tadpole007 » 8 Oct 2012 » Reply

One of the thing is a lack of attention to the story progression and to character growth and/or interactions. At least for story based ones but my experience with web based comics is relatively new (2-3yrs) so some of that opinion could be carryover from paper based comics.

I’ll say that several times in beginning web comics the author sabotages themselves by trying to revise or reinvent their comic every time they hit a perceived/actual bump in skill level. Completing the story does more for me than having it stop just as it is beginning to hit it’s stride.

Pablo » 5 Apr 2012 » Reply

I don't read a lot of webcomics but I do most of my comics reading in print form. That being said, what kills reading a comic book, comic strip, and/or webcomic for me is bad writing, bad art, too much dialog (too wordy), too boring a story, too many political statements/points/topics in a story (this is a comic; the writer, artist, or publisher is not running for president), the writer's or artist's lack of interest in story and/or characters, bad plot, bad story, bad characters, the high prices for purchasing comics, a lack of anything interesting and new to say, late shipping on comics, bad ending for a story, the story is too slow, too many artists drawing the in same issue/story, and there other things that I can't think of at the moment that can make any comic bad.

parahacker » 10 Sep 2011 » Reply

The #1 thing IMHO that kills a comic is breaking the update schedule (or the ‘rhythm’ of it, if you don’t have a schedule). The worse of a break, the bigger a death.

I honestly don’t know how Dresden Codak manages. It doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe because it takes a few months to figure out a comic he posts, which is just in time for a new one.

The thing that *makes* a webcomic is… well, everything that MSPaintAdventures does. (except for breaking the update rhythm.)

MSPA is intensifibrillo, for lack of a better word. He updates sometimes 7 or 8 times in a single day… the characterization is clear-cut and unique, the plot always threatens to become clear but then another factor is added in that raises questions again… and the dude makes up his own language as he goes along. I’m not suggesting you do that, but I think it’d be a really super good idea to see how that dude does his thing. For one thing, I calculated he makes an average of ~$65/day on his front page advertising alone. I don’t know of ANY other comic author that pulls in that much from banner ads on a single page. He has a store and merchandise and other revenue streams, of course – I speak not of his overall income, but of an unusual statistic I have noticed within it that speaks volumes of his method. Unlike a site like Penny Arcade, MSPaint is not an ancient artifact of the Web 1.0 Revolution; he managed to do this with a relatively new site.

Then there’s his ridiculous ability to pull in talent from other planes of existence… musicians who make tracks for him, Flash animators, other artists who do fills or fanart, and a forum full of incomprehensible creatures that say indecipherable things. Full being the operative word, as there are a great many of these beasts, despite MSPaint having been deployed after Facebook’s ascendency and the death of many forum owner’s ability to find inhabitants.

I say these things not to induce fear or envy of the mutant horror known as Andrew Hussie, author of MSPA. I say this because these tactics can be learned… yes, and used, even, by normal netizens such as yourself.

Cheers, mate. Love your comic and I wish much success for you. – Don

Mercy » 28 Apr 2011 » Reply

The characters have to be engaging, the art has to be beautiful, and the story has to be complex and interesting (and clean). Gag-a-day strips don't do it for me. I will put up with rambles, rabbit trails, and the occasional hiatus if the characters interest me sufficiently; but the story has to be a good one. (I stopped reading Spiky-Haired Dragon:Worthless Knight because, although the art was good, the story was going nowhere and I got sick of seeing the protagonist kicked around mercilessly by fate. And Emergency Exit: the story was neat, but the art was never good, and lately it's been horrid.) Also, it helps to find a comic creator who is friendly and upbeat in the blogs. It's hard to find a really good webcomic…or maybe I'm just a really picky reader. I like BeanLeaf Press for all the reasons I mentioned — art, story, characters, and creator all make me want to keep coming back.

ChrisJ » 27 Apr 2011 » Reply

I don’t do RSS so I can’t say whether it is truly important, but here are the top webcomic killers for me, starting with the worst.
1. Inconsistent updates- I don’t care if it only updates once a week, just get a schedule and keep it so I know when to check. If you’re not going to keep a schedule, don’t put it up to begin with.
2. Cliche story and/or dialogue- If I know where it’s going, why bother taking the time to read?
3. Unclear/Incomprehensible storyline or artwork- Don’t be the Michael Bay of the webcomic world.
4. Ignoring story to make a point- If your characters are constantly going on long, pointless monologues about social or political views, forget it. Put your personal thoughts in a blog post below.
5. Failing to engage the audience- The most successful webcomic artists I’ve seen engage their audience, respond to posts (no, not all of them), and let the audience get to know them. Followers will almost always forgive a week off if they feel like they know the artist a little.

Darrell » 27 Apr 2011 » Reply

Bad art, bad writing and gag strips are the three killers for me. Inconsistent updates don't bother me all that much if the strip is worth it like "Spider and Scorpion". I don't like gag strips as a rule because they all kind of remind me of sitcoms, which I just don't find funny. If these strips could some how add a laugh track? I lean toward long form that insert add humor as part of the package…like Stix and Bones. 😉

billydaking » 27 Apr 2011 » Reply

The RSS feeds aren't important to me. If I find and like a webcomic, I bookmark it and check it on its schedule (or every once in a while when real life intervenes for the artist). If I like it enough to read, I don't need reminders about it.

I've been reading webcomics for about 10 years now, and the biggest problem I see that hurts readership is a regular schedule. While it's easy to say every artist should build up a buffer, I always try to remind myself that the comic usually is the artist's hobby, and hobbies don't allow him or her to eat. Still, it's hard for a reader to keep up with a comic–especially a story-based comic–when the comic updates for a few weeks then goes silent for months. When that happens frequently, readers will tend to float away rather than become attached to the storyline that may not finish, because an erratic schedule tends to be the first sign of a dying comic.

A word about story pace for readers–always keep in mind the comic's update schedule and how the page-at-a-time posting can affect your perception of the pace. Recently, Girl Genius was getting some criticism from its readership for its castle/disease storyline–they felt that the Foglios were spinning their wheels. But when I went back and reread the castle story from the beginning, everything flowed and moved like it should. Because Girl Genius only gives readers three pages a week, the story felt like wheelspinning because unlike previous story, it centered on a single group of characters rather than bouncing around a bit. That's why Red's Planet gave up on weekly updates, because the artist felt that handing out a page once a week was hurting the comic's storytelling–he was feeling compelled to do *something* in each page to keep readers interested rather than serving the overall story pace.

Finally, the writing is more important to me than the art. Heck, watching an artist grow (like Jeph Jacques, who's early strips of Questionable Content were really rough) is one of the things I love about webcomics. If the art's great in the comic (like Bean), it's a major bonus. But the writing has to be there to attract me in the first place and hold me. When you've got great art but weak words, all you've got are pretty pictures. So when the writing drops off, I tend to drop off. Which is probably why I'm a reader rather than a patron.

SolSara » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

Good artwork, interesting story, RSS Feed and regular updates, but if the artist says s/he needs a hiatus I keep waiting for updates until I get one, otherwise I often start wondering if the artist is dead. I have a couple of webcomics that just stopped updating and no sign of the artist being alive. That's scary.

I don't like it when a comic switches from one storyline to another if I haven't "met" the character before. If the story is starting to slow down (The Phoenix Requiem for example) I usually keep reading until I stop caring about the story. I read over 150 different webcomics so I can afford to be patient, but if it takes too long to update I delete the comic and find something more interesting to read. Sometimes I return to the deleted comic after a year or so and continue to read it, but then it have to have a couple of new, interesting pages.

I like your comic, I really like your style but sometimes it feels it takes too long to update the comic or that the story is taking too long to unfold. Although I might be a bit impatient and want the whole story at once 🙂 Perhaps I will buy the book and enjoy it without having to wait for weekly updates. Anyways, I will keep reading it, I really want to find out what's going to happen to all the characters.

Drezz_Rodriguez » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

There's a few things that will kill a webcomic for me, but it takes a lot of these poor actions to make me give up on the artist.

– Inconsistent updating (but consistent missed updates and excuses!)
– Unprofessional behaviour
– Preachy content
– Mary Sue / Gary Stu characterization
– Poor navigation on website
– Spamming on Twitter / Facebook / Reddit
– Poor story/dialogue pacing
– Poor writing
– Illegible text
– Too much text
– Poor page composition vs. dialogue placement
– No engagement with readers

That's all I can think of, off the top of my head.

Trav the bean » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

I must say I am really impressed, enlightened and humbled. I didn't answer everyone because i feel that these are all personal expressions. I posted this same topic in my da account and the results have been just as engaging.

I see many things that I personally need to work on and many other things that are quite encouraging. I might not agree with everything said, but there are some really passionate thoughts here.

Very well done
trav

moontown » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

As we're on the subject, more reasons I'll stop reading:

Strip becomes preachy or political, when it hadn't been from the start
Artist gets preachy or political outside the strip
Artist becomes insufferably impressed with his own success, bragging about size of his readership, awards he's won, etc.
Artist whines about how hard his life is, or how no one reads his strip, etc
Funny strip stops being funny
Action strip becomes soap opera
Dramatic strip becomes boring
Strip stops being entertaining

someone » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

I use RSS feeds for comics that don’t update reliably or often enough. With three or more updates a week, I just use old style bookmarks and open them all in tabs at once. Part of my morning ritual. Comics that stop updating often enough get demoted to RSS feed status so I’ll only load them if the RSS says there’s something new. So something like Sinfest or Schlock Mercenary doesn’t need an RSS feed as far as I’m concerned.

Mostly, I stop reading comics when they die (e.g. Metrophor) or when they get annoying on several counts. An example of the later would be Tales of the Questor, which infrequent updates, filler strips of the author being preachy, and a main character whose personality was rapidly becoming insufferable. Out you go.

Something else that can kill comics for me: poor website. If your comic is hosted on the cheap (e.g., as a DeviantArt gallery or a forum thread somewhere), that makes it hard to navigate and read. On that point, I’ll mention that when I find a webcomic with an already big archive, I’m more likely to read through it if I can use Re-Pagination with it. It’s not usually the case with ComicPress sites since they always display comments and blog entries on each page, with no way of having “just the strip”.

Felix Pleșoianu » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

The only comic I actually stopped reading — and I feel guilty for even mentioning the name — is Deputy Witch. Several times I had constructive criticism (and I wasn’t imagining things, other readers were pointing out the same problems), but that apparently offended one of the authors. At some point, he started insulting me, then ended up deleting a comment where I had went out of my way to be polite and explain my reasoning. So I removed the comic from RSS. Which, I should point out, is all too easy to do. Sad, but true.

Tim » 26 Apr 2011 » Reply

RSS is a big plus – I have only one webcomic that I keep open in a tab.

Kukuburi – I stopped reading this funny, beautiful comic because the updates (1) became very very infrequent and (2) turned into long explanations of why he had not updated. If it had just been the first I would have let it sit in my RSS on the offchance. Seeing something pop up and then discovering it is another bunch of excuses is irritating.

For a counterexample: Weregeek. I was impressed by how Alina Pete handled getting a demanding new job in a different location – she looked realistically at her situation and took steps to ensure continuity. How some of the other female artists handle having a baby and still updating is a mystery to me – they must have super powers.

Exiern – stopped reading it because it moved from being funny-sexy to pure cheesecake with no story.

Phoenix Requiem – as posted above. Not enough happened and I did not care about the characters

I keep reading Schlock Mercenary despite the dud art because the story is fun and some of the characters are interesting. It is however marginal. If it did not have RSS I might fall out of touch with it.

I nearly stopped reading Evil Inc because it had so little story. It is marginal. RSS keeps it alive.

I love Questionable Content for its jokes and weird personalities. I love Girl Genius for the sumptuous art, lively, complex characters and constantly surprising, hard-driving story.

I don't need a webcomic to keep to a strict day of the week or even be very regular, but the frequency must be high enough to keep the story in my mind and moving forward.

I must admit the Bean is also marginal for me. I do not at the moment care about the characters and I sometimes find the panels cluttered. I value the way you have critters and off-stage business happening in the sidelines, but without the visual clues of colour you would need to vary the line-weights still more to make the pictures easy to grasp. If you look at classic "ligne claire" pages you that the visual complexity flows into the background for panoramas and scene setting panels and into foreground elements for shock moments, complex movement, fighting, crucial facial expressions. Bean Panels tend to spread the detail evenly, slightly favouring the background.

cedarseed » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

1. Excessively drawn-out stories that after a zillion pages have gone nowhere, are a sure way to turn me away. I concur with Mike about Phoenix Requiem, it seemed intent on going absolutely nowhere and I felt like I was looking at a fashion catalogue with people just being static and looking pretty.
To be perfectly honest, it's for these discussions and what you share about your work process that I'm still subscribed here. Three panels at a time are not a page, they don't allow for any immersion: it feels like reading a serial novel one sentence at a time. When I read it from the very beginning recently and realized the events of a single night had been drawn out for over a year, I just tuned out. I understand about artists working at their own pace so I'm not suggesting you change, but I'm the kind of reader who'd be more interested in less updates with more contents – actual pages, not strips, so I can enjoy both a full moment of the story and sequential art.

2. Lack of notification, either by email or RSS, means I'm not going to bother, even if the comic is great. I have a busy life and I should not have to make the effort to find out if someone has updated, or to remember anyone's update schedules.

3. The author's attitude. If someone's a douche or doesn't communicate at all, no matter how good their work is, I just have no interest. There are plenty of very talented artists out there who are happy to establish a dialogue with their followers, I'll just go to one of them instead. It's an integral part of the enjoyment of the work, especially now that we have the tools to communicate.

Irregular updates don't bother me. I can't keep track of time anyway so I don't even notice if someone posts after 2 weeks rather than the usual week. I get notified so it doesn't matter, I see it when I see it.

@cedricatizado » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

Real reasons for why I stopped reading some comics:
1) Imagine This – I really liked this comic, but I recently took it off my RSS. The creator now just seems tired of the comic but doesn't know how to end it. He's doing things like rerunning old strips, talking about and working on other projects rather than updating the comic itself, etc. The comic just seemed to lose focus recently for me and I don't find it as funny as I used to. I really like his art though.
2) Evil Inc. – I'm a big fan of the creator, but the super-hero genre just don't hold much interest for me. Even though a lot of the humor can be generalized, the super-hero slant was just too big a negative and this stayed on my RSS for almost a year before I realized that I always just skipped reading it. If the creator were to ever start another strip (not involving superheroes), it would definitely go on the top of the RSS comic folder.
3) LICD – no particular reason. I remember I was clearing my RSS folders (because it was taking almost an hour to read all my RSS updates from various blogs and sites) so I limited my comics folder to my top 20 favorites. This was #21.

Things that currently annoy me about some comics enough to consider taking them off my RSS:
1) Art doesn't match the writing. There's a particular popular comic strip that updates five times a week. The art of the strip has changed from black and white simple drawings to a full color and realistic style. Unfortunately the new art is something that doesn't mesh well with the rest of the content (which is a basic gag humor strip). I know the creator just wanted to grow his artistic skills, but I sorta wish that he took on another project where he can explore that aspect of his art rather than changing the style of the comic.
2) Sent the creator of a particular comic a direct email with a short, simple question. Didn't get a response back.
3) Lack of updates isn't enough to get kicked off my RSS folder, though I do find it annoying and lowers my appreciation of the comic.

moontown » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

What keeps me reading is good, polished, colorful art, good writing and excellent character development. I don't care how frequently or infrequently a strip updates – these things are free, and if it's in your RSS, who cares when it updates? Comics are not appointment viewing for me. If I have to wait 6 months for the next strip of Happy Doofus' Idiotic Gagstrip, I may not care one way or another, but if it's something I care about like reMIND or Kukuburi, I will wait as long as it takes (note that I am not saying anything about their update schedules – they may be as reliable as the sunrise, I actually don't know and don't actually care – I'm just saying I would wait if I had to).

A few creators can't stop blathering about how important it is to be "consistent", by which they mean "commitment to updating frequently on a schedule", but so many people espousing that point of view are not consistent where it matters: creating a quality comic. Commitment to quality is also commitment. Scratching out a comic at 3AM just to make tomorrow's deadline, and winding up doing it poorly, is not. So, that drop in quality is the fastest way to lose me.

Something else that stops me from reading a strip – makes me unsubscribe from the RSS and never come back – is a high quantity of posts not related to actual content. One of the strips I've been a fan of for quite a while posts something every day – sneak preview of tomorrow's strip, or a closeup of a panel of last week's strip, or a question to the fans, or a poll about some meaningless tweak to the comic – when all I care about is the strip. If you can only update twice a week, then it's twice a week! All that extra stuff is just noise in my RSS feed. Some creators use this tactic to "keep their content fresh between updates" in an attempt to keep bringing visitors by the site, but the effect is quite the opposite for me. I prefer to get an RSS ping when there's fresh content, and until then, shut up and draw. So, extraneous crap is a quick way to get me to unsubscribe.

Another way is sanctimonious preaching. One strip I subscribe to occasionally launches into rants about how His Way to Make Comics is the Only Way. Meanwhile, his strip is not that well drawn, and even though he updates frequently, the story drags and is hard to follow. I'm hanging on because I like the guy, but if it had been anyone else, I'd have been gone.

Another way is endless complaining about how busy the artist is. I know, it's tough. Jobs overwhelm us, family and other obligations keep us from the drawing board. Whatever, I don't need to hear about it! My feeling is that I want the artist to be happy and productive, to be able to solve whatever problems he faces, landlord arguments, spousal problems, health problems, moving to Seattle, whatever. But, OK. You're not updating your comic, and we all get it. The sanctimonious a-holes will cluck their tongues, sure that you're letting The Masses down. But posting and telling us all in excruciating detail about your problems is the fastest way to make me stop reading, and in that event, I'm doing that artist a favor: his life is not conducive to creating a comic. Without readers, maybe he'll stop and get his life in order. If it's a good strip, I'll be here to read it. But until then… meh. All the Personal Reasons are best left Personal.

Anyway, my fifteen cents.

Arlene » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

I can only think of a couple of instances where I have dropped a comic that I'd been reading on my rss feed. I think one was because the content became more inappropriate than I was expecting and another time because I thought the comic was boring. Ironically, the boring comic posted frequently, which accentuated its boringness. Had it updated less, its bore inducing effect may have gone unnoticed 🙂

I never go through and remove the comics that stop updating from my feed. That way, if they start up again I will be sure to know about it. So, lack of consistent updates doesn't stop me from reading once I start, but it can definitely influence whether or not I decide to start reading a comic.

Brad » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

I agree with number 1. This is absolutely frustrating. I may have greater tolerance for number 2 if it is lettered well, is readable, and is intelligently written. I would add a third: when the art does not improve over the long term. Sometimes, this may just be a matter of style and taste, but I can think of one popular web comic in which the characters are poorly drawn (particularly the feet) and just never change. The fact that, on top of it, the story seems to go nowhere after a certain point just killed my interest in that one.

Vera » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

Well, I think that feedback (comments and all) can be pretty dangerous for stories that are updated regularily. It's just that sometimes readers are like "this is boring, change this and that!" and sometimes authors actually try to change what they're doing according to the taste of the crowd. And this is exactly what kills any decent story. Readers shouldn't always get what they expect or what they think they want.

areffd » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

1. Wheel-spinning. I know it has to be a grind coming up with however many panels per week/month/whatever. I know there's the desire not to blow the story too early. But readers can tell when we're just being strung along. There's a certain well-regarded web comic that's been stuck in pretty much the exact same place for a couple of months now just reiterating the same relationships and situations, and it's getting really tiresome.

2. Forgetting it's a COMIC. Nothing turns me off more than seeing a comic where the wall of words is 90% of the panel, with a tiny little drawing scrunched in next to the word balloon. It's the web-comic equivalent of a 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoon. If you're going to so completely disregard the visual aspect, just write a blog.

David » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

Good question!

Assuming I started reading something because I liked it, I stop if:

1. It doesn't have an RSS feed and I forget about it.
2. I realize the writing is bad. Sometimes it takes a while for this to come through, but if a comic continues to disappoint me I eventually drop it. Examples: El Cuervo, Dead Heaven, Union of Heroes.
3. I get bored of it. (Which almost falls into the bad writing category, really)
4. There is a decrease in quality of the comic. (But I can't think of a time this has happened.)

Infrequent updates don't lose me as a reader, thanks to RSS.

Scott » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

Lack of an RSS feed won't kill a comic for me, but it makes it very hard for me to keep up with it… but I'm a little more dedicated if I really like the comic.

I think the only time I consciously abandoned a comic was after the overly violent death of a main character in a comic that did not have a tone set for such happenings. (it was generally funny and light hearted) I did come back eventually but there was a major rift for awhile there. Surprisingly the fact that I announced I was done for awhile (that's how upset I was) actually caused a smaller bit of drama within the comics' comments, because up until that time I was a strong supporter.

So for me, any comedic comic attempting to go down too far a "dramatic" lane is a mistake. If you wanna do a dramatic comic, do a dramatic comic. Don't take a funny or light hearted comic and then try to go down drama lane with it.

Also, never do anything from DBZ or its ilk. That makes me barf.

Celtic Traveler » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

I stop reading if:
If I get bored with the story
There’s innaproprate content
I don’t like the art
the author doesn’t post pages often

I’m happy to say that you’re webcomic does not fall into any of these categories:)

Kenneth » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

Lack of regular updates is probably the biggest thing that drive me away; and lack of an rss feed makes me less likely to continue following it in general because I just plain forget about it. I generally find that I prefer stories to a series of singles, but if a the singles are funny/interesting enough, I'll hang around (see also: xkcd).

As for what draws me in, I need some combination of humor, a fascinating world/group of people, and/or a good story. Pretty art helps too, but imaginative, well composed art is more important than high resolution images that include every hair follicle and sunspot.

Spencer B » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

not that i would want u too stop – getting on a role is a hard thing so please stay on. all u need for the animation is one empty scene and then add the character with a clear overlay, that all of it can take place in one scene. an infomercial and intro to characters or just a rant about how stupid people are stupid. that is all. but no need for it in earnest. we all know it is an eventual step… well maybe, years of success have proven your judgment what ever it may entail. good luck,

Scott King » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

I have two big deal breakers when it comes to webcomics…

1) Lack or an RSS feed. Sounds weird but every so often I'll come across a comic I like and looks good, but it won't have an RSS feed. Since I read over 100 webcomics (Most I read cause I really enjoy them and others I read simply cause I think its important to stay up on what's popular and what's going on in the medium), I can't take the time to bother and check sites that doesn't have a feed.

2) Can't stick to a schedule.

*note: about 95% of what I read is considered "long form" and not a "gag" comic.

Mike » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

It's important for the art to carry the narrative from place to place. You're doing a good job of that!

The only web comic I got kind of tired of reading after a while was the beautiful Phoenix Requiem. After a while it seemed like it was all dialogue and two people looking at one another. That, combined with the fact that the explanation of what was happening was very complicated, made me actually relieved when it ended.

Spencer B » 25 Apr 2011 » Reply

trav your comics are awesome dont change a thing i wish i could get them in motion. i know that is a whole other ball game. but i know you have the voice talent right in your own house. all u need to do is make a 5 min clip with sound. welcoming new readers to the adventures of bean. just an intro – u can play it at cons and use it to market new chapters. do exotic pans with theme music on selected frames. i have always been a fan of your art. you think it well. i hope to see the Bean explosion some day soon.