What are webcomics?

Discuss the future, present and past of sequential art.

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japanimationfist
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Yo Vince!

Post by japanimationfist »

I was away for a little while, and didn't see your post until today. I received an email yesterday from Keenspace letting me know that my account was ready to go, but it will probably take me a week or so to get anything up and running. I will post a splash page next week, with a "coming soon" banner, which you can check out. I will post again when it is up. At the moment I am trying to finish up the two week fill-in I promised for the folks over at Man-Man (www.man-man.org). I think they are expecting to run that this summer, so Japanimation Fist will be up and running before then.

I can tell you that the strip has been kicking around for about a year and half, and includes a robot, ninja kittens, and pint-sized mutant lizard named Godji. The style of the strip is somewhere between Patrick the Wolf Boy and the American Ninja film franchise, though my decision to go completely digital with the art has been fairly recent. You can see one of the digital ninja kitties right now if you check out my Yahoo Groups user profile: http://ca.profiles.yahoo.com/japanimationfist

By the way, I think that this thread has been great to get things rolling. I had a lot of questions and concerns that I was hoping I could address, and it seems as though there are lots of other folk who do too. I can't wait to see more of Yingo's comics :P
japanimationfist
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Another market for Belgian comics

Post by japanimationfist »

If you are looking for another French market outside of France and Belgium, you may want to have a look at Quebec, Canada, where I am living right now. There's a peculiar vibe here because French and English culture sort of comingle, so there are some places where you can buy the big BD albums, and traditional North American comics. Just a thought. If you want I can try to put you in touch with some people around here, though I would recommend you check out ZOINKS (sorry, I don't have the url), which is a news-print magazine that comes out of Montreal, and is dedicated almost entirely to web-comics and web-comic artists. It might be a good place to get your stuff seen, and the people you would encounter through ZOINKS would be able to help you find distributors here. Why settle for Europe, whe you could conquer the world?
InkAddict
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Conquer the world it is!

Post by InkAddict »

Why settle for Europe, whe you could conquer the world?
You're right, I won't make the mistake to keep my view too limited. You've got some real great artists by the way (Zep is from Quebec, and I've heard Zone Convective is great for its (french-language) alternative comics)

I'll try to check out ZOINKS (if I can find it....th biggest problem faced by the print versions of comics, must be the lack of availability :wink: )

By the way, I am now reading "la lettre, l'officiel de la bande dessin?e", a french magazine about comics in a quite serious and down-to earth form. Very good for professional artists, and quite to the point! I'll tell some of the important things in it on this BBS if anyone would like to hear it. It has some info on the recent Festival d'Angouleme and a graph on the European cost-splitting of a comic book ; here's the link:
(http://www.zwol.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3940#3940)
Check out my new site (under construction) at: InkAddict
Thomas
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Ninja Kittens...

Post by Thomas »

Ninja Kittens...dude that is rich....I dig that :-)

Hey any chance Zoinks does have a url? Anyone out there know what it is i'd be very intereseted in viewing thier site and if not on the web anyone got a physical address or phone # I could reach them at?

Thanx,
Thanks,
Thomas Clemmons
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japanimationfist
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Zoinks!

Post by japanimationfist »

I think you should be able to find it through www.voicesinmyhand.com. There should be a link on that page somewhere.

Ninja Kitties make me happy. :)
Animeg

what's a web comic

Post by Animeg »

Thomas wrote: The topic title pretty much asks what Id like to know. I mean are they just things we put up that we have scanned and just slapped up or should they be interactive and use the things that are uniqe to the internet? What are your opinions? Thanx.


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Thomas
http://www.gutterflycomix.com
Scanned and slapped up. Sure, it can be cool to use all the nice lil doohickeys on the web, but many people (unlike me) can make a competant yet traditional product that brings joy to hunderds. Like Ozy and Millie. No bells and whistles, but a good comic

Shannon
http://peachcoloredsky.keenspace.com <--scanned and slapped.
Thomas
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Happy B-day...

Post by Thomas »

Shannon,

Happy Birthday! :-)

I agree with you too (and not just because its yer birthday). When I started this post I was way on the side of anything "scanned and slapped" wasnt really web comics, but the more I see and the more I create the more I realize they are. The thing that sets just lazy scanned and slapped art being put up and called "webcomics" from real webcomics whether they are scanned or not is presentation.

Presentation is everything.

For example: I recently graduated from art school and we had to present everything we had done over the years at a big presentation in the auditorium. The two class catagories were Print media (im in there) and multimedia (consisting of everyting not considered print - web, video, etc.) anyway lots of people in multimedia had good stuff, but it wasnt presented well, the animations didnt work, or the websites crashed, the graphics werent arranged in a pleasing manner stuff like that. Most of the print people had good to sub par stuff but it was presented well (mainly because we were harped on alot about presentation) and it started to put the multimedia people to shame.

When I presented I showed some print stuff as well as my web site and teaser for our upcoming comic and (I shit you not on this) the auditorium roared when I was done. My stuff had put all the multimedia peoples stuff to shame that came before me. Not really because my art was better (some guys and gals had some really kick ass art) but I presented it in a way that rocked.

Of course the last two multimedia people after me killed me cause they had great art and great presentation skills too.

My point is, if you just scan in shitty scans and crappy art and call it a "webcomic" you are wrong. If you scan in art (good or crappy) but have a great presentation (i.e. cool website or launching platform from which to view the comic from) or use the computer to create the whole thing or use the bells and whistles of the net then these are indeed webcomics.

Of course these are my opinions ONLY and you can do with them what you will.

Again have a great Birth day.

Thomas
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Thomas Clemmons
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Zem
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Post by Zem »

Thomas wrote:My point is, if you just scan in shitty scans and crappy art and call it a "webcomic" you are wrong. If you scan in art (good or crappy) but have a great presentation (i.e. cool website or launching platform from which to view the comic from) or use the computer to create the whole thing or use the bells and whistles of the net then these are indeed webcomics.
Well... if you scan in shitty scans and crappy art, it's still a webcomic (assuming it's sequential and all), it's just a webcomic with... crappy art. My definition is: if it's a comic and it's based in the web (it has to be BASED in the web, so, no, Dilbert is not a webcomic just 'cause of the Dilbert Zone), it's a webcomic. Simple, assuming you can get a good idea of whether or not it's a comic.

So, wait. Does it have to use the bells and whistles of the net? What do you mean, exactly?

Heh, I'm listening to video game music recreationally. Go Megaman 3! (Or Rockman 3, if you prefer.)
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InkAddict
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Post by InkAddict »

I guess Thomas isn't talking about webcomics in se, but about webcomics that get respected as a webcomic.

Which is a webcomic you won'tsee as scanned and slapped because it feels like it's been done for the web. In his def. Dilbert is a webcomic because of its professionalism.

I for one prefer to use the term digital (or, in the case of scanned & slapped: digitalised) comics.

I don't agree with Thomas' definition, though he has a point when he says professionalism (which doesn't mean hooters & bells) is important. Also, as he points out professionalISM hasn't got anything to do with "professional"!

:wink:

It's just a different point of view, but I still think badly scanned good comics are still webcomics (or digital comics as you like it) only they're badly implemented webcomics.

The cheap-paper 4-colour comics of the fifties are still print comics, even if the printing is awful! They can even be BADLY printed GOOD comics. :)
Check out my new site (under construction) at: InkAddict
Thomas
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Hey guys...

Post by Thomas »

OK, I posted this over at comiccon.com under one of thier headings about using Macromedia Flash to make webcomics:

Well Ive been reading this thread and I realize there a hell of a lot more people doing Flash comics than I had realized. Merlin's stuff is really great, anything he does is gold really.
But I do have a question. What constitutes as groundbreaking webcomics? I mean I know if ya scan it and post it technically its a webcomic, but if I may go back to Scott McCloud's Book RC it seemed to me that just isn't enough to be considered groundbreaking or perhaps even webcomics in his eyes. Of course this definition does vary with each person I discuss this with, but Scott being a foremost authority on comics in general, might be able to shed more light on this definition.

Now this brings me to my idea of groundbreaking webcomics. I beleive a true webcomic, one that takes full advantage of things only the web can offer, is one that is interactive and makes the reader feel he/she are a partcipating member of the cast/story.

Today we have a technology unlike any before it. The internet allows a level of interactivity in one place you cant find in any other technology. You have text, video, graphics, mail, live chat, sound, animation, graphical story telling as well as textual story telling and much more all in one medium that we as creators can utilize to bring our stories to life. The method in which one "codes" these elements into their comics vary, but one thing is very very clear. Flash is the future of not ony web comics, but web design in general. Just as new technological advances in the television forced many to "upgrade" to bigger and better sets so is the technology of design on the internet and the day will come that broadband is a norm for the world on the web and those of us willing to embrace that fact and the tools that will be common place in creating content for the broadband user will be the ones running ahead of the rest.

Im working on a webcomic right now that I hope will do just that, bring the reader into the story. You can watch the teaser trailer here:

http://members.aol.com/svbtitan/episodeone/info.html

I haven't posted it up on my site at www.gutterflycomix.com in this version yet so you guys are getting first peeks.

If ya want to read what I have done so far on the comic go here:

http://members.aol.com/svbtitan/greenpa ... comix.html

What you see there is vital to the story I am working on even though no "paneled" work is up yet, but it will be very soon and yes I will be doing it in flash, but it will stay very interactive not just a sit and watch type of story.

Now that I have rambled longer than anyone cared to listen Im sure ill leave you with this. The future of webcomics belongs to us. Right here and now is where we begin to make the outline for the ones who come after us, so make it good and maybe some day some one will thank us for it.

This for the moment, because the more I see and the more people I talk to my opinion on what a webcomic is changes alot, is what I really consider a webcomic. But im sure tomorrow ill change my mind :-)

Thanks guys,
Thanks,
Thomas Clemmons
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Jack Masters
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Post by Jack Masters »

The problem with choose your own adventure stories is that unless the reader goes back through and takes every different set of choices, they miss part of the content. The more branching the story does, the more they'll miss.

The problem as I see it is this:
Linear stories model the linear structure of human experience, but not the ability to make choices, and non-linear stories have the opposite problem.

I tend to prefer the former when it comes to stories, although non-linearity can certaintly be new and different.

There are plenty of ways to be groundbreaking on an ordinary sheet of paper though, and just because something breaks ground doesn't mean it's any good.
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