature forum, since other people who write also post there, so feel free to visit Literature instead of here in General, since it's more specific (lol).
 
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There's a bunch of idea at Literature forum, you should come......


becareful of fanfic
 
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I'm not a lawyer, and I more specialize in the creative ends. I'd suggest as a layman to wait until you can see if your work is profitable, but I know plenty of artists how don't have copywrites on their characters probably. If you just want to make a webcomic for the public to enjoy or to post it on mangadex, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Especially because if you copywrite something ahead of time but never do anything with it, the trademark/copywrite becomes public domain again from my understanding. I'd suggest asking a lawyer first, though. @WhiteEkans

This, but unironically. @EOTFOFYL @Richman

I tend to rate conflicts on a certain scale of how interesting they are for a viewer. It's by no means solid, and each story is different so one type may be suited more than another to a particular narrative. However, in generality, the kinds of conflicts I find least to most interesting:
Most interesting:
-Characters come into conflict because of some philosophical or moral clash, with no clearly good or bad side. Both sides are presented with their flaws and limitations and are consistent with their characters.
-Characters are working through some major psychological, social, or philosophical impediment and are trying to reason through it by using their experiences and understandings

Moderately interesting:
-Characters come into conflict because they all want a McGuffin
-Characters come into conflict because of the Paragon story/Good vs Evil
-Characters come into conflict because of fate

Least interesting:
-"Drama due to misunderstanding," where one character misunderstands the circumstances of another and so it leads to a series of events. It's usually contrived, but it can be done well, though I've only seen it succeed/thrive in South Park because it's usually so over-the-top and edgy that it's funny or that it's part of theme of the episode
-"Liar revealed," where the main character lied about something, it gets revealed, and the second act low point just drags on with mopping (Exampe: Shark Tale)

Note all of these can be done well, and that it's subjective to me, but as generality, these are what audiences tend to enjoy.


For instance, one idea I had for a manga that I thought was interesting goes as follows:
There's a love story between a tsundere and the main character, and it starts off as appearing as a stereotypical ecchi manga. She's too prideful to admit she has feelings for him and he just seems like a lucky pervert at first. However, as the manga goes on, it makes clearer and clearer that something is off about MC, and there's subtle implications that he doesn't have the best family life, very many friends, and that he's not as happy as he appears. These issues all come to ahead where-after the previous chapter where the tsundere levels of FMC were a bit extreme-MC doesn't show up at school, and FMC, at first trying not to get involved but eventually feeling guilty, promises to bring him his work from school, but when she finds out that MC's tried to commit suicide and she sees him being put into an ambulance. The rest of the manga is about their relationship and the two of them trying to work past their issues together as they gradually fall in love with each other and open up.

What I like about this setup is it subverts your understanding of the genre in a way that's both logical and in-character, and that leads to you being sympathetic for both MC and FMC. MC's got his own flaws, and he's trying to work through some issues, meaning that FMC has to work on herself as much as well as trying to be a center of support for him despite her innate desire to be a tsundere. Plus it already has a theme about how facades and the lack of communication or having a full picture of a person can lead to disaster and unintended consequences.

It's a bit dark, but I think if executed well, it could be a great romance story in general. You'd just have to be really subtle and tread carefully, or you'd seem too hamfisted and cringeworthy. (So basically, don't turn it into 13 Reasons Why.)

@bigtiddyoneesan
Yeah, pretty essential to outline, have others read over your scripts and to redraft. I should have included that in my post.

It's important to have a general idea where you want the plot to go but to keep your mind open enough that you can adjust to new ideas and information that may improve how you tell your story.
 
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@Tamerlane

There's a love story between a tsundere and the main character, and it starts off as appearing as a stereotypical ecchi manga. She's too prideful to admit she has feelings for him and he just seems like a lucky pervert at first. However, as the manga goes on, it makes clearer and clearer that something is off about MC, and there's subtle implications that he doesn't have the best family life, very many friends, and that he's not as happy as he appears. These issues all come to ahead where-after the previous chapter where the tsundere levels of FMC were a bit extreme-MC doesn't show up at school, and FMC, at first trying not to get involved but eventually feeling guilty, promises to bring him his work from school, but when she finds out that MC's tried to commit suicide and she sees him being put into an ambulance. The rest of the manga is about their relationship and the two of them trying to work past their issues together as they gradually fall in love with each other and open up.
Not bad. Not bad at all. Dare I say, it may even rival my magnum opus, BokuSchnoz.

despite her innate desire to be a tsundere
Made me kek. But approaching it seriously like in the above premise would result in some good inner turmoil. Tsunderes are normally kawaii because they're somewhat shy and make remarks that are obviously just them trying to save face, when in actuality both the reader and the in-universe characters are aware of the 'dere' feelings behind the 'tsun' actions. I'd say that the tsundere appeal also benefits from the law of scarcity, i.e. the less 'dere' actions a character performs, the more value said 'dere' actions are given.

But in the real world, feeling the need to act dishonest and lie about (or withhold) one's true feelings, most likely in an attempt to not end up emotionally vulnerable, is not healthy when taken to the extreme. Pairing that sort of inner conflict along with a second person who requires the receival of honest positive feelings would make a great premise. Of course, as I stated earlier, still not as great as my BokuSchoz.

So basically, don't turn it into 13 Reasons Why
Fuck that show to the MAX. I watched the 1st season and could hardly stand the agenda-pushing and overdramatic character choices/plot developments. I could do my business in jars for two years and display the jars in an art gallery, it would still be less of a shitshow than that series.
 
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If you write a Tsundere character, don't go too hard with the tsun (aka, hitting MC frequently, insulting them hard, things like that), because i think that if you do that, to me the reader, it looks like abuse.

@bigtiddyoneesan
What happened with 13 reasons why? I never watched it.
 
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What happened with 13 reasons why? I never watched it.
- Needless pandering to intersectionalists, i.e. it's almost as if the writers were attempting to fill quotas, such as "yeah we need at least one pair of gay dads, three gay guys, two bisexual girls, 3 white males, 3 white females, 4 asians, 3 black males, 5 black females,..." etc. There's absolutely nothing wrong with diverse casts, but forced diversity is insulting.

- Melodrama is off the charts. The plot goes off the rails, like REALLY off the rails. You've got drug addiction, attempted school shooting, murder, rape, etcetera. The high schoolers hook up with each other and are in-and-out of relationships more than a generic soap opera, which is to say, a lot.

- The basic premise, being 'a high school girl commits seppuku and leaves audio tapes for each person who motivated her to either commit sodoku or NOT to commit not alive, and the other kids must deal with the aftermath' might actually be a decent premise if done well (which it wasn't lmao)

tl;dr 🅱️retty 🅱️ad series, my dude

Edit: I realized this wasn't really on topic lmao. Sorry OP, hope you don't mind. The above posts are still on-topic and worth reading tho.
 
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Hi there @WhiteEkans.


Firstly for bringing your drawings into a digital form:
When scanning your pages remember that scanners are basically taking a picture of your pages with a very bright flash. Your scanner should have settings you can adjust if you are scanning from a computer. If you have the option, select Grayscale or Color, NOT Black & White because B & W will remove all the grey colours that make you are likely relying upon for details.

You could also try and simply draw darker. This will make the scanner put more detail into your image (because the average scanner will fade out light grey colours regardless of your settings).

An alternative to scanners is simply using a camera (like your phone camera) and adjusting the image later. Make sure you have good lighting on the page AND that you don't have any shadows on the page when you take the picture.
If you have shadows/bad lighting it can be very hard to correct the image unless you are a digital image wiz, which isn't your forte (as you have said).


Should you invest in a digital tablet?
"Not right now" would be my answer to you. You are already comfortable with physical drawing and even though you might be making a digital comic, a digital tablet will likely only hinder you at this stage. Drawing tablets open up a wide range of interesting ways you can create art but it's not like they are a direct evolution of paper. They are equal because they are different. If you are good at one medium, the other medium may have benefits in various ways but you can just make do with what you have.

There are certainly positives as you have no doubt researched, but you have to realise that you do not have to use one in order to draw comics/manga-style.

Think of all of the manga artists out there that draw insanely detailed and complex lineworks with paper, still to this day. Of course, an amazing digital artist could do the same, but what I am saying is that an amazing paper artist could do the same as a digital artist.

Now, there is nothing stopping you from getting one to assist with digital effects/colouring (which you may find quite useful) and you could use them both together. It doesn't have to replace your hand-drawing with paper. If I ever made a manga I would probably do it like this. A combination of hand-drawing and digital art.
If you must get a tablet, definitely get one with a display, but don't just go speeding off to Wacom's corner because you have plenty of good budget options (no, cheaper tablets are not automatically a bad option. They share the majority of the functionality that the de-facto standard does).



Now, regarding your copyright.


Depending how important the story is to you there is a lot of things you can do to protect your work from copying... but it is basically unnecessary. The people who have enough talent (few and far between) to make your story complete or draw it as a manga will not ever want to copy your idea. To most people who would be your peers, it would feel disgusting to them to copy your work.
I have an analogy here, you can look at it like this:

You are shopping at a supermarket and you have a trolley that is full of things you want to buy.
Of course there are many others with trolleys that are wandering around.
Now imagine that you go off to get something from a shelf and somebody just randomly steals your trolley. Could you imagine it?
It would mean that either: they have ditched their own trolley in order to take yours, or they were walking around a supermarket just so they could steal your trolley!
How random would that be!


And that is basically is with original story ideas. There are just so many of them around and people have their own ideas. Think about the supermarket analogy again:
If somebody randomly stole your trolley, it may have a lot of stuff they don’t want in it, right?
You story may have bits they don’t like, or the artwork is not how they want to draw it and so they would change it. In that case: they are no longer even making your story!

So you don’t have to worry about that.

But what you should be careful of is posting your full or complete manga/story for review.
In that case, people with nothing better to do could simply repost the whole thing under their own name and you won’t get credit unless you have a following!

Remember: Posting tid-bits/previews — basically essential. It can give you essential information to make your story better and it can get you a following before you have even posted the first chapter (if you do it enough and it’s interesting).

Never: Complete the whole manga/story and then post the entire thing ‘for review’ or something like that. If you have completed it, post it on multiple sites like this one so it is immediately credited to you. If you don’t, someone could simply swoop in and repost it under their name just like you fear.


And if you want inspiration for making your manga, specifically: how people have already done it, you can search here on Mangadex for "User Created" tag manga. There are really no requirements to create your own things.
Just make something you are happy with and then go from there.
 
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@bigtiddyoneesan Most of my concepts for interesting mangas play with one character wanting to die or someone in a state where they really don't want to be in so when they grow or move past that, it feels more rewarding for an audience

There's one I've had that's similar to another manga on here that's about a boy who asks an Oni girl to kill him because he's an Orphan and so he thinks that if he's a sacrifice, then he'll at least be respected. But she decided not to do that and they gradually fall in love, but she wants him to stay young so goes on a quest to find a magical item to restore him to his youth.

Another one is the story of a man moving into a haunted building because the rent's cheap, and there's a ghost girl that wants to evict him but he views hopes that maybe he can somehow connect with her because he feels like he can understand her lonesomeness

All of the stories I like have some tragic element to their nature, so I think these premises play with that in ways that would make for interesting character arcs
 

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