Webcomics: S/D

xp

well at some point garfield will also fit those criteria, too, so there needs to be something else.

http://www.4thletter.net/wp-content/plugins/smilies-themer/SAEmoticons/emot-colbert.png

yeah...

i have an easier time thinking of garfield as a webcomic than hark a vagrant to be honest.

The baker! I knew it!

I love Kate's reading of this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDCSDdYg1k

All of her comics created for the web seems kind of a crucial distinction from Garfield.

I mean, as webcomics go.

why is there no hark rss feed whhhyyyyyyyyyyy

rss link here http://beatonna.tumblr.com/

i was looking for examples of really good webcomics a few years before, and really couldn't find any. I thought perry bible fellowship and hark a vagrant would fit the bill, but it turned out both comics had been published in print before putting stuff on the web, and it seemed like the web being the primary delivery vehicle for the comics is just an economic decision rather than an aesthetic one.

I'm not sure it's ever an aesthetic decision - has anyone claimed that they would turn down an offer of being printed in newspapers because their art is ill-suited to the medium?

the dude who made leisure town said he thought his stuff would look terrible in print.

hark a vagrant was published before its livejournal days? PBF was "published" but i think in a student newspaper or something

every time this thread comes up i have to force myself from turning it into an obnoxious personal blog

I think it's more that Kate Beaton was doing her stuff for her student newspaper with her art style and presumably catering to her interests, so it wasn't called that, but (I guess, I've never seen it?) none of it would look out of place in hark a vagrant.

yeah i think hark was either in a newspaper or a zine. i'm not very hopeful for webcomics anymore, and i feel like being crappy is sort of a prerequisite for being one, but i do feel like it's a distinct thing from regular comics (not just in being crappy), and hark a vagrant doesn't feel like one (not just because it's not crappy) while garfield does (not just because it's crappy). i'm not sure what's the litmus test, though.

You have completely lost me on Garfield, that is the definition of a newspaper comic (and not just because it's crappy)

bad machinery is an amazing webcomic. i don't know why all webcomics would by definition be shitty. it's a medium of distribution more than an aesthetic preference or style.

imho, if you distribute comix primary online, then it's a webcomic - especially if the distribution happens on a web page that people can visit

obv during period of transition some comix that were primarily print comix may become predominately online and we may want to distinguish between comix that started in newspapers but now are read primarily online, but that's more of a legacy thing i think and really i don't know why aesthetics should come into play at all here

but we don't call music distributed primarily online webmusic -- i do think there's an aesthetic (or something like an aesthetic -- an ethos?) that's in play.

the label isn't great.
but without webcomics we wouldn't have Kate Beaton, KC Green, lots of others but uughh too lazy to start writing essays

there is just no reason to hate on webcomics - there's an amazing wealth of good stuff out there, but since there's no more cost to print like there used to be with b&w floppies, there's a lot more to go through to find the gems

if there's any ethos, it's a pseudo-DIY thing where creators utilized the egalitarian nature of the web to distribute comix that might have been a tougher sell w/ traditional platforms (newspaper syndication, major publishers, etc) and where they could build an audience slowly through word of mouth. but that doesn't necessarily speak to the quality of the product. xxp

it's very DIY - remember when the best CMS most people could use was keenspot

kids these days, spoiled with ComicPress

I think to qualify as a webcomic it really has to be unimaginable to conceive of it as a print phenomenon on its own and kate beaton would totally do well in print (and she does! [ok some of that is due to webpopularity, but still])

that doesn't really make sense to me, tbh. is it unimaginable to conceive of achewood as a print phenomenon?

like are the only true webcomics stuff like PvP and Penny Arcade bc they do gaming/internet joekz?

I think to qualify as a webcomic it really has to be unimaginable to conceive of it as a print phenomenon on its own and kate beaton would totally do well in print (and she does! [ok some of that is due to webpopularity, but still])

u r scott mccloud and i claim my $5

i think you can translate some aspect of achewood to print (there was a long form version I saw in a print compilation that I liked) but as a whole, no, it wouldn't work.

reason i mentioned achewood is cause i was in the comic store on monday and they've got a bunch of his collections there that u can buy. in print!

jesus christ why am I still reading Sluggy Freelance

guys ive been trying to recall the name of this comic that was popular on ilx and the internet tho i think it was also published in like maybe some irl alt newspapers or w/e and it always had v neat lil narratives that were often kinda fatalistic fables i guess the only one i can remember was it shows like evolution creatures crawling out of the ocean and what not then theres a space ship coming up this giant button in outer space and someone says what you think this thing does then its starts again w/the evolution i am sure you guys are v familiar w/this comic thx in advance

the way i see people interact with achewood -- it's kind of critical to be able to click on it and see it on the web, and to be passed around that forms the bulk of the achewood experience that doesn't seem quite so crucial for hark a vagrant. don't you feel a difference in experience?

Perry Bible Fellowship xp

i don't feel a difference but i get the feeling (forgive me if i'm wrong) that the term 'webcomic' is a bit more loaded w/ meaning for u than it is for me xp

tyvm

it's loaded for me in a very weird way, in that i think it denotes crap, but at the same time i feel it's disrespectful not to acknowledge it as more than just a cheaper delivery device.

er .. not to acknowledge it as just a cheaper delivery device i mean

er.. scratch that scratch.

PvP was published as a comic for 9 years - longer than it's spent online-only.

So Philip, are you saying that webcomics are kind of the descendants of the thigns people used to cut out and stick up on walls / cubicles, or that used to be mailed around after email but pre-web? Because if so, I totally get that, but the number one comic that I see linked on twitter/facebook/livejournal as "hey check out this one strip" is Hark a Vagrant.

sort of -- but it's not just the passing back and forth, but also the way the readership helps shape the strips as well. (letting your audience have control of your work is probably another tendency that leads to crap, though)

Wow there was just a Kate Beaton + Lynn Johnston panel at San Diego Con.

FBOFW????

did she talk about animating all the characters on her website to blink periodically?

I dunno I'm not in SD! I wish I was! (kind of).

i wonder what kate thinks about her. i'm not a big FBOFW fan but i get she had a big influence - probably bigger if you're from Canada

there's a great story in the charles schulz bio about johnston calling schulz (johnston being one of the few colleagues schulz admired) and mentioning to him that because her characters age she's going to have to do something soon about the dog, who is going to have to die, and schulz is really adamant that johnston not kill the dog because people don't want to read about dead dogs over breakfast (they just want to read about endlessly telescoping bleakness and cruelty i guess) and johnston says no i have to do this it's all right it'll be a big affecting arc and everything and schulz apparently says

IF YOU DO THIS
I AM GOING TO HAVE SNOOPY GET HIT BY A TRUCK
AND GO TO THE HOSPITAL
AND EVERYBODY WILL WORRY ABOUT SNOOPY
AND NO ONE WILL READ YOUR STUPID STORY

also apparently schulz calls her to congratulate her on reaching some kind of syndication milestone -- X number of papers carrying FBOFW -- which is a very high number by the standards of most comics but not a high number by the standards of peanuts, and schulz is very gracious and complimentary at first but then johnston says like "i'm catching up to you haha!" and schulz just says CALL ME WHEN YOU'RE IN THE LOUVRE and hangs up