Underdogs

Putting the “Com” in Comics

You may have a comic, but do you have a community? Support can be hard to come by when you’re a comic creator. You may not even be able to turn to your own family for advice or critique, let alone friends.

“Hey, mom – here’s my new page. What do you think?”

“I’m glad to see those years at that art institute are finally paying off. Wait – you…you are getting paid for this, right?”

At this point, you may find yourself turning to your readers for insight and advice. They are, after all, your demographic.

“Hi guys – I’m trying out a new coloring technique. Let me know what you think!”

*crickets*

com-in-comics

 

What’s the next option? Comic sites, of course. You find yourself signing up on every comic-related forum in existence, plastering your links in every Shameless Promotion nook and cranny available, and hoping for some feedback. Some advice. Maybe even a sweet little bump in page views. The likely response?

“Nice art.” or “I appreciate the nice art, but I don’t get it.” or “I’ll have to check this out one of these days. Oh, and nice art!”

Now this type of feedback isn’t bad, per se, but…it’s quite obvious that a strong percentage of the people who post in forums do so solely to get their banner/links seen. They can’t afford to give more than a one-sentence response, let alone a full-on critique. But maybe you’re just looking to expand your audience, not necessarily for feedback. Will you get sticky readers by posting in hundreds of forums? Not likely. After all, no one knows you, so why should they care about your comic? Let’s face it – there are very few webcomic communities on the interwebs that are thriving. Their forums are overrun by trolls, flamers, or self-righteous mods, comments have been taken over by spammers, or worse – the site as a whole is just…dead. As in, no-activity-since-2007 dead.

Okay, so what about Facebook groups? There’s a fair amount of comic-related ones around, and they seem to have a healthy amount of members. You join a few, and hope to make new friends and fans in the process. Again – not likely. Let’s consider the typical FB comic-related group experience. You join (sometimes after waiting weeks to be approved), drop your link, comment on a comic or two, and maybe even start a couple of discussions. The response? Lackluster, and downright discouraging. You notice that the group is a facade of a community – a graveyard of links abandoned in the haste to exploit the next promotional platform. Creators talk at each other, not to each other. No discussion is fostered, let alone any attempt to support or offer advice. Inevitably, you find yourself taking the “when in Rome” cop-out and joining the herd, posting empty, personality-less “Hey! New update today!” notifications ad nauseum.

As I’ve been contemplating the importance of community in the comic world, I’ve come to wonder about the ubiquitous prefix “com.” At its base, com refers to “an arrangement or putting together of parts.” Not surprising, I know. Aside from its relation to the word comedy, “comic” refers to the putting together of art and words for the sake of entertainment. However, I’ve come to realize that additional meanings of the prefix, such as “to come together” or “to come with” allow the word, and the concept as a whole, to take on a new meaning. What constitutes a good, healthy community, after all? Allow me to throw more “com”s your way:

      • Communication: At its core, a thriving community, well – communicates. Imagine that. Members talk to one another without a hidden agenda. They take an interest in each other’s lives. They engage in discussions, observations, and even the odd argument here and there. The topics can range from comics to q-tips and everything in between – the important part is that creators are engaging with one another.
      • Commiseration: A family that cries together stays together. There are many, many downfalls to being a comic creator – the aforementioned lack of support via family and friends, the all-nighters in front of the computer or at the art desk, the writer’s block, the festering carpal tunnel. How better to ease your woes than to plop down with a nice stiff brandy, vent with your peers, and end up laughing about your misfortunes. A shoulder to cry on and a lending ear can be even more powerful than alcohol. (Most of the time.)
      • Comradery: A lot of us creators aren’t privy to a bustling social life. It’s nice to be able to be recognized – whether it be by face or avatar – and frequent a place “where everybody knows your name”. A place where other members not only know the names of your comic characters, they know the names of your dogs. They know your preference for Pentel brush pens. They know of your irrational fear of babies.

Seeing a huge lack in these qualities when it came to webcomic groups lit a fire under me – instead of waiting around for the next big thing in webcomics to come around, I felt inspired to start a community of my own. The members of my community, Webcomic Underdogs, know the importance of the three Cs, and I am beyond grateful for that. They’re talented, hilarious, intelligent creators who don’t think twice about offering their advice and undying support to one another. In the end, a successful comic is only as strong as its community. It’s difficult to find a webcomic community that has the creator’s interests at heart – once you find one hold onto it, because they are few and far between.

 

Written by Marisa Brenizer, Underdog Community founder and Making Comics (dotCom) Head of Communications. This entry was originally posted in the Tapastic blog (in Shout-Outs) on August 5, 2013.

[Image source – Stuffpoint.com]

makingcomics.com

21 Responses to “Putting the “Com” in Comics”

  1. SplitOpenSeams

    This is exactly the way I felt a few months ago. Couldn’t have said it better myself. This is the majority of comic forums around 2013. So glad this site exists.

    Reply
    • Marisa Brenizer

      Thank you for the kind words! It’s unfortunate that so many great forums have bitten the dust. I’m pretty confident that ours won’t succumb to the same fate. Our mods are spectacular and thorough, and so far the members have been super respectful of the rules. I’m very, very grateful for that!

      Reply
  2. melaredblu

    Well spoken, Marisa. One thing I’ve really come to enjoy is simply the back and forth I get from the people here, regardless of whether they read my comic. I just really enjoy hearing what they have to say and sharing my thoughts in return. There’s also something pretty special about knowing that some of the people I converse online with live in other countries. I would have probably never even known of them otherwise and it’s so cool that Webcomic Underdogs brought us all together here.

    Reply
    • Marisa Brenizer

      Thank you, Sarah! I agree – it’s pretty exciting to see everyone come together from various corners of the world. I have seriously never come across such an interesting, intelligent group of people. And I’m not just saying that! It’s very true.

      I’m also very happy when I come across a WU member’s comic page and find that it’s rife with other member’s comments. I get the fuzzies when I see support like that!

      Reply
    • Marisa Brenizer

      Thanks, Vas. I’ve been meaning to write something like this for a long time now, and am glad I finally got pushed to do so!

      Reply
  3. DaemonDan

    Underpuppies for the win! But seriously, I love how our group has fostered a lot of camaraderie and friendship. We’re still small, but growing. From what I can tell we are still always really welcoming of newcomers too. Hopefully we can keep that up when our numbers start pushing 4 digits 😉

    Reply
  4. Marius Hjelseth

    The state of WU, (as well as its excistence, of course) is thanks to Marisa’s philosophy. If you have wavered for one second, and not kept such a tight ship in the beginning, this place would have turned into self-promotion central, just like most other webcomic communities.

    Self-promotion is fine, but I don’t think it’s why most of us are here for. Just look at all the fan art exchanges that have happened in this forum’s brief lifetime. And like you said, people talking with eachother, and not past eachother. That’s what this is about for me.

    And I’ve learned a few things too. Like for example that people in the US are asleep when I’m at work, since that’s when the forum activity dies down, and I can’t kill time with reading new posts. 🙂

    Reply
    • DaemonDan

      Hehe. That’s funny Marius. I have issues with timing as well since I’m east coast US. Everyone starts coming online and chatting and posting when I’m getting ready for bed. We need to get some more Aussies on here so can always have people on. Kind of like reddit 😉

      Reply
    • Marisa Brenizer

      I’m sure plenty of members have been turned off by the FB group’s posting guidelines, but that’s okay – we’re now left with the cream of the crop! And, as always, part of the WU success is owed to Vas for being such a strict, right-hand-woman-whip-cracker.

      We certainly need more eastern time-zoners around here. I would like to give you every reason to neglect your day job.

      Reply
  5. Hipopotamo

    If you came to the WU for back linking adds, you are in the wrong place. Marisa is spot-on on the 3 Cs, and I congratulate the whole WU teams for actually achieving such atmosphere!
    I have found such a nice community of very creative and smart people as in no other place. I like it how we would give you honest feedback or advice on your work, regardless of whether we would be casual readers of the comic or not. I like how we freely give advice to each other creating this sense of community centered on this shared passion we have. I like meeting interesting people from all over the world and I’m happy to be on CST so that I am awake during the conversations.
    Thanks for this great meeting place guys!!!!
    The River Hippo

    Reply
    • Marisa Brenizer

      Thank you, Hipopotamo! I feel very lucky to have you – you’re exactly the type of member that keeps this group thriving!

      Reply
  6. mcmasters

    The descriptions of other webcomic forums and groups was uncomfortably dead-on, especially the constant drive-by introductions and “check out my comic!” entries before disappearance. May even be best if the place didn’t expand too quickly; it’s nice to feel comfortable and feel you’re among friends but that takes time and isn’t easy to develop in a dizzying crowd of people coming and going.

    Reply
  7. SinclairGray

    Great Article! I didn’t know many other creators were on the East Coast like me! I tend to stay quiet on the site, but only to post when I something worthwhile to say. So I don’t tend to just reply to everything.

    Reply

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