More about webcomics

[avram]

Bruno’s back! I know I’d get flamed if I said so on his discussion board, but I didn’t like Little Dee (scroll down) at all. It wasn’t funny, and it wasn’t anywhere near as visually engaging as Bruno. I think Chris Baldwin would really be better off forgetting about the daily newspaper market and aiming for the weeklies, putting out something with a larger format and the more intricate art that he does so well. Speaking of which, he’s done the cover for the current issue (8.1) of Comixpedia.

I’m getting a bit frustrated with Modern Tales. It was great to have a big batch of new webcomics to browse through, and I really like some of them, but now I’m stuck in gradual update hell. Look at Streets of Northhampton, for example. I liked this a lot when I could read through big chunks of it, but in little dribs and drabs it just makes no sense, loses its narrative cohesion.

What I’ll probably do with Modern Tales and its sister sites is let my subscription lapse at the end of the month, then get another one-monther in, say, six months. That’ll keep the total expense in the $10-15/year range, and let me read the comics in big gulps.

My respect for Fred Gallager, of MegaTokyo has gone up a few notches. He’s done a great job of telling a long-term story while still keep each installment entertaining in its own right, even if it does mean that his thrice-weekly update schedule is only nominal.

Another approach is the one Faith Erin Hicks uses for Demonology 101. She updates every couple of weeks (for a fuzzy value of “couple”), but typically with four to eight pages of material at a shot, enough to give the sense of an ongoing story.