The Undesired Things in WebComics (poll)

Most of us at the CollectedCurios forum are, to less or greater extent, a webcomics readers, fans. Lot's of us have our favourites, but to find the best ones many had to do some searching, in wich they've stumbled upon strips of different quality. Some bad, some good, but without enough potential needed to persuade them to stay longer, some just plain awful.

It's easy to tell what we do like in webcomics - graphics, good and well-told story, comedy, sometimes a little drama, likeable characters and so on. Without some of these qualities comics are - to majority of readers - less appealing.
But there are also minor things that tick us off, more personal and individual, like, f.ex. :


- use of strong language,
- excessive violence (portrayed in realistic or semi-realistic way with focus on actual pain, dying, suffering, etc.),
- strong or radical political (conservatives vs. democrats, right-wingers vs. leftists, etc.) sociological (racism, sexism, feminism, chauvinism, eco, anti-eco, alter-globalism, nationalism, xenophobia, homophobia, etc., etc.) or religious views,
- excessive sexual themes (i.e. going closely near the line that divides a erotica from pornography, more or less in-your-face porn or just too much talking about sex and so on),
- or the lack of these above,(if you're a fan of Jay Naylor's "Better Days" you know what I'm talking about), because you like some controversy, blood and dem vaginas.
- too much humour
- too much drama
- other things - and do tell us what those things are, besides the obvious qualities needed for a good webcomic.


Please vote, comment and discuss about

Okay, let's imagine this:

Art, Pip and Scarlet successfully got to the quinten labs, Kat met the rest of the think tank, we spent some good quality time with them, but when the time came to the reunion of 4 moist squirrel qirls, Jack suddenly decided not to save Amber, Violet and Jade from the grinder, which resulted in turning them in to fluffy chops of meat. The rest of the SA crew safelly returned home.

I fucking hate Elfen Lied(puppies), I fucking hate Highschool of the Dead(boobastic highschool galz), I fucking hate the second season of Code Geass(bunny girls, all knights of the round table), I fucking hate what Bleach have turned into(espada, myass).

To sum up:
I fucking hate when author decides to get rid of some potentionally interesting characters or just someone innocent just for the sake of shouting out "Oh my God, they killed a bunch of puppies/cute girls/charismatic characters/ etc ". It's a cheap way to get strong emotions from the viewer.

I know that those things are taken from anime, but I hate them in no matter what type of media they decided to appear.

appleclock wrote:I fucking hate Highschool of the Dead(boobastic highschool galz)

*googles "Highschool of the Dead"*

.............ooh.

I am a fan of more risqué material. Let's get that out of the way. I like boobs. I like sultry ladies. It's no surprise I like Jollyjack's pinups and such.

But having said that, I still very much prefer that stuff is kept out of normal webcomics and kept for side/pay matrial that people can choose to view. But sexual issues and themes can be touched on lightly in a webcomic as far as I'm concerned.

I don't really see a big deal in showing graphic violence and gore again if the subject matter fits it. I'm sure if Jack did a non-canon SA sequence in the style a Simpson's treehouse of horror episode he could have Pip shot, Art chomped on by a zombie Kat and Scarlet falling into a giant meat tenderiser and Hilary contracting leprosy or Ebola. And it would be self contained so it wouldn't affect the main story much in the same manner Kat's lesbian dream was a non-canon aspect of the current arc. They're just done for sh*ts and giggles. Would we think any different of them because of how they were portrayed in a self contained arc which officially didn't happen? Do I think any differently of Kat because the hallucination (despite being something she considers a nightmare) hints at bi-curious tendancies? No. I still think of her as a cartoon character, albeit one that went through a wacky metal trip.

Racism can be important in a story. Without tackling it, we get nowhere towards tackling it and putting it behind us. Say for example I create a story about two fictional alien races, one being a minority. I can create some derogatory terms used against them, but portray the minority species as being able to overcome the adversity and become accepted members of society, and suddenly it becomes a subtext for exploring and tackling real life prejudice.

That said, it needs to be done properly or it comes across completely wrong.

Yeah, let's turn the most innocent character of SA into chops. Just for giggles.

upd. There is nothing bad in cartoonish violence, but it need to be made appropriate. Great example: imagine Bugs Bunny getting hummerd, with circling stars and dizzy eyes (this is funny) and the same hummer but lot's of blood and brains all over the floor (not funny).

appleclock wrote:and the same hummer but lot's of blood and brains all over the floor (not funny).

Happy Tree Friends showed that and it had many fans around the globe. It parodied the old-cartoon style violence by showing cutesy characters in a world where harm is harm. Overkill harm, but still.
So, for many it was funny and I think that treating SA crew in that fashion could be interesting, as a special like the mentioned Simpsons episode.

High School of the Dead - overall anime has great visual quality, the obligatory boobs+zombies equation works pretty well, although - like in the case of manga it can become dull. It's boobs+zombies after all, nothing more, nothing less. Nevertheless, it's a typical no brainer with great art & action, good for a beer session either alone or with friends.

As for my picks, I've choosen strong/radical/controversial views that are either main pivot of the story or the main character is a representative of those. I don't care about them if they're treated as a parody or with at least a civil dose of common sense, but if author serves them for us on a serious plate, then it's a major turnoff.
The 2'nd one was the lack of violence, cussing and sex. I've yet to see a webcomic that would work with these tree fillars of mass entertainment. It works with manga, it works with independent or mainstream comics, but I've never seen a webcomic with these three graces.
The last one was too much drama. Webcomics aren't the proper source to deliver a real dramatic story, IMO, to wich I already have low a low tolerance.

Pietja wrote:

appleclock wrote:and the same hummer but lot's of blood and brains all over the floor (not funny).

Happy Tree Friends showed that and it had many fans around the globe. It parodied the old-cartoon style violence by showing cutesy characters in a world where harm is harm. Overkill harm, but still.
So, for many it was funny and I think that treating SA crew in that fashion could be interesting, as a special like the mentioned Simpsons episode.

Try to watch looney tunes and then google guro art with them. The key word is appropriate.

Well, I do like some guro art, but most of them are crap, because they are mostly done by amateurs. It also takes some skill to show gruesome death and such.
As for LooneyToons guro, I saw few pics and they would most definiately count as a amatourish stuff.

Is it appropriate? I don't know, I don't care much about seeing cartoon characters in strange, bizzare, brutal or explicit material.

My biggest pet peeve are serious webcomics with walls of text.

I'm reading a webcomic for a very specific type of entertainment,
namely the "visual" part of it all, so massive amounts of text
just makes me pissed.

If I want lots of text I'll go read a book, thanks.

Wall o' text and lack of sexual themes.

Either make it so that there is barely any relationship romantically between th characters, or make them doink. Left For Group and Twokinds was great in this aspect. romance = doinkage.


Oh, and there is appropriate genre combinations. Las Lindas fucked it up royally with "Oh we are just people trying to get by on the farm and maybe we'll HOLY SHIT LAZER BEAMS AND SPAEC SHIPZ!11!1!!!"

Seriously. No.

Damien Darkside wrote:
Oh, and there is appropriate genre combinations. Las Lindas fucked it up royally with "Oh we are just people trying to get by on the farm and maybe we'll HOLY SHIT LAZER BEAMS AND SPAEC SHIPZ!11!1!!!"

Seriously. No.

Well, I stopped reading it after the first spaceship. And why the hell there are so many characters? Who are all these people?

They're mainly side story characters. And most of them are wearing clothes while a few arn't because the the guy who owns the comic they star in started crybabying about his precious characters showing their boobies off.

That didn't stop some of them (Taffy and Rachel) having a lesbian scene and being shown fully uncensored topless shots.

Read lesbian scene, was amused. Went straight to LICD for a better comic.

Highschool of the dead is entertaining if only because of the decent budget and violence

Drunkenvalley wrote:My biggest pet peeve are serious webcomics with walls of text.

Well, at least Subnormality just wouldn't be the same without the huge walls of text Winston puts up now and again...

np: Thomas Fehlmann - Wasser Im Fluss (Soulphiction Mix) (Kompakt Total 11 (Disc 2))

Leak wrote:Well, at least Subnormality just wouldn't be the same without the huge walls of text Winston puts up now and again...

I take we have two options about why the guy exploded, one is because he was amazed by the fact that there's a slutry looking foxy that is interested in modeling (in other meaning of the word) or the fact that she was talking so f'kin much... Either way it served it's purpose, I'd explode too, for the latter reason.

So much text in that comic, it hurts, it hurts too much!

Kind of picked other, since I really couldn't find my dislike.
But I guess political stuff just bugs absolute shit out of me.

I couldn't pick just one thing to dislike, so I chose four or five of them.

Use of strong language ~ For me, one of the biggest killers of interest in anything is foul language. I know some authors mistake lots of foul language for humor or a sign this is a mature story, but it fails for both. Swearing as humor only works if the swearing is rare, an exclamation point that quickly pops up and then just as quickly vanishes. Otherwise, it's a failed attempt at shock humor. Swearing to make something sound more mature actually has the opposite effect, making the characters sound like evil roughnecks I'd rather call the police on than take seriously as characters.

Excessive violence ~ Another killer of interest for me. However, this has to be pretty bad to qualify. Looney Tunes violence isn't that extreme because, no matter what happens, you know the characters will bounce back in the next scene either unharmed or with only token injuries. Happy Tree Friends teeters over the line. Sure, it's played for laughs, but the lovingly detailed gore is off-putting. Forget guro.

Strong, radical political, sociological, or religious themes ~ While not impossible to pull off, these aren't easy. All too often, the author just uses them as a platform for shoving his/her viewpoint in the reader's face and degrading anything that disagrees with them, all the while ignoring or minimizing the flaws in their viewpoints. There's a good reason why it's said that discussing politics and religion are good ways to lose all your friends.

Excessive sexual themes ~ I want a story, not a hodgepodge of pornography, thankyouverymuch.

Too much drama ~ Drama is heavy, very heavy. It weighs down the narrative, the characters, and, worst of all, the readers. Too much drama, and the readers will be so emotionally weighed down they'll crawl off to better sites to lose that weight. A skilled author knows to break up the weight of dramatic tension, usually, but not necessarily, with a bit of comedy.


Thoughts on Others ~
Walls of text ~ Sometimes having characters stand around doing a lot of talking is necessary. Using a wall of text is a sign that an artist needs to rethink how they're handling the dialogue. If they can break it up and use interesting camera angles and techniques on the characters talking and standing around, they won't end up with a wall of text. Otherwise, they appear to be rushing the pacing and trying to cram too much material into limited space.

Mixing and matching genres ~ This is doable, but there needs to be some coherence built in before the apparent mixing and matching (perhaps with Chekhov's guns) to ensure that it doesn't come off as abrupt and haphazard. "We're just a bunch o' normal farmfolks goin' about our business...hokey smokes, Batwinkle! Aliens!" works better if there's hints that aliens exist in the story world, even if they're just subtle hints the readers won't pick up on until the aliens appear.

Exactly, don't be throwing in lost prophecies when there isn't anything beforehand!

You know I've been looking through a lot more comics on the net and I have to say if you can get the topic right and make it good go for it.
Ok so maybe sexual themes and gratuitous violence may be unappreciated I openly welcome it occasionally.

How to Handle Walls of Text ~ Let's face it, having characters stand around talking about something is necessary for a comic. As astute forumers here have previously mentioned, this often results in the dreaded wall of text, a boring block of words which tends to kill the flow of a comic.

Why am I telling you all something you already know? I just wanted to show you all the below series of panels by artist Wally Wood; whose credentials include Mad comics, Will Eisner's The Spirit, Marvel's Daredevil, DC's Power Girl, and I'm sure most of you can fill in the blanks better than I could. Where I found it.

Save it, print it, and keep it next to your drawing board.

Back from a long absence, but as far as undesired things in a webcomic, I would have to say other. Other being unfinished story arcs, or story arcs with very weak endings.

I stopped reading a comic because the author had about three or four unfinished story arcs going at once, and would STILL start new ones. Either that, or she would put a very, very feeble ending to something that had been building for a long time, or just pull a deus ex cop-out.

The main thing that I can't handle above all else in comic is Mary Sue characters. I'm not talking the live in an already existing story line and they are adding there own characters or taking the story in creative direction the author didn't. I'm talking about the character who only flaw is how perfect they are or how the only reason the continue to be in the story is because of plot.

The one character who stands out the the most is Minos from Las Lindas. Though I do enjoy most of the other character most of the time other only person second to him would be Mora herself. The guys near perfect and the only flaw I noticed about him since I have started reading is that he falls for people he can't have. The first female he is shown to fallen in love with is physically unavailable because of the fact she had someone already. Mora on the other hand is emotionally unavailable (no matter how much she likes him) because she is not mature enough to be in a long lasting relationship.

You talking about that muscley dude?

Fuck him. He's a moral dick.

He is big, he has a huge cock, he should be nailing Taffy. BUT NOOOOOOOOO

Jesus, I am starting to hate that comic more and more and I don't even read it anymore. I just wish that iMew actually had an update schedule. At least Twokinds has a decent enough storyline to keep me interested.