#if it did I would absolutely make a webcomic adaptation

[ambitions-of-an-eccedentesiast]

ooooooooooooooo the green is backkkk

Next->

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[lloydfrontera]

Days late but i'm reading the Q&A and i cannot tell if this guy is just Taking The Piss it slowly going mad from adapting it or if he's actually semi-incompetent

I saw a post about it and lots of people were. super mad abt it especially since the adaptation made so many changes. i have no strong thoughts but i also do not think generally so I Have No Input. ultimately i don't even know how much creative control he has, or what "the original author approved of the changes" means.

i genuinely. from the q&a cannot tell if he is trying to take the piss or just does not know how to read. i'm trying to be neutral because I Know Nothing. but this is more like the political side of webcomic discussions and you're probably more the socio-economic side so

oh don't worry nonnie! i have plenty of strong thoughts about it for the both of us :))

i hesitate a lot to criticize anyone's artwork because i know how hard art can be. and i personally have no real experience adapting from one medium to another so i'm even more apprehensive of speaking about something i know very little of.

but oh boy did the q&a dash away all of my reservations.

forgive me for taking your ask as an excuse to rant about it but i wanna thoroughly dissect it (derogatory)

i cannot tell if this guy is just Taking The Piss it slowly going mad from adapting it or if he's actually semi-incompetent

i don't think he's taking the piss. i think he's being completely earnest about thinking he's doing a good job at adapting tged. i think he genuinely thinks he's cracked the code on how to make a good adaptation.

i think he's completely wrong

here's what i mean. this is his answer when asked what's the most important part to keep in mind when adapting something:

now, this doesn't sound bad at first. i'll give him that, at first glance, this looks like pretty decent advice. when making something, especially a work of fiction, it's pretty tempting to guide yourself by a 'what will the audience like?' mentality. and it's not a bad thing to want your content to be engaging, that's half of the challenge of making anything made to consumed.

but to consider it the most important part of the creative process?? to create or adapt a story based on what it's 'entertaining' instead of what you're trying to convey to your audience??

especially when this is what you think is what you should be focusing on

like. sir. is that really what you're worrying about. really.

that last panel is especially infuriating to me because. why does he care so much about making the episodes funny. why is that his most pressing concern. there are so many things that are way more important than the comedy, like character development, relationship building, plot foreshadowing, a million other things and instead he just. cares about whether the latest episode was funny or not.

tged is a fun novel, it has so many funny moments but if asked i would not say it was a comedy. and it certainly never seemed to make an effort to make sure all of its chapters were funny.

so why on god's green earth does he seem to believe the adaptation needs to be over all other things funny.

why was that the direction he decided to take.

and i for one i'm almost absolutely certain it was his decision to go that route.

especially because this was his answer at being asked if he felt any pressure regarding the characters or plot development.

nunca quise madrear a alguien mas que a este pinche monillo

he does go on to say all the changes were approved by bk moon but like. god what a way to confirm that he didn't a single shit about the characters and plot beyond making something he personally found funny lmaooo

and then this!! this!!

the way he's admitting that he's changing whatever he feels like because as long as he 'doesn't stray too far from the central storyline' it doesn't matter,,,, because he already knows the ending and so as long as he can check off some boxes regarding the plot it doesn't really matter what happens in between,,, i wanna wring his neck so bad,,,

i already ranted about it in the tags before but you can't take a story and assume that as long as you get from point A to point B the parts in between don't matter. that's not how it works.

the ending of a story is the culmination of all the emotional and narrative build up you've done through the entire length of your work. is all the character moments, relationship growth and plot development that you've carefully sown in your story coming together to finally deliver what you've build up.

yes, the ending is an absolute masterpiece. because it has en entire novel of build up before it. because it took its time to make the audience engage earnestly with its characters and its plot. because it didn't make fun of itself at every moment possible and instead took itself seriously when the narrative called for it.

because the novel was telling a story and it wanted us to be invested on it beyond a superficial 'haha funny man makes ugly faces' reaction.

and because lee hyunmin is too busy wondering if every chapter is as funny as possible he's not doing the work needed to make sure the ending delivers the absolute gut punch and emotional catharsis it does on the novel.

he thinks he can just fuck around his way through the plot and still reap the same rewards bk moon did with the novel.

and if he keeps going like this he's not gonna be able to.

but that's just my opinion of course <3

[yonderghostshistories]

Ok uhh, guys, I have the funniest crack fanfic that I gotta share, wait a sec---ok uhh here it is:

>Angel Graham Chapman comes down from the heavens

>Angel Graham Chapman suddenly interrupts the Six Idiots'/ThemThere's QnA session at the BFI Southbank by suddenly crashing into the roof of the BFI Southbank where the session is taking place

>Angel Graham Chapman grabs a petrified Ben Willbond and pulls him aside and looks him dead in the eye

>Angel Graham Chapman says to Ben Willbond that he absolutely loves the character of the Captain from BBC Ghosts, and that he not only appreciates Ben Willbond as an actor, but he loves him as a person in that he loves Ben's characters, especially the nuance he gives to them (particularly the Captain), and that he thanks Ben Willbond for carrying his (Gray's) legacy, even if Ben was unaware that he did it unintentionally

>Angel Graham Chapman then softly yet passionately kisses Ben Willbond on the lips to signify his appreciation and love of Ben Willbond both as a person and as an actor

>Angel Graham Chapman then smiles at Ben Willbond

>Angel Graham Chapman then slowly lifts his wings

>Leaves

>Angel Graham Chapman flies up through the hole in the ceiling and into the sky back into the spacey heavens

>End

(would appreciate if anyone would like to make a webcomic adaptation of sorts to this, to which uhh go for it!!)

[mk-wizard]

Winnie-The-Pooh Blood and Honey: The Liberating Hidden Message

Just to make it clear, I am not going to watch the movie, but I still appreciate its hidden message, which is not only intelligent, but it is a wake-up call.

I absolutely adore Winnie the Pooh and even as a little girl, one of my favourite cartoons was The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which was made during the time Disney actually still held its work to a high standard. Even the other absolutely adorable live action show Pooh Corner holds up as being sweet, cute and great for kids. To say Disney really did wonders for Winnie the Pooh is an understatement, but the operative word here is “did”. Now, the more modern Winnie the Pooh works do not feel like something out of a child’s imagination anymore which is depressing as that was the whole premise of Winnie the Pooh: he, his friends and the entire world was made up by a boy named Christopher Robin. Speaking of which, I find it disrespectful that the character Christopher Robin was dropped for a long time from the series and was only brought back later in a way that I feel did not honour him at all. At times, I felt like they were making fun of the guy and childhood in general which is sad. It is not just Winnie the Pooh who has fallen from grace either. A lot of modern Disney works lack any love behind them, and it shows because Disney is making new movies and shows way too often. Plus, they are made to please modern audiences instead of the intended audiences. Just look at how Disney+ has a new show or film almost every week. The only pocket that takes its time and it shows because it actually produces amazing work 90% of the time is the Star Wars franchise. Yes, it has flops, but you can count them on your fingers on one hand and even then, their flops tend to try harder than all of Disney’s other pieces as of late which includes the Marvel Universe.

But in the midst of all this, someone decided to come up with this;

No one would think of making a Winnie the Pooh horror movie, but in its defense, has anyone thought of doing anything with Winnie the Pooh at all instead of waiting for Disney to do something new with it? There is a deep, dark yet liberating message behind this daring film and it is not about the bear;

Disney does not own Winnie the Pooh. Nor does it own Peter Pan, Beauty and the Beast, Pinocchio, The Fox and the Hound, Hercules, Aladdin, Mulan, Robin Hood or any of the princesses from classic literature. All of these pieces are public property meaning anyone is free to adapt them as they wish. The problem is that everyone has been too afraid to try because in the back of our minds, it will never compare to what Disney did.

This fear of touching something that always was free for us to use is crippling us and it is depriving future generations of a chance at seeing a classic tale be reimagined in a way that truly is amazing rather than as another empty cash grab. In other words, the true message behind Winnie-the-Pooh Blood and Honey is: take back our public property.

And believe it or not, when artists did, they made amazing things. The thing is not all of them are in the form of films (though some are). I could even recommend a list. And while they may not be giants like the Disney adaptations, they are worth your time and dare I say, better in some cases. Here are some of the non-Disney adaptations of classic tales I recommend.

Ever After: which is a reimagining of Cinderella that replaces all magic with feminist elements and get this; Leonardo Da Vinci is part of the main cast.

Gepetto: a webcomic adaptation of Pinocchio with a science fiction twist along with all kinds of other twists.

Megan Kearny’s Beauty & the Beast: a webcomic adaptation of the classic tale which takes on a more gothic tone and also explores the trauma behind the Beast’s life story.

Snow White and the Huntsman: a film where Snow White is on equal heroic footing with her “prince” and is a great watch if you love Lord or the Rings or Game of Thrones.

Beauty and the Beast (TV Series): a reimagined version of the classic where “Beauty” is a badass detective and “Beast” is a super-cyborg soldier making the setting more superhero like in all the fun ways.

Red Shoes & the Seven Dwarfs: a deconstructed version of Snow White where the dwarfs are the ones who actually need saving and it is the first ever version of Snow White to be plus sized.

Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1982 anime film): this film follows the original tale almost to the letter with a few differences.

Splash: a reimagining of The Little Mermaid that takes place in the 1980s which also happens to be one Tom Hanks’ best classic movies.

Ponyo: another reimagining of The Little Mermaid except the two main characters are children and it was made by Chibli Studios, so you know it will be high quality.

Penelope: the most unique reimaging of Beauty and the Beast there is because in this case, the titular character is both the Beauty and Beast.

Let us make the list even longer, friends. Let us take back our public property. Let us stop comparing our work to Disney before we have even written it.

EDIT: Demon’s Mirror: I forgot about this one. This is a reimagining of The Snow Queen which is no Frozen. I would classify it as a horror-adventure that does not shy away from body horror, trauma and fates worse than death.

[books]

Writer Spotlight: Ryan North

Ryan North (@ryannorth) is a New York Times-bestselling and Eisner-winning writer who once messed up walking his dog so badly it made the news. His recent work includes the nonfiction How To Invent Everything, the semi-fictional graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, and the so-far-fictional Unbeatable Squirrel Girl series for Marvel. Ryan lives in Toronto, where he writes for video games, television, and his long-running webcomic Dinosaur Comics. We chatted with him about his new book, How to Take Over the World: Practical Schemes and Scientific Solutions for the Aspiring Supervillain. Be sure to click through to the end for dinosaurs.

So, what made you want to create a guide to taking over the world? What makes you qualified to be taking on this very important public service?

I've been writing superhero comics for Marvel and DC for years, and part of the job is coming up with these big ambitious charismatic plots for the villains to pull off (throwing your enemies into the sun, digging a hole to the Earth's core, becoming immortal, that sort of thing). I thought it would be fun to explore how credible they are here in the real world, where we don't have things like shrink rays and mind-control helmets. So really, it's a book exploring the edges of science and technology through the lens of comic book supervillainy.

That, and I think having a book in your house with "HOW TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD" on the spine is inarguably awesome.

Who is this book for? What makes an aspiring supervillain?

One thing I kept in mind when writing the book is that I always wanted to talk about super-crime, big huge heists that have never been done before, rather than the stuff that happens routinely here in the real world. Robbing a bank is normal crime. Stealing a bank is when you get into the fun space of super-crime.

There are a couple reasons for that: real-world villainy is horrible and dehumanizing, and I'm absolutely not qualified to write about it, but the idea of trying to pull off comic book super-crime in the real world is interesting and fun, and I am absolutely willing and able to think those plots through to their logical conclusions. You want a secret base? Terrific, but you're going to need a way to keep it secret—so let's look at the challenges of living long-term at sea, or underground, or underwater, or in space, or on Mars, etc. And henchpeople require air and food and water—so now we need to think about farming in these conditions and generating power to support all of that. But really, the biggest challenge is that people also get weird and sad when locked alone together, so let's lock eight people in a room together for two years and see what happens, by which I mean, let's study the IRL Biosphere 2 experiment where they did precisely that, and everyone went more than a little crazy. As soon as you take these plots seriously and start thinking things through to their logical conclusions, a lot of really interesting science and history and sociology falls out.

In the book, I define supervillainy as when someone outside existing power structures accomplishes something that's not getting done on its own. The fun thing about that is that the exact same definition applies to superheroes. So really, it's for anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them through this fun fictional lens, and especially those who have read the news and thought, "You know what? I could do it better."

Given a choice, which scheme would be your preferred mode of world domination, and why?

There's a chapter where we look at the problem of immortality, which sounds like complete fantasy until you look at all these tech bros who desperately don't want to die and are spending fabulous amounts of money on trying to delay it for as long as possible, or even indefinitely. We look at the actual science of aging and the technologies people are trying to develop to stop it, but for me, the most interesting part happens when you say, "okay, so assume any of this works. What then?"

Put aside the fact that very few people would look at our planet with seven billion people on it and say, "You know what? This world needs more people. Oh, and they should never die." Also, put aside the fact that death is a safety valve on human civilization, where even the worst people we've ever produced can't hang on to power forever because they too will die. The real issue is whether you put your chips on cryonics or uploading your brain to a computer or cloning or telomere extension or whatever. These are all medical or technological interventions, which means they all cost money—and the second you have an immortality scheme that costs money, you've created this almost cartoonish dystopia where rich people get to live forever, and poor people don't. I don't see a way around it—immortality is something that would absolutely be horrible for both the planet and for us as a civilization.

But!

If you're the only one who's immortal—if you discover it and hide it from the world and never share your technology, then all those issues just disappear. Now immortality is just this fun thing you're doing, and the rest of the world doesn't have to suffer. You get all the benefits of living indefinitely, learning more than the rest of us ever will, and nobody else has to suffer! For me, that's the peak supervillain mindset: wanting to make the world a better place but ending up helping only yourself. That's the scheme in the book I'd do. Not take over the place, but just...stick around and watch it for a lot longer.

What's your writing process like? How do you merge the scientific bits with the fun bits?

When I'm writing, I'm also reading, so I'm always trying to keep myself entertained. If it was boring to write, it'll be boring to read! And when I'm re-reading, I'm always looking for ways to keep it funny. I believe we learn so much easier when we're having fun, so that's what I'm always trying to hit.

That said, my process is to write alone where nobody can see me because when I'm writing jokes, the only way to know that they're working is if I make myself laugh, and it's so embarrassing to be that guy at the coffee shop who's typing and then pausing to laugh out loud at his own stuff. Just mortifying. I, therefore, write in an empty room to hide from the shame of my craft, lol.

What does the Tumblr of an aspiring supervillain look like? What's it called? What does it contain? Are they vocal about their super-villainy, or are they more of a lurker?

Okay, so Doctor Doom's Tumblr is clearly full of reblogs with his self-aggrandizing additions in the tags, and he's probably got a macro to type out "#FOOLS!!" because he uses it so often. He's also always starting fights with strangers and secretly proud when a post he started gets a ton of notes because Doom conquers all.

On the other hand, someone like Poison Ivy definitely has this really beautiful, well-curated feed. She fills it with some really compelling environmental arguments and gorgeous pictures of her plants. You probably wouldn't even notice she's a villain until she takes over Gotham with giant venus flytraps that can also walk around somehow.

And finally, someone like the Riddler just has the worst Tumblr in existence, auto-playing midi files and sparkles that follow your cursor around, except the sparkles are question marks. It's filled with old memes, and he keeps posting bad riddles that you can easily Google the answers to, and it's pretty clear he got them off Google too.

These are my correct opinions.

How do you get someone to publish a book that incites world dominance?

Haha, well, I don't expect anyone to actually do any of the schemes in the book—mainly because I priced them all out, and you need 56 billion dollars, all in, just to start! But the real answer is that using a fictional lens to explore actual nonfiction is something that works. It's a fun thought experiment!

Can you talk about working with illustrator Carly Monardo?

Carly is the best, and I was so pleased to work with her on this. Basically, I'd call her up, and I'd talk about the chapter and what I thought an illustration could be for various parts, and she'd say, "okay, but what about this idea instead" and come up with something way better.

It was her idea to have a single supervillain recur throughout the book—so as you're learning these plots, this character's doing them right alongside you, and you have this companion throughout. She's so great (both Carly and the supervillain we came up with), and her work totally elevates the book.

That said, in the end, I asked her what we should name our new supervillain, and she said, "Patricia." And I said, "Why?" and she said, "So that her full name is Patricia Chaddams," and I said "Why?" and she said, "So then, for short, her name is Pat Chaddams," and I said "Huh?" and she said, "So that way it sounds like the 1998 Robin Williams vehicle Patch Adams." So uh, I suppose you take the good with the bad.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever received as a writer? Do you have any advice for budding writers of humorous science-based nonfiction?

In comics, the best advice I ever got was "your fundamental unit of story is the page," which means to always keep in mind how it'll work when it's printed and in someone's hand and how turn-the-page reveals work. But when you're writing prose, that doesn't apply because you don't (usually) know where on the page your words will land!

My best advice for people interested in science writing, science communication, or really any sort of writing is this: read outside your genre. People who only read comics end up writing comics that sound an awful lot like the comics that already exist. People who only read nonfiction write nonfiction that's also very samey. But when you read stuff that doesn't typically cross over, you're seeing stuff that others aren't, and you can start drawing connections nobody else is seeing. Don't turn your nose up at other genres just because they're not what you normally read or write. I would much rather read a sci-fi novel from someone who's read a ton of steamy romance novels than someone who's only read a bunch of other sci-fi novels, you know?

Who's your favorite supervillain of all time?

Doctor Doom. He's a scientist who wears a metal suit, and he knows magic. Plus, he's got a cape. What's not to like?

After perfecting schemes to take over the world, what's next for you?

Keep writing Dinosaur Comics (@qwantzfeed baby!) and hopefully keep getting to write weird little books that get to do things like "take an absurd premise absolutely seriously." It's my new favorite genre.

[lokiondisneyplus]

LOKI 4 PRESIDENT! For a narcissist trickster sorcerer with the personality of a praying mantis, there are few occupations in the world that would suit Loki better than president of the United States. A few years ago, in the summer of 2016, comic book writer Christopher Hastings imagined just that in a satirical limited series for Marvel titled Vote Loki.

Five years later, Vote Loki has found its way to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the fifth episode of the Disney+ series, “Journey Into Mystery,” a variant Loki (still played by Tom Hiddleston) appears in the desolate “Void” surrounded by a Mad Max-esque posse. On Loki’s tattered blazer is a red, white, and blue “Loki” button, indicating this Loki was, uh, elected to lead. Turn on the subtitles on Disney+ and you’ll find this Loki is credited as “President Loki.”

In an email to Inverse, Christopher Hastings says he had no idea this was going to happen.

“I found out [they were doing Vote Loki] when a trailer for the show featured the campaign outfit from Vote Loki,” Hastings tells Inverse.

When Inverse exchanged emails with Hastings, it was prior to the episode’s premiere, to which Hastings said he was “very curious to see exactly what from the comic gets into the show.”

“I love time travel and multiverse material,” the writer says in praise of Loki. “I am a big fan of the TVA as a setting. I'm eager to see how it goes, and what it might mean for the next phase of MCU movies, especially since multiverse wackiness seems to be a major part of those upcoming movies.”

In 2004, while a student at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, Hastings wrote and illustrated The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, a serial webcomic about a doctor who is also a ninja. The series was a cult hit, at one point attracting 110,000 unique visitors a day. By 2011, Hastings was doing work for Marvel, writing single issues of A+X and Howard the Duck. With Chris Bachalo, he co-created Gwenpool — a bizarre blend of Spider-Man ex-girlfriend Gwen Stacy and Deadpool — and penned the 2016-2018 solo series The Unbelievable Gwenpool, teaming up with Japanese studio Gurihiru to create the character’s deeply unique comedic tone.

But during Gwenpool, Hastings spent the summer of 2016 playing with a different Marvel trickster: Loki. In the four-issue miniseries Vote Loki, Hastings spoofed the chaos that was the 2016 race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. In Vote Loki, an ambitious Loki seeks the seat of the president with a very unique campaign strategy: being honest about lying.

With “President Loki” having a minor cameo in the MCU, Inverse caught up with Hastings to look back on his explicitly political riff that took place inside the Marvel Universe.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Take me back to the origins of Vote Loki. When did the seed for the story plant in your mind? What was going on in the world of culture/politics at that time?

Gosh, it's tough to come up with one thing specifically, because we were making the comic by the seat of our pants, and so many things got scrapped and rewritten along the way, often at the last second. But one of the core topics I wanted to cover had to do with narratives versus reality. It's kind of a given that in the world of politics, truth is this malleable thing, and now more than ever all you have to do to make people believe a lie is to repeat it enough times.

I liked the idea of Loki playing with narrative in a way that wasn't necessarily outright lying, more bending. (Except the bit about being born in Maryland. One outright lie there.) The other driving point I wanted to explore was how Americans can have a tendency to incorporate their national-level politics into part of their identity, and what that does to a person, particularly when a character like Loki is the one on the ticket.

What sort of conversations did you have with Marvel about a political satire starring Loki? What was the elevator pitch that got approval?

Like I said, things changed so many times, I'm not even entirely sure how many versions were kind of approved and then scrapped on the way to get to what was actually published. I think it was more that I assured editor Wil Moss that I could jump on the book (which Marvel was determined to make; they just hadn't decided who was writing it when I was pitching) after talking about the stuff about narrative and identity, and the basic idea that the viewpoint character shouldn't actually be Loki but a journalist covering Loki's campaign.

Vote Loki introduced the character of Nisa Contreras. What was the primary inspiration for her?

That would be my real-life friend, Nisa Contreras. She's not a journalist, but she’s someone I'm sure could take down Loki if he were a) real and b) got on her bad side. I wanted the story to be more about witnessing the tension and the comedy of Loki running for president, about not knowing what was up his sleeve. And so I came up with [a] journalist.

Vote Loki was published over the summer of 2016 when the election was ramping up in awkward ways. (“Pokémon Go to the polls!”) Did the real election influence the comic in any way, including any specific moments?

The comic was a direct response to things that were happening during the 2016 campaign, specifically that a “joke” candidate that was obviously terrible could get pretty far with enough media oxygen and a comfortable political system that ignored the disgust a lot of people had with it.

Vote Loki ran for four issues. Was there ever a possibility for more?

If it was a smash hit, I believe there would have been a President Loki to directly follow Vote Loki.

What do you think of Vote Loki's inclusion in the TV series?

Top five surreal moments of my life.

Do you think Vote Loki could be the focus of its own adapted series/movie?

Oh for sure. You wouldn't even have to take the material from our comic; there's so much more brand-new political madness that a new Vote Loki series or movie could tap into.

A lot has happened in the five years since Vote Loki was published. What are your feelings looking back now in 2021? Did your opinions on the book ever change?

There was a lot happening in American politics in 2016 I missed and wish I had been able to see to include. For example, how broken political polling has become. I had no idea, along with the rest of the country.

It was tricky to do a cohesive narrative amongst a shifting Marvel continuity we had to stay inside; a lot of feedback and demands from various sources within the company and an election that was changing every single day. It was truthfully (heh) a quite stressful book to write, but looking back on it I'm proud to see what we absolutely nailed about American culture. In particular, what we had to say about politics as entertainment and identity, and how a slippery enough politician can not only shake scandal [off] by speeding up an already fast news cycle but embrace and twist it to their advantage.

LOKI WILL AIR ITS FINAL EPISODE JULY 14 ON DISNEY+. VOTE LOKI IS AVAILABLE NOW.

[nasikepal]

Nachi's Log on Making Webcomics, part 1

People say "Write your stories! Draw your dream comic! Just start your own project!" But we all know shit is fucking hard to do.

As someone whose job deals a lot with managing projects daily, I find their train of thoughts extremely interesting. That is, the hows, the whys of people arriving to certain decision and stuff--on whether to start a project, or to continue doing a project in certain shape, or at one point finally stop pursuing it.

Based on that, I decided to record my own 'train of thought' on making my own passion project, a webcomic, in a somewhat readable format for myself in the future. She'll most likely wonder why the hell the 2021 me took this particular direction of writings.

But, if you, dear reader, think this record is interesting, by all means read this too! A quick disclaimer, though:

This is not intended to be a how-to.

This also does not talk about commercial projects.

The summary of this log, would be...

To my future self reading this log: at this point of time, I finally, finally been able to start the webcomic I have wanted to write since years ago thanks to these deceptively dumb things...

I stopped trying to write shit I don't enjoy learning more of

I found this previously-hidden, surprisingly huge urge to bully my own OCs

I learned some shortcuts that don't make my exert too much effort, so i dont feel like crap if my drawing turned crap [On a separate post, TBA]

Oh yeah, also to my future self? This is gonna be a long read.

As a context, a few days ago I finally uploaded the first page of my comic, a comedy story about a girl thrown headfirst to people with their Indonesian folklore-inspired superpowers--aptly named What The Folk. I took inspiration from traditional folklores like Timun Mas, a girl that killed a man-eating giant by throwing some stuff. I like these kind of things.

This story did not start this way six years ago though. It certainly was Not titled WTF when I was like "oh shit... what if.. girls... but folklore powers" for the first time.

It started with totally self indulgent me drawing the Timun Mas as a cute girl with a fucking gun, eight years ago. For reasons.

Oh, if you haven't noticed, the aesthetic was also very .. Indonesian, by the costumes of the characters. A plural, now, because I wanted to adapt what's basically Timun Mas folklore to action-packed comic.

Extremely cool in premise. Anyway, for some reason, 2016-me onwards decided, nah, I'm not writing a cool battle-inspired folklore story. I'm gonna write a gag comic in modern Indonesian setting, and while they fight shit with cool-looking folklore inspired powers, the focus is more on the stupid shit they did to fight enemies.

Stop stop stop right there. Wait, what? It goes from serious battle story to a gag action? What fuels this sudden tonal and aesthetic shift?!

Here's a further detail on my decision.

1. I stopped trying to write shit I don't enjoy learning more of

Okay. Battle stories usually feature badass fights, of course it's the part of the story!! You know, like shonen manga.

It took me like four years of trying and failing to draw what i have on my mind, to acknowledge that, crap, I don't actually enjoy making stories about people punching the lights out of others. I don't actually enjoy learning how to make my fights cooler than ever. I don't feel happy when I have to choreograph fights. I like Jojo's Bizarre Adventure not for the lightning barrage of punches, for goodness sake, but the sheer ridiculous-genius of the asspulls on the fight!

With some reflections, maybe the thing that made me really hard to acknowledge this was the attachment to the idea. Because I was "the first person who thought of this idea, so only I can draw it". While there's nothing wrong with attachments, it is a problem if I myself don't even like writing this idea I'm attached with.

So, what do I like, then?

Parodies. Comedies. I find immense joy if I can find the perfect punchline from what is considered 'Canon'. (Also I won't let anyone say comedies are inferior than battle stories. Those two require different skillsets.)

Campus environment. College was one of the most interesting years of my life to date, and I want to share the little tidbits like me eating campus' street food. Really mundane, but it's where my heart is.

Part time job shenaningans. My days as non-permanent worker is just too eventful not to adapt to my OCs.

When I decided to scrap absolutely Everything beside the folklore powers and the basic trait of said characters, then start adding ultra self indulgent things, writing becomes so. Much. Easier.

When I go with this strategic decision, I was plagued with doubts, though:

Others might be using this idea then! Not you! And so what? There are no two same thoughts in this world. If one coffee shop AU with one pairing can evolve to various takes on this idea from multiple authors, why not this particular idea, too? No one can write what you can write. Nachi, you need to take pride of your own flow of thoughts and strengths.

Won't they look cooler with traditional Indonesian inspired aesthetic instead of modern place? It might look cool on concept, but you don't like drawing it. Also, it will look insincere. Drop it.

What about the scrapped ideas? Fuck sunk costs. I compiled them on a separate masterpost I can look back if I'm stuck in the future. But that's for the future, I'm not dealing with that now. Bye, bitches. You made me stuck in a limbo.

This decision to start anew goes hand-in-hand with the 2nd point, the newfound desire to.....

2. I found this previously-hidden, surprisingly huge urge to bully my own OCs

Because I was too focused on getting the events and battle panels right while felt agonized, I didn't even care that much about the characters!!! And when I go to the much enjoyable road of comedy, this requires me to actually think about the characters. My OCs.

They are a delightful mess. I love them. I want to put them to frankly frustrating or confusing situations for the funsies.

I start thinking more of their dynamics. Wrote their background and stuff. Wrote their favourite genre to sing karaoke of, I swear it's fucking fun. Why wasn't I doing this sooner? Oh yeah, the attachment to initial ideas. I swear....

This newfound direction and motivation of my webcomic is further moderated by a very, very determining factor. The technical stuff involved in drawing the stories. The making of actual comic, beyond the storyboard.

As I will talk a lot LOT more, I decided to continue this particular topic on a separate post.

Ending Ment for Part 1

Looking back, I felt happy I finally are able to overcome the stupid roadblock. It can come sooner, yeah, but I don't really regret how it come after years of agony. Funnily.

[metalandmagi]

Summer 2020 Anime Worth Watching!

Apparently it’s time for the summer anime season, even though it feels like time is meaningless at this point. But somehow, there are still new shows coming out, so if you’re looking for something to watch when you’re stuck at home, here’s a list of the first impressions I got from this season. I don’t really know if it’s going to be worth it, considering how the spring season delayed so much, but here we are. 

As always, not all of these are available on Crunchyroll, but I’ll put a * next to the ones that are.

And if you’re looking for a bit more variety, I have lists for 2019 and the rest of this year’s seasons too...because remember when there was good anime being released instead of just everything being an ecchi or a second season?

2019 master list

My master list for every season of 2020 anime

New Shows!

*The God of High School: An over the top action anime consisting of one big tournament arc! It follows a group of teenagers competing in the epic “god of high school” martial arts tournament to determine the best fighter in the country. Following in the footsteps of Tower of God, this is the newest “crunchyroll original” that is being adapted from a South Korean webcomic. You can tell from the first episode that this will be a spectacle with crazy characters and lots of wild action and humor!

Great Pretender: When a Japanese con man pickpockets the wrong person, he ends up hopping on a plane to Los Angeles and getting wrapped up in a scheme with a sassy Frenchman named Laurent...who basically runs the mafia. There’s humor, there’s plot, there’s great characters, and it’s kinda gay. It’s an exciting original anime from studio Wit, so the animation is bursting with character, and both the music and the general vibe remind me a lot of Baccano or even Lupin III. And since it takes place in America with several foreign characters, there's hilarious English and accent shenanigans abound! The bad news is it’s still in Netflix jail, so if you want to watch it legally you’re kinda stuck for now. 

Japan Sinks 2020: A giant earthquake hits Japan, and a family must cope with the mayhem together. Because what the hell else could possibly go wrong this year? This is a new series (based on a novel) made by Masaaki Yuasa, the guy behind Ride Your Wave and Walk On Girl, if that tells you anything about the style of this anime. I’ve only watched the first two episodes so far, but I heard it goes from being a gripping realistic disaster series to a balls to the wall adventure. To be honest, disaster shows/movies freak me out, and this one is pretty devastating so far, which is a testament to how well it's made. But I appreciate that they include glimmers of hope when they’re needed. The best moments are the quiet ones that focus on the actual people and the narration that juxtaposes the time periods. There’s so much atmosphere, and the music really enhances the experience. And it’s all out on Netflix now, with a dub and a sub!

Deca-Dence: When humanity has been pushed to the edge of extinction by monsters called the Gadoll, the rest of civilization is forced to live in enormous mobile fortresses and send groups out to battle the unknown monsters. So basically like Mortal Engines but the fortresses can turn themselves into giant fists and punch the monsters. We follow a girl named Natsume who wants to be one of the soldiers who fight the Gadoll, but she is constantly rejected because of her prosthetic arm. So she ends up with five years of cleaning duty supervised by a stern but mysterious badass named Kaburagi. I honestly don’t care at all about the plot of the anime, because for me the characters are what drives everything, and these character dynamics are great. I’m not going to say it’s the most original story, but I think it’s fun so far. 

*Rent-a-Girlfriend: A typical harem/romance anime that follows the world’s most annoying protagonist named Kazuya. After Kazuya is dumped by his first girlfriend, he seeks out a rental girlfriend out of self pity….BECAUSE APPARENTLY THAT’S A REAL SERVICE THAT EXISTS IN JAPAN?! Like you can actually rent moms/dads/girlfriends/boyfriends and so on. Anyway, his fake girlfriend is the picture of anime waifu perfection...until Kazuya starts being his typical asshole self and she reveals her true nature of being an absolute sass master who don’t take no shit from no boring ass main character. Shenanigans happen and the two of them end up having to pretend they are in a real relationship. And I’m just calling it now...Kazuya’s grandma is the real best girl of the series. If you want a harem that’s actually funny and doesn’t mind roasting the protagonist, give this one a shot. Although I wish this were just a straight up romance instead of a harem because there is no way in hell that any girl, let alone more than one would want actually to date this guy. 

Next Seasons and Continuations!

*Fruits Basket 2019 (Season 2): Thank goodness Fruits Basket wasn’t delayed or cancelled last season because sometimes I feel like it was the only thing getting me through the spring. I’ve ranted about how good it is enough by now. If it can’t brighten your year, then nothing will. Just watch it if you haven’t already. 

*Re:ZERO-Starting Life in Another World (Season 2): Subaru is still trapped in another world, and he’s still as angsty as ever, but that’s not going to stop him from constantly putting himself through hell when he keeps dying horribly every time he needs to reset the timeline! There are mysterious new villains, nobody knows who Rem is (again) and I think there’s a plot somewhere under all the suffer porn. Seriously though, this show is pretty cool (even if I was two years late to the party). It’s one of the most interesting isekai anime I’ve ever seen, and it feels like it’s acting as a deconstruction of the genre, kinda like how Madoka Magica is for magical girl anime...both shows certainly have enough crying. The story is weird but interesting, the world building is cool, the villains (and sometimes the heroes) are batshit crazy to watch, and I like its moments of humor. 

No Guns Life (season 2): The story of Juzo, the hard boiled detective who plays by his own rules continues in the second season of No Guns Life. In case you missed the first season, this is a mystery/action anime that feels like an old noir film had a cyberpunk baby. There’s underground conspiracies, there’s interesting side characters, and...oh yeah the main character has a gun for a head. That’s right. we came to see a bara detective with a literal gun for a face, but we stayed for the world building and mysterious plots!

*Fire Force (Season 2): I’m going to be honest here, I really didn’t know if I should include this one or not. I have a major love hate relationship with Fire Force, but I figured there may be other people out there who would like it more than I do. So in case you missed the first season, this show follows a group of firefighters who puts out fires caused by spontaneous combustion using a mixture of guns and super powers. It was created by Atsushi Ōkubo, aka the guy who made Soul Eater. So it’s bound to be amazing right?

Not necessarily. Strap in for this one lads. 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed with this show overall. Its main characters just aren’t that interesting most of the time, it can’t decide on what kind of show it wants to be, and so much of it just dragged for a good part of the series. I don’t know if it was a problem of pacing or if the plot was just that uninteresting for a while. The first couple episodes set up a very unique plot, filled with intriguing moral dilemmas. And then it proceeded to abandon everything interesting in favor of badly timed fan-service. It just couldn’t strike the balance that Soul Eater had between its humor and its sincerity. If they wanted to make an ecchi show, they should have just made one instead of inserting the same overplayed scenarios into every episode. I don’t care if a show has fan-service as long as it fits the tone, or if it only has certain episodes dedicated to playing up the humor. But Fire Force has a habit of just inserting it wherever it wants regardless of what’s actually happening in the episode. Also, some of the humor revolves around one of the main female characters who has a really messed up self image because she’s slightly more muscular, and not a tiny delicate flower like some of the other girls. Not going to pretend that doesn’t bug me. 

But that doesn’t mean there is nothing good about it! If there wasn’t, I wouldn’t have finished the first season, and I wouldn’t be including this one. So far, the second season has actually been funny because it made the first episode more like filler, instead of cramming in too much plot all at once. And to the surprise of no one, the animation is absolutely god tier. I wish it was being used for something other than clumsy fan-service, but it’s still really something to see. The world building is super creative and 100% my aesthetic, and there were a couple side characters I really loved later in the series (Benimaru). And I did like the twists and turns the series took later in the season when it actually focused on the conspiracy behind the fire force and the cult. When it follows the mysteries it sets up, it’s more fun to watch. Who would have thought? 

TLDR: There’s good stuff and there’s bad stuff. This show is really something you have to watch for yourself to decide if it’s going to be worth it. I’m going to at least try the second season, because I want to see where this goes, but it’s on thin ice. 

Honorable Mentions

Isekai edition! Both of these came out last season, but I hadn’t mentioned them when I made my spring list. But they’re both getting dubs now so I’m still counting them.

*My Next Life as a Villainess- All Routes Lead to Doom!: A twist on the isekai genre where our main protagonist wakes up as a character in her favorite otome game...only to find that she’s actually the bitchy rival side character who ends up either dead or exiled in every route of the game. So naturally she does everything she can to prevent this by becoming a sweet and caring supporting character...who inadvertently makes every single other character in the game fall in love with her. I ignored this show for the first few episodes because I need another isekai in the world like I need a hole in the head, but after hearing everyone rave about it, I caught up with it in no time. It’s a fun take on the otome game tropes, and it manages to be funny and sweet while not committing to any particular pairing.

*Ascendance of a Bookworm (Season 2): That’s right, it’s another isekai where an adult is reincarnated into the body of a child in a fantasy world. But this time, it’s a nerdy girl whose entire purpose in life revolves around reading books (can relate). However, when our main character Mine is thrust into this fantasy world, she quickly realizes that this particular fantasy setting is a little too...medieval  for her tastes...meaning a family of commoners like hers would have no clue how to read and books are only meant for rich people or the church. So of course Mine has to figure out how to either get her hands on some books or make them herself. This is a super cute show that I waited a long time to finally watch, and since the second season is finally being dubbed I wanted to shout it out. It’s just a wholesome isekai version of Dr. Stone. There’s no real action, but it’s a relaxing watch if nothing else. 

Well, there you have it. Hopefully nothing else gets delayed or cancelled because it’s pretty slim pickings as it is. And before anyone asks, I didn’t include GIBIATE because I thought it was a massive disappointment that somehow made a time travel horror anime plot boring. There’s also My Teen Romantic Comedy Snafu, but it’s been 5 years since I watched the other seasons and don’t remember anything about it. But there’s that too in case anyone is a fan of the series and didn’t know it got another season. 

See you next season…if the world is still here by then?

[destiny-smasher]

My personal 2020 GOTYs

1) Hades

This game, dudes. THIS GAME. A fraction of the budget, a fraction of the dev team size, reportedly HEALTHY development schedule and management...and imo it offers at least some of everything I want out of a single player video game. I have poured over 60 hours into this and I see myself putting in some more over time and ALL of the time I have spent has felt rewarding and edifying. Clever design, smart writing, organic voice acting, sharp gameplay, and all done at a fraction of the resources of these big budget, bloated games. You love to see it.

2) Final Fantasy 7 Remake (Part 1?)

I went into this year not caring much about this game at all. FF7 was a game I played as a teen, enjoyed, respected, and moved on from pretty easily. This Remake, so far, has done more than I could’ve expected in terms of actually REMAKING a game. It’s literally a new adaptation, and I as pleasantly surprised at just how hard it went. From realizing the world of Midgar into something so full of detail and plausibility, to reiterating and doubling down on its postmodern anti-corporation themes, to making Barret the character I loved the MOST somehow?? Combining everything I love about real-time RPG action with a tactical strategy element long missing from the genre, reimagining and fleshing out characters and concepts into something deeper and more meaningful...I’ve never considered myself a huge FF7 fan but this game was really something, and I absolutely cannot wait for more (and praying they do my girl Yuffie justice). I’ve been super skeptical of Nomura as a director given...the mess that has become Kingdom Hearts, but as it turns out, when he has others to reign things in, some surprisingly nuanced stuff for an anime game can come out of it. It has its flaws, to be sure, but it’s still the most enjoyable experience I had with a big budget game this year.

3) The Last of Us Part 2

I feel conflicted over this one in particular - I feel Neil is not longer a director I respect the way I did back with the first game. I feel Naughty Dog is falling victim to all of the late capitalist issues plaguing big budget game dev. But I also love this game. It’s much more flawed than the first, but that’s mainly because it’s more ambitious and complicated. It’s THE most flawed game on this game, honestly, but overall as a game I am compelled to respect its writing, its gutsier decisions, its art direction, acting, presentation, etc. It’s an impressive game and the most technically impressive game I played all year if not all generation. Props where they’re due, but at the same time, I think this game was poorly directed and I love it in spite of issues with its production, rather than because of some strong vision. That’s the big Sony bucks, I suppose, matched with a dev team willing and apparently somehow able to fulfil what they want to create. I still get the impression there was a bit of ‘design by committee for a mainstream audience’ kind of shit going on - how could there not with something this big? - and as a result I think the game is a bit bloated. Shave off about 3-5 hours from a few spots and it’d be a more focused game, and maybe I’d feel more edified and satisfied rather than weirdly conflicted. Even so, a huge accomplishment and I hope to see more games tackle premises as ambitious as this down the road.

4) Bug Fables

This game technically launched last year but it debuted on console in 2020, and I didn’t play it until then. This is as close to a follow-up to old school Paper Mario as it gets, while simultaneously doing a lot to forge its own identity and even improve on the formula presented in the previous games. Its rough around the edges but that’s mainly because it’s an independent game, and it’s amazing just how well the dev team was able to reproduce the scope and details of this specific subgenre of RPG, all while continuously implementing new game design elements and multiple features that make it feel more modern in its direction. Fantastic stuff, I’m still not even finished with it because I’ve been taking my sweet time, though I intend to finally finish it this month, and I have to say, it’s quite a special game in my opinion.

5) Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout

Absolute banger of a multiplayer game, really love the presentation, the concept, the overall execution, the way the team has been updating the game every month or so in response to feedback and implementing new content. So good to see the battle royale genre FINALLY pushed beyond just...arena shooting. Can’t wait to see where else this game can go over time.

6) Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Somehow this one slipped my mind when I first wrote this up, despite having poured well over 100 hours into it this year. I think part of it is that New Horizons did a lot of things I’ve wanted the series to do for so long, and yet is still far behind in terms of so many other things I wish they would do. Quality of life things prevent me from really re-investing into it, and yet despite that I have to admit it REALLY sucked me in for a solid few weeks and I continued to play off and on for months. It was the perfect game we collectively needed right when it came out and graphically I can’t think of how to really improve on that style. A really relaxing getaway I needed earlier this year, though like with previous AC games, I don’t find myself going back to it as much as I’d think I would.

7) Going Under

A surprise hit for me, this rogue-like swooped in from ‘heh that looks amusing’ to ‘oh wow this is legit just a great game.’ Its weird visuals, funky 3D gameplay, and surprisingly sharp storytelling make for a rogue-like unlike any other and one totally near the top for me.

8) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

Squeezed this in just this past week or so, and this one also satisfied me greatly. I wish we’d see more big budget open-world games like this -- laser focused, not wasting any time, and not being repetitious aside for completionists. So cool to see another team’s take on Miles after how much I fell for Into the Spider-verse, and very glad the team both homages that movie while subverting some expectations fans of the film might have, all while continuing to adapt Insomniac’s take on Spider-Man from a couple years ago.

9) Demon’s Souls (Remake)

As a big fan of FromSoft who never got too far into this one originally, it’s been great to visit it as if it’s a new Souls game with an alternate art style. And a very clean art style it has. This was a good pick to be remastered because many, even FromSoft fans like myself, missed out on it, and it feels unique from its predecessors while still showing a solid foundation they’d go on to build from.

10) Crash Bandicoot 4

An amazingly well done follow-up to the original trilogy, this game GETS what makes old school Crash games good, and it improves upon things in a number of ways, from making Coco the alternate hero, bringing back old faces in new lights, going ham with the visuals both in raw art and unique filters when replaying stages, and giving incentive for completion with so many great costumes. Well done, great old school platforming with modern design sensibilities. 

Honorable Mentions:

CrossCode

This also technically launched before 2020 but I didn’t play it until this year, and I don’t think it hit consoles until this year. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect going in, just remembering that I had enjoyed the demo well enough. This game delivers in most ways you could want from an indie game, with an expansive world of sidequests and RPG growth, a flexible combat system that can be nailbiting and engaging, and old-school dungeon designs with lots of environmental and elemental puzzles that really ask a lot of you. All of this capped with a surprisingly great narrative with characters I grew to love, including a much needed protagonist with a unique identity unlike any in games that I’ve played, as well as extra bits of detail and production values invested at JUST the right moments where the story needs it the most. It feels a bit tedious at times and part of me wishes more of the sidequest content involved direct interactions with the named, recurring characters, but it’s still one of the most impressive and well-done indie games I’ve ever played.

Katana ZERO

Razor-sharp game design, this one. It’s a brief but intensely focused experience that feels like the video game equivalent of a slick, experimental indie film. Could do with some more replayablity for those who want it but what’s here is just damn good and I gobbled this game down like a fantastic, hand-cooked meal at an atmospheric dive bar barely anyone knows about.

Necrobarista

Haven’t quite finished it yet but this is definitely one of the best visual novels I’ve ever experienced just due to how hard it goes on presentation and pushing for a more cinematic and thoughtful vibe than any other VN I’ve ever experienced. The characters and writing feel ripped out of an early 2000′s webcomic, for better and for worse, but all the same, it’s some fantastic stuff and it’s so refreshing to see a game set in Australia tackling a well-worn genre by giving it a new spin.

Slay the Spire

Another personal pick since this released in 2019, and I’m not quite sure which consoles it hit or when, but I didn’t get into it until early this year, and was totally hooked. Fantastically addictive, probably the most well-design deck-building rogue-like I’ve seen, certainly one of my favorite deck-building games in general. Apparently I’ve sunk 50 hours into it this year, more than most on this list, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that number spikes up again at some point.

[glass-scientists]

*Theoretically*, if TGS was ever adapted into a show, how much of an effect would the stuff you’ve done with the characters out of context (i.e., rp, discussion, cliffs of insanity, merch, etc) have on the adaptation process? Asking bc it would be a dream to have my prospective comic one day made into a show, but I’m worried I’ve ruined my chances by blabbing publicly about my ocs so much already

This is an interesting set of questions! 1) If a show gets adapted, there is actually little to no obligation to stick to anything from the original property. The ultimate example of this is How To Train Your Dragon, which scrapped the entire original book save for the title and some of the character names. In the case of the Glass Scientists, I would probably use most of the ‘canon’ comic and a decent amount of the stuff I’ve written about the characters and world. There’s not much story content in the merch, unless you count Bleeding Heart, which is canon. And while there are aspects of Cliffs of Insanity that still work for the characters, most of the confrontation between Jekyll and Frankenstein now happens in a different way than it did when I originally wrote it (back in like.....2011?). I would reference it more in spirit than in word.I would absolutely not use any fan RPs, which I would consider more the property of the fans themselves than the creator. There’s a little bit of gray area when it comes to fan discussion. It is true that creators will sometimes change storylines in response to The Discourse, but that probably isn’t the healthiest practice, as it can lead to awkward ret-conning or obsessively writing in plot twists in the hope that no fan ever will guess the ending to your story. At the same time, it’s really hard to avoid altogether!! Because you want to know what your readers think of your story!! I don’t often make changes to the story in response to fan discussion, but when I do it’s usually to clarify a story point that caused confusion or to explore a character more deeply when I saw that my idea of them in my head wasn’t translating to the page. 2) You have definitely not ruined your chances of making your story into a show by talking about it publicly! Honestly, if you get to pitch a show, executives will have no idea that you’ve posted about your story previously unless you tell them. They just don’t have the time to scroll through your social media history and piece together all the bits and pieces you’ve posted over the years. It IS true that recruiters and other hiring people will look at your social media, but they’re usually looking for A) a really quick impression of your overall work/artistic voice and B) any personality red flags (i.e. are you an obvious racist, sexist, etc.) Beyond that, people just don’t have the time. Every once in a while, an exec will notice an extremely popular webcomic or other online story, but . . . it really needs to be popular. And at that point, you’ve got to be the kind of person who can casually rattle off the number of eyeballs on your comic, and that number had better be in the millions. (I think. I only have a little experience in this area.) And even then, if you yourself do not have enough name recognition in Hollywood, there’s a decent chance that whoever is buying your show will just want to buy the show itself and attach someone more famous to actually make the thing (who could do whatever they want to your story). I realize that probably sounds super demoralizing! But that millions-of-viewers thing only really applies if you expect studios to come to YOU with an offer, which rarely happens. You can absolutely make your comic and then pitch it to a studio yourself, which I prefer to do anyway because it gives YOU control over how you want to present your story. You get to decide whether you want to keep, say, all five years worth of development work you did on the project or just keep the big rehaul you did over the summer. You control the studio’s first impression of your story, and that’s all that any exec has time to care about.BONUS: With that said--and this was not part of the original question--but you should never make a comic if the ONLY goal is to pitch it to a studio some day.  Pitching is always a weird and risky business which relies so much on luck and timing. It can be incredibly demoralizing if you rely on studio interest as your only metric for success. Make sure you enjoy making the comic for its own sake!

[lloydfrontera]

meh they made og!lloyd likeable and ksh!lloyd detestable in the webtoon and as if i would enjoy that when ksh!lloyd is the lloyd i like and the webtoon just keeps butchering him to a ugly face meme repetition. in the novel, og!lloyd keeps on complaining and blaming ksh!lloyd, the grim reaper scene removed og!lloyd's 'oh moment' of understanding that 'HE' was doesn't whi really didn't do anything but get angry at being in a tiny barony, that he decided to go to hell himself, after a year of seeing ksh!lloyd's action, also the novel keeps emphasizing ksh!lloyd's guilt at replacing og!lloyd which the webtoon just ignored all together, even removing when the demons get crushed and killed by the lava giant, which will later remove ksh!lloyd giving a monument to them which is another key character trait of ksh!lloyd, that he respects the dead, another thing that the webtoon removed ksh!lloyd's idea of using the centipede shells for railroad, also i wonder if webtoon!javier would still say they are at fault for being noisy to the lava giant when in the novel the lava giant killed thousands, nope just really tired of the direction the webtoon went on it was fun in the beginning but not anymore

YUP couldn't have put it better nonnie!

both ep 116 and 117 are guilty of this, but the latter really did make lloyd a lot more unlikable than he's supposed to be. and also that's kinda the problem with making og lloyd more sympathetic, more often than not you end up making everyone else look worse by comparison.

making him less of an asshole makes it look like everyone else was exaggerating by being afraid of him or despising him, but no!! they were totally justified with the way he acted! that's the point of his character!! he fucked up!! he fucked up so bad and so thoroughly he completely ruined every relationship he had and it took someone outright replacing him to repair the damage!! because he never would've done it himself! had he been left to his own devises he would've continued mistreating and abusing everyone around him and finally would've drank himself to death. it's no even speculation, that's literally what happened in the original novel!

lloyd knows this!! and he still feels guilty about replacing him! that's why he tried to help him! yes, part of it is because of his affection to arcos and marbella, but most of all comes from him feeling genuinely bad about taking his place! even tho he knows og lloyd would've died anyway!

it's,,, not good. when you make your protagonist more unlikable than he was in the original source. i cannot believe it has to be said at all but. that's not what an adaptation should do omg

also yes to your points about the lava giant! it wasn't just going to kill lloyd (something javier should've definitely be completely against anyway) but also it was completely decided to kill absolutely everyone. every single demon it came across. it wasn't just raising a reasonable complaint, it was on a killing rampage against people that had no real say on what was being done. javier would've never sympathized with that!

plus they completely changed that lloyd thought about abandoning the project in that area and going somewhere else to not disturb the giant and only started fighting and trying to run when he realized the lava giant wouldn't stop until it had killed everyone off. they just made him go straight into killing a creature that was trying to get rid of the noise he was creating. terrible choice i hated it lmao

for every good thing i have to say about the webcomic there's at least five bad things more i can talk about. but that's not fun for anyone so i keep most of them to myself. thank you for giving me a chance to let some of them out ashdksa

[scumerage]

Thinking about Season 3: the vertical battlefield... that won’t happen (a response)

[The original essay on Season 3 by @gofancyninjaworld​]

Well.... this topic was going to revisited this topic sooner or later. Just as Genos is the most frequent discussions of OPM for @gofancyninjaworld​ ....mine, while simpler (and maybe even more wrong), the OPM webcomic/manga/anime adaption. So please forgive me if I come off as arrogant, pigheaded, and high horsing. That is not my intention.

The whole arguement in the original essay as to why Saitama vs Orochi can't be the finale, whereas Tornado vs Psykorochi can, is...

The conclusion of Tornado's fight and downfall of the heroes is necessary for Season 3 to make sense.

Saitama vs Orochi is too deceptively conclusive as a heroic victory.

The first one is a complete story argument, not arc structure argument, and the second one is the second greatest argument in support of the first ending.

(A) Tornado vs Psykos and the downfall of the heroes aren’t necessary for Season 3:

Tornado vs Psykos and the heroes downfall, are they neccesary for the entire saga? Yes. But is the story up to Saitama vs Orochi problematic without them? No. It's a simple story of heroes defeating monsters and saving the world. Basic? Yes. Short? Absolutely. A measely appetizer compared to main course coming? 100% agree. But it works as a complete story, just as Season 1 did (and webcomic readers are far more justified in discrediting the Tornado vs Psykorochi fight by the same logic... it’s a fake ending vastly inferior to the true ending of the saga)

(B) Another 3-4 year hiatus is the OPM anime’s greatest enemy... not the short seasons:

It was stated earlier that the deceptive happy ending of is the second greatest arguement in support of the first ending? What is the first? The grave danger of another 4 year haitus... or even longer. Doesn't matter how well animated, how good the storytelling, and how many episodes the new season has... if mainstream fans don't come back to watch it. And the production committee, insulated as they are in their corporate bubble, know that.

The perfect example why trading time for quality eventually fails is Attack on Titan. The anime is pretty consistent with beautiful animation and banger war saga throughout, that began with even more popularity than OPM. But after a single 4 year wait for Season 2... what is it now? Just a very popular anime, on par with other series like Demon Slayer, MHA... or OPM Season 2. Yet somehow... somehow, OPM, which had one 3+ year haitus, AND a worse animated sequel... with recover after a second 3+ year wait?

Again, quality only matters to people who watch it... anyone who drops, forgets, never gets around to, or plain moves on with their lives? Even if OPM Season 3 was the best anime ever made... it will be absolutely worthless... to people who never see it. (That and JC Staff is by far the favorite to make Season 3... so story, not animation, would need carry).

(C) The manga is far, far away from the end of Tornado’s fight:

First off, ending, not with the climax of Tornado vs Psykos, but the start of the climax? That would be akin to ending with Saitama facing off against Boros, or Garou facing off against Death Gatling. That is not a conclusion. Not at all. There is no falling action. There is no story being completed. There is no satisfaction for the audience. Even the end of Season 2 was far, far superior... Garou’s lone wolf hero hunt ended. The Monster Association captured him. The heroes failed to stop him. The prologue of Garou and the Monster Associations’ story was over. The end.

Second, waiting for the end of Tornado vs Psykos as the Season 3 finale? The online manga hasn’t even started their climactic battle of the gods... Tornado and Psykos just reached the surface. Let alone the printed manga. And it won’t simply be a solo duel between the pair, even if Murata/ONE’s storyboard leaks aren’t to be believed.

Many heroes are rushing in to save civilians.

The S-Class heroes are being pulled to the surface.

Garou, Saitama/Flash, and the executives will still be running around underground.

The HA and the civilian populace will be watching the entire event.

This is no fast paced straight to the point boss battle like Boros’ invasion or Elder Centipede that can be covered in a couple hundred pages. There are too many variables, too many players, too many storylines being tangled together (at this point, Dr. Bofoi and Sonic might as well take action, if Mumen Rider can save civilians from Psykorochi, then Sonic sure as hell can wipe his butt and head over to hunt down Saitama! Same with Bofoi, where are your nukes?). This is is looking far closer to a 500 page battle royale. Which would normally mean the better part of a year for Murata to complete online, to, say, early 2021. But the current schedule is far from normal.

(D) The adaption schedule is still getting worse...

With Volume 22 delayed to October, and Volume 23 with Saitama vs Orochi delayed to who knows when, even the best schedule for Season 3 is late 2021/early 2022... 2.5 years since Season 2. Dangerously close to another 3 year hiatus... and that’s the best case scenario.

800 pages from Volume 22 (October 2020) to current chapter...

+500 pages to reach the Tornado ending

1200+ pages/6 volumes minimum

+2 years for the printed manga to reach the Tornado ending. End of 2022.

+1 year for Season 3 production. End of 2023.

[This is not accounting for any more major redraws by Murata... could be 2024 for all we know]

Not simply a 3-4 year wait for Season 2, but a 4-5 year wait for Season 3 ending on Tornado... that is a timeline disaster which would all but guarantee that OPM will be just another manga whose anime petered out due to loss in popularity and relevance. Popularity doesn’t equal quality... but neither does quality equal popularity.

[Even magically ending Season 3 on the “faceoff of Tornado and Psykos” would be Volume 26, released early 2022, pushing the anime to late 2022/early 2023, still a 3-4 year wait.]

(E) Why Season 2 suffered.... and comparing the two options for Season 3:

Last note: there is major difference between “rushing production” and “relasing a shorter season sooner”. The first reduces quality, the second reduces quantity. When looking at OPM Season 2, what were the main negatives?

Less Saitama...

Worse animation...

A cliffhanger ending...

Both versions of Season 3 will have less Saitama. Both will have similar animation quality (if anything a longer wait for two would be more rushed, for fear of a too long hiatus. That and two cour anime are generally lower quality than one cour). But to claim that Tornado vs Psykos is less of a cliffhanger ending than Saitama vs Orochi? Right after arguing that the heroic victory is too deceptive? The only argument, bad as it is, that can be made for Season 3 not ending on Saitama vs Orochi is the same one against Season 2 not ending on a cliffhanger.... webcomic fanatacism: “Screw hiatuses, screw the anime industry, screw the casual fans! Give me Saitama vs Garou!”

[beesmygod]

possibly a weird question but like i find the juxtaposition between cartoony lines and realistic-ish detailed shading in AGS really interesting, and i wanted to know like how did you settle on that style and what inspired it? (i think youve said in the past that you were inspired by sam & max which rules but im sure that isnt the only influence)

ok i’ve been sitting on this question for 16 days bc it was sent right before i had to leave on a very long trip and it deserved a more detailed answer than i could afford it at the time. thank you for waiting! i am going to write a lot more words than i should bc i dont really get to talk about how the sausage is made. i dont talk about this kind of stuff a lot because all of my knowledge and fumbling attempts to make a comic comes from a place of complete and utter ignorance of the genre, medium and the tools i use. i hope by writing things about the process, people who want to make webcomics feel more at ease knowing that no one knows what the hell they are doing.

first things first: here’s a secret about the creation process of AGS. the soft shading of the comic is entirely because every time i do cel shading it looks like total shit. i have absolutely no aptitude for it even now. when i first started AGS i had no skill at soft shading either, but i could do slightly more interesting moody things with it pulling from media i had grown up with. i grew up watching a lot of old movies on turner classic movies, so a lot of the aesthetics demonstrated by directors that worked in a grey scale medium really stuck with me. i loved the noirs (welles was really good at this kind of work, especially in “the lady from shang-hai” and “touch of evil”)  that used heavy shadows to obfuscate and set the tone of a scene or imply the motivations of a character. these movies and old twilight zone episodes (which i think still stand as really spectacular triumphs in use of grey scale contrast to invoke an unnerving atmosphere) represent the kind of imagery i want to pull from in my comic, when its busy not being a screwball comedy of errors.

the line work inspiration is another thing where it was just kind of what my body was able to produce. it’s not something i tried to consciously cultivate, its just kind of how things wound up. the comics i grew up reading probably influenced me the most. i think a lot of kids who make comics now grew up reading their parent’s comic collections and for me that was “bloom county”, “calvin and hobbes”, “the far side” and, later in my adolescence when i started reading comics on my own, “sam and max”. 

i went through the anime influence pre-teen years and that has definitely stuck around in some ways. i also grew up in that time where cartoon network had the rights to air looney tunes cartoons and my favorites were the chuck jones and tex avery shorts. i never really set out to be like “i want a cartoony style” and if i had my way i would be drawing in a semi-realistic painterly style, but this is what i’ve adapted into so im trying to do it the best i can. purcell draws backgrounds the way i wish i could.

i hope this answers some of your question, even if the overall answer is “idk my hands just do that”

[entamewitchlulu]

so i did a reading challenge this year and i wanna talk about what i read

transcription under the cut

i did Popsugar 2019 and wanna talk about what i read:  Book Reccs and Anti-Reccs 

1.) Becoming a Movie in 2019: Umbrella Academy (vol 1) by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

4/5. A fascinating take on superpowers, dysfunctional families, and the apocalypse. Can get pretty gory, confusing here and there and you have to pay close attention to panels for lore, but overall an entertaining romp.

2.) Makes you Feel Nostalgic: Circles in the Stream by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Middle grade novel about the magic of music, belief, and of course, friendship. Definitely written for kids, and has some unfortunately clumsy Native rep, but overall an absolute joy to dive into once again.

3.) Written by a Musician: Umbrella Academy (vol 2) by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba

4/5. Ramps up the confusion to ridiculous degrees with some absolutely bonkers, unexplained arcs, but still fun to watch this dysfunctional family do its dysfunctional thing.

4.) You Think Should be Turned into a movie: All That Glitters by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Continuation of Circles in the Stream, but with more unicorns, more rainbows, and more fae, which makes it automatically even better than the first.

5.) With At Least 1 Mil. Ratings on Goodreads: 1984 by George Orwell   

1/5. I understand why it's important and all but wasn't prepared for some of the more graphic scenes and the overall hopelessness of the message.  Would not recommend or read again.

6.) W/ a Plant in the title or cover: The secret of Dreadwillow carse by Brian farrey

5/5. A fantasy world where everyone is always happy, save for one girl and the princess, who set out to solve the mystery of their kingdom. Poignant and great for kids and adults.

7.) Reread of a favorite: Cry of the Wolf by Rachel Roberts

4/5. Yet another installment in the Avalon: Web of Magic series, which clearly I am obsessed with.  Please just read them.

8.) About a Hobby: Welcome to the Writer's Life by Paulette Perhach

5/5. A welcome kick in the pants, chock full of great advice told without condescension, and full of hope and inspiration for writers both new and old.

9.) Meant to read in 2018: The Poet x by Elizabeth Acevedo  

4/5. Absolutely beautiful coming of age novel told in verse.  Do yourself a favor and listen to the audiobook version.

10.) w/ "pop," "sugar," or "challenge" in the title: Black Sugar by Miguel Bonnefoy

2/5. I think maybe I just don't understand this genre.  Or maybe the translation was weird. I was confused.  

11.) w/ An Item of Clothing or Accessory on the cover: Our dreams at Dusk by Yuhki Kamatani

4/5. It had a lot more slurs/homophobia than I was prepared for, but otherwise is a very touching, relatable collection of queer characters living in a heteronormative world.

12.) Inspired by Mythology or Folklore: Ravenous by MarcyKate Connolly

3/5. A girl goes on an impossible quest to save her brother from a child-eating witch. Really wanted to like it more because I loved the first one, Monstrous, but it dragged a little.

13.) Published Posthumously: The Islands of Chaldea by Diana Wynne Jones

3/5. I adore Diana Wynne Jones, but this one was missing some of the magic of her other books. Not sure if it was because it had to be finished by someone else, or if I just grew out of her stories.

14.) Set in Space: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

4/5. Powerfully written story of a girl straddling tradition and innovation, who wields power through mathematical magic, surviving on a spaceship alone with a dangerous alien occupation after everyone else has been killed.

15.) By 2 Female Authors: Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian

2/5. Ostensibly a story about a revenge pact in a small island town, but leaves far too many dangling threads to attempt alluring you to the sequel.

16.) W/ A Title containing "salty," "bitter," "Sweet," or "Spicy": The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith  

3/5. It's okay but I literally just never know what anyone means at any time. Are they being reticent on purpose or do i just not understand communication

17.) Set in scandinavia: Vinland Saga by Makoto Yukimura

2/5. Technically and historically accurate and well made, but the story itself is not my cup of tea.  Very gory.

18.) Takes Place in a Single Day: Long WAy Down by Jason Reynolds

4/5. A boy goes to avenge his murdered brother, but ghostly passengers join him on the elevator ride down. Stunning and powerful character-driven analysis.

19.) Debut Novel: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

4/5. Charming and then surprisingly heart-breaking comic about Nimona, a shapeshifter who wants to become a villain's minion. Really love the villain/hero dynamic going on in the background, along with the dysfunctional found family.

20.) Published in 2019: The Book of Pride by Mason Funk  

4/5. A collection of interviews with the movers, shakers, and pioneers of the queer and LGBTQ+ community.  An absolutely essential work for community members and allies alike.

21.) Featuring an extinct/imaginary creature: Phoebe and her Unicorn by Dana Simpson

4/5. Incredibly charming, Calvin and Hobbes-esque collection of comics featuring the adventures of Phoebe and her unicorn best friend.

22.) Recced by a celebrity you admire: The Emerald Circus by Jane Yolen

2/5. Recced by my fave author Brandon Sanderson. An unfortunately disappointing anthology proving that any story can be made uninteresting by telling the wrong section of it.

23.) With "Love" in the Title: Book Love by Debbie Tung

4/5. One of those relatable webcomics, only this one I felt super hard almost the entire time.  Books are awesome and libraries rule.

24.) Featuring an amateur detective: Nancy Drew: Palace of Wisdom by Kelly Thompson

4/5. REALLY love this modern take on Nancy Drew, coming back home to her roots to solve a brand new mystery. Diverse cast and lovely artwork, though definitely more adult.

25.) About a family: Amulet by Kabu Kibuishi

4/5. Excellent, top tier graphic novel about a sister and brother who have to go rescue their mother with a mysterious magic stone. LOVE that the mom gets to be involved in the adventure for once.

26.) by an author from asia, Africa, or s. America: Girls' Last tour by Tsukumizu

4/5. Somehow both light-hearted and melancholy. Two girls travel about an empty, post-apocalyptic world, and muse about life and their next meal.

27.) w/ a Zodiac or astrology term in title: Drawing down the moon by margot adler

3/5. A good starting place for anyone interested in the Neo Pagan movement, but didn't really give me what I was personally looking for.

28.) you see someone reading in a tv show or movie: The Promised NEverland by Kaiu Shirai

4/5. I don't watch TV or movies where people read books so i think reading an adaptation of a TV series after watching the series counts. Anyway it was good but beware racist caricatures

29.) A retelling of a classic: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy by Rey Terciero

5/5. We can stop the Little Women reboots and retellings now, this is the only one we need. In fact, we can toss out the original too, this is the only one necessary.

30.) w/ a question in the title: So I'm a spider, so what? by Asahiro Kakashi

4/5. Cute art despite the subject matter, and a surprisingly enthralling take on the isekai genre. Love the doubling down on the video game skills.

31.) Set in a college or university campus: Moonstruck (vol 2) by Grace Ellis

2/5. An incredibly cute, beautiful, and fascinating world of modern magic and creatures, but unfortunately falls apart at the plot and pacing.

32.) About someone with a superpower: Moonstruck (vol 1) by Grace Ellis

4/5. Though nearly as messy plot-wise as its sequel, the first volume is overwhelmingly charming in a way that overpowers the more confusing plot elements.

33.) told from multiple povs: The Long way to a Small, Angry Planet by becky Chambers

4/5. Told almost in a serial format, like watching a miniseries, a group of found-family spaceship crew members make the long journey to their biggest job ever.

34.) Includes a wedding: We Set the dark on fire by Tehlor kay mejia

4/5. Timely and poignant, a girl tumbles into both love and resistance after becoming one of two wives to one of the most powerful men in the country.

35.) by an author w/ alliterative name: The only harmless great Thing by brooke bolander

3/5. Much deeper than I can currently comprehend.  Beautifully written, but difficult to parse.

36.) A ghost story: Her body and other parties by Carmen Maria Machado

4/5.  It counts because one of the stories in it has ghosts. A sometimes difficult collection of surrealist, feminist, queer short stories.

37.) W/ a 2 word title: Good omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

4/5. Charming, touching, and comical, probably the best take on the apocalypse to date. Also excellent ruminations on religion and purpose.

38.) based on a true story: The faithful Spy by John Hendrix

4/5. Brilliantly crafted graphic biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his assistance in fighting back against Nazi Germany.

39.) Revolving around a puzzle or game: the Crossover by Kwame alexander

4/5. The verse didn't always hit right with me, but the story is a sweet, melancholy one about family, loss, and moving on.

40.) previous popsugar prompt (animal in title): The last unicorn by peter s. Beagle

5/5. Absolutely one of my all-time favorite books, it manages to perfectly combine anachronism and comedy with lyricism, melancholy, and ethereal beauty.

41.) Cli-fi: Tokyo Mew Mew by Mia ikumi and Reiko Yoshida

4/5. Shut up it counts

42.) Choose-your-own-adventure: My Lady's choosing by Kitty curran

3/5. Cute in concept, a bit underwhelming in execution. Honestly, just play an otome.

43.) "Own Voices": Home by Nnedi Okorafor

3/5. The storytelling style was definitely not my style; while the first book was slow, too, it felt more purposeful. I found my attention wandering during this installment.

44.) During the season it's set in: Pumpkinheads by rainbow rowell

3/5. Cute art, but precious little substance.  The concept simply wasn't for me in the first place.

45.) LITRPG: My next life as a villainess: All routes lead to doom! by Hidaka nami

5/5. An absolute insta-fave! Charming art, endearing characters, an incredible premise, and so much sweet wholesome fluff it'll give you cavities.

46.) No chapters: The field guide to dumb birds of north america by matt kracht

3/5. It started out super strong, but the joke started to wear thin at a little past the halfway point.

47.) 2 books with the same title: Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roger

4/5. A brave and enduring personal story of growing up in and eventually leaving the Westboro Baptist Church. Really called to me to act with grace and kindness even more in the future.

48.) 2 books with the same title: unfollow by rob williams and michael dowling

1/5. How many times do you think we can make Battle Royale again before someone notices

49.) That has inspired a common phrase or idiom: THe Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

4/5. Definitely good and deserves it's praise as something that pretty much revolutionized and created an entire demographic of literature.

50.) Set in an abbey, cloister, Monastery, convent, or vicarage: Murder at the vicarage by agatha christie

3/5. I just cannot. physically keep up with all of these characters or find the energy to read between the lines.

ok that's all i got, what did y'all read and like this year?  (oh god it’s gonna be 2020)

[comicteaparty]

June 10th-June 16th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from June 10th, 2020 to June 16th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following  question:

How does poor web design affect if and/or how you read a particular webcomic?

carcarchu

it's a huge factor. if a comic is amazing in every way but the website or app makes it difficult for me to read i'm simply NOT going to read it. there are a lot of great series that i've put on the back burner just because the website is so annoying to navigate

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i've honestly never run into a website so bad it stopped me from reading a comic i was interested in

carcarchu

FYI the worst comic app i've ever experienced is Aqua Kiss which I downloaded to read a single series. it's the most barebones app imaginable with no search bar. if you want to read something you actually have to manually load each calendar week to find it and some stuff are buried dozens of pages back. and to make matters worse it doesn't have a "history" or "bookmarks" feature either

Deo101 [Millennium]

The worst things with sites that I see often are 1: huge headers, and 2: laggy sites (not really site design, but its adjacent I think) Another is if the pages are too big on the screen, so you can't, for instance, see some panels all at once. Those kinds of things can really ruin a reading experience for me

carcarchu

One example of a website that is hostile to the reading experience is ZMYK which for some reason hosts vertical scroll comics but cuts them up into little pieces as if they were comic format so you can't actually scroll through the entire chapter as it was intended to

That kind of thing grinds my gears so much how can something you have to pay for be that incredibly bad

Deo101 [Millennium]

I've also seen some sites that have graphic design issues, where elements are illegible due to their color, and some have very busy and distracting backgrounds. Those kinds of things won't necessarily ruin it, but they're distracting

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

forward comic's website was doing this weird thing where the further I read the longer pages took to load. Near the end it seemed they were taking 10 full seconds. Still read the whole thing though. Reading manga on shady sites with terrible internet connection as a kid has desensitized me

Oh one comic I was interested in but didn't read because of the site: I was kidnapped by lesbian pirates from outer space. It doesn't have a website. To read it you have to pirate (hehe) copies of the archive.

It's a pretty sad story- the author was young and tricked into giving up the rights to her series

She ended up taking the site down to prevent the company from getting any more money off of it

https://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/65353128180/its-with-extreme-sadness-that-i-announce-that-my

Here's her post about it

I think it can be a good warning message to us

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

For me, the biggest thing that deters me from reading a comic is if the website isn't well optimized for mobile (as someone who reads a lot on the go). This includes the images loading bigger than the page, or navigation being hidden on mobile, or glitchy scrolling, or any number of ungodly things. Also, too many ads. That'll turn me away in a heartbeat.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah ads are definitely a huge turnoff for me too

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

FYI the worst comic app i've ever experienced is Aqua Kiss which I downloaded to read a single series. it's the most barebones app imaginable with no search bar. if you want to read something you actually have to manually load each calendar week to find it and some stuff are buried dozens of pages back. and to make matters worse it doesn't have a "history" or "bookmarks" feature either

@carcarchu okay i just digested this comment and wtf

no search bar is laughably bad omg

how did you even find out about it

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah that's ridiculous hahahaha

carcarchu

it's a shame because there are genuinely good comics on there you can't read anywhere else?? and i found it because an artist i adore did a series for it but it got AXED after only 2 chapters and after that was pretty much scrubbed from the internet. i think it's a shame because it really had so much potential and it ended before the story was really able to start

it's a screenshot from the app. you can see that it is categorized reverse chronologically by week

the point of aqua kiss is to emulate monthly/weekly style manga magazines but in app form. however i think the execution of this idea was horrendous

SteffieMusings

Oh no! It must make reading there so challenging. As for me, if the navigation is so hard to understand/pages don't load properly when you click a link or when the website's colours hurt my eyes so much I can't stay there for too long.

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Honestly nowadays most of the CMS's out there share the same basic functionality and adaptability, so it's getting harder to screw up on that. Most sites are OK, if only a bit laggy. If the site takes less than 2 seconds to load and it's not so crowded that I have to look for the comic, I'm generally good.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

How much bad/inaccessible web design I'll tolerate is directly proportional to how much I care about the comic.

I've dropped a couple series in the middle of the archive just because they changed the site design to screw up the tracking of bookmarking sites, so I would've had to figure out an alternate way to keep track of it, and it didn't seem worth the effort

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh yeah, I've totally had that happen too where I was deep into an archive, had taken a reading break for a month or two, and came back to find the urls had been updated and my spot was lost it isn't so bad if a comic also has an archive page, but ive stopped reading a few stories that it would have been too hard to track down where I was.

DaeofthePast

I haven’t had to experience weird websites in a while, but I do sometimes go to an unknown website to read the comic/manga I’m looking for. Mostly what I’ve had trouble with is unnumbered chapters, of that it’s unclear where/how to start reading in general.(edited)

Like, I get to the page for that specific comic and then there’s no easy “start reading here” button anywhere

And when I do find the chapters list, I don’t know which end of the list is the beginning bc it’s unnumbered

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Is a "First page" button enough or are you looking for a "new readers start here" button? (<- is redisigning her page)

DaeofthePast

Is there a difference? :0

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

hm, sometimes yes.

Some old running comics have different jump-on points (schlock mercenary for example).

DaeofthePast

Ooh I see

Well when I first go on the site, I just want to start reading so idk

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

So, I always try to read every comic that's featured in the book club all the way through. Like even if I don't particularly like the opening, or if the comic is thousands of pages long, or I don't have time to meaningfully discuss the comic, I do try to at least give the comic a fair shake by reading through the entire archive. There have been four exceptions. One was because of content (it was a gag a day comic, and the content was SO horrible for SO long that I just couldn't stand it anymore. real "punching down" type of humor). Another was because the comic was literally deleted before I could get to it. The remaining two were because the site design/organization were so awful that the comics were unreadable. One of the two comics had a custom built, hand-coded site (I assume), and it just... didn't work properly. Like the "previous" button seemingly took you to a random page, the "next" button and the "latest" button led to the same place, etc. I'm not sure the creator ever bothered to test the site. The other one used some pre-built stuff, so it was ok... but you had to scroll to the top of the page to go to the next page. Not only that, but the author was posting all their comics to the same archive - which means one page would be the comic that was actually meant to be read for the book club and the next few pages were a completely different comic entirely. And this wasn't a gag-a-day either - it was a story based comic, so the three action minimum to get to the next page made things absolute hell to keep track of.(edited)

DaeofthePast

Wow

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Uff, yeah, that sounds horrible.

Nyx+Nyssa's page is currently a barebone mess, but I made at least sure the navigation works. :/

DaeofthePast

Having the comic be deleted while you’re reading it sounds like such a weird experience lmao

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i mean, it wasn't thanos snap style lol

DaeofthePast

Was the website gone too or?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

it was in between days

nah the website was still there, it's just that the author had decided to reboot their comic and forgot that they had submitted it to the book club

DaeofthePast

Oh okay I imagined Thanos snap style

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Not really a design but a site thing: I can't do comics without an archive of some sort. On platforms like Tapas or WT, the episode list serves that purpose perfectly fine. I personally need to be able to see how many pages there are, and I need a way to go to specific pages easily. It might sound like a small complaint, but it's a big thing for me! There have been comics that piqued my interest, but once I saw that there was no archive of any form, I left forever. Sure, I might be missing out, but there are also lots of good comics out there that have accessible archives. My life isn't long enough to read them all, so I'm letting myself be very picky.

copperine

I can manage a very basic site just fine. But if a site is hard to navigate, or just makes reading the page/getting to the next page difficult - I'd be likely to give up eventually. Doesn't matter about the quality of the comic, but if it's a chore to just read it, it's going to put me off after a while

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I will note - if you want me to actually discuss your comic in the book club, please do have an archive link, and probably a cast page too. Like the lack of one doesn't stop me from reading entirely, but I can't discuss anything without being able to look back at specific moments. (and one of those archives that just has dates doesn't count - lemme know what the chapter is!)

copperine

For example - when I read webcomics on dA, I was absolutely fine with either the author having a dedicated folder with the pages in order. Another option was to link next and prev pages in the description. But if I had to go find each next page, I just wouldn't.

DaeofthePast

By an archive do you mean kinda like a chapters list?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

A list of all the pages, ideally

That also list the chapters somehow

copperine

Short version: if I feel like I'm spending half as much time navigating the site as I am actually reading, it's gonna get old real quick

DaeofthePast

And same copperine. As long as it’s organized well, I will probably read it

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like maybe you click on a chapter link to get to a list of the pages, or maybe it's just a list of the pages with the chapter names as headers

some sort of organization

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah! (I admit my own comic's archive page isn't the prettiest, but it's 100% functional.)

DaeofthePast

I only have a chapter list so far ^^; idk how to go about getting an archive

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Chapter list is totally fine if your chapters tend to be on the shorter side

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

I like having chapter lists around, although coding them can be a handful Not sure if to go for an archive with thumbnails or just with page numbers though.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's also workable if you also have like... a dropdown menu for individual pages on the actual pages? So it only takes 2 clicks to go to a specific page (first click to go to the chapter, second click to go to the page)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

OH yeah, there was also a dA comic in the book club once that didn't have any next/previous buttons. However, it was a short comic - the bare minimum for getting into the book club - so I still read it all the way through. But it was pretty annoying to do so. (it was also pretty obviously a fetish comic, but that's not really relevant to the discussion XD)

DaeofthePast

I want to post by scene so I’ll be dividing chapters like “chapter 3 part 1” to hopefully that will be better

copperine

I'll always take functional over pretty

DaeofthePast

Haha I’m not sure if I want to know the comic for that one

Also what is “punching down” humor?

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, the author was a straight man, and nearly every joke was making fun of people who weren't those things.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's like making fun of people but

copperine

Yikes

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

you're intentially trying to put them down

that's punching down in my imo rip

DaeofthePast

Oh

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah....

DaeofthePast

Well at least I know what to call it when I see it in the future ._.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Like, occasionally I see a shitty joke in a comic and I keep reading because maybe the author improved (we do sometimes get comics with archives that date back decades in here) But this comic was just so consistently awful for so long that I couldn't stand it

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof that aint good

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Though that's kinda off topic lol

DaeofthePast

Oh yeah

So bad site design...

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Anyway, I don't really wanna post the examples of the comics I talked about in here cuz I don't wanna call anyone out

Actually, hold on, lemme check something

DaeofthePast

I feel I haven’t had too much experience with bad site designs, but I might have just forgotten(edited)

K

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

ok yeah

so, the comic where you had to scroll up to the top of each page to click to the next one, and the site was multiple comics alternating pages that made the story rough to follow

copperine

Oof yeah having to scroll up to click next won't stop me but it is a bother

DaeofthePast

I like having the next button both on top and the bottom, even if they update page by page(edited)

It just feels convinient

copperine

Yeah same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Re: punching up/down, here's an overly simplistic set of examples: billionaires making fun of poor people is punching down. Poor people making fun of billionaires is punching up.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

's good webdesign pattern for everything with continous content - e.g. blogs, web-novels, webcomics.

Ideally you have one on top, between content and comments and under comments

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

the comic that alternated storylines & required scrolling back up to go to the next page was Antibunny: http://vinnied.comicgenesis.com/d/20061002.html if you see that page I linked and click next a few times, there's no obvious distinction between the main story and the spinoff story (no, like, header change between the two, and the art style looks similar), so you can see how it'd be confusing to follow and the scrolling is just icing on the cake (it used to be even worse) the only reason I feel comfortable sharing that is because the author uploaded the comics to new sites, and fixed all those issues in the process: http://antibunny.net/

DaeofthePast

Oh nice. So they realized the problem

copperine

Aren't they in this server? Or am I thinking of another one

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah, the author is in this server

copperine

I thought so

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Hence why he realized, because we told him that there was a problem during the book club

copperine

I'm not gonna take anything said here as a comment on anyway btw

DaeofthePast

It’s cool that submitting their comic to the tea party resulted in some good feedback :3

copperine

You love to see it!

It always makes me happy when webcomic community stuff helps people out, that seems like the ideal outcome

DaeofthePast

Yess

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i agree on that yeee

DaeofthePast

It’s like having a friend point out a spelling mistake. Embarrassing but you can live with the knowledge that your work is now a little bit better(edited)

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

Yeah kinda off-topic, but I love it when the author of the comic for the book club joins the server. Like not only does it mean that the author could join in on others' discussions in the future (pay it forward 'n stuff), but... it's just really sad when I see a comic pop up in the book club and the author seemingly forgot they submitted it.

DaeofthePast

How long does it usually take to get to a comic? :0 that they would forget they submitted it?

copperine

I always hope I can help others out or support them, and I hope they feel the same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The book club had a very very long wait list in the past. These days, not so long.

DaeofthePast

And I guess if you submit a comic with a website, the people here can be your beta testers

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

what's odd is that five months ago, the wait list was six months but now, the wait list is two months y'all need to submit/resubmit your comics

DaeofthePast

I tried going to submit mine yesterday and the site doesn’t let me v.v says you’re booked for July

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

oh yeah, so it is

DaeofthePast

Maybe later :3

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i guess Rebel doesn't want the queue to get too long

copperine

I would submit mine but I'm only at 10 pages and I believe you need to have 20 to submit

DaeofthePast

Ooh they have a minimum?

Gotta count my pages now

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean it makes sense. Hard to discuss a comic that only has the cover for chapter 1

DaeofthePast

XD

Tru

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Let us dissect this cover image for an entire week"

DaeofthePast

It would be a hilarious April fools challenge

copperine

Idk I think it was 20 minimum?

DaeofthePast

shrug

copperine

@snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) can you shed any light on this

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

The sign up form is where you would normally find that information.

copperine

... very good point

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But the form is currently unavailable, and it's possible that Rebel might change the requirement when it becomes available again

copperine

Ah

Thank you for the heads up

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

FYI, https://comicteaparty.com/ is where the form will be available eventually

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

They accept resubmissions now?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I def like arrows on the top and bottom of pages for sites to be more of a thing, as well as clicking the image for the next page too! Honestly there hasn't been a make or break, mainly preferences, and the most complaints i have are with the mobile formatting. I think most comics have been pretty solid in functionality that i've read, and it's clear that having their own website is becoming mainstream enough for there to be help, tips, and tricks to making it work!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I definitely prefer if I can just click on the comic image to go to the next page especially for mobile.

copperine

Agreed!

Idk about resubmissions tho

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... Wow. I absolutely HATE clickable images on mobile, because they usually mess with the pinch-zoom.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i've had sites that didnt have image click throughs and the arrow..... was like SO TINY XD

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Didn't think anyone would actually like it, so... huh.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i kept going back and forth

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

yeah, navigation needs to be bigger on mobile for safe tapping.

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, re:resubmissions, I'm pretty sure you can if it's been long enough? I think @snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights) mentioned it recently as an option. But maybe a tangent for #general

boogeymadam

i dont mind the pinch zoom being a little more difficult from time to time cause usually the clickable image is worth it to me

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Same

boogeymadam

am also fond of sites that allow left/right arrows to let you move forward and back on desktop

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Mainly it's just for like Krispy said, reading on mobile and tiny next/previous buttons.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ye my dummy thicc fingers prefer the click through image for sure

ohh yes Boogey that too

boogeymadam

it took me hours of googling to find the very simple comicpress option to just turn that on on my site

copperine

Mmm I do like sites that allow pinch zoom though

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I also prefer clicking on the image to go to the next page

mariah (rainy day dreams)

My fingers small, but still dummy T-T

copperine

It makes it easier to get a better look at the page

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

iweudhweiu Mariah XD

copperine

Especially if it's got smaller font

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

nyxandnyssa has a seperate navigation for mobile that's much bigger and skipping scene select to make tapping easier.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I've had the hover text def bum me out for some comics, where you click the image and it just displays the text, then you gotta click the tiny next bar def killed me there

copperine

I've never had issues with pinch zoom affecting clickable images but I can imagine it would be annoying

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

but! never breaks me out of a comic for me to stop reading-! i persevere in the face of adversity XD

boogeymadam

i've never encountered a site so bad i couldnt continue reading. maybe stuff where i'd stop reading until i was less frustrated but i'd come back later.

DaeofthePast

That’s something I’ll have to consider for my site then

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I feel like Smackjeeves had a really obnoxious auto pitch & zoom before they updated most recently. I like when I can turn it off on my phone. I'd rather do it myself most of the time and let my phone try to auto it X')

DaeofthePast

I usually read on desktop more often than on mobile so it’s good to hear from other’s experiences

copperine

Idk I've never used a custom site yet

boogeymadam

same dae, except on tapas and webtoons!(edited)

comics with their own website i'll boot up my computer for a single update of

DaeofthePast

Even on webtoons I read on desktop

boogeymadam

omg your power, webtoons feels so choppy on desktop to me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

im definitely lucky that our site got a mobile friendly version i remember the 'ol pinchy zoomz was tiresome on our site for sure

DaeofthePast

I get headaches from reading on my phone unfortunately :/

Idk what the difference is between reading mobile and on a desktop but my brain doesn’t like it

Like, I can text fine???? But reading a comic for some reason is like “no”

So yeah, comics on desktop for me

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohh!! it could be the close proximity!

DaeofthePast

Ooh :0 maybe?

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i know i get motion sickness depending on how close/ far i am from screens

DaeofthePast

Maybe it’s something like that... :O

boogeymadam

whatever the reason sorry you get headaches and motion sickness from comics :'0

DaeofthePast

Every once in a while I’ll try again to read on mobile I never learn

boogeymadam

the only reason i dont like mobile is sometimes comics text is a combination of too small there and the font is hard on my dyslexia

DaeofthePast

Rip

boogeymadam

so i see if zooming in on my computer helps

DaeofthePast

The lesson here is that it’s good to have both mobile and desktop options

boogeymadam

yep :'D

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ohhh yea def agree. I know that feeling and i sometimes ... have a Time reading my own work XD (i admit it lol!!)

boogeymadam

sometimes my own comic is hard on my dyslexia for The Effect so i never have hard feelings with other comics

copperine

(brb)

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

ewiudhiwue the things we do AT WHAT COST XD

DaeofthePast

Asdfghjkl

Meanwhile I use the same font for everything

boogeymadam

wait im gonna generalize this more so it can be a party

DaeofthePast

Please post that on pillowfort so I can reblog it

boogeymadam

you can post it for yourself if you want dae!

i'm having a hard time logging on asdfgjh

DaeofthePast

Rip sure

copperine

Ah see I have both

Because hand lettering

It's great for feeling right for a comic but also eternally wondering if it's readable

DaeofthePast

Ooh yeah I guess that would count as both

What’s your comic btw :0

Wait, we’re supposed to be talking about website design right

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yep! If it gets too off topic, you can always continue in another channel that's more fitting.

copperine

Ah sorry! Sure thing

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Mobile is too small for me

DaeofthePast

Yeah

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(oHHMYYGOSH BOOGEY XD)

boogeymadam

mm archives were mentioned already, and how it can really turn readers away to simply not have one at all? my favorite archive is https://www.vaingloriouscomic.com/comic/archive 's but i've seen some where they attempted an all picture archive and it backfired by just being a page of all empty boxes. this didn't deter me from reading it and it got fixed pretty quick tho~ mine is one of these and its a very chonky slowmoving page cause i uploaded the first 90ish as fullsized pictures. nobody's ever complained so idk if it's ever deterred anyone from reading but i know i gotta fix it someday.(edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I really dont mind any kind of web design in particular though tbh. I prefer desktop sites but it’s fine if the design isnt great

DaeofthePast

Have you guys ever gone to a comic website (for a single comic) and the colors used in the background were so bright that it felt like they were blinding you to the point it was hard to read the actual pages?

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My archive is down right now becayse it broke and I dont know how to fix it lol

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i def want a fully view-able archive but we're gonna be hitting 800 pages and i dont know how well that will work XD

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

But I have a navigation bar now

boogeymadam

u could have multiple pages of archive, krispy!

i'm starting a new page for chapter 2

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Or dropdown menus

boogeymadam

but its probably important to have a dropdown if u have more than 1 page, yeah

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I want to switch to picture archives, but I haven't found a good plug in/way to get my word press to do it :( if anyone has recommendations...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I wish I knew how to make dropdown menus

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

i'll have to bring that up ! we dont do the tech work for our site ( thank gosh seriously) but i love archives that show full pages

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

If I could make dropdown menus I would be unstoppable

copperine

I miss the drop-downs on SJ

boogeymadam

i feel like dropdowns are smth i pretty much only exclusively see on hiveworks comics

i wonder what their secret is,,,

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I’ve inspected the elements on so many hiveworks sites lol

I want to know

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

they use word press I think

for their comic sites

just have to do some digging with the site html and csss

copperine

Right click and inspect maybe...

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Php stands for my Personal hell pit

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

if i could go undercover for yall i would XD

boogeymadam

also!! @mariah (rainy day dreams) i use elementor for mine

its not perfect and breaks like every time i update it but it works asdfg

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

... I'm currently writing a sparkling fresh wp-plugin for my page (comic easel wasn't doing what I wanted), but I am also a software dev who enjoys coding.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My template I use functions in mostly php and xml and its gibberish to me but functions so well I dont know how to improve it to have specific things I want

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

my knowledge with site design is basic at best lmao

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

wordpress is a bit special in that it does most things more complicated than strictly necessary.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but I do like fiddling with stuff

^that too lmao

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I know Shiza of osarilho is really good at web designing? she's made some beautiful work with her site!

boogeymadam

i want to ask shiza for more help but not before i have some money to pay her :')

she's helped me a lot already

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I can do html and css at the babiest level

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'll check that out Boogey, thanks! Even if it does break X') And I guess I'll just make a note to start stashing money to hire shiza XD im definitely at the point where my site needs a general face lift, but I don't have the spoons for it.

boogeymadam

imo i've made some really pretty pges with it. it's a drag and drop that's excellent at galleries, but it doesn't like when you don't have even rows for some reason

the wordpress plugin, Elementor, i mean.

copperine

I've been wanting to try comicpress for ages

I just don't know where to start

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I'm gonna move over to #shop_talk for my response

copperine

I had someone who was gonna help me out but we lost contact so it's on the back burner

boogeymadam

OOPS yeah

copperine

But for websites in general I prefer to have one that feels very basic than one that feels too busy or crowded

I'm not a graphic designer at all lol

If I do try an independent site I'm planning to pay a coding friend to help me

DaeofthePast

yeah i have no idea what I'm doing when working on my site, it's kinda basic, but at least it looks nice

copperine

I just use a premade theme on my ComicFury site

It works and that's good enough for me so far

Oh I guess the other thing that would put me off reading a comic is if the site isn't formatted for mobile, and/or particularly if the site doesn't have adaptive formatting

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

same, but editted it hard core so it looks like it's own thing lmao

copperine

I usually read on my phone because my computer is where I work so I like to get off it for hobbies

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but for me uh i guess mobile i try to read it either on tapas, webtoon or its own site

I find just clicking the page to the next one helps me a lot lol I don't do a lot of zooming

copperine

Mmm

copperine

It's personal preference a lot tbh!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I like my comuter because its big

copperine

Valid

Mine is not

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

did anyone talk about paying me please you don't have to do that

copperine

Idk but you can pay me

Idk what for but

I'll take money

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I absolutely would have to if you made my site awesome X') work is work, and you should be paid for it

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

fair enough

Just send me a DM whenever you're up for that and lemme take a look at what you already have

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I would hire someone to do web design for me but I dont have the funds & I dont wnat to make someone do work for me for free

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I've been meaning to set up my own website for a while now, since the collective i was originally hosting my webcomic with kinda fell apart, but it's so much work and i'm hella intimidated :'''D

copperine

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) there's been some related discussion in #shop_talk and I believe @boogeymadam might be able to advise (I'm sure others can too but I'm going off the convo from earlier)

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

@sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead) depending on how much it is I can help you out

RebelVampire

Admin Reminder Remember this channel is for experiences as a reader first and foremost, so #shop_talk and #general are better if you want to discuss your own stuff.

DaeofthePast

thank you for the reminder :3

RebelVampire

I would say poor web design is something I have a complicated relationship regarding webcomics. On the one hand, outside of a site being 100% completely broken, I'm willing to sit through a lot to read. So in terms of affecting whether I read a comic the first time or not, there isn't much to say there. But it does affect how engaged I am with the comic. Cause if I can't easily go back to re-read a page, easily find things like character names, have to deal with extreme lag cause the host is garbage, have to deal with eye bleeding color schemes, etc. you can bet your bottom dollar 1 time is all that comic is going to get in terms of reading it. I can only subject myself to so much, and if I don't feel like reading a comic again because of the site itself, I'm going to quickly forget it in favor of comics whose sites don't make me cry. I do give more leeway to sites created by creators in many respects. But professional bigtime hosts like Tapas or Webtoons literally have no excuse for some of their garbage design choices. And some of their design choices are super duper garbage.

DaeofthePast

that's true yeah, there's a big distinction of the quality expectations between sites by small creators and those of big companies like Webtoons

RebelVampire

At the same time, though, I know from first hand experience that poor design choices are literally influenced by user data for bigger companies. So for every decision I consider stupid- at the same time they probably did the AB tests that showed crappy design A had better results for their conversion rates than user friendly design B.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Which boggles my mind

I wonder if there's some kinda causation-correlation thing going on that the A/B tests could not detect accurately

boogeymadam

Rebel mentioned sites that have eyebleedy color schemes and I'm in the same boat; will read the comic, just will be turning down the screen brightness a looot. Sites that have a huge space of extremely neon background that distracts from the comic make me reluctant to read on the site, and I'll look for a mirror before trying. That white background of the 2 big comic hosting sites can at least be affected and turned dark by nightmode when needed, while nightmode doesn't work on half the bright comic sites I've tried it on. u-u

[edvonstein]

which precures would read homestuck without being dared to

Boy howdy. There’s a question I didn’t expect. Well let’s see here and go down the list:

Nagisa: Got into it shortly after launch, after hearing Honoka talk about it.

Honoka: OG reader, has been around for most of Hussie’s stuff.

Hikari: She didn’t read it until about halfway through its publication run, but caught up in a single night. She made fanart.

Saki: She tried to get into it for Mai, but it never really meshed with her. Still learned enough through osmosis to cosplay both Dirk and Dave.

Mai: She has five sketch books that are just redraws of the entire series with everybody replaced by Saki. None of her friends must ever see. They saw. They didn’t get it, but liked the art.

Nozomi: OG reader, not the absolute biggest fan, but did walk away liking it.

Rin: Saw Nozomi read it, and tried a little herself. Then she met Kanaya. The rest was history and fanfics. And special flower arrangements.

Urara: Currently lobbying for a broadway adaption. She is undecided which role she wants to play tho.

Komachi: She has changed her writing pseudonym to John Egbert, to get a better likelyhood of getting her Pirate Hurricane series published. She writes more like a mix of Dave and Rose though. It’s fucking mind expanding.

Karen: She had it fed through her home’s in house cinema to watch it with Komachi initially. They all ended up watching it.

Milk/Kurumi: “Vriska did nothing wrong”

Love: Her and Setsuna totally are like Rose and Kanaya. She is Rose of course.

Miki: She knows she is everybody’s Kanaya. She spend some time making masks of the characters. You can imagine how well that ended. Her Kanaya cosplays are somehow still great for the family boutique.

Inori: Yeah, she read it. Each reading session was followed by a trip to the confession booth. Eventually she just started reading it in the confession booth. The priest liked it too.

Setsuna: Her and Love totally are like Rose and Kanaya. She is Rose of course.

Tsubomi: Yes she read it. No her friends must never know. She doesn’t realize all of them have read it too.

Erika: The only friend Tsubomi opened up to about Homestuck. Turns out Erika runs one of the main japanese fansites of Homestuck.

Itsuki: Main mod on Erika’s fansite. Tsubomi must never know. Nor her family. Itsuki still feels too uncomfortable in their skin for that.

Yuri: Almost OG reader, she and Honoka frequented the same forums. Upon casual mention from Honoka, Yuri tried it out. Her young friends must never be tainted by this horror. Hopefully Hussie updates soon!

Hibiki:Learned about it through Ako. Found it pretty sweet, but didn’t make it all the way.

Kanade: Also learned about it through Ako. her bi heart couldn’t be stopped as she steamed through almost all of it in one go.

Ellen: Had been following it for about a year with Hummie before Suite happened. Continued reading while on the villains side. Often plays Homestuck songs while busking, and has several rearrangements on niconico.

Ako: Has been reading Hussie’s stuff since halfway through Problem Sleuth. She was 7 at the time. There’s a reason she a) is so crumby, Karkat is her spirit animal, and b) she decided to go and become an extra af phantom thief precure.

Miyuki: She is a reading machine, and of course this would capture her attention. She came in a bit late but found it on her own.

Akane: Similarly to Rin, she saw it over Miyuki’s shoulder one day, did a bit of reading herself, and got pretty hooked for a while.The hiatuses however broke her streak. Oddly enough the main emotion she took away from it is a hate for Equius, which she shares with Nao.

Yayoi: Main fanart contributor to Erika’s fansite. Her and Reika spend hours talking about Terezi.

Nao: Never did read it, she was too busy with her family and superheroism. More recently though, she decided to kinda wiki crawl the subject. Walked away primarily with a hate for Equius.

Reika: Another mod on Erika’s fansite.She has found her path. Her parents are disappointed. Screw her parents.

Mana: Tried it, didn’t like it. Square.

Rikka: Wishes she could live on that first planet they showed, with the froggies. She tries to dare Mana, but continues to get shot down. Mana is such a square.

Alice: Found it on one of her internet binges to bring her temper down. It proofed a surprisingly good tool to keep her mellow, which is why we see so little of her inner rage during the show. Another Terezi fan.

Makoto: Somehow has never come across a single shred of evidence that Homestuck exists. As unlucky as she is, she might be the luckiest of us all.

Aguri: Unlike Makoto, she has seen what Rikka and Alice are up to. She did read it a little, and liked what she saw well enough, but didn’t stick with it. Not enough time, and her twin sister lives fifty miles in Vriska did nothing wrong territory, so clearly she must be better than her. (She isn’t.)

Megumi: Came across it on her own, read it, but lost interest.

Hime: Runs the discord server for Erika’s fansite.

Yuko: Does occasional lyrics for Ellen’s arrangements, both on youtube and niconico, and makes the occasional troll riceball.

Iona: She was in fact dared, but by Megumi of all people, after she stopped reading. There is no bigger Rose fan now.

Haruka: As an avid reader, it did cross her radar, she went through it, and came out more determined than before to be the best princess she can be.

Minami: Amusingly enough, stumbled across it during her internet binges boning up on marine biology. Feferi popped up in her searches somehow, and the rest is history.

Kirara: Fans suggested it to her. She read it. The most fabulous Kanaya cosplayer of them all.

Towa: Kirara suggested it to her after she herself had finished (by now the webcomic is done IRL) partially because nerds gotta share, and partially because she truly felt it might help her cope with some of her inner turmoil from the guilt over being Twilight. Towa is slow in reading through this particular one, so she is still going through it today. Results unclear, she doesn’t talk much about it, even with Kirara. It might be helping though.

(The remaining characters I don‘t know as well as the others yet, but I’ll see what I can conjure up. Intriguingly I feel this also marks the first generation of Cures that lived in a post Homestuck world, what with Mahoutsukai airing in 2016, and Homestuck ending in 2016.)

Mirai: Got dragged in by the hype over the ending of Homestuck. Dared Riko to read it with her. They did. They planned their wedding to be like Rose’s and Kanaya’s.

Riko: Got dragged in by Mirai. Would feel very big deja vu next year when they both became moms to Kotoha.

Kotoha: Her moms protect her from this vice. (She found it anyways. There is no stopping the corruption of the youth.)

Ichika: Heard about it, but didn’t really care. Unfortunately for her she is on a team with Aoi, Yukari, and Akira.

Himari: Closet fan, wrote several dissertations about the science in Homestuck on Erika’s fansite. Which is probably where her crush on Honoka comes from.

Aoi: Loud and proud, likes this retro comic. Has started collabs with Yuko, Ellen, Amour, and Emiru because of course.

Yukari: She was a depressed gay teen during Homestuck’s peak... what do you think?

Akira: She was a gay teen during Homestuck’s peak... what do you think?

Ciel: She would have been save. But Undertale dragged her right into this fresh hell.

Hana: Huge fan of Undertale, but never quite pulled together the energy to tackle the behemoth that is Homestuck. Did learn through osmosis, with so many of her senpai cure friends being raving lunatic homestuck fans.

Saaya: Actually dodged both the Homestuck and the Undertale bullet initially. Hana then tossed Deltarune at her, and Saaya fell down the rabbit hole.

Homare: She had some inner hangups about getting into the whole mess, but Hana did dare her, knowing enough about the series to know that it’s message might gibe Homare the kick in the behind she needed to give ice skating another go.

Emiru: Big Undertale fan, but doesn’t care about the webcomic herself. Uncertain if even a dare would work, she does her own thing... well, besides the music. She freaking loves the music.

Amour: Read the whole thing in one hour to understand its impact on culture. What else would make her crash and join the heroes? Jokes aside, she did do it, and it did leave an impact on her. She was the one who connected Aoi and Emiru.

Hikaru: What are the freaking odds that she hasn’t read through it in its entirety three times this week alone?

Lala: Had her ship read it to her as something to fall asleep to. It put her to sleep quickly, actually, like tales from home. Her ship didn’t fare as well. It’s one of the biggest crack shippers on Erika’s site. Lala only heard like ten percent of the story.

Elena: Has neither the free time nor privacy to read a webcomic that’s now a decade old. Likes listening to Hikaru’s ranting about the series. Also likes how somehow that ranting makes Madoka’s face light up.

Madoka: It is unknown how she found the time, but she is a freaking huuuueg closet fan. She wants to talk with Hikaru about it, but still feels too uncomfortable being public about it. Hikaru does however know that MoonSollux, one of the biggest fanfic writers on Erika’s site, is her, but will wait for Madoka to come out of her shell in her own time.

Yuni: Missed the whole mess being a space alien idol phantom thief. Is getting a very wrong idea about human culture from Hikaru’s ranting. A dare would totally work.

(I have zero grasp on the Healin’ Good Girls, so not gonna do them.)