Webcomic creator stereotypes...POLL!

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:25 pm

(please note married also doubles as a long-term, committed relationship for this poll.)

Hey all. I need to collect figures of webcomic creator/reader demographics for a project. This may be an OT thread, so please move it if it is, and apologies to the mods in advance. I'm trying to break the usual stereotype of a webcomic creator being a "...12-year-old with acne who has a crush on his stepmother, who draws crude sexual figures on lined paper with bad jokes..." which I have heard multiple times, in different fashions obviously.

Myself, I believe most webcomic creators are successful students either in High school or college, unmarried and not working. Time to test the hypothesis.

If you want, please share what you thought webcomics were and who made them BEFORE you started making one (or reading them). That'd be awesome too.

Perk_daddy · Post by **Perk_daddy** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 7:36 pm

I'm married with 3 kids, work 2 jobs, and shouldn't have time for making silly webcomics, but I do it anyway because it's fun and cheap.

As far as the stereotype, I never really had an image of a typical webcomic creator in mind. The web (and particularly CG) makes it so easy, creators can run the gamut from pimply kid to wrinkly geezer!

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:00 pm

I'd prefer to put Other: Married, housewife/mother. It doesn't pay, but it's also still a job. As for educational status, "some gradschool". I started my comic while in grad school and in a long-term relationship with my future husband.

Before starting my own comic, I knew one webcomicer personally (a fellow student) and otherwise knew mostly the big name comics like Sluggy Freelance and Penny Arcade, which are both written by adults with full time jobs (where their comic is their job.)

I know just based on my statistics that readership patterns seem to follow school patterns--there was a dip in readers at the beginning of the school year and again around finals time, and then a spike after finals ended, for example. To me this seems similar to demographics for a lot of popular music--the music itself tends to be created by older people, but consumed by younger people.

Even if a majority of comics by sheer percentage of comics out there are being created by younger folks, the *successful* ones which seem to make up the bulk of comics which people actually read are created by people with, well, a little more experience and competence than your average highschooler. Let's face it, the things I drew in highschool sucked. Not that my art has improved much, but thankfully it is at least better.

As a social scientist, I'd like to point out that this is a bad experiment design because your sample size is too small and not-randomly selected. It's fun for collecting anecdotes, but not for proving things definitively one way or another. If you're serious about collecting data, I recommend trying to get data from at least several hundred webcomic creators of various popularities--perhaps by sending a questionaire to a good percentage of the creators of comics listed on the webcomic list.

JTorch · Post by **JTorch** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:40 pm

As it stands, I am the only "unemployed, not in school" but I really should have put Working and "married" since I will have a job shortly and am in a relationship. Oh well.

Nanda · Post by **Nanda** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:50 pm

NakedElf wrote:I'd prefer to put Other: Married, housewife/mother.

As would I.

Vulpeslibertas · Post by **Vulpeslibertas** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:45 pm

Does it count if I work at my college?

I wasn't even looking for comics when I stumbled upon my first. I was all "Wow, wish I could do this." And then I read someone's 5 page notebook-lined pencil masterpiece and said "Wow, I can do this." I'd never even heard of most of the big names until some time after I'd already been making my own comic.

Zwuh · Post by **Zwuh** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 10:54 pm

Choices are married and... unmarried?

VinnieD · Post by **VinnieD** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:12 pm

I'm surprised at how many fellow working stiffs there are here.

Ataraxia · Post by **Ataraxia** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:21 pm

Married, working. Before I started making webcomics I assumed that webcomic creators were mostly like minicomic creators, whatever minicomic creators are supposed to be like.

Phact0rri · Post by **Phact0rri** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 11:51 pm

I didn't really have any idea what webcomic people were like even after I started doing one. I imagined them to be kinda geeky convention rabble.

Cuendolin · Post by **Cuendolin** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:06 am

I'm working and unmarried, but It's true that I began during my college years.
I had more time and energy then.
And I always think that mostly students did webcomics, because of the technical knowledge required (html and so )

Paul Escobar · Post by **Paul Escobar** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 2:17 am

warofwinds wrote:"...12-year-old with acne who has a crush on his stepmother, who draws crude sexual figures on lined paper with bad jokes..."

Hey, why isn't this one in the poll?

Rkolter · Post by **Rkolter** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 4:29 am

35, happily married, back in college to finish off my degree, and working.

When you say you think most comic artists are unmarried, and in high school or college, it suggests you think that "in college" and "young and in college for the first time" are the same.

Tsk.

Jkandra · Post by **Jkandra** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:21 am

Married with 2 kids and working. Got the comic strip bug in HS when I read "Backstage at the Strips" by Mort Walker. Did the college strip thing and the standard syndicate submissions and rejections WAY before the web. Finally got back to it a year and a half ago.

Before I did webcomics, I thought most were done by college and HS students. I guess I still do.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:22 am

University student, unmarried. I choose college, but we don't have colleges as such here.

Sketchywallflowr · Post by **Sketchywallflowr** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:26 am

Zwuh wrote:Choices are married and... unmarried?

I suppose to elimintae the people who are married but act single, or the separated couples, or to tell us that married is the only way to be!

Dr Legostar · Post by **Dr Legostar** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:36 am

what does graduate school count as?

Warofwinds · Post by **Warofwinds** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 5:39 am

hehehe, marriage is long term time-commitment, which is why I want to know. I did also say in my first post that for certain reasons (ie, length), "marriage" also doubles as a long-term relationship. Basically I want to know if the people who have the most time are making these comics.

@Nanda/Naked Elf: I count being a housewife full time employment, you kidding me?

Yay for moms!

More replies to any questions later. Gotta get to class myself. Thanks everyone, keep voting please.

Nanda · Post by **Nanda** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:39 am

Sketchywallflowr wrote:I suppose to elimintae the people who are married but act single

HA! Ha ha! You can't fault me on that one, because if I know you, you're about to become one of us!

@Nanda/Naked Elf: I count being a housewife full time employment, you kidding me? Yay for moms!

Ok then! I'll go vote...

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 6:45 am

Pfh! I'll be dead and burried in ground before I reckognize housewives as full employment!

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