TWCL

[Gual-kun]

Wow, we're guilty of this one:

Casual Notice wrote:

If you can't speak a language fluently, don't write in that language!!! I'm sure it comes up in other languages, but, being an English speaker I notice it more in English-language comics written by people who have clearly never heard English actually spoken. The comic Eve links above can't be taken for any of its other values or failings simply because the mental voice you get when you read it is a comical indeterminate-European accent, like Balki from Perfect Strangers or Manuel from Fawlty Towers.

Spanish speaking, here. Is that really something to hate? We speak and write english in an understandable way but sometimes we make mistakes and sometimes write things that, despite being well written, sound weird cause is not a common way of speaking. Well, it's not somebody's fault to not have english as primary language; only want their work to be known by more people. I wonder how many mistakes I have in this paragraph XD

Wait, I said we? Well, guilty of this one, in some way, too:

smbhax.com wrote:

Ooh! I got one! Webcomics "produced" by some sort of "studio" or whatnot; I think some authors think calling themselves "Studio BlahdeBlah" or whatever makes them sound more professional, but I think it really sends the wrong message; I mean, one of the big draws of webcomics is the personality of and interaction with the author, and the whole "Studio" thing just feels like a cold wall.

I talk in plural cause it's bro and me. We decided to find a name for our work in conjunction. Certainly we aren't marketing anything but offering illustrator services, and that is long before we decided to do some webcomic thing, but now that I think about it, that could sound the same way for many people. Also, despite Skill:Draw don't having the studio thingy anywhere in it's name, I refer to my work place as an "studio" too, sooo... I wonder how many people we have 'scared' away from Doodling... *thinks*
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[vulpeslibertas]

Casual Notice wrote:

If you can't speak a language fluently, don't write in that language!!! .

An important exception is if you are using the comic to practice your language skills. Just like many of us use them to practice our art skills.

What really annoys me is politics in webcomics. Not if the comic is based on politics, or if the character is expressing their views as the character, that's all ok. But when the author tells us they voted for XYZ and that we should too in their author's comments. You realize that you're probably alienating 50% (or more) of your audience every time your author's comment is something like "Those stupid Progressives are at it again." Chances are that a large percentage of your audience considers themselves to be whatever political ideology you just thrashed. Same thing if you mention religion.

Now this is completely different if your comic is actually political in nature. If your comic was a rendition of Animal Farm, or a re-telling of Mein Kampf in verse, then that's a whole different story, because that's what readers are prepared for. But if your comic is about the Happy Elfs in the Frolicking Woods and the Dragon of Doom, then leave your political comments to yourself, or at least be tactful with them.

It's ok to tactfully examining a political issue through your characters. Either through "Let's present both sides of a debate" or through "My character totally thrashed your opinion, but he's kind of a bastard sometimes anyway".
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[Eve Z.]

Well, when I ran Synthetic Life some time ago my English wasn't perfect and some people warned me about it, so I asked several guys around to take in some chapters for proofreading. Very nice of them.

Now that I somewhat improved from going to different forums and learning more about communication and English language in general, my English speech isn't perfect, but I do pretty well and I'm trying to be careful with typos and grammar when writing my comic.

It does bug me when some comic is written in a BAD English that I can hardly understand what they mean, but there can always be a turn around.
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[iaviv]

There are plenty of typos, atrocious grammar and just bad English in http://english.bouletcorp.com/ but I still read it. It's usually worth it. I would rather read the original French - but I can't read French, sadly.

Overall, though, I have to agree. It's a huge handicap. Just like drawing without any skill or experience is a huge handicap. You want things to be clear. You want to have some control over what characters are saying and doing. You can't have that if you don't know what you're doing Sometimes proofreading isn't enough, if the people proofreading don't know what you're trying to do with that particular scene or dialogue or whatever. They can point out bad grammar, etc., but what about accent (that's not the word I'm looking for... help me out here)? If the character is saying MATE every second panel, and the comic is taking place in ancient Egypt... it makes no sense. Unless there's some time travel involved... or a really strange joke, I suppose. But you get the idea! Like what Casual Notice mentioned. Using the wrong words for the wrong characters\setting. Cultural difference. Like writing a Japanese idiom in Engrish. Bad idea.

However, people can learn through their mistakes. So this can be helpful for them and make them more acquainted with the language, perhaps even make them better writers. It takes years, but it's possible. I mean, everyone learns a language, we don't just have it planted in our baby brains. If you work hard enough, everything is possible to learn.
And if you're too worried about it, just do a wordless comic. Or use very little words. Or only use quotes from famous people. There are ways around any problem.
Unless you're blind. In that case I really don't know what to tell you. Braille comics? Um, that's a tough one.
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[vulpeslibertas]

iaviv wrote:

If the character is saying MATE every second panel, and the comic is taking place in ancient Egypt...

Well, technically, the ancient Egyptians didn't speak any English at all, so "Hey, mate!" and "Hey, you!" are equally inappropriate.
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[iaviv]

@vulpeslibertas - Actually no, because there's this thing you do when you write "translated from ancient Egyptian" 9is there even such a thing? I'm no expert) or whatever. But let's not get too pedantic here. It sounds weird, don't do it, end of story.
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[Clint Wolf]

Shakespeare didn't seem to quibble much about using copious amounts of contemporary English idioms and slang when he was writing people who lived in Ancient Rome or early Renaissance Italy.

Maybe we just don't notice as much since late Renaissance English already sounds weird (sometimes nearly incomprehensible) to modern English speakers. I can only imagine how his works sound when translated into French or Russian, but I'm going to take a guess the translators go ahead and use whatever turns of phrase their own target audience will understand best.

In other words, yeah, I think we shouldn't get too pedantic here, and that includes not worrying too much about specifics as about meaning.
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[vulpeslibertas]

iaviv wrote:

@vulpeslibertas - Actually no, because there's this thing you do when you write "translated from ancient Egyptian" 9is there even such a thing? I'm no expert) or whatever. But let's not get too pedantic here. It sounds weird, don't do it, end of story.

Unless you're Australian, then it's perfectly natural to speak like that.
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[iaviv]

vulpeslibertas wrote:

Unless you're Australian, then it's perfectly natural to speak like that.

Well, that's the point I was making, so yeah. That is correct.
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[vulpeslibertas]

You can't tell me we agree on the same points after all of that! The drama, the debate, the pointless lies! All lost....Nooooo.
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[smbhax.com]

Finding out my readers are also seeing other webcomics. Nnnrr jealousy jealousy!
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[microbrien]

Clint Wolf wrote:

Shakespeare didn't seem to quibble much about using copious amounts of contemporary English idioms and slang when he was writing people who lived in Ancient Rome or early Renaissance Italy. Maybe we just don't notice as much since late Renaissance English already sounds weird (sometimes nearly incomprehensible) to modern English speakers. I can only imagine how his works sound when translated into French or Russian, but I'm going to take a guess the translators go ahead and use whatever turns of phrase their own target audience will understand best. In other words, yeah, I think we shouldn't get too pedantic here, and that includes not worrying too much about specifics as about meaning.

Maybe more to the point, the Elizabethans didn't even speak the way Shakespeare wrote. The best translations consider audience first, not origin.
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I write at cn-comics.com!

[smbhax.com]

(Small) webcomic sites with obviously artificially inflated Facebook "Likes." Like this, for instance:



(Pink squares added to protect the guilty.) I wonder how much 1,000 Likes goes for these days? :P

Good ol' Mingo, Vander, and Mlap.

At one point a while back I saw a couple sites that shared the same massive cluster of fake Facebook people. ;) Hm maybe I even posted about it at the time, oh who can remember.

You know it seems to me this backfires pretty easily--aside from being called out, I mean--because how are real people who have / might Like you on Facebook supposed to feel about this kind of thing? Obviously nobody is supposed to notice the fakery and I guess the big number is just supposed to make you look popular and maybe get more people to join the party, but I dunno. Like, a real, genuine, discriminating reader would, I think, find this pretty discouraging. But then maybe people who do this sort of thing have already given up on getting readers like that.
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[wendyw]

People really actually do stuff like that? O_o
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Blog

[vaslittlecrow]

wendyw I was thinking the same thing. D:

smbhax.com Stuff like that is why I can't get into the FB bandwagon, even though my obstinacy about that site does not benefit my page views. I self-promote like a cracked-out hooker on Hennepin Avenue, but seriously, I want to earn my audience's support. I also can't imagine artificial likes would do anything beyond self-delusional ego-stroking. Seriously, bots and clip-art people can't click on ads, buy stuff or give feedback. :-p
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Visit Catnose Comics and Velvet Rasputin to see my comic art and graphic novels.