Are there any things you're tired of seeing in comics?

[HVOICE]

Artists who don't put enough emotion in their characters. You can find this in a lot of shoujo actually.
I once read a manga where a guy found out his girlfriend cheated on him, so he slapped her, and he had the most dead expressionless look on his face. It made him look like some kind of psychopath, when it was clear that they weren't trying to portray him as one throughout the story. I couldn't even finish the story because of the blankness of their faces. Everything that happened just seemed out of no where, especially the part when he told the girl "I like you, will you go out with me?" I was like "Well okay, not that anything EVER seemed to happen between you guys, but yeah okay..sure.."
That also brings up my next point. Characters who end up liking each other for absolutely no reason. Yes, I'm sure it looks like that in real life, two people suddenly together, but for the reader, we need to see how it happened! Why is happened, what attracted them to each other? Otherwise the characters will seem like they have no personality and the story would just be flat out boring.

[scottwuming]

That's just like the cliche in BL wherein between the beautiful + gentle and the broody + rough guy, the latter wins, since well, maybe, they deserve to have a "better life" or something. ^^;Coincidentally, most of them have darker hair than their competition too.

[maximumthemokona]

(Sorry I had a bit of a snafu while replying. Still getting used to this forum system lol.)

I think some of it might be due to audience response. Like when they do character popularity polls, more or less the same types of guys tend to win, so they end up influencing the writing? I know that was the case for Hanayori Dango. So maybe there's some pressure from the publishers to go with the more popular choice, even though most of the time the less popular character would make for a more interesting story.
Every time I think about cases like these I'm pretty happy about being an indipendent creator, haha.

[Delete]

Memes.

Come up with something new!

[scottwuming]

Most likely, yeah. For me, though, I would rather have a story that is purely out of the creator's own plans(?) but I understand market and sales do matter so it's good for the sales to follow what the readers want. ^^; I think the challenge is that the creator must be able to fully instill their desires in their works among their readers. I will be making a multiple-couple story soon and with the non-canon shipping hype, it will be a huge challenge.

[martharpearson]

That is true. If we don't know why two people are in a relationship in the first place even if it was parent and child or sibling and sibling than we wouldn't have a reason to care about the people in the first place.

[KSlinger]

Enters thread
Glances to bottom of page
153 posts of things people dislike in webcomics

Uh-oh.

[Luie]

It's mainly just all the stuff you'd expect, like Nixon n stuff.

[fishy]

Oh god there are so many which is why I'm barely reading any manga anymore. I could go on forever but I'll leave three lol

1) My biggest pet peeve is how weak female characters are portrayed in battle manga.

You see this one event where the main female heroine in a battle manga prepares hard for this one battle against some main male anti villain and despite her efforts SHE DOES NOT WIN AGAINST HIM. It's why I don't read Shougeki no Souma, Boku no Hero Academia and others.

I don't read Assassination Classroom because in general the female characters are kinda weaker and the most important and strong assassins of the class appear to be male students only.

I don't think this applies to webcomics I see but in manga I feel I rarely see any in which the female characters are perceived stronger and most of their won battles and just within their gender.

2) Death scenes which don't turn out to be death scenes

lmao Pell's 'death' in One Piece messed me up because it was such an emotional and beautiful scene in which he sacrifices his life but no you see he was alive in a desert despite having no further role in the story, which makes no sense anyway because he was carrying a bomb that was meant to destroy his entire kingdom I swear

These kind of fake outs are just really cheap ways to garner emotion. Equally so, 'ambiguous' death scenes where it's not clear what's the character's fate. Yes, I'm looking at you, Tokyo Ghoul.

'Planned' fake death scenes are okay though. Like if the to be dead character found a way to fool everyone for a while, why not.

3) BL manga or comics that focus on gay relationships whilst portraying female characters negatively- LIKE WHY

[MahouPoint]

It's to emphasize the growth of the character.
One of my favorites uses of this, though, is Mega Man Battle Network, because they keep making fun of how late Lan always is right up to even the last game. He never "matures" in that respect.

[blu3random]

Zombies. Way to much zombies. Also when they dress up fighiting woman like wonder woman, you know, putting a female fighter in underwear when they fight, no real woman would wear that in public

[eschaefges]

Warning in advance: I saw this topic and got a little to excited to respond. I do not mean to offend.

The number one thing I am tired of in comics (and specifically, webcomics), is the lack of an Editor. I don't mean spelling/grammar (though that is frustrating), but mostly the recurrence of this story format:
Beginning, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle
The only thing worse is this:
Beginning, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Middle, Abruptly Cancelled

We don't know when to quit! This doesn't necessarily apply to slice-of-life/gag-a-day comics, but is especially true in manga and American ongoing dramas (whether fantasy, sci-fi, superhero, historical, etc).

Everybody wants to make these giant, epic tales, but rarely do we complete them, so we are left with many stories without end - adventurers who constantly do more things, but do not grow, change, or learn lessons. We also tend to spend time exploring the world and the various things in it that we can lose track of the plot and forget why the audience was invested in the first place. It is fine for some stories to be sweeping, meandering sagas of Character X in Unique World Y, but when it is every long-form webcomic, it tires me. I would love to see more webcomics like Battlepug, Ratfist, Penultimate Quest, and Delilah Dirk & the Turkish Lieutenant - they started, they had adventures, and they ended (or are about to end, like Battlepug). I miss them when I'm gone, but I can always re-read... besides, it's fun to see what the writer/artist can do next! The writer can even do a sequel, but it's not just Chapter 1 and Chapter 2, it's separate self-contained stories!

If you are offended by what I say, your comic may be the exception to the rule, but if your ending is still 3000+ pages away, just consider if all of that space really helps the story or simply extends it. Remember the lesson of George:

End on a high note, and get out!

[Dorian_Grey]

@eschaefges I think in this case, though I do agree, there are too many variables of why a comic ended on a sad note and indefinitely never will be continued. It's not really a thing I'm tired of seeing but more saddening.
Even I am guilty of completely dropping projects, but it's because I never felt it was worth a large amount of work time to create, until my current comic now.
Creators have lives as well, and whether financially they could not continue, emotionally/mentally, perhaps they have family, got sick, etc.
Maybe the creator bit off more then they can chew, but maybe the creator experiences what is called "artistic burnout."
Some creators earn money solely off their comic, so additional chapters is a must to keep the revenue. So it adds extra material, more middle, for more revenue.
OR sometimes creators just begin to dislike the story they have created and decided to just stop to go create something they consider better work!
Either way I don't think it's a matter of consciously deciding to make long epic tales or sagas ..for some people but rather some creators either A. get lost in the process or B. variables as mentioned above.
It is sad to not see an ending, but if anything helps in terms of the editing portion, use the Disney pixar style of story telling:
"Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___."
If you can fill these you have a solid story with a beginning middle and end, plus you wont stray too far off the main plot.
Also, give yourself a set number of chapters, consider for example "I want this story to be 10 chapters long in its entirely" and cut out the fat. ^^

[eschaefges]

I agree - there are many factors (health, family, work, etc) that cause comics to abruptly end - but the biggest reason I think is that they often have so much middle. We are all artists and naturally, we dream big - and thats why sometimes its great to have someone to tell us "hey dude, cut out chapters 5, 6, and 7. And the thing with the eagles. And the shower scene."

For my current tapastic story, I did both the Pixar Method and the chapter method you suggested. I took a 200 page story, divided it into 8 chapters of 25 (plus a cover page for each, totaling 208), and wrote a beginning, middle, and end. However, it was a huge struggle to stick to it and not keep going... we fall in love with our stories so easily

[Vikiro_Hop]

please gag comics...stop making jokes about how female character armor is woefully impractical...pls

[Silverberry]

Fixer-upper boyfriends in Shojo that are rapey assholes. I mean seriously if the guy is a dick that doesn't mean he likes you he's just a an ass! Generally there suppose to be like the jerk with a heart of gold but frankly if a person can't be polite to you and constantly degrades you they are not worth the time. Just because they can be sort of nice once in a while doesn't make them a good person.

[monotone_ink]

Repetitive shounen trash

You, I like you.

All these webcomics on Tapastic that are "featured" or are "trending" which are just plain self insert slice of life webcomics more or less.

It sucks, but the self-insert aspect is the reason they're trending: It's the type of thing that sheep like.

I can't really think of much that I hate, as the effectiveness of tropes depends on its execution. Take for example (as a rabid anime/manga consumer), Sasuke from Naruto and Hachiman from Oregairu.


Sasuke(top) is the typical brooding teenager who just comes off as edgy. He has a tragic past, so sure, that clarifies his behaviour, but I feel that at first glance, its the only thing about his character.
Hachiman (bottom) is too, a typical brooding teenager with edgy views on life. What makes him more likeable though (at least to me) is his hilarious inner monologue, and how he's intentionally being presented as a slimy, bitter person. He very often has different opinions to another of the main characters, and that just makes their arguments more entertaining.

Hmmm, what else do I dislike? Maybe I'll just list a few things:

• Cut and Paste character archetypes that we've seen too much of. It's ok to use them, just change them up instead of inserting the default template.
• Long talks in the middle of fight scenes (real fights wouldn't give you time to talk.)
• Love interest (usually a girl) which doesn't have much of a character outside of being a love interest.
• *drinking beer PUWAAAAAA
• Panty shots in an unfitting story (imagine those in a horror manga, oh lord I'd be laughing.)

• Self-insert Gary Stus that don't need to struggle to get what they want (Looking at you kirito.)

• Lack of composition techniques (sorry, this is just a personal pet peeve and probably won't apply to everyone.) A lot of comics I see here don't make much use of different camera angles and perspective. It doesn't mean much to me how precise the lines are, or the thickness of your lines. If the angles of the frame are just flat, it doesn't seem all that interesting to me.
  I always try to treat each panel like a shot in a movie's story board, it has to be interesting and convey at least some meaning (low angle shots to display a character's strength, long shots to emphasise setting etc.)
  Have a look at this manga I'm reading at the moment.

Just go give some context, the assassin in the top panel is being challenged to a duel by another man, whose face is seen in the bottom part of the page. Sure, the lines are a bit squiggly and the character's faces may seem strange at first, but the way that the character in the top panel is framed just makes the moment oh so effective. The multiple closeups on the bottom as well add tension and suspense.

[purrlpankras]

@wierdmonkeycat
Damn everything you just said is basically what I think too. We should be best pals

[mattcleaver]

I am not very fond of reluctant heroes or heroes too bent on avoiding doing bad things at all cost.
The first, while realistic, is kind of annoying and the other is annoying because it's too unrealistic ^__^

Or maybe I should just try being easier to please...

[DruidPeter]

I would really like to see more comics with older characters in them. Most of the time, the characters are in their late teens or very early twenties, especially when the comic has a manga-ish feel to it.

I guess that's why I like webcomics like Grassblades so much. The dude is at least in his late thirties, and maybe even in his early forties! Yay!