Genejoke [..] wrote:
 
Also, I have a sub-question: Does anyone else suffer (usually late at night) from dawning realisation that your comic is an absolute ton of sh*te and what the hell were you thinking/drinking to begin it in the first place?

This happens all the time with me normally when I'm hath way thru drawing a page and then some thing else happens I start questioning every thing I do! "Is that profile right?" "Is the line work any good?" "Is the layout telling the story well?" "Is the story any good?" then about this time I delete the comic and for ever moor keep redrawing the first page and then give up on it because its a load of sh*te. Then I get depressed and don't say anything for a month.

ayesinback wrote: (sorry, I'm not totally sure how to do this quoting thing).

First, this thread has some great thoughts. After reading several posts, I felt guilt and went to my comic to let the 3? readers know that it's not dead, but hibernating.

So much of this thread coincides with the stat function. As it now stands, it's hard to know whether there is a viewership that cares or not. If no one cares, then why bother posting a note to let people know what's going on? Because if no one cares, isn't an "All about ME" author note almost egotistical? rather a personal blog with oneself?

Here's a thought: if you are really concerned about a lack of updates, then PQ the comic creator (Oh, right, no PQ alerts) - or at least comment in the comic. whatever.
Me - I Very Much enjoy reading from people who've read a page of mine - it IS nice to know that in some way you've made a teeny connection. And I never like the feeling that somehow I let someone down.

But these are FREE comics. I don't think we ever want to burden a comic creator with obligations. in some cases, it's not impossible that it could become a chilling factor

 I was thinking the last couple days (computer in the shop) that these ARE free comics. Of course. And the self-doubt and not knowing whether people are reading or not is definitely a factor.

Those are good points, all of 'em.  The "all about me" author note in a comic nobody's reading (or we have no idea whether anyone's reading) is one thing.

ayes, I wouldn't put you or your stuff (or any of the comics I've been reading on DD, for that matter) in the category the OP is talking about...because you communicate, and make friends.

People who answer comments, or say "I do sporadic updates" are totally fine (in my opinion). Nothing wrong with that. I know your comic is something you do when you have time. 'Sides, you finished your initial story arc. (I'd love to see more, whenever you do 'em, but there's no wrongdoing on your part).

...and folks with no readers commenting and no idea whether anyone's reading? Well, they don't need to explain anything, either....agreed! As far as they know, nobody's readin'!
Someone who wants to scrap a piece of work (I hear you guys about the self doubt/self recrimination...it's probably part of the personality makeup of we comic type folks!!)....that's  totally allowed, too.

There was one comic I read that started off quite interesting. I wrote
the author a comment, and got a "thanks" then sent an encouraging pq.
She'd done 3 pages and that's all. Not quite the same thing,
though...the thing'd barely started. Probably nobody but me saw it, and it's a free webcomic. She decided to go on hiatus/drop it, and that's totally fine.

I thought the op was talking about a comic with a following (I assume the hypothetical author KNOWS about the following, through comments or sometlhing) who tells half a story to a devoted fanbase and then just drops it without a peep. Just stops and doesn't say anything, even "comic no longer updating".



...those folks are probably really rare, though.

Yeah, getting all heavy with obligations is probably not a good thing, either!

Hope I wasn't too harsh in my earlier comment...:-D

Genejoke [..] wrote:

Also, I have a sub-question: Does anyone else suffer (usually late
at night) from dawning realisation that your comic is an absolute ton of
sh*te and what the hell were you thinking/drinking to begin it in the
first place?

 I've gotta learn how to quote properly, here...

Genejoke (I mean Skreem), I hear ya, too. It's about every week or two for me...

Occupational hazard?

Banes [..] wrote:

Genejoke [..] wrote:

 

Also, I have a sub-question: Does anyone else suffer (usually late
at night) from dawning realisation that your comic is an absolute ton of
sh*te and what the hell were you thinking/drinking to begin it in the
first place?

 I've gotta learn how to quote properly, here...

Genejoke (I mean Skreem), I hear ya, too. It's about every week or two for me...

Occupational hazard?

yeah quoting sucks ass.

Genejoke [..] wrote:

Banes [..] wrote:

Genejoke [..] wrote:

  

Also, I have a sub-question: Does anyone else suffer (usually late
at night) from dawning realisation that your comic is an absolute ton of
sh*te and what the hell were you thinking/drinking to begin it in the
first place?

 I've gotta learn how to quote properly, here...

Genejoke (I mean Skreem), I hear ya, too. It's about every week or two for me...

Occupational hazard?

yeah quoting sucks ass.

Now you know one reason I have such an absurdly huge buffer.  I can download pages into the far future and the comic hosting thing does its magic and I don't have to think about how bad the current page is as compared to how awful the previous page was.  Oh face it, it's all crap.
 
But as a creator you do have a responsibility to tell the audience when you've abandoned the work so they don't expect anything else.  It shouldn't be dismissed as vanity or egotism, it's a creator acknowledging their creation and whatever following it has acquired.
 
But then I have my own issues too. 

I'm guilty of this. But I did not totally abandon my webcomic. My reason for not completing is lack of time to devote to the comic because of work commitments. I still actively think about my webcomic, Hocusha, I still sketch or plot stories about it. One problem I usually encounter is, sometimes, what you feel is cool in your head, cease to do so once you draw it. Sometimes, I over think about every aspect of the story that I start to doubt my creative process. It becomes a chore.
I abandonded Chapter 5 of my series because I was not happy with the script. I rewrote and reworked it so many times that once, I felt like starting a community based contest to see who could come up with a genius script for Chap 5. Again, it sounded cool but later, I had my doubts.
Currently, I have a totally new plot for Chap 5. Once I find the time, I'll start work on it.

Okay, this thread came to mind recently. One comic in particular that I really like...and WOULD be recommending enthusiastically to the two people who care what I have to say (heh).

But this comic seems to have been dropped (maybe not, but there's no way of knowing what's going on because the creator ain't talkin'). Barring some difficult real life situation of any kind (which should always trump a web comic, probably), it's pretty disheartening as a fan.

There've been a few that I've found (in Quail's random for instance) that look interesting. I'll check it out and the most recent page will say something like,  "Sorry it's been so long between updates! I got really busy! Here's the new page....looks like things are getting even worse for ol' Joe!" (or whatever).

...and this update will be over a year old, with comments from readers and nothing else from the creator. I've seen quite a few of these (there's only been one I was invested in personally, since it was an updating comic).

A couple others have gone on indefinite hiatus (whether not liking the new site, lack of stats or whatever).

This is fine in my opinion...because they're at least telling us what's up. I don't feel wronged by these creators (though I miss their comics).

Anyway, people are allowed to do what they want of course, and this site is free and should be fun, but this is just not cool when you have a following, and when you don't explain or tell your readers what's going on.

Banes wrote:

Genejoke [..] wrote:

 

Also, I have a sub-question: Does anyone else suffer (usually late
at night) from dawning realisation that your comic is an absolute ton of
sh*te and what the hell were you thinking/drinking to begin it in the
first place?

 I've gotta learn how to quote properly, here...

Genejoke (I mean Skreem), I hear ya, too. It's about every week or two for me...

Occupational hazard?

A BIG yes. Probably because you have no one to brainstorm with or run your ideas with or help you filter your ideas and say your idea sucks. And you have no editor to help develop your script.

Absolutely...no editor riding the brakes can make for some wrong moves. It's NOT the same as published comics.

I wrote:
A couple others have gone on indefinite hiatus (whether not liking the new site, lack of stats or whatever).

This is fine in my opinion...because they're at least telling us
what's up. I don't feel wronged by these creators (though I miss their
comics).

Speaking of which,

I prefer to let my readers down in a different way......by CONTINUING to post my comics.

Heyoooooo!

darrellsan [..] wrote:
Rant mode: Activate!
Re: webcomics that get going, get interesting, gain a following...and then they just stop...the author stops updating...no reason given...commentors ask why, and ask if the author is okay...or if and when the author will be back...and no response.
Reality check. We all know that...
a) life happens, and a webcomic will and should be put on the back burner in the case of illness, financial issues, marriage and so forth.
b) we readers are not entitled to anything.
However, in my not so long history of reading webcomics (since 2005) I've run across quite a few of them that just up and stop in the middle of a story arc, no explanation given. In fact I've come across a handful that stopped right after they were given feature status here on The Duck!! C'mon, son!
There's even a certain abandoned webcomic here on DD that has TWO creators...an artist and a writer... yet neither has stepped forward to address why they stopped updating...over a year ago.
Please, if you're gonna quit your comic, take a minute to let your fans know why. Don't leave them wondering if you're dead, dying, or in prison. Especially if you've been actively engaging with your readers, soliciting comments and fan art...especially if you've built up a decent and loyal readership...don't just up and go silent when you hit a rough patch in life. Let your readers and fans know that you're no longer able to update for whatever reason.
Thanks.
D

Bam you jus summarized everything I have been thinking, for me I like to go through and just find random comics to read and it is so annoying to find one and start getting into to just to find out there are only like 9 to 15 pages done and it was abandoned like 4 years ago.  Now you summed everything up perfectly but just to add, since I know do a webcomic myself,  I understand some of the stress these artist go through, but I just couldn't quit without at least giving some closure to my characters. so thats how I feel about abandoned webcomics

I actually HAVE told readers I was quitting my comic.  Twice.  Each time, a sudden bit of encouragement from readers would cause my resolve to weaken, and at that point I think it's fair to say I've betrayed their trust, so if I really wanted them to KNOW I was dedicated to my decision I'd have to SHOW them.

In my case, it's loss of confidence in DD since the crash, and the reduced functionality it's had since it came back. So now I'm only updating on my own domain.
...not that you can tell because even there, instead of creating new updates, I was dropping revised versions of old episodes directly into the archives. DD was the place where I presented the same comics or slightly different variants thereof as new updates.
I've just queued up two to see how well the system works now. I'm disappointed that there is still so little you can change about the layout.

Reinderdijkhuis wrote:
...I'm disappointed that there is still so little you can change about the layout.

   
It's true there are a lot of things you can't do with the layout, but you can do a lot with the limited palette that's available. Right now you've got a blank white layout with default... well, default everything. You can change the background color or add a background image, you can add a title banner, you can change the navigation buttons, you can change the text, you can add subpages to character bios, comic extras, or a link to your forum. I think you'd be surprised how much difference those kinds of little things can make.

Just here to say that "Unlimited Evil" and "Coolstar Comics Master Files" have not been abandoned for the six people or so on here that were acutally reading them. I suspect that I had more outside readers coming in from all the work that I used to do promoting them myself on listing sites, but now that the site has been redone without access to that kind of stuff, I have no idea anymore, so I've taken the time since the change to just kind of put "UE" on hiatus until I can rework the first chapter to how I want it to match the rest of it art wise and from there I'll continue on with the story. Currently I only have five more pages to rework, but it's probably going to take me another five months to finish those five pages before I even begin doing anything new. As an attempt to at least post something new, I've at least kept up with "CCMF" so readers will have my character profiles to read. It's not much, but it fills the void. This has all been said by me before, but I felt that this was a good opportunity to say it again just to say that that's still what's up in my absence since I've also not really been around in months to read anyone else's comics to see if they're still updating either.

Gelotology returned to its original state -- updating when/if I have an idea/stupid joke that requires an outlet. I tried a weekly thing,which worked for a while, but the ideas dried up. I'd rather make no strips than forced ones.
 
I ended another project because it was too ambitious. I was trying to turn a short story into a comic. I got disheartened trying to do it, and I never liked the art anyway. It became nearly impossible to show some important points visually.
 
The main reason I quit or cut back is to have more time for Used Books. I have never taken more than a week and a half off (all for trips when I had no computer/art access), and I have 10+ future chapters scripted and add more faster than I can draw them. It might not even have the following or appeal of other projects, but it's what I do to make me happy in my free time. Other projects seem like a chore, but UB is a cherished hobby.  If no one reads it, I would still make it. (Whereas all the readers in the world couldn't entice me to create something I don't enjoy.)
 
Other projects that "ended" for me is because of would-be collaborators vanishing off the face of the internet. Some of them were the initiators too. That's so frustrating that I want to swear off collaborations forever. Internet people have a way of vanishing. I blame the DD Slasher. Curse you, Slasher!

I never really had a following here but the reason i don't update is because Xbox takes up most of my free time now.