Most of us make a TON of content for our comics, but how much do your readers really know?

In my cmic Night School for example I've got a huge amount of backstory and notes on the comic but probably only 5% of that will ever make it into the comic itself. The rest will just help me keep consistency and flavor for the setting.

In my fantasy comic 3rd Party Fantasy however probably 85% of the world content that I have worked has been revealed so far. There is relatively little that I have worked out in advance that I don't share with the audiance. If I am holding somehting back it is only to build up to a joke later on. Oh sure I make up new stuff for the work as I go on but that new content filters into the comic very quickly.

So what about you? How much do your readers know?

There are a lot of secrets not yet revealed in my comic. Everyone has complex pasts that are strangely linked to others' pasts. Mike has yet to talk about his life as a member of Fudo's gang. Tristan tends to vanish often with no accounting his whereabouts. The motivation/reasons for Yuki's take-down of the crime organization and immediate retirement remain unknown at the moment. The reasons Kaida ran away, married, and divorced have only been half-said so far. At what point and why Fudo completely lost his mind is a mystery... All these will eventually be revealed. (Oh, and there are several very important characters that have not appeared yet, and a few "mysteries" completely unaddressed so far -- like Kaida's necklace.)

My comic makes generous use of irony. The readers nearly always know more than the characters. The characters have their secrets. Slowly, the readers get to learn those secrets and then enjoy following the characters in their quests to conceal things (or reveal them) to each other. -- And try to figure out which characters are "in the know."

Oh, and there are a few short old school detective-style mystery things. My readers seem to get the clues and stuff, but some people who comment are prone to veer off into interesting theories and deductions. I try not to leave anyone hanging for the smaller mysteries for too long.

Well, my comic has a lot of backstory, and I reveal a little bit of it at a time. Some of it I just give away like candy. Like, I made sure that everyone can figure out exactly what the identify of my main villain is, even though the lead characters are still trying to figure it out. I mean, I know the clues I hand out are easy.

On the other hand, there's a lot of stuff I don't let out very easily. For example, starting with my most recent chapters, I began hinting at other villains that are actually responsible for the events going on right now. A mysterious green-caped character appears on the splash page for Chapter 5, and I've offered only cryptic clues as to who he is. All I can say is that he's more responsible than anyone else for destroying the lives of five young children-turned-villains.

And some things I intentionally throw in as red herrings. For example, while everyone's wasting their time on the relelation that one of my main characters turned out to be a closet lesbian, I'm slipping other things in under the radar that nobody seems to notice.

Additionally, I have a few more things to let out of the bag with Chapter 6 of Dasien, including a major retcon. Another thing that keeps my readers on their toes is that I periodically change my mind about things, and thus I have to go back and find ways to introduce new concepts in a way that appears to be seamless.

I imagine that my readers think they have everything figured out, and I enjoy letting them into the inner workings of the plot, but there is just so much that's being kept hush-hush, because I want it all to be a big, BIG surprise.

So if you think you've got Dasien all figured out, I'm just going to keep beating that assumption. Wait for the bomb I drop in the next couple chapters.

There will always be a great part of content that is not needed by the readers, but it is needed by the author, well not always, it depends, but I would say this isn't unusual, you could have backstories of several chars, but only a few will be needed by the readers, or in fantasy worlds you could develop bits of history that the readers do not need to know, or simply they won't care. If you wish to publish all that info, maybe a page in comixpedia would help, or in your comments you could add that part.

For some time I've been thinking on releasing the pages with comments on them, having the originals in one side, and the commented in the other, but for now I don't think it would be a good idea.

For FIGHT and FIGHT2 , pretty much everything is as of yet undisclosed.

- The stories are only 25+ pages in. On top of that I draw in manga layout style, which itself takes after cinema, meaning pictures more than words, so there are no expositionary narrations.

- The basic premise of the stories is a mystery in itself, the enigmatic command "FIGHT." The readers will only find things out as the characters find out. With this cinematic approach in addition to this premise, I don't even need to conjure up mysteries; the story takes care of that by itself.

- The characters are all mysteries, even to themselves. Even though this is a fan comic, the difference between my stories and all other fan comics is that I don't need or want you to know who these fan characters are. Other fan works always tell you straight up "a Miami Vice/ Dukes of Hazard x-over" etc, because the purpose of those is to draw you in by telling you exactly who they are. Mine is the opposite. You may get an extra kick out of discovering who they are, and whether they're faithful to their source material, but they stand on the strength of their own storytelling.

- Because of my story setup, the majority of my characters aren't even introduced yet. It gladdens me to know that ppl think that my stories have strong character interactions, based on just the paltry smattering of early characters that are active so far. I'm more giddy than anyone else in the awesome source materials which I will draw from for the later characters.

- Chances are, even after the stories are finished, there will be characters nobody has recognized. It kills me that I can't post my character bio sheets until my stories are finished. My motto has always been "I'll take these old, uncool characters and make them cool," so needless to say I put some thought into the character bio sheets.

Due East is the same -- lots and lots of backstory and many things as yet unrevealed. But we revealed a surprising amount between Books 2 and 3 (which is almost over now).

Due East has been more than a bit mysterious, literally from the beginning...but that mysterious nature has led to some wonderful and thoughtful participation and insight from the readers. Our readers have grown to care about the different characters and storylines and that's what's so great about the DD community!

Expect more to be revealed and dealt with in Book 4. Some very big changes are ahead and we really hope not to disappoint! :)

I have pretty much left my readers in the dark thus far.

They know my comic takes place in the year 2132 but I have yet to explain much of anything that has happened to Earth over the years. I havn't shown why the majority of technology is equal to or less than what we have at present and I havn't even explained why a poisonous gas covers the earth. Though I am sure most of that is easy to figure out.

As for my characters, I have a whopping 2 main characters at the moment that have pretty much been flung into a Alien war. So far I have yet to really reveal much of the character's pasts nor have I revealed why 7 random people around the world gain "special powers".

The biggest mystery right now people seem to be into is my smaller character Sally's power. Since the characters are born with the powers they don't simply realize late in life they are special. Yet it has been confirmed she has a power and does not know what it is.

Most of the facts about the Earth and the characters will begin getting revealed in issue 6 as the Prologue nears it's completion (6 being the last issue of the Prologue). I have a swarm of main cast that I am eager to bring into the story but most everything happens AFTER this initial prologue story.

Very little. PT takes place in a portion of a much, much larger world, most of which won't even get touched on during the course of this story (there are two other races, for example, that won't even appear in PT, but will be the focus of another story that I have planned for later). I have tons of useless information that is really just for me and probably won't be explained or featured in any story, but that just serves as little details in the background and whatnot (species of flora and fauna, for example, that serve absolutely no purpose story-wise but are still fun to stick in for continuity anyway).

As for PT's storyline, it's still pretty young so a lot of what's "going on" really hasn't been explained yet. A lot of it has been hinted at, but there won't be any real revelations for the characters (and possibly the readers, unless they're really perceptive) for a few chapters yet.

I've revealed next to nothing at this point. Most of the important stuff about Shockwire's past is in issue 2, except for how exactly her mother died, but she's only one character in the bigger picture. There's an overarching backstory about how and why the presence of the Omegas in Junction City came about, and I have a very clear idea of what everyone's motives are and where it's all going, and so far, I'm at maybe 5% of all that. It's probably going to unfold very slowly as I'm more interested in trying out different types of stories with the various characters I plan to use, I just think it's good to also have something that holds the book together.

I'm one for hoarding secrets, I'm afraid!

The Prologue for Shades set in motion the main plot but we won't be returning to those events until Chapter 7.

Chapter 2 introduced Doug, one of our main characters, but his backstory is going to unfold slowly over a number of chapters (Chapters 2, 5 and 10, if anyone's interested!) A number of main characters haven't even made an appearance yet and, when they do, their back stories will only be revealed further down the line, too.

Then there's a whole wealth of background info that won't appear in the comic at all (sorry, readers!) I have a vague notion that, one day, it might be fun to do a series of shorter stories focusing on some of those "undisclosed facts". We'll see ...!

Terran Sandz has some secrets, but I'm playing it pretty up front. My tendency is mystery & misdirection, but TS is more of a cartoon than a dramatic piece.

Dead is still unraveling for the reader. I'd say there is some 75% they are in the dark about.

Broken Things , on the other hand, is all misdirection & mystery. If I had to guess, I'd say the reader is 95% in the dark (or at least I hope they are). Broken Things is a dense narrative, layered very intricately (again: I hope), and the reader should have many very large surprises instore for them before the story ends.

later,
Chip

Wolf is an action/ mystery story full of secrets that are in layers- each question answered reveals another even darker one that needs answering. The whole 'what happened, by whom and why' won't be known until the very last chapter of Wolf.

I also have a trove of backstory about Zoe's and David's origins, their common background, their vices, worries, aspirations, how they fell in love, why they hadn't openly said so up until a page or so ago in Wolf (heh) and all the things that there may be hints or little nuances in the comic to make the couple (and their friends/allies/enemies/rivals) appear normal, and their body language congruent with who they are and their relationships. I doubt this info will ever see the light of day though, unless I make a side comic to Wolf when I'm done with it.

With Art of Veiling it's the same- I have one more book except the actual trilogy that is full of background information, aside all the epic poems and histories I'd written and of which only about 5% ever surface. Heh. I guess to make anything real you need to have a 'tip of the iceberg' effect when it comes to info and how much exists and how much is actually displayed.

beats me. I'm pretty sure some of my readers have
psychic powers or something.
Then again I wouldnt read an authors mind if i were
reading his or her comic :P
lol

I try to hide things from my readers.
Even more, I try to confuse them :3

No one even reads penis.

There's a big big backstory in the Brood Knight comics I have. I've been cooking that up in my head since I was 14.

However, MAG-ISA doesnt have a big big backstory yet. It also has a potential for never-ending sequels. :P

For Beauty Into Beast, there wasn't much in backstory that was needed. But everything the reader needed to know was presented until the very end and... BAM! It's a complete story, so there wasn't much to withold and the backstory is in the first few pages.

Now, when I get to my real stuff... hee hee hee... Personally, I love keeping people in the dark. A story I wrote (not on drunkduck) had a huge twist that made all my friends' jaws drop for about five minutes and then they reacted "DUDE! THAT WAS AWESOME! I NEVER SAW THAT COMING!" It just makes my year when I can pull that off perfectly.

I've got over a decade of backstory for my comic. With a lot of previously published work. So I'm pretty forthcoming in my author's notes section about stuff that is based on or part of the older mythology of my work. But my work here really is an attempt to move forward. So I try not to bog the actual pages themselves down with too much minutae.

So if my readers read my commentary, they'll pick up on backstory (Like in the very latest update, which is related to one of the earliest backstories in my comic's lifespan). If not, it's no biggie. The first chapter gives a new reader everything he or she needs to know about the characters.

I have a whole bunch of information about the world and the characters that the readers might never see, and if they do it's only in the author's notes. I have a tendency to blab about minor details of the setting and one-shot characters, stuff the audience really doesn't need to know and probably doesn't care about.
And as for the actual plot... Nobody even seems to realise yet that there is one. I've hidden it that well (or badly, depending on your opinion XD). Only one of the characters has revealed any real backstory, and that's just because hers isn't very interesting. (Yet.) I'm only four months in though, and the plot should be completely set up in a couple. I doubt I'll reveal more about the mechanics of the world and powers than the reader needs to know. Maybe when I've finished Pictures I'll do a prequel. That won't be for a long time yet though.
So, of stuff that actually matters, I reckon about 99% is hidden from my readers. I also haven't had anyone offer any wild theories yet. That makes me sad. ='( XD

Well my author's comments under each episode are mile-long - because first I try to hide some allusions and symbols in the page, and then I go on forever where they are hidden and what they mean ;) Or I ask my readers to try and find them out. It's more fun that way.
Then again, I sometimes delay revealing the most obvious or the most crucial parts of the story. For example: even though you can see the main characters talking from the very first panel of the comic, you don't get to see them till the last panel of the third page. And it wasn't until page 8 that I showed The Girl - the main topic of their conversations.
So half of the time the fun is to elaborate on the tiniest bits, and half of the time it's hiding things from my readers and keeping them thrilled :)

I try to start off by revealing only very basic relevant details. Backstory is sort of difficult for me to get into because I hate doing exposition. As such there's a lot of story details that I've not yet revealed and I'm not yet sure how I'll incorporate.

next to nothing as I only have about 7 comics made.

My story has an extensive back story which I may never have time to tell the readers, but is important for the way that I depict the world of my comic. With most of my characters I have a general idea of their history. For others I have important parts of their past that make them who they are.

Most of Nadya's readers probably don't know as much about the tale as they'd like to. I have disclosed a lot to some DDers, though. =P

They know nothing.

Ah well...the gist of Jack's past was basically told right-out....but there is still some things people don't know, and he is still considered mysterious.

Orlock is the biggest mind-boggler of the story. No one knows what his deal is or WHAT he is for that matter...and I have been trying my darndest to not give the slightest hint until the right moment.

And yeah, of course there are other mysteries here and there.

My readers know nothing, and neither do I. We're all clueless.

my stuff has so much Back-story even i don't know half of it !!!

The Planet Closest to Heaven is my iceberg tip comic. A lot is planned for it, but not much at all is explained.

Demon Eater is really mostly explained or.. about half of it. I'm still trying to come up with the relationship between the human world and the monster world, but a lot is pretty much explained. I think that could be why more people are into DE than TPCTH.

If my readers were to go over every bit of avalable material on my site they would know about 2% of the history. I have more than 800 pages of notes plus 21 drafts of a 144 page script, but when you consider how much of that is redundant or revision, I probably only have maybe 350 pages of actual story, and of that about 80% is subtextual and of the remaining 20% only about 10% has made it onto the site so far.

That being said, I don't think it's important how much your readers know. Each reader is different. Only the hard core fans want to soak up ever last bit of trivia, and they fall into a different category all together. The value of backstory will always be in the subtext. YOU as the author have to know every last detail about your world if you want it to feel like a real, living place to the reader.

As an exercise, try creating a family tree for each of your main characters. What kind of relationship did their parents have with their grandparents? Maybe their father was an orphan? Family history factors into personal motivation more than we think. We (and our characters) are, after all only the sum of our experiances.

Hmmm, so far, my readers know next to nothing about PYC. The only known crap is that right now, 2 trainers are on their journey while one tries a few dirty tactics to get ahead of the other. I haven't revealed the juicy stuff yet. Unfortunately, the juicy stuff doesn't come for a long while now.

So yeah, only about 1% of the comic's backstory and details. (The 1% doesn't count the reader's knowledge of Pokemon. Of course, the PYC verison of the Pokemon canon universe differs in many ways)