Re:Paper comic strips and online comic strips. (Score 1)

The vast majority of online comics ... follow a relatively straight-forward three or four panel format ... exactly like newspaper comic strips.

Here's the difference: Online, you can say "fuck", deal with important topics (relative to the thrust of the comic) and are completely and totally free of editors and syndicate hacks breathing down your neck.

Got it in one. A lot of webcomics are identical in format to newspaper comcs, simply because they're drawn by fans of the art form who can't stand to watch it deteriorate.

Syndicates approve some stupidly-low percentage of new comic applications each year, making themselves the number one roadblock to producing a daily comic strip. How can the comics page improve when the syndicates are maintaining the status quo (bland-but-profitable)?

So you can see why so many artists are doing the exact same thing on the web... without compensation. Meanwhile, critics complain that web artists aren't exploiting the new medium to its fullest... well, some of us don't want to. There are webcomics out there that are truly innovative and use the web to breathe new life into an old medium (like When I Am King, lost the URL), but others are simply taking advantage of the freedom to draw comic strips they way we want 'em.

JOSH.