Page 1 of 1

size of a comic or a graphic novel

Posted: Oct 16th, '16, 13:16
by AliceON
A few weeks ago I got "seconds" by Bryan Lee O'Malley as a birthday present. The guy who gave it to me reads a lot of comics and graphic novels, while I've mostly been reading webcomics. He mentioned he didn't finish the book and brought up the fact that he's recently found it much more fun to deal with shorter genres. This is not surprising, we mostly tend to enjoy smaller chunks of information: a larger article scares us off, a longer video seems like an obligation.

But what do you think about the panel-mediums? They already give us more information on fewer pages though using both verbal and graphic devices. Still, do you take the size of the book into account while choosing the next thing to read? Do larger books discourage you? Will you refrain from starting a webcomic if you see it's been on for 4 years with an almost daily release of pages (tl;dr it's a hella long)?

Or is it on the contrary and you are more likely to pick up a book that's fat and juicy and you want to commit to it?

Re: size of a comic or a graphic novel

Posted: Oct 17th, '16, 22:01
by Stroctoperry
I prefer a longer comic online because there's a better chance the author is willing to stick with it. Also, coincidentally, I only ever find new, huge comics when I've got some sort of important deadline coming up...

For print media (pictures or no), it makes no difference. I am happy to commit to something long for the emotional investment, but I enjoy well-written short fiction just as much if not more because of the requirements of pacing and detail.

Re: size of a comic or a graphic novel

Posted: Oct 17th, '18, 07:18
by Akili Li
Bringing this back because I've been thinking about it.

Haven't come to any conclusions, yet, though....

the only insight is that I really want it to eventually finish. Printed stuff, I tend to assume has an end already; some comics and graphic novels seem designed contrary to that and it always catches me off guard and disappoints me. Webcomics are harder for me to take seriously unless someone is introducing me to a webcomic still online that is completed already.

(Like "Bite Me" by Dylan Meconis, or "7 Extraordinary Things" by Doug Lefler or "Digger" by Ursula Vernon, although that one I found while it was still running, which was nerve-wracking.)


Other than that (and wondering how the completionist notion fits into expectations with length; shorter things might finish faster, but they also might be a sign there's not much commitment), no conclusions yet.