Scott McCloud keeps linking here (hey Scott!) so I guess I should write something that could be of interest to his audience. Problem is, the stuff I’m doing at work, which is why 99% of you coming from Scott’s site might maybe possibly be slightly interested in me, can’t be talked about yet — and not for any reasons that you might suspect, and what I am actually working on isn’t what you probably think it is, anyway. And I’m not even hyping in the previous, withholding info to try to make myself sound more interesting than I am, but I understand how it might seem so. And et cetera.
I have been thinking about webcomics, though. I’ve been thinking about how less interesting to me the field is now than it was when I started working in it, almost ten years ago. This is not to say that the webcomics themselves are less interesting: far from it. Generally, there are far more great webcomics — and the great ones have raised their game to a far higher level — than was the case ten years ago. No question. When it comes to quality, availability, usability, and awesomeness, webcomics today, the actual webcomics, are much better than they were ten years ago.
But when it comes to the field as a whole, the excitement I used to feel about webcomics-as-a-movement? Eh. I dunno. Things have started to settle down. I don’t see the crazy innovative risk-taking, the sense that anything might happen, and would happen, and if you blinked you might miss it. That feeling that we could go strange new places with this medium, and invent unthinkable new things, just isn’t there. Webcomics have become solid, professional, well-written, beautifully drawn, and, um, well, normal.
That’s what we wanted. Right?
Right?
Then why do I find it so hard to remember to read them with any regularity these days?
Never mind. I’m sure it’s just me.
Ha! Ha! Right there with you buddy.
Try french, try “Les Autres Gens”, with Bastien Vivès, Manuele Fior, Erwann Surcouf, Scoffoni, The Black Frog and so much more.
Everyday you can read the sequel and it is like reading 5 ou 6 pages of comics (yes, everyday, 5 days a week).
This is not very “new” or revolutionnary but we try a new way to do it.
The reading is simple, there is no sound, no movement, but each day, on the same story, a new drawing, a new mood.
I think we’re reaching the point where we realize that once you go too far away from tradition comics on the web, they cease being comics at all. So what happens is we’re right back to telling stories in a traditional way.
In this case the medium as message paradigm is a bit off. The message
is overpowering the medium
You guys are right, of course, but my post doesn’t get across the subtle thing I’m feeling. It’s not just formal experimentation I miss. I was never as into that as Scott was, anyway. It’s the sense that anybody, anywhere, at any time, might become a superstar — or at least surprise us with something we’ve never seen before. Not just formally never seen before. But any kind of way, any kind of thing we’d never seen. A business model we’d never seen. A kind of story or character or whatever that we’d never seen. All of that’s still true. But it doesn’t feel as likely anymore. Which is, like I said, probably just my own problem and my own perception.
I may be coming at this topic from a slightly different perspective but here’s my take on why there isn’t as much talk or movement in webcomics toward new artistic frontiers. And in terms of new artistic frontiers I mean special enhancements like interactivity or embedded motion or integrated sound etc.
There is so much competition for eye balls that a comic producer has to focus on publishing entertaining content at a high rate of frequency. In general 5 days a week is about the only way to build and sustain a regular audience. To achieve this rigorous a production schedule means that the comic producer has to focus on creating entertaining content quickly which all but eliminates the levels of complexity that would follow adding interactivity or motion or sfx etc.
It becomes an artistic trade off. Frequency VS. complexity or regular audience VS. occasional audience. Reading comics is a habit and habits require constant reinforcement.
Add to that the desire to expand to multiple platforms IE. print, web, mobile with all the associated technical challenges and there is more pressure on building and sustaining an audience which just means you have to publish on a reliable high frequency schedule. Out of sight means out of mind share is the current webcomic producer’s mantra. Production schedule demands are the constraint on artistic experimentation.
Hi,
Maybe you should have a deep glance on what happens abroad, in France for example, and the way artists try to resist to, say, the way traditonial publishers are willing to possess their digital rights, the way a strong awareness to resist to how Apple imposes his moral view and rules on webcomics apps… In the meantime, free and indy projects are blooming, unexpected partnerships and new players are emerging (coming from Cartoon or Video-Game) – I know this is all mostly on business issue, but as the full pattern is moving, that will create new way to produce and create webcomics, won’t it?
So, keep confidence, take a deep breath and maybe spend time far from your passion so as to come back to seize it with the passion gauge on top. That said, it’s though up to you
Best Regards,
A fellow from France
Oh, that’s just the inability to feel joy as you get older. We all feel that.
But seriously, I bet you could take out the word “webcomics” and that third paragraph would apply to a lot of things. It happened to sketch comedy, the internet, and video games in the ’90s. In science fiction fandom there’s a saying that “the golden age is science fiction is twelve” and that this is the honeymoon period in which you feel a “sense of wonder” towards ideas.
I mean *of* science fiction.
Pingback: Joey Manley: Are webcomics … out of date? « The Webcomic Overlook
Sounds like the “death of punk,” if you ask me. Killed be it’s own success? Or at least the feelings of jubilant creativity subsided as more voices were added to the chorus.
I dunno. Webcomics are entering a new phase of professionalism that I admire.
I don’t think people are done experimenting, nor do I think people all set out to experiment. I wanted to do a comic. I wanted to put it online. I wanted to hang out with other cool people trying to do the same. I think that’s plenty.
Yep, it is just you. If you can’t find something interesting, you just aren’t looking.
Even though the notion is more than a bit depressing, it’s really nice to hear that other people have been feeling the same way about webcomics as of late. I gotta say, that as a comic creator I’ve definitely noticed this harsh shift in the “webcomics culture” (for lack of a better word).
I remember that for a webcomic I started in 2005, I got lots of other webcomics linking me just through their discovering me on their own, lots of emails from fans and someone even made a wikipedia page about me and my comic!
This year though, I start a webcomic, and even though I have readers, i feel like I’m throwing my comics out into an empty room. At first I was wary to blame this on an inactive community, it felt like too easy of an excuse for not just doing a better comic that more people would care about. But, it’d be one thing if I’d never produced any webcomics before, but I have, and it’s pretty clear that webcomics are at the very least in a transitioning period.
Now all we have to figure out is what people want to read/watch on the internet now! Or maybe the Internet just needs 20 CCs of good ol’ fashion drama to breath some life back into it.
Mspaintadventures has innovation up the wazoo. Rice-boy is still takes risks. These factors are not unique to these two sites; many do.
Things haven’t slowed down just because you’ve started losing interest. Maybe you’ve just stopped looking as hard.
Pingback: Digital Strips: The Webcomics Podcast : Tweet Thread of the Day ~FOR~ Wednesday, July 28, 2010
These things all move in cycles, both individual and as an aggregate. Things usually slow down a bit for the summer, especially a hot summer like I’m having where I’d rather go to the beach or be outside than do anything else. In my neck of the woods, I might not get a summer like this for another decade.
Anyway, we’ve had a good run of interesting webcomic things going on far awhile and it’s just ebbing a little bit.
Pingback: The Shuttering of Zuda: A Webcomics Adventure | Comics