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Tag Archives: webcomics

The Horror of Hiatuses

Posted on by Posted in Webcomic .

What is a hiatus?

According to Google, a hiatus is “a pause or gap in a sequence, series, or process”.

According to webcomic readers, it’s the most frustrating thing to happen to your favorite comic. And potentially the most terrifying. Because to many artists/writers, making webcomics isn’t a “job”, and it’s easy for “real life” to get in the way. If you’re not syndicated or receiving some sort of payment for your work, the rest of your life ends up taking priority. This is also where fillers come into play.

But public hiatuses bear an element of dread, because there’s always the possibility of a comic being abandoned. Breaks can become permanent, and authors can go missing, pulled into the dredgery of mundane jobs. It’s a difficult thing to consistently run a webcomic, so it’s important to be understanding of artists that are just unable to keep up with it – as much as it might pain fans of the series.

While there are a number of series to go on hiatus at some point in time (occasionally due to important life events like getting married or having kids), there are some series whose hiatuses are as prevalent as their updates. A prime example of this is MegaTokyo – renowned as much for its anime-like characters and dramatic storylines as for its almost constantly being on hiatus.

Source: MegaTokyo

Source: MegaTokyo

Though these breaks are often because of personal trauma or tough experiences in the author’s life, they occur so frequently as to become a trope that the comic itself is known for (in addition to its overload of other story tropes).

All of this is why most webcomic creators create a strip buffer for themselves, or a stockpile of previously drawn comics that can be used within the series in case the author ever gets behind or gets busy. This is also an important part of maintaining a consistent posting schedule, because no matter how hard you try some days will not be drawing days. So if you ever want to create your own webcomic, give yourself a buffer. Don’t be on never-ending hiatus.

The Advent of Autobiographical Comics

Posted on by Posted in Personal Comic, Webcomic .
Source: Me

Source: Me

When Facebook was first created, it provided an outlet for people to share their personal lives with their friends. When webcomics began to pick up speed, they provided an outlet for people to share their personal lives with the world. Since the beginning of time people have been recording their lives; through diaries, autobiographies, paintings and film. In the past these recordings would either be for personal use or have to go through a long and arduous process of becoming acceptable to the public, and profitable for whoever produced it. Nowadays, it’s as though we have a way to peek into someone’s personal diary – in a much more aesthetically pleasing format.

 

 

The autobiographical comic is founded on the idea of sharing your personal experience to connect with others. Even though we may not always have a personal understanding of the situations people go through, we can all relate to certain sentiments and feelings. We all feel the same sort of frustration, or joy, or sadness.

 

 

 

 

Autobiographical comics show other people making sense of the world and going through the same things we are. And though it’s something that can be created by anyone, it’s most commonly done by people in the “20-somethings”. This is becoming more and more iconic as a time of confusion in our generation, and feeling caught between having an adult responsibilities and feeling like a child. There is an expectation for people of this age to be college graduates who have a career in their chosen field. But, as most of these comics show, adulthood has very little to do with acting like an adult.

Another aspect unique to autobiographical webcomics is the creation of the hourly comic. Which requires comic artists to draw a comic of what they’re doing for every hour of the day. Though this is a hallmark of the autobiographical comic, it’s open to any webcomic artist, and most will do it as a challenge to their own artistic skills and dedication. And also as a way of sharing their life with the world, even when their comic itself is about something entirely different. Everyone wants to share some part of their personal lives with others, especially when they have control over what’s seen.

Comics are no longer only about superheroes or only for seasoned professionals, there’s an ocean’s worth of genres and artists, all exploring the depths of possibilities comics provide. There is no one right or wrong way to share your story with the world.

The Word on Webcomics

Posted on by Posted in Webcomic .

You’re scrolling through Facebook and you come across an image like this

 

Or maybe you’re on Tumblr and find something like this:

Tumblr Comic

Source: Elcomics

Tumblr Comic cont.

Source: Elcomics

 

No matter what you think about comics, whether you grew up reading the Sunday funnies or can’t stand the un-ending stream of Superhero movies, most of us see them every day.

But instead of heading down to the 5 and Dime corner store and buying a comic book issue with our saved up allowance money as we did in the “good old days”, most of us are now reading webcomics.

What are webcomics? Well a quick Google search will tell us that “webcomics are comics published on a website” (Source: Wikipedia). That seems simple enough, end of conversation, right?

Not exactly.

While the content may be the same as if something was displayed in a print format, the internet provides an entirely different medium and form of communication for comic creators. For one, anyone can make a webcomic. There’s no publishers, or licensors, or skills you have to have to sit down and start creating.

Sandra and Woo

A webcomic that copies the traditional newspaper-style of comics. Source: Sandra and Woo

This expands the possibilities and numbers of webcomics to an almost infinite amount. And there’s no set way of navigating all the webcomics currently in existence to find the perfect one for you. That’s not to say that attempts haven’t been made. But with the sheer volume of comics on the web in existence, there’s always going to be something missed.

Not that being missed is always a bad thing; anyone being able to make a webcomic also means that it’s available to everyone. Webcomics introduce immediate feedback to comic creation, for better or worse. “Everyone has an opinion” (Jennie Breeden) and is ready to jump on you with criticism or a red pen if you haven’t researched your topic thoroughly. It’s “that fear that keeps [you] from being too lazy”. “You will get trolls, it has nothing to do with you. They just need somewhere to rant and you happen to have the biggest soapbox” (Breeden). Most authors learn to not take it personally, and just look on those people with pity. However, there are others who choose to not even have a comments section, to avoid the risk of being worn down by their readers.

But not all feedback is bad, and with the instantaneous access of the web authors can receive the in-the-moment emotional reactions of their readers. In a webcomics panel at Dragoncon, Comfort Love (co-author of Rainbows in the Dark and Uniques) shared a story of a 4-in-the-morning email she received from one of her readers – “[She bought Rainbows in the Dark and had just come out the day before, and the story was so important and meaningful to her in that very moment.]” There’s a way to instantaneously connect with people and experience those first emotions they experience.

Webcomics represent an entirely new form of creating art and interacting with the world. They are the visual form of blogs, an instantly accessible idea and expression of thought. And the better we understand it the more creative we can be.

 

Additional Sources:

Webcomic Panel at DragonCon 2016 [link pending]