Webcomics are constantly being compared to comics made available in print mediums: pros and cons, webcomics breaking into print, print on the web, etc. Much of this discussion is generated from people who read and create webcomics, and is written in defence of webcomics. Oddly enough, it's not as if you hear the masses screaming that webcomics are inferior to print. Maybe it's simply inferred by everyone, the same way comic fans infer that their favorite medium is supposed to be inferior to prose or movies?

So maybe I'm just giving everyone a reason to argue their point when I say that right now, I consider webcomics to be not as good as other mediums.

Jeff Darlington is responsible for one of the longest-running and most popular geek webcomics ever to exchange packets with your modem – General Protection Fault. Having started out innocently enough in 1998 with what looked like a gag-a-day strip with tech- and geek- humour, Darlington sneakily managed to take his webcomic to crazed serial heights, with the now-(im?)famous year-long mega story arc "Surreptitious Machinations".

In the days before I discovered webcomics, I worked an office job where I generally had at least a couple of hours each day when there simply wasn't anything useful for me to do. Of course, I was still expected to look busy. I couldn't exactly put my feet up and open a book. In fact, when I wanted to read, there was really only one place I could go. And that was – you guessed it – the bathroom. Yes, I confess – I too have spent many hours hiding in the loo with a book.

Creators make webcomics. Cool tools make the webcomic community go round. Here's to the geeks, the code monkeys, and the computer science students who come up with ingenious hacks to help creators automate publishing and fans find a webcomic's latest update.

I - Finders, Keepers!

Aaron Farber is the creator of the Keenspot-hosted Men In Hats webcomic. Starting his comics career at the tender young age of 15, he also is the demented creative force behind the now-ended Pentasmal, which was also hosted on Keenspot. Farber describes Men In Hats as "the gripping story of 6 guys who stand around in the desert... talking... sometimes they have breakfast." It is a satirical, sometimes nonsensical comic strip that would be right at home on your daily newspaper funny pages...

There's been a lot of talk about webcomics as a business lately. More than ever before, webcomics are sustaining themselves and their authors through their hard work and promotion. Exciting times seem to be right around the corner for the industry as a whole.

But if you're not a webcomic guru with tens of thousands of readers, what then?

As everyone knows, chief among the benefits of producing an independent webcomic is the freedom from any sort of editorial input or criticism. In the absence of the editor's stifling presence, a comics creator can maintain a pure artistic vision, and is thereby free to reach his or her full potential.

That seems to be the prevailing opinion, anyway. That editors might actually have useful skills and services to offer is a little-considered possibility.

Conventional wisdom held, as late as 2001, that the only sustainable economic models for online comics were ad-based. Either the comic carried advertising in some fashion, or it was itself an advertisement for its own merchandise. "Pay-to-read" models were mostly based upon speculation and mostly spectacularly unsuccessful. Even Scott McCloud found his position as comics pundit threatened over his endorsement of "micropayments".

Tycho of Penny Arcade was one of several cartoonists who took McCloud to task for it: "This guy's take on human nature is spun from pure fancy. He imagines that other people – in fact, that everyone-- would gladly pay for things if given the chance to do so. That is demonstrably, empirically false-- most especially so on the Internet, and most damningly so where content is concerned." They eventually mended fences, but the point of wisdom had been made.

However, Joey Manley was never much for listening to conventional wisdom.

Faith Erin Hicks' quietly built mountain of accomplishments should serve as a prime example of the value of doing your own thing. With over 700 full-sized comic book pages under the belt, Hicks' long-running webcomic epic, Demonology 101, is finally wrapping up what has turned out to be a 5-episode story arc, spanning across the last 5 years. D101 garnered two WCCA awards in 2003 – Oustanding Writing and Outstanding Black and White Art – while also being nominated for Outstanding Art, Outstanding Character Development, Outstanding Long Form Comic, and Outstanding Dramatic Comic.

In the interview that follows, Meaghan Quinn speaks with Hicks on the origins and the process of Demonology 101; she also speaks about future plans, and gets a few sneak preview details from Hicks about a Fanart and Fanfic contest being held to cap the series end.

The Geeks Shall Inherit What They're Worth?

So, geek comics.

First of all, anyone who willingly adopts a name stolen from a sub-breed of circus freak that specialized in biting the heads of live poultry should be shot.

That being said, it's about time those alcoholic half-mad savages in the filth-encrusted cages of the carnie sideshow had someone to look down on, and thank you, webcartoonists, for fitting the bill.