#hinab

Hey kids!  I'll be talking about this in club, but in the interest of expanding our focus to things that are not strictly anime, I- postmortemcomplacency, more commonly known as Claire- will be doing bi-weekly webcomic recommendations.  The first one is forthcoming, but this is a handy introduction post.

Why should you read webcomics?

They're free.

They're entertaining.

Do you really NEED more reasons than that?  Uh, no.  But in case you're not convinced:

There's some phenomenal art in them.

Unlike the traditional comics industry, they're completely self-contained stories.  (for the most part.)  There's no complicated clusterf*** of preexisting information to absorb before you can appreciate the story.

The effort required to read them is literally nil.  If you can spend an hour on facebook, you can spend an hour reading webcomics.  No social interaction required or anything.

They're another thing we can geek out over.  (as someone who doesn't watch anime, I am all for this club having other shared interests.)

They're totally free, guys.

For understandable reasons, there's a bit of a stigma about webcomics.  This is because in published industries, there is a quality standard (in theory, anyway) that ensures that if it exists on the shelves, it probably doesn't suck that much.  But anyone with stable wifi can make a webcomic, and because of this, there's a lot of comics in every possible place in the quality spectrum.  That means a lot of really awful comics, which earn the genre a bad rep, but some really great comics, too.  The point is this: everyone should read webcomics because- to pardon the cliche- there's something for everyone.  The lack of publishing standards and the freedom of the internet as a format allows for truly innovative storytelling and unparallelled reader-author communication that can effortlessly reach a worldwide audience.  With the sheer amount of creators and comics and styles and stories out there, Everyone can find something to like in this vast expanse.

Promise.

So what are webcomics, exactly?

What they are not (common misconceptions):

"Basically the comics you see in the newspaper, but online."

Manga or western comics that were originally published physically and then posted online by readers

"Comics are, like, superheroes, right?"

Webcomics, by my vague, wishy-washy definition, are comics (sequential visual storytelling) made with the intention of being primarily viewed online.  Yes, you can read Marvel comics online, and Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes strips, but these don't count because they're made to be print comics first and foremost.  Many webcomics have print versions, but their basic and most important form, through which they reach the most readers, is that of internet.  (No, that's not a typo.)

There are plenty of webcomics that adhere to sunday-newspaper-comic formats, but for the most part, I'll be focusing on longform graphic novel style comics.  They're more substantial and there's a lot more to talk about.  And some of them do concern superheroes, but webcomics cover everything from aliens to puberty to gunslingers to ghosts and back again.

That's all I've got!  In case you hadn't noticed, webcomics are literally my favorite thing, so if you have questions or want to chat, let me know.  I'm off to type up my first official club comic rec.

THE END.