Webcomic

Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the Internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be compared to self-published print comics in that anyone with an Internet connection can publish their own webcomic. Readership levels vary widely; many are read only by the creator's immediate friends and family, while some of the most widely read have audiences of well over one million readers. Webcomics range from traditional comic strips and graphic novels to avant garde comics, and cover many genres, styles, and subjects. They sometimes take on the role of a comic blog. The term web cartoonist is sometimes used to refer to someone who creates webcomics.

Medium

There are several differences between webcomics and print comics. With webcomics the restrictions of traditional books, newspapers or magazines can be lifted, allowing artists and writers to take advantage of the web's unique capabilities.

Styles The creative freedom webcomics provide allows artists to work in nontraditional styles. Clip art or photo comics (also known as fumetti) are two types of webcomics that do not use traditional artwork. A Softer World, for example, is made by overlaying photographs with strips of typewriter-style text. As in the constrained comics tradition, a few webcomics, such as Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North, are created with most strips having art copied exactly from one (or a handful of) template comics and only the text changing. Pixel art, such as that created by Richard Stevens of Diesel Sweeties, is similar to that of sprite comics but instead uses low-resolution images created by the artist themself. However, it is also common for some artists to use traditional styles, similar to those typically published in newspapers or comic books.

Content Webcomics that are independently published are not subject to the content restrictions of book publishers or newspaper syndicates, enjoying an artistic freedom similar to underground and alternative comics. Some webcomics stretch the boundaries of taste, taking advantage of the fact that Internet censorship is virtually nonexistent in countries like the United States. The content of webcomics can still cause problems, such as Leisure Town artist Tristan Farnon's legal trouble after creating a profane Dilbert parody, or the Catholic League's protest of artist Eric Millikin's "blasphemous treatment of Jesus."

Format Webcomic artists use many formats throughout the world. Comic strips, generally consisting of three or four panels, have been a common format for many artists. Other webcomic artists use the format of traditional printed comic books and graphic novels, sometimes with the plan of later publishing books.

Scott McCloud, an early advocate of webcomics since 1998, pioneered the idea of the "infinite canvas" where, rather than being confined to normal print dimensions, artists are free to spread out in any direction indefinitely with their comics. Such a format proved highly successful in South-Korean webcomics when JunKoo Kim implemented an infinite scrolling mechanism in the platform Webtoon in 2004. In 2009, French web cartoonist Balak described Turbomedia, a format for webcomics where a reader only views one panel at a time, in which the reader decides their own reading rhythm by going forward one panel at a time. Some web cartoonists, such as political cartoonist Mark Fiore or Charley Parker with Argon Zark!, incorporate animations or interactive elements into their webcomics.

History

The first comics to be shared through the Internet were Eric Millikin's Witches and Stitches, which he started uploading on CompuServe in 1985. In 1986, T.H.E. Fox (later named Thaddeus), the next earliest known webcomic series to have existed and one that was created by Joe Ekaitis, was created digitally and published on CompuServe and later the World Wide Web. Services such as CompuServe and Usenet were used before the World Wide Web started to rise in popularity in 1993. Early webcomics were often derivatives from strips in college newspapers, but when the Web became widely popular in the mid-1990s, more people started creating comics exclusively for this medium. By 2000, various webcomic creators were financially successful and webcomics became more artistically recognized. Unique genres and styles became popular during this period. The 2010s also saw the rise of webtoons in South Korea, where the form has become very prominent. This decade had also seen an increasingly larger number of successful webcomics being adapted into animated series in China and Japan.

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