Any advice I can get for starting a BL/High Fantasy comic?

[MonkeySage]

I'm wanting to start a BL/high fantasy comic based on my Pathfinder setting Estion.

The protagonist is a young tailor who aspires to become a mage, and sets out to achieve that goal after getting permission from his liege.

Along the way, he ends up in a romance affair with a fellow adventurer, a knight.

I've never done anything like this before. I've run pathfinder games, I've written stories for those games, but I've never done it like this. I've never written any sort of romance story.

This was kind of a random thought that crossed my mind a couple weeks ago, told myself I wouldn't try it unless I still wanted to later.

How should I proceed, though? I want to improve my art before I start, which is why I started that thread in arts and crafts. But I'm more looking for story advice right now.

How much should I focus on the high fantasy aspect?
The romance aspect?

[iNSOMN14]

My first part of advice is to your “I want to improve my art before I start.” I know you’re looking for story advice, but I cannot say enough that it is more important to get in the habit of actually drawing comics and keeping a schedule or pace, than it is to draw well. There are many, many comics that improved over time (this being a prime example ( http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-1-page-1) of what three and a half years of practice looks like (http://www.paranatural.net/comic/chapter-4-page-149)) and likely the effort of drawing even just a page every week will make you better, faster, stronger.

As for story advice, it depends on what kind of comic you’re going for. A funny strip comic has different storytelling than a long form, more serious comic.

As a guy who has made comics and stories based on tabletop games, first is that it’s more import to be true to the spirit of the characters and the story than it is to be faithful to what happened at the table. Transcribing the events from a game rarely leads to a well-paced story.

As for writing romance, it again depends on what kind of romance. A romantic comedy runs a bit differently from an epic thriller with a romantic subplot. Here’s some general advice from someone who has written romance for TV ( http://www.jennycrusie.com/for-writers/essays/the-five-things-ive-learned-about-writing-romance-from-tv/). (Television and movies can be considered the closest media relative to comics, as they both use a combination of images and words/dialogue to tell a story, so a lot of cinema advice can help for making comics. Hell, my cinematography books tend to be better reference books for comics than a lot of comic reference books.)

Don’t know if any of this helps, but hopefully this will help point you in the right direction.

EDIT: Also, this is something a lot of people don't know, but it continues with my "start right away" comment in the beginning: don't be afraid to fail. You aren't wasting time when you fail, you're just learning what not to do. These people put it a lot better than I do (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDjrOaoHz9s) (you can apply their advice towards pretty much any creative endeavor). This is why writers get test readers, people who they trust to honestly tell them where their stories fail, and I recommend you do the same. You'll see a professional comic artist giving similar advice here (http://fav.me/d64b5jx).

[Chromascope3D]

I believe you should also attempt to build and maintain a backlog. While some comics can get away without it, others may die from lack of one, either because you need to take breaks from constantly attempting to meet the deadlines of your schedule, which may eventually lead to an indefinite hiatus, or simply from readers losing interest due to inconsistent updates.

[MonkeySage]

Thank you guys, these suggestions have been really helpful..

I've put some thought to story, to the characters and how their adventures got started, I've gotten a script started for the first strip.

I'm thinking I want a primarily romantic story with a strong high fantasy influence, and this has gotten me to think about conflict.

I'm wondering how the antagonists might work into a romance story.

[Analytica]

Well, if queer love is taboo in the settimg (or the love of these two is taboo for other reasons) antagonists may be people close to either party who want to cause their relationship to fail, or never develop, or to be hidden.

More interesting I think would be jealousy, one way or another. Or for it to be unrelated - antagonists have some unrelated goal, and for some reason, the protagonists need to work through their relationship insecurities and issues to be able to fully and sufficiently counter that goal.

Maybe the knight has oaths to fight only for love, like in classic chivalric poetry? And the mage has issues with being put on a piedestal in that manner?

Basically, make the romance aspect have political and even philosophical ramifications. See e.g. Revolutionary Girl Utena for a wondrous example, and also perhaps Flipside as a webcomic.