Monday Comics Interlude and POLL

Posted on by JG

Well, guys, this is a Monday Comics Interlude.

There’s no comic this week because I decided to stop for a second and take stock of the whole situation.

As I’ve mentioned many times before, I planned to mix up these stories and try to keep them down to a month at a time. That way in case there was a comic that wasn’t particularly well received, in a few weeks I’d move on to something else.

So after I wrapped up another week of The Ever Zone last time, I decided I was going to move on and do another episode of my sci-fi comic The Commander Series.

But as I got started on it I thought “Are people interested in seeing this one again?”

I ran a poll once at the end of one of my comics, but I don’t think people really noticed it, so instead of continuing on with something that’s not popular, I thought I’d take this time to recap and check to see what people really like.

To begin, I went to check my stats and see what was getting the most views. The answers may surprise you!

1. JG’s VACATION

JG’s Vacation part 1 took the top honor.

This one was a humorous tale of me losing love while on vacation. I guess people really had fun reading about my trials and tribulations :)

Although, maybe not. This first episode was actually number 11 on my entire site for pageviews, but the second episode didn’t appear in the list until way down at number 72! Apparently people didn’t like it enough to continue reading the story, so it’s not clear if I should continue in this direction.

2. The Life Taker

The Life-Taker was the previous number one until JG’s Vacation hit. I was surprised, but pleased. It’s at spot #39 in total page views.

The Life Taker is a fantasy comic about a fairly unlikeable warrior.

I enjoyed doing this one a lot because I made it up in 3D, so it was interesting collecting and making the props and such. I’m leaning heavily towards doing another one and seeing what the response is on it.

Technically, the Monday Comics Slideshow is in the number two at spot #35, but I’m looking for individual comics here.

3. Kid Hype!

Kid Hype part 2 appeared at #48 in the countdown.

Kid Hype is a super-hero story about a powerful teenager who didn’t grow up on Earth. Now he’s back and trying to come to grips with the challenges being thrown his way.

This comic started out the whole Monday Comics series, so maybe it got lost in the shuffle before people knew what was going on? This is another one where a second round might show definitively if it’s worthwhile to produce here on the site.

4. The Ever Zone

The Ever Zone part 2 weighed in at #59. This one just got finished running. It’s a fantasy and sci-fi melded comic about wandering duos -one good and one evil. I draw it in pencil, then color in Photoshop without inking it.

It seemed to be fairly popular, but then again it was almost the only thing that ran for a month on the site, so it was on the front page constantly.

I’ll take a break from it but people do seem to like it, so it could pop back up in the rotation soon.

5. The Commander Series

The Commander Series part 3 doesn’t show up until way down at #78. As I mentioned above, this was the one I was going to do next but maybe it’s not a good idea, since it doesn’t get too many views.

This is a 3D sci-fi comic I create in Blender and Daz Studio. It’s about a completely amoral and heartless crew of pirates who have an unstoppable starship.

I have a ton of fun writing and making it, but maybe my time is better spent elsewhere if people don’t enjoy it. Many creators have faced this same situation -their favorite comic/book/movie/song or whatever may not be one that was received well by the fans.

POLLING TIME

So with all that said, I’d like your input on what you think is the best comic so far, and what you’d like to see in the future. If you could, please vote in the poll and also let me know in the comments.

If you’re not up to speed, you can always start from the beginning at the Monday Comics Slideshow page. Thanks for reading and thanks for your input!

Poll since removed

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23 thoughts on “Monday Comics Interlude and POLL”

  1. John, this may not be a helpful reply. I don’t think WordPress is the best platform for measuring popularity. Due to the nature of posts, once a series leaves the front page, it all goes down to SEO.

    Do you have stats for keywords hitting your site? I’m not really good with this sort of thing but, the Googly thingamambob plugin that I use shows me the top 5 referrers and the top 5 search terms.

    You really need a page structure for these comics, with links to each series on the front. I mean just as you have it now, for the last N posts, can you make a permanent link or something?

    Next, give each banner it’s own permalink and track the clicks. I’m doing something like this for my blog, at the urging of a couple of people who seem to know this SILOING stuff (hint, hint) – see my CommentLuv link for example.

    I voted for Ever Zone, but I will read ANYTHING in your repertoire!

    Cheers,

    Mitch

    1. Hey Mitch, thanks for the reply!

      Yeah I considered that the stuff on the front page will get more hits, plus content that has been around longer will naturally accumulate more views.

      Even so, the numbers didn’t shake out chronologically. “JG’s Vacation” beat out everything and it was kind of smack in the middle of the whole shebang.

      There’s so many factors to consider. Between Google analytics and Webmaster tools it’s mind-boggling lol.

      The top keyword referrers for this site are “Vuze PS3”, bittorrent variations in 2-4, and “Facebook share” in the 5th spot. Comics nowhere to be found in the top 10 :(

      But I’ve been working on that. Based on Yoasts “cornerstone content” article, I want to make my comics page rank really well:

      http://yoast.com/cornerstone-content-rank/

      The problem now is that I’ve finally found the perfect new theme for this site and I don’t want to put too much structural work into the current theme, since it’s officially out the door.

      Hey thanks for voting, man. I could have easily kept going with The Ever Zone but I kept having this nagging feeling that I should slow my roll for a minute lol…

      1. John, both Yoast and and Clark’s articles are helpful. Yoast’s commentators mentioned a couple of Google research tips, too.

        If you use Evernote, I have some more sites to share. Otherwise, I can just email the links to you :)

        Viva The Ever Zone!!

        Cheers,

        Mitch

        1. Cool, good looking out. I do use Evernote, but I’ve never really shared any links through there. Do we just need each other’s usernames?

          The Zone will live on forever lol!

    1. Hey Mitch, thanks for voting man!

      JG’s Vacation…ahhhh such fond memories.

      Waitaminnit, no they’re not. they’re awful memories! LOL. But still a lot of fun drawing it anyway. There will also be a return of stupid clowns this year…beware!

    1. Hey Jacko, reading the Kid Hype comic will fill you in on the deal behind those Nazi signs. Essentially they are his enemies.

      No one ’round these here parts suggested nazi signs were cool -just telling a story, man.

      Thanks for commenting!

  4. I was hooked upon the naci signs on enemy robots too! :) There must be something cool (?) with it as 38 % of the voters wanted to see more of it.

    1. Hi Anna, good thing someone else voted to break the tie, I was afraid I was going to have to go on another vacation again!

      I might have to gear up for some more Kid Hype action soon. Thanks for dropping in and commenting!

  5. I love the vacation series. What about adding small graphic links to each of the series. Like a line of small ads for each series across the top of the page that leads to a landing page for each series that lists all the articles. Just some ideas to help people find them easier. It is so true once it leaves the front page it kind of disappears except for a few random search finds.

    1. Hey Melinda!

      you’re right, and I’m going to do something just like that once my new theme is going. I already have the them, just having some difficulty overcoming the ramifications of some of the hacks I did for use with this template.

      Now the vacation series is tied again with Kid Hype! lol

  6. I like JG’s vacation because it’s simple and silly. I can see myself in it! It may not have the best illustrations of your comics but they serve their purpose and I think it’s the most fun of your comics.

    1. Hi Erica,

      I think you’re right in there with the general consensus of the comics. It’s clear people want to see more of the hand-drawn, whimsical type stuff, so I’ll go ahead and create more of that in the days ahead.

      Thanks so much for your comment!

      PS – When you say you can see yourself in it, I hope you didn’t get dumped on vacation :)

  7. All the comics you shared is really great you had an artistic idea doing this and your very creative..Thank you for sharing..

  8. I always like a bit of self deprecating biographical humor in my comic art so Vacation wins hands down.

    (I also prefer the simpler art itself in the series, but on the whole the self-knowing humor has it)

    1. Hi Mack, thanks for reading! you are in the majority with your opinion, my friend. I have plans for more of those types of comics to be featured here on the site so I hope you’ll check back!

    1. Thanks for voting, Jonathan! The Life-Taker was an early favorite, so I hope everyone enjoyed his latest tale.

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