A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible

Webcomic Overlook's Top Ten Best Webcomics of the Decade

Submitted by El Santo on November 16, 2009 - 10:00

You want to know what’s really subjective? Top ten lists. No two people will ever agree on what the best ten of anything is as long as people have the ability to think for themselves. Isn’t merely the act of putting together such a list an example of arrogance? Probably.

Still, we love lists like the one I’m compiling below for one big reason: its fun to argue why something made the list, and why things were left off.

So, as we head into the Holiday Season and close out the aughts, here’s my list of what I think are the Ten Best Webcomics of the Decade (2000-2009): The Second Decade of Webcomics.

Off the Radar: Catching Up with Past Luminaries

April 3, 2009 - 00:13 | Alexander Danner

This article was originally published on webcomics.com in 2008.

Webcartoonists disappear every day. Not off the face of the Earth, of course, but certainly out of the collective conscious of the webcomic community. Creators may take a hiatus, or decide to focus on print projects, or complete a well-loved work and move on to something less wildly popular. Or they may simply not bother with self-promotion, so that when the initial buzz surrounding their work calms, they are not active in maintaining the level of attention that was briefly paid to their work. And fickle as the Internet is, it’s easy to go from famous to forgotten at any given moment.

Of course, just because a creator isn’t dominating the critical sites or public discussion forums the way they once did doesn’t mean they’ve stopped working, or publishing, or playing some other role in the comics community. Presented here is a survey of the current projects of four of those creators whom we haven’t heard much about over the past year or two, despite their notable accomplishments of the past.

To The Webcomicmobile!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 15, 2008 - 10:12

BUSINESS
I have been losing interest in tracking the latest Platinum Studios/WOWIO outrage but for what its worth FLEEN points to some recent links on creators allegedly still not getting paid. Journalista! links to Todd Allen's take on the current PLATINUM-ized WOWIO business and finds a lot to be pessimistic about. And Sean Kleefeld looks at some metrics that show a serious drop-off in WOWIO's traffic.

INTERVIEWS
Youth Radio has an interview with Lela Lee of Angry Little Asian Girl. (h/t Journalista!)

The Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog writes about the online comics category nominees at the recent Ignatz awards and has a mini-interview with nominee Tracy White of TRACED.

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS
The same Washington Post blog is running a poll on what to replace Opus with now that Berke Breathed has vacated the funny pages again.

JUSTIFY MY HYPE
Prism Comics debuts its latest comic, Joe Carr’s The Catty Corner.

ComicMix discovers Rich Burlew's Order Of The Stick.

NOT QUITE WEBCOMICS
FLEEN also has a short, interesting bit on the intersection of videogames and webcomics. In particular there's a link to BRAID a new game that David Hellman, the artist from the too-short-lived A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible, was the art director for. While FLEEN did note the Penny Arcade plug for BRAID, they didn't mention the all important endorsement from rapper Soulja Boy.

A Few Random Keystrokes About SPX

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on October 5, 2008 - 23:04

A great day at SPX this Sunday. Saw a whole bunch of familiar (web)comic artists (and bought some great stuff too) and met some new ones. I get overwhelmed trying to check out everything at SPX -- I don't think I'd cut it at San Diego. I guess it's 'cause I do try to check out as much of the work as possible. (I missed the Ignatz awards Satuday night but click here to find out about the winners. Apparently there was another dude in a gorilla suit this year just like last year. UPDATE: Yep - there's a moneky in THIS YEAR's presentation. h/t FLEEN).

Anyhow, I may have some reviews and interviews coming up leading out of today but for now I'm putting my new poster of the "Atheist's Afterlife" strip from Aaron Diaz's Dresden Codak up on the wall next to my A Lesson Is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible poster. I also picked up some books from Dirk Tiede, Spike, Meredith Gran, Josh Lesnick, Joe Dunn... jeez, really too many to list in one post. I'll get to them this week!

Also ran into the elusive Joey Manley (well he was up in the wilds of Maine for awhile... now he's apparently in the more hospitable land of Brooklyn) along with T Campbell. I think the gist of that conversation was that the new Comicspace.com is coming soon AND YET in some ways is already here. I should try harder to get an interview with him (although I have asked!), shouldn't I?

I also talked briefly with Raina Telgemeier about her new book with Scholastic - which will be a print version of her webcomic Smile. Raina thought a press release had gone out but I can't find it just now. Raina had done four Babysitters Club books with Scholastic, but she said that was it for the graphic novel series. I asked Raina about the experience and she was extremely positive on it, noting she had done about 800 pages on the series. Best wishes for the Smile project and I'll post more details when I get them.

David Hellman on A Lesson Is Learned

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 21, 2008 - 22:02

I have to admit I really miss A Lesson Is Learned But the Damage Is Irreversible one of the more inventive webcomics of the decade. The artist David Hellman, really brought a lot to the artwork, so much so that the comic is inconceivable without his contributions. Hellman has a sporadically updated personal site at which I discovered this great presentation he gave on comics last summer, using many ALILBTDII comics to illustrate his thinking. Absolutely worth checking out, especially if you were a big fan of ALILETDII

Comments

Plug: Plutocrat Country Club

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 17, 2007 - 21:18

I just rambled into Plutocrat Coutry Club today and I was really impressed. This comic by Ryan O'Connell kind of helped me with the aching void that the hiatus of A Lesson Is Learned But the Damage Is Irreversible has left in my webcomic soul. The art is generally of a similar soft, almost-watercolor like style and O'Connell also seems to be aiming at a darkly humorous, maybe even slightly shocking tone -- but without employing formal gags. He has a small archive -- all from this year. Also, absent one two-parter, he hasn't been interested in storylines.

I like it and I hope he keeps working at it. He certainly has a vivid artistic style and I think with his sensibility he could create a pretty memorable comic series.

Comments

Journey to Mt. Moriah by Scott, reviewed by D. Richard Scannell

May 6, 2007 - 23:50 | D. Richard Scannell

Journey to Mt. Moriah by Scott deserves mention alongside better known webcomics such The Perry Bible Fellowship and A Lesson is Learned but the Damage is Irreversible. JtMM is a weekly experimental webcomic featuring both single-panel and four-panel comics done using ink and a variety of coloring mediums. There are no set themes or characters per se, though the comics can generally be considered dark humor, slice of life, or just plain weird.

WCCA Nominations Out

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 28, 2007 - 14:10

The full list of nominations for the upcoming WCCAs is out - get the list here or click read more (the WCCA site is slow today so I copied it into this post here).

Comixpedia's People Of Webcomics List For 2006

December 18, 2006 - 12:07

It's the third annual Comixpedia People Of Webcomics List. This was the hardest one yet to compile. There's a lot of webcomics and a lot of people doing interesting things in and around webcomics. This list, as in past years, is an odd effort to compare apples and oranges: artistic achievement, audience popularity, technical achievement, business savvy, news-making impact all go into the mix.

More Attitude From Ted Rall: A Review of Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists

September 28, 2006 - 23:10 | Xaviar Xerexes

Ted Rall talks up and talks to webcomics with attitude for Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists. It's a great addition to the ongoing Attitude anthology series that pays some well-deserved attention to webcomics.