Children's comic strip dealing with death

[World of Will]

Can such a combination work? I leave that for you to decide, but my brother and I have at least tried to create a daily comic strip for both children and adults that deals with death, grief and loneliness between gags.

www.worldofwillcomics.com

I would be very grateful if you had the time to check it out and share your opinion. =)

 

[Chad Sexington]

Well... Good luck but it's way way waaaaay to cloying for me.

 

[Gusto]

Beautifully drawn but yes, the handful I read are far too cutesy for my usual rotation.

Keep going, guys. I feel like you could break into something great with this.

 

[ElJuski]

It would seem a lot cooler if you actually registered and tried to join the community before shilling your wares, but I clicked the link out of curiosity all the same. So, point to you punks.
Added at: 00:10
and, reading through your stuff, my god, is it twee and cutesey as fuck, but I'm sure there's an audience for it.
Added at: 00:10
also, kind of scary how this kid psychologically hatttessss being with other people.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I think you're going to have a hard time building an audience if you only update once a month.

The link "Welcome to the unreality" is broken.

 

[Espy]

Yeah, might not be my personal thing? But dang it looks good.

 

[Dave]

Welcome in any form, whether guest post or joining up. Don't listen to that Juski guy, he's as bitter as last week's beer.

I'll check yer stuff out.
Added at: 22:33
I've read through what I can find and they're pretty well done. I get that it's aimed at children so I'm not going to be as hard on the content as some of these knuckleheads. I think the site needs a little work in that you can only click "Episodes" and that says that it's a few samples. Where can I read them all? Site navigation is not user friendly. Oh, and when I click on "Welcome to the Unreality" I get a broken link.

One last thing. You say here that it's a daily thing yet on the site you say monthly. Am I just confusing something?

 

[Bumble the Boy Wonder]

WE NEED ANSWERSSS

 

[World of Will]

Account created!
Thanks for commenting.
To answer some questions:
This is a newborn English version of our more or less static Swedish page with the main purpose to present an introduction to our comic, meant to reach newspapers rather than being a regularly updated webcomic.
(The line "monthly strip" wasn't supposed to be there in the first place, but our web guru replaced the Swedish line hovering at the same place instead of deleting it).

In total we have made scripts for 260 episodes, drawn 130 of them so far and translated 40 of those 130 to English. Right now World of Will is published in 3 Swedish papers but non of them daily. If we would get a contract with a daily paper we will speed up our production.

 

[Bowielee]

I have to say that I like the artwork, but seeing as you don't really get any of the narrative, it's not really something that you can jump into and enjoy.

 

[ElJuski]

bitter as nothing; I think it's cloying and rude to jump in as a guest and just dump a link.

 

[strawman]

Welcome to Halforums!

I wish you luck in your adventure, it's going to be a hard uphill climb to getting syndicated if that's your goal. There is precedence for a strip that goes back and forth between mild humor and sappy, for instance Family Circus. That comic is perhaps even more relevant to you as it also seeks to explain the actions of children in some cases. Most successfully syndicated strips, however, are very consistent in the level and type of humor. Calvin and Hobbes, for instance, when it did approach sappy subjects still wrapped them in the same humor found in the non-sappy strips.

You're going to have to be a lot more ruthless in cutting out the bad, poorly executed, or tired ideas. For instance the strip that is something along the lines of "I'm going to go on a big adventure! ... Oh yeah, I can't cross the street by myself" is not particularly new or engaging, and you didn't add anything to that joke. You may have to take more risks in order to put your own spin on these subjects, and let some ideas sit for awhile until you come up with a uniquely new, interesting perspective.

While it may be important to you to keep the design aesthetic of your site, keep in mind that avid online comic readers generally expect to see arrows or "next" and "previous" buttons for navigation through a comic. Also, in english (or perhaps just american english?), the word "episode" is not generally used to refer to a single comic strip. That may be part of the confusion. If you intend to keep all the strips on one page, consider using the word "archive" or phrase "all strips" when linking to that page.

Keep at it. Most "successes" happened only after years of performing their craft and honing it over time. Keep doing it and you will grow your international audience and may find the success you're looking for. If you update regularly and have a single URL that shows the latest strip, you will gain an audience that comes back on a regular schedule. It's best if you can keep it up daily, or several times a week.

If it's just a portfolio site, and your only purpose is to showcase your work until someone decides to buy the rights, then perhaps this is sufficient.

 

[Dave]

Listen to this man as he's wise.

I do like the way you are treating kids and death in a serious manner, even with the comic format. I worry that it will have limited play because of the subject matter. But it's like a mix between Calvin & Hobbes and Family Circus.

 

[World of Will]

ElJuski: It wasn’t my intention to insult you by my lack of knowledge regarding manners in American forums. I’m just a humble Swede who made the mistake of thinking the site didn’t have memberchips since posting here didn’t require one. Would you consider forgiving me?

Steinman and Dave: Thanks a lot for your comments and your advice!
I’ll change ”Episodes” into something more suiting.
The webbpage is ment as a portfolio site, but primary for fun and to get som feedback from abroad rather than to attract byers that way. We’re actually syndicated in Sweden already and Bulls Press owns the syndication rights for 11 other European countries.

 

[ElJuski]

I mean, my two cents isn't worth shit, I just thought it was pretty much common sense to be a part of a group instead of dropping a random-ass ad to your website.

 

[World of Will]

ElJuski: As mentioned, at first I thought this was a forum without memberships.

Amorous Eyes: I'll take that as a compliment!

 

[Dave]

No worries, Will. Maybe I need to make it more clear about how things work. I allow for non-members to post so I can see how that could be confusing.

 

[ElJuski]

just as a point of order: is this kid ever going to get over this death, or is he going to teach people that grieving is a perpetual, never-ending process?

(god I'm such a BITCH in this thread. Love it!)

 

[Dave]

Interesting question, Juski. if I were them I think I'd keep it as an ongoing thing but actually break it down into episodes, which they can then add comics to as they feel the need. Like instead of chapters have these episodes mirror the five stages of grief, letting kids know what the stages are and how people generally act during them.

• Denial - Show the kid dealing with the impending death of his mother and how the relationship changes between son/mother and son/father.
• Anger - The character is always melancholy and never really deals with the grief. Have him be angry. It's important to let kids know that this is all a part of the process. A kid that young would feel betrayed by his mother leaving him.
• Bargaining - As this comic seems to have spiritual overtones, this would be easily explored.
• Depression - Sometimes it's okay to be just depressed about what you are missing. The fact that you'll never see or speak to the individual again is a killer. You can be strong most of the time, but sometimes you just want to curl up in a ball and miss the hell out of them.
• Acceptance - Time healing all wounds. The person is still in your life but it's time to move on. Think of them fondly, but it's time to live.

I think it could be done in a very healthy and wonderful way, showing kids the stages they are going through are perfectly natural and they should neither blame themselves for their feelings nor ignore them.

 

[ElJuski]

some reason though I feel like these guys are going to just milk the melodramatic.

 

[World of Will]

Thats's defineatly something for us to think about, Dave. I cant't thank you enough for putting so much effort into this idea; you have practically done half of the job for us already.

Our thoughts about this have been to keep it as a background theme, but to gradually move our focus from actual grief to the neverending process of missing someone. In the comic as a whole, these more serious strips are much mor rare to appear and the more of the stpry-telling is focus on Wills imaginary adventures. When picking out strips for translation we chose to focus on the themes that we think makes this comic stand out a bit compared to the most common ones in daily press.

However, the thought of exploring the five stages of grief is both interesting and challenging. But when you talk about breaking it down to episodes, do see it as a chronological development? Since it's impossible to know how long a comic will run the key question would of course be ow long to reside at each stage. Maybe it's my linguistic flaws that confuses me here.

 

[Dave]

As your readers would be in various stages themselves, you don't really have to worry about a time frame. If you have an idea for a comic you can write it and decide which episode or stage in which it would belong. Unless, of course, you are putting the character into a chronological progression. What I mean by that is, if your strip is going to be a continuing story line like PvP or Order of the Stick, then the episode thing may not work. But if your strip is not in any certain order - Penny Arcade, Peanuts - then you could keep expanding each episode as you go along. The child in the strip doesn't necessarily have to age and can stay young forever.

So it's really up to you and I was just throwing stuff out there. If you want it to be a chronological progression, then make it that way...and I doubt the stages of grief wouldn't really work for you. But if you did not want it chronological, the stages would work fine. In the end it's your project and you'll get idiots like me who put all sorts of stuff out there. The challenge is to make something YOU love and will be excited to make. If you do that then the fans will come.

And your language is perfectly fine, by the way.

 

[World of Will]

Thanks agan, Dave, for taking the time to explain more thoroughly. Your suggestion makes more sense to me after reading this and I'll keep them in mind. The feeling of being in love with the creative process when working with World of Will is something that I'm blessed with already, and hopefully it will stay that way for a long time.

 

[Dave]

That's why we're here, man!

 

[ElJuski]

OH HEY GLAD YOU STUCK AROUND WITH YOUR SHIT COMIC, SHITBAGS.

But at least nobody ever saw that coming at all

 

[Bowielee]

Self-fulfilling prophecy, I think.

 

[Dave]

Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't matter if they are gone for a while. They came in, started an interesting conversation, which added to the overall value of our little corner of the internet. If they never come back, that's cool. We'll still be here.

 

[ElJuski]

I just think it's hilarious that people call me out as being a bitter jerk about this shit, when it was soooo fucking obvious. The assholes didn't even sign up.

EDIT: And I get trying to get fresh blood in here, Dave, and I know it's your job, but seriously, sometimes I think your clemency comes off as naivete.

 

[Bowielee]

Or, you know it could be that newbies get a face full of hot nasty when they post.

 

[Dave]

Nah, it's just that trying to force people to sign up will usually cause them to instead pass by. A lot of times when I go to a site if they make me jump through hoops I'll just laugh and move along. I figure if they are here, able to be engaged in the conversation and like what they see they are more likely to sign up. Right now we don't really have a niche or anything else to offer them but conversation.

 

[Ravenpoe]

This guy must have raped juski's dog.

That's the only way I can see this making sense.

 

[ElJuski]

I mean, don't get me wrong, at the end of the day I don't give a fuck, but sometimes the way we come off here comes off as desperate, and I hate seeing obvious in-and-out bullshit like this getting played up to people that are being nice. Obviously this goes beyond what I want, but I'd hate for these forums to become a truck stop for half-assed bullshit webcomics, and not a place where people come to actually have...well, I guess it would be interesting...conversation.

As it turns out, the only fresh blood that ends up joining are the longterm lurkers anyway. When has there been a guest poster that actually became a regular? Shit's just mostly shitposting spambots and assholes like these guys doing a drive-by. So hey, knock yourselves out, guys.

 

[Hylian]

As far as the comic goes I like the art and the idea isn't bad but it just seems too cutesy for my taste. And I am not just saying that because I am a guy (I mean I watch My Little Pony FiM for crying out loud). I can see a certain group of people latching onto this but it seems that you will have a hard time doing so with such a long time between updates. Also as others have stated that if you stay with the the melodramatic side of death it could get boring and repetitive really quickly. Even if you go through the different stages of death I think it would get a bit repetitive. I think the comic either needs to have a set life span or you will need something else to keep people coming back.

 

[Dave]

They could always kill off the dad. And then the grandparents. And then the dog. In the end the kid is alone and in a rubber room with nothing more than his imaginary friends.

 

[Hylian]

They could always kill off the dad. And then the grandparents. And then the dog. In the end the kid is alone and in a rubber room with nothing more than his imaginary friends.

It could end with him slowly rocking back and forth while chanting "mars is amazing"