Modern Webcomics: 2000 to Today

Big Panda: Logo for the now defunct site Big PandaThe year 2000 marked a major shift in webcomics as the medium went from just a hobby to a legitimate business. The first major effort to make webcomics profitable was Big Panda, a webcomics portal founded in 1999. Big Panda both hosted certain select webcomics, such as Sluggy Freelance or Bruno the Bandit, as well as providing a list of webcomics. The site was supported by advertising revenues, with money being shared with the creators of the hosted comics. However, later that year, Pete Abrams, creator of Sluggy Freelance, decided to leave Big Panda, as he would make more money by going independent. None of the other webcomics on Big Panda had the draw power of Sluggy Freelance and none of the other big name webcomics would sign up with Big Panda as it would result in them making less money. By the end of 1999, the site was in deep trouble. Though the site would go offline on July 11, 2001, the site was effectively dead from mid-2000 onwards.[1]

Comic Genesis: Logo for Comic Genesis, formerly KeenspaceWhile Big Panda itself didn’t succeed, the model it created lived on and ultimately survived. In March 2000, Chris Crosby, creator of the webcomic Superosity, joined with Darren Bleuel, creator of Nukees, Terri Crosby, and Nathan Stone to form Keenspot. Similarly to Big Panda, Keenspot hosted a select number of webcomics, operated on ad revenues, and shared those revenues with the creators of the hosted webcomics. However, Keenspot went even farther than Big Panda when, in July 2000, it unveiled Keenspace (now Comic Genesis). Keenspace provided webcomic creators everywhere with a free hosting service for their creations. The site started strong, but the dotcom bust of 2000 caused the website to experience hard times for the next several years. However, by 2003, as the internet economy began to revitalize, Keenspot also recovered and by the end of that year was profitable and debt-free.[2] Webcomics had become a sustainable business.

Keenspot was only the tip of the iceberg. In the following years several websites opened up looking to create a business based on webcomics. 2001 saw the launch of Komikwerks, a website offering free comics from professional cartoonists. Modern Tales, a subscription-based webcomics hosting site, launched in 2002. In 2003 Modern Tales launched two spinoff sites, Graphic Smash and Girlamatic. However, the largest expansion of the webcomics business has been styled after Comic Genesis, with Drunk Duck, Webcomics Nation, and Smack Jeeves all offering free, ad-supported hosting for webcomics. As a side note, one interesting side-effect of this is the re-emergence of self-hosting, as larger and more noteworthy comics have tended to self-host, rather than join a group like KeenSpot. The benefit of this is that the creator can make more money this way without sharing with a group, as well as increased creative control and potentially making it easier to get noticed.

XKCD: An example of a typical XKCD comicThe time since 2000 has also seen the launch of several of the most popular webcomics on the internet today. Questionable Content, which humorously chronicles the lives of several young adults in a Boston suburb, was launched on August 1st, 2003. XKCD, which is, in the words of creator Randal Munroe, “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” launched in September 2005. Something Positive, a webcomic known for its use of dark humor and depressing situations, launched on December 19, 2001. Those comics, amongst others, are among the select few independent, financially self-sufficient webcomics.

Wondermark: An example of a Wondermark comicThe time since 2000 has also seen an expansion of what a webcomic can be. Dinosaur Comics, launched February 1, 2003, is a comic that uses the same six panels of clip art dinosaurs for every comic and constructs a unique narrative around that base for each comic. Wondermark, launched April 25, 2003, is a comic that repurposes 19th century illustrations to establish comedic situations. Garfield Minus Garfield, launched February 13, 2008, alters the syndicated webcomic Garfield to remove the titular cat altogether, changing the otherwise lighthearted comic into a sometimes humorous, sometimes depressing depiction of Jon Arbuckle as an unstable, lonely man.

PAX: Logo for Penny Arcade ExpoAnother development of webcomics since 2000 has been the increasing cultural footprint of webcomics as a creative medium, both online and off. Online, webzines and communities dedicated to the critical analysis of webcomics, such as Comixtalk and the now defunct Webcomics Examiner, have launched and feature in depth academic analysis of webcomics. Offline, webcomics have been printed in noteworthy print publications, such as the conceptual comic Get Your War On being printed in Rolling Stone Magazine or the aforementioned Wondermark being included in each weeks print version of The Onion. Webcomics have also expanded into other mediums, such as the comic Least I Could Do, which is currently being turned into an animated series for the Canadian Teletoon network.[3] But the most noteworthy example of the cultural impact of webcomics is the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX). PAX, the brainchild of Penny Arcade creators Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, is an annual expo held each summer in Washington state. The expo is targeted at the Penny Arcade fans, as well as gamers in general, and has grown dramatically since its first year in 2004. PAX 2008 had a reported attendance of 58,500 and featured participation by major game manufacturers such as Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, all the major third party developers, and Wizards of the Coast, the company behind both Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons.[4]

But the linking factor in all of this, and unarguably the most important development in webcomics since 2000, is the opening of the medium to everyone. Before 2000, and the launching of Keenspace, webcomics needed to arrange their own hosting, set up their own websites, and manage the posting of each comic themselves. This made running a webcomic quite time consuming and expensive, creating a significant barrier of entry for those who wanted to post their comics online. However, thanks to free webcomic hosting sites, that barrier has been erased. The result is an explosion in the number of webcomics available. As of 2007, the four major free hosting sites alone, Comic Genesis, Drunk Duck, Smack Jeeves, and Web Comics Nation, boast a combined total of over 18,000 webcomics.[5] Were there not a free hosting option, the number of webcomics would likely be a fraction of that. The negative consequence of this is that it makes it harder for a new webcomic to get noticed. The positive, however, has been the expansion in the webcomics medium and, as a result, the webcomics community. As a side note, one interesting side-effect of this is the re-emergence of self-hosting, as larger and more noteworthy comics have tended to self-host, rather than join a group like KeenSpot, as they can make more money and have more control that way. This expansion of the community can easily help explain the newfound viability of webcomics as a business option, the expansion of the variety of webcomics, and the increased cultural footprint of the medium.

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Works Cited

1. Campbell, T. "The History of Online Comics by T Campbell (Part 5)." Comixtalk. February 2004. http://comixtalk.com/the_history_of_online_comics_by_t_campbell_part_5

2. Campbell, T. "The History of Online Comics by T Campbell (Part 6)." Comixtalk. April 2004. http://comixtalk.com/the_history_of_online_comics_by_t_campbell_part_6

3. Gardner, Alan. "Webcomics to be made into TV show pilot, movie." The Daily Cartoonist. 2 May 2008. http://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2008/05/02/webcomics-to-be-made-int...

4. Callaham, John. "Penny Arcade Expo 2008: 58,500 attendees." Big Download. 1 September 2008. http://news.bigdownload.com/2008/09/01/penny-arcade-expo-2008-58-500-att...

5. "The Number of Webcomics in the World." TalkAboutComics.com. 3 January 2007. http://www.talkaboutcomics.com/blog/?p=766