What Do You Want to Read?

I'm a young person without kids but I like creating characters who are parents, uncle/aunts, or just people who have to look after kids. I enjoyed watching the Simpsons growing up plus I come from a large diverse family so I like stories about families (Be them traditional or non-traditional).

i have a laundry list of things i love in fiction ohh
i really love found families ? i especially loove stories about different monsters and supernatural creatures coming together and forming family units, and i've always been a sucker for the gruff adult character begrudgingly becoming a guardian figure to a younger companion.

i totally agree with @shazzbaa that dramedies are the way to go!! i feel like they're honestly a staple of comics and webcomics especially. i like angst as much as the next person(maybe more) but the stories that really stick with me are the ones with cute, fun moments that develop the characters and make them relatable to the audience

I love humor, cute character designs and queer characters is a big plus... (Sorry, now I am describing my comic LOL https://tapastic.com/series/magicadvisor1)

Well, I do like science fiction and fantasy in general. But I like it best when the main focus of the story is on the relationships between the characters and their development. I have to be really invested in the characters to really enjoy the plot. So I guess character driven stories are for me ^^

I like stories that have complex characters, ones that aren't afraid of presenting them as the broken or messed up people they may be. I like stories where the characters are less like 'characters' and more like 'people'.

Stories with overall messages or themes are also something I appreciate - that way, I have something to take away from it.

Yeah and not only that but more focus on characters allows the readers time to get to know them and care about them, I feel like there is no drama/action/tension if I don't really care what happens to the characters.

Like for example, I would stick around a story with a weak plot but that has interesting characters who I care about but I wouldn't be able to stick around a great story and plot but really under developed and 1-dimensional characters. I have dropped reading many manga/comics because I just didn't care what happened to the characters anymore and it's so disappointing.

I'm not saying that a story that starts out with action is a bad thing. What I was getting at is I don't enjoy comics where the plot is basically "action action action", without any stopping to get to know the people involved beyond their looks and their names. A comic can totally open with action! But I don't want it to be long before we get a sense of the characters (and those two things can absolutely coincide.)

Also I don't think people here are saying they only care about characters, granted it's a favourite answer when asked about story. I love intricate worlds, and a carefully-crafted world makes a huge impact on immersion. But if I had to pick only one solid element, I'd sooner read a comic with interesting characters and a nondescript world than a really cool world with dull characters. That's not to say I devalue world-building, not at all! It's a very close second on my list of priorities.

OH OK. I agree with that then! I feel the same way about that. Slowing it down is definitely great and I wish more did that as well. It's little intimate moments that can teach you a LOT about a character.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I don't see character and world building as different things. They should be developed together as they affect each other. I don't think one should be more important to the other. I guess what got me frustrated was virtually nobody even mentioned it. So it appears to be something that most people don't think of initially.

@ahkwardkat Aah I gotcha. I agree that worldbuilding+character development are essential to a great story! Especially when it comes to the visuals. One of my major comic pet peeves is stories that take place in a white backgroundless purgatory.

This excludes gag strip comics of course, but when it's a story-oriented comic and the environment gets treated as a lazy afterthought, it really kills the immersion. There's so much story to be told through the environment/backgrounds, it feels like a huge missed opportunity when they're phoned-in or just completely nonexistant.

Yes, I will unsubscribe so fast to a comic with virtually no valid environments.

Of course gag comics are a very different situation. XD Those are their own monster.

I don't think any relatable story would be devoid of either good or bad. Any logical story would have a mix of both good light moments and heavy dark ones and everything in between. I mean even Shutter Island has light moments! XD But yeah, I think I didn't really understand what you meant there that first time.

This makes sense, but I'm not saying to develop a world with no characters. The world and characters need to be developed TOGETHER and as you said, reflect each other. Too many stories don't do that. I guess I think that if people DON'T notice the world around it I've failed. I don't WANT people to just gloss over it. I want people to see it and be entralled and lost in it in a good way. I want people to say:

Hey did you see that! I wonder what that was.
Wow that village looks really cool and the buildings are neat!
The festival was really neat to see all the masks and costumes, different instruments I've never seen before. Are those real?

That sort of thing, I WANT people to notice. I guess if they don't, it flows seemlessly, so that's great in a way. But at the same time, it seems like it isn't that important if people don't notice it? People aren't paying attention is what it'll feel like. I have a mystery comic. I put a LOT of little tips, clues, hints, and small things throughout the world, so I WANT people to pay attention. Granted I don't expect readers to do all the work, I try to lead them where I want them and make some things obvious. However I don't want to spoonfeed people information and so I put those hints and ideas they need to look at throughout the world so they can become the story and interact with it in a way. you know?

Actually, No, I can't. Look at forensics, they tell a whole story with just the things they see. They don't always use characters, they use SUBJECTS. Unless you are of the frame of mine a subject becomes the character. You don't always need a character, but you always need a subject.

If you wanna go along that route think of this: If you saw an ugly wrapper, or a plain one with just "chocolate" on it. Would you buy it? No. That's why there is an entire job called "marketing" to focus on how to make that wrapper make people WANT to buy it and WANT to eat that candy. Without an good looking wrapper to entice people, you'll never know who good, or crappy that candy is.

Well thank you. I hope that it can be something people want to get into over time.

I'm not quite sure how you are defining "subject" as something different here (perhaps give an example?), but in the forensics analogy I would imagine the story they are telling is that of the culprit. Even if little is known about them, the character of the culprit does exist in this story.

Marketing is definitely important when trying to get people to look at your work. When people quickly browse through a webpage or a comic bookstore, art is almost always what draws the eye first, and by extension, the visual aspect of the world building as well. But that's separate from what makes a good story and I think to answer a question like "What do you want to read?" most people (or at the very least, I) would probably say "a good story." Art and world building is the icing on the cake (I like food metaphors too damn much) and its important. But its not on the highest rung in terms of what is necessary for a good story. Like I said, there are a few people who will eat something even if its not in the most appealing of wrappers. Occasionally, these stories even end up widely successful anyway.

An example is One Punch Man. The original webcomic had some pretty mediocre art but the characters were hilarious and it went viral. Eventually a digital manga was published by a pretty established artist, and this year an anime was made as well. Now granted, the world building was pretty damn good in the original, and the characters way of navigating the world they lived in greatly helped with the appeal. The contrast between the hero-celebrity worship of most of society compared to the matter-of-fact and humble nature of the protagonist really drives the story. But again, the world building helped because of its effect on the characters personalities - not their clothes or houses. And the outward "marketed" appearance of the original wasn't much to look at:

Perhaps it sounds a bit like I'm disparaging world building as something unnecessary. It's definitely not - all aspects of a comic are necessary. I was trying to explain why I think characterization is the first thing that comes to mind for many people.

No problem, your work is fracking inspirational =]
Once I finish everything thats published I'll definitely subscribe.

Anything with good art, good plot and good character design! I would really love a sci-fi comic around here though!

Someone might have already described this but a dramadie is actually a fusion of both drama and comedy. There is a belief that drama and comedy are opposites, with dramas being dark and depressing and comedies being the pippy happy. However dramadies tries to mix the two together. So more or less, something that makes you laugh and cry. Or least, that is how I see it, because my stuff sort of falls into that category.