What makes you drop a webcomic?
And I mean dropping before reading it and also dropping it because quality decline.
What are some of the most common mistakes that turn a good webcomics into a crap?
>>82933368
lack of updates definitely
>>82933368
Not finishing plot lines
Don't read that much webcomics, and dropped very few.
But for Looking For Group, i gave up because it felt like nothing was never finish, that some things would always come back again. And unlike ORder of the Sticks, they seem to all come back together, weakening the streghn of said come-backs.
So yeah, keeping the story clear, with finished arcs is important.
>>82933368
letting politically contentious shit get in the way of the story
like whatever, express yourself, but tell a fucking story
or if it's a comedy, tell fucking jokes. put that shit first.
>>82933368
-Lack of updates
This is a pretty big one. When there's no update, I start checking in less and less, until there comes the point where I stop checking the comic. If there's no comic to read, I'm not reading it.
-Change of tone
This did me in for Order of the Stick. It's a fucking stick figure comic that identifies its villain as the king of the undead by giving him a little crown. Don't expect me to take its drama and characters seriously. Ever. And especially not when it boils down to walls of text, because the stick figure medium is crippled from day one when it comes to visual storytelling.
-Poor pacing
Some comics just drag on and on, insisting on portraying every fart the characters pass, without getting to the good parts. There's this zombie apocalypse comic that's insanely pretentious, but has a few nice gimmicks in using animation in its panels but... at one point I realised about a day passed in the comic for every year in real life. It's trying to do apocalypse survival, but the power hasn't even gone out yet. The hero is jumping around and doing action stuff, but she got her ribs broken at the start of the comic. Which is pretty much a permanent condition, given the pacing. And it looks really weird how all of society devolves into people trying to murder the fuck out of each THREE FUCKING DAYS into the apocalypse.
When the artist tries to make it their job out of the gate and it becomes pay to view updates that loose quality over time when money dwindles
>>82934479
is that zombie comic one that involves a talking cat?
>>82934714
No, it's the one that's in black and white, except for the little scarf on the protagonist's head, which is red. Some other shit is red, too. Yeah, the Schindler's List gimmick. Except she beats zombies to death (or inactivity) with a mop. Yeah, it's one of those wacky zombie comics.
Is the one with the talking cat String Theory? I recall that being an OK comic. But also slow as balls and unfocused, which is why I stopped reading it.
All webcomics are shit (except that post-apocalyptic one with the soldiers)
>>82933368
Not having my fetish.
>>82934714
Comic is Dead Winter.
>>82933368
From the ones I dropped that I can remember why I did:
CAD and Questionable Content: they're shit, they were always shit, horrible art, unfunny, terrible in every way and I was too young to notice
Dresden Codak: Diaz blocked me on twitter. Looking back at it, the art was nice but the writing is pretentious, the characters are paper-thin, never updates.
Paranatural: even though it updated semi-frequently it never felt like the story ever progressed. Nice art though.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Thing: the author made like 5 fucking strips in a row about Dragon Age Inquisition and I'm like "yeah, I don't care anymore"
this >>82933949 and when the story seems to have hit a plateau - e.g. Gunnerkrigg Court.
>>82933368
If it has any modern day references. Centers around young generation people. Has le emic maymay iphone internet culture in it. Bassicly i dont read webcomics.
>>82933368
Any two of these:
1. Doesn't grow out of cliches I don't like by #100.
2. Gets preachy for 2 consecutive arcs.
3. Heavily references social media.
4. Uses a font I can't read a lot.
5. Insinuates even slightly that piracy is anything but righteous in anything but jest.
6. Furry.
7. Mind control is a major component.
8. Paywall.
I read webcomics every day, but I have only ever dropped 5 that I remember over the years. I do skip right over any comic with an archive of less than 100 unless it has amazing art, a premise I really like, or is by the author of another comic I like, though.
>>82939811
Dropped this ages ago due to no updates and bullshit pacing. It's a shame because I remember really liking it. Checked today and it's still ongoing which was surprising.
>>82940826
>7. Mind control is a major component.
More fetish fuel for me.
>that one really good webcomic that the author lost interest in and hasnt been updated in 3 years
>>82933368
When it devolves into jokes instead of its original plot. I'm a patient guy when it comes to webcomic updates and I'm forgiving with writing quality, but if it's obvious the next sextillion updates are going to be about poking humor at current trends, I lose interest and put it down for good.
That said, the first thing that will turn me off from a comic to begin with is the art style. It's a visual medium-- if your comic is confusing or unsettling to look at from the get-go, you're not going to have much luck telling a story through it, regardless of how good that story may be. It doesn't have to be particularly pretty either (art is hard, I get that), but there's a line.
>>82933368
Not doing anything for a long period of time and coming back with a "Hey, I was busy soz lol!" and expecting everyone to still be there.
horrid writng
>unbelivably flat characters
>plot goes nowhere
>not being funny at all if a comedy sol
>awful pandering, especially "omg lesbians ammiright"
>soapboxing harder than a virgins first erection
horrible art
>tiny text i cant read
>art so bad i cant tell whats going on
>anatomy so wonky it crosses so bad its good territory into being just bad
site layout
>cant find archives, unsorted, first comic, ect
>ads ads ads ads ads ads everywhere i cant get anything done
>5 minutes to load one page kinda
>aaron diaz level of update schedue, (hiatuses are okay)
>>82940826
>5. Insinuates even slightly that piracy is anything but righteous in anything but jest.
so, it's anti-piracy? you mean like pirating a movie or becoming blackbeard?
>>82944076
There are no webcomics about actual pirates.
>>82944209
so he hates it when webcomics say that piracy is bad or good? i don't know, i failed english twice for a raeson
el bumpo
>Time between issues
>The Creator not knowing when to just end the fucking story
>Yes, this is about Berserk
>Yeah, I know its not a western comics
>I've been waiting so long
>mfw I will probably die before it ends
honestly, the thing that probably makes me drop it fastest nowadays is wen people make it too anime-esque
i'm sick and tired of the generation mark krilly tought, and wish people would try for an art style that's actually anatomically correct
>>82944319
>My sides
what are the worse famouse webcomics?
>>82944872
Ever read Clan of Cats?
>>82933368
300 or more page archive
Shonen ish
Monster of the week
Slice of life
Weak story structure
Nothing I haven't seen
>>82944989
no, is it any good?
>artist shoves their political ideas into the comic
Instant drop.
Even if it's just a slight opinion, even if it's one I agree with, fuck it.
Nothing ruins a light hearted webcomic like "REPUBLICANS/DEMOCRATS ARE DUMB AND HERE'S WHY!"
There's always some fuckwit strawman involved and 9 out of 8 times, the artist expresses their idea in a way that can be easily debunked with some light googling.
>>82945100
It's not terrible. The art is definitely not animeesque.
>>82945138
I especially like it when their political views change over time and you can see it in their comic, so their old pages would be arguing for something their newer pages argue against.
>>82945214
damn, that's seriously impressive
it reminds me of comics from the 90s. definitely gonna check it out
>>82933368
If it becomes more of a chore to read than a pleasure, especially webcomics that make you jump through hoops to get any satisfaction.
I probably could have tolerated Homestuck for a while longer if I didn't have to parse through 400 lines of a garbled chat log on each page to scrape up the three words relevant to the plot.
Lack of updates/Slow plot is the primary one for me. That's mostly why I dropped Megatokyo, that and I grew out of my weaboo phase. I dropped Girl Genius for a while back in 2011-2012 because of how slowly the plot was moving, but picked it up again after seeing Phil Foglio at a convention. I archive-binged The Meek after learning about it here on /co/, but didn't stick with it because of the artist's "whenever I can" update schedule.
>>82945337
what about if someone actually took the time to make issues rather than just pages
like they took 30-50 pages of their comics, put them into separate chapters in pdfs for ease of reading, and released them individually
>>82945458
Wouldn't that take too long between updates?
>>82945562
probably. still, like i said earlier, it's more like a netflix show that people like
if it's good, you wait for the next season and binge watch it
>>82945458
It would only help if those 30-50 pages were already legible. There wouldn't be much difference between that and just waiting for 3 months before catching up to a webcomic that updates a few times a week.
>>82945458
>>82945562
I personally only read comics with big archives. If I finish them, I don't check up on it. I wait a year or so then go through my finished list, updating, sorting etc, and catch back up with each one that hasn't died or become stupid.
>>82940518
>>82933368
When the author writes diatribes in the author's-notes section that are barely even related to the comic, and are completely retarded to boot.
For example, in the notes for strip: http://leftoversoup.com/archive.php?num=849
>Is it possible to analyze this artist's oeuvre and, from it, determine whether or not he's the sort of person to commit sexual assault?
>>82936593
Excuse me
audience pandering
>>82933368
How can you drop a comic before reading it? You can't drop something you never picked up.
whut???
>>82946164
Because stop talking about pancakes.
>>82933368
I posted about this in another webcomic topic a couple days ago. I hate it when a webcomic decides to reboot. Whether they reboot to change the artwork or to reboot the story because they wrote themselves into a corner. There was one comic who's name I can't even remember that tried to update normally while simultaneously updating the earlier pages. It worked fine for a while but eventually the regular updates got slower and slower and it just because "Well I'm gonna stop the regular updates until I get caught up." I remember being pissed because the story was getting interesting and it all came to a grinding halt.
>>82946316
Bomango is about to reboot. It'll have coherent storylines and stuff for the first time.
>>82933368
>Preachiness
>Lack of updates
>It just gets boring.
How the fuck has no one brought up SJW pandering?
And I don't mean "audience pandering." I mean changing the tone of your comic so that your original audience of average people stop reading, as you attempt to attract SJWs.
>>82933368
When the artist gets overly preachy about their points of view. Sometimes it's that way from the beginning, other times it gradually happens as the comic becomes more popular (or infamous).
>>82933368
Skimming through, I don't think I've seen this mentioned yet, but I've dropped a lot of stories, not just webcomics, because of it.
Risk aversion. No real harm comes to the protagonist. The good guys never lose. The illusion of tension dissipates, nothing's at stake, and I become completely apathetic and drop the story hard.
It's an indication of childishness on the part of the author. The story is their fantasy escape, a safe space with false drama added to entertain them, a grossly self-indulging creation that's worthless to anyone beyond the creator. They've become attached to their characters and world and are loathe to put them through any negativity, which they would feel as personal loss, and it's as boring as any status quo children's adventure cartoon.It triggers me to see adults still doing it after I forced myself to move past it in my teens.
>>82933368
>>82941913
^ this anon said it all for me, but in my words::
Drop before reading, or at first page:
Really bad art
Walls of text at the start
Mistakes in publishing:
unpredictable update schedule, fake update promises
no web page navigation, or reader-hostile navigation
no archive
Mistakes in content surface layer:
illegible dialog text
confusing foreground background values, characters indistinct
Mistakes in content story layer:
juvenile topics
no character depth
no arc structure
I would not drop a comic only because of quality decline if its story telling is strong, for example John Allison's stuff had issues, but I never missed an update.
>>82945218
I'm sure you didn't like it when it happened to Sinfest
>>82945747
>Okay heads up, I'm about to talk about rape and stuff
>wall of 1009 words following
Holy shit, how tasteless and out of place that line was, is more entertaining than the comic.
>>82946702
He wasn't pandering to SJW, Tatsuya fucking lost his shit
>>82933368
P A C I N G
And I don't just mean a good update schedule, I mean the pacing of the actual story. Get to the point. If you sidetrack, sidetrack WELL. Make it interesting, engage me. Make me say "I'm glad we sidetracked to do this". Don't waste my time.
>>82945872
I'm afraid to go back.
>>82947191
Wow. You're so cool, anon.
>>82945979
>How can you drop a comic before reading it?
The same way I can drop a book that I pick up, look a the cover and see a picture of a transethnic furry sucking off a tumblr midget. I'll know it's not for me without having to read the first five chspters, so I drop the book and pretend I never even saw it.
>>82946702
>How the fuck has no one brought up SJW pandering?
Just not that high up on the list of reasons to quit a comic people enjoy, apparently.
