The Rebirth of Comics

Malfourmed writes "The Sydney Morning Herald is running a story on web based comics and how the new medium can change the traditional "left-to-right in a rectangular frame" paradigm. Concentrating on the work of Scott McLoud it also mentions geek favourites Dilbert and The Matrix, among others. Micropayments are discussed, with the article claiming that after you pay your 25 cents "most of which goes straight to McCloud, cutting out the middlemen that make it difficult for comic artists to make a living from their work, and in the process doing justice to their talents." One of the more interesting sites discussed is the Oz Comics 24 Hour Gallery, the result of a competition in which artists had 24 hours to create an original, 24-page comic. So popular was the contest that the server suffered from a veritable slashdot effect."

Re:no middlemen?

[ziriyab]

Then who are web hosting providers and ISPs?

They are the web hosts and the ISPs. A middleman is a person who buys from producers and sells to consumers. The web hosts and ISPs don't buy his work and they don't sell his work.

If this dude sold his comics out of his apt, would you call his landlord and the electric company middlemen?

Re:Some Fun Game Related Comics

[Damn_Canuck]

I think you are also missing PVP [pvponline.com], which recently has made the jump to print comics, but maintains a daily strip online as well. This is a success story as to how the online medium can make the transition with a large enough fan base as well as a consistently amusing scenario and characters,

Re:Hmmmm. No Sluggy?

[Anonymous Coward]

And I was hoping to get the first Sluggy post.. ;-)

Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com] is possibly the finest web daily out there. The following is powerful enough that when the author (Pete) found out that the comic was making no money, he cried out 'Help Me!' Shortly thereafter, they had a flood of small payments from loyal readers.

A fine example of how online entertainment should be handled. The online comic is free (save a banner ad). You can pay to rid yourself of ads. You can pay to get merchandise (printed books, tshirts, etc). No 'required subscription' or any of that bull$hit.

Worship the comic. Go read some archives. 6 years of comics are online, for no charge. Go get addicted, and give Pete some money.

Re:Some Fun Game Related Comics

[Dark Lord Seth]

As additions, I'd like to add Megatokyo [megatokyo.com], RPGworld Comic [rpgworldcomic.com] and 8-bit Theater [nuklearpower.com]. Also, I'd like to comment on Real Life Comics that it's cute, at times. Whenever the guy is completely obsessed with something painfully irrelevant to his readers and he continues to post shitty strips about it for weeks after, it's not cute. Really, I quit reading it after reading on and on for about three weeks about the guy whining about losing something irrelevant in a MMORPG and the fact he got a net girlfriend.

Re:Political commentary...

[Malfourmed]

It was unintentional and caused by lack of sleep. How embarrassment. Must now flog and flay myself.

Or... I can blame the editors' lack of proof reading! Yeah, that's it... damn slashdot editors.

Funny Adult Comic Strip

[WarDancer]

If you have an open mind and want a good laugh. You should check out this site :

Sexy Losers [sexylosers.com]

You may be grossed out by a few of them at first, but they are just so funny.

Re:Unfortunatley.

[TXG1112]

I'm suprised no one has mentioned Sinfest. [sinfest.net]

IMHO one of the funniest on-line comics around.

Some good webcomics

[Dirtside]

8-bit Theater [nuklearpower.com]. Remember Fighter, Thief, Red Mage, and Black Mage from Final Fantasy? Well, they're the main characters in this strip. Archives go back a year or two. Rather entertaining.

d+pad [www.dpad.ca] covers the goings-on at a video game store. The artwork is pretty crude, but if you're into the gaming world at all, you'll enjoy it.

Goats [goats.com] is a VERY disturbing strip. The early artwork was a lot less refined than it is now, but how can you go wrong with a strip that involves overclocked lemons and a Satanic chicken named Diablo?

PvP [pvponline.com] is a strip about a fictional gaming magazine. Sometimes crass and goofy, but often hilarious (go to any geek gathering and see how many people laugh when you shout "Panda attack!"). I know I'd subscribe to any magazine that had a 300-year-old blue troll as an intern.

And, of course, Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com]. Best. Webcomic. Ever. But you really have to go all the way back to the beginning of the archives. There's years of great stuff in there. (Worship Bun-bun!)

I know that no day is complete without reading all my webcomics... which is really easy using bookmarked tabs in Mozilla. I just click on one bookmark, and the browser opens up a dozen separate tabs with all my comics loaded.