Hide or acknowledge references, cameos and easter eggs?

[arcojawa]

One thing I've really enjoyed about making comics is putting in little references to media, pop-culture and even other webcomics. I've seen plenty of other people do this and I've seen some who just leave them there for people to pick up on and some actively point them out. In the wiki age it seems like deliberately pointing out all the little details put into a work of media is becoming all the more common.

So, just as a matter of preference, if you enjoy references, cameos and easter eggs in your comic do you prefer to let people find them or take some measure to make sure people find them? (maybe long after the fact?)

[Lucca_Vendramel]

I'd like for people to point them out. It's always more fun than throwing the joke at them

[feardeer]

I'll point out cameos in my comic, because it can serve as a little bit of promotion for the original source of the character(s). That said, all of my cameos are from other indie creators, who might actually benefit from that little bit of promo.

For references and easter eggs, nah. It kind of takes away the fun if I point it out myself, imo. It's like explaining a joke before anyone gets the chance to laugh.

[azzy-m]

I'd let people find it but if a long time has passed and no one's been able to figure it out, I'll probably say it.

[nostalgicroxas]

I have two kinds of references in NTN. One is flat out obvious, and one is more subtle. The first is referencing something that the reader can understand flat out - like the first reference being to Alice in Wonderland and following the rabbit down the hole. The second style I utilize is usually through dialogue but can also be through setting - and it's taking a portion of a line of a song, or paraphrasing someone, from a game, movie, anime, ect - but these I never reveal to the reader.
I can see them myself very easily, but I think if I pointed them out to the reader it'd lose a sense of wonder. Some of them flow so well with the existing story that I don't think many realize I've done it. I've never had a reader be like "omg i see you quoted this line from xyz!" before, so they must be pretty well hidden. It's one of those things that if someone sees them, I wouldn't deny it. But if someone sees a line of text that isn't a reference and says it is... bleg, that's not fun.
As for cameo characters, 99% of the characters in NTN or other stories are made for the story and meant to be there. They aren't cameos of other people's characters or anything. A few cases stick out that they are cameos - such as Isaac is re-purposed character and design from a story that never got off the ground, and Isaac is the same - their involvement in NTN is minimal, and yet impactful. Another small "cameo" of sorts is way later on where I reference the King has 13 knights - it's a callback to an earlier story I've written where the main character is protected by 13 knights of eld. Less so with Isaac, but I've been very clear with Akiio that it's the same Akiio as the one from the failed story- and I even reference that he failed in his mission to protect someone (a person he came to love).
But all of these little cameos I don't think readers will notice if they haven't been on my writing journey. It's one of those things that if they dig around through my dA and writing material they'll be able to see it (though the 13 knights one currently isn't online in its entirety so that one might be super hard to spot lol).

[Iris-Grimoire]

It's like explaining the joke; I'd rather let the readers figure out and I'll confirm if they ask in the comments, but I won't spell it out. At the most, maybe draw attention to a page/panel if people clearly aren't noticing a funny background event but never straight up say it.

And as for doing them at all, yes. If you're good with it your comic won't be dated in a bad way, and it'll put connections that your readers didn't know where there and they might even like other works they discovered through your little easter eggs.

[aqua03]

I usually point out cameos in my descriptions of my comics. Though I'll leave references and cameos to non-webcomic characters and things alone for people to find for themselves because that's half the fun of those types of Easter Eggs I think..

[OttoGruenwald]

My comic is about reimagined public domain superheroes, so its dripping with easter eggs. The shear concentration means I really don't have to point them out. If a character show up, its likely they're from something.

The Power of Stardust | Tapas

Take this page. Every one of these guys is from something.

[Rubyleaf]

Ideally, make them obvious enough that people will get it, but don't call attention to them in dialogue or anything. Like here:

Unless I did a very poor job drawing it, it's hopefully easily recognizable as the Will Smith "Ta-da" meme. I don't think I've included any other easter eggs yet, or if I have, I can't remember them at the moment. But they were also left unexplained. But in any case I prefer just putting them there; this falls under the rule of "Don't explain the joke."