A few months back Kurtz was banned from The Daily Cartoonist for inappropriate comments after a cartoonist lost his job. From my understanding, his ban has been lifted, but at that time, myself and several other webcomic creators were furious about his actions because like it or not, he does represent the webcomics community especially in the eyes of our peers in the print industry actually being paid by third parties for their work. They already think the webcomics model is a crackpot theory. In many ways it is, though.

Unless you are able to have the fortune to be linked by Kurtz or some of the other rockstar webcartoonists, you will likely swim in the river of obscurity for a long, long time. There are a lot of great webcomics that quite simply don’t get the attention they deserve simply because the webcomic “elite” hasn’t linked them or endorsed them. This is one aspect of the webcomic community that I find frustrating. And no, I’m not referring to my own work. I’m talking about the Astray3′s and Marsh Rockets of the world that produce a product of extremely high quality yet suffer through obscurity because one of the rockstars hasn’t said, “check this out.”

That being said, I do think that if a comic is of high enough quality, eventually it will receive the recognition it deserves. It may take longer than if it’s linked by one of the elites, but it will eventually find it’s way around.

As to the notion of the mediocrity of the CAD’s and PvP’s of the world, there’s really no answer for that is there? Another example is Dominic Deegan. Yes, I understand there are hordes of webcomic readers who tear down that comic and Mookie’s work on a daily basis, but there are also plenty that read it everyday and enough so that it sustains him. I guess the answer really is…who knows? Some put in time and effort for years and work hard and others just get lucky.

My advice to anyone aspiring to break into the business of comics, especially webcomics, don’t do it because you want to make a living, because that rarely happens in webcomics. Do it because you love to. Because you have to. Because if you’re not doing it for those reasons, there’s really no reason to do it at all.

Best wishes,
Rob

I think one thing you might consider is how those of us who are doing webcomics that also get published are doing.

You have a good amount of webcomics that are selling very well and even winning awards in publishing.

That has to count for something.
Books like Girl Genius, The Dreamer, Applegeeks, Perry Bible Fellowship, and even my own series The Dreamland Chronicles have had great success both online and in bookstores.

Do they hold up to current Marvel and DC standards? I think so.
But it may be like comparing a romantic comedy to a crime thriller movie.
Most of our work is a bit lighter in tone than your average Batman title.

Still. Something to consider.

Hope this helps. And thanks for the article.
Scott

PS.
My apologies if this is posted twice. I tried it once…and didn’t see it after 10 minutes. So I tried again.

I think one thing you might consider is how those of us who are doing webcomics that also get published are doing.

You have a good amount of webcomics that are selling very well and even winning awards in publishing.

That has to count for something.
Books like Girl Genius, The Dreamer, Applegeeks, Perry Bible Fellowship, and even my own series The Dreamland Chronicles have had great success both online and in bookstores.

Do they hold up to current Marvel and DC standards? I think so.
But it may be like comparing a romantic comedy to a crime thriller movie.
Most of our work is a bit lighter in tone than your average Batman title.

Still. Something to consider.

Hope this helps. And thanks for the article.
Scott

Anyway, back to the subject at hand: I disagree that webcomics are less quality than an average book you pull down from the bookstore. First of all, you mention that Anne McCaffrey’s book don’t hold up so well when you get older. As a former McCaffrey fan, I agree with you. HOWEVER, I have to say that a lot of the “best” webcomics — from the sense of tone, plot, and characterization — are only as good as McCaffrey at best, and the worst are far, far below that level.

Second, the low barrier to entry to publishing online means that the reader gets exposed to a lot more garbage than you normally would if it went through an editor. For example, if you go to webcomiclist.com, there’s something like a 70% chance that the webcomic you click on will be badly drawn in MS Paint, drawn in pixels, or terrible pencil anime sketches by a non-child-prodigy 10-year-old.

So, in the world of publishing, what are the chances that if you go to the children’s book section or graphic novel section or what-not and you encounter really bad MS Paint jobs? Zero. (Or, following your example of just text books, at least you’re guaranteed any book you pull down from the shelves is completed, written in at least a semblance of proper grammar, and isn’t published in a font that makes you want to tear your eyes out.) No editor in the world would ever greenlight 90% of the stuff that goes on in webcomics.

I’m not saying there aren’t gems in webcomics; I mean, if there weren’t, my blog would get really old really fast. The reality of digital publishing is that it really is in its infancy, and it will take time for a more formal infrastructure to develop in order to promote the good webcomics and bury the bad. That’s how all new industries start.

But, as of now, the reality is that percentage of crap webcomics is much higher than crap books you’d find in a bookstore and/or a comic book shop.

I also like Rob’s take on the web being a great place for better comics to emerge.

What’s more, I’m willing to bet that someone out there will consider that piece of writing you saw to actually be quite good and would be outraged that you considered that piece of writing to be verbal crap.

Heck, twenty years back I absolutely loved the writing of Anne McCaffrey. Today? I look at what she’s written and have far less enjoyment for her writing, seeing the flaws that are in it and McCaffrey’s failings as a writer. Twenty years ago I would have been outraged by someone saying “her stuff isn’t good” or I’d have ignored them. Tastes change over time.

It’s a shame about Bengo… and it’s also a shame about Kurtz being a bastard once again (though we all have that potential within us, even yours truly, the milquetoast of the webcomic reviewer scene). But Bengo is wrong about webcomics. Because if you compare the worse of webcomics with the worse of print comics, sure you’ll find webcomics are a bit worse… but you’d be surprised at just how wretched some of that print work actually is. If you compare the medium-quality print comics and the medium-quality webcomics, I suspect you’ll find there are far more medium-quality or better webcomics than print comics because of cost… and because the web has become the medium that cartoonists can more easily get their work out and have people read it.

I better cut this short. I’m starting to ramble. ^^;;

Take care

Rob H.