Just yesterday, Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content released his State of the Webcomics Union.
This is the democratic response.
Most of the stuff written was of the “Rah Rah Webcomics” variety like you see below:
• There are a lot more of us, and we’re a lot bigger now.
• The level of art has gotten a lot better. Part of this is old hands getting better at drawing, part of it is people with actual training in the visual arts getting into the medium. I’m glad I started QC when I did, I’d be hell of intimidated trying to start off now with my ’03 art skills. On the flipside of this, some of the very most popular comics have the most basic art (XKCD, Cyanide & Happiness, etc.) so maybe it doesn’t matter so much?
• There seems to be less “drama” going around. I think this is mainly because the more popular creators have wised up to smaller folks tryin’ to troll them, and a lot of the old-school internet jerks have pretty much wrecked their reputations by bein’ internet jerks. I hope this trend continues, I do not miss “flame wars” and “rude folks” at all.
• The sky is still the limit. We’re nowhere near saturation as far as potential audience goes. Back in 2003 I thought there would NEVER EVER be another webcomic anywhere near as popular as Penny Arcade. Now we’ve got XKCD and Cyanide & Happiness who are either as big or bigger. Anybody who thinks we’re all competing for some fixed amount of potential readers is completely mistaken. It’s not a zero-sum game, which is great because it means there’s plenty of room for everybody, new folks and old hands alike, to grow!
As another blogger once pointed out, I’m not really that in tune with the “webcomic community,” so I have no idea whether he above is true or not. Jeph has been around longer, so maybe he knows the score. However, one point ruffled me a little:
• The idea of critical analysis of webcomics has largely died out. Sure, people still blog about webcomics and “review” them and stuff, but it’s become a tiny, tiny niche sector. I think this is mainly because there’s not a whole lot of point to reviewing something anybody can go look at for free and make up their own mind about! Is this a good thing? I have no idea.
OK, I’ve only been running this site for a little over 2 years now. I have no idea if there was some sort of Golden Age of Webcomic Criticism that I missed out on. Maybe there was a fantastic era where webcomic critics were served the finest wine at convention and given the choice cuts of meats, but are now forced to live in tiny little hovels ever since the bottom of the webcomic criticism bubble burst and are now forced to toil in a tiny, tiny niche sector. Frankly, when I started blogging, I had the impression that Eric Burns of Websnark was pretty much the only game in town. Sure, his output is pretty much nil lately. But I think it’s a bit of stretch to say that webcomic criticism has largely died out because Websnark is, for the most part, dead.
But “a tiny, tiny nice sector”?
Here’s a quick rundown of a few I’m familiar with.
- There’s me, of course.
- Robert Howard at Tangents is still kicking around.
- Brigid Alverson, long before starting her new Paperless Comics blog, was (and is) making waves at Digital Strips and Robot 6 over at Comic Book Resources.
- Lauren Jane has been talking webcomics over at io9.com, showing, like Brigid, that webcomics can be covered in larger, more connected sites.
- There’s a huge wave of Zuda blogs (which include mpd57 and Pigs of the Industry).
- There are podcasts like The Dish and Webcomic Beacon and the various other blogs like Art Patient, Lonely Panel, Olaf’s Comic Blog, and Morgan Wick’s blog.
