Poll of the Day > Whatever happened to webcomics? When did they die? What killed them?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was thinking about the good ol' days when Brawl in the Family and Awkward Zombie had a monopoly over the (mostly Nintendo-centric) video game consciousness. Now? When's the last time you even saw an Awkward Zombie comic? Did you even know that was the name of those comics or did you just know them as "that one webcomic with the Smash Bros. characters in it that wasn't Brawl in the Family?"

Webcomics as a whole just don't seem to be the thing anymore. Last webcomic I used to see posted in multiple places was "Pixie & Brutus." And even their heyday seems to be over. If you've noticed this too, any idea what it is that made things this way?

How do you even stand tall in the video game fandom/community anymore? The biggest online gamers don't even play AAA titles anymore. It's all indie games and hot tub meta. That I think happened somewhere between Happy Wheels and Five Nights at Freddy's, but this all ties back to the webcomics thing. Why are they not as big as they used to be, and what's taken their place?

https://imgur.com/luIZkuB

HarbingerofHope posted...

https://imgur.com/luIZkuB

Oh, well, see, that's probably proof of the rule. "Loss" actually came from the heyday of webcomics. Nobody today remembers "Loss" for the webcomic it came from. It's just a meme today.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/7/6/AAM4lZAADqls.jpg

Is this one of those topics where the TC thinks hes the center of everything?

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

Whatever happened to webcomics? When did they die? What killed them?

They didn't die and nothing killed them. There are literally hundreds of them out there if you bother looking.

Just because you got old and stopped reading them or interacting with the sort of people who do doesn't mean they stopped existing.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

When's the last time you even saw an Awkward Zombie comic?

About three days ago.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

Did you even know that was the name of those comics?

Yes.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

Oh, well, see, that's probably proof of the rule. "Loss" actually came from the heyday of webcomics. Nobody today remembers "Loss" for the webcomic it came from. It's just a meme today.

Someone literally mentioned it on this board like two days ago.

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

When's the last time you even saw an Awkward Zombie comic?

https://www.awkwardzombie.com/awkward-zombie/done-like-dinner

Theres more of them than ever before and even some of the really old ones like Unsounded are STILL going on.

Theyre likely going to keep adapting webtoons series for a while

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

Oh, well, see, that's probably proof of the rule. "Loss" actually came from the heyday of webcomics. Nobody today remembers "Loss" for the webcomic it came from. It's just a meme today.

Well to be fair Ctrl Alt Delete got really bad.

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

Webcomics as a whole just don't seem to be the thing anymore.

https://explosm.net/comics/i-like-your-bangs

https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4871

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/meta-2

https://www.woodenplankstudios.com/fake-monday/82-manteon/

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20220826 (start of a mini arc while they break from the main story)

PK_Spam posted...

Theres more of them than ever before and even some of the really old ones like Unsounded are STILL going on.

Sluggy Freelance is currently hitting it's 25th anniversary, Penny Arcade is still around...



Revelation34 posted...

Well to be fair Ctrl Alt Delete got really bad.

To be fair Ctrl Alt Delete started out really bad.



KodyKeir posted...

...

Girl Genius is about the only one there I really read. And I read about a dozen others regularly in any given week.

I just started reading Sleepless Domain recently. I've been reading Order of the Stick almost from the very beginning, and I'll occasionally catch up on Oglaf. And I actually used to read a lot more (most of which are still around), though I've gone off on some of them (like Something Positive or Real Life).

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WebcomicsLongRunners

ParanoidObsessive posted...

've been reading Order of the Stick almost from the very beginning,

Yeah. (shame when erfworld imploded)

Something Positive has hit a new stride and Randy is doing the Popeye Sundays now.

https://comicskingdom.com/popeye/2022-09-11

There are about 90 active ones I read plus some of the traditional daily funnies

KodyKeir posted...

Yeah. (shame when erfworld imploded)

Yeah, though it feels like that one was always plagued with one problem or another.

Also kind of a shame that stuff like 8-Bit Theater and Dr. McNinja eventually ended, though I'd rather a comic end on its own after having told the story it wanted to tell than to just keep going forever and get more and more lame and tired as they run out of ideas but are clearly just padding everything out and churning out comics to keep cashing in.

And it's always easier for gag-a-day comics with low continuity to last for years and years than it is more story-driven stuff.

KodyKeir posted...

https://explosm.net/comics/i-like-your-bangs

https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=4871

https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/meta-2

https://www.woodenplankstudios.com/fake-monday/82-manteon/

https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20220826 (start of a mini arc while they break from the main story)

Explosm is still around.

But you people who claim webcomics aren't dead only say so because you go out and see them. You should know it wasn't like that before. You know that back in the late 2000s even if you didn't deliberately go out and read a comic where it came from, you saw it posted in forums and stuff. That's not a thing anymore.

Nothing happened to them. Its like any other internet based creative work, some die unfinished, some get finished and the creator moves on, some update sporadically, and some continue on for years and years.

PMarth2002 posted...

Nothing happened to them. Its like any other internet based creative work, some die unfinished, some get finished and the creator moves on, some update sporadically, and some continue on for years and years.

I mean what happened to the scene? What happened to the industry? What has caused the differences we see now compared to what we saw then?

PK_Spam posted...

Theyre likely going to keep adapting webtoons series for a while

are they gonna adapt lumine

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

That's not a thing anymore.

KodyKeir posted...

https://www.awkwardzombie.com/awkward-zombie/done-like-dinner

TBF I don't do it as much as I used to, which used to be multiple times a day at one point; just an indicator of your circle of friends and peers. If you were to look into the youths chat circles you would likely see more content like that shared.

There are a couple that are only on reddit or independent sites that never set up their rss (Looking at you SrGrafo!) Swords! and The Weekly Roll come to mind. (Don't forget BunBoi)

The Mansion of E stopped updating as the writer was getting burned out, but then went radio silent; they have a pretty common name so it's not like I can look at death notices from after the time of his last posting.

I remember that dinosaur comic that was a re-used template.

sabin017 posted...

I remember that dinosaur comic that was a re-used template.

https://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=3949

https://omaketheater.com/mini-yoikoma/mini-comic-79/

http://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.1980.html

https://www.quantumvibe.com/strip?page=2374

new GG is up too with the start of this mini arc linked above.

https://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=3949

Yea that's the one

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/1/AADnJsAADqmj.jpg

https://swordscomic.com/comic/CDI/

KodyKeir posted...

independent sites that never set up their rss (Looking at you SrGrafo!)

Lokarin posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/9/3/1/AADnJsAADqmj.jpg

sabin017 posted...

Yea that's the one

(I'm just posting as they come into my inbox now. btw gocomics and comicskingdom should have the dailies up for those who browse like The Comics Curmudgeon https://joshreads.com/)

https://www.lfg.co/page/1639/

http://www.kick-girl.com/?comic=page-627

https://dilbert.com/strip/2022-09-12

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/0/AADnJsAADqn8.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/6/AAPtSiAADqoC.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/1/AAPtSiAADqoH.jpg

I haven't read a webcomic since the day the final page of 8-bit Theater dropped.

SoreChasm posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/2/6/AAPtSiAADqoC.jpg

Too bad he somewhat quit. Those are all hilarious.

I still read them. Just not the same ones. A lot of the long running ones lost their focus and went to shit.

Off the top of my head I follow

Dumbing of age, kevin and kell, ozfoxes, I want to be a cute anime girl, Pixie and Brutus, litterbox comics, adventures of God, my boyfriend is a zombie, cursed princess club, Carl, Erma, and a bunch I am probably forgetting because I binge read them every few months instead of following them.

ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

But you people who claim webcomics aren't dead only say so because you go out and see them.

But the converse of that is that you only think they're dead because you don't go out and see them. So it's still on you.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

You should know it wasn't like that before. You know that back in the late 2000s even if you didn't deliberately go out and read a comic where it came from, you saw it posted in forums and stuff.

Except I never really experienced what you're describing even then. I can honestly say I almost never saw people post webcomics anywhere at any point in the last 20+ years. I almost only ever found them when people I knew said "X is good, you should read it", or by following ad links or recommendations from comics I already read, or by seeing something mentioned on a site like TV Tropes and becoming curious about the comic. I always went straight to the comic's own site and read their daily/weekly/etc updates (I didn't even use RSS feeds). I actually used to have a topic on my own website (gone now) that had all the links on it that I could click one after another to see each comic (and now I just use the preset pins in Firefox's start page).

Granted, that might be because I wasn't a teenager hanging out on kid forums or specific game forums (even on GameFAQs I tend to avoid the hell out of the game boards unless I have a specific question), which might be where that sort of thing was way more common. But it was never really much of a thing any of the places I generally hang out. And I'd say comics are about as likely to be posted here on PotD as they ever were, because it was never all that likely in the first place (it might happen occasionally, and it still does).

To use your own example, I have literally never seen an Awkward Zombie comic posted anywhere. I only ever found it myself and read through it on its own site. I never knew it as "that one webcomic with the Smash Bros. characters in it that wasn't Brawl in the Family" because I never went to where anyone would talk about it that way. I don't go to Smash Bros sites because I don't like the games. And if Awkward Zombie was literally just a Smash Bros comic, I probably never would have read it (and in fact, I've never read or even seen Brawl in the Family, either).

With most webcomics that reference games, I'm more likely to know the comic itself from reading it than I am the games it's referencing.

Which, if anything, may have just answered your question - if your perception is that webcomics are dead because you don't see them on forums anymore, it's probably because forums aren't as popular as they used to be. Webcomics haven't changed, you're just no longer going to the sort of places you used to.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

I mean what happened to the scene? What happened to the industry?

Nothing happened to it, it's still there.



ItsKaljinyuTime posted...

What has caused the differences we see now compared to what we saw then?

You.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/5/8/AAFUswAADqrq.jpg

ParanoidObsessive posted...

But the converse of that is that you only think they're dead because you don't go out and see them. So it's still on you.

Except I never really experienced what you're describing even then. I can honestly say I almost never saw people post webcomics anywhere at any point in the last 20+ years. I almost only ever found them when people I knew said "X is good, you should read it", or by following ad links or recommendations from comics I already read, or by seeing something mentioned on a site like TV Tropes and becoming curious about the comic. I always went straight to the comic's own site and read their daily/weekly/etc updates (I didn't even use RSS feeds). I actually used to have a topic on my own website (gone now) that had all the links on it that I could click one after another to see each comic (and now I just use the preset pins in Firefox's start page).

Granted, that might be because I wasn't a teenager hanging out on kid forums or specific game forums (even on GameFAQs I tend to avoid the hell out of the game boards unless I have a specific question), which might be where that sort of thing was way more common. But it was never really much of a thing any of the places I generally hang out. And I'd say comics are about as likely to be posted here on PotD as they ever were, because it was never all that likely in the first place (it might happen occasionally, and it still does).

To use your own example, I have literally never seen an Awkward Zombie comic posted anywhere. I only ever found it myself and read through it on its own site. I never knew it as "that one webcomic with the Smash Bros. characters in it that wasn't Brawl in the Family" because I never went to where anyone would talk about it that way. I don't go to Smash Bros sites because I don't like the games. And if Awkward Zombie was literally just a Smash Bros comic, I probably never would have read it (and in fact, I've never read or even seen Brawl in the Family, either).

With most webcomics that reference games, I'm more likely to know the comic itself from reading it than I am the games it's referencing.

Which, if anything, may have just answered your question - if your perception is that webcomics are dead because you don't see them on forums anymore, it's probably because forums aren't as popular as they used to be. Webcomics haven't changed, you're just no longer going to the sort of places you used to.

Nothing happened to it, it's still there.

You.

You just said you weren't around for what I saw. I wasn't the one who made it so webcomics stopped appearing where they used to. What we've established is that times HAVE changed, it's just you weren't around for "times."

bob and george is still the king

I used to read webcomics but everytime I got really into a webcomic with plot I always lost intrest due to the glaciel pace they move at.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/0/2/AAFUswAADl-y.jpg

Cruddy_horse posted...

I used to read webcomics but everytime I got really into a webcomic with plot I always lost intrest due to the glaciel pace they move at.

Romantically Apocalyptic went back and started adding new comics between older comics and retconning the plot of old stories and I was not gonna try and keep up with that shit.

Twiroach posted...

Romantically Apocalyptic went back and started adding new comics between older comics and retconning the plot of old stories and I was not gonna try and keep up with that shit.

Idk what that is but that sounds terrible.

Kill Six Billion Demons is a great webcomic if you're actually looking for more stuff.

Twiroach posted...

Romantically Apocalyptic went back and started adding new comics between older comics and retconning the plot of old stories and I was not gonna try and keep up with that shit.

That sounds really fucking stupid.

Metalsonic66 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/5/8/AAFUswAADqrq.jpg

Oof, cringy 'sportsball' humor.

That's my brother when sports are happening

Metalsonic66 posted...

That's my brother when sports are happening

He gets overly invested into whatever sports are happening, or he acts like he's better than people who like sports?

He gets very emotional

Metalsonic66 posted...

He gets very emotional

Were all like that, just with different triggers.

SoreChasm posted...

Were all like that, just with different triggers.

Yeah mine is the climax in musicals

Mine is making sinister implications about @Far-Queue s mother.