Webcomics 2.0 Part one - Professionalism

[ran]

I have some personal involvement in this to a certain degree and I don't honestly believe either one of them takes it all that seriously.

And that is my point. To either side's loyal fans, who have invested a certain amount of time in getting to know a comic author (because as a creator, it's in your best interest to sell yourself to your audience--the more personal it is for your readers, the more they'll invest in your works), it may look like hilarious fun-poking. To the random potential reader who wanders on to your website for the very first time only to stumble into a crazy drama explosion? Not so much.

First impressions are absolutely important. It's really in your best interest to make sure that anyone finding your website for the first time has a nice experience that'll make them want to come back.

[Cary]

I had a really similar discussion in another forum this week about webcomics. From what I've seen and experienced quality takes a distant backseat to regular updates. Which seems...almost backwards to me. But then I still view all comics from a print comic perspective I guess. When I read a comic no matter if it's a full length type or strip type I want it to not only have quality art but quality story. If either are lacking it causes the whole thing to suffer. But in webcomics that doesn't seem to be the case. People will put up with and often heavily support an artist that's really not that good, or at least no on par with many others because they update several times a week. I think that's great because it certainly gives me hope, but I also find it weird.

So...what do you value more in your webcomics? Regular updates or higher pro looking quality?

[GaNda]

I think it's pure luck. (unfortunately) if a webcomic artist will ever succeed on the net these days.
There are simply too many web comics out (in the thousands)... the competition is huge...and if you are a one man show its makes things only more difficult.

The guys at webcomic.com themselves in the "how to make webcomic" said sometimes even if you do all of the above you may still get no
return on the very hard work done.

Personally,the work we put into web comics shouldn't be free at all, these are different times we should work on changing it...paid content but in a way that works.
We should create full stories and simply advertise them on the web like the movie trailers along with the merchandise stuff..

probably most will disagree.....

[Gibson]

Well, let me be the first.

While I won't say there isn't an element of luck to success in webcomics, it's by no means the dominant factor. The quality of your product along with a decent marketing strategy built on top of a solid posting schedule has been the success of many comics, and the only element of luck is catching the right person/people's eyes at the right time.

Yes, there are bad webcomics out there, but they all have something tangible to offer, something for which their audience is looking. Success is a balance of how much people want to read your work and how effective you are at getting it in front of them. People who succeed in webcomics work damned hard at it, or at least the ones who succeed without working hard are the rare exception, and diminishing the results of that work by saying they were lucky is more than a little insulting. No, not everyone who works hard makes it, but not everyone who works hard has a product that people want to read. Hard work alone won't do it, and that's what the webcomics.com guys were talking about.

And as far as charging for comics, that's a pretty surefire way to get people not to read your comic. I can't speak for everyone else, but I do charge for my comic, through advertising and merchandise. You can't think of webcomics like a product, it's more like a service where you sell on the back end, like television and radio. There are television shows that charge money, yes, but their audiences are much much smaller and they have to bundle their services to sell them.

Cary, I sometimes scratch my head when I look at certain webcomics too and wonder how they got so popular, but I keep coming back to the idea that there must be something about it that catches readers. Plus, I think there's a level of lowered expectations, kinda like in your local music scene where a band who isn't so great and their bass player sucks but they still get gigs because there's just something about them.

[LegendWoodsman]

A lot of folks have been chattering on in webcomics for a really long time about how important it is that we look professional (I'm guilty of it myself). "I want my booth to look professional," "I want my book to look professional," "I need a site redesign so it looks more professional." Yet I can't think of a single instance in which professionalism has provided a proven benefit to a webcomicker I know. I can't.

My day job recently had a professional development day and hired a motivational speaker to present to us. Part of his spiel was a little personality test that segmented the crowd into four groups. I am of the belief that the folks you are mentioning (in the quote above) fall into the category of The Analytical Thinker.

• Wants accuracy
• Loves details
• Values numbers, statistics, raw data

Analytical's fear being embarassed or losing face. They hide their emotions from others.

Strengths

• Thinking
• Thorough
• Disciplined

Weakness

• Excludes feelings from decisions
• Perfectionist
• Too rigid and demanding of self or others

I'm guilty of being a part of this segment and as much as I understand and believe that my success is not linked to professionalism... I still demand that I behave professionally. It's sort of my own personal measure of success. Stick-figure comics may be excellent in their own right and merit... but I wouldn't accept that of myself.

-tony

[Rob]

Stick-figure comics may be excellent in their own right and merit... but I wouldn't accept that of myself.
-tony

If you were making the kind of money XKCD or Cyanide and Happiness make you might feel differently. With them it's the writing that is exceptional. I'm not sure good art would even make a difference for them.  :-\

[Gibson]

Good art would ruin those titles. Can you imagine anyone being interested in Dinosaur Comics if, all of a sudden, the art was fantastic 3D rendering? Part of why the popular poorly-drawn comics do well is because they are drawn poorly. It's part of their character, sets them apart. It's not something you can plan for, but when it works it works. It's like the vocal ability of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen or Tom Waits...quality writing can not only make up for lacking talent in other areas, it can make that lack of talent an element of the art.

[Alectric]

So...what do you value more in your webcomics? Regular updates or higher pro looking quality?

I happen to have a very similar poll on my site right now.  Go ahead and take a look, the results are fairly interesting.  Maybe I didn't phrase the options completely evenly, but it looks like readers (at least my readers) prefer quality over quantity, to a reasonable extent.

[Rob]

So...what do you value more in your webcomics? Regular updates or higher pro looking quality?

I happen to have a very similar poll on my site right now.  Go ahead and take a look, the results are fairly interesting.  Maybe I didn't phrase the options completely evenly, but it looks like readers (at least my readers) prefer quality over quantity, to a reasonable extent.

To quote Gibson...

Readers Lie!

My experience flies right in the face of this. And I'm not talking about my comic I'm talking about what I know of the numbers and success of other sites. Consistent updates are more important than quality. Of course if it's crap on a stick who cares how many times you update right? But a "good" update three times a week will beat a "great" update once a week every time. IMHO.

[Alectric]

Ha, I'm actually inclined to agree.  If I can manage it, I'm going to try to update twice a week (instead of once) for my next story arc, dumbing down my art as much as I have to.