Cartooning Tips: Ending your webcomic
By Tracy on November 26th, 2009Posted In: Blog
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WARNING: THIS BLOG IS FULL OF ADVICE.
Well, How-To's, Hacks, and General Discussion, really; but also alot of guidance on how to do things, and on what not to do. It's what I've learned, and what I'm sharing with you.
Much of it is solid. The rest requires more be said. Please weigh what you learn here with other insights to see what works best for you. Thank you.
For more tips and tutorials, see: http://www.reddit.com/r/makecomics
We’ve talked a lot about what to do when you are just beginning your webcomic, but what happens when you want to end it?
Not a lot has been written about how to end a webcomic and while the basic rule of ending anything is pretty much to make a clean dignified cut, some authors still manage to leave their readers feeling cheated at the end.
To avoid this happening to your readers at the end of your comic, here are four essential points to remember:
1. Advise your readers before hand that your webcomic will be coming to an end. Let me repeat, advise your readers BEFORE HAND that your webcomic will be ending. This may entail posting notifications in your blog, forum or website or through your social networking sites etc, just make sure your readers know ahead of time. If possible, or rather, as soon as possible, please also specify WHEN the comic will end.
2. Conclude any open story lines.
3. Decide how you will present your finale: Will it go out with a huge bang or will it go quietly into the night? Cliffhangers, such as those used in film and television, are not recommended.
4. However you choose to conclude your comic, the characters themselves should at some point acknowledge that they are in a finale. In other words, the characters should tell the audience “goodbye”.
These particular details give a semblance of closure to readers. They also encourage them to be agreeable to supporting any future works you may produce, and hopefully you will decide to begin a new cartoon.
