I come across a great number of comics while searching new updates.
There are great deal of comics on The Duck which have so much talent.
The art is breathtaking and beautiful.
So intially if your like me you're hooked.
So you put the comic in favorites and wait for the next update.
But over time the comic loses your interest for a number of reasons.
One I can think of that had so much promise...and I am not going to name the comic...the art was so beautiful, but I couldn't understand the story at all. I asked questions and they never answered them.
I tried to stick it out wait for the great reveal.
It never happened.
So I had to say goodbye to this comic. :(
Have you ever gave up on a comic?
If so what about the comic made you lose your interest.
This might be beneficial so many of could avoid some of these pitfalls in our own work.

People do that with Pinky TA... Say it's not Pinky TA! o_O

It's not Pinky TA.

A few reasons:

1) Lack of Update
- My favorites list is cluttered as it is. When I clean it up I have to delete the ones that do not update. If you're in the friends list maybe I'd check out your profiles from time to time since you might got a different comic or something.

2) I dont like how the story turned out
- If it reaches a point where a part of the story is something I do not like. Stories can be liked by some and disliked by others. It could be something in the plot. It could be an annoying character.

3) Borrriiinnnngggg
- Comics can have great art... but if I have to go through 50 pages full of boring blabla, I will stop reading it. There has to be tension going on like drama or action or comedy. And I'm a patient person who is willing to read through 50 pages of "boredom". If 51st page does not pick up, sorry I'm gone. You just bored me. :(

4) Don't like the author
- I havent really stopped reading comics because of this... though I know that some people DO this.

If I don't like the author... be it personal beef or having a clash of views or something... I just stop commenting on the comic. Though I sometimes let their comics hang around in the favorites and comment every now and then like every 10 or 20 pages.

This has happened to me though. I killed a good chunk of my readership because of my non-mainstream opinions of things and expressing them sometimes in authors rants.


5) Author non-responsiveness

- The top tier popular comics are the most guilty of this. As if I get this feeling that they think they're too important to respond to comments or something. Maybe I'm wrong in this assumption. It could be they're busy doing other things or they just get a hundred comments and it would take them days to answer everyone of em.

When I tried replying to most (or all) comments made in my comic... I kinda got more meaningful relationships with my readers. You reply you start a 'conversation'...

If for instance, midge and ozone made a comment on today's update, in the next update there's gonna be at least a "thanks" to them. If they point out something or ask an interesting question, I'd probably reply a paragraph. Though I make it 2 paragraph limit since I gotta 'talk' to everyone. lol!

Um. Yeah. What kyupol said. lol!

I don't usually start reading a comic if it doesn't have me hooked that first day. I almost never get pulled in by art, 'cause I'm not very artsy. I'll read the most recent bunch of pages, and if I like them, I'll keep coming back. Eventually (after a few updates usually), I'll go read the archives.

If I stop reading a comic or stop checking regularly it's because the comic has changed. The ones I am most prone to lose interest in are strips. Some seem to change premise, get into some kind of little story arc (which sucks 80% of the time), or start having more misses than hits. Maybe they are "forcing" a joke because they ran out of ideas but insist on updating anyway. (I have some favorites that have not updated in over six months. I guess I have more patience with lack of updates than with bad updates.)

I've not noticed too many problems in story comics, but I guess if the story took a turn I didn't like, I might begin losing interest. After all, I have stopped watching several TV series because they killed off a character I liked or the mood of the show changed.

(I will stop commenting if I feel that it's a waste of my time -- like when the author doesn't seem to care whether anyone is reading or not.)

Looking back over my flirtation with reading web comics I think it's usually productivity that turns me away. This is a bad thing as a sticking point, because most web-cartoonists are producing work just as fast as they can.

The way things used to be not so very long ago a cartoon fan got a new offering on a daily basis via the newspaper. There were no archives available, unless produced in paperback book form, but this really did not matter. Once a day, like clock work, you opened your newspaper and there would be Bloom County or the Wizard of Id.

Not being paid for their time and effort the average amateur just cannot match that sort of output consistency. This is partly compensated by making the entire backlog of work available in the archive. But an infatuated reader can rip through an archive -- even one containing several years worth of material -- in a few days. Then what?

Boredom and frustration. You reluctantly move on to the next web comic to catch your eye, fully intending to return in a month or two to take up where you left off, but all too often you don't get around to it.

What makes this bad is that not only did the hard working web cartoonist NOT do anything wrong but there is nothing that can be done to rectify the situation.

All you can do is ALL that you CAN do.

That aside, all the reasons offered up by the other people writing on this subject before I cranked up are correct. Other than output volume or frequency, amateurs can be a bit weak in story telling skills or in art skills. This last criteria, however, is close to being an urban myth, because as far as art techniques and skills go, you see some utterly fantastic work from our very own DD amateur cartoonists.

I agree with Kyu. He said it best.

Yeah kyupol outlined it for me. I don't really read webcomics, but I've stopped reading certain comics because of how douchey their creators act towards their fans or their arrogance in general. Thats the major issue for me. Its one thing busting balls, but its a whole other thing to do it for no reason.

ozoneocean
People do that with Pinky TA... Say it's not Pinky TA! o_O

I hope its not penis either!

I know lots of people don't like reading everyday, so they wait a week or two and read a lot of comics at one time. I do that with web comics I like. Like I fell down the stairs , I like reading a bunch of them all at once rather than one a day everyday. I just don't have the time to spend online on the computer.

kyupol
5) Author non-responsiveness

- The top tier popular comics are the most guilty of this. As if I get this feeling that they think they're too important to respond to comments or something. Maybe I'm wrong in this assumption. It could be they're busy doing other things or they just get a hundred comments and it would take them days to answer everyone of em.

When I tried replying to most (or all) comments made in my comic... I kinda got more meaningful relationships with my readers. You reply you start a 'conversation'...

If for instance, midge and ozone made a comment on today's update, in the next update there's gonna be at least a "thanks" to them. If they point out something or ask an interesting question, I'd probably reply a paragraph. Though I make it 2 paragraph limit since I gotta 'talk' to everyone. lol!

I can tell you that, when I was updating every day, it was just too much work to respond to every single post, in addition to surviving my day-to-day life and finishing the next day's comic. I eventually got to the point where I felt awkard thanking some people yet not able to take the time to properly respond to every comment. It's a little worse to "play favorites" than to be a little aloof. Though for the most part I did try and answer any questions, but that's different than just someone saying "I like the second panel - 5". I don't see why your first assumption is that people think they're "too important." Just some people express grattitude in different ways than others.

What Ink says is true... I used to respond to every single one, but You just get too busy. :(
It used to take me a couple of hours. I love doing it though. :)

I'm always on. Iwould SO answer everyone of my comments if I could. Or all the ones worth answering.

Yeah, I was gonna say mostly what Ink just said. I really don't want to appear un-responsive, and I do try to respond to direct questions (and always respond to PQs, although of course that's not publicly visible), but I unfortunately just can't sit down and respond to every single comment sometimes. I used to try to, but like OO said, it took so long that I figured it was time better spent on working on the next page. I really do read every single comment I get, though, and I always take them into consideration as I'm working on the comic.

It is fun when an author responds to comments, but I would never stop reading a comic based on that alone.

Anyway, there's three main reasons that I'll stop reading a comic:

1 - It just gets boring to me. This isn't even always the author's fault, sometimes the story just goes in a direction that I'm not really interested in, and I'll drift away. Sometimes the plot drags on and on and on without much happening, and that will also lose my interest, even if the art is really nice.

2 - The art takes a nose-dive. Sometimes artists start cutting corners in the interest of time, which I can totally understand, but I'd rather wait a bit longer for a page than see a comic take a serious hit in the art department. Of course, this one only holds true if I'm reading the comic for the art. There's a few I read that stand on their own through writing.

3 - The comic misses a billion updates, goes on a six-month hiatus, or otherwise slows down to an extreme crawl in updates. I'll check back on it occasionally, but eventually I'll just end up taking it out of my favorites altogether to save on clutter.

I usually don't thank people for commenting. Like you guys said, just too many people to thank some days. Some days I get one or two comments. Others I have fifteen. Usually a rotating group of people that likes to comment. I like hearing feedback on my stuff and I like being friendly and personable with all my readers, but its hard.

Someone
5) Author non-responsiveness

like everyone says, sometimes it's hard to acknowledge everyone...but when there's a question i usually answer back.

I don't give up, I just migrate around. Because even tho I read a page with more attention than most ppl, I still tend to burn thru archives quickly (yet I'm scared by huge archives). Then I leave and come back after 5 months to burn thru the new archives again.

I do this especially for the popular titles (such as Purgatory Tower), where I know I won't be missed so it's ok if I drop it for 5 months. If the title doesn't have too many readers commenting, or if I'm giving the author moral support, I'll return each update.

But some titles have a strange hook on me that makes me return every page and I dunno why. The Dreamer for example. I can't say I like it any more than PT, but I just keep going back to it.

I can't say I've ever given up on a comic that I've already faved for any reason other than being so behind on the archives because of a combination of being extremely busy and having sloooow dial-up internet.(I shouldn't even be typing this now, but I needed a break!) Seriously, it takes 3-4 minutes to load a single page...even if I just loaded the same page.(by comparison the forums load a lot faster though!) Most of the comics I got into were when I was still in college ( and since my classes were primarily computer classes, I had a lot of time to spend on the internet reading/commenting, not to mention a 4-hour break between my morning and afternoon classes where I spent either drawing or using the public computers) I have 61 comics waiting in my faves to be caught up on...and I keep adding more for when I get the upgrade (in a few months, when I move out that is!)so all those people I'm watching will see me commenting again. And by that, I mean every page I've missed in their archives, too.

If I like a comic enough, even if it stops updating I will check back constantly to see if it did eventually (comics like the "Wild Hunt" or "The Escapades of the Blue Kotatsu", which make me sad because they never update anymore!)

What makes me stop reading a comic that I've just started reading is: artist/author with bad attitude toward readers, being dishonest about the way the comic is produced (this is just a pet peeve of mine)and when a comic starts turning into torture-rape. Also, comics too closely resembling the popular "geek gamer" stuff kinda makes me stop too, unless they've got some great jokes.

And to back up Ozoneocean and Inkmonkey as a comic high on the list, it is hard to keep up with answering all of those comments (especially on dialup which likes to die halfway through loading my 11 paragraph responses most of the time, because I can't just respond with less than 3 sentences, each! )and I try very hard to respond to questions, but I have to avoid spoiling storyline stuff at the same time, and I get a LOT of questions that would need to be answered with spoilers. I get a lot of rhetorical questions mostly, and when I get a direct question I tend to take it to PQ, but most especially if someone has made a particularly moving and special comment, I prefer to contact them on a personal level rather than having them miss my response. If it's a question I think more than one person can benefit from, I'll respond in the comment area. Most often I try to respond in my author's notes, but by the time I'm writing them I've just barely finished my comic and I am almost dead to the world (last update took 12 hours with no breaks to finish, and it was half done when I had started on it. My hand felt like it was broken!)Not only that, but a lot of people don't read author's notes anyway. Most questions I answer there get ignored anyway.
I'll also avoid questions that I will answer with the next comic page,which happens more often than not, and I try to direct those things to the forum for discussion anyway. If there were a direct comment answering function like on DeviantArt, darn right I'd answer each one, but I find having to zip up and down to find who asked what and why and in order very time consuming when I have deadlines to meet.

So I guess it comes as a bit of a saddening surprise that I may look snobby or self-important because there isn't a reply to every comment I get:( it's not just the number or relevance of the questions, it's honestly the slow computer/net (plus not being the only one who needs to use the line/internet) and time constraints working on a GN and 3 webcomics, moving, life and yaddayadda (plus wanting to answer things personally...and when I get a hold of fast 'net at rare times, I answer questions deeper in my archives)
It's most definitely not me thinking I'm too important (or important at all) since I've got the self-esteem of...well,like one of my readers said of one of my characters, "the self esteem of a burnt Pop-Tart". And though it may seem a little bit surprising, I'm actually extremely shy and socially awkward, even within the confines of my own comic and forum, and can't think of the right thing to say (but then sometimes I say way too much, like right now, when the motivation strikes me, because I hyper-focus on my tasks even when I should be doing that with my comics right now!)

Ok sorry if I seemed to have touched off a few nerves because of the way I highlighted my post.


My original post:

5) Author non-responsiveness

- The top tier popular comics are the most guilty of this. As if I get this feeling that they think they're too important to respond to comments or something. Maybe I'm wrong in this assumption. It could be they're busy doing other things or they just get a hundred comments and it would take them days to answer everyone of em.

I understand where inkmonkey, ozone, and amelius are coming from.

I'm not "high up the list" (tho I wish I was lol )... though I got other shit to attend to like a job and a social life (yes I DO have em both lol! even if it doesnt seem like it)

Maintaining a comic easily takes off between 30 mins to 5 hours of your day. That is why I dont do frequent daily updates. The most I'd go is 4x a week. Thats it. Otherwise its 2-3 times a week. With the occasional 2-3 week hiatus when shit happens or when I had to do other stuff.

Again my apologies for the accidental offense I may have caused. :)

Amelius
being dishonest about the way the comic is produced

I can't figure out what that means.

Feh, most duckers wish they have the "OMG I can't answer all these comments" problem.

Mood is another aspect.

Like, I used to open and comment on IRC but I stopped reading it and commenting because I lost the mood towards it and I want something else.

If I stopped for a moment not a reading comic, that doesn't mean I won't return to it in a moment of time. It depends on my mood.

Ah, sorry about that mlai, what I was referring to are the people who primarily trace their artwork and get gushing praises for it, stuff like that really gets under my skin.(particularly because I don't trace anything that I haven't drawn myself already with pencils) Of course calling people out on that is asking for big trouble from their fans, because they'll refuse to believe it or insinuate you are simply jealous :gem: ...and it's not just stuff on DD I'm talking about, though I'd rather not name names.
Sometimes when an artist avoids answering simple yes or no questions about the artwork but will respond to all the butt-kissing comments they get, it seems a little suspect to me. I don't know about you, but I'd be a little offended if people constantly asked me if I traced something and I'd be darned sure to tell them if I did or not (if not only to defend my integrity) and not leave the question hanging like a wet towel while I respond to the more appealing compliments around it. If they do answer it, they answer all cryptic and avoid answering directly like they are protecting a trade secret or something...which if they are, that's alright...but say so then!
And sometimes it is truly good stuff that deserves compliments...if not for the false pretenses. If they could prove beyond a shadow of doubt that they are just plain THAT GOOD I would gladly eat my hat.:)
Sadly, I have an eye for how stuff is produced so I don't see a hat diet in my near future...(I really hope I don't sound like an art-snob, I'm just observant, certain things have "tells" to them, and it's not simply how something looks...it's hard to explain without an example which is why I avoided saying too much initially, but it's in how you can tell brush pen art from Bic pen art, or markers from digital and so on)

Basically: people who take credit for something they pasted into the background of their comic that they got off Google for instance, or tracing photographs and saying they drew the picture from scratch is what I'm referring too. I just can't stand when people take credit for other people's work. It doesn't happen a LOT, but when it does, it makes me bitter and upset. I just feels it takes away from other artists who put effort and imagination into something from the very first pencil (or tablet) stroke, and they may not produce absolute perfection, but they do not get half the credit as the person who took the easy route and produced fantastic looking work.

I guess most people would say in the end it doesn't matter HOW they did it as long as it looks good, and I can agree to some small extent...but as an artist who has a guilty conscience when I copy the background for just 2 panels, it's hard for me to fathom accepting empty praises like that. I happen to get a little offended when someone says I used a lens flare on my art, since I stopped using filters years ago! ^_^

Sorry again for the initial cryptic phrasing, I just didn't want to ruffle any feathers. (another reason I'm afraid of posting in the forums...I go off and say stupid things!:dizzy: )

Amelius
I go off and say stupid things

Yeah, that's actually my job ;)

I like how this thread has turned though. ^_^
Heh, I like answering art questions myself, because it helps clear stuff up. And being honest about things you feel a bit worried about is important. Like for example, I got the building views on this page by using actual photos of places in Tripoli as references because that's where things were set, Iit had to be real buildings, I've no idea what things look like there, and those pics had good views and angles. (although they were daytime shots...)
And the nex one even had the similar colours to the photo, as well ans angle and architecture, but was much harder to draw...
_________________________________________
Ah well, anyway ^_^
I have to go with what Simon said: Mood can be a big thing. I leave comics for a while and then just blitz on them, catching right up! Sometimes I comment on all the pages, sometimes just the last one, sometimes none. Usually either DD or my ISP choose that moment to F-up on me though for some reason. Always happens! lol!
And DD is a bit slow currently for reading 20 comics at a time like I used to when I'd catch up

mlai
(yet I'm scared by huge archives).

I am scared of huge archives.
Comics with 100 plus pages scare the crap out of me.
I might really dig them...but avoid trying them out because I have other comics that I want to read and its hard dedicating so much time to reading the archives on some epic story just so I can understand the newest page.
I wonder if the comic was broken up into seperate comic listings if that would help. But to stay on topic...I gave up on on some titles before even reading them because of the huge archive.

TheMidge28
I gave up on on some titles before even reading them because of the huge archive.

I do that... And then paradoxically I'll often be drawn back to those very comics for some reason and just blitz my way through their entire archives and find they're now one of my new fave comics! :)

-when DD is good...

I did that with Charby, Two Moons, Gnoph, Elija an Azzu... and so on.

If I checked out a comic and liked it (or really really hated it) I'll always come back eventually. May not be in a month, a year,or many years but I'll always come and see how it ended or see the comic's improvement.

It comes from when I was a kid watching cartoons. I least wanted to know how they ended even if I didn't stick through it all the way.

So a comic just needs to keep updating for me.

kyupol
5) Author non-responsiveness

- The top tier popular comics are the most guilty of this. As if I get this feeling that they think they're too important to respond to comments or something. Maybe I'm wrong in this assumption. It could be they're busy doing other things or they just get a hundred comments and it would take them days to answer everyone of em.

I hardly ever respond to comments unless someone asks me something directly. In part because I HATE the DD system for comments (and also because I don't have much to say). They really need to adopt a system like dA where you can reply to specific comments rather than just starting a new one altogether, where you get a notification if one of your comments has been replied to, etc. DD comments are a mess.

Anywho...

Exzachly
I hardly ever respond to comments unless someone asks me something directly. In part because I HATE the DD system for comments (and also because I don't have much to say). They really need to adopt a system like dA where you can reply to specific comments rather than just starting a new one altogether, where you get a notification if one of your comments has been replied to, etc. DD comments are a mess.

Anywho...

Responsiveness to comments in some situations like my initial example where I am asking questions and not getting answers may deter reader loyalty.
But out of any comic, yours Exzachly doesn't need your response.
I think it has to do with how funny your strip is.

Well... I personally have read about over 250 web comics... how many i read right now i don't know anymore because my favorite list is so messed up from the amount of times I've lost my favorite list from my computer, due to mother board being reset or simply a new computer.
But i personally never try and leave a webcomic. I read every update as it comes, and sometimes depending on how much i enjoy the comic will wait up for it to update. I truly have a unique way to find webcomics to read. i go through buzz comix tabbing the ones with the pretty banners or promising little info bits. which is a bit like judging a book by its cover but I usually stop reading a comic by pg15 if i don't like it and take it off the tab thing. So every comic on my fav list tends to be ones i enjoy thoroughly. And i don't mind waiting for updates because well... Good things come to those who wait ^_^
I lose track of DD ones quite easily though... because i put them on my DD fav's and not on my big list. so sometimes i don't see when they update and they full into limbo land which i enter when i remember to.

kyupol
5) Author non-responsiveness

- The top tier popular comics are the most guilty of this. As if I get this feeling that they think they're too important to respond to comments or something. Maybe I'm wrong in this assumption. It could be they're busy doing other things or they just get a hundred comments and it would take them days to answer everyone of em.

Being one of the "top" comics of DD at the moment... Well i've never tried responding to everyones comments. that'd be sort of silly and hard. some people say stuff that is really hard to respond to and I'd personally feel like a dope if all i replied with was "lol" but i do make sure to respond to questions or to anything someone might of said that i found particularly interesting or funny and felt that requires a bit of a response. and i read every comment. respond to every PM and stuff in me forum.
But if it was just a webcomic... well it wouldn't put me off them if an author didn't respond to my comment. they're busy people after all. i wouldn't care if they were an ass either. I read a comic for the story and the characters not for the author. I don't really two hoots about them half the time, i read commentary now and then but i really don't have time for it when going through a huge list of comics. I think the only thing that'd ever drive me away from a comic is if it suddenly became really crap in the writing department by doing something i really didn't like, thought that it didn't make sense or a character suddenly changed in a way that they weren't their usual self.

What Kyupol said.

My main reason to drop a comic is just when the starts to suck.

...

I think I did that with only 1 comic Garfield, but it's highly unlikely that I'll stop reading a comic just because of lack of updates or something (since I sort of have that problem too).

There were two fairly good comics I stopped reading, and both of them update regularly and are still going strong and popular. But what got me to stop reading is that both of them changed mid-comic. One of them changed its premise to one I didn't enjoy very much (and yet other readers did). The other began to be aimed at a specific target audience... an audience that did not include me.

This makes me think twice about making any drastic changes to my own comic.