Let's set the scene:
Chris Watkins and Neal
Von Flue, of BorderWalker and Hypercomics.net respectively, have been co-writing Borderlines as an exploration of webcomic frontiers.
Craig Schaffer has been writing his own column, Studio Digital, about the creation of webcomics and comic experiments.
Randy Oest II has been hosting a popular Sequential Art Jam and maintaining SubAtomicCafe.com.
We are the creators of many
fine and beautiful webcomics and none of us is new to sitting down and discussing
the medium (or espousing on it). But now we have joined forces.
This may seem like a brand new column to you, but you can call this
Digital Borderlines Version 2.0.
So in the spirit of the upgrade and by way of an introduction to all the new
people reading this on Comic Book Insider, we all answered one question:
"Why webcomics?"
Craig Schaffer:
Why webcomics you ask?
There is more access to independent comics on the Web than I could ever find
on a comic store shelf. Being able to completely produce my own comic from start
to finish without relying on an inker or letterer is an amazing feat. The Internet
has acted as the publisher and distributor of our art and ideas. The fact that
we as creators are able to distribute original ideas unfiltered, while being
able to collaborate with others, is wonderful.
The medium of computers has allowed comics to be created in a whole new manner
for a whole new audience. Comics finally have a venue where they can take on
experimental forms while sharing ideas. As a reader we can look and learn and
interact with a lot more success and ease than writing a letter to the editor.
It is almost like having the world sit down for a critique of your work.
It is the production and experimentation of this art form that has driven my
interest in webcomics.
Randy Oest II:
Why webcomics?
To be a pioneer and to take the path not yet taken. Diversity of genres and
art styles is one of the major factors that led me to choose the Web.
There are no art standards in webcomics, no preset defintions.
The cost is another factor. For the price of printing only one issue of a black
and white comic I can buy a computer, scanner, and get all the software that
I need. And I can publish anytime. If it's ready, it's online.
Chris Watkins:
The tale of my involvement with webcomics comes off like a murder mystery. Web
development had been, at minimum, a partial source of my income for a couple
few years when I decided to bring my own comics to the Web, so I had the means.
Comparing costs for printing versus costs for Web publishing (an internal dialogue
that ran, for all of five seconds, to the tune of: "hmmm... heaps o' money...
free... oodles o' greenbacks... free...") quickly provided me the motive.
Pure impatient drive to get my comic stories out under the noses of the world
meant that the timing was right.
So, basically, it was Mr. Watkins on the Web with the Scanner.
I don't want anyone to think that I'm in this just for the free ride, of course.
I'm in on the webcomics racket for the long haul. Possibilities, I knew, grew
online like weeds, even before I made the turn to a life of click-and-scroll.
It wasn't really until I dove deep (like a cement-shoed snitch, to keep up this
terrible metaphor) into webcomics, though, that I really began to see all the
riches. Riches abundant in storytelling, in presentation &
interface, in artistry, and in neat things that blink and make
funny noises when you click 'em.
I still love my print comics, but there are too many borders to explore and
far too much excitement in being part of a burgeoning new field, for me to stop
the webcomics gig now. I'm a lifer.
That's "Why Webcomics."
Neal Von Flue:
Why webcomics?
Webcomics are one huge gray area.
There is no precedent, no definition for the making or reading of them. No
set conventions on what kind of stories can be told, or what kind of audience
will read them.
Webcomics are just as much an artistic revolution as they are a resurrection
of the American comic art form.
In webcomics there is no way of getting paid. Yet. This insures that
people who like to innovate make webcomics.
All of this appeals to me. The possibility of helping to define any of these
gray areas is what keeps me interested and involved in webcomics. That's
why.
This is our crew. This is our column. From it, you'll get the creator's perspective.
A view from the frontier of webcomics. Sometimes theoretical, sometimes technical,
but always from people who are committed to helping explore what webcomics are
and should be. We will bring what we find back here, for you to read.
We've laid down our thoughts and techniques in a few columns so far, and we
hope to do it many more times.
Hope you enjoy it.
--Neal--
10/25/02
