Pity the poor Nook — Barnes & Noble’s last-gasp attempt to stay in business. It was immediately shrugged off by the iPad, and easily surpassed by the Kindle. The software is slow, the interface is clunky. The creators were downright pathetic in their inability to understand the digital-publishing industry. We had two of them in the house. It made the Kindle Fire look like an iPad. I’m not sure I would treat one of our Nooks the same way as Dr. Whoosh did in today’s comic, but that’s only because I think he has better aim than I do.
Enough Nook… the new Evil Inc!
Today’s update (along with last Thursday’s) is a good example of where I’m trying to go with this comic in 2016. The updates will be about twice as long as the former newspaper-strip format, and — I think — that’s going to make for a more enjoyable reading experience. One thing that isn’t going to change is that I’m always going to try to make each update a satisfying reading experience. Whether it’s a punchline, a cliffhanger, a surprising plot twist, or, well, whatever… my goal is to make each update a standalone piece that can be appreciated on its own — and then as a part of a bigger story.
It’s part of a philosophy that I’ve talked about repeatedly at Webcomics.com and in my book, The Webcomics Handbook (also available on Amazon). My approach to comics is that every day someone is coming to my site for the very first time. They haven’t read the archive, and they don’t know the characters. But that day’s comic has got to grab them. It has to make them want to read the backstory. It has to make them want to bookmark the site or buy the books. If they’re not intrigued by the comic that is live on the site on the day they arrive, they’re never going to become readers.
And that’s a shame because they’re missing out on something special.
So I try to make those individual updates satisfying reading experiences on their own — as well as when they’re read as a larger story. Some days I succeed better than others, but it’s a goal that I continue to pursue.
The post Nook … a rather crappy opinion appeared first on Evil Inc.