Digitally Speaking... #6 "How (and How Not) to Make Your Own Comics"

Black Powder #1 (Asylum)
From 2011.  Aside from the fact that it seems to be a far less inspired version of Pirates of the Caribbean (meaning, alas, no Jack Sparrow), the art becomes incredibly distracting.  At first I thought it was because writer/artist Dwayne Harris digitally created it.  But then at the back of the issue his process is revealed, and it's bad pencils at the start and then bad digital coloring on top.  The result is a mess.  Not a terrible mess, just not one that inspires a great deal of confidence, much like how Harris assumes the reader will be interested in a story that takes its time getting to the pirates, and then just keeps yacking yacking yacking except for a few stabby pages (stabby pages are good, but they are not a replacement for swashbuckling, which is half the reason to ever tell a pirate story to begin with).  That's really all there is to know about this comic, which you will never have heard of to begin with, and judging on this sample there's absolutely no reason why you should be concerned about that.  Classic case of a really good cover distracting from a hot mess that follows.  Move along.

Bone #1 (Cartoon)
From 1991.  In strict contrast is Jeff Smith's classic Bone debut.  I've read it a number of times at this point, but it never gets old.  Smith is a bona fide comics genius.  This issue introduces the Bone cousins, who look like a trio of classic comic strip characters, and yet are so basic in design it's a marvel to hear them speak, because they at once do and absolutely do not talk like any other comic strip character you've ever seen (except maybe Rat and Pig from Pearls Before Swine).  And the issue starts in the middle of the story, and that middle is really only the start of something far, far greater.  There are a number of teases as to that much bigger story, and great humor besides.  It's Smith's absolute mastery of his craft that strikes you, again and again. It's the polar opposite of a Black Powder, in every way possible.  Both are about as far away from the comics mainstream as you can get, indy productions through and through.  Except in Black Powder it's blatantly obvious how that's usually not a good thing, whereas in Bone it's so impressively professional, no wonder Smith has been lured to the mainstream in the past, both with Bone itself temporarily to the indy professionals at Image, and with Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil at DC.

So, right there in a nutshell, if you ever had dreams of launching your own indy comic, two examples of the probable fate that awaits you.  Hopefully it's clear enough which one you ought to shoot for.