Ongoing storylines or one-shot gags?

CodeCorvid · Post by **CodeCorvid** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:30 am

I find I like the Sam and Fuzzy formula in webcomix. The large majority of comics can be taken by themselves, even when tyey are part of a short 7-or-less arc thrown in for variety. This is important for someone who may lose Luxury Comic Time for more than a week at a time. Only a select few comics could ever ask me to go pouring through the archives to find out what's going on now. Also, I have my screen saver do a slide show pointing to my comics directory of others' archived work, so stand alone comics are ideal.

Col · Post by **Col** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:32 am

obeyken wrote:Col,

Broken images?

Ken

It seems to be fixed now. But yeah, when I initially looked, all I got was a webpage full of broken images. Maybe that was happening to other peoples. I dunno.

Davidleetoon · Post by **Davidleetoon** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:42 am

I say a good mix of both. One thing though I've noticed is that if you only have a weekly comic (like me), it's harder to keep up a long story (for me at least). I've read some dailies where they'll have a longer story, then seemingly randomly stick a single gag in the middle. I find this a little annoying as it throws off the pace, but that's just me.

Laemkral · Post by **Laemkral** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:55 am

I like a good mix. I like to put it kinda from a point of how it's presented. If you're doing a serious storyline, long thing with chapters and whatnot, just tell your story, and when humor is appropriate, use it. Jokes become a tool to further immerse the reader and tie us in to the characters, see their more jovial and good natured side. El Goonish Shive comes to my mind. Funny not to be funny, but because the characters are funny.

Pure gag comics that are just humor. The characters are less important, because they're mostly placeholders. This is very much what Penny Arcade does in my opinion. They rarely do an actual storyline, just an extended set of gags. I aim for this with my own comic. I'm not trying to tell a story, I'm just trying to be funny. Usually these comics are more topical and appeal to a more specialized group (gamers, college students, etc) with the occasional overlaps of genres.

Some comics do short story lines that are mostly funny with the occasional serious/semi-serious strip. Real Life and PvP are more like this. You get a feel for the characters, but they're not as deep as a true story drive comic. It's funny, but not always comedic.

I like them all, but mostly humor. Story driven stuff appeals to me if I can get attached to the characters, otherwise I shy away from it.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:57 am

I forgot what I like. Now I'm just an empy shell with no meaning.

Hi, Mechabird!

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:14 pm

I read more story comics than I do gag comics, but on the web it's hard to find a true gag comic. I do prefer it when the comic makes story more important than gags.

Obeyken · Post by **Obeyken** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:15 pm

Okay... So everybody enjoys both. But that doesn't really help...

If you do a story arch, how many strips should one aim for? How long is too long? I update M,W,F, and the story arch I just tried is about ten strips.

(Actually, if anyone is interested in doing a crit, my storyarch starts here:
http://www.blackwaverising.com/MN%202005%2008%2012.htm

I plug shamelessly.)

Post by **Mercury Hat** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:20 pm

It's as long as you need it to be. There's no set guideline on length, it's up to you as the author to decide if it's going too fast or too slow.

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:23 pm

How long a story arc should be? As long as it needs to be. It has to go as long as you need to answer questions and clean out mysteries (or create a few new ones) but when it ceases to be interesting you need to scrap it. It's all about pacing. Rushing is bad, but so is dragging it out (in my opinion, the second is worse). If you have a short, 3-panel or something update, of course it's going to be longer than a full page update like my own. So, yeah. As long as it needs to be.

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 12:41 pm

It depends who your audience is. Since your comic seems to be on the gaggish side of the spectrum, short, simple storylines are advisable. At least at first.

Personally, I'm a fan of longer storylines a la manga, but if you haven't been doing it from the beginning, the change in style may turn the readers you have accumulated away. There's no getting away from it.

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:17 pm

I don't really mind. I like PA and I like Order of the Stick. I like the funny.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:29 pm

I use anything from half a dozen to about 20 odd strips, so my storylines last from two to seven weeks at times. Lately I've been trying to stick to a story a month, so that's 12 or 13 strips. At the moment I've got a slightly longer one that will last 23. I want it at that length because it uses a lot more characters than normal and the final one also coincides with the 200th strip.

You can work the length into whatever requirements you have.

Blackaby · Post by **Blackaby** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 1:31 pm

Oh. & by the way, I've always dug on My Nemesis. It's all shades of groovy.

No, that's not a very good critique.

But I likes it muchly.

Princess · Post by **Princess** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:11 pm

I think you should go with what works for your humour- if a story/joke takes weeks to develop do that, while if it is a short and snappy gag make it a single.

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:15 pm

I do a "gag" comic, and they're typically the kind I prefer to read.

That said, I still do some short little storylines...some storyline is good and adds some depth to a comic.

DJMayhem · Post by **DJMayhem** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 2:29 pm

I like both. Or both mixed together! A stogag!

Stealthy · Post by **Stealthy** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 5:00 pm

Teammayhem wrote:I like both. Or both mixed together! A stogag!

Like... the Longest Gag In The World!!!!!!!!!111!!!1!!

You'd have to have balls of steel to pull something like that off.

I think YOU should do it.

8)

Escushion · Post by **Escushion** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 7:19 pm

Don't worry so much about actual lengths per story or chapter. One of mine is 11 strips long, and then the next is 30 strips long. As has been said again and again, it's as long as it needs to be.

And the mixture just means make each strip count. Find a balance. Try to make strips that current readers will feel are still earning their view each update, while is something that will seem interesting to a new reader and make it worth coming back or looking into the updates for.

You really just need to get a feel for what you want to do and what you're good at doing. Popularity isn't going to come from averaging all opinions.

The Neko · Post by **The Neko** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 9:06 pm

Just because you do a storyline doesn't mean you can have a gag each day. If you're really good, you can usually make it at least amusing each time.

Christwriter · Post by **Christwriter** » Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:41 pm

Ongoing storyline.

I'm a novel-reader more than a comic reader. It should tell you something that my two favorite series in the universe are David Weber's Honor Harrington (10 books) and Stephen King's Dark Tower (Seven, but written over about thirty-fourty years) I like well-developed characters and a tight, spell-binding plot.

My top four comics right now are Longest Sojourn, Zebra Girl, Clan of the Cats and Magellen. Current runners up are College Roomies from Hell (if Marizta wasn't dragging out this Margaret/Dave/Blue thing it would be top FIVE comics) and Alien Dice. All are INTENSIVE story comics. Story defenately comes first.

If nothing else, it keeps me coming back and coming back and coming back.

CW