Author: minruiliang4500

Webcomics have been existing before the web as we know it even exist. In “The Third Age of Webcomics Part 1”, Lee Atchison talked about how webcomics have impacted the web as far back as the first web browsing service. First websites charged for subscriptions of webcomics, but then as time moved on websites moved to use advertisements as a source of revenue instead. As time moved on comics that originally only existed in the print medium moved to be put online as well. And eventually webcomics are becoming a part of our lives in forms such as memes and references. But what does this all mean? I think this is a part of the trend toward digitalizing everything. Most of the books have a digital copy online, and eventually all of the books will. However, this does not mean there will not be any hard copies left since the hard copies still have their merits in the ways in that they provide gift value, sentimental values, and decorative values. But stepping towards full on digitalization is still very important as it maximizes the spreadability of a comic and give expand the horizon of audience from local to global. In the future stages I see the webcomics would gradually shift from local to a global focus. Marketing strategies would shift as webcomics increasingly need to gain more audience and the only way would be through globalization. The internet will bring us together as a giant community with the same readings and therefore the same interests.

If you look back in history for a couple of decades, you will notice the blatant sexism that existed in throughout the time periods. Of course, these ideologies also appear in various forms of media including comics. In the article, “Girl, You will be an Invisible Woman Soon: Defining Serial Characters”, Osvaldo Oyola talks about how Susan Richards, the Invisible Girl in the Fantastic Four comics, is treated with a sexist attitude by her husband. One of the main problems that Oyola talked about when comic book authors are trying to put female characters on the right path is continuity. Authors need to be consistent with the story and therefore need to mold what had already happened to the characters into a reasonable explanation as to how the new change came to be. This stops authors from completely redefining the female characters into the strong hearted independent human beings because they were not originally in the storyline. Webcomics have a lot in common with print comics, but you will not see as much of a sexuality problem in webcomics because of the following reasons: Webcomics started out later, in a time period where sexism is not as prevalent; Webcomics were originally niche products, where activists of all sorts of movements are found, they are more likely to have materials promoting gender equality than gender stereotypes; A lot of webcomics have fluid genres and they do not need to care about continuity, and therefore they do not need to abide by contents that have already happened, namely sexist materials. Although webcomics are a lot cleaner than its print counterpart, there are still a lot of sexist material out there. In order for no sexist materials to exist, we need to have a society that does not tolerate sexism first. It would be a hard way getting there, but we are already in the process, and it seems like a bright path ahead.

Reading Hyperbole and a Half was an experience not to be understated. Allie Brosh’s approach to writing creative content was creating things that people could relate to. Some of the stories she wrote about are things that we have gone through ourselves, but are too embarrassed to admit. Reading her writing was sort of a guilty pleasure for me, as I was able to see a lot of the things that I agree with but too embarrassed to speak of represented on a book. Unlike Homestuck where the printed version of the creative material is missing features that the web counterparts have, Hyperbole and a Half does not have much difference between the print and web versions. The drawings are slightly differently as I have noticed when comparing the print and web versions, but other than that the contents are the same. I think this similarity might be caused by the platform that the creative content was originally published on. Hyperbole and a Half started out as a blog, so naturally the contents do not have weird formatting as some of the webcomics out there because the purpose of a blog is to be read and not admired as a piece of art. The attitude that the author has towards writing the content is also something to note. Allie seems like she simply does not “give a f**k” when she wrote about her life in her blogs — there are no flowery languages or pretty fonts, only crude dialogues and rough writings, but it feels “real” and therefore it resonated with the readers. This type of mentality is prevalent is the American culture and has been capitalized by many. “Deadpool” and Donald Trump are the most prominent ones that have benefitted from this mentality. They all appear to “not give a f**k”. So next time when you are running for a leadership position, maybe you could also try to write your script the most rude way and appear “not to give a f**k”.

A lot of webcomics are in essence prints posted on a web page. In “The Lesbian Norman Rockwell”, Margaret Galvan described the how Alison Bechdel spread her influences. In spreading and increasing influences, webcomics and print comics share some similarities. For one, the queer comics described in the article do not have the mainstream attention to start with. Just like the its print counterparts, queer webcomics also are not gaining a lot of traction as well. Webcomics and comics both start out with niche audiences, the print comics are sold on grassroots publications and webcomics are put on websites that no one navigate to. However, these two mediums differ in the way of gaining attention. Print comics go through the more traditional route of gaining readership slowly through publications. Webcomics, however, are capable of spreading through advertisements and the social media as well as the regular means. This gives a distinct advantage towards to webcomics in spreadability, but profit wise print comics have the upper hand. Webcomics usually do not gain more profit as simply with more readers, they will have to have more ads or more sponsors. Print comics, however, has a direct relationship with readership — the more readers it has the more money it makes. Does this mean either print or webcomic is better than the other? No, it doesn’t. They are more like complements to each other. Print comics should have a webcomic counterpart, and webcomics should have print versions. A coexistence is what the society is gravitating towards to.

We only meet so many people in our lives, yet we are capable of understanding the concept of nations and countries, entities that are consisted of way more people than we will ever meet. People are also capable of understanding the ideas of world wide disasters without even being to half of the world. So how exactly are we able to do this? Benedict Anderson addressed this in his article “Imagined Communities”. People create their own worlds based on their each past individual experiences. A common medium such as a newspaper allows people to connect events with time and other people; out of these connections, an “imagined” society comes to life. We do this a in our daily lives as well. We “imagine” the solar systems based on Physics, we “imagine” the government shutdown based on the newspaper, and we “imagine” droughts based on the lack of rain. The same could be said about web comics and their communities. People gain access to the same material, but obtain different information from the material because the variation in their past experiences. This results in each of the readers then create their own distinct “imagined society”. I argue that this ability to create “imagined societies” is tied to a emotional capacity that people call “empathy” — the ability to see in other people’s perspective. We can build such “imagined societies” because we could think in others’ shoes and see in their perspectives. It is ok to see a little different than others, and it is because of that you are able to think for them.

3 days into the presentation, we have not yet exhausted the types and variety of webcomics that exist on the web. This is what strikes me that webcomics is just like any other art form — it has many genres, with many subjects. What surprised me was that a webcomic that I have never heard of or seen before, “The loneliest Astronauts”, has appeared three times over presentation. The internet allows people to gain easy access to a lot of things that they previously do not have access to and they are discovering things that they would have never discovered. Webcomics that I consider niche might be someone else’s daily read, and vice versa. Although, this means that it is easier for people to connect over shared interests, this also naturally put a divide over people who are different (create segregated communities). Since it is so much easier for people to access their what they are interested in, they have less motivation to try and branch out of their comfort zone. They are becoming so comfortable that they don’t even want to leave the house. In fact, the term “NEET” has become prevalent in describing people who stay at home all day without doing anything “productive” so to say. Going back from the deviation, the presentations have brought me to realize that most webcomics are not using their affordances fully. Just like what Ruarai mentioned during his presentation, when the affordances are used, they are a novelty and they are what defines the webcomic. Most webcomics still take the traditional route of uploading still images that would also be ok when they are printed. It is interesting how the internet could change some of our behaviors, but not others. Let’s just hope we could capitalize the affordances of the internet more than the convenience of internet corrupt us.

Second day into presenting the webcomics, everyone seemed just as excited as the first day. There are more variety brought to the table at this time. Representation of comics from different nations are presented, and comics that tackle more serious issues(mainly LGBTQ) are also there. As the presentations progressed, I noticed that some comics are just naturally more intriguing than the others. I have noticed that comics like “xkcd” and “The Loneliest Astronaut” have appeared multiple times across the presentations. When we were asked to select a comic to analyze, we were presented with an vast archive of countless comics. The huge number of choices still does not stop us from choosing the same comics. After looking at the comics that are popular among my classmates, I have noticed that these comics have some common. They are mostly made up of in-continuous strips, but here and there they have stories that are interconnected — they are low stakes to follow, easy to join in, but they are also capable of providing good stories if the readers desire them. They focus on subjects that are relatable, or subjects that are most people have background knowledge to, but at the same time their meanings could be analyzed deeper. It is the fluidity that the comics are able to have that makes them popular. In today’s environment, everything has to be multi-dimensional. The more perspectives, genres, and material that a comic covers, the more successful it tends to be. Expansiveness and inclusivity is the new king!

“You have to convince yourself before you convince others”. I heard it somewhere. This statement is more realistic that I imagined. Having confidence is really key to a good presentation. After watching all the presentations, I have realized that speaking with a steady stream of words gives off the impression that you know what you are talking about. Another point that I have taken note is the power that imagery brings to the table. Seeing an interesting image while watching the presentation not only makes the supposedly dry and scholarly presentation more bearable, but also more engaging. Speech needs to flow freely and naturally. There could be gaps if they are integrated into the whole speech naturally. Gestures are a lot of help too. Presentations need a lot of work to become palatable. All that said, some people are more naturally talented at presenting than others. Others are less so. But I do believe that it is a skill that one could practice to improve, and I sincerely hope that when I present on Wednesday, I could learn from the presenters I have seen today and do a great job.

I have never heard of the word “produsage” until I have read “From Production to Produsage” by Axel Bruns. This article dissected the transformation of the production line. In the passage of time, consumers have gradually grown from completely passive to somewhat active. They have grown to offer opinions to companies and make production companies bend toward customer desires. The internet added onto that. He argued in this article that, due to the existence of internet, consumers have become producers as well. The free environment that the internet provides for people allows consumers to do whatever they want, which leads to online community based productions — everyone is both a consumer and a producer at the same time. And because of the efficiency that the internet has, it is able to solve a lot of problems due to the expertise that it has access to. I, personally agree with this train of thought that people are using the products they produce among themselves, but take note that companies are still taking advantage of this by charging for information provided by others(eg. Chegg), and shoving advertisements in your face while you are watching other people’s contents(eg. youtube). Although there are huge amounts of information for us to access, it is not with no cost. To be completely free of charges and liabilities is impossible. Using the internet for information is great, but at the same time we need to look out for traps. The internet is not a wish granting genie after all.

How do you gain attention for your contents? You will have to excuse my lack of creativity, but I never realized the answer to this question is not just limited to direct advertisement. Reading “(Sp)reading Digital Comics” written by Geoffrey Long, I opened my mind a little more for the the endless possibility that the internet provides for comic authors. To sum it up, Long suggested that there are a few more ways that web comics make themselves known — namely Product Placement, Reader-author interaction, Cross-overs, and Sharing on social media. Not all of these mechanics are exclusively limited to web-based comics, but these methods are proliferated by them. I found these methods to be very effective toward gaining attention, specifically the method of opening a comment section for reader discussion. Personally, I feel more engaged as a reader when I read materials that have comments. I do not feel detached when there are comments because I know there are others reading the same material as I am.

But interactions do not always limit to useful and friendly exchange of information. They could be irrational and hurtful even. Although the comics are share through the internet in a vastly faster way than before, authors still need to be careful about the environment in which it is spread in. Authors do not want their comics to become epicenters of insults and bullying. A carefully regulated comment section is just as important as making interesting contents. And that is why, as you guys are reading this and thinking about making a comment, please keep in mind to not insult or demean in any way. Everyone is equal on the internet!