Comments on: Unbound: Death stalks the internet

By: El Santo

El Santo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:07:32 +0000

Excellent piece! Thanks for covering this, Brigid. Another comic that I thought ended on its own terms would be Minus. It was a gag comic, true, but the surprise ending did justice to the dark yet playful tone of the entire run.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:26:14 +0000

Great article.

I wrestle with a lot of these issues and it’s always hard finding the “right” answer to them.

I have a bi-weekly webcomic that will probably end up being 70-100 pages when all is said and done, but I’m worried at what page count are only the diehards sticking around. I have a hard enough time figuring out my target audience, lol. I definitely don’t want my story to become convoluted, yet I also want to have enough content to entice people to my work. Also, after my story is done, what do I do next? Move on to something new? Continue my title?

It’s a lot for me to process, but it’s good to know that there are a lot of other people out there that are facing the same dilemmas I’m trying to work through.

By: Andre

Andre — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:51:37 +0000

I know my first comic strip, Mouffette Machine, ended abruptly when I started Jeepers, as Jeepers involved some pay when Girlamatic was a subscription site. I didn’t have as much time, and was in University, and left it with 8 or so pages to go around 2003. Jeepers has gone on without many hiatuses and should be ending soon.
My other current webcomic Chateau Wonderful is on a long hiatus again after I updated with a dozen or so pages earlier this year [at about 70 pges so far]. It took on a slower pace due in part to time issues, and me missing a booklet that had a lot of notes in it [have it sorted out better now, but it still updates verrrry slowly].

I’m kind of surprised by the huge archive thing- I always figured it might be something that’d attract potential readers rather then repel. At 400-ish pages, Jeepers is about 2 manga volumes long, though I suppose some people might find the long archive list intimidating, and the change in style over the years confusing.

I guess fans won’t be very forgiving, but considering most webcomics are free, and most webcomic artists have jobs/lives/school that demands their time and attention to keep them sheltered and fed, it’s really an odd situation. I wish that things were easier, but webcomics haven’t really formed any sort of dependable formula for the majority artists. I find in the end, it’s mostly something you do for yourself anyways.

By: Rich Barrett

Rich Barrett — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:45:48 +0000

This is a really thought-provoking article for us webcomic creators. I think it’s distressing not only for readers that possibly the story they are getting invested in will never be finished but also for the creators who know they may not be able to finish it as much as they really want to because life and/or money get in the way.

By: Joe Chiappetta

Joe Chiappetta — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:27:14 +0000

What a great topic you have covered here! And nice reporting too.

By: Isaiah

Isaiah — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:28:56 +0000

Yeah, it kind of sucks to see a webcomic just stop abrubtly. It’s one of the things you kind of expect though. Even though I do a webcomic, I have a hard time getting into a lot of them. It seems whenever I start one, it stops updating. Maybe that is why strips seem to be more popular than stories. Because even if it stops, it’s more than likely not going to end mid cliffhanger.