7 ms·

I wonder if Watterson really believes the gag line for the third strip, "Nah, the art form's dying"? He might, being (apparently) a neo-luddite of some sort. Bu

by fernly 12y ago

I wonder if Watterson really believes the gag line for the third strip, "Nah, the art form's dying"? He might, being (apparently) a neo-luddite of some sort. But there has never been as many, or as good, comics as there are now, or as many busy, thriving comic artists. Hint: they are not found at gocomics.com.

jsmthrowaway 12y ago
Watterson was very outspoken about his displeasures with the art form and the grinding newspaper production process throughout the life of C&H. His beliefs, then, predated almost all online comics, but he discussed a modern take recently: http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...
tesseract 12y ago
"I could do better if I had more space" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Syndication_and_formatting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Syndication_a...
- Angostura 12y ago
  Berkeley Brethed ran several Bloom County strips which featured the need for more space too, such as: http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=82665 http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=82665
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- tomjen3 12y ago
  Someone should introduce the man to the internets capabilities. Bill Waterson can have all the space he needs.
  - georgemcbay 12y ago
    I don't presume to speak for Bill Waterson or anyone else (and I don't mean this to be specifically about comics), but having all the space you need is, creatively, usually worse than having not enough space. There's a sweet spot in the middle where you have enough freedom to realize the gist of a vision, but also a number of unwavering hard constraints to rein you back in.
JoshTriplett 12y ago
I seriously doubt it. As an art form, newspaper comics are going the way of newspapers, but comics in general are thriving more than ever. The Internet has provided the perfect platform for them, and crowdfunding works quite well for strips with a following.
- ablativenotion 12y ago
  The question wasn't whether or not comics is a dying art form. The question is if Bill Watterson BELIEVES that it is, with the suggestion that he might believe so because he possibly doesn't like computers very much and therefore might not be fully aware of web comic artists.
- chengiz 12y ago
  It's a dying art form. Just because they are thriving doesnt make them art.
  - fernly 12y ago
    Really? The sort of comic I was thinking of would include, let's see, Sinfest, Romantically Apocalyptic, Drive, SSSS, Questionable Content... I could go on, but each one of these extends the field of comic-strip art along at least one dimension, and outstrips in subtlety anything attempted in newspaper comics. I'd even include XKCD, which certainly wouldn't seem like "art" to a casual glance, but what would you call the well-nigh insane depth of "Time"? Sinfest: http://sinfest.net/ http://sinfest.net/ Romantically Apocalyptic: http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/ http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/ Drive: http://www.drivecomic.com/new.html http://www.drivecomic.com/new.html SSSS: http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=1 http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=1 Questionable Content: http://questionablecontent.net/ http://questionablecontent.net/ XKCD "Time" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(xkcd) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(xkcd)
    - jerf 12y ago
      It's hard to prove it either way, but my suspicion is that there are already more people making their primary living from online comics than there are making their primary living making newspaper comics. And if that isn't true, Patreon will make it true in less than a year from now. Patreon really is a miracle worker from this sort of niche content. I've seen fairly niche people put up a Patreon campaign, then actually freak out about how much money they end up getting, because you aggregate a couple thousand $1-5/month donations and Holy Shit. (Suddenly it's a Real Job (TM).) It's incredible feasible to go from "scraping by, annoying your parents and friends with what looks like a vow of poverty to do your Stupid Shit and living in constant money stress" to "comfortable middle-class lifestyle with reasonable income assurance". Not perfect, of course, but reasonable. I mean, look at this: http://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith http://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith Any halfway-well-respected online comic artist not running a Patreon right now needs to get on it.
calibraxis 12y ago
Could you please share where I could find wonderful comics? Are these good places to look: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ and http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/42-web-comics-you-need-to-read http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/42-web-comics-you-need-to-...
- probably_wrong 12y ago
  That second list has some very good ones. Some other ones that are or were popular: Girl Genius, winner of several awards for both story and art, a story about a world ruled by MAD SCIENCE: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ 8-bit theater (finished now), an overall parody of Final Fantasy: http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/02/episode-001-were-going-where/ http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/02/episode-001-were-goin... Megatokyo - it used to be pretty big among manga fans, I don't know if it still is: http://megatokyo.com/ http://megatokyo.com/ Savage chickens, a strip drawn in sticky notes: http://www.savagechickens.com/ http://www.savagechickens.com/ Basic Instructions - hard to explain, but still, very funny: http://basicinstructions.net/ http://basicinstructions.net/ Penny Arcade, one of the first "big" webcomics, from the same guys that run PAX: http://penny-arcade.com/ http://penny-arcade.com/ Manly guys doing manly things, an overall parody of macho characters in popular culture: http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/ http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/ XKCD, terrible (minimalist?) drawing, truly great writing (if you are geek and/or math inclined): http://xkcd.com http://xkcd.com Keep in mind that for new readers it is usually better to start from the first strip and move on, but that usually means that you have to endure some pretty terrible artwork (check the "first" button, and move on). Also, it depends a lot on what you like reading - XKCD is almost exclusively math-oriented while Penny Arcade is not really funny if you are not into videogames. Then again, that's the good side - there's something out there for everyone.
  - tacticus 12y ago
    http://www.qwantz.com/ http://www.qwantz.com/ is pretty interesting as well. the same art every time.
  - shiven 12y ago
egypturnash 12y ago
It's also quite possible that Watterson is kinda mocking himself here. Cartoonists tend to do this. source: I'm a cartoonist
arrrg 12y ago
He could just be talking about comics in newspapers. The art form he practiced, not what’s going on elsewhere. That's certainly how I understood it.
Arelius 12y ago
In his interview on Mental Floss he states: "Personally, I like paper and ink better than glowing pixels, but to each his own. Obviously the role of comics is changing very fast. On the one hand, I don’t think comics have ever been more widely accepted or taken as seriously as they are now. On the other hand, the mass media is disintegrating, and audiences are atomizing. I suspect comics will have less widespread cultural impact and make a lot less money. I’m old enough to find all this unsettling, but the world moves on. All the new media will inevitably change the look, function, and maybe even the purpose of comics, but comics are vibrant and versatile, so I think they’ll continue to find relevance one way or another. But they definitely won’t be the same as what I grew up with." http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...

by fernly 12y ago

jsmthrowaway 12y ago

Watterson was very outspoken about his displeasures with the art form and the grinding newspaper production process throughout the life of C&H. His beliefs, then, predated almost all online comics, but he discussed a modern take recently: http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...

tesseract 12y ago

"I could do better if I had more space" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Syndication_and_formatting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes#Syndication_a...

Angostura 12y ago
Berkeley Brethed ran several Bloom County strips which featured the need for more space too, such as: http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=82665 http://www.thecomicstrips.com/store/add.php?iid=82665
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
tomjen3 12y ago
Someone should introduce the man to the internets capabilities. Bill Waterson can have all the space he needs.
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  I don't presume to speak for Bill Waterson or anyone else (and I don't mean this to be specifically about comics), but having all the space you need is, creatively, usually worse than having not enough space. There's a sweet spot in the middle where you have enough freedom to realize the gist of a vision, but also a number of unwavering hard constraints to rein you back in.

JoshTriplett 12y ago

I seriously doubt it. As an art form, newspaper comics are going the way of newspapers, but comics in general are thriving more than ever. The Internet has provided the perfect platform for them, and crowdfunding works quite well for strips with a following.

ablativenotion 12y ago
The question wasn't whether or not comics is a dying art form. The question is if Bill Watterson BELIEVES that it is, with the suggestion that he might believe so because he possibly doesn't like computers very much and therefore might not be fully aware of web comic artists.
chengiz 12y ago
It's a dying art form. Just because they are thriving doesnt make them art.
- fernly 12y ago
  Really? The sort of comic I was thinking of would include, let's see, Sinfest, Romantically Apocalyptic, Drive, SSSS, Questionable Content... I could go on, but each one of these extends the field of comic-strip art along at least one dimension, and outstrips in subtlety anything attempted in newspaper comics. I'd even include XKCD, which certainly wouldn't seem like "art" to a casual glance, but what would you call the well-nigh insane depth of "Time"? Sinfest: http://sinfest.net/ http://sinfest.net/ Romantically Apocalyptic: http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/ http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/ Drive: http://www.drivecomic.com/new.html http://www.drivecomic.com/new.html SSSS: http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=1 http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=1 Questionable Content: http://questionablecontent.net/ http://questionablecontent.net/ XKCD "Time" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(xkcd) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(xkcd)
  - jerf 12y ago
    It's hard to prove it either way, but my suspicion is that there are already more people making their primary living from online comics than there are making their primary living making newspaper comics. And if that isn't true, Patreon will make it true in less than a year from now. Patreon really is a miracle worker from this sort of niche content. I've seen fairly niche people put up a Patreon campaign, then actually freak out about how much money they end up getting, because you aggregate a couple thousand $1-5/month donations and Holy Shit. (Suddenly it's a Real Job (TM).) It's incredible feasible to go from "scraping by, annoying your parents and friends with what looks like a vow of poverty to do your Stupid Shit and living in constant money stress" to "comfortable middle-class lifestyle with reasonable income assurance". Not perfect, of course, but reasonable. I mean, look at this: http://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith http://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith Any halfway-well-respected online comic artist not running a Patreon right now needs to get on it.

calibraxis 12y ago

Could you please share where I could find wonderful comics? Are these good places to look: http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ and http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/42-web-comics-you-need-to-read http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/42-web-comics-you-need-to-...

probably_wrong 12y ago
That second list has some very good ones. Some other ones that are or were popular: Girl Genius, winner of several awards for both story and art, a story about a world ruled by MAD SCIENCE: http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/ 8-bit theater (finished now), an overall parody of Final Fantasy: http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/02/episode-001-were-going-where/ http://www.nuklearpower.com/2001/03/02/episode-001-were-goin... Megatokyo - it used to be pretty big among manga fans, I don't know if it still is: http://megatokyo.com/ http://megatokyo.com/ Savage chickens, a strip drawn in sticky notes: http://www.savagechickens.com/ http://www.savagechickens.com/ Basic Instructions - hard to explain, but still, very funny: http://basicinstructions.net/ http://basicinstructions.net/ Penny Arcade, one of the first "big" webcomics, from the same guys that run PAX: http://penny-arcade.com/ http://penny-arcade.com/ Manly guys doing manly things, an overall parody of macho characters in popular culture: http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/ http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/ XKCD, terrible (minimalist?) drawing, truly great writing (if you are geek and/or math inclined): http://xkcd.com http://xkcd.com Keep in mind that for new readers it is usually better to start from the first strip and move on, but that usually means that you have to endure some pretty terrible artwork (check the "first" button, and move on). Also, it depends a lot on what you like reading - XKCD is almost exclusively math-oriented while Penny Arcade is not really funny if you are not into videogames. Then again, that's the good side - there's something out there for everyone.
- tacticus 12y ago
  http://www.qwantz.com/ http://www.qwantz.com/ is pretty interesting as well. the same art every time.
- shiven 12y ago

egypturnash 12y ago

It's also quite possible that Watterson is kinda mocking himself here. Cartoonists tend to do this. source: I'm a cartoonist

arrrg 12y ago

He could just be talking about comics in newspapers. The art form he practiced, not what’s going on elsewhere. That's certainly how I understood it.

Arelius 12y ago

In his interview on Mental Floss he states: "Personally, I like paper and ink better than glowing pixels, but to each his own. Obviously the role of comics is changing very fast. On the one hand, I don’t think comics have ever been more widely accepted or taken as seriously as they are now. On the other hand, the mass media is disintegrating, and audiences are atomizing. I suspect comics will have less widespread cultural impact and make a lot less money. I’m old enough to find all this unsettling, but the world moves on. All the new media will inevitably change the look, function, and maybe even the purpose of comics, but comics are vibrant and versatile, so I think they’ll continue to find relevance one way or another. But they definitely won’t be the same as what I grew up with." http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-...