I've been reading Sluggy for nearly a decade now (hard to believe!) and I've noticed something. When I started reading, Sluggy was the king of the webcomic universe --on top of every poll, referenced everywhere, etc., etc. Now it's an increasingly obscure cult favorite. What happened? Other webcomics of the same vintage seem to have established a much more solid place in pop culture, even ones that seem much more geeky and niche, or even, let's just say it, of much lower quality.

I know some people just feel the quality of The Comic iteslf has slipped, but I don't agree. Even if I did, that doesn't seem to have hurt other webcomics that shall not be named.

I can't help but think that part of it may be that Pete might not be marketing himself as well as his competitors. For instance, what made me think of this was that I took a recent trip to the local, very well-stocked comic book store. On their shelves were collections of GOATS, PVP, UserFriendly and many other webcomics. But the store staff hadn't even heard of Sluggy! How did this happen?

Sluggy has long since stopped being focused on day-to-day humour. Epic storyline comics are always more niche than humour-based ones.

I'm with FB. I read a number of Epic Comics of Epicness, and most of those have a much smaller (if very loyal) group of fans. Even the ones that post regularly, like Trying Human or Templar, Arizona. (Most that I read have a really, really slow posting speed. Something like a page or two a week is pretty normal. Some post only twice a month.) Sluggy probably still has a major fanbase compared to some of these comics, but so long as it doesn't always have just the funny, it won't bring in Penny-Arcade numbers any time soon.

I agree that it's the epic-size/content storylines that have made Sluggy something of a cult thing, and while I enjoy the story - and the simple day-to-day humour we've had recently, for that matter - I think Pete has started to focus perhaps overmuch on detail. In its early years, the long story arcs would fit in nicely between holidays, a total of three months or so at max, and told great stories with plenty of humour, and people didn't have to dedicate part of their schedule and mind to reading and remembering years-long storylines thanks to recaps of past stories and quick plot movement. I enjoy Sluggy as it is now, but would like, as much for Pete's sake as my own, to see it move a bit faster.

I guess that does make sense. When I started reading 10 years ago, there were only five years of archives to catch up on, and they were filled with self-contained storylines. Now there's three times as much archival material. It's hard to picture someone getting up to speed very quickly --or at all.

At the same time, Pete could definitely be presenting The Comic better. The only difference in the New Viewer's Guide in the last ten years is the addition of the Torg Potters --not a plus in my book. There could definitely be a guide that would catch people up on the actual biggest storylines from start to now.

I personally think that part of it is Sluggy's sheer bulk. I mean most comics are gag-a-day and you can jump in at any time without much difficulty in understanding what"s going on. With Sluggy every storyline builds off of the others, which means you have to go through the entire archive, a daunting prospect even for hardcore fans. So I think it was a combination of Sluggy's progressive change towards more plot-focused strips along with its sheer size that keeps more fans from joining. I know I've introduced friends to Sluggy before, but they were always discouraged by the bulk of material they'd have to go through to get to the later strips.

Anyways that's my idea. Happy New Years!

End of Line.

You can fix that problem yourself. You do know the Niftypedia, right? If there came a really good new users guide there, I am sure Pete would link it, since Niftypedia itself are already linked on the comic page.

The bulk of archives and necessary backstory. My wife asked me to let her know when it got to a good point to jump on board the daily comic without reading all the archives. She asked this just after Zoë died.

Whenever I find a new webcomic that looks interesting, I always check the archive length. If it has less than three hundred and sixty five strips in the archive I move on without bookmarking. It's not worth my time.
If it has between two and four years in the archive then I might save for later but it won't be a priority. Just when it gets interesting it'll slow to a dribble.
If it has more than five years in the archive then it's a must read. I'll get on it as soon as I have the free time.
A long, hefty archive is a requirement for me to pay any attention to a webcomic. The other requirements are good scripting, interesting premise, early art that doesn't make me sick to my stomach, and current art that looks good.

Incidentally, Sluggy Freelance was the first webcomic I ever read. And, really, the first comic of any kind I ever paid attention to.

I say advertisement is the problem. I didn't notice the readers of Watchmen bemoaning the lack of gag-a-day-ness. Or the readers of Transmetropolitan. Or a review of Sandman that talks about the difficulty getting new readers caused by the size of the archive. The potential reservoir of fans for Sluggy Freelance is vast. The only problem is that its never heard of the Nifty.

I first encountered sluggy on a website that gathered webcomics from various different sources on a single page... At first I usually skipped over sluggy without paying too much attention because I had no idea what was going on in the story and the humor wasn't that great. Eventually some of the daily strips really caught my attention though (I think it was during "Aylee" chapter) and I started following the story from that point on... Only to abandon it again when it changed to back to less action-oriented storylines (and totally uninteresting ones like torg potter). I resumed reading again at some point during "A time for a hair-raising" and somewhere during "Broken" I was finally sold... and I read through the entire archives as I wanted to get to know the background of the story and the characters.

The web-comic-gathering service I used has since been closed because apparently web comic authors do not like that kind of approach... I understand they want the readers to create hits for their own websites, but without that I would never have started reading sluggy. It took a service that "forced" me to view the comic even when I wasn't actively following it.

I guess my point is that the storylines are so wildly varying (both in themes and quality) that if you hop aboard during some of the less-than-stellar ones it's easy to judge the entire comic by it and then just forget about the whole thing. The sometimes over-the-top goofiness tends to drive away those who enjoy bit darker comics with good stories, and the complicated story tends to drive away the people looking for a quick laugh... Leaving only those who like both (and survive the archive traversal).

The Safehouse chapter is a brilliant point for new readers to start. No prior knowledge required at all, just accept that they are on the run from something and enjoy the characters.

For all those bemoaning the hard start for newcomers who tries out Sluggy, rejoice! There is now a New readers guide at the Niftypedia

An interesting stance. Safehouse is what finally got me to stop reading.

I myself wouldn't recommend anyone to start reading with Safehouse.

I started with Torg Potter entering the Screaming Shack. Confused me so much I read the archives.

I started at the beginning of bROKEN, I think, if that was the chapter where Oasis was "hiding" from HeretiCorp in the woods. Not a bad spot to start, considering that within about three months there had been more massive plot reveals than in most other intervals of two years.