Webcomic Notes

The hardest part to reading webcomics is just finding a comic worth reading.  As the webcomics experts say the blessing and curse of webcomics is that anyone can make them and put them online.  It’s a blessing because it is free and a open door for all creative types but it is a curse in that it creates a endless flood of mostly bad but some good comics.  Sadly there are few websites out there right not dedicated to webcomics coverage, at least from what I have found so far.  There is no Newsarama for webcomics, at least not yet.  

Thankfully it is not a hopeless search.   Recently Tom Spurgeon compiled a nice list of webcomics recommended by his readers over at the Comics Reporter.  I am still working my way through the list but so far it has made for a good place to start to find webcomics that are worth reading.  In terms of webcomics news I have found Fleen to be the most reliable blog dedicated to webcomics.  Paperless Comics is another good source as well.

On a interesting related note, Robot 6 reports that Paul Pope’s much anticipated Battling Boy graphic novel may end up being serialized in First Second’s To Be Continued webcomics line before going to print.  I hope this turns out to be true.  It will be the perfect way to test how well the To Be Continued line works.  Conventional thinking would say to just save the book for print.  Putting it online for free would theoretically hurt print sales of a book that is already guaranteed to sell.  I personally believe it would only help sales, plus it would it would draw more attention to First Second’s other webcomics and their catalog of books in print.  Battling Boy would be the ideal test for this type of publishing model.  I know for myself I will be more inclined to read it rather then having it as something lingering in the back of my mind as something I want to pick up eventually and then actually getting around to reading it.