Shiny Webcomic Thursday - Why do you read webcomics?

Every other Thursday, I typically feature a webcomic that I enjoy in the hopes that someone else will like it too. So far this has been successful. I’ve brought at least a couple of people to new comics, and I’ve been lead to some great ones too.

 

This week, rather than share a webcomic, I want to discuss what grabs my interest in a webcomic and what keeps me going back to read more. I recently asked on my Facebook page what about a webcomic got someone to click and check it out. I received around ten answers, and I was surprised that not one of them was the art. I figured that I would match up with at least one person about it, but no.

For me to follow a webcomic, I need four things:

• good art
• story
• great characters
• consistent updates

Most of these requirements transfer right over from paper comics. I like a pretty picture, and I like to follow storylines more than gag-a-day type comics. Though I will occasionally click through and laugh my ass off at xkcd, I follow webcomics like Girl Genius, The Bean, and Monster Commute regularly. I know that some people don’t like the pressure of having a story to follow. But even if I don’t read every time they update or even if I miss a couple of weeks, it takes no time to sit down and catch up. I almost prefer doing that so that I can get more of the story at once.

 

Characters.  I want to like them, I want to despise them - I want to be vested in them in one way or another.  I have a hard time doing this when the characters are stick figures.  I feel like I could totally go adventuring with Agatha Heterodyne, and that I would offer Gronk a place to stay.  They spark feelings and attachment.  How could I not read a comic when I care about the players so much?

 

The consistent updates bit might seem like I’m being anal, but I’m going to steal words from someone who has said it better than I – if you don’t care enough about your project to keep it going, how can you expect the reader to? That’s not to stay if updates stop I go right to my RSS feed and remove someone, but I’m not as likely to recommend it to others.

 

What about you? What do you look for in a webcomic? What makes you add it to your RSS feed or tell a friend about it?