Photo by Ean L. Dacay

In 1932, comic writer Jerry Siegel’s father was shot to death in a robbery. A year later, Siegel created Superman. Comic writer Brad Meltzer was quoted saying: “Your father dies in a robbery, and you invent a bulletproof man who becomes the world’s greatest hero.” While it wasn’t the first comic ever made, Superman went on to become one of the greatest cultural icons ever and established comic books as a popular art form.

Naturally, eighty years later, comic books have crossed over from the printed page to a pixelated one on the web. In this new frontier, artists continue to captivate audiences with a different brand of art.

Fans and freedom

Webcomic fan bases are niches—those who understand the very specific humor because they’re in on the joke. The webcomic Hark, A Vagrant by Kate Beaton, for example, references writers and inventors of the Victorian era. While hilarious to those already interested in history, jokes about Nikola Tesla and Prince Albert may fly over the heads of most audiences.

However, it is also this exclusivity that makes webcomics attractive to a wide variety of people. There are thousands of different webcomics out on the blogosphere, each one employing its own style to express its own idea. With this diversity available at a keystroke, everyone can find his own niche.

While print comics have gained popularity for characters like Batman, whose personality and story development have progressed over the years, webcomics rely on a variety of lovable individuals with defined character traits.

This has allowed casual readers to jump in at any point of the story while still leaving the door open for readers looking to commit.

Such diversity in readership proves that the main goal of webcomics is the expression of the artists’ ideas rather than the production of profitable material—that is, if there is a goal at all.

Scott Kurtz, artist of the highly successful webcomic PvP, described his decision to go online in 1998. “There was no plan, there was no goal and there was no belief that it was real. I stumbled onto it,” he told Lev Grossman in an interview with Time.

Webcomics require almost no funding to publish. While some webcomics adhere to the conventions of graphic novels’ images and plots, others are taking advantage of their independent nature. “Being online, there’s no reason our strip has to be three panels right next to each other,” said Mike Krahulik, an artist for Penny Arcade, in Time.

“It often is. But there’s nothing keeping us from making full-page comic book-style layouts. There’s nothing stopping us from doing whatever we want,” he said.

This freedom offers an advantage to both artists and fans alike. Artists can upload anything from shallow jokes to deep insights; meanwhile, readers appreciate the raw honesty that they don’t usually find in traditional print comics.

A comic aesthetic

“The Internet will let you post anything,” said Cat Kane of Drugs in the Water in an interview with New Zealand citizen journalist Byron Clark. “You don’t even have to draw like Marvel. [Some of my favorites] use stick figures and they’re great!”

Only the Internet could give simple stick figures a chance at such fame. While our ancestors were taught not to judge books by their covers, we are learning not to judge comics solely by their visual appeal.

The art of xkcd, for example, comes in the form of simple, two-dimensional doodles or stick figures paired with rough text in one-panel strips.

Yet despite its crude visuals, its creator Randall Munroe has garnered enough support from his audience to quit his day job and work on the comic full-time.

However, some webcomics shatter the stereotype of being overly simple. One of these is Romantically Apocalyptic. Though the stories and dialogue are simple, the digitally painted art is not.

As creator Vitaly Alexius boasts in his website, “each page … contains six years worth of textures: one terabyte of stock footage, shot in real, abandoned, forgotten places of our world.”

Webcomics also accommodate traditional tastes. Set in Prohibition-era United States, Lackadaisy by Tracy Butler is a webcomic that follows the feline regulars of a speakeasy.

Aside from its detailed art, Lackadaisy stands out by having an obvious, coherent plot that advances through regularly published comic strips.

Artistic contrast aside, these webcomics share a similar ingredient: unique content.“It’s all about content, and” Kane explained, “embracing a huge array of styles.”

Then and now

Though there are those who still scoff at webcomics’ legitimacy, many forget that it took years before print comics were taken seriously as a literary or artistic art form as well.

Now, we have Sunday paper classics such as Schultz’ Peanuts compiled into books, while comics like The Sandman by Neil Gaiman have broken the notion of comics as an unsophisticated medium.

And now, the success of webcomics and their characters has seen them go to print. The company 4th Dimension Entertainment, for example, saw the potential in webcomics and began printing them. Currently, they have titles such as Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name and the Eisner Award-nominated Lackadaisy beneath their banner.

Webcomics used the freedom of the online medium to give people a voice by creating a charming, offbeat and uncensored anthology of ideas.

Much like the geeks who stereotypically read them, webcomics may just rule the world one day—or at the very least, the comic one.