In 4 years of writing for the interwebs and using photocomics, I've never heard a single response about them except one or two times someone thinking they were funny. Personally, I have no clue how funny they are. Most of them make me smile or laugh the first time, but after 2 months of revising and re-reading an article before posting any chance of a synaptic nerve firing is gone.
The basic idea is for them to be a dumb show of the idea in the paragraph. It's a different way of expressing the basic question or idea. They acknowledge that most people reading online have short attention spans and enjoy changing gears by looking at an image and puzzling it out before diving into yet another paragraph.
But, in regards to the feedback issue, I have no idea if this actually works. It works for me personally, but I also think the best album of 2007 is Iron Horse's Bluegrass Tribute to Modest Mouse. Some people may differ on this and other opinions.
So...are they working for you? Offending you? At this point I'd either like to get better at writing them or figure out a new method. Thanks for any thoughts you may have.
8 comments:
They're brilliant dude, keep them up.
I think it's good to break up a relatively lengthy post with them. You may not get much feedback on them but they get their share of chuckles.
That said I don't know that I've ever consciously picked up on their encapsulating the idea in the (preceding? subsequent?) paragraph, but I'll be looking for that from now on.
I've come to like them. The first few times I read some of your articles, it seemed like a very different tone from your writing. The pix were snarky while your writing was usually much more thoughtful, with a bit more intellectual, dry humor. I wondered at first if the site had sprinkled them in until I saw that they were yours.
As I've read more, though, they seem simply like your style. Whether or not that's because I'm used to it or because they actually do match styles, I'm not sure.
I, too, like them. They foil very nicely with the articles.
I love 'em. And they do just as you suggest -- break up the text with a brief puzzle that either follows up on a previous idea or leads into the next. Kinda wish they were my thing.
In other words: you'd be a fool to change.
I enjoy them.
This image reminds me of the headstone in a cemetery that was down the street from my undergrad dorm room. The poor guy's name was Jack D. Raper. Oof.
Count me in the "yes" column as well. I love the gags and I love to see ideas expressed visually, as well as through video, interactivity, and any other media beyond text. The blogosphere is a multimedia environment, and your strips brilliantly exploit it.
Thanks everyone for the comments, I'll be sticking with it!
Bit late to the party, but yeah I like them also, FWIW. Don't change the MSPaint aestetic of them either. It gives you rootsy authenticity... or something.
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