We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful MaskPuck. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with MaskPuck below.

MaskPuck, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

My current webcomic project has been by far the most meaningful to me. Having worked on Grunge Mayhem for nearly 8 months straight, it has been my biggest longterm commitment, as well as my first.

A big reason and motivating factor that brought the project from idea to paper was the big turning point in every young person’s life; turning 18. So many new and scary things to think about- naturally. Graduating, applying to university, adults around you constantly larping about “savouring the best years of your life”! As I approached that dreaded birthday I felt like I had nothing to bring to the table, just a predetermined academic path I was expected to follow.

I started to think a lot and fell back onto reading some of my favourite comics from when I was younger. Particularly, I caught up on Not So Shoujou Love Story on Webtoon. I loved it even more the second time around! And the best part? It was an accessible form of art! Unlike the highly intricate manga I liked (One piece, Dr.STONE etc), webcomics didn’t have a fixed bar I had to reach to start drawing, I just had to know:

1) What I wanted it to look like,
2) achieve the style and then
3) implement the style to my art… consistently.

Soon after I found out about another Webtoon, Nevermore. It left me shocked. It was nothing like the other comics I had read on the platform; a well thought out, beautifully illustrated comic with a unique story which took tropes and flipped them on their head! Sure, it might not have been an “original” concept, but it didn’t have to be! It was well told, well presented and most of all: inspired.

I knew I wanted to achieve that exact thing- Now I had the bluerprint, so I dug up my old characters from when I was 15 and got to work.

A sketchbook and a half, a tiktok with 2 Million views, a new drawing program to learn and a lot of rewriting later, I was ready to start Episode 1 in July of 2024. By Episode 2, I had reached 2K followers on the comic hosting site and 30K on TikTok. There was no going back now. A year in retrospect, I made the most of being 18, and I would not have imagined I could do something like this a year ago.

All I had to do was start!

MaskPuck, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello! My pen-name is MaskPuck, I am an Architecture student by day and indie Webcomic artist and author by night. Common themes found in my work include: a love for all things Metal and Emo rock and Sapphic storytelling. I am a restless artist and try to never get too comfortable in my skills- always challenging myself throughout the production of my comic series Grunge Mayhem. Creating immersive visuals is my top priority, so vivid colours and special effects are a mainstay in my comic work. A big aspect I try to incorporate into my work for the sake of access is “show-don’t-tell”. In short, this means I try to keep text in my comic to a minimum.

I started my social media journey as an artist very early as a teenager, growing a following of 10K Instagram followers by 15. At 18 when I started creating my own original work with basic know-how on the field of social media and algorithms, I started to promote and “pitch” my ideas through short-form Reels and TikToks. A key aspect of my strategy was to target a specific demographic of people: comic enthusiasts and readers. I see a lot of budding comic artists trying to only appeal to other artists on social media for easy engagement, but I was looking to grow into a very specific niche. While there still is a large percentage of my followers who are artists themselves, there is also a significant amount of non-artists making up the community who I did not want to alienate.

My Webcomic Grunge Mayhem is free to read on the self-publishing platform WEBTOON Canvas, where I accept tips from any readers interested in supporting me through Ko-Fi. I am fortunate enough to not be financially dependent on this project and treat it as a side hustle in which I am very invested in. Further, I dabble in freelance commission work in the form of character art and other design services for an afforable price, as I hope to make access to custom art more available and build connections.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

As previously mentioned, I have experience in the world of art social media, particularly instagram and TikTok. I believe one big pitfall a lot of artists fall into when starting out is thinking like a creator instead of a consumer of content. The best way to describe this is, when you go into Instagram/TikTok, what do you want to see? What does it take for a video to catch *your* attention enough where you click on the artist’s profile and look for more of their work? For me, its a creator who has:

1) Memorable characters that I will remember 10 scrolls down
2) A hooking plot pitched to me, usually of interpersonal drama/interaction of said characters
3) An appealing, consistent style that if I come across their art again, I will know I’ve seen it before

This isn’t law, but those are 3 things I really enjoy in art I see online as a consumer of it, so I know that if I enjoy that kind of stuff, other people will too. Isn’t that neat? If you can cater to yourself, you can cater to others.

That said, I would suggest against the following if you’re specifically looking to grow the brand of your webcomic:

1) Passive engagement tactics: “Follow 4 follow?”, “Support a xx year old artist!”, “I will draw everyone who follows me”. We’ve all seen it, maybe even posted stuff like that. And maybe that’s the niche you want to follow. But as someone who wants to sell a webcomic, that content will not make you memorable. I can’t tell apart two artists who post that kind of content. 500K or 1k followers, It doesn’t show. A viewer who sees that is most likely drawn in by the engagement “bait”, not your characters. So what if they follow, they aren’t here for your characters, they followed for a free drawing! Engagement at the cost of getting your comic work shadowbanned isn’t worth it. Don’t advertise your content for what it is not if you want active followers checking out your comic. This is definitely a hot take, and doing what I just said not to isn’t a crime, it’s my own biased opinion as formed by observing my own engagement trends and how I personally interact with creators and viewers.

2)”Relatable” content : “Me and bro when *blank*”, “Artists when they have to draw the other eye” etc. Much like the last type of content, it’s passive engagement. You need a very unique and consistent art style to be memorable and then even if you are, a very small percentage of your followers will actually funnel into your webcomic you’re trying to pitch. Do not try to “trojan-horse” the project down your followers’ collective throats.

So what SHOULD you do if you want to promote your comic on social media?

1) Character skits: Trending audios from movies, songs and memes are great! Show your characters acting the scenario out, you’d be surprised at how good those videos do if your designs are fluid to match

2)Build interest: Introduce the cool/hooking aspects of your story, a core relationship, a cool character backstory, a funny running gag, hell, just show your characters being hot! That definitely sells well and is relatively low-effort compared to everything else I just listed!

3)Engage with comments!

4)Build rapport with fellow artists and exchange ideas

5)Have fun and be authentic to your interests. Followers can forget about your work in an instant, so you better not forget what you stand for yourself!

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

A great resource on starting out was the YouTube channel TheStarFishFace. Before I “put pen to paper”, I watched endless of their videos on the do’s and dont’s of webcomics. They have years of experience on multiple aspects of this line of work, and their sharing of them on the internet proved to be an important resource for me. Further, I recommend you purchase their book “How to Webcomic”, a timeless guide summarising all of their advice from their videos and more!

Another key resource was Webtoon itself. They offer a series of short videos called Webtoon Academy, giving your their insider information and top tips on growing within their platform. These videos are directed by Webtoon staff, so I highly recommend having a skim through this brilliant free educational resource.

Lastly, I recommend doing research on everything you should do, as well as things to.. well, not do. The dont’s matter just as much as the do’s, and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t fallen victim to some of these dont’s. Better safe than sorry!

Comics are a lot more work than people give them credit for, so prepare accordingly and make smart decisions for yourself to save yourself the hassle of reworking pages, crunching through deadlines and hitting standstills on your social media etc. It is instrumental that you know your own physical limits and work with them instead of against them. Longevity of any project hinges on the author taking care of themselves and taking the proper steps to avoid burnout, or on the other extreme, procrastination! So do yourself – and your readers – a favour and build good work habits early! Good luck!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/maskpuck
• Instagram: maskpuc_k
• Other: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/grunge-mayhem/list?title_no=986038