I don't know about everyone else, but I look at the first 20 or so of my comics and wince at the terrible art. Even the speach bubbles are horrid. It is very tempting to redo those comics and make them look better and more pleasent to read, but a part of me wants to keep them for nostalgia sake. I also think it is nice to be able to see how the comic has improved over time.

What do you guys think? Do you redo old comics or do you keep them as they are?

Pineapple
What do you guys think? Do you redo old comics

Still working on it. Maybe actually drawing something would help.

I think a lot of people do this when they feel their comic's reached a more professional level, and they want it to look that way from top to bottom because they're tryin' to market their work.

Or they're pathological perfectionists. ;)

If it really bugs ya, then go for it. So long as you're doin' it at your leisure, and it doesn't cause you to miss updates.

Well, it's just a webcomic, so I'd keep them so people can see how you progress with your art.

If I were you, I'd learn anatomy and all that. It'll definitely help :)

If Amen City turns out the way I plan (that is, it doesn't exceed 2100 pages), I might take the entire series and "repack" them into three volumes, forming a thick trilogy. If so, then I'm redrawing chapter one. Otherwise, no. At 2000+ finished comic pages I should be waaay better and thus the difference between beginning and ending would be rather huge. Anyway, if I did, I'd probably keep the original color edition untouched as a "document of old times" or something.

Someone
What do you guys think? Do you redo old comics

It's a horrible endless cycle. If you do it now, depending on the length of your comic, you'll probably want to do it again, and again, and again.

So no, bad idea in my opinion unless you are at the true peak of your artistic abilities.

Oh, no, no, no. Don't do that. I've got over 75 pages of old art posted, and I cringe every time I look at them (especially since I did the pencils for the current chapter over a year ago, so every time I draw I reminded of how bad the old stuff is compared to now).

Anyway, it's like someone else said, it's an endless circle. Once you finish redoing this time, you'll want to go do it again. So don't start. The best thing to do, is not look back once you've posted, and just keep moving forward. But, when you do end up looking back (because you will) don't think about how bad the old stuff is compared to now, think of how good the new stuff is compared to then. Your archive is a physical reminded of how much you've improved over the years; so I suggest you keep it.

Besides, why spend hours going backwards when they could be used to go forward?

Turnus started almost a year later than planned because I kept starting over. Looking back on my first attepts I'm very glad I dithered so much.

Then again, you've already posted your bad comics, updating them may seem an exciting prospect to you, but I'm not sure your readers would prefer new content. Learn from your past mistakes and forge onwards.

Heh, that all really well said, almost philosophical in a way. I a way I would feel really sad to see those old comics go, but a part of me feels that I lose readers by having them up there. You know, you find a comic that you like and go to the first one, and then get put off by the art and you don't bother to go any further. I know I've even done that a couple of times.

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Heh, that all really well said, almost philosophical in a way. I a way I would feel really sad to see those old comics go, but a part of me feels that I lose readers by having them up there. You know, you find a comic that you like and go to the first one, and then get put off by the art and you don't bother to go any further. I know I've even done that a couple of times.

Heh. You could always post something like this .

I did this to two of my early comics, the first comic had to be redone, as you said all new readers have to go through it. However the other one I did was not so smart, somewhere along the line I spoilt the punchline.

I always love looking at the usual bad first comics and seeing how much they've improved since.

I don't think it's a bad idea, but as Hyena H_ll said, don't let it distract you from your current updates! I spent years redoing the same few pages of my comics because they never looked good to me, and I have mixed feelings about that because while I'm much happier with the comics now, and actually feel okay with other people looking at them, I think that I would've improved much faster if I had pushed on ahead and kept making new pages.

If you redo the pages and you'd still like to keep the old comics up you could always create a separate archive of "version 1.0," right?

I did it with one of my comics before and I regret it. The art was crappy compared to the newer ones, but I ended up screwing everything up.

I ended up redoing some of my first ones. When I got some extra time I just worked on some that where really bad. It throws the art off some like a weird dip in quality. I went with the idea if somebody started from the beginning then they can see where the art will be again and stick with it, instead of going this looks like garbage and never coming back.

Well, I emailed David Peterson (the author of Mouse Guard, which is amazing and you should check it out if you haven't already :) ) and one of the pieces of advice he gave me was not to go back and redo pages, just concentrate on actually finishing it, and if you look back at other pages and cringe, it's a good thing because it means you've improved. He told me I should try and make every page and every panel better than the previous one.

yeah, dont george lucas your art.

No, don't do it. As much as it looks bad, and horrid. It's really your past your messing with. The fun thing about early comics is you can see the improvements as you make them. Then you get to reflect on what you did, and how you can improve. I've taken a look at my early work, and I also cringe and hate what I made. However, I feel that redoing them would ruin that hard work I did that day when I made them.

If you must fix your comics, then do it. Having hard to read speech bubbles is a problem, however the art doesn't need to be fix. Just fix it with what ever program you have and go for it. Just don't let the redoing/fixing get to you in which you don't update. That is worst than fixing a comic.

don't do it guy, Okay look how longs it gonna take to redo them? by the time your done redoing them you'll feel like you need to continue because now the stuff ahead is shit and by the time you've reached the front you think the stuff in the back is shit again. Its an endless journey Unless your getting published or payed and this publisher/payer is telling you to redo it just let it go, aslong as its readable it's fine.

I've been thinking the same thing about mine, but just look at it this way:

You can see how horrible you've done in the past, right? Well, so can your readers. If your readers can see how horrible the past was, then they look at your latest creations, they'll see how much you've improved, and they'll appreciate the comic much more knowing that you've done so much for your art.

That's my line of thinking, anyways.

=P