Plans, Publishing, Hive... Your Opinions?

I've been busy. Busy squirrelling away, making doodles of ideas before I forget them (because it's universal law that you think up ideas when at "real life work") - but, to be perfectly honest? I'm tired of just coming up with the ideas.
Before I get ahead of myself and make everyone think I've given up, far from it, allow me to explain:

THE IDEA:
Anyone who doesn't know, I'm aspiring to create and release a series of my own comics upon the world. The thing is, I'm not limiting myself to a simple setting of a city (for example), or just a small cast of 3 or 4 characters. No. My imagination has an entire galaxy in mind, individual planets, species, cultures and an overall threading narrative that links all of these as an original story. And thats the catch, Original - made fully from scratch, no stolen copyright infringements, something I can truly say is my own creation.

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For about 3, maybe 4 years I have been brainstorming and developing everything in this story. Sketches, written notes, ideas and various tweeks and revisions. But now, I just want to actually create something instead of thinking of something. But in order to make it, I have to obviously design and settle down on an idea. Otherwise, the story will be fractured and just made-up as I go - which I have done in the past, the most I got was about 36 full coloured pages, but like all of those make-it-as-you-go stories, they always hit a deadend. Either through plotholes or poor planning, usually both.

So. Question is, where do I define "ready?" - I am by nature a perfectionist. If the finished piece doesn't quite match my expectations or I feel like I can improve on it (which let's be honest, is a typical demon of many creative minds), I always end up re-doing and never actually getting anywhere. I feel like I'm pretty much ready now, it's just a very nervous step forward.

Truthfully, I'm a complete amateur in the big scary world of serious comic making (and I'm not afraid to admit that). So I realise there are a lot of changes to adjust to, and many things to learn. So far, I've been gaining advice on several things from a range of talented people both on here and on other social media communities, and every word has been extremely helpful and useful. But do I hold of until I've learnt more? Do I just steam ahead and actually make something? Or am I just overthinking things?

PUBLISHING:
Recently I've been looking into different ways of producing my book. It's very forward thinking considering I don't have a single page made yet, but I like to plan ahead and consider how to work accordingly. So far, self-publishing seems a standard choice (with its own share of advantage and disadvantages) and I've would never claim to be so ego-centric that a company like Marvel or whatever would even consider me (especially with all the loopholes and actual requirement of popularity in the first place) - but I'm wondering what everyone else does? Exactly where and how?

I found an interesting site called Blurb, but I'm uncertain of whether or not to work through them. The apps for creating book arrangements sound really useful however, plus they offer the option to branch through Amazon and Apple eBooks (even though I could likely do that myself anyway). It's all early days though, as I had mentioned, but I am curious if anyone else has experience with Blurb or similar sites?

HIVE:
This community, this little hive of minds. Where do I begin? I have so many questions. Admittedly, I was very apprehensive at first (I'm quite resistant against change, took me ages to even start an Instagram account) but I felt like it would be an excellent place to simply vent my thoughts (like now) and maybe discover a wider audience.

I'll be completely frank; I have dyscalculia. Basically a form of dyslexia, but struggling with mathematics and numbers instead of words and lettering. And Hive just happens to be full of numbers. I can work out the basic things (just a little slower than your average person), but I just can't get my head around the points system, the promote and boost and what exactly all of these points and numbers and trying to tell me. It isn't a big deal though, I'm just using Hive as a blog - but understanding the system would be nice (and everywhere I look is just mathematical jargon). And yet I can fully understand the principles of black holes and how an atom could potentially split. But numbers? It's very weird how the mind works... also causes issues with impatient customers during my retail work, but it's not like I advertise myself - and I don't harbor grudges regardless of how rude someone can be, I can't cure ignorance.

Jokes aside, anyone who could offer a laymans term of Hive's economy - I would love your feedback.

I also love anyone who managed to read through my nonsense and made it to the end. Good for you!
Any feedback on any topic I mentioned is always appreciated, plus I'm very open to any questions - personal or otherwise!
Thank you for your time and have a wonderful time doing whatever you do!

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I read a few months ago that a lot of DC and Marvel artists are jumping ship and creating a subscription-based comic site. Similar to you, they are designing the entire galaxy up from scratch, with each world having unique religions and governments. My own comic process is nothing like that. Since I write a comedy series I don't spend much time on world-building, and let the audience just assume "that city is like Metropolis" or "he's like Spider-Man." Saves me time borrowing from collective knowledge.

I have done world-building in the past, mostly for role-playing games. But I will usually start small and expose the world gradually. As 1st-level scrubs all they need to know is their town and the local threats. As they journey, then they become immersed in kingdom politics, continental threats, then sometimes extra-planar politics and governments. All that gets developed along the way. All that I come up with at the start is two things: 1) Who/what is the major campaign threat? and 2) An explosive start to the campaign. Aside from that I only have a vague idea of the path from beginning to end. Not sure if that's helpful at all, just want to reiterate, don't get paralyzed by perfectionism. You don't need all the small questions and details answered before you start, just the ones that will affect your characters right now.

Good luck. !BEER

Thats sound advice, thank you. Definetely going to try and use an approach like you suggested. Also, comedy comic sounds fun - whats the style of humour? I plan to use a lot of humour in my own, but I'm generally better at dry, deadpan humour myself

Whew! Lots to unpack here so I'll try to work through and will probably stray into some random thoughts of my own!

So much of what you describe is very familiar to me as well. I'm very much the same in terms of the perfectionism, wanting to constantly redo things, etc. While I have a mind for worldbuilding I don't think I'm as focused on that as you are and am a little more willing to fly by the seat of my pants!

While having your character and world "bibles" fleshed out beforehand is great; I think it's just important to have a basic foundation or structure. I realize that the story arcs and settings I have loosely outlined at current will take years to come to fruition and entail thousands of hours of work in the interim. So while it's nice to have a map, you want to leave yourself room to wander. As you work you're bound to come up with better ideas and ways of handling those next issues and story arcs, so there's no need to set them in stone now. On a smaller level, that's even why I don't tend to do a tight dialogue script before I start working. It seems more efficient and natural to scribble dialogue notes and come up with that final scripting as I draw. Each page is a good 8-12 hours of art "busywork" when your mind can think about script and story so I find it best to lump that together!

Building my worlds too extensively beforehand also makes me prone to the mistake of trying to cram it all in. In some of my first drafts at my comic I had cutaway scenes in an effort to explain to the reader exactly what was happening, before I realized they were unnecessary and ultimately harmful. It worked out much better to cut that sort of exposition out, leave some questions unanswered, and allow the world to present itself to the reader at the same pace it was presenting itself to the viewpoint characters.

From what I've seen of your recent work I do believe you're ready to "just do it." Be as perfectionist as possible while still moving forward and then just make each page better than the one before, and each issue better than the last.

On the forward thinking and practical matters of publishing and getting it out in the world I'm not sure what differences there may be between the U.S. and U.K. markets, but I find it invaluable to go to conventions and pick the brains of the small artists and publishers there to find out what others are doing and think works, and then watch their paths develop. I've seen and interacted with several creators who one year will have a completely self published book through a small run printing company, and the next year are releasing that material through a small publisher that picked up their book, and another year or two on might be releasing a collected edition through a mid size publisher who found their stuff from the small publisher! I think the opportunities will present themselves as you start to get the work out there and the most important thing is just to be smart about any deals you do make and leave yourself the legal flexibility to go elsewhere or strike up additional partnerships.

I've joked with @drwatson that he's my "guinea pig" as there's been printers or distribution tactics I've mentioned and he's pursued because he's much farther along with his comic Ithaqa than I am with my own work. I get to spout off theoretical nonsense and then see what happens when he puts it into practice! I think it's good to look at people like that who are at similar stages and see what you can learn and adapt from their workflows and publishing journey. In the next 6 months I should be seeing some significant forward momentum on my own comic project, and you can be sure I'll be sharing anything that works or fails here!

And finally on the topic of Hive itself, I think the best thing to do is exactly what you're doing... just use it like a blog or any other social media and let the numbers do their thing in the background! Hopefully when you're ready to do some printing or marketing it'll give you some extra financial resources to throw at it. However if you have any specific questions or concerns, you can always reach out to me directly and pick my brain here or on other DMs like Instagram.

That's an unexpectedly detailed response, in a good way. I can always rely on you for valuable points of view!
Everything you've pointed out is pretty much the same areas I've been looking at. In terms of character and main plot, I have actually worked out a loose plot-line that can potentially span across 3-4 books (or "series/seasons" - because I love the idea of making an ongoing story) and already have several ideas for sub-plot, character arcs etc - although it's true what you said that a lot of those become more harmful and unnecessary (plus it overcomplicates things). I do like the idea of keeping things remaining a mystery though, it would work very well with the Enigma character (who is essentially mystery incorporated), but I am going to revise on what is needed and what can be dropped (or used later).
In terms of page scripting, I like to try and write out a full chapter (or issue) in combination with page layout drafts (with isn't exactly a norm, but it does help me work out a good arrangement of picture and text). I have the first chapter mostly worked out in terms of writing, my biggest problem is starting the story - that old cliche of "it's hard to begin but easy to keep going" - but I've recently brainstormed a very visually exciting beginning to the story (my theory being it should help capture the reader and make them want to see what happens next), usually all of these ideas are springboarded off my wife - who pretty much acts as my quality control guinea pig. If the story makes no sense, or the jokes don't exactly hit home with her, I tend to know that certain parts need tweaking.
I do remember you mentioning perfectionism a few times on your instagram posts, hopefully that doesn't cause as many problems for you either. Looking forward to seeing Zombies become a fully readable book, definitely interested in picking up a copy - if the story matches the quality of the artwork (which it will, I'm sure), it's going to turn out great - and the whole "colourful apocalypse" still stands out as a cool concept!

Oh, also if anyone wants to take the reins on launching a HIVE COMICS UNIVERSE, count me in!

Yay! 🤗
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