Beginner Guide - Getting Started
How it Works
In order to participate, you’ll need a character! This can be something you made up specifically for VOID, or your long-time OC.
All characters must be approved by the Approval Committee. When you are accepted, you are free to challenge, and accept challenges from, other members. You are also free to join in collaborative comics with other members, and participate in events.
Each challenge that you send or accept will come with a drawing time ranging from 24 hours all the way up to 10 weeks. In this time period, you must draw an original comic featuring your character and your opponent’s character in some way. Whether they end up as friends or foes or anything in between is entirely up to you. Draw in your own unique style and write whatever type of story you’d like. The rules are very open for you to be creative.
After you and your opponent submit your comics, the rest of the community will vote on both comics in 3 different categories: Artwork, Writing, and Entertainment. After a week of voting, the comic with the higher score is the winner.
Character Creation Guide
Your character can be pretty much whatever you’d like, as long as it doesn’t violate any copyrights.
You’ll need to submit a full color design sheet that clearly shows your character and their details. You must show at least two full body angles of your character, with one angle being a static front view. This will be used by your opponents as a reference when you accept challenges. You’ll also need a 2-10 page introductory comic. This will demonstrate to the approval committee that you have a basic knowledge of drawing and comics, as well as introduce the rest of the community to your character and what they are all about.
Step 1: Ideas
You can submit almost anything you’d like as a character, as long as it’s your own original idea. You can also submit 2 or more characters together as a team. They will count as a single character. You can also submit additional characters without need for an intro comic after your first one is approved, using your BattlePass. We have a huge variety of characters, so don’t be afraid to be creative.
Story Setting
Character Motivation and Creation
Step 2: Design Sheet & Incubator
Design Sheet Requirements
- Your design sheet must be in full color. No sketches, incomplete drawings, or placeholders will be accepted.
- You must provide a front view in a static pose. This means standing in a non-action pose.
- You must provide a secondary view (back view encouraged). If your character has any specific details on their back, then choosing a back view is mandatory. However, if you feel a different view would be more informative, you may draw a different angle to better show your character’s features: for example, a side profile. Drawing an additional front view is not acceptable.
- Optional: Any other angle or pose that is needed to clearly explain your character. Your submission will be declined if you do not provide enough angles or information for a complex character. This is especially important with non-human anatomy.
- Optional: Clearly show any important weapons, accessories, clothing details, outfits, tattoos, scars, etc. This can be drawn separately on the design sheet if you wish.
The Incubator
Step 3: Intro Comic
You must create a 2-10 page comic that introduces us to your character. These do NOT have to be in color, unlike the design sheet. We recommend keeping your intro comic short so that you can get involved in battles and collabs faster. This short comic should give us a feel for your character’s personality, powers, motivation etc. Some potential ideas for your intro comic include your character’s origin, a demonstration of their powers or abilities in combat, or their travels to the Void Lands or Void City.
Intro comics should represent your BEST work. Rushed, sloppy or unfinished submissions will be rejected. Again, we recommend the Incubator for critique before you submit.
If you have a BattlePass, an intro comic is not required. Learn more about BattlePasses and how they work here.
Step 4: Submitting Your Character
When you’re ready, submit your character here. You will need to write a brief bio, and submit a 50x50px size icon as well.
Tips for getting approved
- Do NOT submit huge files. Double check that your files can be viewed comfortably online. An image width of about 1000px is recommended.
- Don’t forget about backgrounds. You MUST demonstrate that you can also draw backgrounds to be accepted.
- Sloppy work will be rejected. Take your time!
After you submit
I'm approved, what now?
My submission was declined, what now?
How to Submit a Comic
Important: You must upload your comic before the deadline. The uploader will not accept files after the drawing deadline has passed.
Guide to the New Uploader
- Important: Currently, you cannot preview your images on the website before submission. We strongly suggest double-checking that your files are correct before submission. If you think you uploaded the wrong files, please contact a staff member for assistance.
- YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO EDIT YOUR FILES AFTER UPLOADING. Please only upload your pages if they are the final version that you want posted on your battle.
- You must upload all of your pages at once. If you upload your pages one at a time, the uploader will overwrite your previous file selection. Please make sure all of your pages are listed in the uploader before submitting. You don’t need to make sure they’re selected in order; the new uploader allows you to rearrange pages once they’ve been uploaded.
Submitting to a Match in Progress
If you are ready to submit a comic for a match, navigate to your profile and go to the My Battles section. At the top of the page, you should see your current match and a button for uploading. You can also upload on the battle’s page by clicking on your comic and pressing the Upload Now button.
The first page will show you which battle you are submitting to, which characters you are required to feature in your comic, and the type of match.
On the second page, you can add a title to your comic, as well as a description where you can add artist notes, a synopsis, content warnings, or anything else you’d like readers to know. You can also set your preferred critique amount, which will let commenters know how in-depth their critique should be. You can also add a content rating and tags.
Next, you can add character cameos. A cameo can be any character who appears in your comic, but is not considered a required character. Adding a character cameo will add a link to the character’s profile on the comic’s details page, and the comic will show up in the cameoed character’s list of comics. Listing character cameos is optional and does not affect the battle.
The final page is the uploader. When using the new uploader, please be sure you are uploading the correct and final versions of your pages, and upload all of your pages at once.
Submitting a Solo Beyond Battle Comic
If you would like to upload a new Beyond Battle, go to your profile and click on My Comics. At the top of the page, click on the button to upload a new comic.
The first page is your Comic Options. Here, you can add a title, which is required for Beyond Battles. You can also add a description or artist notes, your preferred critique amount, a content rating, and tags. These are all optional.
On the next page, you can select which of your characters are featured in your comic. To remove a character as a Featured Character, click on them again.
Finally, you must upload your pages. When using the new uploader, please be sure you are uploading the correct and final versions of your pages, and upload all of your pages at once.
Submitting a Collab Comic
If you would like to upload a comic that you collaborated on with another artist, go to the artist’s character page and select Challenge to Battle. At the bottom of the list, select Beyond Battle. This will create a match that is collaborative instead of competitive, and you will only have one comic to upload between the two of you. You will have to select one of your characters and one character from the other artist. If you would like to upload a comic that only features one artist’s character, features multiple other characters, or includes more than two artist collaborators, please contact staff.