 Media Credit: americasupportsyou.mil The good old American super hero
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"I'm most excited about moving beyond what paper can do; breaking past the edge of the page, allowing the story to take its own shape, find its own size," says Scott McLeod, author of the bestselling book "Understanding Comics" in an interview in The Mac Observer.
The comics section has always been a staple of North American daily newspaper reading. However, with the current newspaper industry-and print media in general-in serious decline, a growing number of consumers are now turning to the World Wide Web to get their comic fix. The Webcomic trend, of course, has its own distinct audience; due to its relatively unrestricted content and artistic developments it is separate and not necessarily complementary to print publishing. Thus, there remain benefits for publishing cartoons in each medium.
"I just think [the advantages of print] are temporary," McLeod says.
Easy as cake
One advantage-or disadvantage-of online publishing is that anyone can do it. While this may result in quality comics without the resources to snag a spot in a daily newspaper or the serial volume to reach an audience, it also means that comics of any content or quality can find a niche audience.
"People who do any sort of art now have available to them a potentially limitless audience and so it enables anyone, with or without talent and with something to say-or nothing to say-to be heard," says Mark Federman, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Toronto in adult education and former Chief Strategist of the McLuhan Program in culture and technology.
Comparatively easy-to-use and with a wide range of quality requirements, Webcomics sometimes struggle to achieve widespread popularity-unlike, for example, newspaper cartoons, where getting published automatically gives artists a large audience. On the other hand, it's very easy to get exposure and gain popularity if you know how to advertise- and discipline yourself.
"The best and worst thing about Webcomics is that anybody can toss a JPG or two up at some free Web site and be a Web cartoonist. So while they are a great way to hone your craft, get disciplined about meeting deadlines and that sort of thing, it's hard to stand out from all that crap or build an audience," says Gordon McAlpin, the author of Multiplex, a twice-weekly Webcomic about staff in a fictional suburban cinema and the real movies that play there.
While the anything-and-anyone goes non-policy of online art means that the bar is significantly lowered in terms of content and style-and general decency-it also allows for greater and wider means of expression.
"We used to think that mass media was media created for the masses… What the net allows us to do is to turn the power dynamic of who gets to say stuff," Federman says.
One example of a shifting power dynamic is Mom's Cancer, a Webcomic created by Brian Flies detailing his mother's struggle with lung cancer and its effect on their family. Though not syndicated, the Webcomic won several awards and was eventually released in a hardcover edition-something that was possible because of its online fan base.
"Mom's Cancer began as a Webcomic because I didn't know what to do with it," Flies explains. "The Internet offered a very low-cost means of immediate world-wide distribution."
McLeod also acknowledges the monetary differences between Web (versus print) comic publishing.
"When I was creating only printed comics in the 80s, I chose not to self-publish because of all the work involved. Here online though, I do everything myself and it's all relatively easy (though, of course, it required some learning at first)," McLeod says. "There's a difference between survival and profitability, of course. I don't lose money but I don't make too much either."
The audience is watching
The low-cost form of distribution also gives artists a greater opportunity for previously unaccepted variations that would not be elsewhere. For McAlpin, one of the tangible benefits of an online format is this fluidity.
"I love the freedom to do strips that are four or six or 12 panels long if I want; that kind of flexibility would be hard to come by in print," McAlpin explains.
Another advantage to online publishing is the condensed time-frame. Rather than taking days or months, minimum, to publish a strip or serial volume, artists are free to respond to events or inspiration in as much or as little time as they want.
"I love that I can read a bit of movie news or see a movie, do a comic strip about it and post it, all within 24 hours. I can keep any movie [or] news commentary fresh, which just wouldn't be possible in print," McAlpin says.
Multiplex currently gets 33,000 page views per day, according to Google. By comparison, the weekend edition of The Globe and Mail has a circulation of 410,285 (2007 data from the Canadian Newspaper Association).
The ease of the creative process also allows for audience feedback and gives the artists a chance to respond. Message boards and e-mails are easier to send than letters-and make communication between the artist and audience easier to maintain than with normal print media.
"Immediate interaction with readers was one of the best benefits of being on the Web. Within hours of putting Mom's Cancer online, I started to get a sense of whether people liked it or not. And I began getting the most extraordinary e-mails. One of the earliest and best was from a professor of nursing in Australia who asked if she could include some of my pages in training materials for her students dealing with cancer patients. The idea that my family's story would be interesting and useful to healthcare professionals on the other side of the world blew me away," Fies says. As with all Internet message boards, the anonymity and rapid result from e-mails allow anyone to send whatever they like and can result in a variety of comments.
"There's the disadvantage of being one click away from every idiot on the planet. But that's the Internet for you," McAlpin says.
Everyone wants to be in print
Internet creators are often free to ignore the normal restrictions on touchy subject matter or sexual or violent explicitness. This allows them greater freedom content-wise.
"We're seeing an explosion of talent that would otherwise not have been found, because the barrier of entry and the gatekeepers have… limitations on who gets to contribute and who gets to be seen," Federman says. "We're seeing humour and commentary and satire that would never have made it in conventional newspapers or other forms of comics and this makes us all considerably richer."
At the end of the day, however, many of these Internet-based cartoonists hope for eventual print syndication and the possibility of reaching a larger audience.
"Unlike some Webcomics creators, I always hoped Mom's Cancer might become a book… I didn't know much about publishing except that I'd probably need an agent and it would take a long time, likely involving years of waiting with no promise of success," Fies says. "The attention I got on the Web helped me attract publishers and make a business case that there was an audience for a book like mine. It turned out to be a nice synergy."
Kappoww!!!-ing into the future
But what does this mean for print publication?
"Webcomics are probably contributing to the demise of the newspaper comic strip… and they may be eating away comics periodicals' sales [i.e. the typical 22-36 page comics magazines], but graphic novel sales have grown considerably in the past couple of years," McAlpin says. "If anything, I would guess that Webcomics are helping print comics in that they're exposing a lot of non-comics readers to a huge range of material-stuff that isn't just gag strips or dudes kicking the shit out of each other-and creating new readers in the process."
Whether stick-figure sketches on cave walls, superheroes blasting laser rays-o-death over thinly-veiled political ideals in the second World War, or school children brutally murdering each other in Japanese manga, comics, in some form, have always been around. And, likely, they always will, though perhaps in different textual formats.
"We always tell stories using the dominant means of communication… right now… It's natural that [comics] would find their way online," Federman says. "I think it will continue as long as people have something to say and the ability to create abstract images. It will continue on for as long as we're communicating online, until the next dominant form of communication."
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Marilla P. Alligator
posted 1/17/08 @ 7:17 PM EST
This is a great article! The landscape of comic strips is indeed changing. The web not only offers many more possibilities for exposure but has the potential for a strip to engage an audience in a much more personal and interactive way. (Continued…)
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