Webcomics: The Influence and Continuation of the Comix Revolution

By The UF Visual Rhetoric Research Group: Sean Fenty, Trena Houp and Laurie Taylor

Fenty, Sean, Trena Houp and Laurie Taylor. "Webcomics: The Influence and Continuation of the Comix Revolution." . ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies. 1.2 (2004). Dept of English, University of Florida. 28 Apr 2018. <http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v1_2/group/index.shtml>.

this article is a little dated and only talks about certain kinds of webcomics, but still has some good points

highlighted notes under cut

The Underground Comix movement that began in the 1960s has been given a wider audience on the internet as a new generation of readers discover long-established artists and writers. These new readers are also able to buy comics on the internet that were nearly impossible to find in most markets when they came out, which are still difficult to find today, long after their publication. 

The internet has given rise to a new generation of comic artists who use the internet as their sole means of production and distribution. In many cases, these webcomic artists are working within the spirit of the Underground movement as reflected in their subversion of comic book conventions and their freedom of expression in content and form. In this paper, we explore some of the connections between Underground Comix and certain webcomics in terms of the themes they share, the types of issues they tackle, the style in which they address these issues, and the audiences they address.

The obvious benefit of the internet as a distribution medium for many webcomic artists is the freedom to release comics that the mainstream industry and audience would reject. The end goal of these artists is not to go from selling ten to ten thousand to ten million comics because—even if that were possible for an independent artist to do—it would require pandering to the broadest possible audience. Instead, many webcomics include themes and deal with issues that mainstream comics do not. Many of them are written by people with offbeat interests for people with similar interests. Some of these deal with precisely the same themes that the Underground Comix of the 60s did — politics, sex, and drugs. In some cases, the artists putting forth these works share many of the ideals and habits of their 60s counterparts.

This claim is certainly true of some of the examples he uses and of webcomics in general. The web allows webcomic creators to write comics with content which is outside of the acceptable bounds for typical mass-released comics. Not all of them would appeal to a wide audience, but there are a number of high quality webcomics on the internet that are produced for very specific and large, yet distributed audiences. The web itself serves as the distribution method, much like the head shops used by the Undergrounds for distribution.

In the same manner that early Underground Comix were historically situated and distributed in head shops that catered to a specific audience, webcomics are often best suited as webcomics simply because their intended audiences are frequent web users. 

Webcomics present a structural revolution for artists and readers. In this sense, webcomics present radical new possibilities like Underground Comix did. But webcomics are not the infinitely ideal answer Scott McCloud would have them be. Webcomics do allow new freedoms and can be seen as a response to the complaints about space constraints, artistic freedom in terms of color and word usage, and artistic freedom in terms of the themes addressed. Perhaps the most famous complaint about the traditional comic strip medium comes from Bill Watterson's speech "The Cheapening of Comics," in which he discusses the commercial side of comics as cheapening comics as an art form. In the speech, Watterson argues for a mass medium that allows the same freedoms found in Underground Comix. One of Watterson's key complaints is that in newspapers, the overall space is limited and the design constraints, such as panel format, shape, and alignment, are further limiting (online). Webcomics can and do answer this complaint because they remove spatial constraints, theoretically allowing for infinite space.

However, the space in webcomics is not ideal as McCloud would have it, because the space is limited by computer technology, including screen sizes, pixel depth, and download times on the web. While these are constraints, these constraints are equal to those seen by Undergound Comix, in terms of page layout and feasible page sizes. In the near future, webcomics cannot present a revolution in terms of McCloud's "infinite canvasses," because infinite canvasses would require infinite load times and infinite scrolling (online). However, webcomics do alleviate Watterson's complaints on the small and shrinking print comic strip spaces and webcomics do allow for the possibility of a return to the options of Krazy Kat and Little Nemo in Slumberland. Watterson argued that being able to draw larger panels or being able to add a greater number of small panels allowed for better storytelling. He stated that these panel options even allowed for wordless strips because the drawings could finally stand alone instead of being complemented or explained by the text (Tenth Anniversary Book 15). Webcomics often have strips with just this kind of variety. All of the artists who work to create comics can draw a strip if they choose, or they can fill an entire webpage with their comic. Additionally, they can vary between styles of presentation and form and webcomics do not require panel borders, although many webcomics do use them.

Webcomics also present a revolution in possibilities because they are not limited by print costs. A webcomic which uses color and is of a certain size and pixel depth, will take the same space to house and the same time to download for computer viewing regardless of whether it uses ten or thirty colors, or juxtaposes real and drawn images, or operates in a collage effect

While not all webcomic writers have specific goals in mind, the nature of webcomic writing and distribution allows webcomic artists to express their beliefs and to tell stories without censorship and without a specific marketing goal in mind.