Comic website project: Opinions wanted

Omnutia

I wanted peoples ideas and opinions on the latest incarnation of my project to bring together the amateur comics making and reading community and, by extension, help to bring the western comics industry up to snuff.

The front page

The focal point of the website would be a news-feed style blog but instead, it would be composed mostly of longer form original content.
Comic artists of any skill level can contact us about a comic they'd like to promote and we can give them the chance of either having it reviewed or having it actually run on the front page. We can also put shorter updates on to tell people about episodes of peoples comics coming out.
We also review things we find or readers tell us about.

Reasoning

One of the problems I see with comics is that, currently, a comics popularity is related closely to it's regularity. Also, comparatively few comics ever achieve widespread popularity. In short, the amateur comics movement is very much confined to the weekly web-comic format or relative obscurity.
By having a site with a large readership covering and featuring comics, both amateur and professional, artist can spend less time getting the word out and have the more choice in terms of length of comic and frequency, safe in the knowledge that there is someone there to keep their readership informed of the next release.
This also helps readers by having someone sort the wheat from the chaff, making it easier to find and read good comics.

Community

In addition to the main feed, we would also operate a community site for people looking to get their start in making comics. This part of the site would have some kind of forum, maybe a profile section, and some form of classified/group section. There would be regular competitions and we'd regularly run compilations of community work on the front page.

Competitions would range from simple: here are four boxes, do something interesting, to the intermediate: make a four page comic in a month about X, to the difficult: working in a group of four, make a sixteen page comic in three months.
Compilations could be groups of hobbyists looking to make something to show off and promote their group or a community event where people all do something based around a theme. A group could also just compile some of their previous works to try and get noticed.

Types of articles

Going back to the front page for a minute, some of the other things that would be featured on it would include talk about the more obscure aspects Japanese culture; things like: an easy to understand look at music and dramas coming out of Japan, translations of amateur manga and articles on life in Japan from both the point of a national and an immigrant.

The third major focus, outside comics and Japanese culture would be the worldwide view of comics, running regular articles about how people around the world view comics as well as letters from the readership. Tying this into the amateur comics portion, we would provide some way to have people get their comics translated to English and into other languages by members of the community.

Further notes

While the content on the site would be made by people with amateur to semi-professional skill, the site would be run with a Geeknightish level of professionalism with the aim of it being an enjoyable source of entertainment and not a place for punk kids to get all uppity about their comic's "greatness" (garish fonts) and generally be pretentious.

Questions

So, what are peoples thoughts on this?
1) Would it be a site you visited regularly?
2) What effects would you see it having on the comics community?
3) What about this idea makes you think it is feasible/infeasible?
4) (Not aimed at the egos of Scrym.) Would you read comics made by amateurs?
5) If you've ever considered making comics, would something like this encourage you?
6) If you've made comics, would you like a site like this keeping track of them?
6b) If so, would you consider letting a site like this posting samples of your comic or maybe even an episode?

Funfetus

So, what are peoples thoughts on this?
1) Would it be a site you visited regularly?

If it all came together well, sure. I'd probably prefer an RSS feed, though.

2) What effects would you see it having on the comics community?

That depends largely on how popular the site gets. There are already some huge webcomics sites like drunkduck.com and smackjeeves.com, which already do a lot of what you're proposing.

3) What about this idea makes you think it is feasible/infeasible?

If you have the time and dedication to put into it, you can make any kind of site that you want -- but can you get enough people interested to make a difference? There's a lot out there already.

4) (Not aimed at the egos of Scrym.) Would you read comics made by amateurs?

The amateur/professional line in comics is so blurred anyway. I already read a lot of comics by amateurs, and there are a lot of comics by pros that I'd never read. It comes down to quality, and whether or not it's something that appeals to me.

5) If you've ever considered making comics, would something like this encourage you?

If I were in the position where I were thinking about making comics, any good community would be encouraging.

6) If you've made comics, would you like a site like this keeping track of them?

If/when I get around to doing a webcomic, I'd want it to be tracked and promoted everywhere possible.

6b) If so, would you consider letting a site like this posting samples of your comic or maybe even an episode?

Sure.

Omnutia

I did some digging around on Drunk Duck. Is it just me or does it seem like the kind of site designed to appeal to a very insular comic making community?
If you take a look at Play This Thing, that was more along the lines of what I'd be aiming for. I'd try to present a professional looking website on the front and have to community aspect be somewhat separate. Instead of just a directory that you can root through, you are presented with a series of reviews and featured comics which makes finding something you might like much easier.

As for effort, this would probably take the position of main project outside work. I was thinking of putting up a temporary site just explaining what I'm aiming to do in order to get people interested and get the email addresses of people who might be interested in helping, then, from there, contacting people when (or if) interest is sufficient.

Thanks for the feedback, you've shown me I need to at least write a more concise description. Do you think some kind of mock-up of what the site would look like would also help?

Funfetus

I did some digging around on Drunk Duck. Is it just me or does it seem like the kind of site designed to appeal to a very insular comic making community?

Drunkduck and Smackjeeves and whatnot are just places to host your webcomic for free, and they have forums. They do seem pretty incestuous, but I haven't spent a lot of time there. I get now that that's not really what you're going for.

Thanks for the feedback, you've shown me I need to at least write a more concise description. Do you think some kind of mock-up of what the site would look like would also help?

Yeah, I have to admit I'm not sure I get exactly what you're planning. A mockup might help people understand how exactly this is supposed to work. I guess Play This Thing is basically a blog that promotes cool games, and has a forum, and a mechanism for rating games and getting recommendations, a la Netflix? Sounds like an interesting concept to apply to comics. Personally, I find that I never use those things, though.

Anyway, I'm interested to see what you come up with -- Western comics can use all the help we can get.

gomidog

Yes, now that you have a plan, work out a mock up to explain it, then pitch it to the forums.

cornflake

1) Would it be a site you visited regularly?

It seems like a great idea. I'm always on the hunt for great webcomics, but the big websites like drunkduck and onlinecomics.net are very saturated... and it always seems like the same 4 webcomics are winning all the awards and getting featured at the top of the lists. A review-styled blog could be a great resource.

However, I have to wonder how you would base your reviews? Most webcomics are obviously not professional quality. The plots are not as developed as they could be with an editor backing them up, and the art is usually just good enough to convey the story the author is trying to tell. And, judging base aside, the only webcomics I really get into are the established ones that have been going on for some time. It's hard to judge a comic based only on a few chapters, and that's why the regularly updated comics win. My time is valuable, and there are a TON of webcomics out there. I would rather spend my time reading a comic that already has 500 pages and updates several times a week than on a new comic that updates irregularly.

2) What effects would you see it having on the comics community?

This depends on the quality of the articles and if your marketing is decent. You need to do something to stand out. You have the potential of making some obscure comic artists very happy, and if you find some decent comics, you could really cut down on the search time for people on the hunt.

3) What about this idea makes you think it is feasible/infeasible?

A well-written blog is worth reading... especially if it's a topic people care about. You'll have your work cut out for you though trying to get your website visible.

4) (Not aimed at the egos of Scrym.) Would you read comics made by amateurs?

Definitely!

5) If you've ever considered making comics, would something like this encourage you?

Encourage in what way? Perhaps if I had a good review and new fans, I would be encouraged to work harder.

6) If you've made comics, would you like a site like this keeping track of them?

From a webcomic artist's perspective, any exposure is good exposure. From a reader's perspective... well, I'll already be tracking them myself, so having another website doing the same thing would be redundant. It might be nice to be updated with a list of which comic artists are going to be at which con. So, if Otakon is coming up and three of your featured comic artists are going to have tables there, that's information I would love to know.

6b) If so, would you consider letting a site like this posting samples of your comic or maybe even an episode?

As long as you asked permission, I don't think people would have issues.

Good luck with your idea!