So I'm back

This time for good. Maybe. Well. Possibly. Still, I think last time I put too much pressure on myself as to write something relevant, or exciting. This time round, I'm just going to write when and whatever I feel about. So.... what to start with.

Why do I like webcomics at all? I know I've covered that early on- in my mission statement, but I'm sort of restarting here so I'm going to repeat myself if necessary. I have to be honest, I don't read many print comics. Newspaper comics are mostly dull (apart from some exceptions- doonesbury springs to mind, although I have never really read enough of it to really know what is going on) and as for print comics... well there lies the rub. I am, ultimately, a reader. I like the text, and while I like to pretend I can appreciate art, I will be paying for more attention to the captions than what the characters are actually doing. So I will go into a bookstore and will look, and I will see a graphic novel for £13, and a book for £7. And I will look from one to the other. And I will consider how much time it will take me to read both. And I will know that I could finish the graphic novel in the shop if I wanted to. And I KNOW thats not the point, but I still buy the book anyway.

Yet there is something more that comics can give. The best book has great trouble depicting action, from epic battles to an expression on someone's face, prose can be a rough instrument to portray such things (although, it can, of course, be done), and thats where graphic novels do come into their own. I have finally begun reading some- I have started with the Sandman, having read every book that Gaiman has written, I figure it's probably time to read what makes him famous. And I can see why, and I can see why I'm a fool for not buying it earlier. But still.... books are so much cheaper.

And in come webcomics. You see... they're free. And they're everywhere. There are thousands of them, and many of them are absolutely amazing. Such brilliant creativity that in another age, just a few decades ago, I probably would never have seen. People who may well have never attempted to tell stories have found a medium, and reached thousands. Even those who are not artists- I think of irregular webcomic and dinosaur comics here, but also concerned was brilliant, and while it did involve artistry of a kind, it was not the usual one.

My life has genuinely been enriched by certain stories in webcomics, which I'm going to talk about in the coming weeks. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this new years post, and the ones that will follow.