The danger of a bad archive

I think a very important way for a webcomic to attract new readership is to make sure their archive is up to scratch. The fact is that almost all webcomics improve over time. Generally they are started by amateurs, who might not even be the greatest artists in the world, but soon get better as time goes on. And while art is not so important, writing is- there are an insane amount of comics that start in the whole real life comics style (a comic of which I have failed to get into for this very reason), where they say, "hey let's make a webcomic". It's annoying, and usually not very funny. I really do think many webcomics lose readers becuase of this- they've certainly lost me.

So what can they do? Well I think it's worth telling readers a good place to start- Schlock Mercenary is the only webcomic I know of that does this, encouraging readers to start waaay into the story, skipping the wormgate wars entirely. As a result it hooked me, and I read it still today. Once I had got into the story I came back and re-read the old strips, but far more forgivingly than I might have other wise. Who knows, I might have got into the story if I had started at the very beginning but this way I was far more likely to enjoy it.

Even the big comics suffer from this- sluggy freelance springs to mind, it's start was distinctly unengaging for me, and I would have given up on it if a friend hadn't heartily recommended it. This is a simple thing an author can do, and it can hardly hurt. What do you guys reckon?