Welcome to THE WOOORRRRLD OF TOMORRRROWWW!!!

On Tuesday we tackled (and I mean tackled, solid talkback everybody) how we, as webcartoonists can perceive others. Today, I have some thoughts on how others perceive us, to my eyes.

I’ve been on the road (it is rough and stuff) quite a bit lately, hitting San Diego and Chicago both, as many did, in a three week period. One of the perks of spending two whole weekends ensconced in geekery is I was able to see how the rest of the industry feels about our internet-y-world. (The other perk being Kristen Bell. Hey, Veronica Mars. Call me.)

Okay, back to Veronica Mars-less reality. So how’d it go? Click read more, and, um, read more. 

So after years of con-going I felt this year was a new high point for webcomic awareness/respect that I’ve seen. Webcomic panels in San Diego filled to capacity, webcartoonists were out in force at both shows I attended, and when people asked me where I published Reckless Life and I responded with Graphic Smash, I was met with far less, HUH’s?

I had a particularly nice conversation with my neighbor in artist’s alley, a writer who has been working at the top of the industry since I was playing park and rec little league. (That’s not one of my baseball metaphors. I was 11 then.) Half the fun of the talk was he and I had more in common than one might guess, and some of the same worries about the future of the industry. In the course of the conversation, I could pretty much see, I had not necessarily converted someone to the notion there is some quality work online, but I am pretty sure I got him thinking about it, and that’s all I try to do.

So I came home feeling like things are continuing to look up for webcomics, and then Xerexes said something Tuesday that made me stop:

the lines between webcomic creators and other comic creators have largely blurred.

I’m not entirely sure if the lines are blurring as much on the reader side.

That gave me an — end of the Sixth Sense — moment and I played back all the positive things I heard, and conversations I had at these shows, and who was I talking to in almost every one:

Creators.

Now, this isn’t bad, in fact, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the notion. It may not be a boon to short term growth economically, but if more and more creators hop on board, at some point their readers may follow them and discover webcomics larger sphere. Maybe they won’t. Either way, you can be certain I’ll be following Warren Ellis’ new site with great interest.

Amongst all these conversations over the last one few weeks though, I think the one I like best was part of what I was talking about with my writer-neighbor in Chicago, who was bemoaning the lack of companies like Calibre Comics in today’s market. Places where new talent can get a shot to try new things and prove themselves. I said there is.

It’s us, and people are figuring that out everyday.

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timdemeter

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