Question! Please answer honestly !

[The Bearded Man]

By working on the preparations for an eventual web-comic of mine, I looked up some popular web-comics here in SJ and came up with the following (won't be much of a surprise to anyone but you might get my point):

Web-comics, as much as any comics (even thought I'd say more than regular published comics), need an appealing element that I like to call (lacking the real technical term) "The catching element".

This "element" ranges from specific "fan-service" to an appealing theme or genre (for example, themed fantasy like the universe in Naruto that revolves around "Ninjutsu" and gives allot of opportunities for action scenes or a specific kind of romance like the "yaoi" genre that appeal to a more specific audience).

This element (imo) is important in order to draw the readers even before they start reading and while they're reading. It is even more important if you take into consideration that there are countless good web-comics out there and that this key element will help catching the readers while they are "screening the comic list".

Potential readers rarely give second chances, if the catching element is not present in the first two or three pages of your comic, they are likely to turn back and look for another comic instead. So basically, not only do you need your comic to be good but you also need it to have a catching element to it.

So what do I mean by all this?

Well ask yourselves, what are the benefits for a web-comic to be based on another popular existing work? The answer is pretty clear: It gains an appealing element not only by referring to another work that already had it's own appealing element that made it so popular but also by stimulating good memories of memorable (or epic) moments that built up during the development of those preexisting stories.

So, imo, both are good as long as they can catch the audience. (Original stories being the hard way to achieve that and fan work being a little easier way to get potential readers to gives you more chances to impress them.)

Note: I count myself as part of the audience.

[diceknight]

Original for me. There are a lot of great fan comics out there set in pre-established universes, but especially as far as anime and manga goes, there just aren't enough series I care about enough to get into fan work of. I love looking at fan's takes on character designs and whatnot in DeviantArt; but looking at those pics is a no-commitment deal. I'm not reading a multi-dozen page comic, I'm just clicking a link, looking at x redrawn with y style, and clicking "like."

Part of the appeal for original comics is, for me, the mystery. I don't know these characters. I don't know everything about them. I'm reading to learn about them in their first established adventures. And, knowing that their original art, there's the excitement of possibly one day, years and years down the line, seeing them pop up somewhere and being all "Oh, I read that when it was online only." /hipster kitty

[akuruii]

depends if i like a series enough to want to read fancomics of it .

also depends if the art is good . like good good .

[lenadventures]

Original. I don't like fan stuff very much. : P

[BestestShirt]

I like both Just so long as it's handled well.
I've actually started a couple of series from seeing fan work. It makes me kind of sad to see so many people against them, but I guess I can understand. There are certain types of things that I refuse to read too. I might read original a little more often though, since I'm usually not searching for specific things and if I like the story or art enough I'll read just about anything. I don't know, maybe I'm just easy to please.

[desideraht]

I almost always felt that fan comics just weren't as good as the original, or had poor pairings or were out of character... It is very rare that I find something satisfying and canon. ;(

[momoismyname]

I prefer original material, because there are few series that I like enough to want to read fan material of them.

i agree with him.

[Andrea C.Castro]

mmmh I think that yaoi comiic are very popular!!

[Durvin]

Short answer: Original.

Long answer: Original, but there can be some really awesome stuff re-interpreting other works, what with the lampshades and mythology gags and whatnot. All that tropey goodness. I like clever mash-ups, too. Or maybe there's something really clever that an author thinks of, like a Harry Potter story where Voldemort was smarter about the Horcruxes and used the Voyager spacecraft shortly before it was launched. A good example of good fanfic is "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (especially the early ones, before things got so British I had to use Wikipedia to tell what the hell was going on); an example of bad fanfic is...well...I'm sure you can think of one. It's not the sort of thing you tend to remember the names of.

So, basically, unlike Hollywood, what you should do is take inspiration from the works you like, and then come up with something of your own. Uh...I guess I should admit that my own comic isn't like that. But hey, a futuristic version of the Commedia dell'Arte is totally not the same thing as DBZ slash fic.

...Right?

[Andrea C.Castro]

well I think that on smackjeeves people prefer yaoi ,fanarts and funny webcomic but if you try promoting your comic in other web places uhm like facebook,uhm twiitter you can get noticed !

[zaceron]

Fan comics ca be awesome, some universes actually is very easy to adapt. LIke say, Sailor moon, it's basically a never ending story. Unlike one where almost everyone dies in the end or the world dies. Not that I've found many good fancomics though, but I've found plenty of good fanfiction. But original is awesome most of the time, but then again that clearly depends on the style and the tone of it all.

[The Bearded Man]

I almost always felt that fan comics just weren't as good as the original, or had poor pairings or were out of character... It is very rare that I find something satisfying and canon. ;(

Eh! It's just my own opinion from my own perspective but there's this fan-comic of the Japanese animation "Gurren Lagann" called "Double K" which I find quite satisfying as it brings dead characters from the canon series back to life in a brighter context. It's its own kind of awesome, separately from the original series that is awesome too. Thought, the fan comic reproduce that "cool feel" from the original series really well.

[zaceron]

Oh and I can't say I don't like them, because that would clearly be a contradiction and why would I undermine my own work.


On the other hand could the generic collection of pointless sprite comics be considered fancomics? >_<

[ChainsawAdams]

I'd definitely say original, but with comics based on current popular media the potential reader already knows the back story which gives extra incentive to follow along.

[momoismyname]

first i will see the art~ then a storyline~
but sometimes the art is good but the story is bad~

i though many people love to see the art first!