Judging a series by its ICON (and design tips)

Dozzer 2016-05-20 08:40:42 UTC #3

Ooo great call-out! Something to definitely keep in mind. Big fan of your work btw. Chose it because of your icon. =X

Jrej 2016-05-20 09:05:34 UTC #4

Great topic. I actually find that my icon doesn't bring that much traffic. I changed once so far.
My series has a long form story arch, and even though I registered it under action, the set up starts slow.
So I don't want to mislead readers with a crazy dynamic icon. It might spoil the character development as well!

I might experiment a bit too. I think color should match what's in the series. Can't be too far from the content, right...

KSlinger 2016-05-20 10:02:28 UTC #5

I'm going with A.

I visit the website multiple times a day for a few seconds/minutes at a time so the first impression I get of a comic is a huge factor in whether or not I'll look at it.

If it appeals to me in those few seconds I'll take a look. If it doesn't, I don't.

Colour and style doesn't really matter, it's the over all finish that draws me in.

Here's a random page from the 'Fresh' list and whether or not I would look at them based on first impressions only.

Green Arrows = Yes
Amber Arrows = Maybe
Red Cross = No

Obviously this is centered around my own personal preferences. I'm sure all of these comics are amazing in their own ways. Just gives an idea of how harshly one viewer can evaluate.

69Michi 2016-05-20 13:38:37 UTC #6

I would have to say... I probably leaning more toward B. I have seen some comic that doesn't have a very eye catching icon but the tile draws me in and the plot keeps me sticking around. And at the same time, some really eye catching icon but the plot overall is just meh in general. Also I have to say I can be picky with artstyle too T_T if the artstyle looks great or unique, I will be sticking around to watch how the story goes despite the plot might not be very interesting at first. (aka giving a lenient second chance), but if the artstyle is not to my taste and the plot doesn't interest me in the first 1 or 2 chapters then... I probably will pass. I usually don't read slice of life, normal romantic/friendship story in modern day with a sprinkle of third wheel or family drama, or just a usual daily day of (A) (B) (C) (D) either because I'm not into that genre, personal preference aye.

Michelle 2016-05-20 16:03:10 UTC #7

I tend toward A. Genre is important, but the icon gives me a feel for the aesthetic and art skill of the comic. If the icon is badly drawn or has a really poor design, it typically doesn't bode well for the comic itself. Story is important, but I prefer high quality artwork too.

It's also just a matter of personal preference. I'm not likely to check out any uber-kawaii sparkly manga icons regardless of their design/art quality because that's not what I'm into.

Nice icon design analysis though! Admittedly I haven't put nearly as much thought into mine, I just cropped a square out of my cover art >u>;

eschaefges 2016-05-20 16:18:57 UTC #8

man, now i am really tempted to play this game and go through the pages marking which i would look at... but i don't want to hurt anyone's feelings!

gateofselidor 2016-05-20 16:34:56 UTC #9

If we're talking about the front page, or browsing through categories, then the icon is definitely the main draw for me. I'm unlikely to go by title, because I'm really not very good at coming up with titles, and I'd like to give other creators the benefit of the doubt in that department.

I think I picked up the majority of the webcomics I follow either from recs, or from seeing their art/pages via sites like Tumblr, though, so overall I wouldn't say the icon is the most important factor, but it still plays a significant role here on Tapastic.

I do think it's really important for the icon to be representative of the art, though. I don't mean black and white comics need a black and white icon, but I've come across a lot of comics where their icon/banner is the very best of their art, strategically cropped to mask the creator's weaknesses. Or a beautifully painted icon for a comic with pages that are basically rough sketches. I understand wanting to use your best art to advertise your comic, but an obvious disparity in quality between the icon and pages is far more off-putting than a more representative icon suggesting a lower level of polish.

TristanJensen 2016-05-20 16:43:43 UTC #10

C for me.
The icon will generally have some influence on me but that's really only because I can see the kind of art ahead of time (unless of course I find out it doesn't which happens sometimes). But I wont judge it for more than that.
And often I wont even use the title either, mostly because 75% of the time I have no clue what it's supposed to mean to me (which is why I tried to make my comics titles as straightforward as possible and not something like "random" or "fishsticks" (not a real series name btw, you could actually use that here if you wanted)
Whether or not I read something is really not determined by anything other than my sudden desire to click on it (I've gone past a lot of comics here only to find them again later on and really like them)

nketchen 2016-05-20 16:57:57 UTC #11

For me it's A. But genre is pretty important to me. I want slapstick comics that inspire me to get into the right mood, and that can help me get better at drawing and writing. So if your comic isn't kind of similar to mine, I won't look. Unless you have a good scary series.

KSlinger 2016-05-20 17:53:01 UTC #12

I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings either (and I hate to judge a book by it's cover, I'm sure they are all great in their own ways) but from a very 'marketing' perspective things like this that are really valuable for people to know. If you advertising doesn't work you're going nowhere without a hefty bit of luck.

apurviance 2016-05-20 18:20:12 UTC #13

Agreed, this type of review and input from other people is very important. In fact, after looking over they types of comics that attract my eye it's time to update my own icon. Some things that seem to work:

Clear faces without too much distraction
Some sense of personality or character relationships
Art style matches main comic.

Michelle 2016-05-20 18:45:47 UTC #14

THIS so much too. It's super disappointing when the icon/cover is done by a different artist and the actual comic has different or lower-quality art. I don't get why people think this is a good idea. At least for me, if the inside doesn't look like the cover, I feel kind of cheated and not inclined to look further.

Dozzer 2016-05-20 19:32:21 UTC #15

Me: oooo, cool-looking icon. click
Looks at first episode oh, art is WAY different, and writing is whatevs.
scrolls to next episode. 'Kay never mind. I've been misled. leaves

An appealing icon has been known to fool me twice. I'll look at a cute icon and wonder, "why haven't I already subbed to this series...oh, yeah. That's why." At that point, it just reinforces me from approaching it again.

I guess that sorta proves the importance of both icon and content. Come for the icon, stay for the content.

Panda007 2016-05-20 20:56:17 UTC #16

I'm super insecure with my icons, because it's so difficult to imagine what other people will find cool + what represents the comic well.

The matching of the icon and the comic art is a must. I hate when comic books have those beatiful covers and the comic art is different. If they simply put the comic art in the cover, my chances of reading it are bigger even if the art is not so nice.

For some reason the site is not letting me post my icons so here is the link for my profile, where you can see them. (any opinion about them would be welcomed)

UrMom 2016-05-20 23:19:29 UTC #17

I would lean more towards 'A', but kinda 'B'. When it comes to picking comics to check out, I normally go by how the style looks in the icon, or if the icon is just an emblem or something simple I click to see if there's a gem under a'-meh- presentation. It's nice when there's a clear glimpse of what the visuals have to offer (I do take the "comics are a visual medium" thing kind of seriously), but if it looks like an icon for a gag comic, I most likely won't check it out since I'm more of a story person no matter how good the icon looks.
If you really want your icon to stand out to me, you would either have to pick something that works really well with that little box, or the colours in the icon would have to look really good together... also I realize I'm more drawn to earth tones... and blue, lots of blue, particularly deep teals like chrysocolla.

Personally, I'm not the best with executing this type of stuff. Not very good with titles, not very good with knowing what section of my art makes a good icon, not very good with presentation in general. Then again, I'm content with what I got.

Now I'm just rambling, whoops!

sarrowsmith10 2016-05-20 23:46:47 UTC #18

This is pretty big for me. I'm shallow. I do judge a book by its cover a lot.. but yah. I'm mostly B tho. It's pulled from one of the covers, and it reflects the style and general mood of the comic. I tend to gravitate towards things like that.

My icon matches my comic pretty squarely, and I don't bog it down with titles or anything.

isaacfriedman 2016-05-21 02:04:50 UTC #19

Honestly, I doubt anybody is going to check out my comics based on their icons... but I can't find out how to fix them.

see? crap.

Greg_Dickson 2016-05-21 02:15:34 UTC #20

I've been having the same problem about the site not letting me post my icon in a thread. Is anyone also having the problem about not being able to change to a new avatar picture for the forums? I keep getting errors, so I'm stuck with my original uploaded image.

Dozzer 2016-05-21 02:22:33 UTC #21

Yup, there's currently issues uploading images in the forums. A quick work around would be to upload the picture to some other site (personal site, Facebook, imgur, etc.) and get that picture's direct link. Using the upload button, you can select whether to upload "from my device" OR "from the web". Paste the image link there in "from the web".

In fact, you can direct link an image directly from your Tapastic uploads. Whichever browser you're using, right-click the image and choose to open it in its own window or tab. The link above is the direct link you can use to embed the image into the thread.

Panda007 2016-05-21 02:31:07 UTC #22

ohh @Dozzer thanks!

Here are my icons, if anyone could judge them?

from Life of Panda

From Of Fairies and Ghosts