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Comics Escape a Paper Box and Evolve to the Web
securitas writes "The New York Times' Sarah Boxer takes a look at the evolution of comics from paper to the Internet and asks: 'It's drawn and it's written, but is it still comics?' She cites Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics '...in which he argued that the future of comics is on the Web.' Also cited in the article are Copper by Kazu Kibuishi, found on boltcity.com and The Discovery of Spoons by Alexander Danner and John Barber, found at twentysevenletters.com, as well as several others. The article links to an angry attack by Gary Groth of Fantagraphics against McCloud and his views in Reinventing Comics."
2 entries found for comic strip.
comic strip
n.
1. A usually humorous narrative sequence of cartoon panels: taped a comic strip to her office door.
2. A series or serialization of such narrative sequences, usually featuring a regular cast of characters: a comic strip that has been syndicated for over 40 years.
First, lets take newspaper comics, in terms of format - typical 3-panel blurb except for Sundays. To be honest, there's really no real difference between having them in print on the newspaper or having them online - neither method of distribution makes a difference in this implicitly limited format. Though it would be nice to see Penny Arcade in the Union Tribune.
On the other hand, I believe having real comic books published online would be a boon for the industry. I have a good friend that runs a comic shop, and I frequent it regularly - I'm quite possibly the youngest customer (16) that my friend has. Everyone who shops there is either a 'Comic-Book-Guy'esque collector or some old dude reminiscing about his kid days. Paper comics are great things, but their manner of distribution towards the audience (teenagers, younger kids) is out of touch with this generation.
The future of the narrative comic with real storylines and interesting people has to be online - that's where you'll find your waiting audience. Webcomics for the most part don't have stale and old plots, nor do they have coughed up variants of the same characters. If DC/Marvel had a decent online presence and started making original comics again, Keenspot and the rest of the webcomic industry would be hard-pressed.
If you can change the media from print to web and still call it a comic, why not from print to big screen? Personally, if i can't feel the shitty paper, and smell that shitty ink, it aint no comic. Don't get me wrong, I'm no luddite; I read more ebooks than printed, for the last several years. I'd just prefer a new moniker for the online comics. Hey, here's a catchy one that the kids'll love -- E comic!
I am not left-handed, either!
Short of Marvel's dotComics, which are usually 6 month old storylines set into flash. There are not alot of comic books online. DC has some cheesy lame-ass scroll all over to read comic thing on their site and there's always torrents and the CBR program but I find it miserable reading comics on a screen. The article seems to be more about web comic strips which are in no way new or news. Moving to E - comics or whatever is NOT a good idea financially for comic book companies because already they are free and I think that's the ONLY way anybody would be willing to be subjected to that experience.
To define a comic, as I believe the article is suggesting, as a sequence of drawings, constrained by length/other matters, is the same thing as saying a poem is only a poem if it is iambic pentameter. Really, I think Mrs. Boxor (writer) has her head on backwards if she's trying to define a comic and say that web comics arn't so much comics, and I hope somebody slaps sense into her, if at all possible.
Possibly one of the greatest webcomics since the inception of webcomics is Dinosaur Comics.
Strictly speaking, it's not a comic, because the art never changes. It's identical day in, day out, and that's completely intentional. Read a few, and you'll agree with me that it is quite a comic regardless of how it is not a stereotypical comic.
Everyone should read Leisure Town ( http://www.leisuretown.com/ ). I am saying this because I totally love that comic. It's one of those things that manages to be amazingly stupid and mindboggling intelligent at the same time. It's fantasticly cheezy and infinitely stylish. It tackles both serious and lightweight issues. I does contain both good and great artwork. For an example of the latter, read "The Dog Mess" (Wasn't this called "The Dog Messiah" previously? Is my mind playing tricks on me?)
The story "What do people do all day" contains a joke so potent that I've pretty much been telling it two times a month since I first read it. It single handedly got me beaten up in the bathroom of the bar "99 bottles" in Santa Cruz. Or perhaps it had a little help from some of those 99 bottles, but I don't think I could have done it without the help from the joke.
If I'm not mistaken, the creator of Leisure Town is also the original author of "the Dilbert Hole", which I found amazingly funny. The strips can be found in the fantastic "A Comedy Crisis" on the Leisure Town site, although the script is played out by bunnies instead of Dilberts.
Leisure Town caters to all audiences, both wankers and techheads. You owe it to yourself to check it out, because chances are you are in fact both.
And while I'm at it, fanboying and meat puppeting, I need to shamelessly plug my own creation, the GladHeads. You can find it here: http://www.pacheads.com/
Next week:
Transmetropolitan's Spider Jerusalem takes a look at the evolution of newspapers from paper to the Internet and asks: 'It's investigated and it's written, but is it still newspapers?'
Unfortunately, I am not Wil Wheaton
I check it daily and have several of the books in print. It's a great example of how well comic strips can work online; in fact the books actually feel like they are lacking in comparison to the web site.
What I'm really waiting for is the digital comic as invented by Tom Hank in Big, all those years ago. I don't know about the rest of you, but it made me drool at the time. So, my powerbook is a bit bigger, but I can pretend.