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Personally, I prefer black and white or gray scale comics to color ones, because it seems to me that it takes more skill to produce good looking art without color. An artist working without color has nothing to distract you from the line work. If it's crappy, it stands out as crappy. Pretty colors can help hide poor lines and mistakes in the art, while in black and white you can see every little mistake. I really like to see the personality of the artist in their lines, and color sometimes makes it hard to see that, for me.

Not to say there are no good color comics, either. Sarah Huntrods' Ceph has some of the nicest coloring I've seen online, and I'll be glad when it comes back from hiatus! It's one of the few color comics I like.

One of the best-drawn b&w comics online is Elf Life, by Carson Fire. Very nice emotional line work and a unique style.

For gray scale, nothing beats ShadowFall and Wings of Cranes and Eagles, both by Kaichi Satake. I haven't seen pencil work of that quality anywhere else online.

None of those comics are newspaper-style strips, either. You can look at those four comics and easily see what would happen if they were changed to color or to black and white. It all depends on what the artist wants to do with it.

Kimi

Here's some online comics that might be worth checking out:

Sluggy - Students, aliens, ghosts, psychotic rabbits, evil kittens. One of the oldest and niftiest comics online.
User Friendly - Linux, geeks. You get the idea.
Megatokyo - An online manga following Piro and Largo whilst stranded in Tokyo.
Schlock Mercenary - Not too good art, but usually a very good and suitably sci-fi-ish plot.
Clan of the Cats - A modern-day witch cursed to change into a panther. Good artwork.
RPG World - Great art. A parody of almost any role playing game (the console variety) you'd care to play.
Ghost Cat - It's a cat! It's a ghost! It's ghost cat!
Elf Life - Elves, fairies, barbarians, time travel, romance, comedy, and very well drawn as well.
Exploitation Now! - An anime-ish comic with good art and an interesting, if sporadic, plot.
Real Life - It's real life. Except it's not. Reasonably funny.
Penny Arcade - The mother of all gaming comics. Very funny :)
Sephen - A relative newcomer, but wow! Great pencil-work!
8-bit Theater - The grandpappy of all sprite comics. I think. It's funny anyway. Go read :)
Demonology 101 - Fantastic art, fantastic plot! If only it came out more often! Ah well, the world isn't perfect.

Oh, and I can't really get away without mentioning my brother's sprite comic, Pixelated!. It really isn't bad. No, really! :)

There are other successful online cartoonists who have done a better job of rubbing people the wrong way, but I don't see their press slowing down because of that. Who exactly would a cartoonist have to be a pariah with, anyway? The reporter?

As far as why it wasn't mentioned, maybe Sluggy's just getting to be a little bit of old news... I mean, a year or so ago, Sluggy was THE webcomic whenever we happened to get any press at all. Thank goodness other strips, equally deserving, are finally getting a bit of the spotlight! That doesn't take anything away from Sluggy, but helps our universe to expand.

Now all I have to do is figure out why, in a year where fantasy films are dominating the theaters, I can't generate any decent press for Elf Life, dagnabit! :Op

While I would never be so insulting as to call women 'ladies'

It's insulting to call a woman a lady? I thought it was an honorific.

(blatant plug) And of course Sweaty Bullets is the worst of all because I draw it.


My mom is not a Karma whore!

2) Blame deregulation for the energy shortage! Can't have liberals blaming their eco legislation or (gasp!) call for repealing some of it.

I'd like to point out that these problems didn't appear when ecological protections were passed, only after deregulation. Can't have conservatives blaming their economic policies or (gasp!) admitting that they screwed up.

The only areas in California that weren't threatened with rolling blackouts or large rate increases were cities with municipal utilities. Strange how they came through unscathed, isn't it...

Thoroughly, California made its own mess and ought to be forced to wallow in it. You're all screwed and it's your own fault.

Aw, we love you too.

Just because our state has all of the hot girls in bikinis (we loan 'em to Hawaii occasionally) is no reason to get snippy.

Seriously, the energy commission that engineered deregulation was bought and paid for by the power companies, so they could sell off their old and decrepit power plants to new companies for cash. However, during all of the buying and selling, none of them really thought about having to provide power. Not that it really hurts them: they get to raise rates without having to generate any more electricity. All income, no expenses--now that's a business model!

The point is kind of moot however, because the rolling blackouts never happened (a massive rate hike is underway however).

Since McCloud's recent strip, it's been suggested that Keenspot Comics (home of half the comics listed here) start this micropayment trend. However, I think this would be a really bad move. As it has been stated, this would only work for comics that are already popular and would surely stunt the growth of even popular comics. What new reader would pay for Nukees when Goats is available for free? Even though Keenspot and Keenspace house most of the webcomics out there, only the most die-hard fans will bother paying when all other web content is free. For artists that have worked for years for little to no pay, I think readership and artistic integrity is still more important than cash.

I think the solution, if the advertising market continues to die, is "Pay for convenience," not for content. We may, for instance, institute subscription rates for email delivery, or even home paper delivery (would you pay for a monthly digest of your favorite webcomic snailmailed to you?)

The real question is what will people pay for? Will people pay for convenience? It's difficult to tell. It was mentioned that Carson Fire of Elf Life has recently offered a cast shirt for sale, but it was not mentioned that few have bought that shirt. I've seen lots of shirts go unsold even though reader polls have shown high interest. So it turns out readers are lying when they say they'll pay for something? I think so. That music label buying Napster, for instance, is convinced that 1/2 of the current users will pay a $15/month fee for its use, based on a poll they conducted. How many of you believe that?

So what will people pay for? That's the real question.

Darren "Gav" Bleuel
Keenspot Comics
Nukees, an atomic comic.

Lates...
Darren "Gav" Bleuel
Nukees, an atomic comic

The one with Zoe on the front in her 'Little Devil' outfit with the fishnets and leotard. Whoohoo!

While the idea of micropayments seems a little more friendly to the music industry, I can see how online artists (rightfully) want their slice too. What I think will be infinitely more successful than micropayments, however, is merchandising. There is a wealth of Sluggy Freelance mugs, shirts, and even books available. Elf Life, one of the most popular strips around, has offered a cast shirt and the artist who drawsAcid Reflux offers an original art service where she draws pictures of your favorite RPG or MMOG character.

Even some fanauthors/artists are getting into the act by offering merchandise with pictures of original characters or logos.

Micropayments are good, but I htink that merchandising is the way to go for the online artist if he wants to profit from his work.

Too many people say the art in User friendly sux. Big whooping deal. Half the art in the comics section of your local newspaper probably sucks too. It's the writing. (which i admit seems to have gone downhill a bit lately) I've always enjoyed UF, been reading it for about a year and half now (also gpf-comics,and elf life). Hey why not check out my comics?