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: