TWCL

ryan.noriega · Plan Eleven Joined: 21 Mar 2009 Posts: 336 Location: Texis

This was hinted at in an earlier strip, but I thought I'd bring it to the front page. What sorts of things in webcomics (or any comics) do you hate or find annoying? What will make you just stop and never read a comic again?

A few things came up for me:

Anyone else?
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Wolfus · Joined: 06 Mar 2009 Posts: 527 Location: UK

I agree with all of those, especially the 'awkward introduction' comic that breaks the 4th wall.
Feel free to disagree with everything I say. I'm generally wrong, but these things can turn me off a comic inside three strips.

"You'd have to be there." gags in comics that are pushing themselves to the general public.

"Random" Zombies. The world of webcomics has enough zombies. Making something a zombie doesn't automatically make it cool and worth including. Your character should be interesting due to it's own merits, if you have to "zombify" it to make it interesting, you have failed.

Zeke Syndrome: Talking animals, robots, lamps or things that shouldn't be talking in a normal setting.
If the point of the comic is that these things talk, or other people can't hear them talking, it can be pretty fun though.

Girl-breaks-stereotype characters. Hey guys, this is an [x] comic! Guess what, here's a girl who is outrageously good at [x]! Not only is she ridiculously well endowed and attracted to a male cast member, but she spends her time being an utter ass to anyone who dares question her liking of [x] because she is female.
Yawn.

Sprite comics.

Penguin spork random giggleshit. Spare us the embarrassment.
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jpcline · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 289

I tend not to like the ones that are blatant ripoffs of already successful comics, but if the art and humor is good I will give it a chance.

one thing that really bugs me is when every character has the same exact smirky, one eyebrow raised, half smile expression on their face as if they are constantly amused with how cool and snarky they are.
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http://calmblueoceans.com/

LukeSurl · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:18 pm Post subject:

Comics about someone who doesn't have any ideas for comics - in fact, pretty much any references to the webcomic making process. It comes across as incredibly self-absorbed.

Any hiatus in the first two months - you really should have planned that far ahead.

Comics drawn in MS Paint. Just, ugh.

Comics about how stupid everyone else is. Whoever knew the artist was so vastly superior?

A subsection of the above - comics where a certain group (usually the tech-savvy) that the reader is likely part of is routinely shown to be far more intelligent than all the morons of the general public. A typical example is a "stupid enquiry at tech support" comic or "look how stupid internet explorer users are".

Comics where female characters are clearly just there to be oggled at. (LICD anyone?)

Comic Sans.
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munkymu · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:18 pm Post subject:

Hey, here's the last (best?) thread we had on this:

http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1427

Spike's list is worth reading. BTW, can a mod remove the broken porn links on the last page of that thread? That would be super.
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plughead · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:18 pm Post subject:

1) Splash pages: it ain't 1996 anymore

2 ) Comics not on the homepage: you don't need to save that much bandwidth

3 ) Blogs that explain the comic: if I gotta consult Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary or Gooooogle, you're doing it wrong

4 ) Creator life stories about what you ate for dinner, how late you stayed up to get this thing done and what you're going to watch before going to bed

5 ) Excessive pop-culture ripping: write your own material

6 ) Flash interfaces: they take too long to load and nobody wants to keep downloading the latest player

7 ) Pretentious/clever/ironic interfaces and navigations: KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID

8 ) Fillers in the main archives: don't disrupt your main continuity

9 ) Black and white comics that advertise in colour: bait & switch

10 ) Comics that advertise with fewer than 10 strips: I won't bother to bookmark it and I'll prolly never come back

11 ) Zombies, monkeys, ninjas + pirates

12 ) Too much talking: economy of words is where it's at

13 ) Calendar archives: this tells me nothing about the content behind those links

14) SONIQUE, CHIMPOKOMON, GI JOE, HE-MAN, TRANZFORMERZ and STAR WARZ: holy fuck! Why are you a 40-year-old stunted man-child? Grow up, already!!!!!!!!

15 ) PUNS: that shit gets real old, real fast

16) Failed update schedules: ZOMG MY WEBCOMIQUE UPDATES 28 DAYS A WEEK to get mad traffic, then the dude goes AWOL for 3 weeks cuz his tummy got a bug from some bad Chinese. You better make up for those missed updates or change your update schedule to: "ONCE A MONTH IF MY MOMZ DOESN'T MAKE ME CLEAN MY ROOM"

17 ) One-trick pony: bring something new to the table. If I figure out your "schtick", "angle" or "formula", I lose interest and I'm GHOST like Patrick Swayze (this means I leave your site, permanently).

18 ) TEH SADNESS: see below

19 ) Self-deprecating author inserts for webcomics that get 300,000 uniques a day where the author earns a living from their work. BOO HOO MY LIFE IS SO HARD NOBODY LIKES ME! Cry me a river, you fucking spineless jellyfish!

I could go on, but you cats get the point.

Many of my fave webcomics break these rules, and Sarah Zero breaks ALL OF THEM! So please, I don't mean to offend anyone. These are just some things that make me roll my eyes.
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Take care

Stef

http://sarahzero.com

vulpeslibertas · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 5:45 pm Post subject:

Bad site naviation:

1. Have an archive

2. Every comic needs a first/previous/next/latest button. I hate having to click back to the archive for every page.

4. Link to an html page, not just to an image. It's very obnoxious to have a comic image floating there in the white void of the browser. Usually, the comic isn't scaled which results in the conflict of being able to read the comic versus not having to scroll all over the place.
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wendyw · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:19 pm Post subject:

munkymu wrote:

Hey, here's the last (best?) thread we had on this:

http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1427

Spike's list is worth reading. BTW, can a mod remove the broken porn links on the last page of that thread? That would be super.

Done. If you know of any more send me a PM and I'll get rid of them.
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Blog

jpcline · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 289

plughead wrote:

5 ) Excessive pop-culture ripping: write your own material

oh yeah, I second that. Plus it gets dated quick.

plughead wrote:

11 ) Zombies, monkeys, ninjas + pirates

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http://calmblueoceans.com/

mooncity · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:26 pm Post subject:

Many of my main gripes have already been mentioned. But here's a few that fill me to the brim with the bitter Sanka of Hatred:

Penny Arcage ripoffs. Extra HATE points when said comic has clones of Gabe & Tycho thinly disguised with different colored hair/shirts or slightly different shaped heads.

Extra-wide comics that force you to scroll horizontally.

Ads everywhere on the page, so much so you can't even tell what/where the friggin' comic is! Rocket Llama, this means YOU!
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Mooncity
Reversing the polarity of the neutron flow since 1976!

The comic strip that never was.

Chilari · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:33 pm Post subject:

vulpeslibertas wrote:

Bad site naviation:

1. Have an archive

2. Every comic needs a first/previous/next/latest button. I hate having to click back to the archive for every page.

4. Link to an html page, not just to an image. It's very obnoxious to have a comic image floating there in the white void of the browser. Usually, the comic isn't scaled which results in the conflict of being able to read the comic versus not having to scroll all over the place.

Care to try counting that again, Vulpes?

Anyway, yeah, mostly my pet peeves have been mentioned already, but I want to reiterate grammar and add spelling. Surely, if you're putting your work on display to the internet-using public, you want it to be as good as it can be, right? After all, you'll get more readers and thus higher revenue from advertising on your site, if it's higher quality. This is common sense. So why do even really well-drawn comics with good plots or great humour, etc, still have spelling and grammar problems? Admittedly, most who have grammar and spelling problems are the shitty little ones no-one comes back to anyway, one ones drawn in pencil on lined paper and start with the main character introducing himself to the reader and telling us he's going to start a webcomic. But still. Bad spelling and grammar is annoying, and only excusable if either a) the creator's first language isn't English or b) it's only very rare - ie, less than one error in ten pages - and the rest of the comic is top notch.

Ooh, ranty.

Oh, and I get a touch annoyed by donation drives where the creator just says something like "I'm really poor right now please give me moneys," without giving anything in return, like donation-reward wallpapers, or promises of additional pages if the donations reach a certain amount, or sketches for those who donate more than a certain amount. Goblins does it very well, with the "Tempts Fate" storylines, since the story is directly impacted by donations - ie, the character Tempts Fate survives if the donations hit a certain point and he doesn't it they don't, so there's quite a temptation to donate, not for the sake of the creator, but to make sure Tempts Fate stays alive. It's bizarre, but it works beautifully.
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plughead · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 6:35 pm Post subject:

mooncity wrote:

...clones of Gabe & Tycho, B^Uckley & KC Green thinly disguised...

http://sarahzero.com/sz_0338.html

jpcline wrote:

Sorry, yo
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Take care

Stef

http://sarahzero.com

jpcline · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 289

anezka wrote:

I want to reiterate grammar and add spelling.

LOL irony
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Casual Notice · Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:01 pm Post subject:

Quote:

Comics about someone who doesn't have any ideas for comics

QFT
Seriously, if you have no ideas what you're going to do with your first comic, then why the fuck are you writing a comic at all? Do you think that the admission that you're completely uncreative will cause the muses to have pity on you and shower you with comedy gold?
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What I lack in sincerity, I make up for in sarcasm.
S*P*Q*R

chrispco · Joined: 09 Jan 2009 Posts: 109 Location: Virginia

Ooh, these threads always make me self-conscious! Granted, good execution can erase most transgressions - and there's always inevitable overlap/fallbacks in genres. The problem is when these things appear because of laziness or lack of creativity. Only blind genre fans can like those strips with nothing but derivative, cliched humor.

For me, I dislike excessive fanservice. The goal of cartooning is storytelling or humor, not to sell pin-up calendars. I'm all for cute chicks, but any time it's clear more time was spent drawing a woman's chest than on her face, I know I'm not going to find *intellectual* stimulation.

The glut of po-mo stick figure comics does wear on me as well. Just because they're "easy" to do, doesn't mean they're easy to do WELL.

1: look at the pretty sun
2: if i look at the sun my eyes will burn
1: this sun is made of cardboard

Hi-larious? This stuff also applies to clip-art, sprite and photo comics, which often reduces art to blatant copy/paste. It's rare that I find one with writing good enough to carry it.

I'll also echo annoyance with copy/pasting of hand-drawn art. It's *really* obvious then - even if you change the mouth shapes around in Photoshop/Illustrator.

Of course, posting in this thread opens me up for Glass House Syndrome. My strip is somewhat of a reply to the overly loquacious children of the comics pages, so I dance around those genre pitfalls. Heck, I called it "Precocious" because comic kids who speak like that *should* have been discovered and put in gifted schools! Let's hang a lampshade on it already and get on with our lives!
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