How do you approach/judge reading a new Webcomic?

[spadedigsbutts]

I’ve been very curious about this As both a reader and a creator....but how do you approach a Webcomic when you start reading it for the first time? What sort of criteria or pattern do you follow to decide if you’re going to keep reading?

When I start a new comic, I usually read the first 10 pages worth or so and if I’m not feeling it story or art wise, I leave and check the NEWEST page to see if the gripes I have may have improved in any way. If it looks like stuff gets better, I’ll keep going, but if the newest pages still leave me uninterested, then I drop!

Do you do similar, or do you have a different method? What’s your vetting process?

[silverraven0]

First impression is everything for me, so summary And how the first few pages will have to really attract me to do it, and I will usually try reading some few first chapters until I decided tat, nope. This is not for me.

Readers review is also something I look for, especially if it's one long A*s manga or webcomic. Even if they have gorgeous art and enticing summary, the reviews or readers comments might throw me off the feels when I try the first chapter.

But even so, there's always possibility that I dropped the comic not far after if the expectation dropped. I have some sort of unhealthy expectations when reading books or comic so if the expectation were a little bit off I can stop at that chapter or if I'm trying to give it chance, I'll try to finish it through.

[AmandaJ-art]

I try giving comics a chance. Even if I don't like them at the start. I try not to judge too fast. There is always a chance that it turns out to be the best comic ever.

[suyaa3838]

If there's something that catches my eye, I always start by checking out the latest update. I'm not concerned about spoilers or even immediately understanding what's going on because personally I'm looking for aesthetics, clear visuals and character dynamics I enjoy more than anything else.

This might be an unpopular opinion, but if I'm not immediately pulled in, I'll drop it instantly. There are tons of new comics I might like more being released daily, I know my taste very well and my time to read comics is already limited as is. But that way if I do start following a comic, you bet I'm really into it.

[Kelheor]

1. Is art of a good quality? If it begins no so great, but there are a lot of updates, I'll go and check in the end. If there are not many updates, I'll most likely be done with it in something like 3-5 pages.
2. Does this actually look interesting? A bunch of flying heads usually does not and I saw some webcomics that only consist of those.
3. Is there anything actually happening on the first N amount of pages? The N number may depend on the amount of overall pages, what's going on on the first pages, how hooking the pages are or what the characters are talking about.

I give some comics more chances than others, but only if I see that there is a progress in art/story Unlike books, never ever would I continue reading a comic with a thought "this will become better... eventually".

[Ardelvion]

I check the art and/or summary. If either one is good, I'll read the first few pages. Then I'll read the whole episode if the first few pages are interesting. However, I'll be very likely checking out a webcomic if the art, summary, and/or title is weird. I like reading weird webcomics on bad days sometimes.

I consider how much dialogue is there in each panel and for me, too much dialogue that takes up a whole panel space is not good for my eyes.

[Iris-Grimoire]

1. First pass of course, is if it's readable and the art looks interesting.
2. If it's remotely interesting, checking out the story. Since now it's a popup that's slightly quick, back then I'd of course just go on the sidebar and that was instantaneous.
3. Story's still interesting? I go to the newest pages, 5ish, and see if I like how it's currently doing.
4. At that point, if I'm hooked, I go all the way back and read. Then, it's a matter of giving it a bunch of likes because it's good but I'm not interested in following, or a full on like, sub, comment, the whole deal of showing how much I like it.

[elyss]

Art, readability, interesting story, regular updates

[Freemints30]

Well I judge the cover initially, really. It doesn't have to be amazing is quality or style but if the composition catches my eye then I will read the summary.

If I like what its about then I would actually read it. Generally if the I'm not hook within the the first 30 pages I'll drop generally, thou I give exceptions if it has a lot of updates or chapters but If I feel bored by it for more than 1 chapter then I will drop it even quicker.

Really, it doesn't have to good just entertaining.

[KiabIce]

I agree. I give comics a chance for a few pages. If I don't like it I don't continue reading it.

What first draws me in though is the artwork/coloring, thumbnail, Coverart, and the first few pages.

Can the story flow well too?

[NickRowler]

The number one thing I judge comics on are readability. I am more forgiving of poor art than I am of bad font or formatting.

I also don't like reading comics where nothing happens. Even if it is a gag comic, I at least want a set up and punchline. I don't like "Love Is..." style comics which are just feel good pieces.

[Lazu]

What draws me in is usually the title. If it's poetic, a pun, fun, tells me about the plot somehow, or just... If I find the title interesting I give it a read.

I VERY rarely read the descriptions ( I mostly look at genres if I look at anything), as I mostly like to go in blind, and you can tell a lot about the story when you don't have any pre-knowledge of what to come. As well as not having much expectations, so I can enjoy the story as-is.

Which brings me to the flow of things. Is it easy to navigate the characters? Does it feel like the story has build up? How is the paneling? If the things are good and easy to read, without blocks of text and the art get the point across, I'm pretty much satisfied.

But as I have noticed, I am super petty about the flow being up to my standards, so even though I don't think I'm picking and choosing much with everything else, the flow for me is everything xD

[azzy-m]

Usually the thing that draws me in is the cover/thumbnail. It's big and full of colors, and comics is a visual medium so whether the art is decent or not is a fairly huge factor for me. Unless the comic is intentionally ugly/not good as a part of the charm of the comic (if that makes sense) like Homestuck. I really like Homestuck, lmao.

When I think the cover looks nice, I check out the description. I usually like ones with longer synopses because it tends to tell more about the story (I just realized recently most of the comics I'm subbed to have long descriptions, haha.) But just in general if it piques my interest, I'll give it a try.

Whether or not I end up dropping it sometime depends, but I almost never drop comics intentionally anyway.

[MegaRay]

Make me at the very least care about one character.

[DeleteThisAccountFag]

Never thought of this, so I decided to pay attention to what gets me interested as I went through a thread looking for comics. Turns out that I equally look at the thumbnail, the description, the art style, and the characters on said thumbnail, if applicable. I seem to gravitate towards description first but I overall just notice everything at once in a quick glance.

What determines if I check out a comic are keywords. In the title and description, there are some words that instantly get my dismissal and others get me to actually click the link, In fact, I think I only read the description to see keywords because most of them are generic "X is your typical Y person but with a twist", you know the kind (and yeah, I'm guilty of this too, I now realize I gotta improve my summary).

Thumbnails are kind of important but I don't think I ever clicked on a comic because of the thumbnail. Though some thumbnails has led me to read the description.

When I get to actually reading the comic, I read a bit of the story but don't think I have any prerequisite about how far I should go. I just read it until I get a hunch that it's not doing it for me. If I do like it, I should get a positive vibe of some kind. Pretty much, if it invokes a positive emotion, I'll most likely sub, if I get no emotional reaction, I skip, and if I get a negative emotion, I also skip.

[rajillustration]

I first look at the style of the comic--it's not so much about how well a comic is rendered to me, but how well the sense of design is. I often like simple comics, and I expect comics to be simplified, but there needs to be bold graphic design choices to keep me reading. If it's a style I've seen 1 billion times before or if it's just kind of rudimentary, I'll get bored of the art. And honestly, rendering doesn't grip me at all. There's a lot of beautiful comics that are great set pieces but unfortunately aren't well written and seem like...kind of a waste of time honestly. If you want to do concept art, just make concept art, leave comics to comic illustration.

Then I look at how legible the font is--that's pretty big for me. I read on a monitor so I'm a lot more forgiving of small font (and honestly, it looks better, but...it's kind of dated nowadays) If it's a bad font, I just can't continue. I can't read comic sans. I can't read arial. I can't handle most serif fonts in a comic. I'm just so picky about font and it's so hypocritical because I feel like I'm not great at font myself, haha.

Then I look at the words, and I need to feel something about the characters by about page 10 or like 2-3 episodes. If it's that long and I'm just not relating to anyone, or if they just feel like insipid flat character tropes, then I'll probably get bored and drop it. I need that maturity in the writing, youknow?

And then lastly, I need there to be some sort of rising action. There's a lot of comics that don't have bold enough story arcs and story structure, and like--I need actual risk, actual stakes, no matter the genre (except gag I guess, but I don't sub to many of those nowadays). Like you don't need to be a fantasy comic to reference the hero's journey.

[spadedigsbutts]

All the responses so far have been super eye opening! I wasn’t expecting this much variety but it’s very interesting to see! To be honest I might take notes on some of this to use when making future projects 🤣

[beta1042]

I usually check out a comic based on one of two things:
1-the cover art catches my eyes
2-it's a comic of a creator I know

From there the first thing I do is read the first update. If at some point there is text I cannot read I consider dropping it on the spot. Sometimes I'll finish the first ep, but usually not. If it's a friend I'll give it a handful of eps and usually tell them they should fix the font size/font choice.
Next I judge the overall readability of the comic. It's less about the quality of the art but more my ability to follow the actions of what is happening in the story. Sometimes the art is just not clear enough or the grammar is too poor to follow. If this is the case I stop reading.
Lastly I give about 5-10 eps(depends on the length of each ep) to see if I like the general potential of the story.

[SagaHolmgaard]

Readability is super important to me when I start a new comic. The art itself can be beginner-level, but I need to be able to follow what's going on, so that means good composition, the speech bubbles make sense and nothing is unimportant is taking up too much focus.

Secondly I just need to find the main characters like-able! So I'm looking to know their struggles, personalities and goals within the first few pages. this is much more important than world building or lore for me. Which brings me to my third and final point. This is more of a pet peeve to be honest, but I click on comics to read COMICS, not pages full of text. So if the first thing I see is a page of text explaining some creation myth or world building I'm quick to leave. The story might be good but I really struggle with finding a good reason to read that much text when I'm actually looking for something more visual

[StarMEH]

1. The first thing I notice is the art, I usually want to keep reading when I want to see more of the art. That doesn't mean just looking pretty, it's the unique style and designs, and if the artist actually tries to draw backgrounds and different angles.

2. The description, even if the art or the first few pages aren't that interesting, I continue reading when the description promises an interesting comic or plotline.

3. The characters, when I'm reading a story the thing that I care about is the characters. If one of the characters catches my eye, especially if it's the main character, I would excuse an uninteresting plot or artwork.

4. One of my biggest turn off to comics is if it doesn't have any readability. If I don't know the panel organization, or if the grammar and spelling are confusing, or if the text boxes are too small. Also if I can't tell where the characters are or what they're doing.

How many pages I read kinda fluctuates based on how long the comic.