Is This Bitcoin Weekly Comic Crap?

[elggawf]

'Fiat Kingdom'  made little sense unless the point was to demonstrate the naivety of the bitcoin true-believers.
Why wouldn't the king just either take his tax in bitcoins, or sacks of wheat or liens over their land etc? 

Yeah, I don't understand that point either. If you "owe" taxes according to the powers that be in your area of residence, you owe the taxes. Sure they can't seize your Bitcoins, nor can they without a doubt prove you own them... but that won't stop taxation. Many places and agencies don't even need solid proof of your income and more or less are free to go off what they think you should be making given your industry/location/etc.

If your employer pays you in Bitcoins, they can easily compel your employer to withhold the back taxes the same way they do if your employer pays you in any other currency. If you still won't pay up what they think you owe, they won't go "get a real job" - they'll throw your ass in jail until the Bitcoins fall out.

"It's untaxable!" is a giant stain on Bitcoin's reputation in more ways than one, and the less that's spoken about that sentiment the better in terms of public perception, I think.

[BitcoinPorn]

I like the comic.

Do not have the writer change because it is his art, unless Joey Dangerous wants to start catering to whatever audience must be messaging him or you about this (I mean, this stems from somewhere).  I think I've said it before though, without even having to mention a specific strip, the comics from Bitcoin Weekly have always felt super super strong in almost a blind Bitcoin support sometimes with attitude or feeling, so if I could critique them, I would say that, but even saying that I enjoy the comic and don't feel that is a huge negative, in fact, that is what makes the comic strip unique to me.

Add more comic strips.    What newspaper only has one comic anyways?   I have no doubts there are plenty of artists that would donate a comic strip to your site for free, it exposes themselves and gives people more reason to come to the site for the big draw of the full on Weekly magazine.

More contributions maybe.  Variety for those who aren't fans of his.  I like his work.

I like http://z1x.dk/'s a lot.

I want more Bitcoin webcomics.

[kiba]

It really wasn't as bad as I was expecting after reading the thread. You can clearly draw well, and I liked Bitcoin Squirrel.

Keep in mind that Joey Dangerous was responsible for the art.

[AtlasONo]

Bland meta humor appealing to a very miniscule niche of the community who likes being told they are right; and anarchistic squirrels for the other comic.

[kiba]

I like the comic.

Do not have the writer change because it is his art, unless Joey Dangerous wants to start catering to whatever audience must be messaging him or you about this (I mean, this stems from somewhere). 

I don't view arts as a static thing that don't change. Art is part of culture and culture mutate and changes as they become more used. I hope Joey Dangerous thinks the same way too.

[BitcoinPorn]

I don't view arts as a static thing that don't change. Art is part of culture and culture mutate and changes as they become more used. I hope Joey Dangerous thinks the same way too.

I think you took what I wrote a different way, I do not disagree with what you wrote, as long as that is what personally motivates Joey on whatever given pieces or projects he is working on, then change will come naturally.  I cant imagine art as a static thing by any definition, it is all perspective and interpretation anyways, so yeah, I have to re-read what I wrote and see how that came out of that lol.

[Vitalik Buterin]

While we're all here, if anyone has any suggestions for what you would like to see from my Bitcoin Weekly articles, I'd be glad to hear them - either here or commenting on the site is good. My articles for this week are close to done already, but I'll be sure to keep them in mind for next week and the future!

[ottodv]

On-topic: I feel the comics should have some jokes about ourselves. More introspection.

So comics should make recursive jokes about themsleves. I keep that in mind.

I meant something different, jokes about ourselves, as in members of the bitcoin community. What are the strange we do, and how can that be put in a joke?

I dunno, like some of us are disappointed that the BTC price on MtGox is now stable and doesn't swing with 30% in a few hours anymore... or having the urge to check how your miners are doing 24 hours a day.... or arguing over the late payment of 1 BTC....

Then you got to figure out how to build a joke around that.

[Bitcoin_Silver_Supply]

http://www.bitcoinweekly.com/comics/fiat-kingdom

Also is a fail is this comic I written, http://www.bitcoinweekly.com/comics/the-gavinator

There are time when we succeed massively or fail massively. I believe this time we failed big time. I was told this comic is totally bad, and I agree with this assessment. (Don't you see? Our humor is mostly "crushing our hated enemy", the gubernment)

http://lesswrong.com/lw/m5/false_laughter/

So, I am gathering more feedbacks and comments.

Good tactic for getting feedback.

I'd say there's room for improvement but many of the people here and in your comments are simply trolling you. You (or "Joey Dangerous") have a good style for the comics and while none of them are laugh out loud funny this one is clever http://www.bitcoinweekly.com/comics/bitcoin-future.

You have work ahead of you with the humor but you are not in "crap" range by my judgment.

[-]

The drawing is good, the writing is painfully dull.

Wont look again.

[DonnyCMU]

I just read all comics all the way back to "Bitcoin Mascots," and all of my negative opinion about bitcoin aside, I'm honestly embarrassed by proxy through what I've just read.

Just....no.

If you are not willing to offer constructive feedback, I am not interested in your comments.

Don't let him get to ya.. He's always an a*hole like that.

For your comic, I like this one best
http://www.bitcoinweekly.com/comics/bitcoin-future

I think a good point to make jokes of would be to make fun/exaggerated something every bitcoin users lamented about.. eg. Mt.Gox, Dollars, non-techie people thinking bitcoin's a scam... etc.

[Sofox]

I've read a fair few webcomics. I find the art in the comic good, strong style and visually memorable. Like any art there's room for improvment, but it communicates well and doesn't distract.

As for the actual writing/content/etc. You've decided to go for a set of one shot comics, with vague continuity. Not a bad format, but it requires you put more effort into each individual comic to make it stand up on its own.

Bitcoin Mascots - I found this cute, it actually had personality behind it and a setup people could understand. I actually expected the two people talking would become recurring characters.

Bitcoin Rate - Kinda a "slice of life" thing here. It expresses a real life event in a slightly exaggerated way to make it's point. It's fine for communicating what happened, but there's not humourous twist or really any comedy to it; more like "look what happened to me".
If people are interested in what happened, that's fine, if they're not, there's nothing in the comic to pull them in.
It's also a little awkward as the Bitcoin rate will have a very turbulent future, so after a steep dive (like the recent one from $30), it's harder to accept this comic.

Bitcoin Future - Here you basically imagine what the future will be like and express how the established order of things could be inverted.
That's kinda it really.

Bitsquirrel - I actually find this one kinda cute and funny. It's reliant on people understanding the values of the increase in bitcoins though.

The Gavinator - Kinda reads like a propeganda poster.

Fiat Kingdom - Kinda your worst one. It's basically pushing across your political beliefs without anything to back it up.


The positives:
You are making the comic, you wish to improve, you can write the occasionally funny line and take inspiration from the Bitcoin community and while not everyone may like it, it has a decent quality to it though nothing amazing.

The negatives:
The comic fulfills the criteria of "comic for people who want to read comics involving Bitcoins" and contributes to the Bitcoin culture, but it dosn't do much more than that.
There are a couple of styles that the comic approaches, but doesn't do well enough in any of them.
If you wish to make it more funny and "gag-a-day", you need a more humour with wittier dialogue and funnier scenarios, the objective should be to make the personal laugh a priority.
If you wish to make it more "this is my vision of Bitcoins", expect not everyone to go for it, but compensate but making the scenarios you envision(Bitcoin Future for example) richer with more detail and atmosphere to communicate what you imagine Bitcoins to be.
If you want to make it more political (Fiat Kingdom), you need to improve your sense of wit and social satire including more detail arguments and insights into the statments you are trying to make.
It'll take you a bit of time to find the style of comics that suit you best, but my best advice is to preserver through nonconstructive critizism (ie. people who critizise you as a person rather than the comic itself) and try to do different things. Push yourself, read up on various other comics to gain hints or techniques, and overall find what you want to express in your comics and try to convey it in the best way possible.

I hope this is some help

[kiba]

Bitsquirrel - I actually find this one kinda cute and funny. It's reliant on people understanding the values of the increase in bitcoins though.

I disagree. The squirrel getting crushed is still an unexpected outcome. I think that's humorous.

If you wish to make it more funny and "gag-a-day", you need a more humour with wittier dialogue and funnier scenarios, the objective should be to make the personal laugh a priority.

This is what I wish to focus on.

Though, comedic comics won't be the only things we will focus on. I got the idea of pivoting to educational comics or perhaps stories involving bitcoin. However, they probably takes more effort and capital to write, which is not what Bitcoin Weekly have at the time. We're still building our warchest.