I got into webcomics when a friend of mine told me about Ctrl+Alt+Del freshman year. It was revelatory. I could read comics . . . good, entertaining comics that participated in topical debates . . . well-drawn, fun-to-look-at comics . . . on the internet. It took me about two days of obsessive reading to get through the CAD archives. They’re pretty epic. This is probably the strip that did it for me.
And that’s the beauty of the online comic. I did a quick browse through the archives – all there, all free – and dropped the link into this post. It’s brilliant, easy, fast.
Overcompensating is the comic-blog I mentioned in class. It has the odd effect of concretizing the experiences, daydreams, and mad delusions of the author and artist, Jeffrey Rowland. Continuity and plot are generally anathema to OC, but there are periodic bursts of work that make sense. I would say that it’s like Bizarro or Speedbump or I Need Help, except you know, because it’s a comic-blog, that Jeffrey’s trip to hell has some relevance to something – even if it’s just a movie about a Zombigeddon that he saw recently. The comic blog is an innovative way to share creative impulses . . . and to link to the all-important store.
Least I Could Do is another pretty good comic. Some story lines are better than others. However, LICD has, through the entrepreneurial genius of its writer and creator, Ryan Sohmer, turned into a full-fledged business. The site offers freebies – wallpaper, icons, stuff like that – a well-developed online store, an active forum, a Facebook application, and immediate updates (blogs, spaces for chat, etc.) on the front page. Blind Ferret Productions, born out of the LICD enterprise, handles the burgeoning animated series for CAD.
Dominic Deegan and Questionable Content are generally just great comics, but neither has really reached the vast heights of CAD or LICD in their instant-access, multi-user spaces. Forums and stores (QC’s t-shirts are pretty choice), yes, and J. Jacques has a couple of tangential blogs that got their start on QC ground, but I think that both Jacques and Terracciano are still experimenting with the possibilities of webcomicing.