The Theory of Webcomics: Dead Comic, Living Archives

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2 Responses

  1. Russ Rogers says:

    Web comic artists need to be honest with their audiences about the expense of maintaining a regular comic on line. It's not just the monetary expense. There are physical and time commitments. There is also an emotional expense to putting your work out regularly and NOT seeing the kind of rewards or response that you were hoping for. That's why I consider it my "civic duty" as a web reader to not just give something my attention, but also COMMENT: praise, constructively criticize, leave some kind of trail, some breadcrumb in my passing. As to the monetary expense, I think web artists need to be open about the expenses they put into publishing. If the audience knew that a new Wacom Tablet was going to set the artist back several hundred bucks, but that would make producing the comic that much easier and better in the future, they might want to share in the expense. I have seen this kind of honesty pay off for some podcast producers. They let their audience know that they needed a new mixing board to improve their podcast. Put out a "PayPal Tip Jar" and then THANKED the mixing board sponsors in later podcasts.The problem with making your comics open to comments, or putting out a Tip Jar, or making your expenses or needs known… you expand your opportunity for perceived rejection. What happens when nobody comments, nobody tips or nobody seems to understand what you've invested in the process.

  2. Anonymous says:

    I met my husband four years ago – long after Shaw Island disappeared. I went looking for it tonight, to find countless mentions across the internet, but not a single panel anywhere. I wanted to explain a joke I'd made – he didn't know that even crabs found crab meat tasty – and I simply can't.Zach Stroum, please! Put together a book, I'll buy it!-a girl in Boston, who read every Shaw Island the day they were made –