Longform comics and the intimidating archive problem

shazzbaa 2016-10-03 17:39:19 UTC #5

On Tapastic there's not really anything you can do, I feel like, other than collapsing multiple pages into a single episode so it looks less intimidating.

On a personal website you can control how your archive is presented; display it by chapter, for instance, and then expand a chapter to see individual pages -- same basic deal; it looks less intimidating. You can also have a "new reader? start here!" button to try to keep people from going to the archive page and getting overwhelmed.

But for me, the only real "strategy" I have is to talk about my characters really openly on social media. Like, the reason you don't want to read a 300 page comic is because you have no real motivation to do so other than "looks neat" or "premise sounds interesting" and 300 pages is a lot to commit to something you don't know if you want or not. But if there's someone interesting you really want to meet, it's a lot easier to imagine digging in to get to know that person.
And I agree with @AnnaLandin -- I think the cast page/about page serves a really similar purpose, and that's definitely a reason those pages are important to me (and why I keep campaigning for Tapastic to add an about page) -- it potentially gives you a motivation to explore an intimidating archive.

Pandastrophic 2016-10-03 17:59:34 UTC #6

As a reader I do kinda avoid super long comics especially on tapastic, I think other webcomic sites have episodes that can be split into chapters so it's actually not that intimidating when you start reading but on tapastic...you see that tiny scroll bar and you just know it'll be a long read.
I think if we could just collapse multiple pages into chapters it would make the reading experience so much better (we've been talking about a feature like this for a while now but idk if it will ever be added)

shaneoid77 2016-10-03 18:00:06 UTC #7

I've always thought that readers who like my characters enough will want to go back and read their origins. But yeah I go with recap pages. I also think (hope) making 'issues' of comics helps as you can definite jumping on and off points. Also you get to do front covers (just me who likes doing that?)

Gag comics are ok but I would rather read random ones on my FB feed than go hunting for them on host sites.

joannekwan 2016-10-03 18:25:15 UTC #8

Haha, I'm kind of the opposite. I prefer 200+ individual pages than large chapter episodes. I think I'm more intimidated by so much scrolling on the far right of my screen than the little box with all the episodes in. It's like okay, I have 200+ episodes to go through but each ep is a page or two, that's doable. Compare that to: I've been scrolling a while, when will this episode end? Oh god, there are 20 more of these, I don't think I can scroll through them all like this. Also I like that Tap remembers which episode I left off at.

I haven't reached the 100 episode mark for any of my series yet, but maybe when I do I'll do a quick recap? I think for Demon House at least you can pick up anywhere, since it is essentially a sitcom.

AnnaLandin 2016-10-03 18:31:19 UTC #9

Same!

In my case, I think it's because I grew up reading comics on the internet loooong before this newfangled vertical scrolling layout became a thing. I'm USED to plowing through 300+-page archives in single pages. I enjoy it, even. It feels like turning the pages in a print-comic.

MissMagicGirl 2016-10-03 18:39:23 UTC #10

If the comic is good I only enjoy that fact that there is a lot of it that I can read. I don't get caught up in one night but if I enjoy it I have a lot of great reading material for many nights to come

zetina 2016-10-03 18:55:12 UTC #11

Being a One Piece fan who has tried to get others to read it, I should be familiar and much more concerned with this very real matter of "tl;dr" in longform comics. I think @shazzbaa has the right idea - talking about the cast. There have been many times where I pick up a series based on character design alone, and have heard of my friends picking up a series because of what they know about a cast member. It serves as a driving force to get through that endless list of episodes, haha~

punkarsenic 2016-10-03 18:57:47 UTC #12

i tend to not care, but maybe that's because this never crossed my mind; as a reader i'll knuckle down and read a comic on one or two sittings if i want to subscribe. i cant imagine what solution would be viable, because the people who wouldnt want to read through it all likely wouldnt know to check for recap pages anyway (i sure wouldnt)

agentfink 2016-10-03 18:58:21 UTC #13

I was experimenting with condensing on Webtoon to see if I would like this approach.

Webtoons audience is different (in terms that they prefer reading larger updates) but I liked presenting the pages with the natural breaks in the story that made for easy reading. I updated anywhere from 2-4 pages and my chapter 1 on Webtoons came out to 12 episodes, compared to 31 on Tapastic. Personally, I think it reads better on Webtoons but I don't have a large enough buffer to sustain multi-page updates like that.

We're just starting up chapter 2 and I find myself considering multi-page updates for chapter 3. It's not just that I don't want my readers to get lost with one page updates (I don't think they do) but also I just think the multi-page chapters read better (almost like mini issues).

I don't know... at the moment, I Don't Give A Damn... but I'm only 38 episodes in...

Ah! See this is why I think my mind set is changing in regards to multi-page episodes here. I'm considering doing a recap too, maybe at the start of new chapters? Some printed comics I read do this every issue. Most of the time I skip it, because I am binge reading, but I can imagine it being very helpful when reading it as a monthly.

That is comforting to hear!

R.n.P 2016-10-03 19:09:21 UTC #14

I always have that thought in my mind that my comic has gone pretty far so subscribers that are new might not read em
As a creator I'm working on getting my early episodes to look very appealing in order to get subscribers that are new to read them, I'm still an amateur at the coloring though
THE LAST SAMURAI

SynergyEclipse 2016-10-03 19:32:29 UTC #15

I'm used to reading one webcomic page at a time, and have binge-read some webcomics from the beginning if they interested me enough. Including supplemental material suited to new readers may be helpful, because if it's interesting enough, it could compel a new reader who'd otherwise be intimidated by the large archives, to binge-read through the comic.

My comic has a set length for chapters, but I can't preserve the chapter format here, but I break them down into small episodes. I haven't done recap pages, but I've done recaps in the comments of some episodes or pages.

indagold 2016-10-03 20:01:18 UTC #16

Whelp i'm in the category of not giving a damn as I am currently updating a 600+ page comic I completed over the course of 5 years haha...

Devika 2016-10-03 20:07:39 UTC #17

I can only comment as a reader, but I've never felt intimidated by having a lot to read... That's a bit weird to me, because I read something if I enjoy it, and if there's more to enjoy that's a good thing. If it's not good, I quit.

Okay, there's one thing that I'm intimidated by, and that's the marvel and dc universes. But that's because there's no one canon storyline, and it's been going on for decades and has had so many different writers doing their own thing. So yeah. I've only read a bit of Nightwing, that's it...

maximumthemokona 2016-10-03 21:04:06 UTC #18

I wonder if I'm the only one who just starts reading from the latest updates... Haha. I'm aware that it's spoiling the story, but I can't help it (when I buy a new book the first thing I do is read the very last page). If I get really confused it usually motivates me enough to go back and read what I missed (I'm usually quite invested in the story by then), but I've never really had a problem picking up a new story from the middle.

Personally my favorite approach (which I'm not sure is very compatible with my own comic... but I'll try) is to make sure that each chapter has a definite beginning/middle/end arc and is enjoyable by itself, while still developing a horizontal plot. Kinda like how TV series do it (or used to do before Netflix and binge watching came along)... or like picking up a random comic issue at the store, without worrying too much about the underlying mythology.

vongcw 2016-10-03 21:22:27 UTC #19

I really like that! I know once I'm a even a little invested into the characters I'll keep reading.

UzukiCheverie 2016-10-03 22:47:27 UTC #20

When I post a new volume, I give a brief recap of what happened in the previous volume, with a small hint as to what's going to happen in the new volume. I also have cast pages which outline the main characters on one page and the characters that are prominent/playing a role in the volume on the other page. That's pretty much all I do lol If someone really likes my story they'll read it.

keii4ii 2016-10-03 22:50:46 UTC #21

I think that's the thing. Speaking only for myself, if I really like the story, I'll happy eat up the entire archive in one go. But if I see a comic that I'm only sort of interested in, that's where the archive size may be a factor.

I know I've dropped a few comics in the past because I was only sort of interested in them based on the first chapter or so, and they were updating very frequently (more than once a week)... So the amount I had to catch up just kept increasing.

J.Z.Castillo 2016-10-04 02:34:21 UTC #22

I agree with some of the people here. I don't care. If people wanna read, they'll read, if they don't then they don't have to. It's that simple.

Personally, if I ever find a comic with a bunch of episodes, Like Heart of Keol, I will subscribe to it and just leave it in the back for a while, until the day I have enough time to catch up with everything at once. I enjoy doing that!! But if I find a comic that looks promising but has a bunch of episodes and either the art or the story didn't catch my attention I will give it a pass.

ryoko 2016-10-04 04:11:09 UTC #23

I actually really like the 300+ page comics because I know I'll have stuff to read for a while, and that makes me happy ^_^ I usually subscribe to them. I also appreciate the tracking feature of Tapastic that remembers which page I read up to last.

As a creator with 200+ pages, I've done a one-page story summary and a character summary on a couple of occasions at the beginning of a new chapter. My story is fairly complicated as a whole, but reading from any chapter would give one a sense of the main storyline, but would probably be pretty confusing. Sometimes people will ask questions in the comments regarding past plot details or characters, so I'll use my reply as a sort of mini recap if needed.

Alejandro_Cheetah 2016-10-04 05:00:01 UTC #24

I really like archive pages as a whole, so it's something I've taken a lot of time thinking about as well. For my comic (Time Cheetah, check it out, I love you!) I decided to use the Cover photo as a useful banner:

It states the name of the current story arc, and clicking the banner will take them DIRECTLY to the archive page on our website of that chapter. Now, this method implies a couple of things (having a separate website that formats well to mobile, having a good archive system) but it's a way use the resources tapastic DOES give us to make up for one of it's shortcomings.

If anyone else came up with some clever ideas (Page recaps strikes me as something that's very tapastic friendly, along with comment section Abouts) I'd love to hear them!