webcomics: form

[egypturnash]

I should preface this by noting that I don't read any webcomics with any regularity. Well, I read T's Fite! because he's doing it as LJ, and that integrates. And maybe I should look for RSS feeds for a few others by my friends and integrate them into LJ. But I'm one of those people who reads webcomics by going through the archives irregularly, and doesn't keep aware of the trends and the hot newcomers.

There's a certain number of conventions I've noticed to webcomics. So many people seem to give each installment a title. And there'll be rants, commentary, and glosses running next to them - sometimes a blog, sometimes commentary on the strip itself.

I can understand the urge to do both, but I feel like both of them are, perhaps, guiding the reader too much. Does every page of a normal comic book have a title? No; why does a continuity-oriented webcomic need one? Because everyone does it. Why does a three/four-panel gag strip need a title that ironically spins the strip? Everyone does it.

I'm not saying it's bad in and of itself - but I wonder why it's so endemic in web comics? It feels foreign and awkward to the rhythms of most strips. It worked fine in the ironic existential humor of "Zippy the Pinhead", which is the first place I saw it in modern comics. Really, a per-strip title feels like a throwback to the awkward strips of the early 1900s to me. (Maybe the relative youth of webcomics-as-medium is why we get things like this cropping up? New medium, new conventions; let's try reviving some old ones?)

Something not to do if I ever get off my ass and start one myself, I suppose. Just a branding header, small links, and the page. No commentary, no title. Titles for units of story large enough to need one - chapters, at the smallest. Here's the story, make of it what you will; here's a link to a character reference, here's the forums, here's the archives, here's the shop.

I guess I feel like the author talking about why they drew one page or what they loved about it doesn't have to be immediately exposed. Maybe in the deluxe edition, maybe in the forums. In the endnotes of the book like the 'Finder' collections. In the five-year retrospective collection of the creator's favorites. But not right there next to the strip, spinning it and guiding the reader.

And then there's the blog-under-the-comic. I don't mind it normally, it kinda works. I really hate the way any link someone makes to today's Penny Arcade gets redirected to the front page, which completely lacks the comic and only has their blogs, though.

Comments

[xyzzysqrl]

Whereas I find Penny Arcade, the webcomic, to be boring and stupid... but Penny Arcade, the gaming webcolumn, is -great- fun to read.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

I don't go for either, really. But I get 'hey, look here!' links to the comic more often than the gaming blog.

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

You know, it never occurred to me to title each episode of fite. The only thing I do is separate the chapters with the "round 1, round 2" gimmick. The only thing I do with the header is occasionally change the images as they have something to do with plot. I also try not to post anything other than the comic, even though it's on LJ. I leave that crap for my regular LJ. I guess I never noticed other comics that do this, though I read almost none myself. From your description, it does sound rather annoying. I don't generally care for the "need to be clever" either.

It's good to hear this kind of thing, too. When the comic goes up on webcomics nation, I'll leave it as it is; just the comic. Folks can comment or click to ref if they want. Thanks for that tip.

I'd LOVE to see you do a comic. I can't imagine what it would be like, but I'd bet it would change around a lot and be quite amazing. *push push*

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

For reasons of tact I didn't link to the comic with page titles AND sidenotes on every single installment that made me ponder this. I like how minimal you're being with Fite! - just the comic. Of course, the wordless nature of the strip probably has something to do with it!

A comic by me will probably involve monster girls. That's kind of a given, and both of the ideas I'm fooling with are about that. Otherwise... yeah, there'll be style wanderings and weirdness, that I'm sure of. I'll have a table large enough to draw pages on soon if all goes well...

[kamenkyote.livejournal.com]

On top of everything else you said, there's always the point that if you can't include everything you need in the story, adding it on afterwards or in blogs really just points out a lack of storytelling. I was flipping through a book of webcomics reprints and noticed that in the book, at the bottom of the page beneath each strip WAS COMMENTARY!! It was SO lame. If you need to include context, the strip does not hold up on its own.

And thanks, Peggy, for the nice things said. I very much look forward to anything you come up with for a comic. I can only imagine its constant kinetic nature.

[strredwolf.livejournal.com]

Makes me glad for a few things in the Comic Genesis service... and I'm sorry if I sound like a pitch here.

CG has RSS feeds natively. Each comic has a /rss.xml.

I just added a blogging feature there... but thankfully it is optional for the artist/account holder. Unfortuantely, HTML IFRAMEs allow embedding of outside blogs.

What a mess.

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Thanks! (makes notes)

[zeeth_kyrah]

Some webcomics embed LJ pages - but then the creators don't change their LJ page style to fit the visual style and layout of the blog, so that you get text

squashed into
tiny columns
with lots of
open space on
the left side
.

[hazeraccoon.livejournal.com]

I share your opinions so much on this. Is it odd to feel more interested in authors who talk little about themselves, rather than the ones who communicate directly with their fans all the time?

One other trend going on lately is to have each strip's image be given ALT-text, so the reader gets to put the mouse over and read some additional joke or trivia or commentary. It's cute at first, then it becomes another routine caption to read for every strip.


Strangely, most Shoujo manga volumes have had author journals for a while, just like these webcomics. One page of every chapter usually has its layout cropped to fit in commentary on the side. I always wonder why they can't just put those in-between chapters instead, rather than interrupting the comic's flow. (The authors usually just talk about anime and pop singers anyway)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Is it odd to feel more interested in authors who talk little about themselves

I don't think so. Saying little creates mystery. If you know everything I like and everything I think about my art, can I surprise you as much?

Alt text is debatably more of a hidden message than an actual part of the presentation. Those can be fun, but I can see them easily becoming routine when every single episode has a wry spin on the strip as its alt text. An expected surprise ceases to become a surprise.

[zeeth_kyrah]

Actually, yes. So can Ursula Vernon, despite her blog. It is from the artist, not from the art, that the quality of surprise will come. The art is simply a medium to convey that moment of surprise.

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

I never really got the title-per-strip thing.

You need a blog for two reasons: first, so that you have a space for announcements; second, and more importantly: searchable text.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

The is that! We must all bow before Google...

[mister-wolf.livejournal.com]

I sussed out strip titles while I was catching up on Hate Song. It's a navigability thing. You want readers who've been away fro a while to have some ability to figure out where they stopped beyond "August 14th 2003" or whatever. You basically want to label your smallest coherent storytelling unit, which is chapters for me, because I totally ignore the demands of web publication, or individual strips for people who have a clue.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes. That's a good reason for them. I dunno, I just feel like they're an intrusion on narrative purity. Works for some strips and not others.

I don't think having your smallest storytelling unit be a chapter is ignoring the demands of the web; for some stories, 4-6 panels is simply not a viable unit. There are books with chapters that range down to half a page and all have titles; there are books with lengthy chapters that're just numbered, there are books with no chapters at all. It's a combination of the demands of the form and the demands of the story.

I guess I tend to think in a more long-form for-print format than a gag-a-day for the web; a title for every single page seems like an intrusion to me.

[zeeth_kyrah]

http://www.ohnorobot.com/
Search the text in the comic, not just under it!

[mcity.livejournal.com]

But I'm one of those people who reads webcomics by going through the archives irregularly, and doesn't keep aware of the trends and the hot newcomers.

[selfpimp] (http://jw63.blogspot.com/)
Actually, using LJ is, in itself, a trend. I read kawaii_not and headtripcomics.

Why does a three/four-panel gag strip need a title that ironically spins the strip? Everyone does it.

I don't, not always. I recently did a strip where the title had absolutely nothing to do with it's content. I also let some of my early strips pass with only nonsencial 'commentary'.

Also, archiving reasons. Titles are easier to remember than strip numbers or dates, especially if you use a drop-down archive.

And then there's the blog-under-the-comic. I don't mind it normally, it kinda works. I really hate the way any link someone makes to today's Penny Arcade gets redirected to the front page, which completely lacks the comic and only has their blogs, though.

They're linking wrong. (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

No they're not: you're linking to 'today's comic', rather than 'this particular comic that happens to be new today' - next week your link will point to a different comic, while the other link will actually point to the page it was cut and pasted from. And two weeks from now your link goes to yet another comic, while the other link will continue to point to the same one...

Of course it seems to be academic as trying to go back in their archive right now results in a "Ruby on Rails Error".

[mcity.livejournal.com]

Actually, anyone with five minutes of thought could figure it out.

*checks* (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/05/26)

Huh. Manually altering the URL to the date of the latest comic sends someone to the frontpage, unless, presumably, another comic has been unloaded. That's really bad design. The /comic/ link should simply redirect to the current comic, and save everyone some trouble. I stand corrected.