I pity the fool.

*sigh*
Where have all the Penny Arcade’s gone?  Look I know us webcomics are supposed to be a big community and all but as I was attempting to drudge through some of the stuff on Drunkduck.com tonight I had to come to a hard realization.  That realization is this… I’m a bit of a snob.  I have a higher standard for things than many of my fellow webcomickers.  And Jarrod has completely friggin spoiled me with kick ass art work.

That is not to say that the medium is in danger or that sites like Drunk Duck are not great.  The medium is going well and Drunk Duck is a great idea.  I guess the problem is what I like to call the American Idol syndrome.  It just seems like there are some comics out there that I’m like “Wow, doesn’t anyone tell them that this sucks?”  I make no claims that JJS is the pinnacle of the art form, but i think its pretty damn good, and we have gotten enough true criticism to have confirmed that we have a pretty good product here.  If we didn’t we would hang it up.

But I find it frustrating because I know there have been some real gems come out that I am missing out on, that I really cannot traverse the horrible morass of crap to find.  I started reading web comics way back in 1999, near the toddler stage of the idea.  And I was instantly hooked on titles like Penny Arcade, Mac Hall, User Friendly, Roomies (Walky), Road Waffles, Sinfest, and so many others I can’t name them all.  At one time my daily webcomic consumption was somewhere around 80 comics.  Obviously I had kids and that got whittled down but there were more than those even that were just fucking great.  Not all of them but I sure as hell don’t recall going through 20 new comics and not finding one that I wanted to read.  And that is what I found tonight and I simply do not have the time to spend hours upon hours on finding the good stuff.

So I ask you, what does this do to the medium?  When there are too many comics out there that simply don’t hit the bar, and when the ones that do can’t get an update out on time to save their life.  What does that do to the credibility of our medium.  Scott Kurtz posted a PVP today that lambasted the National Cartoonist Societies general dismissal of webcomics.  Look I know that the vast majority of newspaper syndicated comics are just wretchedly dull, I mean Family Circus says it all, but those people are pros.  Even if they are outdated washed up dinosaurs they are still professional washed up dinosaurs.  They know how to meet deadlines and churn out content year after year.  If we as a medium want to be taken seriously then I suppose we should present a serious product on a serious schedule.  And there are people in our medium that have learned that and gone on to make good.  But its a lesson we all need to be consistently aware of every day.  And strive to make something that the average person stumbling upon it may be intrigued or interested in.

Alright its late, I’ll get off my soapbox.  But man I was exhausted tonight trying to find something new and awesome.  If anyone has suggestions help me out, I’d like to add something fresh to my reading repertoire.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at and is filed under J.J. Sunshine's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the
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