In this case. By webcomics, I mean webcomics made by American or Western creators. It seems like anime and manga are bigger than before in the West, now more than ever, along with Manhwa and Manhua.
I don’t much people in my age range (teens to early 20s) who read western comics. Everyone knows of invincible, but that’s through the animated show. Same with Umbrella Academy. But barely any of them read the comics. But on the other hand, I can find a shit ton who watch anime, read manga, or both.
The webcomic side of the West seems to be growing, with Lore Olympus being really popular. But in the whole of the American comic industry, it seems there’s the traditional side (Marvel/DC/Image/etc) comics- which are usually monthly colored chapters with a whole different set up with the manga industry- is still enormously bigger than the webcomic industry. Although I can still barely find people who read western comics consistently, I think they’re pretty good.
The webcomic side seems much more inspired by the manga industry, with much more anime style art, release schedules closer to weekly, more appeal to genres (slice of life, cutesy romance) that are popular in manga.
I’m wondering, can you see western webcomics getting more popular? What’s your outlook on the current western comic industry? Considering their quality, Why aren’t traditional western comics way more popular?
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I can see DC and Marvel trying to capitalize more on serialized long form stories and continuity that is easier to approach for new readers, much like how Manga is today.
Honestly that sounds like a massive change. Especially if they don’t switch writers/artist like they do, because those people love consistency
Cinemaphile isn't the best to ask because when most people here think of webcomics they think of the ones that had their own dedicated websites rather than the webtoon/tapas style that females read on their phones. and females read a LOT of webtoons and pay money for coins/fast pass to read stuff earlier just like an addictive phone game. but it isn't the same genre of comics people here follow.
Ahh, I’ve heard of those but yea I was thinking about the tapas/WEBTOON style .
You mean like yaoi shit right? Shit like Killing Stalking, BJ Alex and Dear Door? That's the shit women are reading in regards to that style of webtoon. Those have gotten super popular.
But then why don't people discuss webtoons on Cinemaphile?
To be honest, there’s not much comic talk in general here besides the general meme threads
I think it is just a difference audience than the type of person that generally visits Cinemaphile
Are those western creator comics? I thought the most popular webcomics for action power fantasy shit
I think only two or three of those are Western (I'm the Grim Reaper creator is from the US for example, the High Class one is Western too). Creators are all mixed together on the English siite. That is just stuff currently on the front page I screenshotted.
Women were a mistake
>telenovela drama
>teenage i can fix him "cute and psychopathic" wish fulfilment
>tumblr
>telenovela drama
>telenovela drama
>deviant art
it's fricking over
I died at deviantart. But this is why webcomics should be more popular, so they become more diverse. It’d provide a better space for western comic creators who don’t want to work at Marvel/Dc, or traditional indie comics place
Not many 13 years old teen girls want to post here
the only non super-oriented-for-tweens comics there are either: Babby's first webcomic * DA cringe * highly experimental art that isn't actually a comic * or a twitter-famous artists' repository who doesn't actually care about making a comic.
While I'm not going to deny they don't have artistic value (early 80s fathers of the genre were quite good, see Rose of Versailles manga), there's the simple fact that tween oriented romance has 0 staying power and ages very fast. There's nothing to talk beyond the hype of t he moment. Hype that is absent because Cinemaphile is an aging site and I have 0 idea what internet communities to tweens browse but i'm sure it isn't twitter either.
As an aside: The ACTUAL answer to your question is a generational split in the webcomic community itself.
What would it take to break the tween or romance oriented barrier ?
>What would it take
Nothing for the time being, unless technological factors change the market considerably.
Simple facts:
It's more profitable to:
* be a pin up artist in Patreon, doing porn or normal art advertising via twitter
* do relatable comedy comics for instagram and tiktok
than doing any sort of sequential art.
Long term comics in any shape and form don't gather numbers, real talent leaves for graphic design jobs or comic industry networking (by capeshit community or the graphic novels / kid novels community, only sequential art trends in the USA that still get produced), or flat out retires. Indies barely register.
History lesson:
Webcomics (and indies) prestige was built by the 2000s Nerd Community from DA and later Tumblr. That community suicided somewhere in the early 2010s. In their forums, comment sections and RSS feeds they fostered a legitimate belief that you could do something memorable in page-a-day comics, their cliques actively promoted fan involvement and creation.
That connectivity between 20something creator and 10something fan died from a massive 2010s "kill your idols" phase. Flat out disappeared. Artists no longer create environments that encourage fans to take up tablet and polymer pen.
Yeah there's a new generation of author-fan environment in Twitter. There's the SiR-Puu-HoEIII-Red-etc lewd clique, there's the nazi-oriented webcomics clique that got purged, and a few others. But all of them are already getting old and failed to produce anything of note in both the SFW and NSFW camp (incase doesn't count). Twitter doesn't really allow for much community making.
Then came Webtoon and Tapas: The nails in the coffin for this environment. They flat out separate artist and fan. They don't communicate anymore. Teenage fans see these webcomics as media, not community.
Even if talentless these creators COULD hype and inspire fans to create and build memorable content. But environments such as Webtoon make this impossible.
>SiR-Puu-HoEIII-Red-etc lewd clique
Yech, don't remind me. I like SiR since he's a legit cool artist and all but everything else about that shit is just embarrassing.
Never underestimate the power of teenage horny
Different audience here for sure. Most of the threads here are on superheroes, Disney, or CN stuff. That said I think with enough effort people would talk about webtoons. Even if romance dramas tend to dominate their front page there's actually a wide range of genres. A wide range of skill levels too. Some posters here even have their own webtoon pages. I saw a good action one (imposter witch) posted here that someone made for the call to action contest recently. Most people don't seem to be aware of all the stuff out there. Discussion needs some effort to nurture to get enough momentum to beat out the low effort outrage bait threads that flood the board.
I agree, webtoons is essentially just a platform unfortunately heavily biased towards it's original content.
however there are a lot of different comics on it, but the problem is you REALLY have to search for it, despite "muh diversity and inclusion" webtoons has a brand and a specific demo, and on the front page they show nothing but that brand....
I think they’re needs to be a webcomic platform that encourages non scrolling comics as well, although I understand why that format it’s popular? (Better optimized for phones)
Indeed. Even with how bad is the mainstream comic scene (Marvel, DC and similar), most posters cant stop coonsoming & discussing that crap.
Other Webcomics & Webtoons should be discussed more, instead of the same capeshit & Disney crap. As long it isnt Korean manwha trash, frick that shit on webtoons.
Shame there's no male webcomic market.
There used to be, but it fell out of style. I suppose it's easier to grab people with cheap "will they, won't they?" gay teen romance than it is to keep a decent schedule for a set of funny strips.
Isn't "The Boxer" a male-oriented webtoon?
Western comics aren’t more popular because:
- Price: an issue cost $4, most manga is pirated and read for free. Paying $4 a month for one series is a death sentence when you’re used to free reading or streaming service package pricing
Schedule: the wide majority of comics are monthly around 25 pages. You can easily argue it makes quality worse, but manga has Shit ton of weekly series, and most of the most popular manga are weekly. Even the monthly manga can have 25-50 pages.
Not enough animated/connected adaptations: anime is more popular than manga in the west. If anime didn’t exist, manga would be nowhere as popular. There’s not enough animated adaptions that make people want to read the comics. Americans watch more than they read
Unironically? Probably mass adoption of webtoon
Frick that. We need to convince Dc and Marvel to get in there
>with Lore Olympus being really popular.
You trying to talk shit about the best comic?
I hate literally every single character in that comic.
Webcomics peaked in popularity like ten years ago.
They'll have to pump out a lot more than weekly and even daily comics. Eventually they'll have to sell physical collections or get into animation.
The only good part about webcomics is finding your waifu/husbando.