Better than blogs: Webcomics, the Internet's answer to the funny pages
September 10, 2007

By Brendan Kachel
Online editor

If you like comic strips, there is possibly no better place than the Internet to find a unique strip.

Called webcomics, these strips are usually done for free by amateur artists, and put on the Internet in the thousands. Many began as an attempt to become syndicated comic strips, especially some of the earlier strips. These usually follow a three panel strip with a punchline at the end. Others are more inspired by comic books or Japanese manga and follow a less linear approach. Some follow a Gary Larson "Far Side" mentality, with one panel with a punchline. Many are humorous, some are serious. Some are black and white, some are in full color. Some use pen or pencil, some video game sprites, some clip art, some photography or action figures. Some even include small animations. Some are G rated, some are not. Still others are even harder to define.

Possibly the first comic strip to go online was "T.H.E. Fox" by Joe Ekaitis. The comic was drawn on his Commodore 64 in 1986, and put up on the web. The strip, which would eventually be renamed "Thaddeus," originally featured pixel art before finally becoming a regular drawn comic. The strip finally quit updating around 1998. The strip revolved around the main character, Thaddeus Horatio Eberhard, a fox, and his roommate, a rabbit named Bunn E., arguably making it also the first "furry" or anthropomorphic animal webcomic. Though Ekaitis would later say he chose the fox because they didn't get as many neutral roles, a fox as a major character would recur in many later furry webcomics.

It wasn't until 1995, however, that webcomics came into their own. "Argon Zark!" by Charley Parker was launched in June, and it is still occasionally listed as the first webcomic. Other long running strips from this time period include "Kevin and Kell" by Bill Holbrook, a professional cartoonist, and "The Polymer City Chronicles," which would become known as the first video game webcomic. Others launched in this early period include "Sabrina Online" in 1996, "Sluggy Freelance" and "User Friendly" in 1997, while "PVPOnline" and "Penny Arcade" started in 1998. In 2000, photo comics became popular with "Twisted Kaiju Theater," while video game sprite comics became popular around this time, as well.

Over the years, webcomics have developed many different genres. "The Webcomic List," which has nearly 10,000 entries, divides webcomics into many different categories, including fantasy, furry, gaming, geeky, manga, mature, quirky, sci-fi, weird, workplace and genre-less. Different sites have different rankings, but gaming comics such as "Ctrl+Alt+Delete" and manga based webcomics such as "MegaTokyo" are particularly popular. Many comics could have many different genres. The popular "VGCats" could be seen as gaming, furry or geeky, depending on who was reading, though certain strips may be sci-fi, manga, fantasy or just plain quirky.

Some people see webcomics as a look at the future of comics in general. Many long running syndicated strips have begun putting their archives online. At the very least, webcomics offer a variety of choices for comic readers, from the casual to the connoisseur.