What do you notice first in a comic?

[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.

[Shanny8]

Art/style: if it's clean and pleasing to my eye.

Colors: if the colors are in sync with the art itself.

Lettering: if it's legible to read(whether hand written or using a font, it needs to be able to read), type/balloon placement, and grammar(sorry I'm a knock on it- especially when there's spellcheck now days. Slang is the only exception)

[demthorshie]

Yeah, the art is pretty much the first thing I notice. Whether or not the comic is in color or not is the first thing that catches my eye. I really love a colorful comic regardless of the medium used. But I can also really enjoy a b/w comic as well if the pages and panels are drawn well. I tend to be really drawn to comics with vibrant and bold characters, I also love well drawn facial expressions as well. I notice the font style shortly after.

[indagold]

art mostly, then plot, then extra bits. Like if it has amazing art and a possible story but then there's filler for most of it or 20 pages of booty shots I just think there could be a better comic I could read.

[p4blowl]

the flow of the drawings, do they make my imagination see it like a movie?

[WakaXO]

The art style is the first thing I notice, character design and scenery/backgrounds especially <3

[infectedbloodcomics]

The art, first and foremost. And then, the characters, panel flow and dialog

[FaithWalkers]

The style and how the pages are presented!

[LCT_m_a_d]

Probably the tone. Just everything taking in at once before breaking down the specific art elements.

[El_Psy_Congroo]

Definitely art, specifically having a unique and complete style. Meaning, the art work doesn't change over time (Looking at you Hoshino sensei!) even if it improves. This, for me, helps with immersion, especially when you're browsing through hundreds of comics. The color schemes, the style, should all feel like they're part of a world. My own comic would utterly bomb this test though haha. My art style is constantly changing, although its for the better. But that's fine, my comic was, in a large part, a personal project to force myself to improve aspects of my art I have difficulty with - and its working well so far!

Facial expression, is another tidbit I'm not sure if I saw here. Even if its derivative of another artist, there are some comics where you really feel the facial expressions on the characters as opposed to "That shape looks kind of smiley, so she's happy? Maybe?". You shouldn't have to read text to know how a character feels.

Finally, I'm a sucker for interesting paneling. I love Ishida Sui's paneling in Tokyo Ghoul, I feel he really pushes the envelope for visual narrative. I've also seen a lot of Tapastic comics that have creative paneling. That said, it doesn't have to be epic, but it can definitely break a comic if your panels and scenes are not coherent.