Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

As I'm sure everyone's noticed, there's been a tweeted criticism that YAFGC is suffering from too many plots, subplots and characters.

While I have no intention of changing how I write this comic, as I've always felt it was my sandbox and others can follow along or not, what would you suggest is an ideal number of characters, plots and subplots for a webcomic?

My feeling is that YAFGC has always been about a fantasy world, not a small group of characters, and after 6 years and [nearly] 2200 strips, there are bound to be quite a rich development of history and population. I feel this is one of its strengths.

I personally like how it is.

Seconded.

Also, I ignore Twitter, because I've found that it's pretty much impossible for even intelligent, reasonable people to not sound like idiots when limited to 160 characters.

Hmm. That might be part of the reason I have the reading comprehension to keep track of the comic.

I completely agree, one of YAFGC's biggest strength is number of personalities and their histories. This is what makes it feel more like a "real" world, and is what makes this comic so much fun to read.

And another advantage of having a lot of storylines and characters is that the whole world seems rich and nobody is a cardboard cutout. Everybody has a story. Also, if you are not too fond of a character or arc, you know that you will like the next one.
Plus YAFGC always devotes a lot of time to the characters it explores so you do not get lost. They are not interchangeable.

About the time I start to get bored with one group of characters the comic switches to another. I like it with a lot of characters.

That's pretty much how I write it. I come up with a storyline. I draw the storyline until it's done. By the time I've reached the conclusion I wanted I'm ready to draw something else. So I do.

And please, by any means, stay that way.

I totally support your view.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconic_phrase

I would say the truly devoted readers are the ones who take the time to read and post on the forums and it looks like we're pretty much all in agreement here. Ignore the tweets and keep on rolling with the cast as is. Your not the only author that does this look at the Song of Ice and Fire series and the Wheel of Time series there be a bajillion characters there.

Just take it as evidence that your reach has got as far as South Asia. Narrative expectations there may not be the same as in the West but at least you were noticed.

Here in the UK I'm happy with your set up.