Now that I've printed up and put together the first Queue mini-comic, I've had some time to think about the whole process. This being the first mini-comic I've ever made I knew there was going to be a learning curve to the process. I'm really happy with how everything turned out, but I've learned somethings and I don't plan to do everything the same next time. I've already got a story outline for my next mini and I'm looking forward to starting. I thought I'd take some time and write out some of the lessons I've learned to help remind me for next time.
-Stapling is a chore with a typical stapler, so I've order an inexpensive long arm stapler to make the whole process smoother.
-The text needs to be bigger than you think. The text in Queue is legible in the mini but I had to post the images larger than planned online so you can read some of the text in that version.
-Work on a size closer to final format. I'm not totally sure about this lesson. I wasn't totally happy with what shrinking the art did to the line work. The line work lost some of the spontaneity when I shrunk it down 35% in Photoshop.
-Include more backgrounds. I think some more backgrounds and atmosphere would help draw the reader into the story more. I ended up redrawing page three for compositional reasons but when I redrew the last panel I included more of the background and I think it really made the page better.
-Don't skimp on paper. Cheap computer paper or copy paper just doesn't look or feel right.
-Make your layouts as clear as possible. If your editors/first readers are using too much of their imagination and are guessing what's going on that's NOT a good thing.
Like I said I'm really happy with how things turned out but every time you tell a story you should learn from the process and be a better storyteller because of it.
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