What do you want to see in a Web Comic? (Thoughts/Advice)

[locustsofdeath!]

Right on, Tordel. You've given me a lot to think about through the course of this thread. Cheers!

[TordelBack]

Beware of listening to a word I say, Locusts, the only comic that gets a penny from me these days is 2000AD, so my opinion may not be a useful indicator of anything. 

Here however is an interesting (super-bitter!) discussion on webcomic success and failure running in the comments of BoingBoing:  http://boingboing.net/2012/02/01/order-of-the-stick-dd-webcomi.html#disqus_thread

[locustsofdeath!]

Here however is an interesting (super-bitter!) discussion on webcomic success and failure running in the comments of BoingBoing:  http://boingboing.net/2012/02/01/order-of-the-stick-dd-webcomi.html#disqus_thread

Wow, that is bitter. I wonder if it comes from jealousy or what?!

Personally, I think the success of Order of the Stick is inspiring.

[TordelBack]

Me too.  €390K pledged, all volumes back in print, money for future print runs in the back, a rake of new stories paid for, and they're not even halfway with the drive.  After 9 years of giving your product free, it must be enormously heartening to be appreciated in such a concrete fashion.

As to the naysayers on that thread, it was ever thus for artists and writers.  In comics, how many print self-publishers (Dave Sim and Jeff Smith excepted) ever saw their money again?  How many novelists wrote half a dozen novels that never earned a penny?   Having talent is no guarantee of it being monetized - just ask Van Gogh (loudly). That's the trade-off for creating in a medium you love, rather than typing numbers into a computer all day long, or going out at night - that and the chance that the stars will align and your fans will find you.   The web is no different except that the start-up costs are mostly sweat and serious, serious perseverance. 

[locustsofdeath!]

In comics, how many print self-publishers (Dave Sim and Jeff Smith excepted) ever saw their money again? 

Don't forget those Eastman and Laird fellows  .

But you're right, you're right. I think a writer/artist/musician/whatever should perform his art because he loves it. Performing art solely with the intention to make money probably leads to disappointment most of the time (and brings round the old debate - if art is created solely to make money, is it still art?).

Anyway, I have a story to tell - and I enjoy telling it. Do I hope I make millions? Oh yeah, I'd love that! Realistically, I hope people just take as much enjoyment from it as I can give. And I think if I concentrate on creating something I love, it will find an audience that loves it, too.

(and I can only dream that that audience would love it as much as Order of the Stick's audience)

[staticgirl]

I've been following Friends with Boys for a while now (it's not a romance comic stay calm) and there's a lot of useful advice in the comments section about setting up a comic online and also being published on paper. This is the second webcomic I have seen now (first being FreakAngels) where the fact that it was online doesn't seem to have stopped people buying the book.

If it is good enough people will find it - mainly because you can network like crazy. It only takes one well connected person to post a linkie in their Facebook timeline or Twitterfeed and you will suddenly acquire lots of readers. People also find webcomics through search terms too if the number of people who *liked* my Wuthering Heights effort (all 8 pages before giving up) are anything to go by.

[locustsofdeath!]

Thanks for the advice, staticgirl! I suppose I will need to start being shameless in my promotion - something I'm not altogether good at. Even on the internet I'm shy  .

So I've just seen the rough layout for the website, and it is a glorious/shameless swipe from Bearmaggeddon. What I liked best about that is what Tordel mentioned - that beneath each page I can write a little blurb and readers can comment and interact right along with me. Seems to make the comic "belong" to everyone.

[BMB]

Sorry Locust pretty much everything that I would've said has already been said. 

I'll just do some bullet points as it makes me feel funky! I’ll be repeating other people so bear with me!

• Have a chunk ready for opening night. How many pages is up to you, but I wouldn't open with under...10, if its an ongoing. Enough to give the opening night punters a reason for bookmarking/favouriting you.
• Don't stress about B&W vs Colour, do what you like, if you start pandering too much to what you think others want instead of enjoying your baby soon enough you'll want to throw it out a window.
• Minimum extra stuff on the page, I hate waiting for a page to load because there’s seemingly 7mb of extra crap above, below and around the page, that stuff is for the homepage, you want to be able to click, click, click your way through the story if your reading multiple pages at once. It totally breaks immersion. That’s like the biggest no-no in the world!
• Work the amount you can, if 3 times a week is going to kill you after a month, don’t do it. I’d aim for once a week as a base minimum though
• Specifically for you, waiting a month between 8 page updates…I’d rather you give me two pages of that a week please. As it’s a webcomic, I’ve (the reader) walked into it already knowing its going to be fragmented so don‘t stress.

Other people have already said this stuff better than me.

You look like you’re already heading in the right direction so just do what you’re passionate about. If you build it, they will come (via links usually, tee hee)