Comic Fury Webcomic Hosting - Forum search

I hereby nominate Locke Rinannis of Wake the Sleepers and Impulse of Love Kills Slowly!

There is another method that might reduce the "popularity contest" problem. We could set up a panel of three or four judges, with reader vote counting as one of the judges (similar to one of those reality shows... Dancing with the Stars, I think?). Obviously, having to read through the nominees would, of course, be a prerequisite for judgeship. But that system lets comic popularity and the ComicFury community have an impact without making it the single biggest determiner of victory in any given category.

Alternate method of winner selection: ritual combat.

There are two trains of thought in this thread, and I may as well toss my two cents in.

1) On the effect of violent media: Yes, violent media has an effect on the viewer. All media has an effect on the viewer. Some works of fiction have even started philosophical movements and religions. It's a simple truism. And I think our perceptions, culturally, can be a little warped where parents are letting media do the child-rearing for them. I hate to sound like Mitt Romney here (believe me, I really do), but I think you'd see a lot of change in our culture if parents would take a more active roll in how much media their children consume and what sort.

Do I think violent music, video games, movies, and comics should be censored? Absolutely, unequivocally not. The arts and other media are the cultural conversation. I believe that adults should be able to consume whatever media they wish, and it's necessary for it to be that way... again, that's how the cultural conversation happens.

In any event, violent music, movies, video games, or comics didn't cause Sandy Hook. They didn't cause Aurora, or Virginia Tech, or Columbine. Bringing it into the conversation is a dodge at best.

After Columbine, one of the members of Insane Clown Posse (of all people) basically summed it up for me (and it's been a few years, I'm paraphrasing): "Look at us. We're dressed in clown makeup. Marilyn Manson has a five-hundred dollar contact in his right eye. If anybody takes us as literal truth they're going to shoot someplace up anyway."


2) On the NRA's response: I really don't buy Wayne LaPierre's argument that we need more armaments; that armed security or teachers in the school would have suddenly turned into Bruce Willis and ended the killing with a well-placed bullet to the head. Sorry, I don't. Earlier this year we had a dude pull out a weapon at two NYPD cops; one civilian was killed and nine more were wounded in the resultant shootout. As Capps pointed out, there was armed security at Columbine High; the assholes there just waited for them to take their lunch break. Joseph Zamudio, a concealed weapon carrier, went to the scene when he heard gunfire at Gabrielle Giffords' meet-and-greet; he did not draw his weapon for fear of shooting an innocent bystander. Where the hell are all of these armed guards and CCW holders preventing killings!?

HOLY CRAP, DID SOMEONE MENTION MY NAME!?

*ahem*

So, Owen, I did in fact get a table to represent EverydayAbnormal at a con last year. It was a HUGE learning experience for me, so maybe I can pass on some wisdom.

1) First and Foremost: Verticals. Vertical banners, stand-up merch stands... anything to get something that blocks the view of the average con-goer. The average con attendee (especially at large cons) will look right over your table to the opposite wall. It's amazing. You need something to interrupt that field of view and catch their eyes, otherwise you'll go unnoticed and every other piece of advice here will be for naught.

2) People want things they're familiar with. My set of EA main character cards that I busted my hump on went untouched all throughout the weekend, but I moved quite a few posters featuring samurai and gothic gunslingers. Even though the posters were original characters, they could relate to some part of the art, and that moved pieces. The Grecian-style Zelda art that the table directly across from us was selling sold out on the first day. People love familiarity. Embrace that.

3) Go with someone. Take your best friend along to help man the table when you need to escape to the lavatory, or maybe if there's a panel that you just have to see that weekend. And to help haul merch.

4) Be assertive. Be the pitchman for your comic. Your comic is, in all likelihood, unfamiliar, but people are willing to try a comic out if the price is right. They just need to know what it is. The dude at the table next to me had a well-practiced pitch luring people to his table to sell a $1 poster. Sold a million of them. I spent more time simply asking people how they were enjoying the con or complimenting them on their cosplay, and giving them the pitch once we were on friendly terms. Both of those worked.

5) GigaNerd is wise: Use business cards. They're absolutely dirt cheap and just hand one out to everyone you meet. I had a 6x pageview spike on my comic after the con.

6) Offer sketches. Didn't offer them last year. Huge mistake.

But I'm absolutely dead serious about the verticals.

Little late to this party, but...

Be reasonable in your first outing. Seriously. Everyone (well, almost everyone) wants their comic to be this ultra-ambitious, twelve-year long epic with a billion plot threads that will cause readers' brains to melt out their ears when they finish. But that takes a hell of a lot of dedication, and if you're still learning your craft, it's an uphill fight all the way. Obviously, there are exceptions to this rule, but starting off with the big sprawling multi-year arc didn't work out for me.

I tried two webcomic projects like that. Burnout hit hard on both of them, and now, if you can dig them up, they're only part of a story. They don't stand on their own. It was a hell of a lot of time, effort, and money sunk into things that didn't last.

So yeah, first: schedule. Second: don't be an ass. I'd say third would be to start small.

But that's just me.

Page 9 got posted on Friday... not sure how I forgot to pimp that out here, as it's got a pretty good fight sequence therein. Page 10 just went up this morning!

Happy reading, everyone!

Page 8 has arrived! And, let's be honest, what else were you going to do with your day off?

It's time for an update! Have a good Labor Day weekend, folks!

I can't even begin to tell you how sad this makes me.

Still, congratulations on getting through your full story. Hopefully you were able to tell it beginning, middle, and end on your own terms the way you wanted to.

The weekend was pretty solidly "meh," though Thursday had a massive viewer spike for no reason I can muster.

Bah! I forgot to update this thread when I posted [url=htt://everydayabnormal.thecomicseries.com/comics/172]page 4[/url]. So I guess I'll have to rectify that and post a link to page 5!

I've lost somewhere between five and ten subs since I've started (I was in a weird section for a bit where I was losing a subscriber, then gaining one, then losing one, then gaining... completely lost track).

Every single one of them sucks, but there's nothing you can really do about it. Even if you knew why they left, what will you do about it? Change the whole story/dynamic/style of your comic because a few people weren't digging it? Unless those people had some cripplingly good points to make, that classifies as insanity.

Soldier on, friend. Keep doing what you think is best for your work. The comic will find its audience.

Page 3 is hot off the virtual presses and features what I consider to be a nice bit of creepy to start your morning off.

Page 2 is here!

After "Life is a Battlefield" and Rob's guest art, how do we follow up?

Like this!

The fourth chapter of the ongoing urban fantasy action comic is going to be chock full of bleeding-edge technology, organized crime, evil mercenaries, chaotic gunfights, relationship drama, duplicitous information brokers, violent archmages, deepening mysteries, and France! How could you not read this?

This is pretty boss. I met one of Comic Rocket's reps at ECCC '12, and the guy was total class. I think this is a great thing for ComicFury!

Shame about Kyo's quote not getting used, though.

Thanks, Fubar!

And you all should, because page two is fresh off the virtual presses!

Congratulations on 1,000,000, guys!

Though if I'm telling the truth, you deserve five.

Soon. Sooooooon.

ComicFury's greatest urban fantasy action/drama/police procedural is back! Chapter 3: "Life is a Battlefield," starts right here, and features awesome guest art by AngryRob!

It's a perfect jumping on point for new readers and the start of an important chapter in the ongoing saga for those already reading! So what are you waiting for?

I tried to go on and make a page for EverydayAbnormal this weekend.

I ended up reading articles about... something. I don't even remember. I lost like three hours.

TV Tropes will ruin your life.