When do good webcomics end.......

Hippo · Post by **Hippo** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:29 pm

Hi, I'm addicted to the internet.

Wait, I'm preaching to the choir aren't I?
Well anyways, I'm addicted, and because I'm addicted I constantly press links to other sites and go to their links and press those links.
And I'm addicted to webcomics... I love webcomics!!! So when I have a webcomic I read on a regular basis, I inevitably go to their links and favourite the comics in their links. Then I go to the said favourited comics read them and go to their links and then the vicious cycle continues.
Unfortunately this cycle causes me to not continuously read any webcomic for long periods of time. So when I do end up comming back to them I find that they don't exist, they've ended, or they've been abruptly abandonned. And this makes me sad.

A good example off the top of my head is "The Repository of Dangerous things". I stopped reading for several months and I come back to it, and it's finished!

Now I know I can always go to the archives to read them, and I usually do. Sometimes I get really put out because they've ended when I was gone. And I've always wished to find out the exact date that they start and the exact date that they ended.

I also get put out by comics that are strangely abandoned...good ones even!!! They've been forgotten at the best part! BUT WHY!?

(I am even guilty of this as well, however since my fan base was usually one or two people [or even zero for that matter

]I can't imagine it's ever made a great impact on them)

Is there some magical list out there that has the start and end dates of good, great, and grand webcomics?
Do you suffer from the vicious cycle that I suffer from?
Are you an angsty twenty-something? or...wait...

I mean...
Are there any comics that you guys wished you knew why they ended? when they ended? why they were abandoned? and what happened to the artist(s)?
I know that some comics aren't going to go on forever. But there are some that end that you wished would continue, that YOU KNOW could possibly continue. boooo

Would you guys mind listing your favorite webcomics that ended or stopped? And could you post thier start dates too.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:38 pm

Oh jeez, there was an entire website devoted to finished comics, if only I could remember the url!

Oh well, it'll come to me, I guess.

Well, first off there's my first comic! Mixed Myth ran for three and a half years before it finally concluded. And there's Cameo, but that's only seven pages long.

Let's see....there's
Demonology 101
Narbonic isn't officially over yet, but it's nearing the finish line. One of the best webcomics out there, imo.
MacHall

There was also Acid Reflux, but that cut short rather than coming to a conclusion...and I can't find the archives. ={ It was a marvelous comic, though.

Hippo · Post by **Hippo** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:48 pm

Praise the gods! There is a website!

I guess my next question for you would be, Why?
Why did you end your comic? Are there any specific or outstanding reasons for your concluding your webcomic?

I knew about Demonology 101!

I think The Sinner Dragon ended!!! Also while I was gone.

I hope that when I start doing webcomics again, that I don't abandon them due to issues with the comic. I wonder if that's the same reason why others abandon their comics.

Garneta · Post by **Garneta** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 4:58 pm

Hmm. I used to read Kid Radd before it ended. It ran from 2002-2004.

As to why they end, there are several reasons. Some of the artists reach a point where they don't have enough time to do it anymore, or get sick of it, or sometimes the story actually gets completed.

MixedMyth · Post by **MixedMyth** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:12 pm

hippo wrote: I guess my next question for you would be, Why?
Why did you end your comic? Are there any specific or outstanding reasons for your concluding your webcomic?

I ended it because although it had humor and the occasional punchline, it was also heavily plot oriented. You see, if a comic has a story it has to have an ending in order to be very good. If it doesn't, it just limps along eventually, falling to the ravages of time. The cartoonist runs out of material, begins to rehash the same stuff, adds wildly context-improbable scenerios. It becomes, in a word, a soap opera. Comics with storylines need endings to be fullfilling and the best comic they can possibly be.

I actually wrote an article on ending a webcomic some time ago, back when Comic Genesis was still called Keenspace.

CaptainClaude · Post by **CaptainClaude** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 5:16 pm

Damn the ending to Exploitation now! DAMN IT TO HELL!

errant story my eye.

Tynan · Post by **Tynan** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:20 pm

I agree with Master Claude.

Also I miss Weebl and Bob.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:31 pm

A lot of comics I liked ended, including 1/0, Kid Radd, Framed, etc. I don't have problems with it, nothing lasts forever and author of all people know what the expiration date for his comic is.
But one thing I can't get past is why "Ghost cat" stopped updating, it was just getting good.

hippo wrote:I guess my next question for you would be, Why?
Why did you end your comic? Are there any specific or outstanding reasons for your concluding your webcomic?

I can't say for her... but being that I have abruptly stopped updating comics in the past and now run a site with short comics... I think, you have a story, you tell it, and when you finish it, the comic ends. There is no point in continuing past that point. Or, you have characters, you tell stories about them, and then when you can't think of any story to tell anymore, you stop and move on to something you have ideas for.

DJMayhem · Post by **DJMayhem** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 6:40 pm

I had a comic that i was a writer and site designer for, called Blue Eyed Devil. Was pretty fun to help out with.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:24 pm

mcDuffies wrote:I can't say for her... but being that I have abruptly stopped updating comics in the past and now run a site with short comics... I think, you have a story, you tell it, and when you finish it, the comic ends. There is no point in continuing past that point. Or, you have characters, you tell stories about them, and then when you can't think of any story to tell anymore, you stop and move on to something you have ideas for.

That's pretty much what I'm doing with my webcomic. I tend to like short, tightly built things better than long meandering epics anyway.

I read a few of your short comics, and I like them a lot.

TRI · Post by **TRI** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:39 pm

MixedMyth wrote:There was also Acid Reflux, but that cut short rather than coming to a conclusion...and I can't find the archives. ={ It was a marvelous comic, though.

Yes, it was. I still chuckle over the Melting Pandas and the line "aahh! It's shredding my soul!"

I'd reread it if there was a copy of it anywhere. There was an archive version for a while but that disappeared and they guy who hosted it posted something on a message board saying he'd put it up somewhere else but ... doesn't seem to have.

ryclaude wrote:Damn the ending to Exploitation now! DAMN IT TO HELL!

errant story my eye.

What he said.

mcDuffies wrote:But one thing I can't get past is why "Ghost cat" stopped updating, it was just getting good.

I know. That bugs me too.

Okay, enough seconding other people's opinions.
I'll throw out Unicorn Jelly as an example of an ended comic.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned It's Walky!/Roomies or Avalon High even if they do sort of refuse to die.

Garneta · Post by **Garneta** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 7:42 pm

mcDuffies wrote: But one thing I can't get past is why "Ghost cat" stopped updating, it was just getting good.

Yeah, I miss that one.

Jim North · Post by **Jim North** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 8:44 pm

mcDuffies wrote:But one thing I can't get past is why "Ghost cat" stopped updating, it was just getting good.

He was all like "I'm moving on to do something I can do better" and I was all like "WTFMATE you're doing ghost cat and that the best thing you could possibly do" but he stopped doing it anyway.

Kramerthebird · Post by **Kramerthebird** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 10:25 pm

There used to be a sprite comic here (back when the name was Keenspace) called Fireflower that I enjoyed, but it came to an end a few years ago. It was the main inspiration for my own sprite comic, Super Dumb Bros, which is also long gone (good riddance).

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 12:53 am

I've actually never had a comic I read regularly end...they're all still going.

Hallonpress · Post by **Hallonpress** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 1:07 am

And why did RPGWorld end? That was the stupidest thing ever. The plot had reached the final boss and then... "naawww, I don't feel like it." Why do that, when you have a very popular webcomic, have it released in printed form, sell merchandize...

It bugs me to no end.

As for comics that actually has an and... Well, some comics just has to end. It goes without saying. A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Strips can go on for fifty years and more, but stories has to end, or there is no point. At least I think so. A story should have a direction, it should be headed somewhere.

Evil Jamie! · Post by **Evil Jamie!** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 2:13 am

A story should always have a beginning and an end.

RPG World was a victim of circumstance, to my knowlage it more a case of 'can't do it' than 'don't reel like it'
Always remember that a webcomic is, nine times out of ten, a persons hobby. Eventually the real world will catch up to them and when it happens, it happens.

Hallonpress · Post by **Hallonpress** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:08 am

Evil Jamie! wrote:A story should always have a beginning and an end.

RPG World was a victim of circumstance, to my knowlage it more a case of 'can't do it' than 'don't reel like it'
Always remember that a webcomic is, nine times out of ten, a persons hobby. Eventually the real world will catch up to them and when it happens, it happens.

Hmmm. Yeah, I guess that I was a bit harsh. It just shows that I was a fan. In a way, you have a sort of obligation to the fans to finish what you've started. People care, and people get upset when you let them down. But still, once you hit the wall, there is no way to just pass through it.

God knows it could happen to me. It has happened to me with almost every other comic project I've worked on. Now, with WBK, I'm not alone, and that makes all the difference in the world.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 3:59 am

hallonpress wrote:God knows it could happen to me. It has happened to me with almost every other comic project I've worked on. Now, with WBK, I'm not alone, and that makes all the difference in the world.

I certainly hope you don't abandon WBK- I'm just starting to get into that!

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Wed Nov 01, 2006 4:33 am

Jim North wrote:
mcDuffies wrote:But one thing I can't get past is why "Ghost cat" stopped updating, it was just getting good.
He was all like "I'm moving on to do something I can do better" and I was all like "WTFMATE you're doing ghost cat and that the best thing you could possibly do" but he stopped doing it anyway.

Maybe what he could do better was sitting on the couch and watching tv?