I’ve begun work on revamping how I “grade” comics with the Meta-reviews. Originally I used personal opinion and a rough estimate on what qualified for each “level” of score, rather than an actual rubric which would allow me to standardize my ratings. This resulted in the scores being arbitary and not exactly accurate (especially for comics that I considered favorites, though I did try to be somewhat fair).
Unfortunately, I’m not exactly sure on the specifics for the rubric, which is why I thought I’d toss this out for my readers to comment on. In addition, I’ve noticed my categories are apt to change according to the webcomic under review. For instance, Megatokyo and Schlock Mercenary have print compilations (which I’ve viewed), while other comics may lack these. Some comics obviously have color; others are in greyscale, black and white, or use penciled art (or even tablet-generated art) rather than inked work. So suggestions on categories would also be useful.
Needless to say, the Meta-reviews will be making a comeback; while they take time to write up, I’ve seen more than one reader comment on the lack of “scores” for the comics I review, and the Meta-review format is effective at not only rating these comics, but presenting the reasons behind those ratings (even if it was dependent on my own opinions initially). The old Meta-reviews will be making a comeback (I’m planning on restoring them before working on the rest of my much-neglected archives, though this will require significant link-repair in some cases).
One last thought: considering the age of the older Meta-reviews, would readers be interested in me writing up a revised Meta-review for these comics in addition to restoring the old reviews? Most of the older reviews were written four to five years ago, and the old reviews may be considered dated, especially when you consider the majority of those comics have continued updating (and even those which have ended, such as Narbonic, still updated for several years after the Meta-review).
Each category would be rated from 0 to 5 (though to be honest, I can’t see ever writing a Meta-review of a comic that has a 0 score; for comics that don’t utilize that category, I’d just leave it out). Current categories include:
Art – Penciling/Inking
Art – Backgrounds
Art – Coloring:
Art – Greyscale
Character Development
Character Chemistry
Story Continuity
Web Content
For those readers who wish to comment but either can’t post comments or don’t want to register, you can e-mail me at Tangentsreviews at gmail dot com (obviously just replace “at” with “@” and so on).