Establish VS Up and Coming

Any social media website that is popular is an ideal place to put up web comics.  Some of these include Reddit, XKCD, Hyperbole and a Half, the Oatmeal, Tumbler, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, MySpace, etc.  These social media outlets are great places to get noticed if you are trying to get your work noticed, and they can also attract a certain crowd.  When someone sees the comic they will share it and then someone else will share it and if it catches the attention of enough people it can go viral. 

Scott McCloud states “technology that might broaden the potential public for comic by allowing writers and artists to explore themes that would never make into mainstream publications” (p. 236).  This means that thanks to the Internet some people are able to get their work noticed and they may not have had any success otherwise.  Social media has allowed for people to become successful with their comics, before it was much harder.  This also allows the writers to express and gives the audience the ability to comment on their comics.  Allowing audience participation on their social media page also allows for the audience to put in their opinion and lets them express what they would like to see from the creator, and with this comes new ideas, which produces more material. 

One of the tings I noticed about the Oatmeal is that it an already established website so they do not have to work very hard on their comics.  The Oatmeal is a more traditional and conservative website and their comics are appropriate for anyone.  The reason the Oatmeal is popular is because it is already established, they have a variety of things on their website, and it is the content is appropriate for all ages.  Some of the things they offer are informative and others are just to get a good laugh.

The comics on Reddit are form people who are not yet established.  In these comics you can tell that the creator took his time to create the comic and put extra work into it and it is done in a way that will grab the attention of the viewer.  The comics on here are more on the liberal side and they are not for everyone.  Some of these comics should only be seem by adults 18 years or older.  Some of the comics on Reddit seem to have a pretty good fan base but they are probably not as popular because some of their content is not appropriate for younger people.

The comics can serve many purposes such as humor, awareness, or information.  One of the comics I enjoyed from the Oatmeal was “8 things I learned from wearing an apple watch”, because I have been considering purchasing and Apple watch.  This was a funny article and it used humor to make their point as to why the Apple watch was a good purchase.  The funniest point the writer makes in the comic is to inform the read on how effective the text message feature is but how much the phone call feature sucks.  The writer wrote the following:

Phone calls suck. Texting does not.

I am filing “receiving a phone call on my Apple Watch” in the same category as “stuffing pickles up my butt.” I have pickles. I have a butt. It’s something I can do, the opportunity is there, but it’s not something I’d ever want to do. The speaker is terrible and it forces you to broadcast your conversation publicly. And, much like the pickle party, it’s impractical to do in a restaurant or library.

This statement is hilarious but it also gives a very ridiculous example using a pickle and his butt, which I must says definitely made his point on why the phone call feature sucks. 

Just because a comic may become viral it does not mean that the artist will have further success.  I do not believe that the entire artists on Reddit are undiscovered, I believe that they may have some followers but they have not attracted enough people to become recognizable and some of the people that know the work of the artist may not be a long term/dedicated fan. Chris Anderson argues that the web comic “may accrue value at a different pace, on a different scale” (p 238). 

I do think that success can be both accidental and not accidental.  It can be accidental if the right fan based is established and the artist’s work goes viral and they establish a dedicated fan base.  At the same time it cannot be accidental and the artist can become well known if he knows the right people.  This is not only true in this industry but I believe it is life in general.  Sometimes it is about the work and the people you attract and other times it is all about who you know and this determines how successful you are.