What makes you stop reading a webcomic?

[darthmongoose]

If only those darn lazy artists would draw their comics faster, right?

It's not really an issue of how long the page takes to draw. Like I said, this would be a fine page in an issue. It's a pacing thing. Pages in an episode take just as long to draw as pages uploaded individually, but the way they're consumed changes with the time gap between pages. Webcomics that update weekly simply don't play nicely with highly decompressed storytelling. I've been reading and making webcomics for over a decade and having multiple page updates like say Homestuck or the episodes on Tapas is the only way to pull that kind of slow-burn off effectively. If you're updating page by page, something needs to happen every page, because you're telling a story episodically and have decided your "episodes" are 3-6 panels.

My old webcomic was paced like this, updating one page a week and while for people reading updates as they came out, it felt good, for people who binged the archive, or read the printed edition... well, the word "frenetic" was used in a review on a comics blogging site. My work done spefically for print has always been more decompressed, and since Errant is now doing 2-page updates, my pacing when I thumbnail has changed accordingly; it actually allows me a bit more leeway in conversation scenes because I don't need to wrap up a dialogue exchange in a single page to avoid weird hanging conversations over several days.

Oh also, as a final very nitpicky note... the comic wasn't drawn. It was CGI, so "it takes a long time to draw" is not an applicable excuse here. I think if it was drawn, the artist should know better than to waste their own time spending several hours drawing a page that doesn't advance the story in a meaningful way, just keeps the tired "will they won't they" stalling for another week while adding no new drama or dynamics we haven't seen before. My pages take probably 8 hours or more each, and that's exactly why I treat my pacing like every page matters.

[Darth_Biomech]

If you're updating page by page, something needs to happen every page, because you're telling a story episodically and have decided your "episodes" are 3-6 panels.

Well, yeah, but it's always a balance. Or else we get comics where the MCs are maxed out and storm the local evil overlord's lair at the page 60 already, and while sure, for those who were reading it in ongoing it was a journey that lasted 2 years, I was dragged through it on a neckbreaking speed in 15 minutes. It is certainly not a trivial thing to figure out the right balance of the pacing.

Oh also, as a final very nitpicky note... the comic wasn't drawn. It was CGI, so "it takes a long time to draw" is not an applicable excuse here.

If by "cgi" you mean the usual lot "freeware (or torrented) assets bashed together with creepy half-naked human models in Poser", then yeah, but otherwise, making a quality 3d comic... I'd say is basically impossible? What will take a 2d artist an hour to draw, will take a 3d artist a week to finish, and if it's a particularly detailed background, or a major character with all the texturing for closeups and rigging that entails, you can have up to month worth of full-time work. The only perceived advantage is that you can just make stuff once and then reuse it, but with comics the opposite is actually true - you often need throwaway stuff to use in just a couple pages, if not just in a single frame, and it ranges from items to locations to whole characters.
So if it wasn't a poser horror show, maybe that page was meant to give the author a breathing space to model out what was on the other side of the door? =D

[DualDragons]

Surprised i never reacted on this one, but:

When the author is an ass online or spams their comic in the comment section of others. I don't care how good the story is, i don't read them is the author is a dick

If the story progresses and really diverts from it'a original premise. Example: if the story starts out as a wildwest story and suddenly the mc and co have to fight alien spaceships. It just makes me go "ehhh", consistency is important

When literally every character has a tragic backstory. I don't mind if a few of them do, but when litterally everyone gets a 20 page flashback of how their parents were killed imma head out.

When a story becomes really cliche. I can live with a fair dose of cliches but when the plot becomes as standard as "i'm a tragic hero who saves the damsel in distress from the evil overlord who's only goal is chasing me" then it's game over

[silverjackie1]

Well...for me there are various reasons that make me drop a comic:
- When artists don't have episodes planned ahead so they keep adding what comes first to their mind each episode, this makes the comic loose focus on the plot and they get stuck with an idea for years!
- Drawing style, sometimes comics just look lazy and sometimes its really difficult to understand whats happening because of the art.
- Too much text is something I personally don't like, when a comic fills pages and pages with text I drop it.
- I hate when they force LGTB ideas or Mental illnesses on the comic just to make it more "relatable". They start pointing it out so much its gets tiring. I mean I like a LGTB story but when it treats characters the way they are (characters) and not "Gay" dude, or "Autistic" girl or something of the sort. You don't need to tell me what a character defines himself or herself at, or she is like that because she has this sickness, I will notice it by myself by seeing them interact with each other or how they behave in certain situations.
- Comedy that relies on insulting others' opinions or politics. Not my cup of tea

[Aims]

The story stops making sense or starts feeling forced.
My favorite character dies, or some drama just drags on for too long or just becomes useless...
I never really quit a series because of a hiatus, cause I have the memory of a fish and just forget to unsubscribe, but a long hiatus definitely prevented me form subscribing to a series.

[teasidesketches]

This probably isn't everything that I find off-putting and I don't think it's anything too deep or unusual, but they're the ones I can think up off the top of my head:

• Robotic and/or completely unnatural dialogue. This is one of the biggest ones for me--the reading portion of the comic is very important to me, so if the dialogue doesn't read well, I'll drop it immediately.
• On that note, grammar that makes it difficult to understand what's happening--I can accept some grammatical mistakes here and there since we're all human and English is many people's second (or maybe even third!) language, but if I can't understand what's being said because of the grammar? I can't do it, I'm sorry.
• Really cramped speech bubbles where the letters overlap the edges of the bubbles. I don't like straining my eyes to read (that's three in a row related to dialogue, oh boy).
• Super Edgy main characters, especially the ones who curse constantly for absolutely no reason. I'm just not a fan. Really just, unlikable characters in general with no redeeming qualities (and no, being hot surprisingly doesn't count).
• Forced romances. I love romance subplots and they're something that will absolutely keep me invested in a comic, but if it feels like the characters just got shoved together with no chemistry whatsoever? Eh, save that for the non-canon material.
• On the topic of romances, unnecessarily rude love interests. I'm just... not interested in watching one person belittle their "love interest" because I don't care to see how they "get better" when they fall in love. If they do at all. That's not the kind of drama I'm here for.
• OK, I'm sure I've complained about this one before on the forums somewhere, but... That trope where someone overhears something completely out of context and doesn't stay until the end to hear the rest, which consequently causes So Much Drama between the characters? Yeah. I'm out the moment that trope shows up.

[bear1]

This is why I drop comics:

-Artists uses their ‘fame’ to belittle other artists online.
I follow artists online because I want to see their art.... But when an artist constantly uses their social media platforms to belittle and mock others (in one case even with screenshots and name). I’m out. I just cannot support someone like that (or be able buy the idea of ‘good guy main character’ from their work....I hope that makes sense xD)

-Long hiatuses. If a comic doesn’t come back after a year+, chances are it never will, for whatever reasons

-Artists constantly rebooting or dropping/starting new projects.
I don’t mind that happen once in a while. But I know an artist (not on here tho) who restarted their story 4-5 times and never got beyond the first chapter. I can take ‘the main characters meeting for the first time’ only for so long until I’m tired of never progressing....
Constantly dropping stories and starting new projects makes me sometimes stop reading anything of that artist all together. I just feel like like there is no point getting invested in their project because you won’t see the end anyway

-Artist uses their comic for announcements and merch ads, and nothing but announcements and merch ads, for month....
No need for explanations...

-romanticization of mental illnesses (mostly depression). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for mental awareness and removing the stigma of mental illnesses.
But I’m out when such conditions are used as a ‘cool and trendy quirk’ to make a character ‘mysterious and deep’. That’s bull.

-Comics that start becoming anti-insert whatever you want here but use strawmen arguments to prove the authors point.
Editorial stuff is fine (although it would be nice not to hijack a non-editorial property for that reason, but whatevs...)
But strawmen are just dumb and lazy. If you don’t bother bringing proper arguments to the table, I’m not bothering reading your stuff anymore....
Besides, if the comic wasn’t even meant to be editorial, that’s another big oof...

[Kann]

Most of time I just lost interest. Nothing personal, tho.

But besides some reasons mentioned here already (romanticizing abusive relationships and mental illnesses, plot going nowrere, strawmen and so on) I dropped a few comics because I started reading for interesting plot or nice art but got hit in the face with lots and lots of sex scenes. I don't mind them in general, but if it's too much it's either making me bored or uncomfortable.

[DiegoPalacios]

"i missed when the action scenes were outside the bedroom"

[DiegoPalacios]

I think most of the things that get me to stop were already mentioned.

One thing that makes me stop reading is when i lose interest in the characters.

[jcmraz]

Depends on the webcomic honestly. If I don't like or stop liking the characters, If the story stagnates too much and doesn't do anything interesting. If the story uses amateur writing tricks or cliches but doesn't use them in interesting ways.

[azzy-m]

sweats as I read all the above replies and wondering if I have to reboot my comic AGAIN

[azzy-m]

sometimes I get burned out from reading so much and then I take a break from those comics, and going back to them kinda makes me overwhelmed because of the amount I have to keep up with.

Same, actually. A lot of the comics I'm subscribed too are either comics I subscribed to when I was able to keep up with them but eventually I stopped reading and I have to reread the entire comic again to catch u but I don't feel like it yet, or comics that I "will eventually get to reading" but I never do. Only a few I actually read and keep up with

Also yes I agree, read The Dummy's Dummy y'all

[AmazementComics]

Like most people said here, If it's a simple page where [insert dialogue] is stated, and it takes a whole page episode, there's no reason why more can't be added to the scene to make it interesting. A lot of comics do that and it's just a huge turn off and why I would stop. There's no need for pointless page fodder that's not critical to the narrative.

[Luminosophy]

Major problem is that I can never usually get invested in the characters or the premise of the story early on. They're not really introduced in any interesting ways, you're just supposed to care because they exist.

[Cavechan]

-Artists uses their ‘fame’ to belittle other artists online. I follow artists online because I want to see their art.... But when an artist constantly uses their social media platforms to belittle and mock others (in one case even with screenshots and name). I’m out. I just cannot support someone like that (or be able buy the idea of ‘good guy main character’ from their work....I hope that makes sense xD)

I have seen so much of this... namely from a Discord server that shall remain unnamed... and I'm just sick of it at this point.

I don't read a ton of comics so I haven't dropped many. But if I drop, it's usually because I have no idea what's happening in the story anymore. Like if there's a bunch going on at once and it just doesn't make any sense anymore. That happened once with a story I enjoyed for a while. It was a simple premise story and then at some point too many things were happening to too many characters at the same time and I just got completely lost. I would have had to read the whole thing over again, which I have done for some comics, but for that one I just wasn't feeling it anymore.

[amortelito]

I stopped reading just ONE COMIC in my entire life!!!!! This comic was about hookups and sex between roommates...it became so repetitive and obnoxious, literally, every single arch was just about f**ng and there was barely any buildup.

I blame myself because I should have predicted this outcome based on the premise, I for sure didn't expect drama or a freaking masterpiece, just a few light-hearted situations like sitcoms, misunderstandings, etc. but at very least that the situations were interesting instead of just jumping to have sex as if it was supposed to surprise us after 100 times. Then, this comic had a spin-off... of one of the characters, went to another city to f**k other characters. Even the postcards and special stuff that the author sells for this comic are pinups and nudes...as if we haven't seen them nude every two pages.

Conclusion: Shamelessly repetitive content.

Sorry for the rant, this is the only comic that I have ever end up hating.

[Bree_Mana]

that comic sounds incredibly boring as someone who doesn't enjoy sex scenes, glad I've never seen it

[silverjackie1]

I have seen the one with too many announcements and merch ads and can understand how it gets really annoying. I read a comic that whenever there is an update its just a single page of the comic and then lots of advertisement for patreon, a lot of fanart drawings and in the end some kind of goal to reach in another platform. Its ok to advertise but the whole chapter being advertisement and only a single page of the story its too much.

[KoreanTacos]

For a lot of those creators they dont have a choice but to ram those advertisements because they need the funds to keep their comics going. Theres plenty of artists who cant go out and get a 9-5 due to whatever personal issue they may have. Its really not a big deal if youre able to just scroll by it, yes its mildly annoying, but its not like webcomic by themselves rack in the cash flow.