Are There Any Really Popular Non-Manga Webcomics?

[JRHoch]

I know there are popular indie comics, mostly hosted by individuals, that have done very well. Questionable Content comes to mind. But I was wondering if there are very popular non-manga comics or Asian-influenced comics that exist on Tapas and Webtoon.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I mean...that really depends on how strict your definition of 'manga' is. But just by looking through the Popular tab on WT, there's Doodle for Food, Murrz, My Giant Nerd Boyfriend, Edith, Bluechair, Safely Endangered...

Then from looking through the weekly Original rotations: Muted (which I actually read~), Crumbs, Big Jo, Miss Abbott and the Doctor, As Per Usual, Trailer Park Warlock, Lunarbaboon...the list goes on and on. You really just have to look. ._.

[lorphis]

Uhh.... Homestuck? Maybe. I never read it but it seems to be very popular.

[ben]

Well yeah. The original webcomic boom like ten, fifteen years ago was almost exclusively not manga-styled art and a lot of them are still going.

I’m actually pretty new to the whole “webtoon” thing and mostly existed on the side of comics that aren’t heavily manga influenced and a lot of working people in comics don’t even actually know what webtoons is and have very successful careers. But as a result a lot of them don’t know what the heck webtoons it tapas is.

[spicy_sweets]

On webtoons, asleep beside you was popular during its time!

[JRHoch]

Anything less on the silly or typical side? Muted has that standard Webtoon kind of look.

[silacinnamon]

I think a lot of the popular non-manga webcomics are slice-of-life/gag-a-day... I don't follow many webcomics here on Tapas or on Webtoon, but from what I remember there's Lore Olympus and Edith on Webtoon, which I think are romance/drama.

[JRHoch]

Yeah, that's what I've noticed. There's nothing that looks American or European. A lot of big eyes and oddball humor.

[GabiWolf]

I would have to agree that it depends on what you think "manga style' is, or how much it influences style. But one that is very popular and inspired me to start my own web comic journey is "Check Please", it's in what I would consider an "american cartoon style", and was very popular online and gained so much popularity that it is currently being publish by a big name publisher as a graphic novel.

I mean if we are saying anything with big eyes is Manga or anime influences, than I guess that would discount this webcomic, however I would disagree with big eyes indicating it's influences by manga. Betty Boop had big eyes and was obviously not influences by modern day manga, and a lot of Disney style art has big eyes as well. I think that cartoons take one aspect of humans and exaggerate it, be it noses or eyes.

[JRHoch]

Check Please I actually read on the Author's site. But that's a fair enough example.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Anything less on the silly or typical side? Muted has that standard Webtoon kind of look.

It kinda does

Let's see, let's see...I'm just grabbing titles here, so I can't vouch for the quality of any of these comics:
Drama: Warning Label, Caster, Late Bloomer
Thriller: Witch Creek, Finality, Elena
Sports: Midnight Furies
Romance: Humor Me, Lord Have Mercy, Circuits and Veins
Sci-fi: Fatherboard, Cubicles, Our Universe

Still, the lesson is, you just have to look. ^^;

They ARE harder to find, but I think if anyone's to blame for that it's the Western animation industry, that made the assumption that teenagers don't watch cartoons. So, the majority of serious, story-driven narratives in the 2D art form that young adults enjoy come from Japan and other parts of Asia, and have done so for the past few decades.

So it follows that when those young adults want to start their own serious, story-driven, but still YA-targeted webcomics, they gravitate towards the art styles in which most of them are found.

It's a tough wall to break down, although some more recent Western shows (like SU, Gravity Falls, Star vs, etc.) that aren't afraid to take serious directions and actually are produced with an older fanbase in mind are helping, but an environment in which a Western equivalent of, say, Attack on Titan could be born is still pretty far off.

[Rhonder]

Unfamiliar comes to mind:

Unfamiliar | Tapas

78k subs on a non-premium comic is pretty wild xD

[Iris-Grimoire]

Wilde Life comes to mind, being a definately serious comic most of the time and having a semi-realistic style. On the sillier side, there's also Cucumber Quest which started out as a regular cartoon and became more painterly and children's book-y with time... But both have been running for a LONG time, maybe even before Webtoon got popular.

[JRHoch]

Thanks for all the suggestions! Much appreciated. I'll take a look.

[silacinnamon]

Yeah, the Archie comics also had big, cartoonish eyes, and I wouldn't say it looks manga-influenced. Disney movies were a big influence for Osamu Tezuka, he probably started the "big eyes trend" in Japan because of western art style.

Going a little off topic from the webcomics side, but just to illustrate how "manga style" is open for interpretation, a lot of 80's mangas were influenced by western comics/culture so they tend to have less cartoonish faces, like Fist of the North Star and Jojo. Some mangas today don't even look like the regular "manga style", like The Girl from the Other Side. The author of Witch Hat Atelier also made a lot of covers for DC and you can't even tell they were made by a manga artist lol. I'd say both sides always took influence from eachother :3

[joannekwan]

I like to think I'm mildly popular with my very western-take on gay relationships in Heavy Horns

Heavy Horns | Tapas

[TAMAnnoying]

Ok so see this is were i start to get confused cause I’ve had people tell me your style reminds them of anime x3 not saying I agree with these people but I’ve also come across people who think my style is anime and I don’t know where the line is for some of these folks

[joannekwan]

loool I wonder what animes they're thinking of.

I guess there is another layer to it though, visual style aside, a lot of times I can tell a work was eastern-inspired from the writing.

[TAMAnnoying]

Possibly! Only real reference ive ever gotten out of people was "it looks like Jojo"

[rajillustration]

I can't think of any that are like--strictly on tapas or webtoons off the top of my head. Most of the ones I think of are like...more hosted on their main sites and were ported over here when these sites got popular. But there's Rising Sand, which is just phenominal, I think like several people work together to make it because it's so intense (and I think they went to book form so you have to buy the rest? maybe?) https://tapas.io/series/RISINGSAND

But like, it feels like the gag-a-days Sunday Newspaper style went to twitter and instagram mostly, and that's where I tend to see those. And the western style comics are more on tumblr because they're page format? Like long format can work in a Western style but I feel like if you went to school to do page comics that are on standard sized paper like DC and Marvel then it's really rough to sacrifice that technique to do long format. You lose soooo much action when you do long format over page format, so I can see why they just stayed in their lane and stuck to page format over there, when western comics are mostly known for their action sequences.