Why Webcomics?

Discuss the future, present and past of sequential art.

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L Jonte
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Why Webcomics?

Post by L Jonte »

My buddy Barb Lien-Cooper explains why here.

And I can't find a thing to disagree with, (which must surely be a sign of the apocalypse.) One of my favorite bits is this...

"I can't stand decompressed storytelling. Often, I see five issue story arcs that could easily be settled in two or three issues but due to padded art, one has to wade through two extra issues. For instance, in one comic I saw, there was a two page spread of New York City, as if we'd never seen the place before. It's not freaking Krypton, man. We do understand what NYC looks like."
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Post by Greg Stephens »

Good article.

With regard to "decompressed" storytelling, in particular, it's a technique and like any other technique, once it becomes fashionable, all sorts of people try to emulate it without understanding how it really works, thus creating many bad stories, thus leading the the idea that the technique itself is responsible for the poor stories rather than the poor writing (or drawing).

But webcomics don't often use it, since most of them are a exercise in doing as much as possible with as little space as possible.
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Post by Tim Mallos »

And with the little bit of time available. ;)

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L Jonte
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Post by L Jonte »

Right, but in the hands of somebody who knows what s/he is about, getting rid of a story's narrative dead weight can be a wonderful thing. Though, I do think that having a little too much narrative is more palatable in a webcomic (assuming it takes the form of imagery) than say, in prose. Frankly, I'd rather spend a few seconds looking at some unnecessary pictures than half an hour reading the pointless ramble that inevitably follows "Up spake aged Nestor..."

And Greg, your point about the technique getting the blame for its own inept application also extends to the medium. So many webcomics out there are crap, therefore they must all be crap.
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