It’s a fair question, isn’t it? While it’s true that many of these “authors” are not being paid for their work, and even the ones who are become uncannily lazy in the alluring bask of fame, that’s just no excuse to publish shitty content to your audience simply because you know they have no better expectations than what you have to offer. During an enlightening conversation with Mr. Repose, I decided I could do much worse than to expose some of the reasons that the vast majority of webcomics will probably always be lamesauce.
Sadly, the first word that comes to my mind when I think of webcomics is not “funny”, but rather “failure”. In a virtual world where most people have no personality decipherable from some other blockhead sitting two seats down on one of the other library computers, some of these boring, unfulfilled sheep use the vast array of 5 or 6 genuinely “unique” characters on countless webcomics to make themselves feel that they can identify with someone… even if they’re not real. Then when someone they met online asks them what they’re like in real life, they can have a lie at the ready:
Billyskater93: I’m like Brandon, the super cool guitarist in METALCOMIC. Here’s a link to his bio.
SallyJuniperxoxo: That’s so awesome! Do you play guitar? ^_^;
Billyskater93: I’m learning. Also I’m thinner than Brandon. LOL!!
One idiot lying to another idiot. The fact is that Brandon’s clone looks nothing like the character would look as a real person, and is in fact 260 lbs. and his knowledge of guitars is that he’s seen them on MTV. Oh and Sally is probably a guy.
It’s not a problem when you compare yourself to a fictional character, lots of people do that, but when you give someone an unrealistic outlook about you and start to believe that you’re successful and awesome simply by the virtue of optimism, this can only lead to disappointment.
Another strong selling point to readers and simultaneously, the most obnoxious thing about webcomics, is the attitude. Never before have cocky expressions and raised eyebrows received so much undue popularity outside of an animated film produced by Dreamworks. In some comics, that’s the whole fucking punchline! An “edgy” look of disgust, hate, and/or confusion. You know, if these guys just didn’t bother trying to come up with filler, we could all enjoy webcomics for what they really are:
To my not-so-stunned non-amazement, I didn’t have to look past page 1, comic 1 (most recent comic, not first) for the strip a strip to edit. Because a lot of the episodes in this comic are angst-filled pap just like 99% of the rest of webcomicdom, all apparently written by people who share a brain and think that being a miserable douchebag who can DRAW is a good excuse for subjecting people to the same fucking shit every day they’re sober enough to pick up a pen. Do these people snarl at fans, dogs, and little old ladies because their lives are so hard, or do they manage to get out all of their aggression towards humanity out by drawing that FACE over and over again. It’s why I had such a big problem with Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic, man, he had some real ATTITUDE, never mind that the game was a clunky pile of crap with worse play control than Backwards Pacman. A fitting analogy I think.
Not all webcomics are completely awful, as strange as that may seem coming from me. One of the funniest ones in particular, is called Order of the Stick, and is pure genius. The art is not complex, but the writing is phenomenal, if a bit wordy for a webcomic. The first ever episode can be found at: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
If you know anything at all about tabletop RPG’s or just want to get a good laugh despite not understanding every little thing, give it a shot.
These comics make people who go into this sort of market look a lot less incompetent, but still OotS is vastly overshadowed by comics that are all attitude and no humor, or worse, ones that star furries and are more fucked up than clowns dropping acid.
If you know you’re no good at Google and you’re easily irritated, I suggest simply clicking Order of the Stick and keeping up to date with it (it’ll take you a freaking month to read everything), or just don’t bother at all. There’s way too much shit to sift through for it to be worth the time and hair you’ll lose.
- Wells
This delightful nugget of information was brought to you by: 2nd in command, because it's all the power with less responsibility. Dispenser of verbal justice and handy with a game controller. More from this authorPopularity: 11% [?]
