What do you notice first in a comic?

[UzukiCheverie]

Reading direction... and I know this is bad of me, and I have to try REALLY HARD not to automatically close a comic that reads right to left. It's not that I hate right to left reading it's just that there are SO MANY that do it wrong because they're seeing it as a visual style instead of an actual reading format, resulting in hard to read comics >< But yeah, after a few pages if I noticed that the reading isn't flowing I'm done.

@kurapikasuki I'd actually love to hear your input on whether or not I'm doing it right in Time Gate: Reaper. I've been trying my damned hardest to make sure I don't mess up how to do it. I've always enjoyed the right to left reading format for manga, aside from the visual style. I'd like to think that I know what I'm doing, considering I've been working on Reaper for a while now and I've been reading manga since I was reading children's book in elementary school, but I still worry sometimes > w <"""" Although I'm sure there are places I totally screw it up at the start at the series, I'm hoping I got better at it >

---

I always notice the art first. Always. And this can make or break whether or not I continue to read more. Sounds petty, I know, as there are some series out there that are awesome but aren't as strong artistically (some of them I super enjoy). But it's definitely the first thing I notice. So I turn to my one golden rule when it comes to comics - people come for the art, and stay for the story. You can have a comic that doesn't look good visually but has an awesome story/jokes/etc., just like how you can have a gorgeous comic that has a garbage story.

Even if you don't have the artistic skill, if the art is interesting and works for the content, it'll usually be enough for me to like it :3 (examples of this would be like, Cyanide and Happiness, Exercise in Futility, etc. - artistically, pretty simple and not much else going for them, but their art works perfectly for the funny punchlines and slapstick humor they deliver; Exercise in Futility wouldn't be the same if it didn't have those same two penguins every panel, and Cyanide and Happiness wouldn't be as juvenile and groan-inducing without its dumb little drawings lol)

---

also if you have a story that starts off with a huge wall of text that's supposed to be the "prologue" or whatever you call it, i'm sorry i'm not gonna sit here and read this when i could be reading a novel instead :U Show, don't tell - instead of explaining an entire prologue out in a few long, drawn out sentences that take up a few pages, why not just draw out a scene explaining it, or explain it over the course of your story? It takes more work but it's a lot more fun to read and it's far less intimidating to new readers.

[joannekwan]

For me it's formatting. Like if it's webtoons format but a single panel takes up the whole screen I'll drop it. I ain't gonna scroll through all that shit just to read 3 lines of dialogue and see a person get out of bed ffs.

Then it comes down to legibility, the font and how well the bubbles are placed and all that jazz.

I don't mind art style too much, basically if there's even anything reminiscent of a figure I'll check it out. So it's not really a thing I'll "notice" off the bat. I can forgive poor art, but I need to be entertained still.

[Lani]

character design and dialogue. i dont like when dialogue seems disjointed and unnatural. i also like interesting designs.. i dont think art style is very important to me, unless theres something about it that really irritates me

[Iaikaa]

For me it's formatting. Like if it's webtoons format but a single panel takes up the whole screen I'll drop it. I ain't gonna scroll through all that shit just to read 3 lines of dialogue and see a person get out of bed ffs.

This so much! I read comics on a laptop, I'm not gonna tolerate your 2000 x 2000 pixel PANELS. If the whole panel doesn't fit on the screen at once then what is the point?

Other than the "ugh these pages are unreadable by format" -syndrome I just go for interesting and expressive art styles most of the time. Expressive style gives out characters and that's what I'm looking for in a comic. Believable character interactions is where it's at!

And don't you dare to give me a 1-3 pages of text walls in the beginning of your comic, you can clue me in on your fantasy world during the story but if you insist giving me a history lesson about a world I'm not slightly invested in then I'm out.

[Michelle]

Aside from art quality, the writing tends to leap out at me first. If it flows naturally, is paced well, and is intriguing, I'll keep reading on.
If the writing on-the-nose/full of exposition and the character dialogue is flat, I'll quickly pass on that comic. And text walls really make my eyes glaze over. Typos are kind of unforgivable in a world with spell-check and peer review.
Comics is a combination of visuals and writing, so I want to see the two being used harmoniously and with equal importance.

[zelkats]

I'll honestly only read the first 5 pages and stop if it doesn't interest me fast enough. I think so many webcomic artists/writers fail to grasp this a lot of times. Readers are cold, and they don't care how long it took you to make each page. They don't care that you might love your characters to death, and that by chapter 99 the biggest thing happens in your comic. No, if they don't find what they're looking for immediately, they'll often close out of it and never return. People don't have enough time in their lives to spend reading a bad webcomic, and you've got to make a good first impression.

This so much. It's actually a rule many Japanese comic magazine editors have when critiquing a comic since competition is tight as hell. If the first 5 (or 3 in some cases) isn't interesting or attention grabbing, they don't think it's going to be able to get enough votes from readers and make it to the next issue. This is talking about readers who already have the magazine in their possession, so even if they didn't find the premise interesting, the middle of the chapter can catch their attention when they flip through the pages.

But webcomics? There's the "next page" button they have to click and they gotta wait for the page to load. Or they gotta scroll, which some people have already expressed can be tedious. And on platforms like Tapastic, there are ad banners and icons of other comics on the same page. More resistance and distraction. So in many cases, the first few pages of a webcomic have to count because there are definitely readers who aren't patient enough. And unlike a book or a magazine that they can pick up, read again and notice things they haven't before, they can simply close the tab of a webcomic and forget about it forever.

Back to topic, lol:

What i notice first is the quality of the art, like, whether or not it's easy on my eyes. The drawing and anatomy can be well done but if you give me nothing but vivid colours, or colours so pale to the point I don't know where I should be looking, or simple lines for with hardly any depth (gag-a-days don't really count), then my interest might fade quickly (my eyes are already tired from staring at a screen all day at work. Please don't make my eyes work even more). And then I will notice if I can AND want to read the thing. Text that's too small, handwriting that's illegible and exposition are big turn-offs. And the last thing I notice when I see a comic for the first time is whether or not it's welcoming me with room to breathe. Clear shots of the characters, establishing shots, and a gist of the world of the comic. Panels that aren't too small or crammed in the first few pages works great for me. I am unfamiliar with your comic and I'm not invested in it yet, so I would prefer to walk into the lobby first rather than be tossed straight into what feels like a busy office floor.

Only then I will make the effort to properly read it and see if the writing fits my taste lol. (I'm a visual-ass person)

[Airgita]

I also notice the art style. Not whether it's well drawn or has crazy dynamic angles that I know takes skills to draw, but whether the overall look fits the tone of the book. You can usually tell this withing the first few pages, if not panels. If the style and tone throws me off, do they do it in an interesting way or is it just poorly done?

But sometimes even before I get to reading anything, I usually have to find the subject matter and/or art style appealing to my personal tastes. This is probably not good...

[Silvo]

ly close a comic that reads right to left. It's not that I hate right to left reading it's just that there are SO MANY that do it wrong because they're seeing it as a visual style instead of an actual reading format, resulting in hard to read comics >< But yeah, after a few pages if I noticed that the reading isn't flowing I'm done.

Checked out a few chapters, since I'm also currently trying to better understand layouts for upcoming works. Its pretty good for a Right to left layout... I didn't understand it was Right to Left at first so It got me confused.

[AnnaLandin]

If we're talking first impressions, it's obviously the artwork that gets to me first.

I don't really have a set preference - I don't always prefer coloured comics to black and white ones, for example - but things like effective use of colour, great linework, good panelling, a good visual pacing, etc., will get my attention.

... But a comic can be the prettiest thing in the world - if it doesn't have a good story holding that art up, I'll stop reading by page two.

[R.n.P]

The first thing i look for in a comic is its fight scenes n character drive. If a comic doesnt have at least one of these two then I would probably drop it

[shaneoid77]

The first thing I look at is the over all theme, as I like my media to take me out of the norm and in to something fantastic so I tend to avoid stuff that's just people dealing with every day life. I get enough of that. Stuff with superheroes, supernatural, aliens or dragons in will usually sell itself on them, and that draws me in. I don't mind art that's not 'perfect', in fact I think it's a bonus in the webcomics world that you get a more diverse art style than any standard that mainstream stuff would enforce on you.

[TristanJensen]

Almost always the art first, I'll normally stay and start reading if it's something I like. Normally I look for something that looks different from what I already follow (this is what got me into stuff The Other End and Apricot Cookie(s)! , both of those got me in with the art and kept me interested wit the writing ^^)

[KSlinger]

Art style and quality. Don't mind if it's very minimal or very intricate so long as it it's immersive.

Walls of text/prologues kind of put me off. I want to be in the thick of it right away getting to know your characters right away. Plus (it's a bit judgmental) but if your story needs explaining before it's begun I'm not sure how well it's going to be written later down the line.

Dodgy proportions, bad anatomy. It's distracting and will make me turn away, but I'll deal with it if your story is good. Also agree with @Niles, bad eyes = game over. They're really important to me for the same reasons. Even crazy eye pupils and wacky colours put me off.

Typos. I'm not a grammar nazi in the slightest and completely on board with creative use of language/pacing to accentuate accents, but if you've got a glaringly obvious typo it's a bit of an immersion killer.

Character design I'm all up for drama, flare, crazy outfits, whatever you want, so long as it's done well. BUT if I can't take your character seriously you can count me out. Immersion is everything to me and I want to at least respect your characters even if I can't understand their choices.

That's my gauntlet.

[JessJackdaw]

Regarding the crazy eye pupils, can you give an example of what would throw you off? I'm still in the process of making a comic and now I worry about having a main character with weird eyes shown in the first pages. Does it really throw people off that much if it's done intentionally and not as a stylistic choice? If you could have picture examples of eyes on the bad list, even better!

@SheDwarf Off topic, but I didn't notice you posted before and just wanted to say I love your comic, SheDwarf, to death! If anyone needs a good example of how to start a comic off well, go check out this comic.

[SheDwarf]

Thank you @JessJackdaw ! That's very nice of you to say! I thought a lot about that opening, so I'm glad you feel that the comic starts well!

[KSlinger]

Sorry, that was a little vague wasn't it. It's hard to explain and exemplify what I mean, but anything that screams 'my first OC' is a bit eek to me.

done intentionally and not as a stylistic choice

It depends, but if I can see the reasoning behind your choices without having to consult an epic character bio sheet, it's fine. For example if your character is a tree-turned-person and has acorns for pupils I'm down with that. If you're character took a hard knock and has a torn pupil as a result that's fine too, or if the trait is a species-wide feature that also makes sense.

However, if your character looks like one of those 'create your fantasy OC' drag and drop generator games vomited onto the page, I'm going to politely turn away!

[sarrowsmith10]

HOW THE TEXT LOOKS, HOW EASY THE COMIC IS TO READ

^^^^^ THIS.

Gawd. If I can't read your comic, then I won't read your comic. T_T If your text bubbles are tiny, weird font, or that's all there is text and no art, I'm moving on. Sorry!

I'm generally pretty forgiving of the art as long as I can read it. But yah... XD

[JessJackdaw]

Ahhh! Okay, I get what you're saying now, and I've definitely run across that a lot searching for new comics. Usually it's someone trying to emulate Naruto with weird symbol junk in the eye that throws me off.

I suppose what you mean by "my first OC" is something that looks derivative of a popular work or trend like for example, spikey haired spunky boy protagonist with one weird dragon eye because he's a half-demon (even though being half of a species doesn't work that way). Another big one might be cat people that hardly look like cats. They just have weird ears mounted on their head, cat eyes, and tail (because apparently a bi-pedal human needs to be able to balance better when standing upright?). Nothing against people who use those traits, I just personally don't read many comics that feature these characters as I see them all too often and I like to see something new.

So, I sympathize with you entirely on that front. No, I swear it's not that. It's just a nocturnal species quirk, and hopefully just a subtle one.

@SheDwarf I think what hooked me into the opening is when she briefly is scared seeing all the huge people for the first time. It's a nice character development moment, and it really made me curious. Also, all the times she smiles just melts my heart...

Good luck with it, and I can't wait to see more!

[shazzbaa]

So many people talked about pacing, and after thinking carefully about it, I have to say that pacing is not a 'real' thing to me. I explain better: how many times did you give up a TV series or a comic because the pace wasn't pitch perfect in the first episodes?

But pacing isn't just whether or not the first episode gets to the action quickly enough. Pacing is everything. For most people it's not a thing you notice consciously -- but pacing is whether or not a joke lands. Pacing is whether an emotional moment feels meaningful or random. Pacing is whether the characters' conversation feels natural or crammed full of exposition or weirdly drawn out and meandering. Pacing is timing, it affects every aspect of storytelling in a medium that primarily revolves around converting time into space.

Sure, the pacing can start out bad and then improve later, but that's true of any element of a comic. You could also say "if the art is bad, don't quit right away -- the artist might get better!" and that's not any different. I don't think pacing is a less valid reason to set down a comic than any other!

Often this happens a lot to highly realistic art styles I feel like.

I deeefinitely share the McCloudian view that realism is tough to pull off in comics. It's probably possible, but I feel like the more something looks like it could be a photograph, the less it moves -- you stop seeing characters having a conversation and taking actions, and begin seeing a collage of photos of these things imo.

[heterodont]

Much like everyone else, I look at the art first - both the style as well as the 'expressiveness' of it. This is one reason why I really dislike comics that straight up use poser models without any effort to stylize them in some way. Not to say its bad to use poser, but the models are extremely stiff and pretty much kill any energy/life the comic and/or characters would've had otherwise. Style is a hard one for me to explain, I'm just extremely particular with styles - I don't like 'western' (i.e comic book esque, something about the coloring and anatomy of it really bothers me. then the people who try to emulate it without basic understanding of foundations such as anatomy...) for one. Not to say I can't appreciate a comic for what it's doing artistically, just don't expect me to follow it.

second is writing - both plot and speech? wise. Typos, much like anyone else, can take me out of my reading mode extremely fast and its super bothersome. as someone else in this thread has stated, there is spell check so there's no excuse into just opening a simple word processor to check your dialogue. I can't say much for grammar bc I'm a fool for that and lord KNOWS my grammar is a disaster half the time. As for plots, as long as it's vaguely interesting - I'll read it.