I like the pretty pictures!

[Tentoumushi]

Hey kinda new, first topic started, please don't hurt me.

So comic artists, do you have this problem? You spend lots of time developing a good story for your artwork as well as working hard on the art itself. You have said comic published in either an online comic or in my situation a Uni newspaper.

When you ask your "readers" if they like the story do you often get "Story? Um sorry I just really like looking at the pretty pictures!" Am I the only one in the universe with this problem?

[Jesusabdullah]

Mine's more that I'm too obscure in my humor.

[Tentoumushi]

Mine's more that I'm too obscure in my humor.

That happens to me quite a bit too... its sad when you say "its just a flesh wound!" in a comic and no one gets it.

[Blackhole]

It happens,.. but the hard part is figuring out if it's just the people not caring about the stories due to general apathy towards comics, or if the story just isnt interesting. Or maybe the panel-to -panel story progression resembles more of an art gallery instead of stuff happening. (too many dynamic angles and close-ups can be pretty, but confusing.)
Sometimes if I see something happening in the panels that makes me curious as to what's going on,.. I'll end up reading the whole thing.

[Tentoumushi]

I think people were expecting it to be a "funny" comic, and the one I did was comical in part but generally a "Serious" story. Meh I supposed if I had done zippy one liners it would have worked out better. But then again people were apathetic to the newspaper at my Uni in general, so its hard to gage.

[K-Dawg]

My readers come for the cheap boob jokes.

[MixedMyth]

My millions of readers have taken a mass vow of silence and have therefore made hardly a peep about anything. Or that's what I choose to believe, anyway.

[Tellurider]

My readers come for the cheap boob jokes.

Not true! I come for the word "asshat," because it never fails to amuse me.

[Garneta]

Eh...my art's not good enough for the 'pretty pictures' comments yet. Then again, I'm not sure the story is either...Not really sure why I have readers, actually!

[Jim North]

My readers come for the cheap boob jokes.

I came for the monkey hijinks, I stayed for the cheap boob jokes.

[Nanda]

When you draw like I do, it's never an issue.

[Jesusabdullah]

Which is not often enough? (Hint: Update your damned comic! )

[Paul Escobar]

When you ask your "readers" if they like the story do you often get "Story? Um sorry I just really like looking at the pretty pictures!" Am I the only one in the universe with this problem?

I think the issue here is that a lot of people simply don't know how to read comics. They neither get the connection between text and image, nor between each image in sequence, and instead look at each component as a seperate thing.

People who actively seek out comics for reading material don't have this "problem", of course, and will comment on the story or jokes or what-have-you. But being published in a uni newspaper means you will have some people looking at your comic who aren't into comics at all. So you'll get some odd responses from them. It's like asking a tone-deaf person what he thinks of the piano piece you just played.

[CaptainClaude]

My readers come for the cheap boob jokes.

i read your comic to make you think i like it before unleashing my evil scheme to devastate you when i reveal that i actually have no interest whatsoever in Angry D Monkey.

...

Forget I said that.

[CaptainClaude]

When you ask your "readers" if they like the story do you often get "Story? Um sorry I just really like looking at the pretty pictures!" Am I the only one in the universe with this problem?

I think the issue here is that a lot of people simply don't know how to read comics. They neither get the connection between text and image, nor between each image in sequence, and instead look at each component as a seperate thing.

These are the same people who get on a bus in london without looking on the front to see where its going.

That's right, I double posted. Wanna make something of it?

[Jessi_B]

Honestly, I don't think it's intended as an insult. I mean, comics are a visual media, and usually people will get pulled into a comic because of the way it looks. There's supposedly a scale of aesthetic criticism development that ranges from "hey that's pretty and therefore I like it" to "it's much more than shiny art, there's substance and stuff that I can't necessarily see, but it's there, and I think I just had an 'artgasm'!"

...sorry if that doesn't explain anything; it just means that people have different criteria for the way they look at a comic (as well as other forms of art).

[Tentoumushi]

All really good points. I suppose comicy goodness or the components of comicy goodness are in the eyes of the reader. I mean, when it comes to modern art "vomit on wall" doesn't really do it for me, but someone is willing to pay a million dollars for it.

[Yeahduff]

When you write like I do, it's never an issue.

Fixed.

[Phact0rri]

My readers come for the cheap boob jokes.

and the ton fan-service... or that might just be me.

[McDuffies]

I'm not really an artist that has people swooning over his art. If anything, script is what people notice.