Once Upon a Webcomic

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Keencrow

Once upon a time, there were three webcomics.

The first was just a little webcomic. It didn’t get many hits because it was new on the scene, and was not very pretty yet. In fact, it still had the basic white template, with nothing special about it at all. The art was decent if a little amateurish, but the artist/writer thought it really had potential. So she put it on the webcomic list, and tried to get a few people to come to it on a forum or two, but in the end no one really came. There were a few unique hits, but not enough... and so, with a heavy heart full of disappointment, she left the poor little comic all alone, never to return.

The second one was a big webcomic. It had survived all the ups and downs of the comic world, and grown to be fairly popular within it’s respective peers. A few bigger comics had even linked to it early on, some due to fanart, others just because they thought the comic was funny, or the art style was interesting. As time passed, the artist/writer began to grow tired of the whole thing in the end and he walked away with the feeling that he had accomplished something... but that in the long run, none of it really mattered at all.

The third webcomic was neither too big, or too small. It had a few very devoted fans, a fairly nice generic following, and got a decent amount of hits. The maker of the comic felt comfortable with her artwork, which hadn’t always been top notch, but she was working on it constantly and it was slowly but steadily improving. There were a few times when she got tired of the strip, but she kept on going and she was happy with it, because she knew it was the best she could do. She did it for herself, as well as the fans, and she was happy.

Which webcomic are you?

Most people want to be the third comic, and most of those people don’t understand why the first two act like they do. I don’t get it, myself. If you take the time to start a webcomic and make more than two strips, why in the world would you just abandon it, because you’re not getting hits? With the second example, I wonder how someone can get tired of something that is so loved by people, and so popular.

Keenspace is full of comics like example one. Keenspot is full of comics like example two.

...and I can’t understand either, because I consider myself a three. I know I’m not an artistic or literary genius. My strip is a little experimental on my part, but it's much better than what I've done in the past. Most of the comics that are no more, which I would put in category two, were people with natural artistic talent that we would love to suck out with a straw. In ten minutes, they could sketch something out that would take us hours to do, if we were lucky.

Why? Why do they give it up? I’m not talking about the people that do it for purely real-life reasons. If they’re moving to Guatemala and won’t have internet access, I can understand. I’m talking about the ones who just…drop it all, and walk away.

It blows my mind and I have to admit, I don’t have the answers to any of these questions. I’m just rambling, like the title up there says. I’m no journalist, but I assume you’ve figured that out by now.

Maybe you’ve got some ideas or thoughts on the matter?

One a more positive note, I discovered the joy that is a comic jam the other day. If you really want to see webcomic artists working off the cuff and having a blast doing so, head over to the Keenspace forums sometime and check out one of the comic jams that are in progress. Alternately, if you’re not a big fan of going through twenty-plus pages of a thread, you can go to the semi-official Keenspace Jams site and have a look around. Some of the ones there are a bit old, but funny nonetheless. One warning, though, in a jam, it’s all about in jokes. Totally. That’s why I really recommend reading through the threads.

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