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.