Web VS Print

-Guest Post written by Prototype

I believe webcomics authors are often too eager to mimic our paper print cousin. We try to make our comics as close to a normal issue as possible with format and length when we in fact should embrace the stuff we can do better. We don't HAVE to stick to 22 pages for a chapter/issue and there is no need to stick to the same sized page format as printed comics do. But often that is the case and yeah, I can see the reason. The goal is often to go from webcomic to print comic at some point so making everything in the standard size and format makes sense. If you browse a few webcomics here on the duck you will see they pretty much all stick to this print standard even if most will never actually put their comic to print.

So what are the specific ups to doing a webcomic? Well, longer pages is the most obvious. Is the page full but you want an wide extra panel of that nice castle the heroes are approaching? Just put it in. Pages can scroll forever.


Art from Busty Solar by Prototype

Feel bad about that page you did a week or month ago? Just fix it, change it or completely redo it. There is also a bunch of digital trickery that can only be accomplished in a digital world. Using the GIF format you can make parts of the page animated, like rain outside a window or a displaying a glowing gem for example. Using the GIF or PNG format you can have characters or objects seemingly be OUTSIDE the page. The benefits and tools are there to make a webcomic really stand out and make it something a paper comic could never achieve. That's what makes them so great.

Of course this being said there are not all positives and sunny skies. Several pitfalls exist that only comes with making a webcomic but that is a topic for another day.

What do you think are some other strengths that webcomics have?


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