The state of Webcomics.

[GoGoNuts]

Hi guys,
I thought I'd shamelessly plug my comics in an attempt to get you to read them, criticize them or at best, enjoy them.

WEBTOON LINK:
https://www.webtoons.com/challenge/dash ... eNo=270571
TAPASTIC LINK:
https://tapas.io/episode/1469241

But I also thought I would get a conversation going about something that's been on my mind for awhile. That something is the state of the modern day web comic scene.

I'll contrast that with the earlier, dare I say "purer" years in early 2000s. Personally, I grew up reading things like Copper (www.boltcity.com) Sluggy Freelance (sluggy.com) Homestar Runner
and a variety of other cool and independent web comics I found out about in a book my parents bought me when I was a kid entitled: WEBCOMICS By: Steven Withrow and John Barber (2005)
Before this time I had only ever known about comics and manga sold in stores and this opened me up to reading things online like unique and independant webcomics and later manga, and I believe it
was integral to me wanting to become a comic book artist and thus making the brainlet move of going to art school. But I digress.

Fast Forward to the Modern day and it appears as though social media marketing has come to dominate the independent web comics scene and has inadvertently homogenized the content into Cutesy #relatable stuff
that big comic hosting companies like Tapastic or Webtoon can successfully market to the widest variety of people possible. I personally believe that this not only has a negative effect on culture, but it also prevents comic creators from taking
unique and interesting risks with their story lines. This complaint is likely just a microcosm of what Diversity in Comics talks about on his youtube channel. In a strange way I think that because of sites like Tapas and Webtoon are becoming like Youtube in that only a handful of Genres in a particular group of niche's get exposure and attention.
The way it works is that unless you are an established artist with a pre-existing following already online. The way to gain exposure is to change your art and story in a way that is MARKETABLE for the site: IE simple, cute, anime inspired #relatable, high school romance type of shit. Either that or make gore or boys love comics (not a joke, those are very popular genre's at least on Tapastic) Tbh, the only webcomics on those sites that I actively follow are people like Shen and Sarah Scribbles who are Big Deals in terms of the comedy genre and at this point have been turned into memes themselves, probably because even though they are legitimately funny and popular they still suffer from the ill tropes I described above, I can only hope they did not subconsciously feel pressured to make those artistic decisions, yet they probably did.

Though, I don't mean to come off as somebody who romanticizes the past too much, because I can recognize the positive aspects of big hosting website companies. It is ALLOT easier for people like me who work full time doing something not art related to pay the bills to actually publish comics in my spare time, where it otherwise would have been much harder if I was limited to having my own website or making a physical book and promoting it at conventions. And I do want to get featured by promoters on both of the sites I publish on. Making art full time is of course any "creatives" goal.

But I wanted to ask you guys, is it possible to appeal to some aspects of the marketable niche's, while still retaining my own voice? I want to make positive, satirical content in the vain of stuff that the Daggermag boys would like, or people who like(d) MDE content could appreciate. Or somebody like Value Select. ( https://www.youtube.com/user/rennermaxwell ) I want to put out what I think is good mirthful energy without becoming something that is justifiably made fun of by people on this forum.

What do you guys think? Andy advice? What are some web comics you like to read?

I've recently been obsessed with the Manga called Ride On King. I recommend it highly. ( https://mangarock.com/manga/mrs-serie-100243263 )

Hope everyone is staying positive and going outside frequently.

[Rat Lyfe]

I don't think you are romanticizing the early 2000's, it's an accurate assessment from what I remember. All internet content has since become democratized with the centralizing of hosting. Remember when it seemed like everyone had their own website? Now we have likes and upvotes to inform us of the correct content to consume.

I think your situation is one a lot of creators face. You can either sell really bland content to the masses or have genuine stuff to share with a handful of fans. Unfortunately I don't think you can have it both ways. I think it depends on how you feel about compromising on your content to try and gain a wider audience. If you feel like you can still come across through your art while doing it then it might be worth it. I would give it a shot, maybe experiment a little bit and see how people react.

[ColtonGray]

Really Good Comics is really good. Back in the day I’d read sprite comics like Bob & George, fireball20xl, Penny Arcade, Cyanide & Happiness before it blew up and had merch in every Spencer’s Gifts.