Posts Tagged: comments

I’ll Have A Grain of Salt With Those Comments, Please

Posted by & filed under Underdogs.

There are three types of comments you will receive when you start your webcomic (well, four if you count no response at all.): The short affirmation, the critique or constructive criticism, and the nasty remark.

The short affirmation is what you will get most of the time. It is when you ask your friends or family what they think of your comics and is usually only a few words that basically mean, “I like your work and you should keep doing it if it makes you happy.” The short affirmation can also come from fans that read your comics and want to tell you how much they like it. These comments are the most wonderful thing you can receive as a comic artist, especially if you receive one every other day. Cherish them. Whatever you do, no matter how busy you are, you should try to respond to every single one of these even if it is just to say “Thank you.”

Tweet: Whatever you do, no matter how busy you are, you should try to respond to every single one of these even if it is just to say “Thank you.”
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Artist Comments: Supplement or Essential?

Posted by & filed under Underdogs.

I have always mistrusted the common practice in webcomics where artists include their commentary directly beneath new pages. Often reading this extra material is comparable to watching a movie or television show with the commentary track turned on… and who elects for their first viewing to include commentary? It does a (sometimes minor, sometimes major) disservice to the work when you don’t allow it to speak for itself, and I’ve seen far too many comics lean on those blocks of text to actually convey what’s going on more than the page above does. This is a dangerous trap to fall into. When a comic simply doesn’t make any sense if I ignore the commentary I usually stop reading altogether. “It’s part of the presentation,” some say. So are indexes in books, and like all supplementary materials they should never be required reading to understand what the supplemented work is saying.

[Tweet “When a comic simply doesn’t make any sense if I ignore the commentary I usually stop reading altogether”]

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