The dream of webcomic readers

I think we all want webcomics to become mainstream. Not major mainstream- I'm not thinking Simspons level here. But I think we'd all like to be able to go up to someone, and mention a webcomic.... and not have to explain what one is, and why on earth we read it. I mean, we probably all think of ourselves as slightly nerdish- with the big comics being about roleplaying, or video games, or science fiction adventures, but we don't want to be that bad. We don't want to be the live action roleplayers.

The problem is we've become a little spoilt. We can mention Star Wars, and not get a look from most people (I'd like to point out that I asked my girlfriend out after her very first viewing of a New Hope. I am THAT cool), I mean christ we can even talk about X-MEN. So yeah, we want to talk about webcomics.

Will this happen, is the next question. Well that's the big one really. It's all to do with media exposure. I'm not talking about necessarily getting a television series made of any webcomic (although that WOULD be cool), I'm talking about minor mentions in the papers, because while the webcomics community is fairly prevelant, it's mostly linked to itself. It's the idea of people actually breaking into the community in the first place. Big print comics going online could help a LOT. Dilbert has done so, although if it does not link to many other webcomics then there is not much profit made.

Ultimately though... I'm not sure how much I care. I love webcomics, I read a stupid amount (although reading recently that Eric Burns reads about 200 a days is a bit awe inspiring), and I enjoy them all. It doesn't look like the webcomics community is going anywhere, and it seems to just be expanding. I look forwards to what the future will bring.