"Life Informing Art Informing Life Again"

It seems the in thing to reference Websnark nowadays. I've seen it mentioned in two Keenspot newsboxes in the past week, and it's been referenced in several comics as well. It's interesting to see a critique site receive such attention in the community.

The growth of Websnark over the past nine months or so has been fun to watch. Ping got me interested in the site initially, mentioning it somewhere (probably Webcomic Finds) in glowing terms. Eric Burns' site has grown by exponential leaps and bounds since then, as has webcomic criticism in general. Several blogs of various styles, approaches, and levels of credibility/sensibility have cropped up, all of them devoted primarily to the discussion and critique of webcomics. It's an interesting trend.

Anyway, I don't really have any deep thoughts on the subject, I just thought it worth mentioning. I'm always curious about when or why a certain trend develops, and the rise of webcomic criticism strikes me as a particularly worthwhile trend. We need webcomic criticism. One of the problems "legitimate" cartoonists seem to have with the web is the complete lack of editorial oversight or valid criticism. Folks think that if it's on the web, there's no one actually checking to ensure quality. Well, folks like Eric Burns are proving that untrue. There's a whole gaggle of webcomic critics out there now, people who are writing and thinking about webcomics in a legitimate and worthwhile way. And this, in a sense, legitimizes webcomics. It helps cartoonists aspire to higher standards of art, story, etc. It helps push boundaries just a little more, but in a good way. We're forced to work just a little bit harder, and that will benefit everyone.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Glen Phillips, "Train Wreck"