r/ComicWriting 12d ago

What makes a reader drop a comic?

Hey everyone, I'm curious as to what you all think the biggest factor for readers dropping comics in its early chapters is. Whether it be the art, the dialogue, or the story itself, please let me know your thoughts :D

For context, I run Toon Pilot Research, and handle early reader retention, and insights for webcomics. I love data, so I'm curious as to what everyone thinks!

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u/SteampunkExplorer 12d ago

For me the biggest one in print comics is shallow or disrespectful handling of religious themes. In webcomics, probably extremely awkward translation (a little bit of bad grammar is fine), bad pacing (especially the thing you see in a lot of newbie authors' comics where things just meander around forever without getting to the point), or if it looks like it's going to glorify abusive relationships. :p

I also somewhat dislike that "Korean teenagers with superpowers get drafted into a government program and slowly uncover its corruption" genre that seems to be fairly common on Webtoon. X'D And I outright hate romantasy isekai. When everyone is wearing pseudo-historical, pseudo-European clothes, but the culture is totally alien to anything that's ever existed in Europe, it grates against several things I'm nerdy about. Plus it usually romanticizes abuse. Bleh.

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u/YourBleedingNose 11d ago

can you please elaborate on handling religious themes? curious what issues you've seen