Ongoing storylines or one-shot gags?

[Yeahduff]

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.

[McDuffies]

I find that if story arch spans for more than a month on daily updates, or perhaps two months or less often updates, it loses it's grip on a reader and he becames far less interested. This is, of course, if he reads every update as it appears.
If a reader reads through archives, it's a different story, but what we want them is to visit all the time, right?

[Ida]

I like both humor and story comics, but a good story can make me follow a comic much more intensely than I would ever read a gag strip. Stories have a tendency to drag me in - you get to really indulge in a comic's universe and characters in a way I don't think jokes ever let you, and that really appeals to me. And besides, joke comics have the disadvantage that you can always just stop reading when you feel like it. Whereas even a bad story comic can make you want to see where it leads, to some degree, there is nothing to drag a reader back to a joke strip other than, well, the quality of the comic.

[Faub]

I read a few gag strips. I read a few storyline comics. They both have merits. Deisel Sweeties is about as stupid funny as I get. Granted it's quite a bit stupid funny. The Devil's Panties is a GREAT gag strip because the artist is living her comic. Comics like Errant Story are good for their storyline, but it's hard to get a good storyline comic to follow through.

If a gag comic ends halfway through, who cares? It could have ended at any time and nobody would really know.

If a storyline comic ends halfway through, the reader feels let down. I've only read a few storyline comics that ended well: Mixed Myth, 1/0, Demonology 101, Queen of Wands. Most of the rest have simply stopped updating: Fallen, Nowhere Girl, Return to Sender, Digital War, among others.

I intend to be the former, not the latter.

[McDuffies]

Hmmm... "Digital War"? Rings a bell, but I just can't put my finger on it.

[Jared]

I tried to make a gag strip once, it never got of the ground, without any charachters to feed of the humour just dried up. The short storys 30-40 strips with at least an attempt at a joke 9/10 days have allways seemed to be my thing.

[Dutch!]

I really can't get into pure gag strips mainly because, as others said above, the characters aren't really as central as saying another joke again. I much prefer a humourous strip that works on building characters you actually want to become attached to.

Problem there is that if a gag strip like that stops abruptly then you get a little stroppy because you cared for the characters, but it's still the way I'd prefer it.

[MadTarnsman]

I agree with Cope.......and it's the only issue where I swing both ways.....

[BrownEyedCat]

I enjoy a good gag comic, but storylines . . . a good plot can make me crazy with excitement. Admittedly, a failing plot can make me extremely depressed, bitter, or angry, but . . . I guess that's part of why I love them too.

I write story-driven comics, if only because it's easier to decide what's happening and then make a joke about it than it is to pull jokes out of thin air everyday.