What's in a title?

chrcontagious

Let's say you're just looking at a list of webcomic titles without any banners or visual cues of any kind.
What makes a good, stand-out webcomic name that might cause you to visit the site? What kind of titles would you avoid?
If you have a webcomic of your own, what did you take into consideration in naming it?

Obviously I have my own ideas on this, but I won't throw them out there yet.

kingsnap2600

<-- This machine must be completed.

Keeeng

Thats old as hell....

I would say a title just cant sound corny..... even a title like Invisible Bread it doesn't sound bad.... but a comic titled Epic Adventure.... well that's not good.

I cant talk my comic is named Mayoking........

talkinghead

As a reader, I would say there is almost nothing a title that will get me to click it. Almost everything I read was suggested by another person. So names just dont matter, anyone else feel the same way?

talkinghead

Example, I am into Savage Chickens right now. Think about it, its a post it note comic with chickens.

chrcontagious

@talkinghead
I find some titles intriguing enough to click. Some witty wordplay, or something sharp and snappy sounding will catch my attention, but my eye will slide on by a title which is really uninspired, average sounding, or clearly not in a genre I would like.

@Keeeng
At least Mayoking stands out. It's short and sharp and not cliched.

djsprockets

Don't make it too long because it won't fit on most web banners.

Smiley

Agreed @Keeeng, Mayoking is outstanding... Thumbs up.

talkinghead

Its hard to read, but its funny

terence

Well, I went and called mine "Average Joe"...which is literally the opposite of making it unique ;-)

It's a bit like the book/cover rule...we know we *shouldn't* judge immediately, but we do - titles are a part of that. I know I'm more enticed to Click on something that sounds interesting...

Titles are also good for conveying Genre though - I can make a pretty good guess about what "Spaceventure 2199" is going to be about (Sci-fi), the same way as I can guess "Trackside" might be about sports..."Robot Sumo Plumbers" however, is less clear and probably won't get my click ;-)

chrcontagious

Robot Sumo Plumbers actually sounds the most entertaining of your three examples, dunno what that says about me ;)

TheJoe

I like something that makes me stop and ask 'what did I just read' in a title, something that stands out somehow first. And then you hope as you read the comic, you realize it fits the atmosphere of the comic in some way. You want to avoid it looking like a title that you came up within 5 seconds of asking, "what should I name this comic", hands down.

C&H is perfect example, as it's two words that don't fit together normally, and after you start to read it ... well, it's fitting.

I grew up on The Far Side, which actually wasn't the name Gary Larson gave it, but his publisher, and boy did it ever fit the comic, and the title although not jumping out right away, made you think it's something not normal right off.

I could go on, but those two really stood out to me.

faultycomics

As a comedy webcomic fan i generally look at titles or banners that make me smile or are a bit weird, like mine www.Faultytwin.com

comicbuffet

I tend to click on titles that sound weird and offbeat. "Invisible bread" for example, made me kind of curious.

I wanted to be random and quirky when naming my own comic but ended up being more conventional. Since its not about anything in particular and will feature something different every week, "Comic Buffet" seemed suitable.

Lo

I don't trust titles either. I'm not particularly interested in funny comics, so there goes the need for wit and wordplay. My preferred genres, which tend to be long-format epics, dramatic or adventurous, those usually have really bland names that, by themselves, don't sell anything. So, yeah. I need more context than just a title... which is good, because rarely do we ever just stumble upon a name and a link.

david_hl_higgins

My title alone doesn't work without the alien visual to contrast but I am satisfied with my decision having kept "Greetings from Earth" as the comic name now for 11 years it seems like a tourists postcard to send home only my particular tourists come from light years away.

clint_wolf

This is a difficult question for me to answer as a reader because I can be captivated by a clever title without that necessarily translating into reading something right away. As an example, to this day I find "Space-Time Condominium" to be a fantastic title, and yet also to this day I've yet to actually delve in and read the comic. It sticks in my head though, and I figure sooner or later I'm gonna see about scratching that itch.

As for Zombie Ranch, it's an intentionally pedestrian title because it's in part inspired by the recent glut of "dangerous job" reality television shows, which sometimes have interesting titles like Deadliest Catch, but more often end up just being literal things like Ice Road Truckers. So that was a little tongue-in-cheek decision on my part.

Despite that, the name does catch people's attention, and gets their mental gears working with images of cowboys and zombies. But I think it still works best when combined with a catchy image, like our protagonist riding her undead horse.

capesnbabes

I named my strip Capes & Babes because that's the name of the comic book store most of the strip takes place. But I've always had that title in my head - ever since I was college a LOOOOONG time ago. I created it by thinking of what I would name a comic book shop if I ever owned one.

To me, it was simple, direct and plainly descriptive.

Apparently, that was the case because I have met a ton of convention goer's who have sworn they have heard of me even though they have never read my comic or were unfamiliar with it. That's when I have to ask them if they might not be mistaking me for the comic book, Love & Capes or possibly Frank Cho's blog, Apes & Babes... despite the fact that I came up with Capes & Babes back in 1987 (hey, I DID say a LOOOOOOONG time ago, didn't I?). :-)

Mr.Hades

Called my comic 'Vanguard'... to then find out there are loads of comics called Vanguard - Doh!

CoffeeOutlaws

i don't think anything particular in a name draws me most ones i find are from banner ads of friend suggestions. I recently started my web comic Coffee Outlaws and the came came out of a boss claiming me and a co worker were outlaws cause we drank so much company coffee. I'm working it into the strip as a coffee shop the main characters will frequent, sort of like the diner in Seinfeld,, but i haven't really got to that yet.

rocketpig

Aurorae has a few meanings within the comic. I came up with the name for an entirely different idea but as I started working on this book, the name seemed more and more apt as I developed the story and I hijacked the name for use with this project.

But it's one of those things that I will leave up to the readership... I don't think I want to tell anyone what it means to me.

Plus, I opted to use the plural form of the word so it can mean multiple things within the same book... Maybe it's just a "Two Towers" thing, where nobody really knows which Two Towers the title was referring to in the story.

And, in my opinion, it doesn't really matter.

PaveTheTigt

I think the name of your comic is the only thing you have control over when it gets disseminated into the internet; the links to it are going to be styled however the linker likes. I tried to make mine interest-catching and representational of what the comic will be. A few of you here helped me with that.

Kyatt

Ease to spell is also important, which is something I accidentally fell victim to; for some reason, a lot of people think my comic is spelled "Beezerker", so when they search, all they get is pictures of a custom motorcycle (which is actually pretty cool - you should check it out).

Tauhid

Barring any other information then I guess I'd click on the most informative title. That's taking for granted that I have fled whatever horrible site would only list comics by their titles and nothing more. Anything that gives me a hint at what the comic is about is good. Barring that something that sounds clever. I'd click Sinfest or Penny Arcade. But this example is where the non-sense mash-up titles would fall by the wayside for me. The Chainsaw Suits and Perry Bible Fellowships sound like contrived randomness in this context.

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