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Sunday, October 19, 2014

A Background On Original Web Comics

By Patty Goff


Everyone is probably familiar with web comics because of their emergence in the mid eighties. For those who do not know what original web comics are, basically they are comic strips that are published on the internet and not on print like original comic strips are. This brief history will be able to provide an idea on how these strips started and got popular.

Although the first internet comic strip was published in the year 1985, it did not become very popular yet. This comic was known as Witches in Stitches and it was actually a parody of the popular story the Wizard of Oz. The creator of this comic was Eric Millikin and he used Compuserve to transfer his work.

Eventually during the early nineties, another pioneer comic that went by the name of Where the Buffaloes Roam was also created. This was a comic that was made by mister Hans Bjordahl and was one of the first to come out. Another one came out in 1993 known as Doctor Fun made by David Farley.

Eventually during 1993, more and more webcomics came out simply because the internet became more accessible to people everywhere. During this time, the cartoons that were made were actually black and white just like the ones that one would see in a newspaper. Some of the strips that came out during this time were Polymer City Chronicles and Nukees.

During the year 1996 up to the year 2000, this period was known as the age of Singularity. In this time, it was actually possible now for people to make money out of making internet comics and getting a lot of views. Eventually more trendy styles came out and most of them were based on the drawings of Japanese comics known as Manga.

From the year 2000 up to the year 2006, things started to get really hot in the world of webcomics. This was a time of real reinvention as gaming comics and nerdy gag strips made its way into the spotlight. It was also here that indie comic book artists who could not get their work published just decided to go online in order to gain more popularity.

During the start of the year 2007, webcomics hit its peak of popularity as many more people decided that it is more entertaining to just read short strips online as compared to in print. Of course they eventually made their way to social media. Since social media became a big thing, people used it as a medium to gain popularity.

Now presently, these comics have made their way into apps or applications for phones. Since this is the latest thing in technology, web cartoonists began to slowly adapt so that they can keep up with their viewers. It is because of this flexibility that they are able to stay popular among the readers. In fact, people have began simplifying these strips and making them more popular by turning them into memes. If one could say something about the present day web cartoons, he would probably say that memes would be the modern version of them.




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