1. From the desk of Jeff Mumm
Written by Guest, on 08-03-2005 01:12
Thanks for the review! While I appreciate your thoughts, I feel like maybe some this review might have missed the point of the comic I'm creating. The point of my comic isn't to tackle issues dealing with relationships or such complex dramatic ideas, it is simply to be funny. Unfortunately, there are few comics that are going for the effect that I am after. Right now there seem to be comic strips, which have a setup-punchline kind of joke, and there are comic-books, which are interested in telling a dramatic story. The in-between is the cartoon (like Spongebob Squarepants or such) - stories existing only to provide humor. The only departure from this is the comic-books that are based on cartoons. This is part of the reason I switched to shorter comics more recently. I am able to give the entire 5-page or so comic to the reader all at once, so they can get the full comedic timing and not be caught up by a storyline that really is only there to provide humor. I felt the stories actually took away from the comedy. 
Oh, and there's a reason Mindless Zombies felt like it had more of a story to tell - it did. There were at least 20-30 more pages written, but I wanted to get started on the shorter, more humor-filled comics, so I opted to just end Mindless Zombies at the point I made that decision. 
Anyway, I don't mean to come on here and be overly defensive. I do sincerely appreciate the review. I just felt like I should give my two cents. And I gave them. Thanks again for taking the time to read my comic. 
 
-Jeff

2. Written by Guest, on 08-03-2005 01:37
Your two cents are much appreciated and they answer a bunch of questions I had. That's the beautyof this format. I want people to let me know where I've messed up. I realized this was all about the jokes after a few pages, but you're right, we;re trained in the long-form comic to look for a little more unless it's obviously comic. I do think you had some great openings to go one step further on a few occasions, but it's your comic so that's up to you. 
 
As I said above, then, the whole thing's very playful. 
 
As for posting whole stories, we need to develop some better methods for spreading the word when one is posted. RSS feeds aren't likely to be picked up unless you're updating very regularly. The announcement sites are also designed to reward constant posters. That means the occasional poster gets quickly bumped down the list. William struggles with the same issue on It's About Girls and I trust his content so I'm willing to keep his rss feed hanging around. Likewise with Steve Hogan's work on Acid Keg. There are dozens of irregular updaters that I'd like to be keeping up with though. Any ideas? 
 
Again, thanks for clearing up some things. I wish more creators would respond to their review which I fully acknowledge is usually inadequate on its own.  
 
-Bob Stevenson

3. Written by Guest, on 08-03-2005 03:16
No problem, I appreciate that you're willing to accept my explanation so courteously. 
As for the irregular updaters, mailing lists are always a good way to keep readers posted on when the site is updated. I forgot that that was something I was going to look into. If the site doesn't have one, I'd suggest it to them. Since you probably check your e-mail near daily, having a little message telling you that a comic has been updated would be very convenient. This is what Homestar Runner used to do. Now they're updating pretty regularly at a cartoon a week so they don't really need to as much, but if they had it still, I'd probably use it just so I'd know the soonest possible time I should check it. 
 
-Jeff

4. Written by Guest, on 20-04-2005 04:28
Something that offers a possible solution for irregular updates is Comic Nation (www.comic-nation.com), which offers users a free service telling them which comics on their list have been updated since they last read them. They're quite good about adding new comics to the lineup, and I find their service very helpful.

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