In his latest post to the Bad Signal email list, Warren Ellis talks about creating a subculture around your work. And he uses webcomics in general, and Megatokyo in particular as examples.
There’s a nice garagey purity to webcomics that are just webcomics. But it’s always seemed to me that, in a net full of people looking for creative experiences that speak directly to them and their lives, needs and identities, that the smarter and more zeitgeisty webcomics could and should have a more powerful presence than print comics.
MEGATOKYO is a great example. That thing has grown its own culture in many marvellous ways. The site runs the comic, creators’ notes (including a little graph showing the state of completion of the next page, which always tickles me), and a community.
To access the archive and read the entire post you need to register (free of charge) on the Bad Signal email list.
I always figured that to have your own private little internet Jonestown or Waco, you’d need people to be interested in joining one first, rather than just putting it out there and hoping they’ll come.