I'm interested in what gets you to the first chapter, before you see a single panel, and what you think works in general. What presentation gets readers to read the first chapter? Here's my experience:
NOTE: Please keep this to discussion on effective icons, titles, and summaries, not genres and art styles. (Since we're all likely to be set in that, and that convo quickly becomes just complaining about popular things you don't like)
Icon, in a way, is the most important part of getting people in the door. Here's what seems to work, IMO
-Good art. We all want to look behind it and find the hidden gems, but we want a comic that's nice to look at. And this isn't just about skill. Clear composition, good character designs, and something that isn't too blurry at a distance.
-Faces. Most popular comics have faces, usually attractive ones, on their icon. I find they tend to be the best way to show genre, tone, and skill. Object covers show genre, but don't engage me as much, and often give misleading expectations when it comes to art and tone. And humans like looking at humans. I almost never click text or symbol covers because they tend to cover for a total lack of interest in the art. Object covers get a little more mileage in horror and mystery IMO.
-Genre. Art tends to get clicks based on interest. I tend to click on fantasy covers, magic, dramatic designs. Other people might go for romance covers that show two people interacting. None of these are bad, but the danger is hinting the wrong genre. A sweet slice of life with a cover that makes it look like horror will lose the slice of life readers at the icon and the horror readers at the summary.
Summary, for me, is less of a chance to gain me as a chance to lose me. Interest me with cover image and title, and I'm halfway in the door. Here's what loses me.
-Too vague. It talks about philosophy rather than plot, is one generic sentence, or just a line of poetry. It makes me see the writer as inexperienced.
-Too cliche. Fantasy and romance hit me hardest on this. So often there's beautiful art, and the summary loses me. Romance summaries that are "A is like this. B is like this. Somehow they fall in love." or "This country is at war with that country and X is prince" lose me. Neither of those are bad plots, they just leave me wanting one more interest point to make the story stand out. The prince secretly killed his father. The romance takes place on the set of a reality TV show.
-No plot. Summaries that tell me about a person or world, but have no action. The kingdom was lost 200 years ago, but what's happening now? Your character is a painfully shy high schooler, but what problems does this cause.
What a summary really needs is one good hook for me. A trope I love, a sense of challenge, something I've never seen before.