Longform strategy

Humor-based comic strips have an incredible power on the Web. As I've said before, they're tailor-made to retain a dedicated readership -- the kind a Web site needs to thrive.

Does that mean that a dramatic, longform comic can't succeed on the Web? Of course it doesn't. But I think that it means creators of these kinds of comics have to approach their craft somewhat differently than they would in a traditional print setting.

As I've written in the past, I've identified three major keys to a webcomics' success -- beyond the overall quality of the comic itself:

• Frequent updates: The updates have to appear at the most frequent rate possible to ensure reader retention without sacrificing quality. If you can do your best work five days a week, that's probably very close to the optimum. (Web traffic droops so much on the weekends, it's hard to justify six or seven days.)
• Consistent updates: Once you've committed to an update schedule, stick to it. A huge part of retaining readers is making your comic habitual. You can't go from updating daily to a M-W-F schedule without losing or confusing a significant portion of your readers.
• Significant updates: Each update has to be significant -- both to your regular readers and to the reader who is arriving to your site for the first time that day. For a humor comic, that requirement is easily served by a well-written punchline. For a dramatic story, it's got to depend on a plot point.

Now, it's easy to see how the first two can be applied to a longform comic, but applying that third point becomes a major hang-up. For example, like one cartoonist who e-mailed me put it: "Sometimes you just need that full-page establishing shot." Or that ubiquitous full-page falling-down-a-well scene.

And they're right. However...

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