August 10, 2007

let's do this

I am a person with a simple dream. A dream of a world in which all the comics on the internet don't suck. Crazy, I know! But together, I think we can make this thing happen.

The good news is that approximately 90% of all bad webcomics are making the exact same mistakes. Most of them are about basic legibility. The words are too small. The art is confusing. The panel layout is labyrinthine. These are the easy ones to fix. I will show you how.

The bad news is that the remaining 10% are perfectly legible, and still manage to suck. It may be that many of them are beyond hope. But goddamnit, I've got to try.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Visual is good. Thank you.

Infinity said...

Gasp! John Solomon is like the little devil on the shoulder of webcomic critique, and you are like the little angel. Thank you for starting this. XD

Anonymous said...

always enjoyable reading, literate and informative

Joe Chiappetta said...

You have taken on quite an unsung cause... saving webcomics. Lettering is such a huge deal. Good for you. The blog should be required reading for webcomic types. I also like your avatar.

Felicity Walker said...

You called it. The art and lettering on 99% of webcomics sucks. Webcomic artists should study the classical rules of art before they jump in all half-assed and manga-style. The only good free lettering font is A.C.M.E. Explosive. None of the others look like real lettering. None of them. I’ve made a few custom fonts for myself by scanning in the lettering of my favourite letterists like John Workman but they still need fixing before they’re any substitute for A.C.M.E. Explosive.

Anonymous said...

I actually think 90% of webcomics are bad because they are about a pair of blandly good-looking male roommates and their sassy female neighbor who may or may not be lesbian but for whatever reason isn't sleeping with them, and their entire plots consist of trivial reconfigurations of superficial sexual desire and indie bands.