I say it's cause webcomics are a mostly indie solo developed thing and sadly most decent critics/reviewers don't wanna trample on the feelings of the author. also the shit storm that comes from said critic can be a headach on its own

we do need reviewers that's for sure =/ they help artist grow both in audience and technical skills sadly they only reviewers that I usually find are either using the platform to push and agenda or die out in like a month :'C

gonna check out some of the ones you mention =D looks interesting

It certainly be can't worse than what comic book journalism has become now.

I feel webcomic reviews are in short supply because simply, there is little demand for webcomic reviews. Most webcomics are 100% free to read, and most can be read in their entirety within a day. People read movie reviews so they know that the film they plan to spend ~$10 on for a ticket will actually be good, people read TV reviews so they know the season of TV they'll spend 10 hours watching will be worth their time.

This is not to mention webcomics are extremely niche pieces of media. Even the most popular webcomics have a fraction of the fans of mid-tier Youtube channels. Out of all the people who read webcomics, there are even fewer who are actually be interested in reading reviews of them. Famous reviewers like the AVGN and Nostalgia Critic spawned hundreds of imitators because tons of other people loved video games and movie and saw there was a market for reviewers of that sort of media. Not so much for webcomics.

EDIT:
I feel I should make mention of what the reviews themselves are like. Oftentimes many webcomic reviews exist more so for creators seeking feedback than fans. Not to say this is a bad thing, as critique is necessary for any artist to grow, but catering to creators means webcomic readers are gonna be pushed to the backburner, and thus are less likely to actually follow the reviewer's works. This means the potential of the reviewer as a webcomic promoter is going to be reduced to nil : /

• I wish there was a place I could submit my web comic or web novel for genuine critique (don't mind if it's bad).
• I wish there was a place where there's a 'random' button. So I could read a random review or webcomic/novel that I wouldn't normally consider.

My problem with a lot of webcomic journalism is I feel like it's catered to one type of person, instead of catering to a general audience or just a list of the most popular webcomics/novels in a genre.

First of all a big THANK YOU.

Never ever ever I would have expected to be quoted as a webcomic reviewer (!!!).

I actually made that list because I myself wanted to discover new funny webcomics (I mainly read gag comics) and I had a hard time finding recommendations

So I thought: "this maybe will save someone else's time". Also, I admire those artists so I think everybody should know them.

I don't know if there's a demand or not of webcomic reviews, but what about recommendations?

As many people already pointed out in this thread, there are SO MANY WEBCOMICS OUT THERE.

For free, shoved in our face 24/7.

Where to start? What are some 'classics' (there are already a few) that we shouldn't skip? What about the niches: Im not interested in horror comics, I only wanna read gags, or romance or other...

As per the websphere itself, you'll always gonna look for a starting point or, if you're already into comics and you already have your favourites, at some point you'll always look for something new.

I don't know, maybe I'm an exception here, but here's my situation: I hate browsing for ages for new comics. I would just like to find a website called 'www.imgonnareadstuffandtellyouwhatsgood.com'. I'm lazy -_-

When I go to a comicbook store I always ask the guy at the cash what's best for me and formulate a request.

Unless you're an Instagram fan and you like to scroll, the huge amount of offer can be an issue and push you not to look for new stuff at some point, out of exhaustion.

Then again, just talking about myself here

Also, I haven't done much comics reviews lately... I think I'm gonna start now

Thanks again!

The only webcomic review forum that I know of is the Bad Webcomics Wiki, dedicated to seeking out and reviewing bad and sometimes questionable webcomics. Not exactly what we as artists would want, and definitely kind of mean spirited in its mission statement, but reviews on the site can sometimes also point to positive aspects of the comic in question. And as @shazzbaa said, reviews need to be entertaining for the reader, and a review bashing its subject matter is usually kind of entertaining, even if you like the comic/book/movie being bashed. But yeah, I'd prefer more open minded platforms. I'll check out the sites mentioned by @niah146!

Edit: I take it back. There are definitely much better review sites being mentioned in this thread. Check out those instead!

I think my concern with most review sites I've been on, is that reviewers tend to review the same small community of webcomics. I love Sarah's Scribbles and all, but her comic is reviewed on EVERY review site (or so it feels). Nothing bores me quicker than seeing a bunch of comics I've already seen a thousand times being reviewed again. I really feel like reviewers need to expand out into the unknown. Find comics that have a fairly good amount to read but are relatively unknown. I also feel like I see reviewers feeling like they need to review every comic that is thrown their way. Like they aren't selective at all. Pick maybe 1 comic a week or every month or something like that. That way I know as a reader, what ever pops up is going to be a nice quality comic that I probably haven't seen before.

Anyways, that's this readers perspective anyways.

I feel it's sort of a mixed bag. If a reviewer is well known they get pounded with creators wanting their work reviewed, but on the other hand they can go entirely unnoticed. Falling into obscurity. The webcomic community is pretty small niche too with people either thinking their cartoons for children, or not real comics due to them being exclusively on the internet.
Personally, if a reviewer or journalist only talks about one type of comic (like gag-a-day comics for example), I get kinda bored. It's sad because many do stick to what they like since they're discussing/reviewing the works for free most of the time. Sometimes they end up being the negative type of reviewers who go for the easiest targets to rip on.
There's not a whole lot of variety.

There's a few resources I've found over the years with reviews and such:
There is Webcomic Relief1, a Youtuber who makes review videos about webcomics. He also does videos talking about story and characters, and has a tier on his Patreon where he gives critique to creators interested in hearing his opinion of their work.

StArt Faire2, an online magazine focusing on web/indie comics, regularly doing artist spotlights, and one of their members called Rebel Vampire does webcomic reviews for the magazine. (which they have a submission survey you can fill out to have your work reviewed) They also have something called Comic Tea Party, a bookclub that gets together every Thursday to discuss a comic that was submitted to them.

The brand new baby called Under the Ink3, a webcomic centric site so far doing news, creator interviews, and comic spotlights.

The Duck Webcomics (Formally known as Drunk Duck)1, a dinosaur of a webcomic hosting site that does podcasts talking about comics and storytelling, and occasionally reviews comic that get submitted to their weekly feature tab.

Daniel Kelly1, a writer who does webcomic reviews requested by his Patreon crowd.

Art of Webcomics2, a site dedicated to promoting webcomics, and doing creator interviews.

Gender Terror, a site focused on queer/LGBT+ horror content. The feature things from illustration work, to literature, published comics, and web/indie comics. Although they don't discuss webcomics very often.

Rainbow Comics1, a twitter based review page dedicated to doing small reviews on webcomics, particularly queer comics. This page isn't very active, but they post things every so often.

The Strip Show2, a site dedicated to reviewing webcomics.

There's also the various webcomic cataloging sites which occasionally promote the comics on their listing. Webcomic Library1, Archive Binge1, LGBT Webcomics1 (the creator of this blog also runs The Slash Pile, another blog dedicated to general queer friendly media, but you can also submit reviews/recs of LGBT+ webcomics and submit your own works), Queer Cartoonists and Cartoonists of Color1 Database, and The Queer Comics Database3. There's a lot of queer/LGBT+ friendly stuff. Lol.

How quality these resources are depends on you I guess? Sorry for the dump, I like sharing my hoard.

Yah, so those are reviews for creators not for readers. As a reader I don't want to really read advice to the creator so much. So two different types of the reviews I suppose. As a new reader I'd like to hear what the comic is about, what its general strengths or weaknesses are, etc. As a reader I don't particularly care that something is misspelled on page 362, or some character's hair color is wrong, etc. My goal as a reader is to find new comics to read for enjoyment.

This is why I think its good to not review every comic that is thrown your way. Just like an artist isn't going to pick up every job that is pitched to them. You pick and choose what you'd like to read and what you'd like to review. I'm assuming that the reward for running a review website is either ad revenue, social interaction, or visibility online- similar to what the reward is for creators putting their webcomics online for free.

I also think if creators are looking for an actual valuable review, either post on tapas forums or pay an editor to go over your work.

this and a lot of other aspects of the webcomic ecosystem have bothered me for a long time, although i do agree partly with a lot of theories brought up in this thread, my personal theory is that most webcomic media is (sometimes unintentionally) aimed at webcomic creators instead of consumers.
anything that attempts to get people excited about webcomics as a medium always just ends up inspiring people to create more than read, that combined with the lack of infrastructure results in most webcomic media either being a side project for people, or just a hobby, or being a finely veiled attempt at self promotion. the point being most outlets including my own, lack consistency and will usually be given up on. if i had funds i would hire people with the express purpose of setting a standard for these kinds of things, but the network is entirely volunteer based and i really don't like asking for donations.
i have also poled a lot of my audience and sent out surveys in the past, the main thing i discovered was that audiences just don't care enough, and creators put too much effort in the wrong places.
really, you can diagnose a lot of symptoms, but if we could create an active and engaged consumer community, a lot of other problems would fall in line as people began to cater to the consumer audience instead.
at the moment most reviews i read are framed in the context of 'these are things you could improve your comic with', or they are just an attempt at promotion, i understand that everyone wants promotion, and i want to provide a platform for people to promote on, but if the reviews were respected more than it would be more effective.
whenever i look for webcomic media, it's basically only 'how to make a webcomic' stuff, everything else get's lost in that sea of over saturated help.
with the unfortunate exception, that i'm sure your all aware of, people like to make fun of webcomics a lot.

i do the majority of the webcomicnetwork reviews myself, it was never something i planned to do, shortly after starting the network, people came to me asking for help or suggesting things i could do to make a bigger impact, so i just wrote a few reviews in my free time, i have a very thorough approach to reviews, i try and be as objective as possible and stick to my own standard. some other reviewers have been kind enough to share reviews with us.
my biggest personal rule is that i have to read every comic at least three times, because it's a different experience each time.
i do every review for free, i don't believe in expecting something for helping others, a problem that caused me a lot of strife when i was a commission artist. but because of that i can't dedicate enough time to put out frequent reviews.
my only goal as the webcomicnetwork is to improve the ecosystem for struggling creators, in any way shape or form i can.
i also guarantee that i will review each and every comic that asks me to, with an equal amount of seriousness.

when i researched reviews a lot of what i found was just fluff pieces, sometimes with an arbitrary number on the end, my reviews have a very tedious scoring system that separates content, style, and things of merit.
I've written an article purely explaining this system

i'm glad someone mentioned under the ink, I've spoken to them a lot of times, they basically do the things i tried to do but better in every way, i just happen to have been around longer, if they were around when i started to notice problems with the webcomic ecosystem i wouldn't have made the network.

my network started a few projects a while ago that haven't bared fruit yet.
the first being making some webcomic documentaries, a visual medium will reach more outsiders. specifically we are making a very in depth video on the biggest webcomic crossover event in history, in which we are working closely with the event's organizer, that's taking a long time because the event is so big it takes a lot of research and organisation and we don't like to cut corners.
and i hope to make videos on all the other crossover events, ironically they tend to get tangled up a lot and you can't really do an in depth video on one without mentioning at least three others.

the second project was an attempt to connect the various webcomic advocates like ourselves, together we would discuss the issues with the webcomic ecosystem and work to amend them, unfortunately some of the people we got in touch dropped out of the webcomic advocate business, something i see happening a lot, people can have a large impact on the community then after a few months for whatever reason their dedication wavers, other major advocates just didn't respond to us, although i haven't given up on negotiating with them.
my first plan as a advocate union would be to create a comprehensive map of the internet to help creators find help or resources, and that would become the basis of a real infrastructure.
i still fully intend to reach out to every advocate i find, and make a map, it just won't happen for a while.

if anyone does want to make a difference definitely get in touch with me, all the community really needs is people willing to spend time on standing up for struggling creators, and potentially working on some infrastructure. a single persons time can have a large impact.

Sometimes unintentionally and sometimes VERY intentionally...
https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/daily-lives-of-webtoon-creators/list?title_no=1746415

This was too perfectly timed not to be mentioned!