It's Simply Child's Play

On November 18th, 2003, a Washington state newspaper, The Herald, published a story by writer Bill France entitled "Violent Video Games are Training Children to Kill." As a gamer, I find the article to be an offensive pile of crap. As a student of media, I find it to be poorly researched and completely without base; seemingly two different stories thrown together only to try and imply what the author wants.

When it was published, this article caught the attention of Gabe and Tycho, the authors of a webcomic called Penny Arcade. Gabe and Tycho are video game players, and their webcomic is one of the most popular and well-known gamer comics on the Internet. Gabe made a post to the news section of their website stating his anger for himself and for all the gamers who read his comic. But he wasn't just venting about his anger, he was willing to prove a point. Gabe and Tycho teamed up with local Seattle Children's Hospital and Amazon.com to create "Child's Play".
The idea behind Child's Play was simple. Follow a link from their page to Amazon.com and a Wish List that the Children's Hospital had created. Purchase one of the systems or games, and they would be sent to Gabe and Tycho, then delivered to the hospital. Gabe and Tycho made no money on the idea, they just wanted to prove that gamers were great people. Their 4.5 million readers responded... enthusiastically.

When the first group of packages were supposed to arrive, they were informed by the mailman that they wouldn't be delivered that day. Why? Because the post office needed to send three trucks exclusively for them. The boys were impressed, but they weren't about to lose their sarcastic edge. As Tycho put it, "We're going to kick the Children's Hospital's Ass... With Toys." They continued to poke fun at themselves in their own comic strip, talking about how they were actually terrible people.

A week after that, they had outgrown their garage space, but a warehouse was donated by a local entertainment company. The news covered their story, and helped set out the call for the transportation they would need to haul all the gifts over to the hospital. When the day finally came to send it all in, they gathered volunteers, loaded a semi-truck, and delivered a lot of toys and a check for the $27, 406 in donations.

Now, this could have been a great feel-good story that happened once and confirmed to everyone that gamers are good. Gabe and Tycho could have moved on. But they didn't. Child's Play is still up and running today. The system works a little better now. Now those who wish to donate can pick one of 38 hospitals in 5 countries, grab something from the Wish List, and it will be sent directly to the hospital of choice. Picked up and supported by the webcomic community, Child's Play has raised over a million dollars for sick children around the world since it began. If you haven't already clicked the picture at the top, check it out.

Oh, and Bill France, the author of the article that started it all? He apologized.

Comedity

Comedity

Author/Artist: Garth Graham
Online since: April 20, 2004 (First Comic)

Comedity isn't a comic that I check on religiously, but I do catch up on strips about once a month. Graham's update schedule is all over the place at the moment, so checking every day for a new strip can become tedious. But I do keep coming back to it because it has a very interesting base idea behind it, and I think he could really go somewhere with it.

Comedity is a semi-autobiographical comic. By that I mean that is about Garth and the other everyday people in his life. But it is also done with a fantasy spin on it. A lot of the comic is from the point of view of the different parts of Garth's psyche. Literally, the voices in his head. They all look vaguely like Garth himself, but each with their own facet that determines his actions.

For example, Garth can be "driven" by the Ninja , the Random Trivia , Wit , or rarely, his Inner Cool Guy .

Each part of his personality lends him different traits and mannerisms, but in a small, realistic way, just as everyone has different personality variations.

In this comic, Graham also allows his imagination to become reality. He always wanted to be a superhero? He is in the comic, and no one questions the realism of it. His superpower? Bending probability, allowing him to get into fantastic situations and of course getting him out of them.

All in all, the story is set up to be interesting, the art is steady and well-done, so I should be singing his praises all over, right? Sadly, Comedity fails in a couple key areas.

First, the update schedule mentioned about. Graham has mentioned with his sporadic updates that he also has a professional job in the artist world. While I can respect that, I do wish he could set up an update schedule, even if it was only one day a month. When he has fallen behind of updating, he also tends to post his sketches and other projects that have no relation to the Comedity storyline. It can be a letdown to see an update and then see that it in no way resolves the story from the previous page.

Another aspect that takes away some of the validity of the comic is the cliche of some of his characters. While the personality aspects and his superhero identity are interesting and new, he also followed a couple of cookie cutter webcomic themes. He has the cute random animal that shows up, the Penguin, and he has an anthropomorphized computer that looks like a hot girl. His characters have their own little spins, of course, but they're still a little too close to things I've seen over and over before.

Graham has a great idea to go with here, and awesome drawing skills. He can make Comedity take off if he gives it the time and focuses on his original and interesting ideas.

All the Genres Fit to Draw

Like any form of media, webcomics have different genres. While a lot of these genres are similar to traditional media, such as drama and comedy, there are a few definitions that are exclusive to webcomics. Here's a quick rundown. I probably won't get all of them, so if you know of any I missed, give me an idea.

Drama- This one is pretty self-explanatory. Same drama as any other media. A webcomic example of this would be MegaTokyo.

Comedy- Another easy one to figure out. One of the most popular comedy comics is Diesel Sweeties, which just recently got syndicated into several national newspapers.

Autobiographical-These are webcomics that are based on the author's own life. Of course, it's not the normal day-to-day routine, but usually the normal things with a little comedy spin on it. Some things are exaggerated, of course, but they are usual a fun look into someone else's life. One of the best done examples of this is Devil's Panties, which is not, in fact, satanic porn.

Sci-Fi- Another genre that looks familiar to a traditional theme. But webcomic Sci-Fi tends to be different from movie sci-fi. Obviously a drawn media can't replicate the special effects of a movie or TV show. Webcomic sci-fi tends to rely more on the story than the intricate ships and strange alien races. An example of this is Zap!.

Fantasy- These are stories that are based on fantasy elements such as dragons, swords, and knights. Think Lord of the Rings in picture. Dominic Deegan is my favorite example of this genre.

Action- Fighting and adventure based storylines. The explosions may be 2D, but the artist do a very good job of stimulating motion, especially Dr. McNinja.

Gamer- I've saved one of the biggest for last. Gaming comics are one of the mainstays of the webcomic world. These are comics based around the video game community. They tend to fluctuate between the gamer's world of being game nerd, and then actual gameplay and throughts about the games they're playing. Though there are many, my personal favorite is Ctl+Alt+Del.

Something Positive

I'll start this thing out with my favorite webcomic.

Something Positive

Author/Artist: Randy Milholland
Online since: Dec 19th, 2001 (First Comic)

Something Positive is one of the longer running comics on the web. Written by the evil genius of Mr. Milholland, S*P has one of the largest fanbases of the online comic world.

The storyline is an ongoing look at the world of a small group of bitter and evil people who happen to be friends. Since the very first comic, which involved an abortion joke, Milholland has never pulled any punches with his scripts. His humor is often described as tasteless and just plain mean. He insults and mocks everyone, and his most frequent subject of ridicule is himself, represented through the main character of Davan, who is based on his own life.

However, despite the stinging humor and jokes that make you feel guilty for laughing at them, S*P has displayed some of the most poignant and interesting character development seen in any webcomics. There is an ongoing, intense plot that draws you in and makes you feel for the characters. They're written so well that you feel like they are people you know in your own life, and you become emotionally invested in how things go for them.

Milholland's art style is not what anyone could call super high-style. It is a cartoon-ish style he's stuck with since the first strip all the way to the newest strips. Even though the style is basically the same, there have still been subtle changes and he has grown as an artist over the past five years. But again, the appeal of S*P is in it's story, not really it's art.

Randy has a very dedicated community of readers. He draws the comic for free, though he does have a donation button, and he does sell adspace on his page. He doesn't seem to like asking his readers for money, though. The most he has ever done was make a challenge to his readers. If they would donate the same amount as a year's salary, he would quit his job for that year and draw the comic full time. That goal of about $22,000 was met within a week, and Milholland kept his promise and quit his job. The power of loyal fans.

Basically, I love S*P for it's story, and I can't describe that to you here. You just have to see it for yourself. So if you have some time on your hands (and you aren't easily offended), head over to the first strip, and put Something Positive in your day.

And So it Begins

I guess before I get into my big loud opinion, I should define what a webcomic is for everyone, hmm?

A webcomic is exactly what it says; a comic strip that is published primarily on the web. Some of the these comics are also published in traditional print books that can be purchased. According to Wikipedia, there are over 7,000 webcomics currently online.

I will not be reviewing all 7,000 of those comics. The fact is that the vast majority of them suck. They are written poorly and drawn like crap.

I'm going to be looking at comics that are exceptional to me in one way or the other. I'll start off with my already large group of sites that I check daily, and then expand from there. I will search out new webcomics that show promise, and review others to see if they'll catch my interest or yours.

I'm also going to be looking at the webcomics community. "Community?", you say. "How can it have a community? It's just a bunch of cartoons online." And that's exactly why I'll be spending a lot of time on that. It's amazing what happens when fans can easily reach and speak with their favorite artists and authors.

For now, I recommend that you give a look to the list of link that I've posted on the sidebar. They are some of my favorite comics, and some of the finest examples out there.

The Wonderful World of Webcomics

Webcomic Finds

A blog right here on Blogger, the author is a writer for Comixpedia, which is kind of like a Wikipedia for online comics. The blog itself is where the author recommends and reviews comics and gives general information about them. This is pretty much exactly what I'm looking to do, but I don't want to wander around the topic as much as she does. A few of the entries seem a little petulant and wordy.

WebSnark

One of the most prolific webcomic bloggers on the web, Eric Burns has become a kind of head journalist/critic of the webcomic "stars." He is about as involved as someone can become in the webcomics field without being able to draw. He attends the same conventions they do, he's met a vast majority of the webcomic creators out there, and even got some of the most popular artists on the web to draw his marriage proposal to his girlfriend. His blog covers a lot of different aspects of the webcomics world, from reviews of comics to personal issues with the artists. He is kind of like the slightly more respectable tabloid writer of the net-world. Some of his entries branch off into other geeky things, like video games and such, but they still manage to tie into the Internet community theme.

"Shortpacked" Comic Blog

Something a little different. This is a blog done by a webcomic artist that draws multiple strips. He uses the blog as a place where his fans can follow what is going on in all of them without having to jump around to all of the different sites. It's also where he posts about the state of the comic and a little of his personal life. He advertises products related to the comic that he is selling, and special offerings for his loyal readers. He also references other comics and gives them recognition.