Webcomics - "The best medium for story-telling?"

[greatnessiam1]

Question - Are web-comics the best way for someone wanting to tell a theme based story?

Webcomics are stated as lighter stories and comedy gags from my reading. While Graphic Novels and other comic/manga genres are spoken of the more serious way's to tell a story. Especially if you look to get into the profession of comic writing.

(I beg to differ because most popular and famous writers have started with short stories and such before gaining their momentum toward their big break.)

Share your answers and opinions. Please. I look forward to them.

Sincerely,

1H3RO

[MylCreates]

I feel that there's always a ton of grey-lines when it comes comics. You'd have to define what a webcomic is (a comic published online (regardless the format chosen?)?) Thus anything else posted: graphic novels and manga, online, could fall under the category of a webcomic and thus trump the statement that all "webcomics" are lighter stories. Everyone has a different definition and thus different interpretations.

Also depending on the person's skill, they might be better at illustrating emotions and landscapes and events, better than describing it with words. Or, someone else could be better at writing and thus you can have many several-hundred paged award-winning novels about themes like medieval fantasies. (Stick with your strong-suit)

One of my favorite quotes comes to mind: “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

I feel you don't always have to throw your story under a definition before you get it started, else you might trap yourself under a set of rules that might bind the potential of a story. I suppose later people will categorize it depending on how they see fit.

Nice topic

~Myl

[sarahrebecca58]

Thinking of it like novels vs. flash fiction, it's not really better or worse. More than both can be dramatic, it's more of a pacing style with me.

[eagle1]

Personally, I love the webcomic format, and method of building an audience. I am aiming my stuff for print, but am about to put together some content aimed at the webcomic format specifically. Just because.

Eagle
(Always a new challenge)

[puppetbomb]

Hmmm I just thought of webcomics as "a comic/graphic novel that is published onto the internet".

Because according to your definition, newspaper funnies (which started mass publication in 1895 with "The Yellow Kid") would be considered "webcomics" before the internet was even invented, so I don't think that's an accurate definition at all.

Also, what do you mean by a "theme-based story?"

[Exeivier]

I think the best medium for stroy-telling is the story-teller

each person is different, stephen king could've been a lousy comic artist instead of a great writer, you just need to try and find what you are more comfortable with, and specially what you enjoy to do mor.

[sarahrebecca58]

Stories that featured a running central idea that transcends character, or at times a character highlights a central idea the author didn't expect.

Ex. Man's greed.

[puppetbomb]

I was wondering what the OP's definition of a "theme-based" story was.

By the OP's standards, the definition of a "theme-based" story would make it difficult to make into a "webcomic," which was defined as "lighter stories and comedy gags".

And even in the case of @sarahrebecca58's definition of "theme-based story", a theme as heavy as "man's greed" can still be a gag/comedy. And therefore, the OP's definition that a "webcomic" does not include theme-based stories is inaccurate because webcomics, by the OP's definition, are gags/comedies.

[AnnaLandin]

There is no "best medium". There is only "what medium fits the particular story I want to tell?"

Webcomics are comics posted online, regardless of content. It's a description of how the reader finds the story, rather than the storytelling format itself. It's certainly not a "genre", just as "graphic novel" isn't a genre, but a description of format - the same way novel, short story, flash fiction and multi-book series are descriptions of length and shape of a story, rather than its thematic content. I mean, there are hilarious manga series out there, and graphic novels that make me laugh, so it's not like graphic novels have to be super-serious all the time.

I think there's a misconception that gets dragged along a lot when we talk about comics, because of the word's connection with "comedy" - it's assumed a comic has to be funny, because it's called a "comic". This is why graphic novels get called graphic novels instead of comics - it's in an effort to make people take the format more seriously, and treat it the way they would treat a prose-novel. To me, all comics - regardless of format - are comics. Newspaper funnies are comics. One Piece is a comic. Watchmen is a comic. They vary in length, form and content, but they're all stories told with sequental art and words.

I've read hilarious, gag-based webcomics - and I've read hysterically funny comics in print. I've read adventure-based webcomics - and adventure-based print-comics. Hwei's HERO: A story is a webcomic that fuses the visual aspects of comics with the focused power of narrative text to tell a very dramatic, deep and poetic story - and particular format only works as a webcomic as it uses hover-text for its narration, leaving the actual panels free of words.

A lot of very popular webcomics have very serious themes. Evan Dahm's work, for example, deals with a range of very heavy topics - like colonialist expansionism, oppression of native peoples, selfhood and the loss thereof, etc., etc. Dresden Codak is all about transhumanism, oppressive governments and absent parental figures.

... So, bottom line. I have to disagree with you on your definition of webcomics as lighter/gag-based, as I think it's too narrow.

[elixiadragmire]

Hmmm I just thought of webcomics as "a comic/graphic novel that is published onto the internet".

same, a lot of people have an outdated mode of thinking about webcomics something that will take time to demolish totally