Comic comments

chrcontagious

What was the best, worst, or strangest comment you've ever got for your comic?

I have to live vicariously through you guys since I have very few vocal readers as yet.

john_wigger

People would skip over talking about anything regarding the artwork, dialogue, or story to point out things like a ball gag I placed on a character's night stand.

I ended up removing my comment section all together afterward though.

Keeeng

Where I do my comic every now and then comments tend to be the thing to bring me back.

Worst comment : "Not funny"

chrcontagious

@john_wigger So I should be putting ball gags in my comic for attention? Noted.

@Keeeng You have to wonder why anyone would even bother to write that.

Keeeng

@chrcontagious jealous jerks! :)

john_wigger

Mayoking Comics is always gold...

djsprockets

One guy asked me to draw one of my characters naked for him.

I never responded.

john_wigger

I got that before... a guy kept calling for rule 34 of various characters.

djsprockets

Did you ignore him or tell him it would be a hefty fee?

john_wigger

I ignored him.

6ColorStories

I had one guy specifically email me saying I should stick to being in the kitchen cooking and raising children. I didn't respond to his email, so he then posted on the comic. I took the comment down, and fortunately haven't had any more issues.

chrcontagious

@6ColorStories Cooking and raising them... in that order? It's usually easier the other way around, I find.

But seriously, trolling or no, the dude needs a life.

prydonian

I got death threats from so-called Doctor Who (see tweenies who only liked David Tennant, and the 10/Rose shippy stuff, not the actual show itself) fans, after I did a strip, where I questioned why certain toy collectors in certain fandoms were more happier getting ripped off on ebay, rather than supporting actual brick and mortar stores, who were cheaper and gave customers good prices, rather than fleecing them. (I had recently closed my business, due to such issues of those whom I catered to, would not come to my shop, and would be happier to stay at home and get ripped off on that infamous "auction" site.)
They even raised a hate campaign on Livejournal (sorry, please don't laugh, it'd only encourage them), and to this day I still see track-backs from those LJ posts.
One of those fan-kiddies even got my whole site wiped by Bluehost (no idea what they said, but Bluehost wiped everything without warning), hence why I left their webhosting not long afterwards.

Mr.Hades

That is total BS. Unbelievable.

Mr.Hades

I too have had comments requesting 'fan service'. I think it'd probably undermine the world I was trying to create if I started doing that kind of thing...

djsprockets

Oh yeah, that reminds me of my comic strip in college. I got an email from some frat guys that was effectively, "Come and meet us by the bike rack after school so we can tell you what we really think of your strip... with our fists."

I sent the email to the police and didn't hear back from the frat guys ever again.

observetoexist

Someone once took a comic of mine and changed the words to fit his own political view/ mocking mine, and then posted a link to it in his comment. The randomness of it was so hilarious to me that I ended up writing up a blog post featuring the "edited" comic.

@Prydonian - Not too bad when compared with death threats...

david_hl_higgins

I recall in a former incarnation of GFE back during "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" I received numerous death threats, and lots of misplaced accusations of racism which really has nothing to do with a religion...since that point "zombie Mohammed" had become a regular character and will likely make a return when Sgt Bill goes Zombie hunting down the line in his own story arc. I made fun of Jesus and L Ron Hubbard too but Christians and Scientoligists didn't seem to be bothered by it very much. Right now I am making fun of the Pope come to think of it, I just named Ray the racist Alien the new leader of Catholicism.
Edit:
I am also surprised I didn't get letters from PETA when I was showing Frank stuffing a bag of kittens in the Warp reactor as fuel.

observetoexist

@observetoexist
Yeah, death threats from tweeny David Tennant (they seemed to abandon Doctor Who once Matt Smith took over) fans weren't that scary. Just absolutely hilarious, as they illustrated how some people in fandoms just perpetuate the old stereotypes that others have of said groups. I just lump them in with Twilight fans as being all noise. Sooner or later they move onto the next fad or "big thing".
I will say that most (95%) Doctor Who fans are pretty cool folks (and being a fan, also, helps :) )

david_hl_higgins

@david_hl_higgins
You made fun of Scientology and it didn't ping their anally-retentive radar?? I'd be sure that by mocking their *cough* "great leader", they'd have dossiers on you, have you marked as SP and have people going through your trash.

terence

waaay too many of the commen ts that occasionally crop up under my comic are signed "mum", so I'll refrain from saying anything too bad about them ;-)

david_hl_higgins

@prydonian LOL I am hard to blackmail or defame...it's impossible to embarrass an openly public hedonistic pervert with fully disclosed criminal records and history such as mine. What would I have to lose from a smear campaign? Everybody who knows me already knows compared to me 50 shades of Grey is a mere coffee table book. Probably the most damning thing if even that embarrassed me is the fact that I was a member of the KKK from 1976 to 1986~funny story behind that one, apparently if you were born white in Kentucky (like me in 1976) you got free membership if say some asshole racist uncle happened to be a member signed the entire family up so chances are the FBI probably has a file on me too! Most kids got to worry about dead beat parents ruining their credit before they become teenagers, but I got a hell of a surprise! LOL

Faye

I've had a few strange comments.

I think the strangest was a reader telling me they couldn't believe a woman would write a sexist story with only one female protagonist. The odd thing is, my main cast currently consists of three women, and one man. So I think they got it a little backwards! That, or they didn't read very far into the story or check the cast page.

The other odd ones I've had, were asking why I was writing comics if I was a mother; that I can't write comics because I'm a woman... General sexist stuff.

However; all the other comments that come in are brilliant. Our pages normally have a good bit of discussion, and I love how involved our readers get in the story. For the odd negative one, we get a hundred good! So I can take the jerks, knowing there's so much support behind the project. What does their closed minded opinion matter?

decoy

The strangest comment I ever got on my site oddly had nothing to do with me, or the webcomic itself. I had two people trying to hook up with each other, and using my comments section to do it. I had noticed this guy and girl flirting occasionally in the past, but one day they actually took it to the next level. I have no idea why they didn't just private message or e-mail each other. Anyway, long story short, the guy was serious about trying to get a date on my site, while the girl/lady was just flirting for fun and wanted nothing more. It was all very PG, but a very odd thing to genuinely do in public.

chrcontagious

@decoy At least you know how to make money off your comic now, haha.

PontiusMorgan

What are these "comments" you speak of?

observetoexist

@PontiusMorgan Riiiiiiight? This guy knows what I'm talking about. Up top!

*single tear

PontiusMorgan

*tippin' the bottle for all my ignored brethren*

david_hl_higgins

@decoy Yeah, that's like the internet equivalent of two strangers making out and dry humping on the hood of your company car LOL

@pontiusmorgan & @observetoexist the comments will come eventually with enough patience and promotion I've found only a sliver of a percentage of readers care to comment the rest remain silently entertained I worry less about the comments which are a courtesy towards me on their behalf and more for the number of return readers which show up in my site stats every month. They need not say a word I appreciate that they bother to read. If the comment sections seem empty and you do like to have the feedback a good way of going about it is to add a Twitter widget. That way you can display the interaction about your comics from a social network source. I did away with the built in comments plug in for my CMS completely on my site and just put in my Twitter feeds and put in a mobile text number instead--more people seem to pay attention and respond through Twitter and text messaging than they do an on site comment box from what I have come to learn.

@Faye Funny how irrelevant and antiquated sexist beliefs still manage to cling on for dear life, but even though living beings evolve over millions of years that's just proof positive that not all individuals within a species evolve at the same rate--there certainly still exists a number of knuckle dragging primates who if not for the creation of the trailer park would still live in caves, grunting and dragging their mates around by their hair...I call some of those family sadly.

chrcontagious

@david_hl_higgins

"there certainly still exists a number of knuckle dragging primates who
if not for the creation of the trailer park would still live in caves"

First chuckle of the day.

PaveTheTigt

I can't say I desire having comments on-site at all. The most I think I could stomach would be a link to a forum thread.

chrcontagious

@PaveTheTigt

"I can't say I desire having comments on-site at all."

Why is that?

PaveTheTigt

I'm unsure how to explain myself without sounding like a cantankerous grump. I am afraid of some of the typical nasties that come with allowing comments, but it's more of an immersion thing, I guess? I don't want to stamp out discussion, but having them easily accessible from the story itself can lead to wild tone whiplash and break the groove of storytelling.

If people really have something important to say about a work, they tend to find ways to do so anyhow. I'd be cool with hosting a forum or encouraging conversation via some other outlet, but the more of the site that focuses on supporting the story itself, the better.

PaveTheTigt

@PaveTheTigt
Having comments is a good thing. You get to interact with your readers on a more personal and open level. And when readers find you are open to communicating with them, rather than at them, they become more open to buying any merchandise your site sells, or donating to your site.
It also helps you gauge what your readers like and what you are doing right. It also allows readers to express any issues, or problems, and let you know when your site is messing up, or if your material is going off the deep-end.

I tried doing a forum, but gave up, as most "people" who signed upto it were spambots, and also with having a forum, it means having to moderate, play post-cop, etc, and that takes time away from working on your actual site. Plus, I'd say forums are only good when you have a huge solid readership/ following.

But, as I always say, that's my observation, and also "you distance may vary".

chrcontagious

@PaveTheTigt Obviously you know what's best for your site. I do agree with prydonian though, and would also add that some people enjoy contributing comments, reading others' comments, as part of their comic-reading experience. It doesn't break the groove for these people; having the option to discuss the pages enhances their enjoyment... while those who want to immerse themselves will probably read it through without stopping to read comments on each page.

PaveTheTigt

This might be one of those solely artistic decisions, then. I don't plan on taking donations nor selling merchandise.

I can look into how difficult it would be to hold the comments at one step away, like how Gunnerkrigg does it.

Mr.Hades

I think you'd have to have a large user base, with regular readers to even consider starting a forum up. Using Wordpress on my site, people only have to view the comments on a page if they specifically click the comments link. Otherwise they can just carry on reading through.

PaveTheTigt

Yeah, I'm not champing at the bit to start up a forum either. I think I may be alright with silence, un(less/til) I get requests otherwise.

PontiusMorgan

Forums can be a bitch to manage as well. Especially when you start getting all the spammers and trolls

I tried having a forum, in the early days- but the only people using it were the spammers.

Not even the trolls were hungry enough to stop in for a bite to eat.

rocketpig

I opted to go without comments on my new site. I did it for a few reasons:

1. I wanted a minimalist site. A couple of ads, the comic, and links to follow me. That's it.

2. While I appreciate interacting with readers, I want my comic to retain a "book" feel. A person visits the site, reads the comic, hopefully enjoys the content, and leaves. It's an experience; one that I don't want diluted by reader comments I may or may not agree with but don't further the story. It may sound a bit narcissistic but I want everything on the site to revolve around one singular purpose and that's to deliver the best comic I can create.

3. There are plenty of places where readers can interact with me. Twitter, Facebook, G+, etc. If they're really that interested in my comic and want to talk to me about it, they can easily do it at one of those locations.

I don't think there's anything wrong with having comments on a comic site... I see many creators complement their comic with them. I simply don't feel it's the right choice for me.

AlienShoresBand

I have one commenter. They make good comments though. I'm weirded out that I have not had any trolls. Yet.

AlienShoresBand

@ AlienShoresBand
Not having trolls is a good thing. They obviously cannot find anything to use to bite at you, and that is a sign of good work. :)

faultycomics

The weirdest comments i get are through the post hand delivered normally by friends or family asking me to stop making my webcomic :\

AlienShoresBand

@faultycomics Meh! Why do they ask you to stop making your webcomic?

TheJoe

I used to admin a forum several years ago, and learned that it was the norm that happy satisfied people never said much -- upset people were the ones that were the most vocal. If you know you have traffic, but no comments, it's a good thing overall.

you have to ask yourself what type of person actually takes the time out of their lives to spew filth and negativity on something that is best closed out and never visited again.

With that said, I keep comments on and we'll see how this plays out.

Bobglass63

I have a couple of die hard fans who comment every week. It helps motivate me those times where I'm just not feeling it.

I've never gotten any negative comments, although one guy did rank on my perspective once.

faultycomics

@AlienShoresBand They prefer me to keep my idiocy to my myself :)

AlienShoresBand

@faultycomics *snort* Well we say keep making them comics! :D

TheJoe

One of life's better pleasures is upsetting those related to you.

sinyx

@faultycomics Bah! Keep it up and annoy them. Serves them right for being so jerky.

Anyone have any thoughts on the different commenting systems? Basic wordpress, disqus, intense debate, jetpack, etc? I wonder if the signup process for some of these turn people off from using them? I enjoy interacting with my readers and from my stats I know they're there, but I only have a couple steady commenters. Luckily, nothing negative yet!

terence

@Sinyx, I sure know when I want to make a comment on someone's site, if I have to go through a proces for signing up to comment, then I just decide not to. I imagine other people also work on a knee-jerk impulse to comment; the more time between the idea and the comment process, the more likely you're going to wander off to do other things...

Howdy, Stranger!

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