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Eric: Annotations on the Day
It's Cinco de Mayo, which means little to me because I'm not much of a drinker. Oh, I drink, but last I know Cinco de Mayo wasn't set aside for pretentious doinks to stand at the end of a bar drinking single malt and complaining about the state of criticism, so I have to invoke the Penny Arcade Defense on it -- it's not for me.
It's also the Fifth of May, 2005, making today 05/05/05. Which makes me think the world is about to be destroyed, because that's three pentads. But that's neither here nor there.
It's also Webcomics Appreciation Day.
Theoretically.
You remember Webcomics Appreciation Day, I trust. For years now, the fifth of May has been set aside for cartoonists to put up special strips commemorating everything people do for webcomics and the fact that they're (generally) free and the like. It was a good idea -- an idea to help build a community spirit and a sense of pride.
Much like Americans in regards to the British elections, however, this year few if any people seem to care. I would have forgotten it myself, but it got mentioned by Get Outta My Head, writ and drawn by Anne Gibson who is also our regular commentator Kirabug, with a link to the official website.
The official 2004 website.
Maybe there was a memo sent around that I didn't get. I seem to miss a lot of memos these days. Or maybe people gradually decided that the affair was a bit... awkward, at best. I mean, it's disconcertingly like a Public Radio Pledge Drive, even if folks weren't asking for money (and often they were). In the early days, there was huge support. Over the years, User Friendly, Schlock Mercenary, Queen of Wands, Basil Flint, Kevin and Kell, College Roomies from Hell and... well, a lot of others (I want to say Sluggy, but I may be making that up) pitched in, contributing strips or newsposts or both. Even the 2004 hub site is chock full of strips -- including some of the more recognizable names out there.
In doing some research for this snark, I found the Online Comics Day (what they were calling Webcomics Awareness Day, before) discussion on their forum, asserting there would in fact be one. And... well, fourteen replies. And today... well....
So, does that mean this isn't Online Comics Day? Or Webcomics Appreciation Day? Well, of course it is. You don't lose your day just because no one actually notices it. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking a few minutes out of the day to think -- really think -- about what this webcomics habit means to you. I mean, I subscribe to a lot of pay stuff at this point, but of the 200-300 webcomics I currently read (I remember when I thought I was reading way too much stuff back when it was 60), 90% or more don't cost me anything but time.
That's astounding. It really is.
Of course, at this point I'm also a creator. And obviously that means I have a stake in the public perception of webcomics. So am I disturbed that this year's event essentially wasn't?
No. Because while there's still a long way to go before we're really broadly regarded artistically, we've also come a long way. We're represented in the Eisners. Megatokyo is in most bookstores, shelved with all the other manga. People are making a living. We're seeing less and less mainstream articles on "gosh! There's comic strips on the web!" and more and more tacit acknowledgment. (When online cartoonists are a sidebar of an article about cartooning in general, that shows greater penetration than articles professing to be astounded that they exist at all.)
PvP just turned 7. User Friendly is also 7. Melonpool just turned 9. Hundreds of thousands (millions? Someone ask the Penny Arcade guys) of people read online comics every single day. People make money off merchandising. People make money off advertising. People make money because they ask their readers to give it to them. Webcomics have really just begun, but they have in fact begun. They're here. Where they go and how they grow, I don't know -- but they're here right now, and they're not going anywhere.
And that's something I for one can appreciate.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at May 5, 2005 12:09 PM
Comments
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 5, 2005 1:04 PM
Since we're mentioning birthdays, Help Desk just turned 9 as well.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 5, 2005 1:07 PM
Come to think of it, that makes User Friendly older than 7. 8 1/2 at least.
Comment from: Eric Burns posted at May 5, 2005 1:22 PM
User Friendly started in December of '97. It'll turn 8 this coming December. PvP, which started in May of '98, just pulled off 7.
I didn't know Help Desk was nine as well -- congratulations!
(This reminds me how overdue my actually... you know, writing about Help Desk is.)
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 5, 2005 1:29 PM
Yep. First strip was posted March 31, 1996. I t was a younger time... a bolder time... a time of heroes... a time when titans walked the...
No, wait, that was something else.
*December* '97. Wow. I thought we were only 6 months apart! This explains why I majored in theatre instead of astronomy.
Comment from: FlyingFish posted at May 5, 2005 1:49 PM
Kevin and Kell is still leading: 9 years, 8 months.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 5, 2005 1:59 PM
Well, *yeah*. :)
Seeing K&K on Compuserve is what gave me the idea to give it a go.
Comment from: The Gneech posted at May 5, 2005 2:23 PM
Webcartoonists, as a body, have a hard time remembering stuff like this. Usually 'cause we're too busy cranking out strips to do things like notice what day it is!
Once upon a time, Halloween and April Fool's Day were huge in the webcomics community ... now they're just another day, often as not.
-The Gneech
Comment from: Kate Sith posted at May 5, 2005 3:23 PM
Once upon a time, Halloween and April Fool's Day were huge in the webcomics community ... now they're just another day, often as not.
Leave us not forget Interdivisional Duck Day. ::nods::
Comment from: kirabug posted at May 5, 2005 3:23 PM
My understanding of the fate of WCA Day 2005 is that Things Fell Apart. There's a mailing list along with the forum, and Chalain posted a few letters mentioning a) major tehnical issues pulling the site together and b) major illness on his part.
Having seen my fair share of major illness yesterday, I can relate. When things fall apart, they usually do it big.
Maybe if we're lucky we can declare today Rained Out and try again sometime soon. If not, hey, there's always next year -- and plenty of comics out there to read in the meantime.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 5, 2005 3:39 PM
...
I actually googled "Interdivisional Duck Day" on the off-chance that I *had* forgotten it...
Comment from: Arachnid posted at May 5, 2005 3:50 PM
According to Illiad, UF has somewhere between 1 and 1.5 million readers (hard to tell, thanks to proxy servers).
Comment from: DarkStar posted at May 5, 2005 6:07 PM
I didn't even know a Online Comics Day existed until I read Mad About U and then this.
But I never know about these kind of self-evolved days until after they are over.
How many non-hoiday related days has the internet spawned anyway? I probably only know a a couple. The only one I can think of is "Talk Like a Priate Day", and I can't remember when that is.
Comment from: Kate Sith posted at May 5, 2005 6:42 PM
How many non-holiday related days has the internet spawned anyway? I probably only know a a couple. The only one I can think of is "Talk Like a Pirate Day", and I can't remember when that is.
Pirate Day: 19th September, if I'm not mistaken.
Interdivisional Duck Day: August 1st.
There's also been Shakespeare's birthday, a Hitler Day... fuzzy on those dates as well.
As for ones not necessarily celebrated in webcomics, there's a No Pants Day and Steak and BJ Day (March 14th, in retaliation for the crap men go through on Valentine's Day).
There is also a Time-Traveller's Convention. But that's only happening once.
Comment from: Flogger posted at May 5, 2005 6:44 PM
Don't forget PC Weenies - they've been around since Oct '98.
Comment from: Shadowydreamer posted at May 6, 2005 12:24 AM
When we got Iliad to guest at VCon we had 50 people show up wondering where he was. (Communication Error on date = No Iliad) Then last year apparently they had 200+ people looking for an attending Iliad. That's more than any guest since JMS! (And since JMS was last minute, I'd say JMS had about the same number)
Isn't that scary when a web comic guest pulls in as many people as J. Michael Straczynski?
Comment from: alpaca2500 posted at May 6, 2005 12:32 AM
i was little disappointed when nothing happend at 5:05:05 05/05/05.
i never cared much for cinco de mayo though, because my birthday is the following day, and that's a far more interesting day for me than a hispanic (latin american? mexican? whatever) holiday...
Comment from: Paul Gadzikowski posted at May 6, 2005 7:47 AM
I remembered it was Webcomic Awareness Day. In the end I did nothing about it at Arthur, King of Time and Space for essentially the same reason I don't put myself in Arthur, King of Time and Space.
Comment from: Christopher B. Wright posted at May 6, 2005 9:47 AM
Isn't that scary when a web comic guest pulls in as many people as J. Michael Straczynski?
I suspect that User Friendly is still the biggest webcomic out there, or at the very least one of the top 3. Webcomics as a whole has sort of developed into its own thing, which makes us notice the "geek market" less, but that market is still freaking huge. I mean, just look at Slashdot... User Friendly is to geek comics what Slashdot is to geek news.
I could be wrong. There are certainly other webcomics out there that come close to his readership, but JD goes to a lot of conventions, and when he does *they* pay his ticket.
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