Are webcomic creators the same thing as T-shirt salesmen? The debate rages on, but The Webcomic Overlook would like to as you: have you ever bought a webcomic T-shirt?
Previous polls can be found here.
The T-shirt poll
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Monthly Archives: April 2010
Penny Arcade guys bigger than Barack Obama now
Over at Comixtalk, Xaviar Xerexes helpfully posted a link about Time Magazine and the poll they’re running on the world’s most influential people in government, science, technology and the arts in 2010. The “Penny Arcade guys” (Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik) are currently at #11.
Where’s President Barack Obama? #13.
And Lady Gaga’s #1. But of course!
The Webcomic Overlook #116: Bad Machinery
“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” So goes the intros to one of America’s most beloved soap operas,Days of our Lives. It always comes to mind when it’s time to finish something and start something new. Yes, it somehow supercedes both “Sunrise, Sunset” from Fiddler on the Roof and “Closing Time” by Semisonic. The latter two are perhaps superior and less archaic examples, but the hourglass analogy has a sense of timeless poetry.
Observe.
When the sands finally reach the bottom of the hourglass, it’s time to flip that mother over and start something new. Like ending one webcomic and starting a new one. Interestingly, though, while the march of time is new, the contents therein, like those grains of sand, do not change. Sure, the presentation may be different. The swirl pattern of the sand may be different this time. But every person is hardwired to the same themes, which were formed as they were over a culmination of life’s experiences. These are fundamentally unalterable. So the new march goes on with cues that are new yet strangely familiar.
That’s the case with John Allison’s Bad Machinery, the successor to Scary Go Round (which itself was the successor to an earlier work, Bobbins). Everyone knew it was time to flip that hourglass and start something knew. Allison himself admitted as much on the comments section here that Scary Go Round was getting stale.
But amidst the changes … familiarity.
An important announcement regarding the Webcomic Overlook
Starting around the end of February, I received quite a few e-mails that made me think. They were, to be frank, of a highly critical nature toward this site. In the past, this sort of thing wouldn’t bother me, but these e-mails in particular really made me re-evaluate the future of this site. They weren’t kind… but they were right. I’d dismiss them if they were vulgar, but that only applied to one or two e-mails. The rest were thought out discussions on the harmful nature of criticism. I had a long exchange with one reader, and, well, he or she was ultimately right. So last week, while I was laid up sick and home, I thought long and hard about this website, and I’ve decided that the course of this site has to fundamentally changed.
The Webcomic Overlook will cease doing webcomic reviews altogether.
Putting out more than 140 total reviews (both major and minor) is a fairly good run, I think. But everything must evolve and change over time. To be honmest with you, writing reviews is exhausting work. You have to first read an entire webcomic run and then to spend time writing and editing a review. To be frank, real life is busy enough with its day-to-day hassles to have to worry myself sick about a hobby I started on a blind whim. I’m actually surprised to find out that I’ve been doing this for almost three years now, and I think it’s time I hang up my boots.
I’d like to think I introduced new webcomics to a lot of people, but I doubt any of that has really happened. Besides, it’s just not fun anymore, and I promised myself that when I stopped having fun, I’d shelve this site.
I plan on doing only four more reviews, to put the Webcomic Overlook tally at a nice, round 120. For those playing along, the webcomics being reviewed are the following:
Now, don’t get me wrong. This site isn’t going to die. I hope to keep it running in some capacity.
I’m playing around with the idea of turning this into a news-only site, similar to Gary Tyrrell’s Fleen. Mainly, I’ll be reporting press releases, milestones, comic conventions, and comic related news. In addition, the site will also be dropping its narrow focus on strictly “webcomics.” Rather, with the boundaries between webcomics and print comics falling by the minute, the site will now treat digital and print comics equally.
However, since I don’t have the resources that Gary has, I’m switching to a more bi-weekly schedule.
Please click below for more information on planned site changes.
