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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. =)

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

WE NEED ANSWERSSS

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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!)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

That's why we're here, man!

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

But at least nobody ever saw that coming at all

Self-fulfilling prophecy, I think.

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.

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.

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

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.

This guy must have raped juski's dog.

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

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.

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.

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.

Dave said:

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.

Click to expand...

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

Okay - (audibly cracks knuckles) - here's an honest critique.

Your comic has a traditional visual style obviously influenced by Bill Keane and Bill Watterson; nothing wrong with that and I can't suggest any changes.

Now, as for the writing...well, there is room for improvement. Your characters are taking the loss of the mother/wife WAY too well, and it comes off as hokey and disingenuous despite your intentions. There's sweet and saccharine, but this could give a reader diabetes. Add a dose of realism. Losing a loved one is sad, frustrating, depressing. If you want to address this, add a dose of realism and show those emotions. There's still plenty of room for humor there, most of it bittersweet, of course.

It can be anything - the father struggling to adapt - picking up responsibilities that the mother handled, an overenthusiastic school psychologist that completely misses the mark, a single neighbor with eyes for the father...if you use ancillary characters to provide the more "edgy" work, you can preserve the innocence of the main cast. Those suggestions are all realistic possibilities that go along with the kind of situation you're addressing, but it doesn't dumb it down and it doesn't pander, which does kind of seem to be what you're doing right now.

see the problem is that nobody is listening to you, and they never were.

ElJuski said:

see the problem is that nobody is listening to you, and they never were.

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Me?

well anyone that's trying to give them criticism or advice. Which is good advice, mind you, they're just not coming back.

Thanks for the feedback, guys. Allways nice to get some well-thought critique. I’ve been stopping by here once a week or so, and I guess I should thank the guy who's dog I must have raped for the sudden burst of activity in this thread.

Regarding the website, I should point out that our comic isn’t meant to be a webcomic and that worldofwillcomics.com was created just for fun, more or less; a portfolio site for non-swedish speakers.
Right now our native market is our priority and only the original Swedish version of the site is regularly updated.

We have som plans of regular updates in English as well, but right now we’re focused on finishing enough Swedish strips for an album planned to be released around christmas.

The next post should be an apology from ElJuski. Let me preemptively say sorry for him. *I* say you're always welcome and that's that.

You're more than welcome to keep posting, and congrats to your success in Sweden.

Don't worry about juski, we've all had his dog at some point. That's one sexy collie.

lolololol I still call bullshit

Juice. Time to chill dude. Give this thread a rest.

Now... Get beer. Go to couch. Sit and drink. Come one. I'll have one too.

Haha. You guys need to see my post in the IMPORTANT forum, if you think I'm anything but chill. I'm sure we can all go ahead and fall asleep soundly tonight.

Is it so hard to believe, Juice, that someone actually lurks and cares enough to read through stuff? One of my biggest problems is the same as Scott's, in that I see something bright and shiny and jump right at it. These guys seem to be taking their time and doing it the way they want to right the first time. They came to us and asked about their comic. We are basically HERE because of web comics! It's not a far stretch for them to ask us. We gave them advice and whether they take it or not is up to them. But to constantly criticize even after they totally proved you wrong in your mistaken belief that they jumped and ran shows more about who you are than who they are. Can you not admit that you could have possibly been mistaken and overreacted? Is it so far fetched that you could be wrong?

In any event, I'm not locking the thread because of you. This is their thread and that would be unfair to them. However, it is exactly this kind of behavior of which I have been speaking. Unnecessary and just awful.

No, you're right. If they're sticking around they deserve to have their corner. No need to get all bold and green text at me.

FINE. YOU LIKE THIS BETTER?

Cuz I gots all night Joseph Bro-lin.

Scratch that, my 9-month pregnant wife wants me to watch Parks and Rec with her so "all night" just turned into see you later gaters.

Dave said:

Is it so hard to believe, Juice, that someone actually lurks and cares enough to read through stuff? One of my biggest problems is the same as Scott's, in that I see something bright and shiny and jump right at it. These guys seem to be taking their time and doing it the way they want to right the first time. They came to us and asked about their comic. We are basically HERE because of web comics! It's not a far stretch for them to ask us. We gave them advice and whether they take it or not is up to them. But to constantly criticize even after they totally proved you wrong in your mistaken belief that they jumped and ran shows more about who you are than who they are. Can you not admit that you could have possibly been mistaken and overreacted? Is it so far fetched that you could be wrong?

In any event, I'm not locking the thread because of you. This is their thread and that would be unfair to them. However, it is exactly this kind of behavior of which I have been speaking. Unnecessary and just awful.

Click to expand...

Temp ban.

No, perma ban.

Or make him wear a tutu.

Prohibit Simpsons gifs.

Anything to vex him.

That can be ARRANGED!

In all seriousness, though, holy crap, another Scandinavian here in Halforums and nobody tells me? Shame on you, people...

Anyway, expressions of welcome from the other side of the gulf. I'm surprised these guys haven't made jokes about your nationality yet, as some of them seem hellbent on "forgetting" I'm a Finn rather than a Swede or a Norwegian or, for the love of God, a Russian But then again, with the exception of certain people you seem to have gathered the attention of our more level-headed crowd. Good show on that. I personally hope you will stick around and embrace the madness. Just as long as you don't mention steak (trust me, DON'T. You'll live a longer, happier life that way). Or sauna pants - 'cause if you do, then jag ska göra någonting dödlig på dig, din familj och din lilla hund, altså Nah, just kidding... but don't. Also apologies for crappy Swedish, haven't used that much since gymnasiet.

Now, about the comic... You have a clear, familiar style of drawing which does seem like something you would find in a comic aimed at a younger audience. Nothing wrong with that, even if it does - as mentioned earlier - look reminiscent of the likes of Family Circus. But for the target audience, the soft touch and the pastel shades would seem a more appropriate approach. For an adult reader... well, as a newspaper comic it would work. Reading a number of strips in one sitting, then it starts to become a little repetitive.

I would also recommend taking heart to the advice of giving the characters' reactions a sharper edge. Now they just seem a little too mellow. To have a comic that's memorable, you don't want your characters to be marshmellows; you need them to have some edge to them, something that makes them stand out from every other [insert group title] here. To use Calvin and Hobbes as an example, Calvin stands out from every other six-year-old because of his cynicism and his childish self-centeredness expressed through adult ideas. Susie Derkins, the girl whom Calvin is bouncing off in the comics, stands out because she has the ability to turn Calvin's fantasies against himself (such as kidnapping Hobbes and making Calvin give back her doll or she'll keep Hobbes "because he seems to like it better with [her]"). At present, your characters lack such quirks of personality. Granted, you only gave us a small sample and you're just getting started, but hopefully these kinds of edges will grow on characters over time. Calvin, too, started as just another bratty six-year-old.

So there's my two cents on the matter. Welcome, stick around and keep on posting. I'll let you know if I see your comic in papers over here

Greetings, Scandinavian brother! And don't worry, your death threat was well written and impossible to misunderstand. ;-)
Thanks a lot for the constructive critisism! Regarding your advice, I'm happy to see that we have followed some of them even before you gave them.

Having written 315 script, I feel like the edges of these characters have gotten sharper over time, and looking at some of these translated strips feels almost like watching ancient history. The most cynical character have been left out, actually - simply because he talks so damn much that it didn't feel worth it to translate his rants.
We also chose not to include a lot of the more gag-oriented strips, prioritising the ones we felt made this comic stand out a bit compared to others. In retrospect i think this made the comic appear a bit more pale, cloying and... well... lame than I believe it to be.

I'm looking forward to adding new strips in English and see if any of the guys in here will notice any signs of improvement. =)

Hi again, guys!

As promised, We've now added a bunch of new translated strips to our site; 25 new ones in total. They are not all placed at the end of the list so take time to scroll through it from top to bottom if you're interested in checking out all additions.

Hope you'll find something there to enjoy: worldofwillcomics.com.

The ONLY trouble I have is knowing which strips are new and which have been there. You really need some sort of navigation besides "samples". I like the strips, but it's difficult to navigate.