Wednesday - October 20, 2004:

A creator I know recently went through this and much more. He came out stronger, I think, and more cautious, I hope, but the lesson is a much bigger one. Despite some sites getting multiple thousands of clicks each day, most web-comics operate in very small circles of fans. From time to time, people seem to cross the circles for publications, for jams, for charitiy, mostly in forums. In my view, we can stand to do a much better job in dealing with each other when we cross paths because nearly everyone I've met through webcomics seems to be a genuinely nice person.

Sometimes, I think the anonymity of the internet breeds contempt, but the reality of the internet, particularly of the webcomics world on the internet, is that few of us are all that anonymous. In fact, for comic creators, we seem to want as much of our work and thinking to be out there as possible. Maybe that explains why we have trouble from time to time in dealing with each other. We often know lots about the person who posts in a forum, very personal things from strips and blogs to sketches and thoughts because their goal at some level is personal expression. This is unlike most internet communities whose members may share only a specific, common interest, but know little else about the person. The fact that comics are this creative medium that tries to get into everything makes us very vulnerable. That very openness and vulnerability is also what makes webcomics such an important artform. The use of webcomics as a tool for two-way communication is an area that is underexplored. In the end, perhaps, the medium itself can help us to deal with each other.

-Bob Stevenson