the Other webcomic….
So, you’re back. you think i don’t know where you go when you leave here? Gallivanting all over the internet, reading other comics…. You think i didn’t know?!
Look, i don’t want to fight. not in front of the new page….It’s only a few days old, it doesn’t know what to make of this. We can make it work, I’ll wait for you. you can always come back to me. Go, get it out of your system, you’ll know you’ll be back. We got something special here, just you, me, and a few hundred other readers. we can make this work.
A few years ago, it was a little easier attracting new readers in a way. Advertising was working well enough, cause Project Wonderful, an ad buying service was still around. I probably connected with a lot of the people who are reading this now in that way. But a year or 2 ago, google ads squeezed out the little guy, and what they replaced it with is not exactly functional for me. Now I’m stuck with you lot. Not that I’d complain. You know i know luvs ya boo, but I’m not a one reader kinda artist. And I don’t think you’ve been faithful to me either. Is this metaphor still creepy? I’m going for creepy….. Let me know if i should amp it up.
Anyways, as it’s been going, my readership is wandering. I can’t blame people, and i suspect some wait a month or two to read more than a few pages at time. That or life gets in the way, and things slip. That’s life. But i think visits have pared down the absolute regulars. That core audience you really want, but without any real chance for growth.
Now, i don’t want to sound too mopey. I’m in this for the long haul, and I think it’s getting easier to produce, with better results as i continue (which is another irony, losing people the more you improve) BUT, if I could ask one thing of my readers who check in, enjoy a Monday morning update and go about your day. If you have an avenue to share Black and Blue, I would appreciate the shout out. Tell a friend, your neighbours, or your 300k twitter followers. That last one was less likely, but on the chance one of you is sitting on an internet megaphone, and was just like ‘oh yeah, i guess i could mention it to the HORDE….’
Anyways, that’s enough shameless plugging for right now. I’m still working away, nothing has changed, it’s just a bit easy finding the energy to produce a webcomic after getting home from work at a full time gig if i think it’s reaching the most people. Thanks in advance, and if you don’t have anyone to talk it up to, you still got me.
Btw, check out my PATREON! I’ve been uploading some new drawing lately I’m pretty proud of. Having lots of fun with colour and stuff! There’s lots of stuff there viewable to non patrons as well.
I do have a question though… I recently had a huge shake up in the devices column, so I’m reading on my phone. Note I’m no longer on the comic thread, I’m on the blog post thread? I’m ok with reading both, since I missed when this was posted somehow, though I’ve always left a tab up with your comic on it.
So… how do I get back to the comic?
ok, this is just how this word press theme works. i tried to play with it, but what can you do. i’m a drawer!
so, i wanted the blog post to be there always, but i kinda wanted comments to heavily displayed. couldn’t have that. i looked into putting comments in a sidebar, but that was a no go. when you want to make a comment on the comic, it’s the highlightable ‘comment’ RIGHT under the comic. if you scroll down, then you’re in the blog post, and if you comment under that, it goes int he blog post. i suppose i could have merged blog posts with comic pages, that would have been an idea…. kill blog posts all together, but some pages have rants. what do you think about that?
I’m a huge fan, will always be one.
I read a lot of different styles/ genres. In fact, that’s the point. Who wants to eat oatmeal every day for every meal? Not me. Now and then I need something of substance. You fulfill that need.
Thank you!
awww…. shucks. but oatmeal is awesome. best cookies have oats. and peanut butter. maybe some raisins.
great, now i want to bake.
but i’m glad i scratch an itch maybe other webcomics don’t. might not be for everyone, but it’s great that it lands with people looking for that substantive sumtin’.
I’m not going near that fakakta computer, I might catch a computer virus.
I must be a comic slut.
“40 years though…. that’s dedication to a craft.”
A while back I found a little book Ray Bradbury wrote, on writing. I remember he wrote that to be good at writing, you have to write 1200 words a day. Yes, a day. Yeah, something wicked this way comes. Also, something typing this way comes.
i think that might be more of a guide though. it’s not like after a certain amount of time, skill is bestowed upon you. there was a theory a while back that anyone who spends 10k hours working on a skill becomes an expert. nice thought, but this isn’t a role playing game with xp points. i myself can attest to the misuse of time. i used to paint and draw, but i repeated mistakes. only since working on the comic, and being more investigative with my work have i seen myself improve at a decent rate. i feel like i wasted quite a few years. when you’re not improving, it’s hard to get motivated to learn. glad i pulled up my socks, even if it was a bit late.
On the contrary! I have been regulary reading black and blue since page 52 or so was out. Then I suddendly stumbled upon a drawing of Virgil on r/conceptart.
We had a short chat in that posts comment section, it was really cool to meet you there.
oh, yes, i remember that! i thought you were referring to a different page, cause,weird coincidence, i just recently posted a link to the comic on r/cyberpunk, and a few people seemed interested. which is like 2 or the very few times i’ve ever been trawling reddit for new viewers.
Oh, I remember that panel from Reddit! Cool!
welcome! i was wondering if anyone moseyed over to here from there! i was hoping that post caught a few glances…
It will become easier to keep track of the cast as you kill more of them off though.
I also found you along with the influx from DotL and I love both. mind you, I am extremely promiscuous with my webcomic reading…
well, i probably have more readers than you have comics, so it is I who is the real cheater.
and yeah, people will die, but it makes more sense to start with a deep bench, if you want the world to seem expansive.
Hey, we started out in an open relationship and that’s just the way it is. I still love you though. You can tell by the way I’m all over your Patreon. And because I still wear your shirts. I really do wish we could build your fan base though…
haha, oh yeah! the shirt. well, fine. i’m cheating on you too! you think you’re my only fan? i’m going to catch a computer virus with all the people who download me!
yeah. well, to be unappreciated in one’s one life, as they say. i think i just chose a subject and a format that are not as compatible. on webtoons, there’s a comic called black and blue, about a slender boy who just… does stuff. it’s in an anime-ish style, it’s short, and not all that funny, but cute and geared towards the short attention span kids of today. it’s been going for about 6 months, and has 10X the views i have. it’s fine, there’s just more of a market for what that is, and i skew to a more investing crowd, i think.
no shade to other creators. i just like a little more depth.
I rather like it for those reasons, but it’s easy to see where it could get frustrating, yeah. I really enjoy not knowing where a story is going–since that’s a rare treat for me–so the extra work and occasional archive dives are a small price to pay for that blindness. Admittedly, I didn’t dig around much for a character reference page.
The other commenter who mentioned people now aren’t as keen on building the world around them themselves is probably onto something, too.
well, that’s fine. the people who like the added level of complexity like yourselves make it worth the effort. and i get that it might be hard to follow, at time, cause of the slow drip nature of it, but the people who read it all in one go i think would have an easier time. i just can’t make it faster than i’m going! haha
Part of the problem is that popular media and the internet have created an expectation of instant gratification with little effort. People initially see something interesting, but are too lazy to spend the time it takes to build a mental image of the world you have created. It’s sad, but true. Remember though, there are still many old school sci-fi readers out here, and we are always looking for new stuff to feed our addiction. Keep doing what you are doing and eventually we will find you. Revel in the knowledge that you are doing good stuff and getting better all the time.
aww, shucks. well, thanks for saying so. and yeah, i think you’re right, but i can’t leave it solely on the idea that ‘it’s not me, it’s the internet’s fault!’. i mean, there’s a certain amount of that, but i think if you create something there’s no market for, that’s mostly on you.
a lot of web comic creators have adapted to this changing reality, mainly by creating shorter, fluffier content. i’ve been advised ‘just make what’s popular’, but that’s not me. i’m not fluffy. and if you and some of these other readers have found my stuff and are sticking around, i guess i’m doing ‘something’ right. haha
Keep being excellent and eventually the audience will find you.
George R. R. Martin likes to joke his overnight success took 40 years.
haha, that’s a good quote. i’ll have to remember that one. and it’s true, i’d never done anything like this before, so 5 years is more of an investment. 40 years though…. that’s dedication to a craft.
I think maybe some of the last influx probably didn’t stick around because it is so different from DotL. I imagine there’s not a lot of freaks like me who enjoy a story of this nature and a story of that kind. Which is a shame. There’s not an awful lot in the dark and gritty category that is of your quality.
It does feel that a lot of the cast looks the same to me…but I’m pretty sure that’s entirely a me-thing and not an art-thing. Since it makes me pay more attention to the story and take it slower, I kind of like it. Makes it harder to guess where the plot is going each time when I’m struggling to read their faces and expressions, too (pretty sure that’s also a me-thing because they’re not, y’know, cartoonized in an obvious way, but more of a realistic way for street peeps used to guarding their emotions and motivations).
you’re probably right. it was still a welcome boon of readers though. but i can see why people who might like DOTL wouldn’t dig what i do. both very different in style and pacing. i think that some comics are going to be more accessible by new people, and that’s not what i got going on here. which is too bad, but a decision you make when you start writing a story.
as for the style, going more realistic hampers the easy reading of faces, and character design. i think a lot of people were having that issue, so i created a character reference page. there are alot. i was warned i would lose readers by having such a large cast, but i didn’t feel like i could tell the story i wanted to tell, in a world that was supposed to feel huge, with just a few main players. but i think my next project will trim the main cast down quite a bit.