They’re painstakingly made, take a lot of time to be completed, often cause their creators to burnout or feel like their investment goes unsung or unrewarded. To make a webcomic is a serious commitment that requires discipline, dedication, planning and scope. And there are no guarantees.
So why do it? Why do we need it? What do we offer with our dogged determination to keep it up until that blessed yet bittersweet last page where we can write “THE END”?
Because we do need it, for sure. Webcomics are a certain kind of invaluable lifeblood to the field of narrative arts, not only sequential art but also movies and prose.
A webcomic can become a key that unlocks the door to a creator’s vision, exposing it to the public without the filters, requirements and prerequisites that the print comic, mainstream industry sets to canonize creativity.
The creator of a webcomic has to be at the same time (assuming it’s not a team of creators) the script writer and the director, make the decisions on costumes, settings, montages and scene sequences, and pretty much everything else that would be required to create a film.
The creator also is the author, creating the story, its themes and messages and the general approach of whatever issue, situation or conundrum he/she chooses to present, from the flippant and cavalier to the profound and grim.
So, with all that impressive set of demands that all webcomic creators grapple with and deliver on, what do webcomics bring to the arts table?
First off, they open new frontiers on what can be presented to audiences in terms of style, content, presentation and dialogue.
They give a chance to audiences to enjoy creations with unusual themes, from the supernatural to historical fiction, things that mainstream comics and mainstream publishing doesn’t easily pick up.
For the themes that are overdone in a certain way, webcomics can give spins to them that haven’t been done before, that would be considered too extreme or too graphic or too edgy or too grim, and audiences have a chance to experience art in its purer form- as a means of expression that reflects a creator’s life, inner struggles and worries, interests and desires rather than art specifically constructed to pander to a specific predetermined recipe that has guarantees of commercial success.
But that isn’t the only thing we need webcomics for. Like all art, the necessity of their existence expands far beyond what I just summarily touched upon.
What do you feel we need webcomics for?
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Susan Sommerer, a student at the Ostfalia - University of Applied Sciences, Salzgitter, Germany is looking to get feedback on the webcomic experience from readers and creators. If you would like to help her out, you can fill out her survey here or check out the forum.
Why do we need Webcomics?
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, March 31, 2018
7 likes!
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AmeliaP at 7:45AM, April 2, 2018
Great article, as always! My feed back from "the printed realm" and comparing it to the webcomics: we have an unique experience with webcomics. Authors receive feedback in "real-time", and it's the only media capable of offering it to us, creators. You don't see it in movies or printed comics. Maybe in games, with a multiplayer feedback report. But, man, I can tell you. We, as creators, can understand the audience better, much much better, than in a monthly printed edition. For me, no regrets. I'm learning more about audience and readers necessities these months than over a decade of professional work.
PaulEberhardt at 11:04AM, April 1, 2018
I get that question a lot, but all I can say is I just love drawing and coming up with silly ideas. Webcomics are just the best medium to get it to readers who might enjoy the outcome, especially because they're free and are easy to access. Also I'd have missed out on a lot of fun if not for all that very cool comic stuff and people just as crazy as me I could never have got to know without them.
davidxolukoga at 10:39AM, April 1, 2018
I write new stuff. New AMAZING worlds, especially lung Justice. But nobody reads my stuff
davidxolukoga at 10:39AM, April 1, 2018
I write new stuff. New AMAZING worlds, especially lung Justice. But nobody reads my stuff
davidxolukoga at 10:39AM, April 1, 2018
I write new stuff. New AMAZING worlds, especially lung Justice. But nobody reads my stuff
Emma_Clare at 9:22AM, April 1, 2018
It's my outlet. I have so many stories in my head that it's the only way to really get them out. Plus there's a social aspect to webcomics. You see where your work is going and can directly talk to people. I owe so much to them.
bravo1102 at 7:10AM, April 1, 2018
I need them a lot more than they need me. Driven to create, whether I like it or not. Sometimes an obsession. No soapbox, no proselytizing, just people. Really screwy situations, but ordinary people. And of course the dream of a Robofemoids movie franchise.
MayelV at 8:26PM, March 31, 2018
I make them as a coping mechanism. I read them because webcomics are often independent and authors have more creative freedom to make what the mainstream media doesn't dare. Take for instance POC and Queer people representation that is not a cliché. So yeah, I like webcomics and I need them to read good stories.
agentny003 at 8:00PM, March 31, 2018
I do mines to spread important messages and for people to enjoy, but it's a step to achieving my ULTIMATE GOAL, to make it into an anime series one day, which I believe it will be. Just got to keep going and attract as many readers as I possibly can.
KimLuster at 6:58AM, March 31, 2018
Webcomics are Art (actually, various arts: writing, drawing, painting, etc..., all mushed together)! Why do we need Art?!! That's a rather existential question, but we just do!! We're born with an intrinsic need to create, and to enjoy the creations of others. If we're not making webcomics, we certainly creating something else, in some form!!
KAM at 5:36AM, March 31, 2018
Do we need webcomics? Do we need more than 3 networks? Do we need more than 2 comic publishers? Do we need more than 10 novelists? Of course, because we live in a world of people with different tastes in entertainment.
Ozoneocean at 11:01PM, March 30, 2018
We do them for love! They are our drug! Like that film... Love and Other drugs... haha, I just watched that 2 days ago XD