webcomics

As I've had to reflect back on my webcomic experience for both the class presentation and our final portfolio, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of the audience. When my group (Team JAMA) came up with our idea for a webcomic, we didn't have a specific audience in mind. We talked about what should go in our presentation, and I thought it was important to include our intended audience, but it was at that point that I think we all realized we never had an intended audience.
This lack of insight into one of the most crucial elements of the webcomics relationship - the audience - was clearly evident when I looked over our Google Analytics report. We had a little over 50 unique visitors (which isn't terribly impressive when you think that 25 of those were most likely members of this class). The only comment we received was from one of our team member's mom. Without a specific audience, and without very many readers, it made the unique "conversation" between the audience and the author(s) impossible.

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Marry MeI love online graphic novels. I like the idea of reading a webcomic with a concrete beginning, middle, and end. After Marry Me was mentioned in our last class I decided to look it up. It was delightful. The story, for those not paying attention, follows a pop star who marries a guy from the audience at one of her concerts. It may sound a little too romcom for some people but the story is solid. The supporting cast is wonderful and hysterical. If you need something to brighten up your day then read it.

Another wonderful online graphic novel that everyone should read is The Tower. The Tower is interesting because it is textless. All you see is the story unfolding through the illustrations. A princess (we suppose) escapes her Tower and goes on an adventure. Which brings up the question: is this even considered a graphic novel? Does that fact that it is online negate it ever being a graphic novel? If it was printed and bound would it still be considered a graphic novel? Do graphic novels need to have text in some form?

The Tower Pg 4

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Something I ran across a while ago through Chris Hazel's excellent webcomic Misfile is the WOWIO website. WOWIO deals in downloadable .pdf books, including comics and graphic novels. WOWIO deals with both print comics and webcomics, and usually has something free to download every month. Alternatively for a few dollars other content may be downloaded.

While I used to find WOWIO to be a great resource lately their content has underwhelmed me. WOWIO is definitely taking on more of an erotic theme in some areas, especially with regards to their comics. Most of the smart comics I used to read through this service have pulled out due to financial disagreements with the company. Hazel in particular has been keeping a running counter at Misfile for how long it's been since WOWIO paid him his earned royalties (currently over $7,000). Likewise, Sarah Ellerton of Phoenix Requiem and Inverloch is no longer on WOWIO for probably similar reasons.

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One of the big setbacks in teaching language arts in American high schools is the student's lack of desire to read and write. They all know how, of course, but the challenge is to have them apply and use what they know. One way of doing this is through modern technology, like personal websites, blogs, even livejournals. Another media that I had never considered before was webcomics. Learners at all levels, especially in a foreign language, can create webcomics in the target language online as a way to practice their writing. We talked about this recently in my "Teaching of a Foreign Language" seminar. My professor showed us an awesome website called Pixton, where students, teachers, and anyone else can create webcomics using pre-drawn characters, backgrounds, and layouts. All you have to create is the text itself. The site is also very safe, and any inappropriate material is edited out.

Sample Pixton Panel: Santa Cameo!

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All of the talent in our group seems to be pretty evenly spread out for creating a web comic. Since my talents do not include art or working computer programs it only seemed fair that I would do the writing. Luckily my group seemed to be pleased with my work and in my opinion our web comic is on the path to success.

The artistic style of our comic is very different than the idea I had in my head when I first started writing the strips. I intentionally didn’t give any description of how I pictured Tuffer And Willie, besides the fact that they were kids. Though I don’t have any experience drawing comics with anyone else, I felt that the comic would be better if I let the artist have a lot of interpretation.

Overall I have been very happy with the way the first strips of Tuffer And Willie have turned out. Even though what happens in the comic is very similar to what I wrote I feel that the Tuffer And Willie are different characters because of the way they are drawn. I feel that this makes reading it as much fun for me as anyone who was not involved in the creation process.

In a way in reminds me of playing in my band. Though someone might be the songwriter, the musicians in the band take the song in a whole new direction from the artists original vision. Fun stuff!

http://comics.elsweb.org/jamma/?p=7

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Penny Arcade Senate: Washington State Senate honors Penny Arcade, and this is how they thank them.Recently we read the Thierry Groensteen article "Why are comics still in search of cultural legitimization?" and I couldn't help but wonder if comics actually had achieved a level of cultural legitimization and were simply refusing to accept it. For example, the Gorensteen article laments the lack of acceptance of comics by "the legitimizing authorities (universities, museums, the media)." With all do respect, to hell with them. This thinking is backwards if you're talking cultural legitimization. What Gorensteen is arguing is artistic legitimacy, which is not the same. Artistic legitimacy is the type of thing where you can hang something in a museum exibit and people in fancy clothes will look at it intently and say "Yes, interesting," before going to get some hor'd'oeuvres. Cultural legitimacy is the ability of comics to permeate into the greater culture of a society, not just it's artistic institutions. Here, comics have clearly succeeded. On Thursday, the Washington State Senate gave just another example of how they have.

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Logo for Comic Genesis, formerly Keenspace

Logo for the now defunct site Big Panda

An example of a Wondermark comic

An example of a typical XKCD comic