A Background On Original Web Comics

By Patty Goff


Web comics are very popular with netizens these days because they are actually quite fun to read and quite short too. Now in a nutshell, a web comic is actually a comic strip that is published on the internet and read by those who are on the net. Now for those who would want to know more about what original web comics are, here is a short overview of how they started out.

Now it was only during the mid eighties that web comics were actually created although they did not become popular yet during this time. The very first one was in fact created by Eric Willikin and was a parody of the Wizard of Oz known as Wizards in Stitches. He made use of a program known as Compuserve to spread his work.

Another very popular pioneer of internet strips would of course be Where the Buffaloes Roam which was made by Hans Bjordahl. Eventually another one followed this made by David Farley. This was Doctor Fun and was one of the first published ones that came out in the year 1993.

After the year 1993, there were a lot of internet cartoons that came out because the internet became more popular and accessible to people everywhere. Now the comics that were made during that time were actually black and white and identical to the ones that can be found in the newspaper. Two very popular ones were Nukees and Polymer City Chronicles.

During the year 1996 up to the year 2000, this period was known as the age of Singularity. In this time, it was actually possible now for people to make money out of making internet comics and getting a lot of views. Eventually more trendy styles came out and most of them were based on the drawings of Japanese comics known as Manga.

Now things became really interesting during the start of the year 2001 even up until the year 2006. The reinvention of internet comic strips was during this time where the gaming comic strips as well as the nerdy gag strips made its way into the scene. It was actually during this time that independent artists went from print into the online world.

Now in the year 2007, the popularity of these comics reached its peak as there were so many people who were reading them while they were online. Of course a lot of artists eventually made use of social media in order to become more popular. Ever since the emergence of social media, this platform became very popular.

Nowadays, apps are the latest when it comes to technology. It was because of the popularity of mobile apps that mobile app comics have also gained a lot of popularity as well. Artists have been very flexible over time so that they could gain more popularity and keep afloat in this changing world. One of the modern forms of internet strips are actually memes. In fact, memes are pretty much like comic strips since they make use of pictures and words and is known to be the modern day form of web comics.




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