The Longform Monologues is a little project where every Friday I give a slew of questions over to creators of longform comics, an oft overlooked sub-genre in webcomics. With this, I hope to gain some insight into not just their process, but the science behind what makes a longform comic successful and great, as well as a smattering of good business sense and lots of other little gems!
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Today we’ve got Jessica Cantlope/Senshuu of both Lovefeast and Millennium!
Firstly, can you give a brief summary of your comic(s)?
Sure! There’s two.
Millennium is an original fantasy adventure comic. It’s about a couple of friends and their travels to figure out a vague mystery that has been drastically altering the world every thousand years. It started in 2003 and restarted in 2008. In its current incarnation, it will be the culmination of my very first fantasy world (which I began building when I was 11), but so far the new version’s pretty young.
Lovefeast is my other comic, which has some fantasy elements but is still set in the “real world.” It’s best described as drama/action, with some strange romance-like thing interwoven into its fabric. It’s about so-called “normal” people giving up their lives to become Death Gods, a process that is a challenge on all their bodies, minds, and morals. Like my other comic, there’s a strong element of humor, but this one will also be much more serious, dealing with real issues. It began in 2008.
How often do you update, and how many pages at a time? Why?
Both comics update whenever they can. I try to shoot for posting something weekly for both of them (on Tuesdays or Friday), but it’s often much slower. I’m honestly trying to work on this. I still haven’t found my “groove” with updating — that’s my greatest downfall at this point, I think. But, it can be overcome.
Since I have two comics — one color and one B&W — I plan to have one updated twice per week and the other once per week. Realistically I couldn’t do more right now, though I would if I could! More pages = more story = more awesome!
For the writing portion, what is your process? What about the drawing portion?
For writing, I just…write. I focus on dialogue (and connected actions) when I script now, and almost nothing else (location when it’s important). I used to over-detail scene setups to make sure I didn’t forget anything, but when it comes to visuals, I need to trust my mind more. If a scene isn’t memorable enough for me to recall its visuals when I reread it, it probably doesn’t deserve to be read, so I rewrite it. My scripts are full of markers for me to instantly find parts I need to go back to and edit, or to remember for longer story threads. Dialogue and sometimes actions change slightly when it comes to actually drawing the page.
Coming back to trusting how my mind visualizes a scene, sometimes things turn out VERY differently when I draw them. That’s okay, too — drawing a scene I wrote ages ago is sometimes exciting, like a new adventure. Seeing how it all comes out is sometimes scary, too (after all, my imagination is different from my drawing styles), but I have greater faith in my ability to do comics now than when I started. (Not the greatest faith, note, but greater.)
How far ahead is your story written, and do you have a planned ending?
I write very far in advance. Millennium is about 85% written, and Lovefeast, well… is continuous, but still scripted very far ahead at the moment (3 volumes completed). Lovefeast is one of those comics that will probably just end in a very open-ended way, because of the story-arc nature of its structure. Millennium has a definite ending, and a future after that, too… But I don’t think about it TOO much, because both these comics are very long, and it will take me half my life to finish them at this rate, haha.
I do have all the unwritten parts of Millennium planned out in summaries of arcs and sections of arcs. I have seven volumes worth of stuff planned in a similar (and slightly less linear) way for Lovefeast, too, and lots more stuck in my head.
What tools do you use to produce your work?
For convenience’s sake, I draw everything 100% digital now, using a combination of PaintTool Sai and Photoshop, with my Wacom tablet. I’m considering going back to doing sketches and possibly lineart on paper… something about the quality of ink on paper is very attractive to me. But, digital lineart is one of my fortes, and I like doing it. (I do tire of sitting at a PC, however…)
The old version of Millennium 7 of the first 11 pages of the new version were all drawn on paper, and let me tell you, I hate finding a place to put all that stuff. Every sketch made for the old version is shoved into a giant Sonic the Hedgehog trapper-keeper, and it can barely close. I still like physical sketches, though…
What are your methods for generating ideas for your stories?
I’m inspired by a lot of things. However, a lot of things have also been done to death. Sometimes I look at something in a story and go, “What if this were done less predictably?” or “What if this were actually funny/tragic?” I strip down the idea to its core — sometimes it becomes something different altogether — and begin with it again, putting my characters into different situations. In Lovefeast’s case, I play out the scenarios in my head, and if they fit into the plot and/or the characters react interestingly, it gets written in as a story arc or part of one. Sometimes they don’t work out, fit in, or make any sense at all, and I forget about them or take the idea in yet another direction.
As for Millennium’s ideas, most of them were born of the world of which they are a part — that is to say, a lot of the ideas come from the setting, an original fantasy world (not at all like high fantasy) that I started making up 12 years ago and started crafting a little more just last year. The natural world plays a big part in everything, because in the story nature’s still much larger than the young civilizations within it. The elements have to be overcome — or they have to be utilized! Of course, if you want to go way back again, stuff like that fantasy world and its inhabitants were originally influenced by video games. I had just discovered them at that age. It was a good age. Millennium’s incredibly inspired by animation now, especially from series like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Gankutsuou, and Disney’s Hercules.
Anyway, I’m the kind of person who draws knowledge and inspiration from all sources, all things around me. I might not even remember what originally inspired a lot of things I wrote anymore. They have become different, my own thing, perhaps — but how many different and beautiful things there are in the world is great. Neverending inspiration! I used to have people I could bounce ideas off of, too. Not so much now (and that really was valuable to have; I miss it, seeing my comics through the eyes of others), but I’ve made up for it by being a much more self-critical author, I think.
How long does it take to do a page, from start to finish?
Millennium – 4-7 hours
Lovefeast – 4-5 hours
Sometimes music helps the time pass, and sometimes it slows time down. I’m trying to be less of a perfectionist so I can get things done more quickly, especially in Lovefeast’s case.
Can you give some insight into how you handle the pacing of your comic (how many panels per page, etc.)?
My pacing style was influenced by Japanese comics, because I liked the way they were paced generally more than a lot of American ones. I seem to have real difficulty putting more than 6-7 panels in a single page (I think a lot of them average about 4-5 panels per page, too), but it’s something I need to get used to if I want to get some parts moving along nicely.
As for things like the balance of humor to seriousness, action to not-action, and so on… Well, my sense about it actually just sort of comes naturally. If I had too many humorous scenes next to each other or too much wall-to-wall action, I’d be the first person to be bothered upon proofreading. Things like that just kind of work out — so long as I panel them correctly when art-time comes ’round.
That said, I recently went through the older parts of Millennium’s scripts and some of Lovefeast’s and weeded out a lot of more pointless, drawn-out scenes, condensing some, amalgamating others into other scenes (which works out quite nicely), and completely deleting others. With my pacing style, I can’t afford to have much superfluous goings-on. Later plot developments in Lovefeast actually required me to alter things, too.
I do have a personal tendency to draw each character saying their lines individually, rather than occasionally placing larger parts of conversations into one panel (which can be and often is done effectively). This can throw pacing off quite a bit and rack up “talking heads”/drawn-out-scene points, and I’m making sure not to do that so often.
How do you decide on the layout of your panels, what to emphasize, etc.?
That’s another thing that comes to me. I know enough about composition now to be able to emphasize what’s import and and to downplay what’s not, though still sometimes things don’t work as I imagined. Roughs and thumbnailing helps, but sometimes I skip those steps… (See: my incredible slowness when it comes to updating)
Do you actively try to make sure every single update you make satisfies the reader in some way? Why or why not?
In a way, yes. Sometimes in story-based comics you just have a bland establishing page, but I try to avoid that. Everything should have some appealing factor, and it often depends on how the author/artist approaches the subject of the page. (That is, don’t go “blaaahh I don’t wanna draw this page, so BORING” — make it something interesting, for goodness’s sake!)
Both of my stories (but Millennium more so, being more humor-oriented) have the potential for pages ending on punchlines, too, so that can be satisfactory in itself.
How do you feel about splash pages and full-page establishing shots? Do you think they can potentially hurt a comic?
Full-page establishing shots can be nice, but they better be executed DAMN well. A lazy full-page shot is just a lazy page, and while I personally would look past it, I don’t know how many others would.
On that note, most of the pseudo-filler pages in Lovefeast’s archives don’t really count as this, but I hope they still don’t put anyone off. I like them. (There will be much fewer of those as time goes on — they were mostly comic intro/prologue-type-things. Certain chapters, due to length or subject, won’t even have covers.) Millennium has much less of this because it’s more of a basic story — point A, point B. (It doesn’t even have chapters; just arcs, with sections broken up by setting/pacing.)
Do you have a buffer? Why or why not? If so, how big is it?
Nope. I update page-by-page… because I’m slow. I’ve been meaning to at least get a rough/sketch buffer for both comics for the longest (and at one point I actually had one for Millennium), and it’s something I still aspire to. Stuff takes longer than it seems sometimes!
How large is your audience, currently?
Lovefeast may have something like 90-120 regular readers… Millennium may have 60-80. I’m glad for this, because my comics are silly sometimes, and so am I, so it’s nice that anybody actually reads. A few reasons I can speculate as to why it’s not more, for both, considering how long they’ve been around:
– A lack of promotion in the beginning
– Kind of poor practice with websites/archives in the beginning
– Not-so-well-promoted
– Kind of common (Millennium and fantasy webcomics)/kind of niche (Lovefeast and manga-ish/BL comics)*
– Very slow/lack of updating (the big thing!)**
*For both these genres, I have read countless examples and am well-acquainted with what’s common. With my comics I want to fill my own desire-gaps with what I’d like to see in a comic, or even just a story. Lots of comics these days recycle concepts and ways to execute them, especially amateur comics, and I don’t intend to invent, necessarily, but I do want to do my own thing. :D
** I started Millennium senior year of high school, and Lovefeast senior year of college. Bad idea. No time for them, haha. But, with all the time spent not-updating, I actually improved my writing and my ways to go about executing the comics. Now is the best time to get on top of them!
How do you promote your comic(s)?
This is also a hard thing for everyone.. Word of mouth is the most powerful, so I try Twitter (which has done a lot for me personally in connecting with my peers). My comics are also linked at all the comic update and listing sites (and I do mean ALL of them), so anyone who subscribes to them there will be updated — now, how to get them to subscribe?
I am fortunate enough to have people willing to coach me on promotion and general improvement in several different avenues. Right now I’m relying on Twitter and the occasional Project Wonderful bid to promote. But I need consistency, so I’ve been focusing on the comics themselves more now, so when the time comes to really promote they will be especially worthy of readership.
Why have you chosen to post your comic(s) on the web as opposed to another method (such as straight to print, through a publisher, etc.)?
It’s easier. I’m on the internet a lot. It really is a different kind of medium, too — a way to connect to your peers and get instant fan feedback. I like that a whole lot. In the beginning, print wasn’t even a thought — I was largely just goofing around. As it might be considerable now, still, you don’t get a whole website full of extra features (like my planned Flash minigames and labyrinths, fake soundtracks, bonus info, and etc.) with print. But I also like print, and my comics would do well in a printed format I think, so these comics will be in some printed form some day, if only for myself.
Do you make an income through your work? If so, what draws the most revenue (such as ads, merchandise, etc.)?
If my couple of Project Wonderful adpsaces count, then yes! I make cents per day. CENTS! It’s still better than nothing. Goes right back into the ad-promotion-fund.
I have Zazzle stores for both my comics (Millennium’s is empty of yet), but nothing sells. I don’t really expect anything to, since I set them up “just because”, but who knows — maybe something might. I personally want some of those Nakie Chibi pins for myself…
Do you think that longform webcomics are more difficult to tackle than gag-a-days? Why or why not?
Yes. Yes I do. The vast majority of gag-a-day comics that I see look and are constructed so much more simply than comics with full pages and story arcs that I can’t imagine that creating them is any more of an ordeal than having to come up with something 5-7 days a week. Of course, there’s the rub — so many of them rely much more on succinct writing, and are thus much more successful, because writing’s always the meat. (A lot also tend to be more successful for other reasons, but I won’t go into that. Chances are it’s known already, consciously or not.)
I have more of a leaning towards story comics, myself (particularly graphic novel format — I still don’t tend towards strip-style story comics, for some reason), which is incredibly time-consuming (and memory-testing) while reading over fifty and also trying to create them… But I love them. I started reading more gag comics because they’re easy to keep up with, but I’m choosy. One can say my wit’s way too dull to even have considered starting a gag comic. BUT, Millennium’s predecessor (“Pipe Dreams”) was almost a gag/story comic. It would have been terrible.
If you could do something different when you first began your comic, what would it be?
– Wait until I have 10 comics done before posting! Post 5 at once, then 5 more at a regular schedule. Build up (sketch) buffer in the meantime!
– Have a presentable website! (It wasn’t that bad, just not particularly special)
– (2003) Get better at drawing! Learn from my mistakes more quickly!
Any advice for newcomers to the longform comic arena? Useful resources or links?
Don’t undercut or undersell yourself.
Post your best, but don’t be afraid to show your process, too. People are interested in that!
Write in advance! Don’t worry about having to write script when you run out of buffer!
Make sure what you’re doing is what you LOVE, foremost.
Also, let people drag you over hot coals. It’ll toughen you up, and trust me, it’s for the better.
This blog has great advice for comics-makers, but especially for long-form-comics-makers: Winged Wolf Studio. It helped me run a check on things I overlooked with my comics and their websites.
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Thanks so much, Sen!
Tune in next week Friday for more! <3
