Getting some opinions (Comics)

[alchemyprime]

What does the Playground like to see in comics? Well, beyond OotS, of course. Do you like the grim and gritty stories, the silly Silver-Agey things, the d20s-to-the-wall crazy of some things? What makes you want to come back to a series month after month or update after update?

[Dienekes]

Simple, I like entertainment, and quality writing.

This entertainment can come from a lot of things. Hilarious and likeable characters, intriguing plots, interesting character relations, and memorable turns of phrase for example.

The actual specifics of the comic aren't necessarily important. My favorite online comic is currently tied between OOTS and Dr McNinja, one is a fairly developed story and fun characters the other is insanity for the sake of cheap jokes. In non-online comics my favorites range from the dark and booding Batman, Sandman, and Watchmen, to the more optimistic Captain America. Admittedly I have since stopped getting monthlies of all comics but that's more of a money-saving thing.

But whatever position it sets, or genre it fits in the comic has to be entertaining and memorable.

[Dr.Epic]

What does the Playground like to see in comics? Well, beyond OotS, of course. Do you like the grim and gritty stories, the silly Silver-Agey things, the d20s-to-the-wall crazy of some things? What makes you want to come back to a series month after month or update after update?

Wait, are you asking for our taste in comics or recommendations, because the two are different?

The personal taste of a medium is going to differ greatly from person to person.

If you're just asking for comics people recommend, that's a different thing.

[alchemyprime]

Wait, are you asking for our taste in comics or recommendations, because the two are different?

The personal taste of a medium is going to differ greatly from person to person.

If you're just asking for comics people recommend, that's a different thing.

The personal taste, which I well understand is going to vary immensely depending on the individual, but that's part of why I'm asking. I simply wish to know what different people like. More specifically in superhero comics, but also Westerns, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, etc. What makes you want to come back to the story, makes you want this to be in your pull box?

[Axolotl]

Personally I'm fine with anything as long as it's well written, I mean I can enjoy stuff like Alan Moore's Supreme as a riff on the Silver Age but at the same time I also like Mark Millar and Garth Ennis who seem to be competeing as to who can make the most messed up Superhero comic.

[Fiery Diamond]

1) Well written. This can mean well written jokes, well written characters, well written plotlines, well written settings, well written conflicts, well written ideas, and so forth. Generally I like to have a combination of as many of the above as possible. Oots has a lot of them. So does Tales of the Questor, or Weregeek. XKCD has fewer things, but it still has some.

2) Not going against my personal beliefs or sensibilities. Something with gratuitous nudity, for example, I won't read, nor will I read something with graphic sex. Murderous evil hobos being allowed to run free as "heroes" doesn't work either. It doesn't matter how well drawn these things I don't like are - I hate "8-bit theater" despite it having funny things in it because I can't stand black mage. Despite the fact that there are some funny strips in it, I also can't take "cyanide and happiness."

3) Containing genre elements that I find enjoyable. This could refer just to over the top silliness (I enjoyed Dr. McNinja for that reason...but I haven't read it in a long while because it has very little else going for it.), magic and fantasy, heroics, optimistic outlook, things that lend themselves to escapism, etc. It could also refer to having in-depth and complex drama, or romance that isn't over-sexualized. I tend not to like gritty realism, because that's a negative thing and I already have to face the existence of negative stuff in the real world.

4) Good graphics. Not necessarily in-depth graphics, but appropriate graphics that don't detract from the comic. XKCD: minimalist, but appropriate, OOTS: Niche art style done excellently. Tales of the Questor: visually appealing, even if it wasn't the best early on. What works depends on the comic. For example, if Thunt had tried to write Goblins with xkcd's stick figures, that wouldn't work.

And that's mostly it. I have a bunch of personal, hard-to-word preferences, but that's to be expected.

[warty goblin]

1) Calvin
2) Hobbes.

Really, that's about it.

[Ancient Mage]

A well-written plot, with an interesting cast of characters, a neat setting, and a lack of immorality are my qualifications for a good comic. I like mostly D&D type comics, with sci-fi being interesting as well. Nodwick and Full Frontal Nerdity (by Aaron Williams) are two runner ups to Oots in my humble opinion. 8-bit theater is pretty funny too, if you're looking for some good comics.

-Ancient Mage

[Dr. Roboto]

Obviously, I enjoy good writing, but I don't place too much stock on it. Good art, and especially good fight scenes, really draw me in.

I somewhat dislike media that portrays morality as black-and-white; it's fun for gratuitous action movies or the like, but once the slaughter of enemy humans begins to be "heroic," I'm somewhat turned off to whatever media it is.

[AgentofHellfire]

An interesting plot (in other words, probably something with an unexpected element or lots of subversions), a focus on something other than romance (preferably wherein lives are at stake), a generally tendency towards the "darker" end of the entertainment spectrum...and no morality where morality doesn't make any sense.

Examples might include...
Civil War
Planet Hulk
Shadowplague
The more recent Thor (not the Silver age stuff, I mean the really modern stuff)
I'll think of more.

[Feytalist]

Generally, the narrative is what pulls me. Both the over-arching plotlines and the smaller week-to-week story arcs. The art isn't as important to me. I also tend to the darker end of the spectrum. Dark Age of Comics, that type of stuff. Sandman for instance is my all-time favourite.

I do also like stand-alone, gag-a-day comics (webcomics, usually), and I like weird, nonsensical humour. xkcd was already mentioned, and 8-Bit Theater had some really insane humour in its run. Something like Hark, A Vagrant also usually gets a laugh from me. Calvin & Hobbes will always be a favourite.

I'm also a bit of a sucker for anything vaguely steampunkish. Clockworks (which, heads-up, will apparently be resumed quite soon) has pretty much everything I want: dark tone, unusual art which I like, good storywriting, an interesting worldscape and an intriguing meta-narrative. Much like Order of the Stick, in fact :smallbiggrin:

[factotum]

I like a comic that updates and has decent art. Currently on my bookmarks list:

Dilbert
Kevin & Kell
Penny Arcade
Ctrl+Alt+Del
VG Cats*
The Noob
Wayward Sons
Schlock Mercenary
Girl Genius
Erfworld
OotS (well, duh)
Twice Blessed
Scandinavia and the World
Manly Guys doing Manly Things

* thinking of removing this one due to lack of updates

So, we've got gag-a-day (Dilbert, Penny Arcade, CAD), fantasy (Twice Blessed, the Noob, OotS), more-or-less straight SF (Schlock, Wayward Sons), steampunk (GG), and a bunch I don't even know how to categorise!

[Traab]

I like humor, and I like conflict with the bad guys where there is real potential for loss. I hate it when the protagonist(s) tend to curb stomp their way through all problems in their way, and the very idea that the antagonist could so much as escape, let alone get a victory, minor or otherwise, is almost absurd.

Take as an example, the earlier xmen comics. I liked those because while the heroes generally won, the most they usually managed to do is halt the bad guys plan, not capture the bad guys themselves. Or there were some bad guys, like apocalypse that just outright couldnt be beaten directly. The most they generally managed to do in the big showdown was survive long enough to ruin his current plot and escape. Not only that, but good guys DIED in that series! Sure eventually they tended to get better, but it was still something that could happen. So the threat and drama still existed. You didnt find yourself thinking, "Why bother reading this? You know the good guys will just walk all over magneto again."

[MLai]

If I say I like manga will I get ban

[Dienekes]

No, but on the one hand it's not very informative. That's like saying: I like Western comics. There are a myriad of different comics of varying quality. Same with manga, there are some gems and some utter crap. It'd take a very odd person indeed to like every possible example from a specific medium.

[MLai]

Well ok but I don't really understand the purpose of the thread. I keep thinking what the OP really wants to know is "What kind of additional comics do you want to see on this website?" That would be a good narrowing-down of possibilities instead of just "What kind of comics do you like in general?"

For the former, I would say something that is sorta relevant to OOTS, but different. Perhaps a serious fantasy comic in a detailed style, or a space sci-fi comic either humorous or serious. Personally I would prefer space sci-fi, but that's mainly because I just read a bunch of sci fi novels and is currently playing a sci fi game.

[The Durvin]

For a long time, I wasn't a big comics fan, because all I'd seen, for the most part, was the main-line superhero stuff, and besides all the other problems with legacy characters that are out of stories and these awful successive waves of reboots--the only series I enjoy from Marvel and DC are things like NextWave and some of the Batman solo stuff, since they just freakin' ignore continuity in favor of telling a freaking story. Then, however, I discovered webcomics.

It took me a little while to get into them, and for a while I was reading nothing but OoTS, Dr. McNinja, and some asinine sprite thing I've forgotten the name of. What really turned me onto the medium was Ethan Nichole's "Axe Cop", which especially inspired me because his style of drawing is so similar to mine. Now I've really broadened my horizons, and I can really say that I'm open to a lot of things.

I don't enjoy overly dramatic series, and the art has to be spot-on--I've seen a few series that I'd be willing to read if they didn't look so much like the crap high-schoolers doodle in their margins. (If you're considering drawing a comic, please practice drawing fluid body positions.) And I know it's sad, but for the most part, I cannot stand anything that looks like manga. I'm sorry, but I think manga is ugly. All the characters look almost exactly alike, and in many cases the backgrounds are so minimal that I have trouble telling what's going on.

As for genre, I am totally up for anything--especially settings that are themselves up for anything, where the genre is something I've started calling "Awesome-ism". I like everything to run on Rule of Cool: some magic, some sci-fi, probably some ninjas, wizards, robots, dinosaurs, and so on. In fact, OotS is about the only strip I like that sticks with one thing; as I mentioned, NextWave and Dr. McNinja make great use of this, as well as my favorite comic of all time, Sam & Max.

[Balain]

I love OoTS of course, Dilbert. I se to read full frontal nerdity, but not so much now.

I use to read Foxtrot all the time and have a bunch of the books.

book wise I have Dilbert, foxtrot, Far side, Herman, Calvin and Hobbes, OoTS.

I also have the Gargoyle series and Last unicorn print runs.