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Author Topic: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic [DEAD]  (Read 75091 times)

Guardian G.I.

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #510 on: December 06, 2011, 07:08:19 am »

Asides from Bay 12, Fault announces releases of the new pages of Effigies on his twitter and his tumblr. He also posts various unrelated artwork there. The deviantart account "fault-classic" was abandoned.

The tumblr doesn't seems to attract any kind of crowd, however.
« Last Edit: December 07, 2011, 01:40:17 pm by Guardian G.I. »
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Fault

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #511 on: December 22, 2011, 06:10:20 am »

Page #67 is in progress.

Spoiler: preview pic (click to show/hide)

Drevlin

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #512 on: December 22, 2011, 10:34:47 am »

Fault, your style is amazing! Posting to follow
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Mephansteras

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #513 on: December 22, 2011, 12:01:16 pm »

Looking good, Fault!
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Fault

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #514 on: December 22, 2011, 06:44:31 pm »

You ought to try broadening the audience if you haven't already, that comments box looks awful lonely.

yes, it seems I was a fool to rely on word of mouth alone. This is why I got a tumblr... its reblogging function seemed to be a better way for art and information to be spread, compared to the nature of DeviantArt. I only got it less than a month ago though, so it has yet to really pick up speed.

But it seems like there's only so much I, as one man, can do - I had a lot of followers on Deviantart, and I regularly posted things saying THIS IS FROM MY WEBCOMIC, and there was a link to Effigies in my Devious Info. And though I did get two or three comments saying "this is great, I'm going to show all my friends", I suppose in general my methods so far just weren't enough of a pull.

In the end the fault may lie with the quality of the comic itself. It's possible the shoddy MS paint art in the first chapter turned people off. The stigma surrounding smackjeeves may have driven away potential readers as well. Some of Effigies' setting and in-joke details are also a little exclusionary to those who aren't familiar with dwarf fortress. Not to mention that, without assurance from others, an aside glance at Effigies could be met with dismissal as "just another tolkeinesque fantasy" and not worth a read.

But the story progress, I think, is where the blame truly lies. there are times when i've wondered if it is even wise to publicize Effigies in its in-progress state. Up until around page 60 the comic has been all build-up with little to no pay-off.. an imbalanced pacing where every chekhov's gun is set before even one begins to fire. But now, all the pieces are in play, the movement and action of the characters is about to begin. I will reserve judgement of Effigies' popularity until after the scope and action has been significantly scaled up - if there is no noticable change, I will have to take other measures.. but for now some things are still uncertain.

Phantom of The Library

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #515 on: December 22, 2011, 11:55:02 pm »

I would like to say that I enjoy this comic immensely, I'm looking forward to seeing the story progress, and I'm interested in seeing how the artwork changes as well.

On the popularity and attracting readers:
I first looked at the comic a bit more than a year ago; the most current page at the time was when one of the dwarves was thanking the other for talking some sense into William, at the time the website was a mess of images and it was hard to navigate, I dismissed it as a shoddy piece of work done by someone with a lot of talent, but was putting very little effort in, and I didn't bother looking at anything else besides that one page (although to be fair this was before I got into webcomics) a few months ago in late summer, post-xkcd discovery, I saw the link to the webcomic, and decided to take a look at it.  I didn't recognize it and started it from page one, the next day I had read through most of it and was wishing I had done this a year ago, what I had mistaken for lack of effort was actually carefully planned art progression.  Ever since I have been periodically checking it along with all of my favorite comics.

Most of the things that originally drove me away are gone now, however, I do think that cleaning up some of the original images might help a little. 

Another thing that might help is a character page, or even a short paragraph on the world detailing interesting stuff that might not necessarily be explained in the comic itself [such as the lack of apples and horses, or even just a short history of the world (unless you're planning on revealing that as the comic progresses)]. 

Another idea might be to include a sample page with some scenes that could stand alone, or give hint at the story without revealing
much (Such as the beginning of the kobold chase or Josephs awakening or really any of the goblin's scenes).

I don't know how you feel about this, but you might consider trading links with another small time webcomic or (if you're making any extra money off of the advertisements or feel like putting a little money in) you might consider buying advertisement space on a more famous webcomic.  Sluggy Freelance I know offers cheap advertisement (I do believe it's less than or around a dollar) on a pay-for-a-day basis, and I (personally) think that Sluggy readers would be interested in this comic, as they have a definite liking for long reaching plots and Chekhov's guns.  And being the longest running comic on the web, it has a large following and you would probably get at the very least a couple dozen hits.

I would also like to thank you(r) (advertisements) for introducing me to Sandra and Woo although I prefer your comic immensely.

Spoiler: What Stigma? (click to show/hide)
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Fault

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #516 on: December 23, 2011, 12:44:53 am »

thank you very much for your analysis, phantom! It's greatly appreciated.

Another thing that might help is a character page, or even a short paragraph on the world detailing interesting stuff that might not necessarily be explained in the comic itself [such as the lack of apples and horses, or even just a short history of the world (unless you're planning on revealing that as the comic progresses)].
 
I've had ideas like this, but the biggest problem was thinking of where to put them.. I tried writing a character page using the 'extras' feature of smackjeeves.. but the coding was less than optimal. Tumblr, though, does a thing called "world building wednesdays", wherein authors answers questions and provide tidbits and details exactly like those you have described. I plan on utilizing tumblr for that purpose once my blog is a little more.. off the ground, so to speak.

Spoiler: What Stigma? (click to show/hide)
I've talked to people and.. they don't really go to smackjeeves looking for original work, the most common things there are fan works, sprite comics and the like. By tossing my work in among that crowd it gets.. buried, in a way, links to it would be rare because it's so dissimilar in theme and tone to the more popular works on the site. This is why.. once I have a little less on my plate, I intend to start taking commissions, and use the money from these to pay for my own domain name. If I'm going to buy adspace for my work, as you suggested regarding sluggy freelance, it'd be better if said ads led to a website where ALL my work can go, rather than just a branch of another webcomic hosting site, no?

Sirus

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #517 on: December 23, 2011, 02:01:01 am »

Wow, this comic is amazing! Love the art style, and it constantly improves. The goblins are pretty damn creepy, and there's just enough humor to keep it from reading like 99% of the other adventure comics which are all humor.

I guess I don't have much else to add other than: keep it up!  :D
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Armok

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #518 on: December 23, 2011, 09:12:41 am »

Have you looked into free web hosting options like http://www.000webhost.com/ ? It might work well for something simple like this. And I don't think there are any problems from the freeness that arn't also with smackjeeves.
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Phantom of The Library

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #519 on: December 23, 2011, 03:53:45 pm »

thank you very much for your analysis, phantom! It's greatly appreciated.
Glad I can be of service.  :)

I've had ideas like this, but the biggest problem was thinking of where to put them.. I tried writing a character page using the 'extras' feature of smackjeeves.. but the coding was less than optimal. Tumblr, though, does a thing called "world building wednesdays", wherein authors answers questions and provide tidbits and details exactly like those you have described. I plan on utilizing tumblr for that purpose once my blog is a little more.. off the ground, so to speak.

Hmm, this sounds like a good idea, although I wouldn't bother with it until, as you said, your blog or the comic has gotten a little more attention, as is there would little point in doing it; as (to the best of my knowledge) most of the fanbase is already here on Bay12 Forums.

I've talked to people and.. they don't really go to smackjeeves looking for original work, the most common things there are fan works, sprite comics and the like. By tossing my work in among that crowd it gets.. buried, in a way, links to it would be rare because it's so dissimilar in theme and tone to the more popular works on the site. This is why.. once I have a little less on my plate, I intend to start taking commissions, and use the money from these to pay for my own domain name. If I'm going to buy adspace for my work, as you suggested regarding sluggy freelance, it'd be better if said ads led to a website where ALL my work can go, rather than just a branch of another webcomic hosting site, no?
Ah, I see what you mean regarding smackjeeves.  A domain name with advertising would probably help, the main thing you would be "losing" by moving away from smackjeeves would be the community of links, which at this point is actually a little bit detrimental to the comic. 

Have you looked into free web hosting options like http://www.000webhost.com/ ? It might work well for something simple like this. And I don't think there are any problems from the freeness that arn't also with smackjeeves.

That's a good idea, another idea might be to relocate to a place like WordPress they have free service up to a certain point, (after that you can choose if you want to delete stuff, buy a domain name, or just more space) and there are varied types of webcomics hosted there, although (as the name implies) it is more of a pure blogging website than a comic website, though it does seem to work nicely with them. 

All in all, it seems like the best idea for now would be to keep on doing what you're doing and just make plans for future changes.

Spoiler: One Last Idea (click to show/hide)
« Last Edit: December 23, 2011, 03:55:29 pm by Phantom of The Library »
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Fault

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #520 on: January 03, 2012, 12:30:05 am »

page #67 is up.

Fault

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #521 on: January 17, 2012, 08:18:28 pm »

HIATUS

too much college / future crap going on in my life right now.

check back in february.

Sirus

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #522 on: January 17, 2012, 08:20:25 pm »

I understand completely :(
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Phantom of The Library

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #523 on: January 17, 2012, 10:00:04 pm »

Sad face  :(
But understood.
Hope it all turns out well.
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Fault

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Re: EFFIGIES - Dwarfy Fantasy webcomic
« Reply #524 on: January 28, 2012, 04:59:09 am »

some deadlines turned out to be not so severe as they first appeared, and I have.. a little more time than I thought.

when I can I will try to put more pages together.. but it's not as high a priority as I wish it could be.

Spoiler: preview pic (click to show/hide)
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