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Talkin' about some Feedback…

Looking for some input here – be brutally honest with me so I can know the truth. What do you like about The PC Weenies? What would you change? This could be about anything related to the comic: the Toon Mailer, the website, the writing, the art, Guest-Stars, etc. Anything related to the ‘toon is fair game.

I just want to take things to a new level – to make awesome comics and garner more readers and more traffic. Having some insight on what readers like and don’t like will help me understand my readership and give them more of what they want.

Your feedback is immensely appreciated.

–Krishna

P.S. Where should I start targeting the comic? Any good websites or print publications that would be a good fit for promoting my comic?

These beautiful and intelligent people wrote

  • KenReply
    July 30, 2008 at 6:52 pm

    You have a good stable of characters but it seems most of your comics are one-offs. Having a storyline would be nice.

    http://www.pvpvonline.com

    http://www.questionablecontent.net <– NOT .com unless you’re looking to spice up your sex life.

    would be good examples.

  • birdieReply
    July 30, 2008 at 7:03 pm

    Answering a question like this is very difficult. Your art is great, your jokes are great, and I’m not in the least-bit tech oriented but being on the internet long enough you learn a lot about tech so the jokes aren’t always (if ever) over my head. The only thing I would change, or improve on or develop would be how you portray the characters. I know Bob is a tech guy, and his wife isn’t into it but how much do I know about them? Could we show some character development? or even something like a cast page, or something to let us know about the characters and why we should like them?

  • KrishnaReply
    July 30, 2008 at 7:12 pm

    Good point, birdie. I want to bring more character development to the cast… give ’em more of a backstory. Thanks for taking time to share your feedback. I really appreciate it!

  • Simon KoldykReply
    July 30, 2008 at 7:38 pm

    I’ve read pcweenies before; but, just put it on my RSS reader a few days ago and going through the archives. Some more character development would be great, Ken gave some good links; and I think that just because you have a Guest Star that day doesn’t mean you can’t continue to do that. Penny-Arcade did that once http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/02/06/

  • krishnaReply
    July 30, 2008 at 7:59 pm

    I do read PvP – and I’m familiar with QC (I catch up on it in spurts). Both are solid comics – they also run 5 days a week – my thought on storylines is – if I keep a M-W-F update schedule – will people stick around for storylines that span 6 strips (2 weeks)? Is that too long? I’ve been slowly testing the waters with the earlier stories (Grampa’s P-Mail, Iron Man movie, Bob Babysits, and the current Nigerian 419)… keep the feedback coming – I’ve learned more reading these few posts from readers than I have in years!

  • docstarReply
    July 30, 2008 at 10:29 pm

    Personally I think I prefer the one-off comics. I think it’s mostly due to the subject matter, and i really enjoy it. I don’t mind the story arcs, I guess I’m just impatient and want to get to the punchline. And if the storyline is good enough, then the readers will come back for more, some of the other stuff I read only update once or twice a week but they are pretty much continuous stories. To me the biggest issue you can run into, easiest way to lose an audience, is to miss updates when everyone is used to them at certain times.

  • KrishnaReply
    July 30, 2008 at 10:40 pm

    I (personally) enjoy drifting between the one-off comics and the storylines. With tech humor, if it’s something topical that merits special attention, I want to be able to make a stand alone comic that addresses it. With the storyline aspect, I can explore the characters a little more (and I definitely want to!).

    What I’m afraid of is going the full-storyline route, and not being able to do one-offs altogether. I think a balance suits me well.

  • julienReply
    July 31, 2008 at 1:30 am

    For myself, I do really miss the single panels of pcweenies.org. I feel like the humor was more to the point then. I also have the feeling that part of the “soul of PC Weenies” (ie what made it unique) was lost when you started making it multiple panel.

  • FrumphReply
    July 31, 2008 at 9:07 am

    Hey Krishna, i’ve scheduled with the rest of the guys (and girls) at http://www.frumph.net to do a mult-person review of PC-Weenies where we’ll look at it from all of our different angles. Off the top of my head you have these going for you.

    1) Clean consistant artwork.
    2) Solid update schedule. (sans real life events read #4)
    3) Communication with your fans and readers.
    4) Able to involve your fans and readers with your real-life personal topics.
    (readers DO feel the love)

    I’ll put the critisisms though in my version of the review, so that I dont look like a real jerk here in your journal.

  • krishnaReply
    July 31, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    lol – thanks for the feedback – looking forward to the review (both good and bad). :)

    -Krishna

  • hariReply
    August 1, 2008 at 6:05 am

    I also miss the single panel versions.

    I suggest you have a parallel track going with the storylines, but do please revive the single panel ones. Those are what got me reading PCW in the first place :)

  • krishnaReply
    August 1, 2008 at 6:20 am

    I’ll try to throw more single panel ‘toons in – but to be honest – working in multi-panel ‘toons has totally spoiled me. :D So much extra space to work with. Still, if the mood warrants, I’ll push a few single panel funnies out here and there.

  • jtoastReply
    August 1, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    I don’t think it’s a major problem to bounce back and forth between a storyline and a one off as long as its clear the One off is just that…a one off. I’ve read Absath over at Ctrl-Alt-Del for years and he bounces back and forth quite often..although granted he does usually(but not always) use different characters for the one-offs. The key is to make sure that you don’t do so many one-offs that I lose track of the story. 2…3 days in a row tops and then back to the story. Otherwise I will have completly forgot where you were and have to go back and read through the archives again.

  • KenReply
    August 1, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    Thought of something else. You could have reader input for comics as well like Woody Hearn occasionally does over on gucomics.com Readers can submit interesting tidbits from around the internet that is tech or semi-tech related to use. bluesnews.com also has a dearth of things to parody.

    Or for kicks, start an alternate comic if you want to expand your artistic talents like pvponline’s DING! comic. It would give you a chance to introduce or mess around with new characters.

  • krishnaReply
    August 1, 2008 at 8:23 pm

    hi Ken:

    I’m always open to reader input – in fact, I’ve received ideas via the E-mail Krishna section – maybe I need to make the ‘Submit an Idea’ option more evident…

    If I start an alternate comic, I would have to put PCW to rest. I can’t juggle 3 ‘toons at once. On the plus side, looks like people are digging Uncubed.

  • hariReply
    August 1, 2008 at 11:46 pm

    Krishna, my idea would be to keep a single Panel PCWeenies going if you can and alternatively start a new comic where you can explore humour other than just tech humour.

    Tech humour is great, but I think with a multi-panel comic, you can start exploring new avenues, including slapstick and visual humour.

  • KenReply
    August 3, 2008 at 11:58 pm

    wait a sec…you have another webcomic?!?!

    No link on page ?

  • SnaggyReply
    August 4, 2008 at 12:30 am

    hey Krishna,

    You do great work. My advice would be to not be afraid to mix up your layouts. One panel, two panel, three panel, four… Sometimes a joke is better in one panel, or two, and so on. Let the joke dictate the lauout, not the other way around.

  • Daniel LovejoyReply
    August 4, 2008 at 1:26 am

    I like the fact you do mini story lines as well as single episode strips. It makes your strip much more enjoyable that way.
    I also liked when you put readers (as characters) into the strip. If I could afford it, I would have put myself in ;-)
    It sounds corney, but I like the way you do your strip now.

  • KrishnaReply
    August 4, 2008 at 7:17 am

    Thanks, Snaggy and Daniel! I agree – the joke should definitely drive the layout as opposed to vice-versa. I like the balance between stories and stand-alone strips. The more I think about it, the stand-alone strips are really what defines The PC Weenies “experience” – in terms of being topical to the tech subject at hand, while the stories are meant to highlight the characters…

  • krishnaReply
    August 4, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    hi Ken – yep – check out Uncubed (UN3 sidebar linkage) :D

Tell me what you think!

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