Structural Integrity part 2

Last week I talked about structure in webcomics, and asked you about how you make your longer-form comics digestible by new readers as well as ongoing readers.

But what about other alternate ways to present a webcomic?

Most of the ones I've read are roughly the dimensions of a printed comic page; I did one issue with double-long pages that were still split into two individual pages.

I've mentioned before a page way back in the comic "Busty Solar" that showed certain actions happening with one character, and then when you scrolled down, you saw the dirt under the ground, then blackness, then finally the other star of the series, who was down in the sewers, and a panel with her. Really cool, and impossible to do the same way in a print comic.

I'm okay with a longer-than normal webcomic page, but I must admit, if the page is too wordy or not totally absorbing, I'll get restless and have to scroll down to see how much content is on that page. I guess I prefer a standard-sized page usually.

I also prefer it in my own comic, for the sake of the readers. I don't like to give them too much to deal with at once. The exception will be when there's minimal dialogue and I don't want to keep people waiting for the next page, if there's not a complete scene or joke or emotional beat happening on the single page.

This one is more theoretical for me - I haven't read as many webcomics as I could have so I haven't seen as many "alternative" formats. What do you think of playing around with the standard page size in your webcomics? Do you do it? Do you like it when the comics you read do it? What about splitting a comic into individual "issues" that are posted as separate comics? Any other unusual webcomics formats that appeal to you?

Have a good one!

-Banes