Who Are You? (Whoo-whoo, whoo-whoo)

[rcmonroe]

I really wanna know…

1) Your age.
2) Your gender.
3) Where you live.
4) Your occupation.
5) Your marital status and/or whether you have children.
6) Whatever else you feel like telling me that may give me some insight on the type of person who reads Out There (e.g., hobbies, interests, aspirations, beliefs, etc.).

This information will be used for my own insidious purposes (i.e., a demographic profile to use in advertising the comic strip).

[miniature]

1) 24
2) female
3) Scottsdale, AZ
4) programmer
5) relationship, and no. No no no.
6) I like: technology, algorithms, reverse engineering, astrophysics, electrical engineering, pie, cold beaches, when the truth is stranger than fiction.

I started reading Out There at the beginning of "The Chuck Situation" arc, hit "first strip" and was immediately drawn in since it reminded me of the time I took off for a road trip around the country 9 years ago. Although I don't share the rest of Miriam's interests, I've always understood her desire to drift, whether it's regarding people or physical locations or emotions.

[terrali]

1) 33
2) F
3) Bay area, CA
4) Grad student
5) No, no
6) I just think the comic is entertaining and well-written, so I read it. I like all the characters, though I don't really share their interests.

You can contract with Google to supply you with advertising stuff - it's what my webcomic friend Scott V does for his.

[jdmac020]

1) 23
2) Male
3) Central Ohio
4) Retail/Frustrated Student
5) Living with significant other, no kids
6) I saw the banner ad with Miriam on it at another Keenspot comic and just had to click...started at the first strip and read it straight on through for three days till I caught up. I read a lot (both webcomics and anything in print), have grand ambitions that are constantly thwarted by the realities of paying the bills, and have an appreciation of pretty women and alcohol...tho really, I have no idea how any of that will help define your target groups.

btw, this comic is one of the best finds I've stumbled across in a couple years...thank you for it!

[Locoma]

1) 26
2) Male
3) Latin America
4) webmaster / flash cartoonist
5) Single, no children
6) Advertise in places that have something in common to yours, otherwise you'll get a lot of non-returning visitors. Comics that I might relate to Out There are "Questionable Content" (I might be wrong, I haven't read that comic for too long, but I thought I should mention it since it's really popular), "Crap I drew During my Lunch break" (I haven't read that for a while now) among others. Apart from the listings (OnlineComics, Buzzcomics, etc) I see that everybody is pretty happy with a service called "Project Wonderful". I have no idea what is it about, but I've seen it everywhere (I even referenced it on my comic cause I've seen its ads too many times) and a lot of my author friends use it.

There's a forum on DD that talks about it (and other ads):
http://www.drunkduck.com/community/view_topic.php?tid=34956&cid=2292

I got to Out There because Daniel Ferreira from the comic "Modern Love" recommended it on his author's notes. He's from Brazil. I read the whole Out There archive in one night, it is really addictive (I couldn't stop clicking "next").

[SAGG]

I really wanna know…

1) Your age.
2) Your gender.
3) Where you live.
4) Your occupation.
5) Your marital status and/or whether you have children.
6) Whatever else you feel like telling me that may give me some insight on the type of person who reads Out There (e.g., hobbies, interests, aspirations, beliefs, etc.).

This information will be used for my own insidious purposes (i.e., a demographic profile to use in advertising the comic strip).

1) 44.
2) Male.
3) Greensboro, NC
4) Unemployed at the moment. (I was a CAD draftsman-use computers to help out the engineers to draw their plans)
5) Single. No kids.
6) I like playing The Sims 2 (and hopefully 3), and surfing the 'Net.

[Bronfman]

44
Male
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tech writer
Married, no kids
I'm a casual reader of "Josh Reads" (aka The Comics Curmudgeon), where I clicked on your ad. I'm not particularly a comics fiend and rarely read online-only comics (ie, non-newspaper comics) at all. And to be honest, it was the hot comix chick which caught my eye and got me to click. Josh also has another advertiser who features a rather pulchritudinous female -- the name of the site escapes me -- and I've clicked on that link several times as well, even though the comics on that site are uninteresting to me and the site itself is almost impossible to navigate with any clarity. Even though I know all that, I can't help clicking on the attractive woman.

So what I'm saying, I guess, since you say that you've just started advertising, is that featuring your most attractive female character on your ad may be a mixed blessing. It certainly grabs attention (good!)... but if you're paying by the click, it may also attract costly clicks from a lot of users like me who aren't even really interested in online comics and are responding to more Pavlovian instincts.

I hope that didn't sound too creepy. But hey, you asked.

[Sir Ralen]

19
Male
Iowa
Student
Single, no children.
I started reading Out There on a whim, mostly I read it for John now. I don't really know any girls like the ones in your comic (and honestly I don't think I'd like to, hehe.) John's a really interesting character and I like learning more about him.

[cakescakescakes]

19
Female
Victoria, BC (Canada)
Student
Single, no children
I like reading, writing, painting, drawing, music, playing the mandolin, baking, hiking, biking, swimming, meditating, making things, adventuring, &c
I really like your comic- particularly the writing and the art. I read lots of webcomics; I followed a link from Anders loves Maria, because your art style appealed to me. This is one of my favourites now. Hurray for you!

[Marktech1]

1) 50
2) Male
3) Richmond, Indiana
4) Communications Analyst (VoIP tech)
5) Divorcing, 17 y/o daughter
6) In addition to tech/geek websites, my Internet diversions have come to include some web comics, and I have been reading Sluggy Freelance, Goats, and Questionable Content for a few years. I found a link to Out There on one of these, I forget which. I now read it regularly also. I have seen plenty of other web comics, but they don't appeal to me like these do - I think it's the engaging serial storylines, character development, art styles, humor and attitude, etc. I also enjoy home music production (multitracking instruments in Logic and Cubase), playing music with friends (jamming live in the basement or in a club/bar), and photography. Aspirations and Beliefs? Probably like most normal people.

[ArdraCreator]

34
Male
Indianapolis, IN
Perenially unemployed loser (like Clayton, without the drinking)/webcomic writer and creator
Perenially single, no kids.

I found Out There about a year and a half ago, from clicking an ad. It might have been on another Keenspot comic; I can't recall. Sherry was probably in it...I'm a sucker for brunettes with glasses.

The writing style hooked me immediately. It has that certain quality that keeps me coming back. Plus, it shies away from the webcomic stereotypes (gamers/fantasy/ninjas/pirates/, et. al.). Originality in a webcomic...really, sir, how do you expect to find an audience that way?

[tetsuo]

1) 27
2) Male
3) Austria
4) Student (Computer Science)
5) What's the one between single and married? 'in a relationship'? No kids yet
6) I am a hopeless romantic, and I like those mellow feelings that come with autumn and those Counting Crows albums. Anyways, the music you listen to also pretty much describes, who you are. Thus, I like music that makes you feel warm, cosy and just a bit sad. So it's no real surprise, I'm drawn into that sort of comics also: Questionable Content, You'll have that, and from this very day on: Out there.

Also: Keenspot forums are a big mess:-)

[furrykef]

1) 24
2) M
3) Oklahoma City
4) Freelancer (mostly web stuff)
5) No wife, no kids, no nuttin'. Probably always gonna stay that way, too.
6) Umm... Miriam fills my head with dirty thoughts.

[xeiran]

1) 39
2) M
3) Austin, Texas
4) Windows Systems Engineer
5) Engaged
6) I find Out There interesting for the romanticism aspect. Miriam is a lot like a girl I dated long term and fell in love with, who could not seem to stay with one guy longer than a couple of years or so, myself included. It's like she has this internal eggtimer that goes off; suddenly she decides she's not happy anymore and the only way to be happy is to completely rearrange her life, including dumping whomever she's dating. I read to find how you have Miriam go about finding happiness, whatever that ends up being for her - same thing for the other characters (just not as much). Wish fullfillment I guess, since I continue to hope that girl I used to date will also eventually find happiness (still hasn't happened, but she's gotten closer and I can keep hoping for her).

[Andrew Edge]

Age: 39
Gender: Male
Location: North Alabama
Occupation: Software Developer
Marital status & children: Single and none
Other: Enjoy good writing, subtly, and long-term story lines. Dislike slapstick comedy. Identify most with John's minimalism and self-reliance.

[Growler]

1) My age: 43
2) My gender: Last time I checked, male.
3) Where I live: Canyelles, 48Km (about 30 miles) south of Barcelona, Spain.
4) My occupation: Internationalization advisor. In other words, I help software companies to deal with the issues of making their software products available for different countries, languages and cultures.
5) My marital status and/or whether I have children: I'm married to a Japanese girl, and I have a son from a previous marriage; he is 23 and already living on his own.
6) Whatever else I feel like telling you that may give you some insight on the type of person who reads Out There (e.g., hobbies, interests, aspirations, beliefs, etc.): Well, I usually go for the "group-of-people-in-day-to-day-situations" kind of comic strip: User Friendly, GPF (although I hate when he starts with the "adventure" threads), Questionable Content, Kevin and Kell (ok, they are animals, but still "people-like"). Of course there are a couple of exceptions: Order of the Stick (because one of my main hobbies is roleplaying), and Dilbert (because I usually work for big corporations).
Besides this list of favourite comic strips (which I hope will give you some demographical clues), I will tell you that my other hobbies are gardening (especially edible vegetables), photography and occasionally computer programming. Aspirations? Just being happy, and I think I'm quite successful at that. Beliefs? Well, too many and too complex to explain here. I don't believe in a "personal" god, Christian- or Muslim-style. I can give you more details if you are interested, but this post is already becoming too long

[ajax]

1) Age: I'm (*gasp*) 60 this year.
2) Gender: Totally Male.
3) Location: Western suburbs of Boston MA
4) Occupation: Electrical engineer (video cameras for endoscopic surgery)
5) Marital Status: Married 12 years, no kids
6) Other: I follow about three dozen webcomics, plus the Boston Globe comics section (now every day in color!), and any other comics that fall beneath my eyes. I find I mostly like story-driven comics, with interesting characters and relationships. I like the Internet too much, have techy hobbies (Ham Radio, microcars, antique television), sing tenor in the church choir, have no cell phone or ipod or video game, and have been enjoying cooking for about 50 years.

[janetbob]

1) 19
2) Female
3) CA
4) Student/Food Service
5) In a Relationship, No Children
6) I love [intelligent] dialogue. Oddly, John reminds me of a significant person in my life who I was infatuated with for a long time, in terms of looks, giving everything up, and simple and saintly lifestyle. The resemblance stops there and starts melding into my boyfriend's personality, magnitude, and genius, whose name is very similar...

[kam_szpi]

1) 24
2) female
3) Szczecin, Poland
4) chemical engineer
5) veeeeeeeery strange relationship...
6) Just self-centered, red-headed atheist...

[Darkblaze37]

1) 18
2) Male
3) San Francisco De Macoris, Dominican Republic
4) Student and Languages Teacher
5) Have a girlfriend, just that
6) I like to write, going to concerts, very outgoing, I would like to travel to some countries up north, atheist

[Wolfthra]

1) Age: 18
2) Gender: Female
3) Depending on the time of year, east Georgia or west Georgia.
4) College student
5) Single with NOOOOO children.
6) I found the comic when I saw it advertised on another Keenspot site, and was drawn in immediately by both the characters of Miriam and John. As they and the other characters continued (and still continue) to develop, I continued to feel that this is a jewel a webcomic. Keep up the good work, and good luck on getting more readers! =D

[tappel]

1) 29
2) Male
3) Turku, Finland
4) Tech support
5) Not married, no children
6) Basically, I'm a webcomics geek. I read like over 150 different webcomics regularily, using the http://piperka.net webcomic tracker to keep up with the updates. Other interests include comics in general, literature, music, movies. I sometimes purchase printed issues of the webcomics I read, although my finances are a bit tight at the moment.

I think Out There's strong points are the characters. The things that might repel a casual reader are the fact that the comic relies quite heavily on text, and the fact that most of the strips do not work all that well when taken out of context. It is formatted like a daily newspaper strip, but it is very backstory-heavy. This is not a bad thing as such, but it does restrict the potential audience to those readers who are willing to come back daily to read the next strip.

I have no complaints about the art, and the consistency of the art is very good, and gives an impression of a skilled artist. Of course the art is quite simplistic and backgrounds are often faded or missing. Overall I would say the art quality equals or exceeds the average syndicated newspaper strip.

[Tanzmetall]

1) 22
2) Male
3) Pittsburgh, PA
4) Part time student, full time mediocre writer.
5) I'm pretty darn sure I don't have kids.
6) This is the long part. You really want to read the long part? I like talking about myself almost as much as Miriam does, and it's a shame cause I look terrible in skirts.

Well, the most useful information for you would be, you bought an ad on my website, I clicked it, and I read your entire archive. I went back to my forums and posted about how I loved your webcomic. This would be really good news for you if people read my forums. My point here is, you bought ads on my site, and that worked. Please continue to pay me money.

I run a comedy website, and given that its Project Wonderful tags are all comedy-related, I get a lot of ads for terrible webcomics. I get even more ads for webcomics that are solidly "pretty good" or "okay" but nothing you'd really remember or go back to daily. My website's been around for a year, and in that year, only three webcomics have advertised there that I can really say were just flat-out *great*. Yours was one of them.

Frankly, I think anywhere you buy an ad, you'll get a repeat visitor or two, because your material is just that good. And I know it's not too helpful to say, "Hey, you're popular among admins of very small comedy websites," but such is the nature of my feedback.

[beerslayer]

I really wanna know…

1) Your age.
2) Your gender.
3) Where you live.
4) Your occupation.
5) Your marital status and/or whether you have children.
6) Whatever else you feel like telling me that may give me some insight on the type of person who reads Out There (e.g., hobbies, interests, aspirations, beliefs, etc.).

This information will be used for my own insidious purposes (i.e., a demographic profile to use in advertising the comic strip).

1) 45
2) Male
3) San Jose, CA
4) None at present, unfortunately (anyone hiring?)
5) Single, no kids that I know of
6) I'm not heavily into webcomics in general... there are only a few that I follow at all, and they're a very eclectic mix. There are only two I follow religiously: Order of the Stick and of course Out There, and these two really couldn't be much different in their storylines. I think if these two have anything in common, it's that they found a way to walk the fine line between being too serious and being too pointless - there is depth to the characterization in them that shines through *despite* the strips being for the most part parodies. Plus they're both actually funny...

Oh, and since you specifically asked about beliefs, I'm agnostic bordering on atheist. On Richard Dawkins' 1-7 scale (see The God Hypothesis, page 73), I'm about a 5.9... I am not sure how that datum might be relevant, but there it is anyway.

Hope this helps in some way...

[camidumas]

1) 27
2) female
3) Atlantic Canada
4) writer
5) married, no children
6) I am generally interested in new high-tech and environmentalist products, as well as indie culture. I read a lot of classic literature and listen to a wide spectrum of music, both modern and classic: blues, jazz, classical, indie and contemporary pop music, a lot of j-pop, classic rock. I watch cartoons (Justice League, Futurama), British stuff like QI and You Rang M'Lord, some network stuff like 30 Rock, and a lot of Food programming like Iron Chef and Good Eats. I am interested in visiting national parks and other outdoorsy type places, and doing a lot of photography. My disposable income is low but I buy quality goods when I do make purchases.