What are the Primary Factors in Comic Success? [POLL]

SleepingPoppy 2019-07-07 16:10:09 UTC #16

I just figure that whatever part luck plays, it's only as helpful as you are talented/skilled. Better to focus on those things you can actually control!

skicoak 2019-07-07 16:13:25 UTC #17

From an American print comics industry point of view, just walking into any brick and mortar shop would let you know those readers value specific characters, like Batman, or brand loyalty to like DC or Marvel... but most visible, It's like 90% genre driven.

claiborneart 2019-07-07 16:37:25 UTC #18

What I find interesting is that most of the genres that are popular online are the opposite of what's popular in print. There's very few popular superhero comics, and those that are are usually genre subversions. Most small publishers and webcomic collectives actually refuse to accept superhero submissions.

On the other hand, genres that you'd be hard-pressed to find in print stores are everywhere online: romance, drama, BL, and so on.

The main exceptions to this are comedy/gag strips and relatable slice-of-life/autobiographic content. Guess it's just too universal to be confined to one market.

skicoak 2019-07-07 16:56:01 UTC #19

At least in the U.S. print markets, I think so much of this is due to the rise of the direct market to brick and mortar comic shops. It just created/evolved into a weird niche bubble of specific genre marketed primarily to a certain demographic.

The growth of the webcomic/small publisher industries are most certainly reflective of creators and readers that weren't being welcomed/felt welcome in the comic shops.

Now that "successful" mainstream superhero titles are only reaching 100,000 readers and that direct market is growing unsustainable, the future of the medium looks to be digital. What that means to the superhero genre has yet to be determined. Those IPs are clearly too valuable to just fade away.

JRHoch 2019-07-07 17:00:31 UTC #20

They'll just make more movies!

skicoak 2019-07-07 17:05:11 UTC #21

Too many IPs to be protected that way... They've barely scratched the surface of their various universes' characters and concepts. They have to have a cost effective place to protect their IPs. It's probably the biggest reason the print industry is hanging on.

keii4ii 2019-07-07 17:10:43 UTC #22

This makes perfect sense to me. When you're making a non-mainstream comic, your competitions are just as non-mainstream as you. But when you're making say... a superhero comic, you're not competing against other superhero webcomics. You're competing against friggin' Marvel and DC. Because that's how the readers will see it. "I want to read a new superhero series. Do I spend my time on reading this new Marvel series, or this webcomic (that I probably don't even know exists in the first place)?" Well, you can see how 99% of the time they'll choose the well known one.

But readers who have non-mainstream interests? They actually have to dig to find content. So they're more likely to turn to indie work, such as webcomics.

Freemints30 2019-07-07 17:25:59 UTC #23

Luck is pretty over rated. Even if they got popular by luck , without anything to keep readers invested(or good skills in marketing) and a creator who can handle the sudden attention the product with just fade into obscurity eventually(or the creator just delete everything after the sudden attention). There's a reason why lottery winners usually end up even just as poor after a year.

JRHoch 2019-07-07 17:30:55 UTC #24

Well, the cost for a comic these days is pretty ridiculous.

skicoak 2019-07-07 17:38:48 UTC #25

No doubt.

The original direct market price jack was paper and printing costs but for decades now it's been about making up for a shrinking market. Same thing applies to the big crossover events... Way more about sales and marketing than telling a unique story.

JRHoch 2019-07-07 17:48:29 UTC #26

Read an article recently how manga was starting to feel the pinch from webcomics on Webtoon.

vothnthorvaldson 2019-07-07 17:50:18 UTC #27

But I don't think we would be many to say that you can get success by JUST luck. It's rather about luck being a part of success of a good product, but you can change 'luck' into 'chance' or even 'random selection'.

I don't know much about the comic business, but I know other competitive fields and how Internet affected them from the 1990' onward.. Well, I would say that's exactly why we spent increasingly more time and money on marketing strategies. There is an abundance of potentially easily accessible excellent products, that are made inaccessible by their sheer number; marketing is simply rising our probabilities to be picked in the sample, so that we are not just counting on... luck.

But to push things to the absurd, are we artists if we spend most of our time promoting? (not pointing fingers, just an honest question. Seems like a different job to me). To be honest, I'm very happy to be just a small amateur. The situation looks very depressing to me.

(ironically, when I typed 'onward' to verify spelling, I only got the Disney movie in the first page, nothing else! No dictionary etc! And I have no interest in Disney, so no (pertinent) influence of previous researches. There we are... sigh

JRHoch 2019-07-07 17:57:19 UTC #28

I hear many artists, unable to make a living, have turned to farming.

skicoak 2019-07-07 18:05:15 UTC #29

Nailed it. The luckiest person in the world isn't going to succeed with a garbage product. But "Luck" gets you eyeballs that others don't get in front of.

Definitely a strange situation, I wish we were in a situation to just be worried about the product ...not the marketing.

Rhonder 2019-07-07 18:06:21 UTC #30

I cast my lot for marketing, luck, & it factor. Granted I'm looking at the question from the angle of "if you have a quality product already and put it up against 10 others to compete for popularity, which factors will help that the most". Like all of the other options are of course important as well (like your art and writing should always be getting better as you go/practice, but if either or both need huge leaps and bounds to attempt popularity maybe your comic's not ready to be popular yet?) but in a tough market with lots of brutal competition my feeling is that those are the most important.

It kind of mimics the job hunting process in a way: even if you have the most impressive resume in the world, if you don't market yourself and apply for a lot of positions at a lot of companies, you'll have a hard time landing a job. And even if you do get to the interview phase you may be turned down in lieu of someone else for a variety of reasons- maybe they're more charasmatic or maybe they seemed to fit the company's culture better or whatever. The it factor. Or perhaps there were 2 equally qualified candidates and they simply had to flip a coin and pick one- luck.

skicoak 2019-07-07 18:06:30 UTC #31

I got into the sex trade but pimpin' wasn't easy!

skicoak 2019-07-07 18:08:33 UTC #32

Or nepotism ....never discount nepotism.

vothnthorvaldson 2019-07-07 18:10:54 UTC #33

Haha! That would be fun!🤣
(I actually turned to farming because scientific research meant too many colleagues)

JRHoch 2019-07-07 18:28:27 UTC #34

Put that kilt of yours to good use.

claiborneart 2019-07-07 22:04:24 UTC #36

I mean, it could be those aspects; though it's probably their writing /sense of humor too. Just because something is considered most a major factor, doesn't mean it's the sole way to success. A romance story is going to on average need better art and characterization than a humor strip.

It sounds like you're currently in a pit of comparing your success to others; we've all been there, but it rarely does any good.
If you want though @Kazsup , I can read your comic and try giving some honest critique about where I personally think you could best improve your work in PMs. I don't read a lot of GL / romance, so I won't be able to give good advice on originality /trope subversion, but I do my best to give critique, if you want it.