RIPPED BATMAN SHIRT #4: AHOY WEB COMICS!

Jim Lemoine · Dec 19, 2003, 02:59 pm

By Ryan McLelland, ryan@forgottenuniverses.com

Ahoy Web Comics

Most comic readers like tangibility. You can hold your comic, turn the page, and let your imagination run wild. Some might think that you lose that aspect if you are looking at comics on the web. If you are a collector and love physically owning a comic, that's all fine and dandy. Web comics though are a great way to read a comic for free and possibly perk your interest enough to go to your local store and try new titles. So I thought I'd share some of the sites I haunt for web comics and let you decide whether web comics are a good or bad thing.

For comics on the web you truly can't beat Crossgen ,and their website (http://www.comicsontheweb.com) is very easy one to remember. Crossgen has continued to have nearly all of their titles available on the site, though their service does come with a price. Crossgen currently has 410 titles available on the web, but are only available with a paid subscription that ranges from a 3-month subscription for $6 to a year's subscription at $20. Though it's a paid service, if you think about what you’re getting for that money, you really can't beat the price. For 2 dollars a month, you can take three months to read every single issue Crossgen has ever had to offer, and the service even offers newer titles like Lady Death and Crossgen's newest hit, El Cazador. Don't think you have to pay for all the comics, either, because Crossgen has put up no fewer than 21 free comics to help suck you into several series, like Sojourn and Way of the Rat.

Away from CrossGen, it's hard to beat Liberty Meadows, the strip comic written and drawn by Frank Cho. Liberty Meadows was a comic syndicated throughout the country, but Cho has since stopped publishing the adventures of Frank, Brandy, Dean, Ralph, and Leslie in newspapers and has made the comic exclusive through Image Comics. What's great about the www.libertymeadows.com website is it offers 247 Liberty Meadows strips online absolutely free. Not only that, but how can you beat a site that gives you this warning before reading their comics: "ATTENTION: This site contains offensive and tasteless strips according to features editors. Viewer discretion is advised !!" Offensive?? Tasteless??? Cho gives us nothing but good, clean fun, although it's hard for any fanboy to not look at Brandy and drool. Well, at least this fanboy.

Marvel’s DotComics (http://dotcomics.marvel.com) is a pretty impressive website featuring some of the hottest Marvel titles available. Marvel's free section has over ten different titles to choose from, with a few different issues of each title. Marvel does have a 'Member's Section' that includes assorted issues of Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, The Ultimates, Ultimate Spider-Man, and Ultimate X-Men, but the thing is these comics are also completely free. All one has to do is register with Marvel and PRESTO, you have access to everything on their DotComics site. Marvel is constantly changing and updating their DotComics, so checking back each month usually allows you to see what's new, hot, and upcoming. Marvel's DotComics use web technology to enhance the reading experience; for instance, they allow you to click over panels so they can become larger, making them very easy to read.

The web also offers exclusives only found on the net. Scott McCloud's site (www.scottmccloud.com) is one of the best examples, continuing the adventures of his 1980’s staple Zot! The original online story Hearts and Minds is roughly 80 pages long, originally published on Comic Book Resources over a sixteen week timespan. All sixteen parts are free to view, and as McCloud says on his site, "This story reunited the cast of my 80's superhero series Zot! and provided a great storytelling laboratory for investigating the dynamics of comics on the Web as well as the first successful application of 'trails'." This impressive web comic even won a Squiddie award for 'Best Online Comic'.

Another 1980's stable that has found new life on the web is Ralph Snart. The comic was originally published throughout the 80's and 90's through Now Comics, but creator Marc Hanson’s recent reacquisition of the rights has led him to launch the www.ralphsnart.com website. Hanson has since relaunched the series exclusively on the web, penning a brand new sixth volume of all new Ralph Snart Adventures. The series does require a one-year subscription for $9.95, but with that subscription for the comics also comes the entire Ralph Snart history. Starting with the first Ralph Snart series from 1986, paid subscribers are able to read every single Ralph Snart comic ever published, making the subscription cost mere pennies per comic.

In the end, what I would love to see is some of the big companies like Marvel or DC putting legions of comics up on the web as Hanson and Crossgen have. Imagine if you could pay a small monthly fee to have full access to Marvel’s library – reading anything from the 70’s Werewolf by Night to the 90’s Darkhawk! Most comic fans would undoubtedly sign up for a deal for web comics like that. It may be on the way - Marvel has (sort of) jumped on this bandwagon by releasing 'Comic Book Library Volume 1', 100 comic books on CD-Rom, which collects the first ten stories of ten different 1960's series including Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Silver Surfer. Whether more volumes will come remains to be seen, though I personally would rather see Marvel release an entire series on CD-Rom, than a few random issues from a few different series. I'd be more than happy to pay cash for the entire run of Guardians of the Galaxy on CD-Rom.

So bring up your web browser and pop in the address of your favorite search engine. Type in 'online comics', 'web comics', or just 'comics' for that matter and see what sites, like Ryan Scott's http://www.uncannyx-sprites.com/, you can find out there in the world. The above mentioned sites barely crack the surface in what is available for free (or for a small price) over the World Wide Web. While web comics might never replace physical books, they do make a welcome addition to the craft.

CONTEST RESULTS:
I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the Sidekicks book contest from last column is Will Huston from Lincoln, Nebraska. Will will be receiving copies of both Sidekicks and its sequel book Sidekicks: Operation Squish. Thanks to all of those who entered the contest and congratulations to Will!

Ryan McLelland is a writer and columnist for the comic book e-zine Newsarama, the movie review site Latino Review, and his column right here at ComiX-Fan. Ryan is also the webmaster of www.forgottenuniverses.com , a reference site dedicated to preserving the memory of comic universes like the Ultraverse, New Universe, Impact, Defiant, and Broadway comics.

zeroplate · Dec 19, 2003, 05:41 pm

It's too bad that Marvel's "enhanced" dotcomics are so poorly implemented. The panels look jagged and are in many cases downright unreadable in their full-page format, and blowing up a panel causes them to eclipse the rest of the page. I realize they think the animation of the panels getting bigger and smaller and the pages turning may translate into more 'action' but frankly I'd much rather have a high quality pdf file that I could flip through. Most comics are intentionally written and drawn with a natural pace to them if you are turning real pages... I just don't get that sense from the dotcomics, but I haven't tried some of these other services.

Wicked_Incite · Dec 19, 2003, 05:41 pm

An overall good piece, but I can’t believe you wrote a column about webcomics without including a piece on Penny-Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com), or 8-Bit Theatre (www.nuklearpower.com)… or dare I say Life of Riley (www.clanbob.net)? Hell, the last of those three I find to be more engaging than most of the “tangible” comics I buy. Well, when its at its best, of course. The “bobs” story arc… that was just brilliant.

And 8-Bit Theatre had a hilarious debate about who would win in a fight, Batman or Doctor Doom, recently. It ends with 8-Bit Doom! You gotta love that!

Fever Pitch · Dec 19, 2003, 08:34 pm

Quote:

Originally posted by Jim Lemoine

CONTEST RESULTS:
I'm pleased to announce that the winner of the Sidekicks book contest from last column is Will Huston from Lincoln, Nebraska. Will will be receiving copies of both Sidekicks and its sequel book Sidekicks: Operation Squish. Thanks to all of those who entered the contest and congratulations to Will!
[i]

:O OMG! I won! This is is so dang cool. I never have this luck. I should start play poker tonight or something.

Also, am I missing something, or did he not mention Scott Kurtz's Player versus Player?

Judiusx · Dec 20, 2003, 02:14 am

Peresonally I was a fan of the old X-Men Underground site. Too bad its not around anymore.

I also tried to get into the Marvel dotcomics but the sfx just got in the way and annoyed me so I gave up on them.

bravelybravesirrobin · Dec 20, 2003, 01:58 pm

the dotcomics were good when you could dowbload them permanently on the dotcomic playe rfeature, when marvel discontinued this I kinda lost interest, the media's too dificult to read and you can't revisit issues.

as for webcomics well I was VERY into them at one point, nowadays i stick with

www.penny-arcade.com - i'm not a huge video game fan but it's the definitive gag a day strip

www.nuklearpower.com - 8-Bit theater is also a classic with an enormous cult following. how can you not love fighter, especially when he has a spider in his hair or is developing sword chucks. it's also a very geeky site perfect for comic fans

www.elgoonishshive.com - becuase i'm sick. it's a webcomic about transformations, gender, animal weird martial arts, inter-dimensional wars, genetic experiments, demons and ooze. and a demon duck it's just so weird you have to appreciate it

www.misfirecomics.com - sadly no longr updated this was a big hit in the 40k community a few year back. gag a day but classic gags and space marine Bob still gets a chuckle

and of course the uncanny x-sprites which I was into before i dsicovered this site and found this place through that strip. I love the uncanny x-sprites they're jsut going from strength to strength.

Anthony Lucynski · Dec 20, 2003, 08:39 pm

I love your columns, Ryan, but PvP not being on this list made me want to smack you for a few minutes.

I got over it, mind you. But for a few minutes.......

Anthony L

CrazyFool83 · Dec 21, 2003, 07:05 pm

Nice to see I'm not the only one who reads El Goonish Shive. While it's possibly one of the weirdest/mst screwed up things I've read, it's still great. I read a lot of web comics, my favorites would probably be...

Penny Arcade
PvP
El Goonish Shive
Life of Reilly

General Protection fault (GPF-Comics.com) - What's not to love about a comic that features 2 sentient slime molds? Nice array of SciFi/Fantasy geek and tech geek humor

College Roomies from hell (CRFH.net) And you thought your roomies in college were weird. Not as far out there as El Goonish Shive, but close. Again, that stuff's great.

It's Walky (itswalky.com) Also a bit screwed up, you gotta love a comic that features whacky hijinx with aliens.

Exploitation Now (http://www.exploitationnow.com) Screwed up big time, this is the king of the screwed up, sick humor, manga like strip. If you like smut, this is the strip for you. Too bad it ended a year ago, after I found it.

Plaid · Dec 22, 2003, 12:29 am

I'm gonna thow my hat in too.

Satunalia
Demonology 101
Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuukie

Are 3 of my favorites. I also liked Exploitation Now... I remember when it was still going... They killed my favorite character in the end... It made me so sad.

Dec 19, 2003, 05:41 pm	#3
Wicked_Incite Much smarter than you Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Pittsburgh Country: Posts: 3,031	An overall good piece, but I can’t believe you wrote a column about webcomics without including a piece on Penny-Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com), or 8-Bit Theatre (www.nuklearpower.com)… or dare I say Life of Riley (www.clanbob.net)? Hell, the last of those three I find to be more engaging than most of the “tangible” comics I buy. Well, when its at its best, of course. The “bobs” story arc… that was just brilliant. And 8-Bit Theatre had a hilarious debate about who would win in a fight, Batman or Doctor Doom, recently. It ends with 8-Bit Doom! You gotta love that! __________________ I've been pondering a column, but everything I think of starts with "The reason I stopped reading..." and figured it might not be in line with this site's purpose. I got negative reputation for making a joke about Juggernaut's parental abuse. That lil red box really taught me a lesson

Dec 20, 2003, 01:58 pm	#6
bravelybravesirrobin Metahuman Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: england Country: Posts: 389	the dotcomics were good when you could dowbload them permanently on the dotcomic playe rfeature, when marvel discontinued this I kinda lost interest, the media's too dificult to read and you can't revisit issues. as for webcomics well I was VERY into them at one point, nowadays i stick with www.penny-arcade.com - i'm not a huge video game fan but it's the definitive gag a day strip www.nuklearpower.com - 8-Bit theater is also a classic with an enormous cult following. how can you not love fighter, especially when he has a spider in his hair or is developing sword chucks. it's also a very geeky site perfect for comic fans www.elgoonishshive.com - becuase i'm sick. it's a webcomic about transformations, gender, animal weird martial arts, inter-dimensional wars, genetic experiments, demons and ooze. and a demon duck it's just so weird you have to appreciate it www.misfirecomics.com - sadly no longr updated this was a big hit in the 40k community a few year back. gag a day but classic gags and space marine Bob still gets a chuckle and of course the uncanny x-sprites which I was into before i dsicovered this site and found this place through that strip. I love the uncanny x-sprites they're jsut going from strength to strength. __________________ www.elgoonishshive.com - a meeting place for freaks "the not quite so brave as sir lancelot"

Dec 20, 2003, 08:39 pm	#7
Anthony Lucynski ComiX-Fan Co-Founder Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Jacksonville, FL Country: Posts: 3,305	I love your columns, Ryan, but PvP not being on this list made me want to smack you for a few minutes. I got over it, mind you. But for a few minutes....... Anthony L __________________ http://blogtalkradio.com/whatthefnord

Dec 19, 2003, 05:41 pm	#2
zeroplate Clone Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: ATL Country: Posts: 57	It's too bad that Marvel's "enhanced" dotcomics are so poorly implemented. The panels look jagged and are in many cases downright unreadable in their full-page format, and blowing up a panel causes them to eclipse the rest of the page. I realize they think the animation of the panels getting bigger and smaller and the pages turning may translate into more 'action' but frankly I'd much rather have a high quality pdf file that I could flip through. Most comics are intentionally written and drawn with a natural pace to them if you are turning real pages... I just don't get that sense from the dotcomics, but I haven't tried some of these other services.

Dec 20, 2003, 02:14 am	#5
Judiusx Clone Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Sunnyside, Queens, NY Country: Posts: 68	Peresonally I was a fan of the old X-Men Underground site. Too bad its not around anymore. I also tried to get into the Marvel dotcomics but the sfx just got in the way and annoyed me so I gave up on them.

Dec 21, 2003, 07:05 pm	#8
CrazyFool83 Human Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kettering, OH Country: Posts: 100	Nice to see I'm not the only one who reads El Goonish Shive. While it's possibly one of the weirdest/mst screwed up things I've read, it's still great. I read a lot of web comics, my favorites would probably be... Penny Arcade PvP El Goonish Shive Life of Reilly General Protection fault (GPF-Comics.com) - What's not to love about a comic that features 2 sentient slime molds? Nice array of SciFi/Fantasy geek and tech geek humor College Roomies from hell (CRFH.net) And you thought your roomies in college were weird. Not as far out there as El Goonish Shive, but close. Again, that stuff's great. It's Walky (itswalky.com) Also a bit screwed up, you gotta love a comic that features whacky hijinx with aliens. Exploitation Now (http://www.exploitationnow.com) Screwed up big time, this is the king of the screwed up, sick humor, manga like strip. If you like smut, this is the strip for you. Too bad it ended a year ago, after I found it.

Dec 22, 2003, 12:29 am	#9
Plaid Clone Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dallas, Texas Country: Posts: 70	I'm gonna thow my hat in too. Satunalia Demonology 101 Sparkling Generation Valkyrie Yuukie Are 3 of my favorites. I also liked Exploitation Now... I remember when it was still going... They killed my favorite character in the end... It made me so sad.

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)