Well, hello, again, internet peoples!

Knowledge and creative energy are important. They come from all sorts of places, common and uncommon: art museums, books, TV, street performers/artists, blogs, social media.

Today, I want to mention webcomics, which is likely to be a subcategory or whatever it’s called in the grand scheme of things on this blog, because I am not the webcomic expert, but I am definitely a webcomic lover.

My courtship with webcomics was slow, a seed planted in 2012 when I first dated someone with a webcomic, finally blossoming in early 2015 as I researched for Hey Kitty, the comic my friend and I were creating as a spinoff of his long-running Hey Fox webcomic.

I was researching mostly how other people did webcomics, since my friend and I already had the first book of Hey Kitty written. (Just FYI, at the time of my writing this blog post, we are still only in chapter 2 because we post a page a week, so there is SO MUCH more story to tell. I can’t wait!) What I mean by how they did webcomics is mostly: what does the site look like, how does it feel to read webcomics, what makes things enjoyable–in essence, the packaging, the cover of the book.

First impressions are important, first glances are important. What is it about the look of a site that, at first glance, tells the viewer: “I contain something worth reading, something made by someone who knows what they’re doing and will make it worth your time to click through my pages.”

It’s hard to say what that is, but we all see it, not only in webcomics but in all sites we visit, or in cars or clothes or whatever else. What makes something look old and clunky, sleek and modern, old and well-cared-for, or new or old and ridiculous? What features are so common or intuitive that they are practically necessary? (Even on older sites, you see them tacked on somehow, like the backup camera my friend added to his car.) And what features have been forgotten, but could or should still be used today in some form or another?

I also noticed that there was not an easy way to find the comics that I felt most drawn to, the brilliant, passionate stories that demanded to be told but wouldn’t be marketable in the comic scene drawn up through decades of inequality, with not nearly enough revision to the landscape or cast of characters (not to mention the selection of artists).

But the landscapes of webcomics are more diverse; the ability to publish is more equal.

But publicity… that’s an interesting issue, one that I want to help with as much as I can, because these stories, these heroes, these artists, they are hope.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to make a difference through Pear Comics, the artist collective I cofounded.

I’m sure I’ll get to more of my story some other time, but for now, I’d like to learn from you:

What are some of your favorite webcomics or webcomic lists?

 

(Photo credit: Art by Shen Travis for Hey Kitty)