Webcomic Pet Peeves

[Bustertheclown]

Alright, my biggest pet peeve:

The needless clinging by most webcartoonists to a page-by-page updating system. Most comics don't read well that way, and it's that very system that leads to quite a few of the already listed peeves on this thread. Filler, erratic updating, improper pacing, strange hiatuses, huge leaps in quality or content focus over short spans, constant creator apologies, and on; all can be quite often, if not exclusively, linked in some way to a person updating a comic a page at a time.

Frankly, I HATE reading comics that way. It has, in fact, led to me giving up on webcomics for the most part. I'm just not interested in devoting my time to a comic I find enjoyable, only to have it end abruptly, mid-action, and knowing that I have to wait for the creator to upload a single stupid page sometime in the next week. That infuriates me! It is NOT NOT NOT an enjoyable reading experience!

I've been reading and creating webcomics (off and on) for a good ten years now, and for the life of me, I cannot understand how this system, of all systems, is the one that stuck. It was developed by comic strip cartoonists to emulate the daily strip feeling found in newspapers. It serves the specific purpose of showcasing strips that each stand alone, and it DOES NOT WORK for other types of comic narrative. Honestly, do people really believe that updating as little as a page a week (or less) jarringly taking people in and out of the storytelling experience by feeding them small scraps of it at a time, is really going to have a big affect on building an audience, compared to updating MANY pages with a more cohesive arc of action on a monthly basis? Gimme a break! Would you go to a shop and buy a comic book a page at a time, and read it over the course of twenty days? I don't think so! So why do people think it works online?!

It boggles my mind, it truly does. It's counter-intuitive to how we've been reading comics for a hundred years, it's most likely a selfish act by creators looking for instant gratification ("I drew another comic page, and here it is!") and it ruins webcomics.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

People surfing the internet tend to forget about things that aren't constantly updated and move on to other things to satiate their own lust for instant gratification.

Most people don't seem to mind reading one page at a time. The ones that do usually just wait for an archive to build up before reading again.

[Paul Escobar]

My only, single webcomic peeve is when people promise an update frequency and don't stick to it. I'm not finicky when it comes to what your update frequency is, but if it says "X updates every Friday" on your site, then by Jove update every Friday.

If there are other things about a specific webcomic I don't like, I just stop reading before actually getting peeved.

Actually it would be pretty cool to have a webcomic where every day that you don't update you have a filler strip. That way you could have a comic that "updates" every day with a minimum of effort. Bonus points if it's always the same filler strip.

Even better: Have a webcomic that consist of nothing but filler.

... I better sign up for a CG account: "filler.comicgen.com"

[Rcmonroe]

A bunch of stuff about webcomics updating (or trying to update) daily

…and made some excellent points, but this is incorrect:

It's counter-intuitive to how we've been reading comics for a hundred years

It's actually exactly how we've been reading comics for a hundred years. Unless newspaper comics—which, unlike comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics actually have been around for a hundred years—aren't "comics."

But essentially, you were right about everything else, Buster, and unless a webcartoonist is doing a newspaper-style strip, daily updates probably aren't the best method of presenting their material.

[Datachasers]

ok -
things that tick me off about webcomics -

Furry comics -- worse ( the im not a furry comic but i am )
or Furrys in general -

there is ONE exception to this "Plush and blood" THAT one has a diffrent handle on the subject and doesnt offend me -


lame anime strips ripped from "dragonball/natruo/animeoftheweek"
or things like ( i like this manga so im gonna rip it off.. and change the main charcters haircolor )
pretentious comics that think they are going to get rich off of this or become the next great manga artist -
comics that "expect" money or donations -

bad scripting -
most joke comics ( there are notable exceptions ) Devilspanties for one -
most "slice of life" comics - come on give me a story people -- again there "are" exceptions Geekblather for one or Penny and aggy ( but even that gets boring at times -

badly drawn comics - period - i would rather see a photocomic or 3d rendering if the artist cant draw -

Stick comics of anykind - period - personaly i think they are worse than furry comics -
now im not saying the art has to be perfect - we all start somewhere - but at least have a decent knowlage of "how"
i can accept "trying" far easyer than "wont" or its my "style"
now some people do have highly styleised comics - and those can be very good or very bad
any case theres my "pet peeves" -

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

... I better sign up for a CG account: "filler.comicgen.com"

This one?
http://filler.comicgenesis.com/

[Paul Escobar]

... I better sign up for a CG account: "filler.comicgen.com"

This one?
http://filler.comicgenesis.com/

Oh snap.

... but that's not filler, it's an actual comic! He's doing it wrong!

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Heh, yeah. But what are you gonna do?

[Paul Escobar]

I'll curl up in a fetal position and weep bitter tears that my ten-second-long dream of webcomic filler fame has been shattered like a mirror dropped on a hard cold uncaring concrete floor.

[Perk_daddy]

"Buh huh huh I'll make Jesus one of my characters and make him a trash-talking jerk!That'll show them prudes!" Yeah, that may have been offensive ten years ago, now it just shows us you're a hack.

Okay, Jeff Rowland can do it but noone else, people.

[RobertBlake]

Another of mine is comics that don't put the #$#%$ing comic on the first page that you visit. After the title, the comic should be the first thing you see.

In cases like that, and whenever possible, I just bookmark the page on which the comic appears.

[Rhys]

Comics that, on their archive pages, have a big sidebar on the left hand side of the screen so when you read through the archives, you have to scroll over every single update in order to see the other half of the comic. I don't mind side-scrolling to see the comic if it's too wide to fit in my screen, but having to scroll past some sidebar with link information or a shoutbox or text or something? That gets annoying. I don't mind it on the primary index/"today's comic" page, but every single page in the archive? I don't want to deal with that crap if I'm catching up on a hundred pages of material.

Also, comics that end without telling you. Even just a scribbled "comic over now sorry!" is better than nothing. If you, for whatever reason, have to stop updating? That's understandable. Life happens. But letting your readers hang on hopelessly forever? That's annoying. Same with comics that promise "random updates" but haven't actually posted the first said "random update" for a year. That's not "I'm going to switch to random updates because I still like doing the comic but don't have time for it anymore"...that's ending. We're big kids, we can handle the truth. Just admit it.

I also don't like it when I can't bookmark the page the new comic appears on. I don't mind if it's not the main index page, but when you don't actually have a page for "today's comic" because you upload them by page number and don't know how to code a "latest" page? That kind of drives me nuts as a reader. I guess it's acceptable if you post your updates three pages at a time or something, and have the link to the first of the new pages prominently displayed on your index page, but if you do one page update at a time and are just too lazy to figure out the proper code (and not clever enough to use CG, of course!), then it's aggravating.

EDIT: Also, comics that have really, really good art for their ads, but sucky art for their comic. Not just sucky art in the beginning, that's fine, I understand that you've gotten better since you started the comic; but sucky art for their current stuff. That disappoints me and I end up not reading; your ad ought to represent what a reader will find when they click it. (That said, my banners are always in color and my updates rarely are, but the art itself is the same; having a shiny colored banner when you have B&W art doesn't annoy me, just art that looks great but leads me to art that sucks. You want to be eye-catching, but you still want it to represent what we'll find when we click!)

[Bustertheclown]

People surfing the internet tend to forget about things that aren't constantly updated and move on to other things to satiate their own lust for instant gratification.

That's certainly been the long-held and oft-cited dogma that keeps the page-at-a-time model chugging along without reason, but I don't believe a word of it. The problem here is that supporting evidence of that statement, at least as it relates to webcomics, is circumstantial at best. Worse yet, it plays on the old marketing tactic of "we're just givin' em what they want!" to describe the fearful clinging to broken methods, and an overall lack of innovation. In essence, it blames the audience for choosing an inferior product or interface over nothing at all, and I hate that shit.

If you give people a reason to keep coming back, and expectation that if they do, they'll be rewarded with fresh material once in awhile, I don't believe that there's much difference between a daily update, or a monthly content dump, at least as it relates to more long-term statistics. Let's admit it; the need for instant gratification is a two-way street. Maybe readers do want fresh daily content, but I certainly know that creators seem to put a lot more weight on daily or weekly numbers than the longer time frames.

Besides that, posting twenty-five pages at a time from the get-go means Instant Archive, which is a huge badge in our circle, since I've seen it mentioned so often that archives equal returning readers. So, I see it more as a creative evolution. After all, I hear a lot of blustering about how it's all about the "purity of the craft" from a lot of hobbyist cartoonists. Wouldn't choosing reader-friendliness over daily pageview bumps be a more pure choice?

A bunch of stuff about webcomics updating (or trying to update) daily

…and made some excellent points, but this is incorrect:

It's counter-intuitive to how we've been reading comics for a hundred years

It's actually exactly how we've been reading comics for a hundred years. Unless newspaper comics—which, unlike comic books, graphic novels, and webcomics actually have been around for a hundred years—aren't "comics."

But essentially, you were right about everything else, Buster, and unless a webcartoonist is doing a newspaper-style strip, daily updates probably aren't the best method of presenting their material.

Alright, you caught me in a statement lacking a qualifier. You get candy. However, in my defense, comic books have been around for roughly a hundred years, too. They started publishing collections of popular comic strips not long after comic strips were invented. I've actually seen ninety-year-old copies of collected strips like Bringing Up Father and The Katzenjammer Kids in antique shops. If only I had the money to buy them.

More importantly, thanks for validating my opinions! I'll just add that to the "Proof That I'm Awesome" file.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I myself largely prefer reading large chunks at a time. But a page at a time doesn't bother me either.

[Rhys]

I'd rather have a page at a time than wait a month for a handful of pages. If the story is one that I prefer reading in chucks of a few pages at a time, then I just don't go look until there's a few pages built up, but if it updates once or twice a week with a single page, then I know that whatever week I decide to go check it out, there'll be something new. Obviously it would be best if webcomics could update often with chunks of story, but most webcomicers do this as a hobby and just don't have the sort of time it would require to do that.

Compare The Zombie Hunters's update schedule with how Inverloch used to do it: personally I much prefer being able to check out a new page each Monday than waiting ages for three pages to go all at once, and then make me wait again for another tiny chunk. Webcomics that update in chunks don't exactly annoy me--certainly not enough to qualify as a pet peeve--but I like being able to get new stuff on a regular basis more than getting it all in a lump every now and then. That said, I tend to wait and read, for example, Kevin and Kell only once or twice a week, because despite how awesome it is that it updates daily, I just like the feeling I get from reading it in bigger pieces--but because it updates daily, I can do that if I want to yet still get a small dose of new stuff each day if I'm having a lousy week or whatever. It just gives the reader more options, which is I think always nicer. I read Tales of Pylea the same way: in chunks, when I feel like there'll be enough there to be interesting, or when my patience gives out and I have to go take a look--whichever comes first! But TZH I read weekly, despite it also only updating with a page at a time, because for me personally the story works just as well one bit at a time...and I can always go back and read a chunk of the archives to get the whole flow of a scene once it's been completed. As long as the update schedule is relatively constant, though, it works for me either way; it's "random" updates that get to me the most. (Random extra updates above and beyond someone's stated update scheudle, though? Those are always a nice extra treat!)

I'd personally love to be able to post twenty-two pages a month in one or two chunks of awesome like a print-comic, but since I can't afford that sort of time investment for a free webcomic, I prefer to post the one-page-a-week schedule that I can manage to update since that way, if people want to read a new page every week, they can do so, while if they prefer reading it in chunks, they can come and look on their own schedule. Obviously, since I am a comic whore I like the instant gratification of people who check every week and leave comments but I don't try and coerce or bully people into checking every week if they'd rather get more story at a time and thus look less often. But putting the pages singly means the options are open for people to either check it out in weekly serialized form, or wait and browse the archives for a bunch of pages at once.

[Fishies]

2) Decently drawn, well-scripted comics that are always accompanied by blurbs that read more or less as follows:

Wow, I suck! Sorry, guys; I tried to get the perspective right here, but I guess I'm just a lousy artist. I used a reference shot for panel three, but it's still made entirely of fail, and I didn't even bother with backgrounds for panels four and five. I hate all the white space, but I can't draw trees, as you all already know. Please try not to look at Cindy's hands in panel one. I apologise for this entire comic.

Look...sweetie...I'm reading your comic, aren't I? I like it enough to stick with it, even though you insult it in detail every goddamn day and draw my attention to stylistic deficiencies that I may not even have noticed without your comments. You are on the verge of driving me away from your comic. Just...draw it.

This. I hate when the author spends every other post talking about how hard they suck in an attempt to get people to say "No, you are awesome! We love you!" and it works. I mean I understand having low self esteem for your work. I think I suck a lot. But I don't want to fish for compliments to feel better. I want people to say they like it because they do, not because they feel they should. (Or you know, read it and just tell me whatever it is they happen to think.)

Oh, and also I dislike when the comic page forces you to scroll a whole screen down to find the comic. (Huge amounts of graphics that cause slow load times also annoy me.)

[McDuffies]

Alright, my biggest pet peeve:etc etc etc

I don't agree with a thing you said. I don't mind comics being updated page by page. I think that a comic page stands on it's own, there's a mental break when you're turning the page, so you're seeing a page as a separate unity or sequence, whether author intended it or not. So it's not that big a deal that this page is in webcomics separate by a longer update gap, provided it is not a very long gap.
Also I often enjoyed following my favourite comics update-by-update in periods when I read them the most. There was much joy in expecting a new update, waking up to check the new update with the morning coffee and all the other things. I imagine it is something similar to what newspaper readers felt when new episode of Rip Kirby, Mandrake the Maginical or Dick Tracy would arrive with morning newspapers - as we all know, not all newspaper comics are gag-a-day and adventure comics give you a little bit of story and leave with a cliffhanger - and there is certain joy in being left with a cliffhanger too.
I also like being left a choice - whether I'm gonna read comics update-by-update or let them all pile up and read them all at once. I like that I can check into a site after any given period - three months or one week - and I'll find something new - a whole chapter or just three pages. I don't have to wait a month to read new pages of a comic that caught my interest.
Also I agree with LS that people forget about comics if they aren't updated often. I don't think that it takes extensive knowledge in psychology to be aware of that. There's a lot of things on internet that are competing for our attention, and in that surrounding a month or two is simply a lot of time. And if I can't talk about people collectively, I can talk about myself: when I've just read a good comic, I want more. As time passes and I don't get any more, my interest wanes. After a month, a comic has to be bloody good (like, top 10 on my list) to still maintain interest. But what about all the average comics, those that can't maintain reader's interest that long? Aren't page-at-a-time updates better system for them, then? In any case, anyone who updates comics on monthly bases or such, should have some automatic updates notification system installed for his own sake.
Finally, page-at-a-time update system is instant gratification, perhaps. But if that helps artist move on with his comic, then I don't mind it. When I was drawing before webcomics, I'd lose interest in a story after a while and leave it unfinished. With webcomics, I had constant pressure to satisfy readers, and every bit of attention I was getting, was inspiring me to draw more. "mcDuffies" and "Little White Knight" are longest comics I've made so far.

It is perhaps unfair that comics that update chapter by chapter didn't have much chance of success so far, because that kind of model should exist too, I guess. But page by page model has it's benefits too, and should exist.

[Jim North]

I agree with McDuffies!

[McDuffies]

In cursive even.

[Yeahduff]

McDuff pretty much covers it.

I'm willing to try this sort of thing, but I think you're confusing which is the failed model. The monthly comic books are declining in popularity, and in other media, like music, the "publish as you go" model is beginning to take hold. Nine Inch Nails have released two records this year already, still warm from being mixed. That's the chief draw of the internet. You get it fast, you get easy, you get it cheap. Monthly updates just bring us back to the old way of doing things, and people might not even wanna spend a half hour a month all at once to read the new update. You can complain that you shouldn't let the audience dictate your actions, but delivery system isn't a huge compromise. I'd rather people read mine in larger portions, but if they're more likely to read it a page at a time, I'm going to let them do so.