Things I’d Like To Do In House of Worms

[gothwalk]

Originally published at Now Is A Long Time Too. You can comment here or there.

I’m not promising that I’ll continue House of Worms indefinitely. Most webcomics are indefinite, like old-style gaming campaigns, and I’d like to experiment with a definite storyline (most of it is already in mind). The screencap-posterise technique is easy enough that I might want to reuse it for other stories, though. I have a few more things I’d like to do, too - I’m not well up on current web comic where-it’s-at-ness, so these may be done already.

First and foremost, no sad girls in snow. Megatokyo, back when I read it, was a reasonably good comic, except that the consistently apologetic artist/writer, Piro, would occasionally have a dead brain day, and be able to produce nothing but a pretty manga chick in a late Victorian frock, looking up at the point of view with a sad expression. No background, hence snow. This is probably my impression, rather than what actually happened, but I am resolved: if I can’t post a comic, I won’t be posting a filler.

Second: No regular schedule. In these days of feeds, the comics will come to the people, the people don’t have to go look for the comics.

Third: No breaking the fourth wall. I had to have this idiom explained to me a few years ago, and I do consider it something to avoid if at all possible. The characters in HoW will not address you, advertise real-world stuff, or comment on the writer. Nor will they comment on the oddities of their reality (except when plausible, as with the Forsaken commenting on how odd it is being dead).

Fourth: No thought bubbles. They have their place, but I don’t like them - I dislike showing a character’s thoughts even in prose, unless it’s first person. Probably my background in gamesmastering coming through.

Fifth: No commentary. No “Later…” or “In Orgrimmar…” in a little box at the top left. Those things drive me spare; if you can’t show it in the art or the speech, don’t tell me, it’s clearly not important.

I think that’s it…

Comments

[bastun-ie.livejournal.com]

It's of course your preorgative, as the creator - but I disagree on #5. I was actually going to comment earlier to say that the very last panel of the second page needed a 'Later...' - as it is, to the casual reader, the conversation might well appear to have only been a couple of minutes long. It's only from your writer's comments that we know Chalcedony's been talking to Malamor long enough to have been converted...

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

Then the artwork is at fault, in my opinion. I need to find some way to indicate the passage of time without a "voiceover".

It isn't a new problem - audiences still struggle with time gaps in plays. People invariably come away from My Fair Lady not understanding that the play covered months of narrative time.

I may have to back down on it, and do the "Later..." thing, as I can't think of a an unobtrusive way to indicate it in the art, even if I was drawing it myself - I could put in a little hourglass or clock or something, but that's the same thing, in effect.

[bastun-ie.livejournal.com]

Not easy to do in the Tirisfal Glades, I'd imagine, as it's always so gloomy - or pretty much anywhere, indoors - but daytime and nightime might be an option in some situations?

[mollydot.livejournal.com]

I had the same problem. I knew something had changed because the background was different, but I thought they'd just popped outside.

How about a column of small frames in between the two frames (perhaps over- or underlapping), enough so you can see backgroud changing as they walk and speech bubbles that exist but writing too small to read?