I don't know if this topic has been posted before but I'm wondering what attracts you to a comic? I'm making one so umm I wanna know how to attract the readers.
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What attracts you to a comic?
Attracts? Probally first off, the comic name or the user's name and comments (that is, before i've read comic). Afterwards, pretty much the user itself, probally the comics style, and the story or humor. Really I can read any comic (except sorry to say, a lot of sprite comics…no, it's not the sprites it's just that most of them usually are quite bland if it's a story based one, and even the humor ones are pretty bad. Not all though, just saying most)
im a quick critic really, first thing i do is look at the art. If i don't like the art, i usually don't bother to read it. From there its just a matter of whether i like the story or jokes. I usually like an actiony story line with a little romantic crap as a side story. Just what i like to read.
I'm a marvel zombie, so the more 1-dimensional a character or story is, the better. The less plot holes, time travel, and aliens the better a comic is. I'm also a fan of character drama, where the humour is generally subdued in favor for action. I'm also in favor of using artistic literary mediums for furthering their creators agenda, which explains why I liked the first few years of Spawn or why I think Cerebus is one of the greater comic series ever.
I won't read webcomics anymore. Not even the so called "made it" good ones like your Penny Arcade or Megatokyo, webcomics are just shitty by design and nature. Their authors are overzelous if they have three readers, thinking they can do anything. They'll become lazy and stop producing comics. Much like how Marvel's done for awhile. God Damn kevin smith.
Art will always be my big hook. It doesn't have to be 100% pro qaulity, but it does have to show someone is putting the effort into making it presentable, readable, and coherent over all.
Sprites from games are all out, I won't read comics that are little more than MSpaint over screen grabs. (Not to say hand made, original sprites don't get my attention, they DO! I'm just sick of seeing sonic)
Stylewise I'm flexible, I like both manga, american, indie, whatever, as long as it looks like the person drawing it has some idea /why/ they picked the style they did.
Once the art wears off me, good characters will be what keep me reading.
I like characters that grow from events in a comic. I get bored seeing the girl keep falling for guys, or the guy keep beating up monsters…and never, ever freaking change because of it.
In short, art gets my attention, characters and characterization keeps me hooked.
The page layout. The directing of the pictures to en extent where I can tell what's going on, backgrounds and interesting different angles.
I really don't like:
reused panel pictures, talking heads(just drawn heads or head and shoulder avoiding drawing the rest of the body),hidden hands (when characters always have hands in pockets or behind the back just to avoid drawing hands) ,and no background for the panel art.
The dialogue should not be written like a book. Comics that have like huge paragraphs of dialogue in every single dialogue bubble are really annoying to read on a computer screen.
I also like origenal stories. I tend to avoid the typical anime fantasy comics: (hero with big sword goes on jouney to save the world, meets a tomboyish girl, and a bishie elf man joins them.) That's a big no no in my interest list.
I really don't like:
talking heads(just drawn heads or head and shoulder avoiding drawing the rest of the body)
The dialogue should not be written like a book. Comics that have like huge paragraphs of dialogue in every single dialogue bubble are really annoying to read on a computer screen.
hmm. but have you ever conidsered that half the times the head shots might be just to focus on the characters' expressions in response to something that is happening, rather than just simply refusing to draw an character's body?
that way the readers can easily tell what the character is feeling..
as for the dialogue… well, there's times when there's characters sitting around telling stories or explaining something.. or there's background info to get the readers familar with something before the story starts, so that they don't feel left out in the dark or confused.
after all, you just can't rush into an story and leave your readers in the dark. tsk.
I really don't like:
talking heads(just drawn heads or head and shoulder avoiding drawing the rest of the body)
The dialogue should not be written like a book. Comics that have like huge paragraphs of dialogue in every single dialogue bubble are really annoying to read on a computer screen.
hmm. but have you ever conidsered that half the times the head shots might be just to focus on the characters' expressions in response to something that is happening, rather than just simply refusing to draw an character's body?
that way the readers can easily tell what the character is feeling..
as for the dialogue… well, there's times when there's characters sitting around telling stories or explaining something.. or there's background info to get the readers familar with something before the story starts, so that they don't feel left out in the dark or confused.
after all, you just can't rush into an story and leave your readers in the dark. tsk.
Actually, body language can tell more about a character than the expression sometimes. I find it bad form mylself, to only use the face to show a character's mood, or reaction.
If you can't get a character to express something with their pose, you might want to do some more gesture drawings from life. Only seeing faces can be dull if a comic has a lot of taking, so pull the whole body into it sometimes!
:D
yeah, that's true.. but sometimes there's certain characters who has that whole personality where they don't actually express too much with their body.
take Karla Lun, one of my characters.. when she's in her untransformed state, she's an noble woman in the past.. as opposed to, you know, present day.
and she lives in an family where she was trained very rigidly to always have a proper posture, etc.. in fact she wasn't even allowed to have her hands on her hips as seeing it wasn't deemed ladylike.
so she can't express too much with her body, so I would have to do a lot of face shots of her to show how much she likes/hates something, when I focus on her in the timeline.
I do body shots too though, but only when she's moving…. like running, walking, dancing, that sort of thing.
I think it depends on all the characters, don't you think?
also having a balance if body shots and head shots is good… only having bodyshots without any head shots would be boring to me.
not necessarily in order of preference:
- fighting… I dont care if its hollywood kung fu or realistic mixed martial arts or street fights.
- Hot girls… long hair, nice thights… u get the idea. :)
- characters I can identify with.
- angst, war, philosophy, religion, politics, death, darkness, crude humor, cut+paste sprite comics
The dialogue should not be written like a book. Comics that have like huge paragraphs of dialogue in every single dialogue bubble are really annoying to read on a computer screen.
i agree, i try to break my paragraphs so there's not a column of text, which turns me off when im reading a comic. it feels like a hasstle to drudge through that. usually my attention goes to the picture rather than read long paragraphs.
Unique and interesting art, persudo-manga art and the like dosent grab me at all, Blackheart and Everything must die are good examples at opposite ends of what makes me want to read a comic.
After interesting art it is violence/horror value, After that it is inappropriate jokes or toilet humour, after that honest to god funny jokes.
A good description/banner or name will attract a reader. Art is what grabs your attention in that ever important first few seconds. Art and writing are what keep you.
Essentially, I'd say that art is probably the most important thing to having people stick around and give your comic a shot. That's not to say you have to be an amazing artist. It just has to be appealing to the reader.
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