Markup View

Author: MorganWick

Sep 25th 2011 at 2:19:53 AM

->This is meant to point out something that I'm a trifle surprised isn't obvious: ''people do not read webcomics to look at the pretty pictures''. In fact, people don't read ''newspaper'' comic strips to look at the pretty pictures. The defining feature of ''{{Peanuts}}'', ''{{Garfield}}'', ''{{Dilbert}}'', and quite a few others is the sheer simplicity of their art (Dilbert's creator has at times gone so far as to be very self-depreciating about his art abilities). If people wanted to look at pretty pictures they'd go to the art museum, or the art museum's web site. People read comics to read a ''story'', or at least a funny joke, and the pictures exist only insofar as they help tell the story. That's all they need to do, and the quality of that art has little or nothing to do with it. ... So long as the art style you're using allows you to create as much diversity in your cast (and in what you portray) as you desire, and so long as it isn't so bad that it's an active turn-off (or serves to obfuscate what you're trying to say), your strip will live or die on your story and your jokes, and despite the claims of some critics to the contrary, your art style will have little to do with it. You may want to adjust your art style to help become part of the message or mood your strip is trying to send, but beyond that go with the art style you're capable of that will keep your story comprehensible to the reader and that will allow you to keep a regular schedule. ''DresdenCodak'' shows what happens when you focus too much on the quality of your art and suggests that perhaps webcomics are a medium that works best when the art is simplified and doesn't try too hard to be a museum piece.
-->-Critically-acclaimed webcomic reviewer [[ShamelessSelfPromoter Morgan Wick]] ([[http://webcomics.morganwick.com/2008/07/im-getting-better-at-writing-these-quicker-of-course-i-thought-i-lost-this-for-a-couple-of-days-re-found-it-and-stayed-up-until-3-am-last-night-to-finish-it/  link]])

->Art is overrated. As long as there's enough that's intelligible to get the joke across, you can throw some palettes of paint on a wall and call it a webcomic if the jokes are funny enough.
-->-Woefully unknown webcomic reviewer [[http://webcomics.morganwick.com/2008/07/at-one-point-i-almost-mistyped-ethan-as-elan-i-really-do-have-order-of-the-stick-on-the-brain/ Morgan Wick]]

Perhaps we should call this the Morgan Wick School of Thought! :D

Although a sliding-scale trope has been proposed in the John K YKTTW...