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Sluggy Freelance

Longform Comics On The Web: That Which Should Not Be

Submitted by The William G on May 2, 2006 - 09:06

As some of you may know, I make a longform webcomic (thanks for clicking). And I'm using the term "longfom" as to mean serialized story comics.

I've been thinking about webcomics, as I always do, and though I'm lacking access to Rob Balder's holy grail of data, I have managed to notice a few things. First off, gag-strips dominate the webcomics. And second off, longform comics don't.

Duh~

Now, this isn't meant to be a debate over Art vs. Entertainment, nor Quality vs. Quantity. We all know those topics have been done to death, and have no value save their acting as a platform to launch pissing contests.

This is meant to air a thought/ reinvention of the wheel, I had that I think may be discussion-worthy.

Longform comics have no place in what we now know as webcomics.

First and Last: Sluggy Freelance

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 27, 2006 - 21:12

Pete Abram's Sluggy Freelance is one of the longest running webcomics out there. In some ways it hasn't changed dramatically - looking at our first from 1999 and our last from 2006 next to each other the changes seem evolutionary and not revolutionary.


First


Last

Of course for certain storylines such as "Oceans Unmoving", Pete Abrams has also ventured far from his usual style and produced more elaborate artwork for Sluggy.

As time goes by...

Submitted by m_estrugo on April 5, 2006 - 12:40

What geeky/comic/culture things were you doing 20/15/10/5 years ago?

20 years ago, I used to spend all my spare time (and scarce money) playing videogames at the arcade, and thought computers were just calculators able to handle alpha-numeric data, cryptic, strange machines that vaguely resembled typewriters that required a whole college degree to use. I'm not fond of maths, and weren't even by then, so I thought I wouldn't have access to a computer in my life.

Happy April Fools Day!

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on April 1, 2006 - 11:47

What's going on?

What is and isn't webcomics news

Submitted by pclips on March 27, 2006 - 11:52

There are not one but two "My Comic Hit 50 Strips" stories on the main news page at Comixpedia today.

This is not news, it's an ad. Especially at 50 strips. Nobody cares. Thousands of webcomics have hit that mark, and probably more of them have failed to go on to reach 100 strips than not.

I personally don't even care when a strip hits 500 or 1000 or a five year anniversary, but I will concede those might be worth a note. But 50 strips? Is that something the community needs to know about? Is that going to change the way any of us do webcomics? It's just guerrila promotion.

Monday News Update

Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on March 27, 2006 - 10:52

Is anyone else really happy that Sluggy Freelance has finally moved on from its Oceans Unmoving storyline?  That's the first time Pete Abrams has completely lost me with the strip.  I kind of like the new shockjock characters too.

MILESTONES

MARKETING: Martiza Campos notes the recent First and Last post on CRFH!!! on her livejournal.  One other interesting tidbit from that thread is Campos note that she picked up a 1000 extra readers from her most recent Keenspot box.  Even for a relatively big strip like CRFH!!! I think that's a fairly large number and it shows how powerful the Keenspot network is.

CRAFT: H.S. Kim, creator of Kung Fool X and Kill Harry has a page full of art criticism and some video tutorials on drawing -  definitely worth checking out.

NOT WEBCOMICS: Tom Truszkowski of Station V3 is talking about record-collecting and drew some sketches of his characters with 45s. 

Unusual Webcomic Media

Submitted by MoonstoneSpider on March 14, 2006 - 13:32

What unusual media have you seen and appreciated on Webcomics?

I recall at least one comic I've seen which was taken with a webcam and had posed action figures and rubber dinosaurs as the characters with text bubbles pasted on. I can't say it was an interesting comic but the idea at least sparked my interest even if the dialogue and story didn't.

I personally use 3D rendering for one of my webcomics and I like the freedom it gives me to play with camera angles and textures I could never draw in my lifetime.

Cerebus Syndrome: What Makes a Success or Failure?

Submitted by Igmund on March 10, 2006 - 10:51

XEREXES: I CLEANED OUT THE SPAM FROM THIS THREAD AND I'M PROMOTING IT TO THE FRONT PAGE. This thread is/was a great discussion of the Cerebus Syndrome until it got hijacked by spam - maybe now we can pick it back up again.I am doing research for a paper I am writing about webcomics. The specific topic is based on the "Cerebus Syndrome" described by Eric Burns of Websnark. For those of you who don't know, the general concept is that a strip starts out light, funny, and fairly shallow, and then eventually adds depth, characterization, and dramatic story to become something that is a complex amalgam of comedy and drama. A "Cerebus Syndrome" can either succeed or fail. However, what exactly "success" or "failure" means in this context is not at all clear. What I am attempting to do is to develop a rubric for judging the success or failure of a "Cerebus Syndrome" attempt and then use it to judge several example comics. The comics that I am specifically looking at are "College Roomies from Hell!!!" by Maritza Campos, "General Protection Fault" by Jefferey Darlington, the original "Roomies" by David Willis, and "Sluggy Freelance" by Pete Abrams. What would be very helful is if anyone who has an opinion would post on any or all of the following things: -What makes a successful Cerebus syndrome? A failed one? (I have my own ideas, but I am interested to see what others think) -For each comic mentioned above, is it a successful Cerebus syndrome attempt? A failure? Not an attempt at all? Somewhere in between? -Do you know of other particularly good examples of Cerebus syndrome attempts, either successful or not? (I know some others, but I thought these were the most distinctive.) If you do not have anything more to say than yes this is a success or no it isn't, that's still useful, so feel free to post anyway. Also, if you would not like me to quote you, please say so in your post. Thank you all in advance for your help.

"Get Nifty: the Sluggy Freelance Card Game" Now in Stores

Submitted by pclips on March 7, 2006 - 15:47

Over at Sluggy Freelance, Pete Abrams has just announced the long-anticipated general release of Get Nifty, a standalone card game themed around Sluggy and designed by Rob Balder of PartiallyClips.

Spirited Shootout to Decide the Fate of Webcomics Experimentation!

Submitted by Joe Zabel on February 7, 2006 - 17:00

A contentious roundtable about the use and abuse of experimentation is featured in this week's edition of The Webcomics Examiner.