TWCL

[alecho]

Howdy everyone! Long time no see! I hope this message finds everyone well!

There are many webcomic reviewers out there, and its a great way to spread your fame. However, that does not necessarily mean you'll get a "nice" review.

My question is: Is it better to have a BAD review than no review at all? Would a bad review hurt our long term reputation, or is there no such thing as a "bad" publicity?
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AMERICAN OTAKU - comical rendition of our American Geek Culture!

[Immer]

It's better to have a bad review than no review at all only if it's constructive.

If all it does is put down your work without any advice on how to improve, it's just going to hurt you. This is all from the viewpoint of trying to improve, though.

The publicity aspect:
If you get a lot of hits from the bad review, you're bound to find some people who will like your work. The bad review, however, may influence the visitor's perception of your work beforehand.
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Walnut Grove // deviantART

[mooncity]

I'd say yes, but only if the comic was really and truly lousy.
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Mooncity
Reversing the polarity of the neutron flow since 1976!


The comic strip that never was.

[Zaron]

As someone who very rarely got any negative feedback until I got a somewhat famous negative review, let me tell you, an excessively negative review can devastate your reputation. While I don't get it much anymore, for the past two years I've gotten tons of emails and comments from people who have allowed the review to make their opinion of my comic for them. It's especially obvious when these people quote the review, especially when they do things like call it a "gaming comic" when you can count the video game references I've made in the past two years on one hand. I was avoided by most of my peers for months, and still haven't regained contact with many of them. On a regular basis I deal with emails that say things like "kill yourself" and "your comic is bad and you should feel bad. just stop." and mind you, none of this, NONE of it, ever happened before the negative review. before that, I'd managed to accumulate about 3 hatemail emails, and I suspect that all three were the same person. I am the first to admit that I'm an untrained, amateur artist who has very little clue what I'm doing and just learning as I go, so for me, it wasn't even tough to deal with the criticism itself. The tough part for me was keeping up my motivation, knowing my reputation had been so thoroughly fucked that all I was doing by pressing on was giving people more reason to send me hateful emails.

I'm aware it's extremely unlikely you'll ever get a review that negative or that well-publicized, but I figure it's best to give you the worst-case scenario. Because not all publicity is good publicity. Despite all the traffic people seem to think I get, I only get an average of about 800 uniques a day, and I suspect a large number of those are hatemail writers. And it's been like two years since the review.
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[Chilari]

I just read your comic, Zaron, and I saw no reason for anyone to write a bad review. I enjoyed it, and am adding it to my favourites.
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"S*P*Q*R"

[Miluette]

I am of Immer's perspective. Having a bad review just to say "I was reviewed!" wouldn't be so hot, either, really.
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[Tskingdom]

Sometimes having a bad review in a right place and time can be even jackpot-like situation. And vice versa. It depends. Who, where and why and who´s wearing the raappahousut.

In most cases, I would carefully go into "Any publicity is good publicity unless you are globally searched war criminal".

For now on, if someone is questioning my logic, I´ll keep on lying that I was drunk (even though I´m absolutist).
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Because some things are for nice people and some things are for nice people with a taste for occasional sightseeing in a Land of Disgust and Sick. http://tskingdom.com/

[Zaron]

Chilari wrote:

I just read your comic, Zaron, and I saw no reason for anyone to write a bad review. I enjoyed it, and am adding it to my favourites.

I appreciate it, thank you. The comic I'm doing now is actually a separate (but related) project from the one that was reviewed, switching from a gag-a-day comic about pop culture to a long-form action comedy. That's why I can so easily tell the review is still affecting my reputation, because almost all the hatemail I get still approaches my comic with the attitude that my comic is in gag-a-day format. They point out pages of the comic that aren't attempting any kind of joke, and tell expect me to be hurt in some way when they say "This joke isn't funny at all!" All I'm able to do is just keep pressing on, knowing that eventually I'll acquire some more vocal readers (even when I was getting 5,000 uniques a day I still had the mist silent fanbase ever) and that if I keep improving, people will eventually just look stupid for hating on my comic.

But I just want other artists to know, the idea that "all publicity is good publicity" is far from true. Sure, it will involve an increase on your hit counter, but can you handle having hecklers completely drown out any appreciation your comic gets?
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[pacmansays]

I think 'all publicity is good publicity' can be true and times and bad at others...

If your work is completely unheard of then it may help a little by getting your work's name out there at least and viewed.

However, as said, sometimes if you reach a good point where really lots of publicity isn't needed then a bad review can be terrible.

Quick question from someone who doesn't really have any knowledge in the field of webcomic reviews : how do people get their webcomic reviewed and what are some sites which review webcomics?

[mysticstudiosproduct]

There will always be haters. You could be a huge success with absolutely zero advertising or promotion and they'll still hate. I say, let the haters hate. They're just giving you extra promotion. If you've got a sizeable fanbase telling you that they love your shit, who's right, them, or one asshole who tries to diss you? I've got plenty of haters on my ass, and people who dissed me in the past jocking me. It's hilarious! I'm rocking the underground and they're nobody - fuck 'em.
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Isaac M. Baranoff, creator of "Horndog" and "Tales of the Unrefined"

[plughead]

I got lambasted last summer for being ironic on a popular forum. While my INTENT was to amuse, ridicule and endear all at the same time, my behaviour was totally out of line and I got my ass handed to me.

It really taught me a lesson, but the experience was VITAL if I was ever to grow, mature and get my ego in check as a creator, a writer, an artist and as a human being.

Shit really hurt my feelings at the time. It totally devastated me and I was on the verge of quitting, but I found the strength to change, improve and continue on.

Consequences are severe. Shortly after the drama, squillions of blogs, reviews and forum threads popped up with Ace Plughead is a faggot douchebag and Sarah Zero is pretentious crap.

Sadly, I'm not sure whether any of this publicity has hurt or helped me. I'm sure it's a bit of both, depending on who you talk to.

I just hope to keep getting better and one day earn and regain people's trust and respect.
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Take care

Stef

http://sarahzero.com

[alecho]

Immer: hey there! long time no see! yeah, only if its constructive. true true...

mooncity: I hope mine isn't too lousy

Zaron: man, that was rough on you. Chilari is right. Your comic is cool and I can't imagine why you would get such reviews. I'm glad to keep reading yours!

Senshuu: True true, but at this point I don't mind any kind of reviews~ hard for amateurs like me to be noticed~

Tskingdom: I agree with you on the timing. Sometimes right things can happen at the wrong time.

pacmansays: yeah... how do I get people to review our comics? good question.

mysticstudiosproduct: here's a quote... "don't hate, but appreciate!" right?

plughead: man... what a story. Good intention wrongly misunderstood, eh. But I'm glad you are sticking around to continue providing cool comics. thanx for sharing yo!
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AMERICAN OTAKU - comical rendition of our American Geek Culture!

[LukeSurl]

I once got linked to by some forum somewhere (one of these ones with a trillion topics all being discussed simulateously) in a thread called the "awful webcomics thread".

Quote:

awful webcomics you say stumbleupon just gave me this: Luke Serl

Note the misspelling of my name.
Next person

Quote:

Hahahahah. Holy shit, funniest fucking comic I've read in a month. Amazing.

So I may have gained a reader there. The comments then went on, some people liked some comics, some disliked others. Some disliked some comics that others liked. Essentially you could sum it up as "hit & miss", which is pretty much the nature of the sort of stuff I do. Overall I think the discussion was pretty beneficial to my comic.

And as far as negative reviews go, that's basically it. I get occasional short dismissive comments on some comcs that get high traffic but that's fairly uncommon. I've had three webcomics blogs review me (at my request) and they've given fair and balanced reviews [hit & miss comedy, art could do with improving] which roughly equate to "3 stars" I think.

My other hobby is acting, and believe me, THAT prepares you for negative reviews.
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[tpiro]

Check it out

http://comicfencing.com/tag/calamities/

4 reviews: 1/4 stars, 2/4 stars, 2/4 stars, and 2/4 stars. Good times.

Best line: "It’s like current Garfield, only stretched out over nine panels and lacking a punchline."
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[Zoe Robinson]

Garfield has punchlines? I must have missed them amongst all the dross and cut-and pastes.
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