What to avoid in webcomics?

[Vulpeslibertas]

How are we to maintain the facades of our ivory towers if we don't argue about these important, earth shattering details?

Realistically though, it's the little details that make a classic out of a run-of-the-mill story. And there is no right or wrong way to do something. There are better ways and worse ways for any given goal. Discussions like these allow people to feel out the reasons why things do and don't work so that they can decide when and how to use stereotypes, cliches, and ugly fonts.

[NakedElf]

I have a strong suspicion that hatred of a particular font is going to occur more in people who actually work with it than in people who just have to read it occasionally. Sort of how after being forced to work in Courier for months by my mum, I developed a seething hatred for it which someone who hasn't had to stare at it for hours on end probably can't muster.

Likewise, your average reader probably doesn't really care all *that* much which font you use so long as they can read it. Don't use Courier, don't use Times New Roman. Don't shrink it down tiny. Don't left-justify it in your word balloons. Don't use some fancy scripty stupid thing.

Beyond that, the rest is details.

[RemusShepherd]

Can.... can we just drop this? So much contention over a font and a definition.
If you don't all make nice, I'll.... I'll.... I'll cry!
*eyes well threateningly with tears*

I said I was sorry! I am making nice, see? (strokes McDuffies) See?

[Fesworks]

*Drops the subject*


*The subject spills all over the floor*


... fuck...

[Lei]

*feels better*

So, having exhausted the do or not do not use Comic sans issue to death and beyond... what other things do not belong in webcomics?

[Yeahduff]

Uneven line spacing, as Paul Escobar's 'FART' revealed, is an issue in ComicSans... but it is not necessarily a negative issue for everyone. Some people, like Remus, don't mind. This is what makes it a bias and not simply a fact.

"You ever consider that maybe he likes holes in his bucket, you prejudiced mother fucker?"

[NakedElf]

How about left-justifying the text inside word bubbles?

[Vulpeslibertas]

How about actually spell checking your text?

Or maybe getting someone else to read over it before you post it so that it doesn't not unmake awkwardish the clarity. To be specific: that its readability is, generally speaking (but not to distance the specific as a matter of course), optimized, not confuscated, confounded, or ambiguous of meaning, for persual, that is to say enhanced for the purpose or purposes, depending on the reader or readers, whichever is more appropriate, reading, as opposed to made unclear, which is often the case.

[Fesworks]

How about left-justifying the text inside word bubbles?

that's a good one!



and as far as spell check, If PS had spellcheck, I'd use it. In the mean time, I'll wait for some fan to point it out

[Lei]

I get bothered when people only use a single angle in every panel of every page - such as characters always being depicted in portrait, or always being depicted head-on, with no variety.

[NakedElf]

I make my husband spell-check my text.

Too bad he sometimes doesn't bother until after the comic is on the website.


Honestly, though, there's a difference between occasionally misspelling things and having really atrocious grammar and spelling. I have nothing against the occasional mistake. We all make mistakes, and that doesn't generally interfere with understanding.

But if your writing is so bad that I can't figure out what the heck a sentence is supposed to mean, that's definitely bad.

[Kels]

I get bothered when people only use a single angle in every panel of every page - such as characters always being depicted in portrait, or always being depicted head-on, with no variety.

Oh, I hate that one too. Nothing makes a comic look artificial like a single, unchanging perspective. One reason I don't care for Hanna-Barbara cartoons, too.

I've made a concerted effort from day one to give my comic some more variety than that, and I've learned a lot because of it. For one thing, it really helps the flow of the story, and on the art side it helps me think of my characters as three-dimensional creatures, rather than just cutouts.

[McDuffies]

Can.... can we just drop this? So much contention over a font and a definition.
If you don't all make nice, I'll.... I'll.... I'll cry!
*eyes well threateningly with tears*

I said I was sorry! I am making nice, see? (strokes McDuffies) See?

Can't have our girls cry now, can we?

How about actually spell checking your text?

Or maybe getting someone else to read over it before you post it so that it doesn't not unmake awkwardish the clarity. To be specific: that its readability is, generally speaking (but not to distance the specific as a matter of course), optimized, not confuscated, confounded, or ambiguous of meaning, for persual, that is to say enhanced for the purpose or purposes, depending on the reader or readers, whichever is more appropriate, reading, as opposed to made unclear, which is often the case.

Um...
You wrote it that was on purpose or not?

[Vulpeslibertas]

Um...
You wrote it that was on purpose or not?

That, sir, is for me to know and you to guess. (But I sure hope I didn't write like that on accident)