Swords Comic, helmed by creator Matthew J. Willis, became a popular webcomic seemingly overnight. As Matthew tells us, the first episode was shared unsuspectingly on Reddit back in 2018, only to blow up overnight, fueling the creator to turn it into a full-fledged series.
Since its Reddit debut, Matthew has brought the comic to a variety of platforms, including Webtoon, Instagram and Twitter. He’s proven how content creation can also exist with a bit of chance and good timing - sometimes it’s a matter of consistency, and sometimes it only takes a single post to really jumpstart things. That’s not to say Matthew didn’t work hard at turning into a viable series, because of course, he did - including churning out 40 episodes in a 40-day period.
Amid the comic’s growth and popularity, Matthew has collaborated with Makeship a handful of times as well, bringing some of his fans’ favorites characters to life, including Quest Sprout, Pest Sprout and Travel Goblin.
Matthew chatted with us for a Creator Catch-Up interview, where he speaks on the success of Swords Comic, introducing Quest Sprout back in 2020 and much more.
Hi Matthew! How you first started Swords Comic. How did it end up turning into the web series we know today?
Swords the webcomic began as a single episode in 2018 with no plans to make more. I posted it on Reddit, went to bed, and when I woke up it had blown up! If I’d called it “Knights” or “Bread Comics” it might have ended up an entirely different series! It really was a combination of luck, good timing and having the ability to recognize I was tapping into something really fun and great. Then acting on it, of course.
“Swords the webcomic began as a single episode in 2018 with no plans to make more. I posted it on Reddit, went to bed, and when I woke up it had blown up!”
That’s unreal. What platform did you first start sharing the webcomics on?
Reddit is where the comic began, but it quickly moved to Webtoon, Tapas, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and a few more places. It took about 80 episodes before we made a website and a Discord.
What’s your preferred social media platform now, and why?
That’s a tricky one with the way the digital landscape has changed already in 2023. Instagram is my biggest audience, Webtoon is my fastest growing audience, but Twitter is probably where I form the tightest bonds. For now.
What has helped with the growth of your accounts and your series as a whole, if you can pinpoint something (or several things)?
I have a bit of a history of starting other comics and then letting them fizzle out, so when Swords #1 got popular, I knuckled down and made the first 40 episodes over the next 40 days. Getting the ball rolling, frankly, took grit. I feel like if I had stopped at any point, the project would have dried up. I actually injured my arm in that first month and kept going. So that was the first burst.
I was lucky to get in before Instagram pivoted to video. Growing on that platform, as a comic artist, is super hard now. I only know a handful of people doing it right, and that’s because they’re doing video.
Working for a video game company also gave me some good insights on how to look at my own metrics and understand where the pain points were. I tracked things, posted at better times, listened to feedback and made the series better. If something isn’t working, take the time to fix it.
“I have a bit of a history of starting other comics and then letting them fizzle out, so when Swords #1 got popular, I knuckled down and made the first 40 episodes over the next 40 days. Getting the ball rolling, frankly, took grit.”
Quest was first introduced in 2020 and is now one of your most popular characters. What’s your process when it comes to introducing new characters to the series, if you have one?
Swords is maybe a bit unique in the world of webcomics in that it is simultaneously an ongoing saga, and also a random clip show. It gives me the freedom to stop working on a storyline if I get stuck and just tell dumb jokes instead. I like having cool characters, and cute characters, and funny characters and sexy characters and I don’t want any particular group to overshadow the rest.
I don’t have to spend months carefully lining up the plot for a cool new guy to appear before the main characters - we can just go see what he’s up to. And I think my fans know when I’m having fun, which makes it more fun for them too.
Why is a platform like Makeship important to creators such as yourself?
Quest Sprout jumping straight to being the 15th most popular plushie of all time when it first launched was CRAZY. This little webcomic from New Zealand was out-pacing some characters and brands that I consider household names! Really I’m just grateful that people got to take a Quest Sprout home and make him part of the family. That’s the kind of brand loyalty that will keep this series going.
We’d love it if you could share one final piece of advice for a creator that’s just starting out!
It is better to have 30 finished pages that each taught you a lesson, than 1 page you still can’t get right.
