Annotated 44-30
The FB for today promoted one of Flo’s side projects, Vetruvian Homer.
I’ve been at this comics-storytelling thing for a while. When I was getting my start, I briefly resented this whole “Internet” thing as an upstart distraction from real comics—you know, the kind published and purchased in specialty shops and maybe collected into trade paperbacks.
I came around and embraced the internet as a low-cost way to publish longform stories. But after a few years, I had to cope with the fact that webcomics didn’t like longform stories that much. Oh, there were a few successes here and there, but by the time Guilded Age started up, the face of online comics looked more like the xkcd and Cyanide and Happiness stickmen than Questionable Content‘s Marten or Dumbing of Age‘s Joyce. In an age of fragmented consumption, it was short, punchy gags that found viral success. The immersive world of Arkerra ain’t gonna fit onto your Instagram. And don’t even get me started on Facebook’s alleged “stories.”
For me, Webtoon represents a new frontier in that regard: a market for digital comics that’s centered on “story” as I know it—character development, plotting, worldbuilding, getting readers invested, creating a mental universe you can explore. (A few notable Webtoons are not so longform. Wayne Family Adventures, a DC Comics project on the platform, is more of a gag strip for Batfans, and Owlbear’s work has little to unite it besides punchy gags and his overall style. But these are exceptional: most of the launches on the platform have a clear narrative thread.)
And crucially, it’s a successful market. Comics attracts more than its share of big talkers whose mouths write checks that their bank accounts can’t cash. Some of them are frauds, some of them are just hopeful dreamers, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter. You learn to avoid those guys if you want to stay solvent.
It’s been kind of amusing to me to see a few Guilded Age readers insist that this “Webtoon” thing couldn’t possibly succeed—not my Webtoon project specifically, but all Webtoons and the entire platform—when it’s been in business for 17 years, has had multiple series turned into streaming movies, started working with DC Comics last year, inspired Marvel to pursue a similar format—guys, I could go on. Yes, it’s a little irritating to read on one’s desktop at times….because it’s formatted primarily for the phone and for apps, because that’s where the young readers are now. The differences it has with the webcomics I did for most of my career? Well, those differences just make me more interested in this strange new frontier, and in its commercially successful infinite canvases.
But is that frontier interested in anything I have to offer? Well…uh…the jury’s still out!
(Continued tomorrow.)
Personally, I’ve been following your work since 2008 with Penny & Aggie, but I’m not sure what my first webcomic was and when. Too many of the ones from the early days didn’t hold my interest for long. Come to think of it I believe I saw an ad for P&A in the now defunct Out There and the rest is history.
Definitely among my first was Schlock Mercenary, back around 2001.
Back in the late 90s I think, I was reading the website of someone I’ll describe loosely as a “TV critic.” Anyway, they listed things they were reading, one of which was the webcomic “Queen of Wands”, which crossed over with “Something Positive”, which crossed over with “ShortPacked!”, whose predecessor “It’s Walky!” crossed over with “Faans”, which eventually led me here. What a journey!
My first webcomic was 8-bit-theater. I found it while in study hall at my high school library around 2003 or so. I was perusing various flash games/videos and came across a few episodes of something called 8-bit-theater. I wanted more, and in the links for the videos was a link to the webcomic. I’ve been hooked on long-form webcomics ever since.
I’ve always like the long-form webcomics myself. Not having to break stories into 16-24 pages chunks, let alone what can be done by breaking out of conventional page formats has made for some great stuff. It is also allowing people to produce books at their own pace, or under their own control too.
I like the idea of webtoons, but the interface seems terrible on iPad, which is where is do most of my webcomic reading. I’ll have go at Traveller again in a week or two, the start was interesting but webtoons puts me off doing anything more than popping in every couple of months to see what is going on I’m afraid.
I just noticed Syr’Nj’s first word balloon in the fourth panel is missing a couple words. “But it’s never too turn over a new leaf.” should have been “But it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf.”
Amazing that I read the page and didn’t even notice the missing words — and so did many others, I assume…
“…as if humans…?” The Five are two humans, two elves, and a dwarf, right? And it’s not like Weo showed the originals as anything more than silhouettes which could have been any approximately humanoid race
It’s almost as if a few of them have a prejudice.
t’s been kind of amusing to me to see a few Guilded Age readers insist that this “Webtoon” thing couldn’t possibly succeed—not my Webtoon project specifically, but all Webtoons and the entire platform—when it’s been in business for 17 years, has had multiple series turned into streaming movies, started working with DC Comics last year, inspired Marvel to pursue a similar format—guys, I could go on
Sadly, to post a comment on the internet you don’t actually require to know anything about the subject being discussed. I would know /:)
I mean, FWIW I never said it’s not a successful platform. I just said I personally can’t stand the format, and I generally read comics almost exclusively on the phone.
I can’t stand infinite scrolling ANYWHERE–any tweeting I’ve ever done has been despite the design, because everyone else and their brother is on there
I follow a few stories on Webtoon, their format is engaging with the right pacing. Here is to the future of Traveler.
I actually don’t mind the webtoon format at all on desktop and I am also a believer in the format. It is, in many ways, the materialisation of Scott McCloud’s “infinite canvas” potential and it’s fascinating to see it develop narrative devices unique to the scrolling action, such as taking advantage of the “hidden but inminent” elements to create anticipation or surprise, or the length of pauses being defined by the amount of scrolling.
Before I got to the bit about webtoons, I was wondering why you left out Girl Genius and Agatha Heterodyne, and the real stars, the Jaegers! (:)) and to double check that, yes, the printing starting in 2000-01, but it went to web format in 2005.
That said, I discovered webtoons at least four, maybe years ago I think, and follow multiple stories a day. I got to read through all of Sweet Home from when it first came out until the end, before it shortly went to requiring a reader to have account to get daily free passes or use coins to read past episode 6 or 7, which was itself a little bit before it had it’s first season on Netflix (another aside, I’m still disappointing they changed the ex-cop character to a justice seeking criminal type, though I see the appeal. Some of the other changes were unnecessary to. I did love that they got the actor who played the monk in Bring it On Ghost to play the handicapped neighbor. He was perfect. Sorry, with this tangent). Requiring accounts and either paying or doling out already released episodes with daily passes is one practice I do NOT like, but I enjoy a large number of stories the platform provides immensely. I cannot understand why any CONSUMER, at least would trying to knock it down generally. *shrug*
That said, I did not realize it’s been around 17 years (as long as Girl Genius on the web!). I knew I would have only guessed 12. It’s definitely been getting more popular since I started reading there.
Weird observation: I never realized how much taller (and bigger) Penk is than Syr’Nj
Eh – Unsounded is the greatest example the medium has to offer. The things Ashley does time and again with interactivity and page layout are superlative. Let alone how beautiful the art is and how deeply complex her characters are. I think it’ll be a long time before anything tops it.
I actually prefer reading webtoon on my desktop. It’s where I do most everything, it’s got a big screen… The major bar to me spending more coins is that I don’t really like reading webtoon on a tablet. I have to really like a series and be impatient to do that to myself. (These days, only Unordinary.)
I honestly don’t recall having heard the word ‘Webtoon’ before today. Hopefully I’ll remember to Google it later.
If you give me some examples of stories you enjoy, I’ll give you some recommendations!
Thanks, I’d appreciate that. GA, obviously. Girl Genius. Harpy Gee. Alice and the Nightmare. How to be a Werewolf. Questionable Content. Evil Inc. I dropped Dumbing of Age several months ago; too angsty.
I noticed a whole LOT of stuff on Webtoon seems to have VERY similar (anime-influenced?) art styles. I’ll admit that isn’t my favorite visual approach but if I could get past the art on Ed, Edd, and Eddy for the sake of a laugh, I can get over almost anything.
I’m used to reading my comics on webpages, but I do it on my phone. An app would be much better. I thought the first few pages of Traveller were good but I did find the scrolling a bit much. I’m a bi ge reader, had you given us 40 Guilded Age -sized pages, I would have read them, and I think I would have enjoyed it more than three super long pages. That’s not a dealbreaker though, just a bit of a hurdle for me to overcome. That, and the fact there’s nothing else I read on webtoon, so I’m not super eager to log on the app and look for the one comic I might read there.
My current consumption is Questionable Content, Something Positive, Girls With Slingshots + Commentary, Order of the Stick, Guilded Age + commentary, Between Failures and Dumbing of Age. I think all of them have long-form narrative. I don’t really seek out purely one-gag-a-day comics, I do like a story.
But that’s me, and I think there might be different levels of successful. I love Guilded Age and Dumbing of Age equally, but if the latter is more successful, it doesn’t mean Guilded Age wasn’t.
I expect I’ll check out Traveller again at some point, and give this Webtoon thing a fair shake. I haven’t really gotten into a new webcomic in a long time, though, it turns out. Might have been 10 years. Maybe it’s just not in me anymore. Maybe I’ll just read the ones I have until they all end, one after the other. Only time will tell.
In fairness, Webtoons rebranded in 2014; before that they catered mainly to Korea. I didn’t realize they existed before that. I think most people assume they were established around the same time as Tapas.
Okay, what’s ‘Tapas’? Googling it returns results about overpriced, underportioned entrees.
Hmm…most of the webcomics I read (or used to read) are long-form stories. Order of the Stick, Erfworld (sadly still on hold…), Scary go round, Atland and Dr. McNinja, to name a few.
The thing about following long-form stories in this way is that loads of details fade between reads, since it takes so long for the next installment to appear. That means that very often, I stop reading at some stage and come back later to read them in a few sittings, as you would read a book.
If you were publishing Traveller here, on this page, I’d probably be commenting every other episode, but Webtoons’s site has tons of tracking, age “verification”, and I find the site fairly unwieldy to use. That may be reinforced by my baseline level of privacy-enhancing plugins, but I’m refusing to “pay with my data”.