Humour: a necessity ?

I'm asking this because a LOT of critic threads seem concerned with this, and I rarely see new comics offering anything else but humour.

Although I have read serious comics, they are much, much rarer. Is it because they attract less visitors ? Does the mass only want humour ?

I'm asking this because, though at first my comic was what people tend to call "funny", I'm slowly drifting away from comedy and focusing on the story, at the cost of humour.

Is this wise ? How big of a percentage of viewers am I entitled to loose ? (not that I really care, and I don't have that much anyways, I'm just curious )

Any other opinions concering this, or other relevant subjects ?

I think the reason humor strips are more common is because all the HUGE online comics are humor strips. But there are many many great dramatic strips.

I think another thing is that most webcomickers are novice artists, and you can get away with weaker art if you're doing humor.

I'd say go ahead with it. I'm kind of dealing with the same issues on my comic. I figure, if I steer my comic into territory I'm not happy with, it'll be bad for me and readers as well.

I like humor. It's funny. I don't want to think to hard when I read a strip. If it's funny, you barely have to think at all while you read. But I really can't say how other people feel...

Each comic needs to be its own individual story. Humor is great for simple stories. Setup, punchline. It can be done in one frame even. Doing a mini-story in 3-4 frames with anything but humor is going to be painful. Ever read those old newspaper serials, like Brenda Starr or The Phantom. Painful. There is a reason the newspaper is nothing but humor strips now.

Would I like to see more Little Nemo out there? Yeah, but we're talking a minimum of 20 something frames per update (for infrequent updates). Not a lot of hobbiest webcomics can commit to that kind of size.

humours not all that important - I mean look at Penny Arcade. it's the most popular one but hasn't been funny in ages! :p ZING!

bad jokes aside - my personal preference is humour strips. unless you'll be doing page sized comics, then serious/plot driven comics is a bad idea.

I'm asking this because, though at first my comic was what people tend to call "funny", I'm slowly drifting away from comedy and focusing on the story, at the cost of humour.


If the story is worthwhile in its own right, then its fine to focus on it. However, if people were checking out your comic for the humor which happened to be set in an ongoing story, you'll find that you'll make the switch to storytelling and they simply won't care. Or weren't prepared to care about the characters and setting while your storytelling would be rather dependent on this. Instead they'll simply wonder why the comic wasn't funny anymore.

I used to do random daily comic with the use of the same characters, this eventually went into a story line. As far as I'm concerned I've found the perfect balance between story and humor... Now I've just got to figure out how to implement it. I cannot deny my instincts a write to develop plot, nor can I deny my love of humor.

This really ends up making all of my story lines very light of heart.

So my opinion, yes humor is nice, but it's not required. I'll take a shinning to a comic, humor or no humor, as long as it has a good plot.

Humour helps. :D It's a quick fix; if someone looks at a page and laughs, they're more likely to come back. Stories require more commitment on the part of the viewer 'cos they take so much longer to resolve. I've always tried to include something vaguely amusing in every page (I've been slacking on that lately though :/) to try and hit both notes at the same time...plus I find that humour can help defining your characters, which in turn interests people in the plot. So yeah, maybe you could shift the emphasis towards plot, but not kill the humour. Your comics tend to be quite long per page, so I reckon you could do that. Don't go for a "punchline" every time, just maybe get a little stoopid now and again. :)

Not only are they long per page, but several pags per episode. ( between 4 and 7 pages, between 20 and 40 panels per episodes, one episode per week )

This is all a good read up to know, please go on.

I'm still thinking about it, since I have never considered myself particularily funny, nor my story-telling grandiose. Hmm...

Can any of you link to story-driven comics out there on the net ? I know of a few of them, but it won't hurt to discover more.

mine's pretty story driven but split up into 3-6 panel gags. there's The Brits but that hasn't launched yet :/

There's LOADS on www.drunkduck.com. Chack out 64Demons, WanderJive, The Gods Of Arr-Kelaan..they're kinda story oriented comics.

Also, www.nowheregirl.com , www.heartshapedskull.com , http://ju-lian.keenspace.com and have a look at Squidi's comic too. It's got punchlines (mostly), but carries a plot really well AT THE SAME TIME. It's madness, I tell ya! Madness!

I healthy mix of character/story development and humor makes for a balanced comic.


Holy shit...I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about! ;)

I think web comics lend themselves better to simple humourous strips. Most successful things on the net are very quick and immediate so it's very difficult to make anything more complex that will hold people's attention.

boltcity.com

best example of a great online comic without humour.

enough said.

Yeah, I do a serious comic. I'm not going to say whether it 'works' or not, as obviously that is yet to be seen. There's a lot of people who won't read because of it, but on the other hand there's people that just might be looking for what I'm doing.

I find that the fact that there's less serious comics is an asset if anything. I mean without getting into 'why' there's less serious comics, the bottom line is there's less places to go if you want to read a long form 'graphic novel' type webcomic. It's something a bit different, I guess.

But more importantly, I very much prefer to create a full and populated world, with every detail eventually fleshed out. Having to squeeze a punchline into every page would just get in the way of that.

All I'm saying is I don't think it should be a burden for you to make your comic funny. If it doesn't fit in the context of your story, then I'd say don't worry about trying to work it in somehow.

i like to think of mine as a 'light hearted story driven comic'. i was starting to completely drift away from having a joke, because the dramatic part of the story was picking up, but after posting my own thread on a topic simalar to this, i decided to compromise.

i also went full page, instead of 4 panels. which REALLY helps me in being able to slip SOME kind of joke in there.

but i think that people will forgive you (they seemed to forgive me) if you veer away from your comic's humor once in a while. just try to keep it light hearted. or atleast mello-dramatic.

thats my perspective, and subsequently, my advice on this matter!

Serious comics can be awesome, but I also agree that webcomics lend themselves more to humor because of the nature of the internet. People want their quick fix when they go online.

If you have a great idea for a serious comic though, don't let the smaller number of readers you may get stop you. Be creative, and eventually readers will notice.

Humour: a necessity ?
Apparently not, or my strip wouldn't get read.

Wait, I forgot my comic is unintentionally noncomedic. Crap. Anyways, I suspect my next project will be mostly drama with little humor. Intentionally this time.

I wouldn't say it's essential. You could have a comic that's a drama, you could have a comic that simply makes people think. Of course I don't know if you can really call it a comic then, since it's got the com of comedy in there and it's not very comedic so you might just call it pictrographs, but all I'm really trying to say is pictures with words don't need to be funny all the time.

The Gods Of Arr-Kelaan is a great example and one of the better comics out there.

I think there is a time for the long serious type (weekends) and a time for the quick humour type (weekdays).

Of course, this is just my observation.

There's LOADS on www.drunkduck.com. Chack out 64Demons, WanderJive, The Gods Of Arr-Kelaan..they're kinda story oriented comics.

Also, www.nowheregirl.com , www.heartshapedskull.com , http://ju-lian.keenspace.com and have a look at Squidi's comic too. It's got punchlines (mostly), but carries a plot really well AT THE SAME TIME. It's madness, I tell ya! Madness!


Uh, hello? :(

I'm not sure why there aren't as many non-humor story comics. They are easier to write for because it is harder to tell if the writing is poor. As I've explained before, it is very hard for non-humor comics to become popular because they require more attention from the reader. But I don't think potential non-humor people know this going into it, so that's probably not the reason why there aren't more of them.

humor? we don't need no stinking humor!

heh, no really humor helps, and I've been known to throw in a few jokes now and again into my story-comic. Usually it's something subtle or in the background rather than a punch line. I think it's funnier if the author doesn't lay it out for you.

I knew I'd miss someone. >_< XD

I missed The Front (http://hftcomics.com/) too, if it makes you feel any better. ^^;;

Well, I believe it depends on how you percieve your story to be. I think it is good to organize these explanations into four areas.

First, you have the story comics. Now, these can have only one particular format. The first is a story that focuses on the importance of the story only. You could say that the author only anticipates someone to see the story and they try to bring the importance of the story as a prominent aspect. This format should not have any humor. It will change that and the reader will concieve it to be based on the humor or it will not look as though it is trying to have the story as the most important area of the comic. Actually, occasional humor is fine, although this should be confined to humor that will quickly diminish and not be really important to the story.

While retaining the subject of stories, we then have the other format. This has both humor and a story that both hav some prominence in the story. Here, readers will concieve it as a humor comic. The story will be there, but it will not be considered as story that focuses on the importance of it.

Then there is the single comics. These all have detached stories that usually only last for the comic itself. Here, humor is necessary. If there wasn't any contained in this, most people would find it strange. I mean, if you read something like that you usually do expect something to occur at the end.

So, these styles of the comics do rely on humor. It will help the comic itself and definitly attract more readers. So, here it is necessary then.

If you want me to elucidate on any of this, then please notify me then.

well, i may have misread your post, but i'd beg to differ on your first point- if you've a comic (or whatever) where the prominence is the story, then you can use whatever means to get your point across. like say i was making a film or comic about...oh say...political correctness, and i wanted to make an over-all point about how i think its absurd.
by all means, i could make it funny, and just as effectivly get my point across if i made a serious film on the ramifications of living in the PC era.

thats a bit of a silly example, but still...you can use whatever format and style you think will advance your story along best, and still make a point.

I think I know what I'm going to do now, thanks everyone.

I'll do what I have always been doing without really noticing it.

Each episodes are usually seperate in two or three parts, each with a seperate story-arcs.

Some I'll focus on story, and others will be more humour-based ( although I'll be damned if I ever perpously write a joke ), which will hopefully blend into a healty mix.

Now something that bothers me is my site per say... it's so... serious. I should perhaps change it a bit... Hmm...

Oh, yes, DisAdvent, me too am puzzled by that first story classification... I mean, most things I have read/seen have some kind of humour in them, even very serious stuff ( when you look for it, that is... )

Wee ?

Well, I guess I will describe this further. I find that some stories intend for you to consider it a serious story. These particular stories want you to reflect on the importance of the story.

In these stories, I usually would not expect humor. It usually is added for further enjoyment of the story or to display a personality of the character. But, if you want to describe something, or have serious occurrences, then it is not necessary. That doesn't mean that it can't have it.

But, another thing I see with these stories is that the humor can detract from it. I mean, if you were to read a story concerning a relation to some historic event or to explan something in depth usually you will not see any humor.

So, after all that you can add humor. But, in a story that emphasizes the story itself humor will not be prominent and usually people will not consider it signifanct. I think that should explain what I am attemtping to display, but I can try to elucidate more if you need it then.

Nah, I think I pretty much get it.

Must just be me, my brain is pretty much "off" these days...

Wee...

As someone who sees the humour in almost everything, I think humour is necessary to some extent. I personally, when writing a story for a comic or anything else, see possible humour in pretty much every event I write so I usually have to try and cut it down so the story isn't overshadowed by my less-than-serious bent.

If you're telling a story then I think humour is necessary in that it can add realism if used right - I mean humour occurs in real life (intentionally or no) so a realistic plot should include some too. I have given up reading many comics (and even stopped watching decent TV drama series) because while the stories were great the characters NEVER said or did anything funny that would give them more "3D" personalities.

I like what they do in japanese movies/anime/whatever, they start off with what would be a serious concept (samurai at war, evil spirits, etc.) and lighten it up to the point of absurdity with overly animated characters and slapstick, then by the end they have transitioned to serious smoothly so you didn't even notice...

I guess that helps you to endear to the characters.