The Survey Is Online!

Photo by ocean yamada

Photo by ocean yamada


It’s very early days on The Survey, my new project to pick the brain of the great comics buying public by polling readers on what kind of stories they most want to see, in which style, even down to details of lettering and coloring technique. Based on their answers, I will produce two stories- one, assembled from elements that respondents say they most want to see, the other featuring the qualities they least want to see. (Full disclosure: I was inspired by Komar and Melamid’s People’s Choice painting project, in which they commissioned a poll to determine what qualities people most wanted and did not want in a painting, and then created two paintings with just those qualities.) In case you missed my previous post about it, here is The Survey:


My favorite/least favorite genre of comics is:


Superhero

Western

Horror

Humor

Funny animals

Romance

Slice of life/autobio

Fantasy

Science fiction

Crime

History

War

Pirate


My favorite/least favorite length of story is:


Single page.

Two to four pages.

Five to ten pages

Ten to twenty four pages

Twenty five to fifty pages

More than fifty pages; graphic novel length.


I most like/least like stories that are:


Bright and optimistic

Dark and gritty

Silly and funny

Thrilling and action-packed

Slow and meditative

Educational

Satirical


I most like/least like stories to be told:


In captions only.

In dialogue only.

In a mix of captions and dialogue.


I most like/least like protagonists who are:


Male (straight)

Male (gay)

Boy

Female (straight)

Female (gay)

Girl

Asexual

Other

Multiple protagonists


I most like/least like conflict that is between:


Family Members

Strangers

Couples

Friends

Acquaintances

I do not like conflict


I most like/least like conflict that concerns:


Politics

Philosophy

Religion

Personal Issues

Territory

I do not like conflict


I most like/least like endings that are:


Happy

Sad

Bittersweet

Shocking

Conclusive

Cliffhangers

Ambiguous


I most like/least like pictures that have:


Black and white line drawing alone

Black and white line drawing with a single second color

Black and white line drawing with flat color

Black and white line drawing with fully-rendered color

Painted color alone.

Flat color alone.

Black and white line drawing with flat gray tones.

Black and white line drawing with fully-rendered gray tones.

Fully-rendered gray tones alone.

Flat gray tones alone.


I most like/least like figures that are:


Highly realistic with near-photographic detail.

Cartoony, exaggerated.

Linear, stylized.

Silhouetted

Manga style


I most like/least like panels that have:


A wide variety of shapes with line borders.

A wide variety of shapes without line borders

Rectangular form with line borders.

Rectangular form without line borders.

An indefinite form without borders.


I most like/least like lettering to appear:

In rectangular balloons.

In rounded or scalloped balloons.

Within the panel, not enclosed in a balloon.

Outside the panel.

In captions


I most like/least like lettering to be:


Written by hand.

Typeset in a standard font.

Typeset in a custom font.


My favorite/least favorite panel format is:


One panel to the page

Two panels to the page

Four panels to the page.

Six panels to the page.

Eight panels to the page

Nine panels to the page

Twelve panels to the page

More than twelve panels to the page.

No definite number of panels to the page.


My favorite/least favorite page format is:


Standard comic size

Magazine size

Digest size

Oversized

Square

Horizontal trade humor


The Survey made its debut as a handout at last weekend’s Stumptown Comics Fest, and I will post about those results shortly. However, for those readers who missed Stumptown, my good friend Jason Renaud has very kindly put the whole thing online. What are you waiting for? Take it now, and let your voice be heard!


One tiny restriction: please respond only if you live in the United States Of America. I’d like to keep the option open to do this multiple times for various countries. Komar and Melamid eventually did paintings for fourteen countries and one more for “The Web.”


While I could collect data from now until Doomsday, my aim is to take a snapshot of comics readers and their tastes at this particular moment in time. The Survey will therefore be taken down one month from this date, on June 3rd 2012. I will announce final results shortly thereafter.


Meanwhile, in other online news, the Oregon Movies A to Z blog recently posted a Handy Guide To Top Ten Oregon Cartoonists, including legendary names like Homer Davenport, Basil Wolverton, Bill Plympton and Matt Groening. I’m number 7.

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Published on May 03, 2012 10:12
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