Years ago, when I started this comic, I made a concious decision to NOT censor myself in any way. Whatever popped into my fevered, caffeine addled brain wound up on paper and thus online. I thought it was funny, and so did a bunch of other people.
One of the most frequently asked questions I get is “Have you ever recieved an email from a reader that was offended by the language?”
My answer? No. Never. Ever. Not emails.
My Dad, a remarkably intelligent man told me very early on :”Son, your use of language is gratuitous and unnecessary. You will get more readers if you cut the swearing.” I ignored him, just as I ignored him when he told me I should become a veteranarian.
A few years later, Doug Tennapel, creator of Earthworm Jim, Creature Tech, RatFist etc. said very much the same thing. Incredibly, I also ignored him.
A few years later friend Chris Sanders (Lilo and Stitch, How to Train your Dragon) launched a brilliant little webcomic called “Kiskaloo”. The strip was well written, but no dirty words. It was an instant hit. A few weeks into it’s run, he did a strip where the characters discuss just how useless and stupid the hobbits are in “The Lord of The Rings”. It was hilarious. He recieve a passionate and angry letter from a reader chiding him for the strip and seeking to correct his attitude towards hobbits. It was AWESOME. Chris giggled as he told me about the letter. I was immediatly jealous. You aren’t successful until you recieve crack-pot hate mail. I expressed this opinion, complaining “Why don’t I get letters like that? I say (expletive deleted) for crying out loud!” Chris explained that I probably scared away anyone who might complain a LONG time ago. I went on my happily content that I had cultivated a very erudite group of readers, a group that could handle a few dirty words!!!
A while later, while listening to an episode of the Tall Tale Radio podcast, I heard Brock Heasley of the webcomic SuperFogeys (awesome) say that although he thought my strip was well drawn, he couldn’t read it because he didn’t like seeing “those words”.
Now, that should have been the red flag that finally caught my attention. Yes, that is red flag number 4, but as dense as I am, I usually get it on the fourth try.
Nope. Many of you out there think that I’m Chippy, some think that I’m Carl. In reality, I’m Loopus. I am truly that thick.
Recently, I took a look at my numbers on Google Analytics and was distressed to see that my readership had plateaued. I was playing to the same number of readers as I was in 2008. That…friends and readers, is BAD.
I had the sinking feeling that something was wrong. Maybe the strip isn’t funny, I thought. No…EVERYbody laughs when they read it. It’s funny.
I took a look at the info on Analytics. The most popular episodes were…the ones without the swearing. Oh. I finally got it.
Just in case, I put the quesion to my Twitter pals and my Facebook friends. Many other webcartoonists came forward and said that although they personally enjoy my strip, they could not recommend it to their readers because of the swearing. Most of these folks have readers of all ages.
They could not in good conscience recommend my strip to their readers. Wow.
I took a long look at what I was doing and asked myself “Just how important is this in the grand scheme of what I’m doing?”
I decided I’d write a strip the way I normally would. I’d let Chippy say whatever he wanted. However, when it came time for the final dialogue, I inserted symbols in place of the f-bombs. The effect was instant. I felt…free. The strip was funny…with out the f-bomb.
After I cut the swearing, I took a look at the other “adult” stuff I was doing and wondered just how important it was to the strip. I now measure everything in this way, “Is it important enough to the characters to keep? How many people am I scaring off with this?”
The strip is still the strip, Chippy is still Chippy. His mouth is as foul as ever, but you won’t see it, as there is now a censor who will block out all his expletives with goofy symbols. Trust me, you won’t be missing anything.
Soon, I’ll be putting the archive in a protected area of the site, so that when you go to read the archives, you are warned that you are about to see an uncensored version of the strip and that you should proceed with caution.
For all of you who’ve been with me since the biginning, I hope you stick around. We’re gong to keep having fun.
We just be doing so without the f-bomb. Tell your friends. Show the strip to your 13 year old niece or nephew. They might like it!
And..there won’t be anything in it they shouldn’t see!
More writing process stuff next Friday!
Thanks for listening!
John
Tell your dad thanks for the advice!! Even though he didn’t tell me direct
Since you made your announcement, I’ve been using you as case study for a creative video project I’m working on.
I was originally thinking of going uncensored, but I think you might be on to something. More audience is always better than no audience!!
I do have a question. What are you going to do with the old strips/story lines that you’ve already posted. Are you going to clean them up and repost them. Or just delete them??
Last thing you want, is for your new audience to go through the archive and end up leaving.
All the best!!
I’m here for the long run! Woohoo!
I believe in this strip.
Thanks Mitch! Glad to hear it! Just talked to my publishing connection about the change and the Graphic novel. Looks like the GN will be PG-13 too. The strip clubs will remain intact, the rest will be approached on a case by case basis.
Hey Lyndon!!! I’m still trying to figure out how to handle the old stuff. I think I’m going to govthrough and tweak the rest of the strips in this story arc. I’ll figure the rest out as I go.
Some of the Disney animators were foul mouthed perverts. I’m glad it didn’t come out in their work because it would have screened them out of their broadest audiences. Cussing may be one form of honesty, but so is not cussing in front of a ten year old.
And this isn’t just about cussing, if I mention “God” in my comics and I’ll lose a certain percentage of my audience. If I make fun of recycling too much I lose others. If I show too much blood and guts, have a character hold a cigarette… etc. The question is, “Are you willing to die on this hill?” Some things are non-negotiables and worth losing some of your audience over.
Those are few and far between. In general, a compromise to involve your broadest audience is being a good entertainer, if your goal is to have a broad audience. I even make my decisions to color or not to color based on similar metrics. I don’t care about color, I like black and white. But I can write the exact same story and double my audience if there’s even simple color… so I’ve been having my latest books colored.
I have family members on my Twitter account who would feel let down by me if I pointed to a C and L comic that had an F bomb. It doesn’t injure me, but it actually breaks their heart to see it and it hurts even more if I’m attached to it. C and L will do well with a #!!%* instead.
This is a personal decision on your part, but I think you’re making the wise decision. I also pay close attention to my traffic analytics and look for patterns of what my audience responds to and what they don’t. When you’re in mass media it makes a lot of sense.
I’ve never seen your site before, but I enjoy your discussion here. As a parent I liked how the Fantastic Mr. Fox approached it, like: you cuss’n cuss. You cussin with me? I sure as cuss can’t afford it, but what the cuss!
That made me laugh more than anything else, same with those gum commercials and the french toast or shut the front door business.
I don’t care about swearing, but yknow, the kids and stuff.
And I’ll stick around and read your comics yeah
Hey John,
I think it’s a good call. I even struggle with what I should or shouldn’t put in my comic (an it’s all ages). I came to the conclusion that if it’s something I wouldn’t mind my kids reading (they’re 7 and 5) then I’d put it in (In a few cases this included a naked midget, but it was quite harmless as far as I’m concerned). Chippy and Loopus is a great strip, with or without swearing. I must say though that many times I’ve wanted to retweet your strips but I know that I have young folks that follow me and I always hesitated.
I like the idea of keeping the strip club though. You never did show anything that was X rated in there, so it’s all good! (I love your strip with or without swearing though, because there was always a good sense of underlying morals and truth to it regardless).
Wow! This is a great topic!
Doug, you are a wise man. I am in very much the same boat. I’m sure I will lose people over some opinion I express, but i know for a fact that I am driving people away in droves with the foul language. I keep kicking myself. Why did it take so long for me to come around?
My goal is definitely a broad audience, at least a broader one than I have now. I think about myself at 13. I would have loved this strip, but NOT if it had swearing. I didn’t like swearing in my comics back then. I want the 13 year old kids that were like me to be reading this.
Doug, you are a hero. Thank you for stopping in to share your point of view on the matter. I hope you’ll keep stopping by. I’m curious to hear what you think of what I’m doing.
Bernie!!! Welcome!!! i hope you keep coming by too!! And I hope you bring your friends! Your example of The Fantastic Mr Fox is a great one! Now I want to go watch it again!
Interesting discussion. I think it’s time I checked this comic out…
I think it’s a good move for you. I’ve always been of the mindset that I want the broadest audience possible, it’s hard enough as it is, without limiting your potential audience further. I learned that the hard way early on teaching a kids cartooning class and releasing my first few books had content I couldn’t show them. Ever since I’ve been very focused on creating “all audience” materials. I think you’ll be happy with the response you’ll gain.
Blair!!! I didn’t see you there! I’m glad you feel that way about the strip club, but I’m not so sure about it yet. We’ll see. I could just turn it into a bar where hot chicks just happen to be the waitresses. Hearing all of this just tells me I made the right choice, because now I’ll have even more people re-tweeting on Twitter and showing it to their friends. Thanks for commenting!
This is great, you all are commenting so fast I can’t keep up!
Hey Will! Thanks for the Re-tweet about this discussion! It’s funny, but initially, I just didn’t care if kids read this. I actually didn’t want them to. How incredibly narrow of me. I was somehow convinced that if the characters couldn’t swear, my voice as an artist wouldn’t shine through. Horsepuckey!!! The great thing about this change is that it has reinvigorated me creatively.
Nick! Welcome!! I hope you like what you see! Tread carefully through the archives, sir, as you might find am f bomb or 2. I really need tondo something about the archive and fast!
Since Ethan shared this on Facebook, I figured I would have to check it out. That is the big thing right there. In this day and age, it is easy to gain readership if you have a few fans willing to “share” your comic with their friends and family. But if someone is uncomfortable with just one person on their friend list seeing it, they might not post it at all.
I also wanted to mention another ‘toon which I think brings this discussion into play. I recently started following “Neurotically Yours,” particularly Foamy the Squirrel. Sure, it’s cute, kinda funny, and downright crude. But the cuteness is counteracted by the intentionally contraversial subject matter and foul language. The humor is based entirely on being offensive. And when you strip away the language, you’re left with almost nothing. My favorite character in the Foamy series is Pilz-E, and most of those jokes are not even R-rated. So what does that say for the potty humor and language?
Hope that helps. I will check out your comic now. See? New readers already!
My granny always told me cursing,(that’s what she called it), cursing it the result of a lazy mind. I’ve always remembered that that, plus, it costs me 20 cents every time my daughter hears me cuss. She’s got me so trained I now put the coins in the jar whether she heard me or not.
Mortally Wounded!!! Thank you for commenting. You are absolutely right. At first, I was a bit mad at folks for not sharing, but would I share my comic, laden with F-bombs with my 11 year old niece or my 9 year old nephew? NO. I hope I haven’t scared off too many people permanently. Thank YOU for giving me a chance!! And…Ethan? would that be Ethan Nicole of Axe Cop? I’ll have to e-mail him a thank you!
Darrell!! My Dad says the same thing!!! Welcome to you!!!
Glad to have found it. Twitter is useful after all!
John, I’m really happy you’ve decided to simply write the way you usually do, then change the crude language to symbol characters. That way you get to keep your creative flow without editing yourself in the process, but edit afterwards. And speaking of editing afterwards, I’d love to read your archives. Do you think you could find a friend who would be willing (if you aren’t) to go through your art files and add a couple of layers that blank out the nasty bits and add the symbols? Just a thought.
Hey Jande, I think that is the best solution. It’s going to take a while, and some strips will have to be dropped out altogether, but I will do it, at least until someone offers a better solution.
Follow up to the old content question. Have you though about deleting the archives (once you’ve backed up the files somewhere) and then maybe refreshing some of the old story lines and posting them on a Friday, as a flashback. New readers get introduced to the characters back story and old readers get to relive some of our past favorites
I can only chime in and agree with the others who have said you made the right decision. I’ve always thought you had really great drawing skill. I’m just another guy who could never suggest this strip to others, and in fact, really couldn’t even read it myself. I actually felt bad reading it, because I thought to myself “shoot, what this artist could do if he’d stop leaning on the so-called adult humor!”
To me that type of humor isn’t adult at all. That’s partly why I didn’t jump into this discussion when you first posted on FB.
I think that NOW you are taking the serious, adult path. And I applaud the decision.
I was also worried about your archive, so I’m glad to see you locking it away. But I would even consider one step further. I’d consider a full reboot of the strip. You’re still really tied to your past. Think about making a real super clean break.
I’d even update the site design if you can.
One more suggestion – have you thought about adding even some simple color tones? Like literally one color as tone wash or something? (Maybe kind of like http://nedroid.com/). Like Doug says, B&W is great, color just gets you more.
Best of luck with going forward!
Hey John, glad to see you’ve seemed to have locked into an attack plan for your self-censorship of this comic. What’s weird is that since you raised the question, I’ve been thinking a lot about Cerebus #139 which was always one of my favorites. It’s also interesting that it was my mother AND Dave Sim that recommended I self-censor SPY GUY after reading SPY GUY: Minis. How weird is that? I also think Doug TenNapel nailed it with “Are you willing to die on this hill?” That’s a great way to look at it. Anyway, I hope this strategy gets you millions of readers so that you can do Chippy & Loopus fulltime! And remember, you can always go the Pee-wee Herman route and re-adult orient the strip anytime you need to (once your millions of fans have grown up?).
As for the ‘R’ archive… you could always take them offline and offer them in book format as a print archive… I’d buy it.
I was thinking about the strip club in your comic….. I wonder if things like that you could just not mention it’s a strip club and not really show the girls on the stage, but rather have them serving. I bet there’s a way to pull it off where adults would just kind of know it’s a strip club and kids would probably just think it’s a bar with hot girls. I remember watching the movie Top Secret in my livingroom with a friend and my mom. (I was 9 or 10 years old). My mom didn’t want us to watch it because of some of the jokes and I remember not even realizing that there were sexual jokes in the film. My argument with her was that the jokes that she didn’t like, I didn’t even understand anyways.
Great discussion though.
Tom!!! Thank you so much for chiming in!!! It’s good to hear I have you on board now. A site re-design is underway, and plans to adjust as much of the archive as possible are in the works!!! AND…I am going to experiment with your color suggestion.
The Kitchen Brothers!!! I love these guys!!!
Mike! I like the idea of making a book of the uncensored strips. It will be done…some day! Thanks for commenting sir!!
Blair!!! Your idea for the strip club is an interesting one. I think I’ll play it that way and see what happens. Great idea!!! Thanks for chiming in! I agree, I love this discussion!
John! Funny how NOT cursing has sparked so much discussion, when you figured cursing would.
I was one of your faithful retweeters, but I generally run on the assumption that people can make up their own mind when they get to the strip. Early on, I think I might have added the occasional warning, but mostly, I just would retweet and let people figure out if it was something they wanted to read. Me, I was down with it. I’m all for the strips out there that curse from time to time. But I have no problem with toning it down, either. The good old “$%&@#” works just fine for a character and opens up a lot of doors. I’ve been one to argue that the proper use of the f-bomb in films can have GREAT impact…but usually, it’s just gratuitous. Much like nudity in movies and comics…it CAN have impact or story meaning…but 99% of it is “hey, look at the boobs!” Bottom line is, it’s lazy writing, really. And you’re a very good writer. Maybe now people will focus on that more. It’s obvious from this thread alone that new readers are here already, and I, as a fan, can only say Welcome…there’s gold in them thar hills. 
Mr. Dell’Aringa’s idea of a total new reboot is a smart one, too…as is offering the older stuff unfettered in a special collection? Good ideas.
John, I’ve been a fan of the swearing and really supported it. I thought that it brought out who Chippy’s real personality and established that a.) he didn’t give a crap b.) he cussed so much that the emphasis and power of the chosen cuss word was no longer there. I just pictured a 16 year old kid swearing for the sake of swearing and no longer realizing he was swearing anymore…
That said, it’s a comic and you have the ability to play with how characters emphasize with funny characters or other words without loosing the emphasis of the actual cuss word. In fact, you’ll probably have more fun trying to write Chippy without him swearing and keeping his “over-the-top-ness”. On a side note, I like how the writers dealt with swearing in that Spongebob episode with the overdubbed animal noises.
You know what’s funny? I didn’t even notice when you started implementing the censor. I might never have noticed if I hadn’t read this post. So I think the strip will be fine
Tom!!! You always supported the strip and I can’t thank you enough for that. I believe people can make their own decisions too, but it seems the majority of people who saw the strip decided to stay away. Heh.
Thank you for the compliments on my writing abilities. For the last 3 years or so, when I DO see my strip mentioned somewhere, they always say, “I love the art” …and ignore the writing.
In reality, I’ve always felt my strengths were in my writing and NOT my art. I kept wondering why everyone ignored my writing ability. I now know why. Again, I’m thick. I decided at the beginning of this year that THIS was the year the strip was going to break, NOW, I’m also going to make THIS the year that I show everyone I can REALLY write.
Notorious! I always thought that without the swearing, Chippy couldn’t be Chippy. That is ridiculous. I think his use of language is important to his character, but I can make that clear with the symbols. One of the things I’ve always liked about him is that he can be creatively verbose. Now, more that ever, I can add some texture to the way he speaks. Also, now that he can’t swear “out loud”, I’ll be discovering more shades to his character. Already, a new idea has occured to me that will take the current storyline in a new direction. Stay tuned.
Sodon! Thanks for commenting!! I’m glad to hear the change was seemless. I didn’t want this to become a totally different strip overnight. I just wanted it to be something that could entertain a broader group of people. Thanks for the vote of confidence!
I’ll add my $0.02 here by saying I always loved the swear marks/symbols in comics — I mean we all “know” pretty much what the character is cussin’ anyway right? But we (the readers) use our imaginations and “fill in the blanks” with whatever cussin’ we want and sometimes that’s a just as much fun and perhaps even more engaging. =o) Good move on your part, John. Keep up the great work!
Checkeredman!!! Your 2 cents is welcome! I’ve always loved that wonderful thing that happens when some one sees &$@(! We all insert our own swear! And you can help it along by putting a “what the” or a “holy” in front of it! Even people who don’t swear fill in the blanks!!!
Thanks for the kind words, sir. I will indeed keep it up!