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Dave Kelly

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!

Lizard by Dave Kelly

November 14th DRAFT version of 100 Greatest Webcomics List

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on November 13, 2008 - 21:02

This is an update to a previous post here, thanks for the cumulative suggestions on that thread.  JUST so we're clear - this is open-sourced to everyone research for a possible article to appear next month at ComixTalk.  I don't endorse the list or the order at all; at this point I've tried to include all of the suggestions I've gotten and I also went through all of the comics ComixTalk has ever reviewed and pulled quite a few titles.

We're at the point where it'll be most helpful if you tell me comics you think should go on the list, where (what number approximately) and which comic should get bumped.  If you just want to change the order you can do that to but there'll be another post before the month's through asking for help with that.  

In Search of Vanished Webcomics

January 13, 2008 - 16:09 | Michael Payne

As the new year brushes away the crumbs left from devouring the old one, I find myself thinking of vanished webcomics: those that've come to the end of their storylines, those that've just stopped, and those that've disappeared altogether.

As the new year brushes away the crumbs left from devouring the old one, I find myself thinking of vanished webcomics: those that've come to the end of their storylines, those that've just stopped, and those that've disappeared altogether.

The ComixTalk End of 2007 Roundtable

December 17, 2007 - 17:33 | Xaviar Xerexes

Our third annual virtual round table on the year in webcomics features comments from Gary Tyrrell, Dirk Deppey, Tom Spurgeon, Heidi MacDonald, Brigid Alverson, Derik A Badman, Reinder Dijkhuis, and JT Shea and Scott Gallatin.

Looking Back Through 2007

December 2, 2007 - 18:53 | Xaviar Xerexes

In years past (2004, 2005) we undertook the monumental chore of picking out the biggest headlines of the year. This year, I took another swing at it. So without further adu, here's the biggest webcomic headlines of 2007.

If I missed a story you think was key to this year, please post it in the comments to this article.

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?

News & Views for Thursday, April 26, 2007

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 26, 2007 - 12:18

HEADLINES

INTERVIEWS

REVIEWS

MILESTONES

SYNDICATION

CONVENTIONS

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

NOT COMICS

News for Wednesday, April 18, 2007 (UPDATED)

Submitted by Erik Melander on April 18, 2007 - 09:55

Wiki Watch

WIKIWATCH

TELEVISION

INTERVIEWS

  • Can't get enough K Thor Jensen? Here's part one of an interview with him at The Daily Crosshatch.
  • The Believer interviews Scott Mccloud.

BOOKS

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 BLOGS

(Xaviar Xerexes contributed to this post)

News & Views for Thursday, Somewhere in April

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 12, 2007 - 16:42

So um... taxes? They suck. Let's throw rocks at 'em.

HEADLINES

INTERVIEWS

  • The Daily Crosshatch has an interview with creator Raina Telgemeier.
  • For his podcast, T Campbell interviews Eric Burns and Wednesday White (mp3 link) and they talk about Websnark, blogging & podcasting. As always, Eric is simultaneously humble and well not-humble (it's charming though), Wednesday drops geek-cred terms (did I hear CMS in there? That's content-management-system) and for some odd reason sounds like she's sitting five feet behind Eric in the interview. Surprisingly, T Campbell asks no questions about actual webcomic content though...

REVIEWS

DEAD TREES