The History Of Original Web Comics

By Patty Goff


Everyone is probably familiar with web comics because of their emergence in the mid eighties. For those who do not know what original web comics are, basically they are comic strips that are published on the internet and not on print like original comic strips are. This brief history will be able to provide an idea on how these strips started and got popular.

Now the very first ever internet strip was created in the year 1985 by a name who went by the name of Eric Millikin. Now his work which was named as Witches in Stitches did not become very popular yet as the internet was not very accessible to everyone yet. This comic was a parody of the famous story the Wizard of Oz and was transferred through Compuserve,

Another very popular pioneer of internet strips would of course be Where the Buffaloes Roam which was made by Hans Bjordahl. Eventually another one followed this made by David Farley. This was Doctor Fun and was one of the first published ones that came out in the year 1993.

Now it was only after the year 1993 that these internet strips started to gain more and more popularity all over the World Wide Web. These cartoons were drawn usually in black and white like their print counterparts that could be found in the newspaper. Two of the most popular ones were of course Nukees and Polymer City Chronicles.

During the year 1996 up to the year 2000, this period was known as the age of Singularity. In this time, it was actually possible now for people to make money out of making internet comics and getting a lot of views. Eventually more trendy styles came out and most of them were based on the drawings of Japanese comics known as Manga.

Things started to get really interesting during the year 2001 up until 2006 as this was the reinvention of internet comics. At that time gaming strips as well as nerdy gag strips became extremely popular all over the world. The web also became an avenue for indie artists to be able to get their worked gain popularity in case their works did not get published.

During the start of the year 2007, webcomics hit its peak of popularity as many more people decided that it is more entertaining to just read short strips online as compared to in print. Of course they eventually made their way to social media. Since social media became a big thing, people used it as a medium to gain popularity.

Nowadays internet strips have been claiming their turf on the world of mobile apps. Now in this generation, almost everybody is on their phones these days so web artists had to adapt to this new brand of technology. In fact, artists became more technology inclined because of the evolution in technology. Another very popular fad these days in the world of internet comics would of course be memes. Memes are actually short versions of comics that people would read on the net.




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