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Monday, October 20, 2014

The History Of 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.

Now it was only during the mid eighties that web comics were actually created although they did not become popular yet during this time. The very first one was in fact created by Eric Willikin and was a parody of the Wizard of Oz known as Wizards in Stitches. He made use of a program known as Compuserve to spread his work.

Another very popular pioneer of internet strips would of course be Where the Buffaloes Roam which was made by Hans Bjordahl. Eventually another one followed this made by David Farley. This was Doctor Fun and was one of the first published ones that came out in the year 1993.

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.

Nowadays, apps are the latest when it comes to technology. It was because of the popularity of mobile apps that mobile app comics have also gained a lot of popularity as well. Artists have been very flexible over time so that they could gain more popularity and keep afloat in this changing world. One of the modern forms of internet strips are actually memes. In fact, memes are pretty much like comic strips since they make use of pictures and words and is known to be the modern day form of web comics.




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