Week 14: The Future of Comics

Webcomics, in my opinion, have always been a very understated and underappreciated medium. Just the notion of creating entire comics (usually alone) and posting them online for millions to see, sometimes for no profit at all, makes me really respect and appreciate webcomic artists. I believe that, among comic artists, they are probably one of the most admirable kinds of all.

Of course, there are pros and cons making webcomics compared to going the traditional route. For one, you don’t get paid regularly, and you’re not sponsored by any publisher and therefore need to come up with advertising yourself. However, working yourself means that you’re allowed to come up with your own hours and deadlines, and that you don’t need any editor’s seal of approval.

I am familiar with some of the webcomics posted on the litcomics blog, but among the names there, Girl Genius and Hark! A Vagrant stand out to me the most. I’ve heard of and read a little of Girl Genius, but I started falling behind updates and eventually dropped it. On the other hand, I doubt there is anyone out there who hasn’t heard of Hark! A Vagrant due to its massive popularity. I always liked the humor employed by Kate Beaton and often got a laugh out of whatever comic she posted. I also appreciated that they were short and usually fairly standalone so I didn’t feel like I missed to much whenever I skipped a comic or two.

Though these titles aren’t mentioned in the blog, I have also read and liked Lackadaisy, Nimona, and Cucumber Quest. The first is exceptionally drawn and about cats, which is always a huge bonus in my book. I’ve lost track of it recently, however, but I occasionally come back to read the comics for the beautiful drawings alone. Nimona is a webcomic done by gingerhaze, an artist with a sense of humor I also appreciate. The story is interesting and the art style is very charming and cute. The last comic, Cucumber Quest, is only a few years old, but is also very entertaining in its own right. I found the artist (hiimdasy) first through her very humorous comics about other video games, but when I discovered that she had started a webcomic series of her own, I decided to give that a try too. I ended up liking it much more than I expected due to the cute art and light-hearted plot.

                I’ve always enjoyed webcomics and appreciated the effort put into them, and I’m glad that they’re becoming more and more popular these days. It takes a lot of courage to put up your own comic so that essentially everyone can read it, and I especially like that basically everyone can be a webcomic artist if they tried hard enough.