What makes us enjoy certain webcomics?

So, I read the entire Hinges webcomic because all three books were available at my local library. And it's weird because for a while it was kinda boring, I struggled to follow what was happening in the first book, and the plot is kinda minimalist. But in the end I really enjoyed it, especially the 3rd volume. For comparison, consider Mare Internum. It's got deep characters, great art, fascinating setting, and I'm entirely caught up reading it, and it's boring. Stand Still Stay Silent is the same, high quality in almost all respects but I still find it boring. What is it about 'higher-quality' webcomics that makes them... just not as interesting sometimes when there is every reason they should be?

For me I think it's character interactions that Hinges does better, and which makes it more enjoyable. Mare Internum kinda has unpleasant characters the whole way through and SSSS's characters are sorta bland sometimes.

Webcomics tend to get popular because the artist behind is good at drawing and popular or that it panders to a niche. Character interaction means loads for readability, but if it posted at a page by page basis I get why art seems to matter more.

>What is it about 'higher-quality' webcomics that makes them... just not as interesting sometimes when there is every reason they should be?

Esentially what says in that many webcomics such as Ava's Demon are made by people who can draw but not people who can write. Or they're popular, or the demographic is there that it just somehow obtains an audience. But you also have to consider that question in regards to every other form of media ever in that the more popular something is the more flawed it's likely to be.

Some people say it's because whatever it is just does an aspect extremely well to the point where other aspects of it pale in comparison. But more likely then not things online with online fandoms become popular because of a certain degree of blank slates, ability to make ocs, and, to a degree, mediocrity. Waifus and shipping are a big example in that they can create a multitude of fans that want to make a multitude of content for said series which in turn creates more advertising and leads to more viewers. Yet often times these ships and characters are not deep at all and allow people to project what they want onto them regardless of actual substance.

It's like Twilight to a degree.

Do you mean that readers don't appreciate character interaction when pages are submitted page-by-page, or that it's harder TO WRITE character interaction?

More of the former, but popular webcomic makers tend to lack the ability to write character interaction as well as they do art they haven't put in the effort to learn it well.

Web comics are all boring

Its always short af. They cant be long

I think with webcomics that go for dramatic plots and are more self-serious, reading them like webcomics is kind of the worst way to experience them? Page by page, maybe every week, is the worst way to experience a good story.

One of my favourite webcomics is one called Doomsday My Dear but I only get caught up every one and a half years because that's page by page just burns me out. And it's the same with other webcomics like that, that are serious and very literary

>Never read riceboy

waifus mostly

this

9pbp

Its a combination of what all these anons have said. Webcomics that are above average are really only regular comic tier, which comics themselves have a glut of mediocre. Imagine if every average paper comic had waifu wars and shipping.
Webcomics are also extremely more likely to have a follwing if the artist is great with bad writing than vice visa. Its like Dwarf Fortress, nobody wants to put in investment for a lot better outcome, they just want something good on the surface.

I'd also wager thats the thing with "great" webcomics like SSSS is that everything that makes a comic good is there, but thats it. Its just run of the mill. Now things that people remember have something special about them. Like Tails Gets Trolled is frequently hearalded as a ironic/unironic masterpiece because it is a fucking ride. And thats why I love It Hurts! So much, its just one giant ride thats makes sure its enjoyable above all else.

You know those "post your idea" threads where every other user starts loredumping something about an urban fantasy setting with all these different groups and all this history that nobody but them has context for?

I always get that feeling from most serious webcomics, they feel like vanity projects with no real concise purpose or point. Beyond that, they just don't have any hook, its just... yep, another semi apocalyptic scifi fantasy... thing... with lots of drama and... stuff. Like, where's the thing that SELLS you on going forward, where's the strong concept driven plot where you get to see something exotic and unique happen, where's the character scenarios that sound really compelling and make you want to know how it ends? Hell, where's the iconic design that's instantly identifiable and intriguing at a glance?

I think a lot of people who make webcomics just don't ever consider that they're asking people to put time out of their day to humor them and their stories and don't put any effort towards engaging the audience, they're making it for themselves, or even just as a fucking portfolio piece to practice their form. What's the point in giving that sorta stuff the time of day when they're directly competing with older stuff that does a better job at conveyance? Its like they never asked themselves the important question "Why does this deserve to exist?"

That's why I read ennui go. It's kinda funny and the guy draws big boobs. That's enough for me.

>Ennui Go
>funny
inb4 "humor is subjective"

This user is on point and has made me reconsider some things.
10/10 post.

Webcomics update anywhere from 3 pages a week to once a month. In that timespan the author has to make a consistant but engaging story on every page. If it's three-a-week you don't want to keep dwelling on the same scene or scenario (looking at you, JL8), you've got to keep it fresh with quick shifts in tone or more plot elements that have to be spaced out well.

It's unfortunate, but that's the nature of the beast. I'd argue that writing a webcomic is harder than a bi-weekly floppy.

>"Why does this deserve to exist?"

I-I don't know, user. I just wanted to introduce people to some some cool monsters from European mythologies.

Fucking this
I want a story, not a glorified personal wiki

This is a problem not just in webcomics but in a lot of media nowadays. Creators are more concerned about making fictional worlds than they are writing stories with characters and themes. Audiences don't want stories anymore, they want "realities".

in the /hows your webcomic/ threads we have so many "idea fags" who just dump lore and world building rather than giving us interesting concepts and characters. Even though my comic is surrounded by world building I started turning back the world building/lore dial after realizing how boring is might have become.

>/hyw/
Name even 5 comics that come out of those cancerous threads

*name even 5 GOOD comics

whichways witch
dr. Goodlove
the mspaint homestuck looking one (sorry)
delruby dawn (worst of the best but the artist is getting better)
witches hill (the best hyw has to offer)

>witches hill (the best hyw has to offer)
You mean the most boring.

There were some pretty cool ones

Carrion Girls (dead, I think)
The Sisters
The Green Knight
Miss Melee
Monster Lands

Threads just kept getting worse after each of those left, though

if we're talking strictly art, yes it's the best. The thread plays up art over story cause the threads writers can only write world-building, and the artists can't write stories. so everyone pretends it doesn't matter.

the home-stuck one isn't a great story but everything about it is so interesting, and creative. I wish he had better art to carry his ideas.

dr. good love is shaping up to be a decent short story

delruby dawns art is getting a bit better and I can't really judge it's story yet. the author REALLY needs to work on the dialogue.

which ways witch is just a good time when reading page to page.

the sisters is pretty good
miss melee is kind of boring, it's just average cape shit carried by its above average art.
boystown is another good one!

>Threads just kept getting worse after each of those left, though
I forgot to respond to this.
Everyone in the threads are more focused on drama than actually talking about comics. A lot of the drama is all bullshit that people pull out of their ass, but they just keep bringing it up cause it gets the thread active.

If good wip art is posted it never gets good criticism, or even replys. no one cares about going there for webcomics anymore.

>no capeworld
kek

I think the problem with Mare Internum is that there's not much at stake. They kinda want to escape, kinda don't, Kalla was killed by Bex but then came back not even remembering it, then the processor was supposed to be dangerous but then it just threw bats at them. Mike was suicidally depressed and I don't see how that will change if he escapes -- he'll still not have the life he wishes he had, never even mind his biological changes possibly rendering him incapable of living on Earth -- and Bex's sudden determination to go back to her sons doesn't ring true. I'm not rooting for those protagonists, I don't hate them but I don't like them either, I don't even really know what they want and if they should get it. They're "deep" but it doesn't translate to a connection to the audience.

>just a writer
>doesn't waste time on world building but still makes boring stories
>doesn't pay his artists
>long posts full of filler garbage
>no one reads the shit he posts.

i'm keking because he acts like he's the king of those threads m8

he genuinely thinks he's top shit cause he has a podcast, and a "comic book label"

How does Mitch put up with him? Unlike Otto he actually seems concerned about webcomics and putting out good work.

they probably bond over other hobbies. both mitch and otto seem to know his shit with Sup Forums content which is why otto is so favorable by anons in the thread.

otto cares more about emulating being a comic maker rather than being a webcomic creator. but mitch actually cares about being a webcomic maker. I like mitch

Is this the new /hyw/

Webcomics depress me because I've never read one that truly engaged me. When it comes to my own comic idea, I'm thinking of biting the hard bullet and releasing it in full chapters because I hate reading a webcomic that updates page by page. It's really awful.

>"Why does this deserve to exist?"
To get that dirty webcomic money, of course!

The Sisters
Well, glad some people like our stuff. And yeah, the threads are almost uncomfortable to even lurk in now because they've always been about drama and personalities at play; but once upon a time people at least made things. Though even still I'd say its been at least two years since the threads were beneficial to be in for me, and I stopped posting comic updates there around the start of the second story arc.

Also Monster Lands is a fun read, it takes me back to the early 00s where I would read D&D-related webcomics.

>loredumping something about an urban fantasy setting with all these different groups and all this history that nobody has context for but them.
God, this is actually one of the many things I hate about the genre. Most of it shouldn't matter and gets over-explained, rather than actually letting the characters interact with the factions at hand. We try to keep it all pretty local and nothing world-shattering in power level. I hope people are liking Carl & Booth, because they're a lot more direct than Aethon was last arc and I regret how tedious it was last arc.

I'll concede that we definitely make this more for our own enjoyment than direct audience engagement; but a lot of that comes from being disappointed with a lot of Urban Fantasy and just wanting to make what it is we'd have liked to read. You have a lot of good points and I'm happy you voiced them.

This hurts me as a writer and a reader. The superficiality of world-building somehow giving a story integrity just feels so damn wrong.

The truth about world-building is that nobody cares about it until they're already invested in the story. It's the icing on the cake. Nobody will care about a detailed consistent world if the story they're there for isn't any good.

The problem with world-building is that a lot of writers nowadays see it as something that's nonfunctional but fundamental, where that's not true at all. The whole reason for world-building is to make the reader/viewer get lost in the story and to evoke a feeling that the world is bigger than the plot and characters that the narrative illustrates. You want to "trick" the reader into believing there's a story beyond what they experience in a work. Modern writers forget that.

In my experience people who don't like the humor in that comic haven't figured out the pun in the title yet.

Demon's Mirror / A Better Place
that thing with the weird food babies
That viking peter pan thing which is now its own nonweb-comic
mine
yours

Sure, let's call it that.
which number are we on?
I like comics that remind me of the early 00s
I think worldbuilding-as-story should be the ending. It works for videogames. Of course it can also fail, like in that will smith superhero movie

The best webcomics to me feel like a sitcom I always enjoy tuning into, like a King of the Hill or something. Like hey what's up with these chucklefucks. Oh it's that. Haha
but it can also be a fun adventure like a Dragon Ball where I legitimately want to know whet they're going to find and do next.
And if, in the process, they sitcom-gag their way through life, that's even better.

And sometimes that's reason enough.

Also execution matters.

>"Why does this deserve to exist?"
Because someone felt like making it exist?

Just read that, it was not an enjoyable read.

are you the guy that made the webcomic marketing post the other day?
because that was based.

I think a nicer way of putting it is more "what are you trying to do here?" It's fine to just do something because you feel like it as a hobby, but if you want to actually make a career out of it you kind of have to be doing something people can't get elsewhere.

let it die

well that answers that question, it's definitely the new /hyw/

>"Why does this deserve to exist?"
Don't think this is a rhetorical question with intended answer "it doesn't!" It's actually a useful way to look at things!

Though I prefer to phrase it as something more like "what is it that you like about THIS particular story?" I mean, there's got to be something, right? Some particular part of it, be it a character concept or a really cool scene or a bit of the setting, that makes you spend your thoughts on this story instead of anything else. (This works for just about anything that isn't extremely personal: "I like that I'm the one who's writing it" is one of the only answers that can't be worked with.)

So find that, understand it, and then make the audience feel the same way, and then you'll have something worthwhile. If you like it, we can like it; you just have to get through to us. Unless you're the worst weirdo in the world whose tastes cannot be replicated, which I dunno you very well could be given that you're here!

I'd never have managed to read Hinges as a webcomic. I read all three volumes with someone else and we agreed the first two were a slog sometimes. It was the scenes in the third volume when everyone's working together, or when Orderly Margo cuts her strings so she can help, that really touched me. In essence, you're right. Hinges often wasn't an enjoyable read, but I went away glad to have read it, whereas Mare Internum and even SSSS are kinda forgettable. This dissonance is what fascinates me, as an aspiring webcomic creator.

/thread
Star Trek and Lord of the Rings will always have their appeal but what made them great was that the large universe was simply the setting and background of the more focused personal stories.

Personal stories is the meat of any narrative.

I mean, I enjoy reading the wiki of things to get all the background info, but it still needs stories to be good