is detail consistency important?

as i make my comic, i usually will put little marks on the characters or or torn clothes, or something along those lines.
but sometimes i forget to re-draw that stuff in in the next comic or even panel, sometimes.

other times, i'm really good about keeping it in.

for example, on character of mine, pusillanimous, had part of his shirt ripped, and i've kept it like that in every panel. but clayton has gotten black eyes, burns, tears and all the sort, but i tend to take those away.

so basically do people, in general, care about the little things like that?

on general principle, you always want to be consistent with your artwork. especially in a web comic. in regards to the detail, forgetting them would only hurt you if it was essential to a storyline...i.e. bob kills mom and has blood stains on his shirt. next comic, same story line, he's going over to the backyard to bury mom and yet there's no blood stains on his shirt. not because he didn't change, but because you simply forgot...

details are only as important as you make them to be...

Yeah, if you have the SLIGHTEST detail missing, it ruins it. I remember in my parody storyline, Girl-chan was dueling Blob-o and knocked off his (or her, rather, I won't get into it) rose, but in the next panel, it's there, then in the last panel, it isn't. Blah and stuff. You gotta catch these things!

I like using a more cartoony style, but every so often go into a overly detailed drawing.

Depends on the mood of the page really.

I sometimes forget details, but for some reason it doesn't bother me that much.

Your style of drawing might be a factor. If it's a very detailed style, the newer detail could be lost in the other details and be pretty much unoticed, while a simpler style will make these differences easier to see.

Or something.

How cartoony is your comic? In general, within one installment or episode, you want to keep the details continuous.

But if your comic's cartoony, the next day's strip it works perfectly fine to have your character's watch disappear, or a few cuts and bruises cleared up (ala wiley coyote)

Well, this actually is one thing experienced through most things that I view. I often will see something that suddenly is gone after showing them again. So, if the particular shows you might watch do that, then it could be fine then.

But, you could also look at it this way. The only ones necessary to convey the occurrence or appearance are important. And, because you did not add this in the following strips indactes that it is not then.

I would suggest retaining these details. Most people will not see anything prominent, but it will still contribute to the thing you are trying to convey then.

I have a hard time with right and left hands. I actually turned it into a joke at one point when one of my characters lost an arm. Every time I drew him the stump had switched sides. I made sure to keep up the pattern for the duration.

I have a hard time with right and left hands. I actually turned it into a joke at one point when one of my characters lost an arm. Every time I drew him the stump had switched sides. I made sure to keep up the pattern for the duration.

Heh, that's a good gag -- did a lot of people get it, or did they think you were just forgetting which arm got cut off?

I try to watch for details as much as possible, but I've had to make some last-minute fixes with the computer after the fact. It's something I know I have to work on, because it bugs -me- if the little things aren't consistant.

-Ian the Scribe

Yeah a couple people emailed me regarding it, one got it, the other one pointed out the mistake. Unfortunately there is no way to know how your audience truly reacts to your work and the mistakes that might inhabit it.

Mistakes bug me too, but how many of us really have the time we would like to invest in this little hobby. A good number of my strips a rushed unfortunately, and that can lead to errors on a grand scale.

I try to be consistent with all the little details like injuries, and then purposely change them for comic effect.

Earlier this year I had Steve in an arm cast for something like eight weeks, only to have him saw his whole arm off (http://joelsteve.bolloxcomics.co.uk/20030521.html) with an X-Acto knife (http://joelsteve.bolloxcomics.co.uk/20030523.html). Then the next time you saw him, it was magically healed.

Hee-freakin'-larious! (Well, maybe.)

so basically do people, in general, care about the little things like that?
God yes. I still get emails saying "Their eyepatches change sides!" I wonder if Capcom ever gets emails from people complaining that Ryu is left or right handed depending on the direction he is facing...

I made a comic where the robots talk to each other, but I didn't want any actual dialogue so I put random 1s and 0s in to be pretend binary.


The next day I had emails from people complaining that it wasn't real binary

I made a comic where the robots talk to each other, but I didn't want any actual dialogue so I put random 1s and 0s in to be pretend binary.


The next day I had emails from people complaining that it wasn't real binary

hahaha XD

That's awesome. :D But then, little details that hardly anyone can add a shit-load to a comic to those that do. :) If it had been actual binary, some people would have gone "WOW! it's ACTUAL BINARY!!". Back when I did articide, I was going to use Wingdings for spell language. The spells would have translated to "crap fireball of mild roasting" or whatever, should anyone bother to translate it. :) In the end we didn't do that, and noone would have got it anyway, but I still think it would have been pretty cool. :D It's what I'm going to do when I start doing it again. :)

Yeah, those sorts of inconsistencies can distract people from the comic. And anything that does that is a bad thing. Basically when that sort of thing happens then the fourth wall has been broken. Of course, many cartoonists (including myself) often try to put a positive spin on it and use it for humorous effect. After all, if you have some inconsistency and it will potentially ruin/distract from your punchline, why not make that inconsistency the punchline itself? In small quantities I think that can be pretty effective. I know Dead Air recently used that device to address a character redesign (http://deadair.3dave.com/comic.php?view=82). I think I may have touched on it too at some point.

As much as I hate to admit it, the details do matter. Often times that's where the humor is.

If there's people who can speak both Klingon and Elvish fluently, there's people who care about tears not being there.

Ususally Spaztic can pull a sword or mallot out of nowhere, but that's more the nature of the comic than a mistake.

I love when characters can pull giant weapons from behind their back, or conveniently have a watch on in one frame, or pull a wallet out of their pocket when they're not wearing any clothes. That's the magic of cartoons.