I do believe I have noticed a trend. Every time I drop a pissed off comment on a comic, my own readership drops like a stone. Namely, the (ok, slightly longwinded) rant on Powerup Comics, (http://www.drunkduck.com/Powerup_Comics/index.php?p=370965). Sure, it's not exactly a deviation for a norm, but I got flamed back for it. Now, as the comment disappears into the archives, my readership is slowly increasing (curious, eh?). I'm not obsessive over readership, but my trend has gone from 210 hits (comment posted)-40 hits-50 hits-20 hits-30 hits-back up to 110 hits yesterday. Needless to say, this has been a bit extreme. Is this a common enough event, or a fluke?

Believe it or not, ppl do read the comments section.

Especially the Author's Comments Box. Even when you think you're being very long-winded and boring, and there's no possible way anyone's reading... ppl are reading.

So be careful of spreading negative karma in your own comics.

I can attest to what mlai is saying. I have pretty long artists comments every day and I've gotten numerous people who say that they like reading the comment every day with my comic because it's interesting to them.

Usually if you say something like your head's hurting a lot from a car accident and you think the next days update might be late because of it they don't mind, but if you whine and don't give a reason or it's totally irrelevant to the comic, people tend to dismiss you.

As a rule it's best to be positive and happy in the author comments, it makes your readers associate you with those happy comments.
For example: Today i posted a short note about my lung infection and kept it light-hearted, but in reality i am angry and pissed off at the doctor who kept me waiting 5 hours to see him. I didn't post that tid-bit, and i still get the 'get well soon' comments.

Just keep it happy and don't crit your own art, even if you don't feel that way.

I work tech support and you notice this immediatly. There are some people who get mad when you tell them their internet is back up, and there are some who can say, "Oh, your modem's busted. A tech we'll be out on wednesday" and the customer will walk away with a smile.