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DRAFT List of 100 Greatest Webcomics: Comedy and Drama

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 22, 2009 - 14:50

Last year I posted a couple times (Previous posts on this "research" project were here and here) about a possible article on "ComixTALK's 100 Greatest Webcomics" which would be something like the American Film Institute's list of the greatest movies of the last 100 years.

A recurring comment to the previous two posts was what is the criteria for this.  I'm always a little hesitant to give too much guidance when part of the point of asking this kind of thing out loud is to listen to the resulting discussion of what everyone else thinks the criteria should be.  For the AFI list judges picked films based on criteria such as Critical Recognition, Major Award Winner, Popularity Over Time, Historical Significance, and Cultural Impact.

That sounds about right to me.  We've got a round decade plus a year or two of webcomics to look at it.  Critical reception (both from peers and critics), and popularity are both relevant to thinking about the impact of a webcomic.  WCCA awards are somewhat indicative of what peers were impressed with in a given year and more recently awards like the Eisners and Ignatzs have recoginized webcomics.  Historical significance and cultural impact are a little harder to pin down but various "firsts" in webcomics are important and comics like Penny Arcade have had a much wider impact on popular culture than most comics do these days (put aside the legacy superheros of comics -- what other "new" comic, let alone webcomic, in the last decade has had a wide cultural impact?)

Another thing AFI did that might be useful here to help sort through the vast numbers of webcomics one could talk about is to also think about categories or genres of work.  Just as a simple matter of numbers if a webcomic isn't one of the best of a larger type of story -- or frankly, so startlingly unique it's hard to categorize -- then it's hard to imagine it's one of the 100 Greatest...

So to move things along I'm listing another "draft" of titles submitted by the crowds but this time I've tried to break them up into drama and comedy so as to help avoid complete apples to oranges comparisons.  In doing that I've realized (1) it's hard in many cases to decide; and (2) there are probably more comedic than drama on the list so far.  I think it would make sense to whittle down the two lists to 75 each so as the final list is no more than 3/4 of one type or the other.  Of course we could further do genre type lists but for now this was enough work on my part.

So -- your assignment (if you choose to play):

  1. Name the comic you're talking about (you're also welcome to nominate ones not on the list -- I KNOW there are many I haven't even thought about yet -- it takes time to review all of the corners of the web)
  2. Tell me where on one the two lists (comedy and drama) it should be (you could give a range of slots if you're not sure). (If you think I've got a drama on the comedy list or vice-versa let me know!  I'm not "done" - this is fairly dashed off still at this point)
  3. Tell me why!  Referencing awards, critics, historical achievements, strengths and weaknesses of the works are all really helpful!

You Say You're Just a Webcomic

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on May 29, 2008 - 09:32

LEGAL

Lea Hernandez (and lots others) has been commenting on how bad the new contract from TokyoPop for their superstars of manga contest is.  Does every freaking comics publisher now hold "contests"?

INTERVIEWS

The Scienteers intervew Josh "Girly" Lesnick.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

Hey! New Boxjam's Doodle!

Hey! New update to Fear My Dear, the sequel to Dean Haspiel's Immortal.

The 8th Annual WCCAs: An Interview with WCCA Chairman Frank "Damonk" Cormier

January 21, 2008 - 10:56 | Xaviar Xerexes

With the Eighth Annual edition of the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards (WCCAs) coming up I wanted to get an interview on the state of the awards with current WCCA Chairman Frank "Damonk" Cormier. Frank worked with me on ComixTalk in the first two years of its existence and I know from experience that he is quite passionate about comics and isn't one to shy from stating his opinion. So I put a range of questions to him regarding this year's awards, changes from last year and how to improve things in years to come.

Updates On Entries in the Ill-Fated Webcomic Directory Project?

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 24, 2007 - 14:31

I built a "library" of webcomics and creators back in the fall of 2005 which I put into beta before realizing it was too much editorial work to deal with and the same information could be better provided through the community edited webcomic wiki - COMIXPEDIA.

Nevertheless looking back on the assortment of names collected (some from me, some sent in from you) I wonder if anyone has any significant updates on these creators 18 months later. Maybe we should interview some of them?

Biggie Panda: Old Skool Webcomics

January 28, 2007 - 23:03 | Xaviar Xerexes

One way to think of the history of webcomics is as the big bang of comics. At the beginning there were far fewer webcomic creators and they were (virtually) clustered together much more tightly (hence all the wistful talk of "webcomic community") and then, if the inflationary webcomicology theory is correct, those early webcomic exploded into the universe of comics online we have today.

Everyone Should Read This Interview With Mike Lacroix

January 8, 2007 - 00:08 | Xaviar Xerexes

Mike Lacroix is a cartoonist, blogger and finely-tuned athlete. He's currently working on his third webcomic, the appropriately titled Foxy Lollop. His previous efforts include the long-running Gluemeat (since 2001) and the underground classic, Aren't We Real. Lacroix and myself were both founding members of the pioneering, but short-lived webcomics collective ALTBRAND.

Wednesday News and Server Warnings

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on December 20, 2006 - 11:02

Ah the dreaded server blues. I've gots 'em this morning. Still investigating so apologies upfront if Comixpedia is up and down today. And now the news (such as it is):

DEAD TREES

JUSTIFY MY HYPE

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

Gianna vs. Wikipedia

Submitted by WizToast on November 30, 2006 - 16:02

Although it isn't news anymore that self-righteous pricks enjoy removing useful information from Wikipedia, I thought [the discussion on Wikipedia on whether to delete the article for The Noob] was interesting for a few reasons.

First of all, one of the guys targeting her for deletion actually wrote articles on other webcomics, including such strips as Fetus-X, which (despite being universally recognized among cartoonists as Fine Art) definitely doesn't have anything like the readership of The Noob. [XEREXES: Although there is no question The Noob has a substantial readership it really isn't appropriate to compare it to Fetus-X since I have seen no evidence to confirm or deny the readership numbers for either comic.]

Second, if you scroll to the bottom, you'll see that Gianna is trying to debate him by offering a well-reasoned argument. Go check it out, read the stances and maybe offer some support.

[UPDATE from XEREXES: Within the span of a couple weeks about 3 or 4 people (hard to tell from the now closed discussion page but it appears to me that wikipedians Seraphimblade, Sandstein, Satori Son, and Dragonfiend actually voted for "deletion") deleted the entry for Comixpedia from the Wikipedia. This seems like a perfect example of how the current process makes it almost impossible for rational, well-informed debate to occur. Now I get to personally feel what everyone else subject to this ludicrous process has gone through. I'll be the first to admit the entry for Comixpedia sucked, but by their own standards, a more comprehensive entry for Comixpedia should qualify. It's just that the former entry didn't reflect any of that. It's incredibly easy for a wikipedian trying to delete things to say something's not notable. The wikipedia doesn't have to show that the entry doesn't reflect any of the given notability standards - that onus is on keeping it I guess. Worthless until proven notable, even if the Comixpedia entry has existed for 3+ years and countless other entries in the Wikipedia cite to the Wikipedia entry for Comixpedia or directly to a link on Comixpedia itself.

I plan to petition for undeletion, but I suppose I need to do the research to demonstrate notability. Any advice on petitioning for undeletion or helping me with evidence supporting Comixpedia's notability would be most welcome. If there are any experienced wikipedians willing to actively help me with this - That means you Kiba! :) please email me at xerexes AT comixpedia DOT com.]

On the positive side it appears that Girly's deletion was overturned and the entry for it is back in the Wikipedia. Some comments from the "Talk Page" for Girly at Wikipedia:

Dragonfiend...

There was a Deletion Review on this. The deletion was overturned. Let it go. --SuperHappy 19:41, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Expert undeletion

The AFD was clueless, an academic expert on comics has undeleted it as notable. It lives. - David Gerard 20:14, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Thank God. If this webcomic was not seen as notable enough for Wikipedia, I would have lost all faith in the project. There are way to many delete happy editors with their finger on the trigger.--Pyritefoolsgold 06:36, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

I'm glad to see it back too. -- Ryuko 09:24, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

A pity I missed the fun. Glad to see this restored, since it's definitely notable. It's one of those "If you don't think this is notable, you aren't qualified to edit webcomic articles anymore" ones. :) Xuanwu 07:55, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Thursday Newsin' To The Beat

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 26, 2006 - 10:50

NEWS

VIEWS

Tis The Season!

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

Wednesday Morning Update

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 25, 2006 - 10:13

COMIXPEDIA LAND

The new managed server can't handled the load of all of Comixpedia Land. So I've turned the top list at comixpedia.net off (I warned via email all of the top list comics earlier this week). For at least this week, comixpedia.net is NOT going to work (later I'll redirect it to comixpedia.com). I'd like to have a "portal" to webcomics-type of site to round out the news at dot com and the wiki at dot org, but for my own sanity it'll have to wait until another day. Luckily there are lots of good top lists and portal-like sites already out there (feel free to post suggestions in the comments).

NEWS & VIEWS

Tis The Season

RESOURCES

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

I had no idea Scott Adams (Dilbert) could no longer speak because of a rare condition called Spasmodic Dysphonia but he couldn't. Now, however, apparently he's better. (Link from The Comics Reporter)