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thatphilippekid
Sep '16


Bad Stew is a monthly comics zine about deadly handshakes, gravediggers getting in trouble with the law, women with no face descending into paranoia, Krampus regretting his career, innocent egg toys causing lovecraftian terror, and more. It's like an anthology of weird short stories, but all made by one person: me, Philippe Ricard.
I publish a new issue every month, and it's been a year since the first one, so there are now 12 juicy issues to peruse. There are reoccurring characters, but no overarching plot (except for issues 10 to 11), so you can start pretty much anywhere.
I look forward to any feedback you guys can give me!
Here16 is Bad Stew on Tapastic. If you want to read it on my website, you can do so here3.

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    Sep '16

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    Sep '16
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vongcw
Sep '16

Hey there! I'm quite new on Tapastic (only a month) and enthusiastically trying to work things out. It's just the way my brain is wired. I like data.

First things first - I think your obscurity is LARGELY due to a monthly update. It's something I considered too because my comic Aetherwar1 is a long-form comic. (Also interestingly, I have Lovecraftian bent to it. Pleased to meet you fellow Lovecraftian!) And I thought it'd be better for me to give a nice 8 -12 page update a month instead of a weekly affair. However after some research, that's not how this website works (I'm pretty sure of it).

After some dodgy research, I find a daily update would be the most optimum. I'm studying if there is an build up effect if you have posts one day after the other. (Meaning posting Tuesday and Wednesday is more effective than say Tuesday and Thursday. I haven't confirmed this yet). Basically the more often you update, the more your comic gets viewed. Not very complex right? For this reason I have split updating my comic into pages.

I found your status interesting because I rarely encounter a monthly update. It would seem you obtain 1 subscriber per update. Which means you should consider splitting your comics and updating fortnightly or even weekly.

Now beyond the update thing... if I'm to be really honest with you, I did find some of your jokes funny, I even found a lot of your situations particularly interesting and made me pause to consider. But unfortunately, much of your comic is difficult to understand. I'm not the best to advise on humour (which I think is what your comic runs on. A kind of black humour) but I find the punch lines lack the tightness and delivery they need. Perhaps you are trying to communicate too much with each comic? Perhaps breaking down each story into three panel pieces that can be updated on a more regular basis?

Take the abandoned baby one. That is already one heavy subject. Then throw in the topics of alcoholism, homelessness, and child kidnapping, all very unsettling and heavy subjects. Furthermore, the characters are gritty (and unlovable with no redeeming qualities I might add, which some comics do thrive on, but really not my thing). And after all of that, the comic ends on the punch line, "Why is this baby leaking!"... The experience left me with a very disquiet soul and no sense of closure (neither tragedy, triumph, and the humour couldn't make up for the lack).

Perhaps that was your intention all along to give the reader a sense of disturbia? Something to shake us out of our comfortable tech savvy middle class lives? In which case I congratulate you and there are indeed successful comics that do exactly that. But I think most of them do land on closure points (tragic, unsettling, pieces to be sure). And I'm afraid I didn't get that from most of your arcs.

Perhaps breaking the story down into smaller pieces as I suggested might have helped each scene reach some kind of sharp poke at society.

I hope that helps. All the best!

eslameldeeb
Sep '16

I love Bad Stew, it's one of the first comics i subbed to when i started publishing on Tapastic
@vongcw, i guess it's just not your type as you mentioned, because i think it's amazing, well crafted and totally disagree with you that it's artistically lacking
.
At the same time, i agree that a monthly update is not a good idea at all and highly recommend that you update it weekly, a story per week will be great
I also recommend participating in the forums and use Twitter if you don't, webcomic community on Twitter is ridiculously amazing on hashtags like #ComicBookHour and #WebComicChat

vongcw
Sep '16

Fair enough. Art is a particularly subjective experience. I have seen some comics really thrive on a similar sense of humour so I understand if people do appreciate it. I've never been able to grasp it.

thatphilippekid
Sep '16
vongcw

Vong: Thank you so much for your detailed reply! This kind of feedback really helps me and I'm very grateful that you took the time to give it to me.

On the updates: you are totally right that a monthly update is absolute garbage for retaining readership. I do have several reasons for enjoying it:
1: It allows me to draw an average of 3 pages a week without being beholden to that exact number, so that if something comes up I can "make up" the pages I missed the next week.
2: The issue format gives each month of work a distinct identity.
However, I'm not sure these reasons are especially good ones. Would a hypothetical reader really care about distinct issues? Wouldn't they rather get more frequent updates? Throughout the year I've been very stubborn on the issue, but I'm starting to see the light on the whole frequent update idea. I don't think I can pull off daily updates, but maybe weekly is the answer. Not always the same amount of pages, but some new content on a regular basis. An idea I've got to consider.

On punch lines: thank you for telling me this. I try to write jokes, but by the time I'm done drawing them I'm not sure if they're funny or not. I agree that I need to revise them some more give them the impact they need.

On so many "heavy" topics: I guess there are a lot, sure, but I feel like none of them are really treated with a complete air of depression (though one could argue that they should be): he's an alcoholic, he's homeless, but he is looking for a way out, and the unexpected adoption of a baby seems to be it. We disagree on the virtue of flawed characters, and that's okay. I aim for an air of vaguely hopeful dysphoria.

On endings: I agree that some of my stories just dribble out and end. Sometimes it's intentional and sometimes it's proof of my ineptitude as a writer. I definitely need to work on it!

thatphilippekid
Sep '16
eslameldeeb

Forums and Twitter are a good idea. I haven't been active in them because they take up a good chunk of time, but perhaps that is a good use of time. Publicity and all that. Thanks for the tip and for your kind comments!