As our potent and fearsome leader Xerexes pointed out in his most recent post here, too many people are all "Dude, webcomics suck!", "Comics fans are weirdos disconnected from the real world!", "The webcomics community sucks!" and so on and so forth. So I thought I would use my Blogging PowersTM to discuss why I think webcomics are the coolest thing since something else really cool happened.
- Webcomics are cool because comics are cool. Plain and simple. The use of images in sequence is the best way to tell certain kinds of stories, and as a form of story telling it helps us understand our selves and our world better, escape from the mundanity of our current existence, and laugh at ourselves. These are all cool things.
- Webcomics are cool because the web is cool. Think about it. Everyday, thousands of bits of information are instantly avaialble to you simply by pressing a few buttons. You don't have to go anywhere, or buy anything, or even wear anything (I am certainly not). You want comics? Pow! Comics. That's cool. And these comics can have any panel design, layout, colorization the creator wants. There is the possibility for infinite variation. This doesn't make print comics less cool, but it is most certainly cool.
- Webcomics are cool because webcomic fans are cool. Are you a webcomics fan? No, not you, but that guy right next you. Yes? See, he's cool, so I am clearly correct. In all seriousness though, webcomics fans are good people. They believe enough in what they like they are willing to voluntarily support it. Voluntarily support it to the extent that some artists can support themselves solely on donations. That's cool. They are no more snippy, crazy, or annoying than any other group of fans, and as of yet webcomics fans have never started a riot, murdered anyone, or otherwise committed an utterly unspeakable act for their object of adoration. That's cool. Well, its not uncool anyway.
- Webcomics are cool because they can target niches. In other forms of delivery, there is simply not enough interested people to support comics written explicitly for airline pilots, librarians, transgender persons, etc. But on the web, any little group with a artistically inclined member can have a comic that speaks to their needs and their experiences. That is cool.
- Webcomics are cool because they are DIY. Webcomics are not elitist. Anyone can do them, and the only deciding factor in regards to their success is the ability of their creator to get them in front of interested eyes. Yes, DIY means some comics will be better than others and not everything will have that professional glean, but it also means you get a mainline of ideas straight from their source, no gate keepers standing in the way. This leaves open the possibility for something truly unique, truly fantastic to appear you didn't even know you were waiting for.
I could go on and on, but I have to move on to uncomic related things. But next time you want to hate on the things that suck about webcomics, remember that their are alot of things that don't suck too.
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