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shirenomadThe latest webcomic to join my (already lengthy) reading list has been Dominic Deegan. That fact it made the cut surprised even me at first, because it alternates between overly dramatic epic events and really cheesy puns. As I'm not a fan of either, I'm frankly amazed I pulled together enough patience to rip through the archives at all, much less want to stay afterwards.
I had to think about this for a bit, and if you'll indulge me, I'm going to steal a page from Eric Burns and Robert A. Howard and put down my thoughts in an amateur webcomic article.
See, it's because of Luna. I think Luna rocks. I consider her one of the best concepts for a female lead I've ever seen. I enjoy reading about Luna. Michael Terracciano made me care about Luna (and by extension, those Luna cares about, which is a fair-sized chunk of the cast). And as long as I keep caring about Luna, I will probably read Dominic Deegan until Terracciano stops writing it.
Epic, even plain old dramatic, is hard to pull off, but there's a trick to it. I look at all the epic or dramatic comics (or book series, TV shows, etc.) that I've stuck with over the years, and I look at all those that I got impatient with and tossed aside, and which direction they go is always, always dependant on the characters. I will put up with the most convoluted, ridiculous, long-winded plotlines if a character I love (or in a few odd cases, love to hate) is involved in them. By the same token, you can write the most brilliant story ever, but if I'm not interested in any one person you're writing about, I'll start yawning and wondering what's on the Food Network. It's hard to care about whether the world will end when there's no one in that world you give a crap about.
That's why I rode the lengthy final story arcs of It's Walky! (Joyce, Walky, Dina) and Fans! (just about the whole main cast) to the very end. That's why I continue to stick with GPF (Trudy, Fooker) despite the levels of drama and the occasional feel-good sap. That's why I put up with the excruciatingly slow pace of Megatokyo (Largo, Kimiko, Ping) and Rip and Teri (Rip and Teri, duh). And to depart from webcomics, that's why I got teary-eyed when the Buffyverse (Willow, Spike, Gunn, Fred) and Babylon 5 (Delenn, Londo, G'Kar, Garabaldi) ran the credits for the last time (while, notably, later B5 movies that lacked the original cast did little for me).
That's also why my bookmarks for Clan of the Cats and The Jaded long ago entered the recycling bin. And why Elf Life never even held my interest long enough to make it through a full archive trawl, despite three attempts at the insistence of various friends. No one in any of those casts was ever real to me. Maybe for some of you, Chelsea Chattan or Baughb speak to you dramatically and you care deeply for them, but for me, they've never been more than lines on the screen, and that's not enough to keep me coming.
Pure humor comics don't have the same requirements. They don't even require a real cast, much less characters I like. I don't care what happens to Gabe and Tycho (the characters, not the writers), I can't even remember what the boy cat in VG Cats is called despite reading about him regularly, and the entire cast of 8-Bit Theater consists of a bunch of one-dimensional, effectively nameless stereotypes. (Which is precisely why I can laugh when any of them gets kicked in the head for doing something dumb.) So stick to humor and the only thing you need to get me to come tomorrow is whether you get at least a snicker out of me today. But start treading into more serious territory, and you'd better have some good characters to back yourself up, because when you cut off the silliness I'd better have another good reason to see what happens next.
So in conclusion: writers, webcomic or otherwise, if you want me to keep coming back to your work, you've got two choices. Make me laugh, or make me love.
I had to think about this for a bit, and if you'll indulge me, I'm going to steal a page from Eric Burns and Robert A. Howard and put down my thoughts in an amateur webcomic article.
See, it's because of Luna. I think Luna rocks. I consider her one of the best concepts for a female lead I've ever seen. I enjoy reading about Luna. Michael Terracciano made me care about Luna (and by extension, those Luna cares about, which is a fair-sized chunk of the cast). And as long as I keep caring about Luna, I will probably read Dominic Deegan until Terracciano stops writing it.
Epic, even plain old dramatic, is hard to pull off, but there's a trick to it. I look at all the epic or dramatic comics (or book series, TV shows, etc.) that I've stuck with over the years, and I look at all those that I got impatient with and tossed aside, and which direction they go is always, always dependant on the characters. I will put up with the most convoluted, ridiculous, long-winded plotlines if a character I love (or in a few odd cases, love to hate) is involved in them. By the same token, you can write the most brilliant story ever, but if I'm not interested in any one person you're writing about, I'll start yawning and wondering what's on the Food Network. It's hard to care about whether the world will end when there's no one in that world you give a crap about.
That's why I rode the lengthy final story arcs of It's Walky! (Joyce, Walky, Dina) and Fans! (just about the whole main cast) to the very end. That's why I continue to stick with GPF (Trudy, Fooker) despite the levels of drama and the occasional feel-good sap. That's why I put up with the excruciatingly slow pace of Megatokyo (Largo, Kimiko, Ping) and Rip and Teri (Rip and Teri, duh). And to depart from webcomics, that's why I got teary-eyed when the Buffyverse (Willow, Spike, Gunn, Fred) and Babylon 5 (Delenn, Londo, G'Kar, Garabaldi) ran the credits for the last time (while, notably, later B5 movies that lacked the original cast did little for me).
That's also why my bookmarks for Clan of the Cats and The Jaded long ago entered the recycling bin. And why Elf Life never even held my interest long enough to make it through a full archive trawl, despite three attempts at the insistence of various friends. No one in any of those casts was ever real to me. Maybe for some of you, Chelsea Chattan or Baughb speak to you dramatically and you care deeply for them, but for me, they've never been more than lines on the screen, and that's not enough to keep me coming.
Pure humor comics don't have the same requirements. They don't even require a real cast, much less characters I like. I don't care what happens to Gabe and Tycho (the characters, not the writers), I can't even remember what the boy cat in VG Cats is called despite reading about him regularly, and the entire cast of 8-Bit Theater consists of a bunch of one-dimensional, effectively nameless stereotypes. (Which is precisely why I can laugh when any of them gets kicked in the head for doing something dumb.) So stick to humor and the only thing you need to get me to come tomorrow is whether you get at least a snicker out of me today. But start treading into more serious territory, and you'd better have some good characters to back yourself up, because when you cut off the silliness I'd better have another good reason to see what happens next.
So in conclusion: writers, webcomic or otherwise, if you want me to keep coming back to your work, you've got two choices. Make me laugh, or make me love.
