D-Generation Sex by B.V

Behind the Panel of Pixels

D-Generation Sex by B.V

Part One: Webcomics and Cultural Representation, or how comics can reflect the very worst in stereotypes

This post has had a somewhat tulmultuous and delayed life, in part due to real life and real work catching up to me. A bigger part involves my catastrophic laziness which I will flagellate myself about for the rest of time. However the biggest reason, which took me completely by surprise when I initially shortlisted the work for BtPoP, is simply that is such a monumentally self-aggrandisingly stupid, tasteless, shamelessly misogynistic comic that it floored me when I got down to closely reading it, which until I sat down to start the post again, was the last time I would do so. I felt that wasting time and energy on such an intellectual black hole would be an ultimately futile endeavour, which is why it took me so long to attempt a whimsical and informative writing fingerprint. Hopefully this extended delay will result in a far more entertaining post than the one I would have written otherwise.

Okay, rant over, back to our regularly scheduled (if somewhat pre-empted) blog post.

Webcomics, being a medium for the people, often (but not always, nor is it entirely a bad thing) has the inevitable consequence that the locations, popular culture and even writing style will be firmly rooted in a particular timeframe. This was briefly touched upon in the Sally Protest, where many of the potential pitfalls and obstacles of such a writing method were spotted as part of the Gontermethod (still in rehab over those puns, sorry). Now this had a purpose; it was a comic designed to complain about changes to another comic's status quo and was in fact complained about to such a degree that the storyline was quickly changed to bring the eponymous princess back to life. With a lot of comics that like to consider themselves as either newspaper comics or a kind of embellished madcap take on reality, overuse of popular culture can dilute any potential point to a comic, and in very few places is this more notable than in dreg-of-reality comic D-Generation Sex.

But before we break it down, a little bit of context is in order to get the full experience. The original comic run of about five comic book-style was made between 1998 and 2000, and for the work on culture is by far the most relevant thing to discuss, particularly its treatment of Professional Wrestling which was, at that point at least, one of the biggest nuggets of youth culture in the world. In 1998, professional wrestling achieved it's highest viewing figures ever between the two prime-time Monday night shows that were on, that reached an enthralled audience of well over ten million viewers each week. The tale of the viewing numbers and revenue for the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling says a lot about the willingness for the public to spend large amounts of money on merchandise and flocking to television sets and pay-per-view providers to watch big men beating each other up for six hours a week. Actually that's deeply unfair on the medium, as at it's best the matches become like a high impact ballet, featuring carefully choreographed and slickly executed manoeuvres that can tell rather compelling stories, which if combined with emotionally charged stories that don't insult the audience and exciting characters who the audience want to back can lead to something that resembles a high impact theatrical production for the masses. Indeed, the storylines outside of the four corners became the principle focus and arguably the biggest reason for casual fans to watch, which is why storylines and odd vignettes began to dominate the broadcast time, to the detriment of the actual entertainment that is on the marquee. In fact, just a year after the launch of D-Generation Sex, one of the wrestling companies mentioned above would rapidly shrink in value, and two years after that the entire wrestling industry suffered a massive downturn as the result of there being only one wrestling company big enough to be shown internationally.

But that's the future, for now we must talk about one of the biggest success stories the WWF had, which was a series of storyline conflicts with an overarching theme of chaos facing order. This is a trend that has been in fiction since the first story was ever conceived but this particular iteration began as the WWF changed from being the family friendly wrestling organisation featuring wrestling clowns, wrestling tax men, wrestling bailiffs and a Samoan sumo wrestler as it's world champion to being a far more edgy, envelope pushing, sexually charged program. The conflict was simple; the symbol of pure wrestling talent, ability and wholesomeness in Canadian Bret Hart and his Hart Foundation taking on real life wrestling bad boy, anarchist and backstage politician Shawn Michaels and D-Generation X.

Sound Familiar? That's because of how excellent the wrestling group was, appearing in bizarre, entertaining and sexually charged (yes, in a very homoerotic sense) skits where they appeared naked or talked about sausages far more often than is comfortable, and told people (via the lost art of the crotch chop) to 'Suck it!”They became wildly popular in the WWF's home of the United States, leading to the rather interesting dynamic of two competing groups whose entire dynamic reversed depending on where they were appearing, with D-X being hated in Canada, Europe and the United Kingdom, and the Hart Foundation being hated in America but loved in the rest of the world.

At this point, too much has probably already been said about the original Degeneration X as far as this is concerned, but rest assured, D-X vs the Hart Foundation and the later Steve Austin Vs Vince McMahon feuds (where the dynamic was blue collar renegade vs billionaire wrestling tycoon, a simple story that went on to generate the highest viewing figures and overall revenue for any storyline ever) were big business and captured the hearts and minds of a very teenage/early adult fan base. However, this wasn't without the consequence of patterning wrestling as a menace to the young, and wrestling fans as illiterate, drug taking racist, sexist morons unable to comprehend consequence, bathing or any of the other norms of society; a stereotype perpetuated by storylines on television catered to them, and webcomics such as D-Generation Sex, which prove that such pissants actually exist.

Entering the website itself is an interesting experience, warning you that you should only read it if you are a legal adult where you live: a sign that the 'humour' will be presumably aimed at thirteen year old kids. This is far from the most interesting warning on the front page however; that would be in the latest news post “Start from the latest comic...':

The better artwork and more fiendish plots are in the newer strips,

so why not start there and work your way backwards? At some point,

you'll hit the original comics I drew back in 1998 - multiple page books

that tell the origin stories of my favorite degenerates!

This 'better artwork' and these 'more fiendish plots' are apparently only really enjoyed backwards, like the French art film Irreversible, which clearly marks this as a work of potential genius, especially if he's been working on this comic for over eleven years! Sadly, this review will not be using the author's Memento method and will simply take the books in a linear fashion, starting from the first comics from 1998...

Truly a Shakesperean opening

...Except for the first one, which apparently through the medium of time travel exists in two different time frames at once; in 1969 and 2009. That brief messing up of the space-time continuum aside, the 'Debut' [sic] comic serves as a framing comic, linking the early stories with the 'more fiendish plots' through the delightful medium of horse fucking.

Moving as swiftly on as humanly possible, we get into the opening story, 'D-Generation SeX', an epic tale of “three college students who became unlikely heroes' which, while a stock plot, could possibly work as well as the hundreds of other times it had been used, a hope smashed one panel later when they introduce the characters:

Bri (AKA Stone Kato Luv): A bearded 'intelligent loner who despised mankind' which makes him the author insert seen in the 'Debut' [sic].

Mike (AKA Tha Dumm Ass): A long haired dredge of humanity whose 'addictive personality' is of a smoking, masturbating rapist.

Wade (AKA Tha Road Kill): He has weird hair and stinks, that's the entirety of his personality.

Part of the reason comics are appealing is through characters, in all the myriad ways that is possible. So to make an interesting character every single element, from the name, to the design, the little subtleties they have, their back story and so on, needs to be designed with a united purpose. Consider, if you would, the bright colours, chiselled physique and single-minded desire for justice that Superman has, or the colour scheme and somewhat complex design of Spiderman, symbolising his troubled psyche. In any form of comics, this continues, where an outfit can at-a-glance show a character's symbolically open character traits, from Piro's (Megatokyo) thick clothes and long hair to symbolically shield himself from the world to the elaborate .

A common trend of my readings of webcomics is not the text or actions, but the tiny little details that create a world and a web of silent messages, making the comic far greater than the simple combination of words and pictures on a page. Slice of life and this interesting trend of embellished life comics (which Megatokyo and Scott Pilgrim epitomise) really suit this implied narratives : narratives that don't tell their stories through just words and/or pictures, but through the interesting symbiosis of words and text intersecting to create a world on a page as vibrant as in any other media. The problem with this is that one has to be good at both writing and art in order to succeed at this, which it becomes clear, after the invasion of the Ku Klux Klan looking aliens is bested by a trio so wasted and unlikable, it's as if this is nWo : The Early Years. Anyways, yes, the opening story is that Y2K (remember when people genuinely thought that the clocks wouldn't wrap around properly and it would kill all mankind? Oh to be young!) left the world in ruin, with riots between ravers over food, innocent ATMs getting kicked and worst of all, the continued existence of Tha Dumm Ass. Apparently the three get incarcerated in the most useless and ironic prisons possible, as Word Salad Luv breaks out of a mental hospital and Tha Accurate Name escapes rehab. For some reason, a deadly fleet of badly drawn sombreros decide to invade earth for undisclosed reasons. All this comes to a head as “Pandemonium breaks out!” and the “unlikely heroes” beat up some aliens and for some reason get beamed up to an alien ship only to be beamed down to Washington DC, which apparently the Parthenon and a random tower are the only buildings resident. The alien leader makes the rather unfortunate mistake of asking who they are, and then we are rewarded for his idiocy with a page and a half of plagarism, as Tha Road Kill does his best Billy Gunn impression (by being totally and utterly gay with his “Blow J.O.B Squad” shirt) and then Stone Author Insert puts on his best Road Dogg voice as he introduces himself and his idiot friends thusly “Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls children of all ages! Stone Kato Luv proudly brings to you... the other two thirds of D-Generation SeX!” And of course, instead of suck it, their witty and tasteful chant, one I'm sure they wanted to put on t-shirts: “...we got two words for you! Fuck You!”

Truer words have seldom been spoken worse. And sure enough, their threat of youfucking impresses the general and he makes the pre-requisite offer of letting them join him so they can youfuck in his name. Their response, like most of their responses to anything in this, is to superkick his head off, leading to a timely South Park joke for no reason, since it was barely contemporary in 1998. With the general soundly defeated, the president gives them one wish each like he's the fucking genie, which leads to the status quo being protected for the next election year-filled episode of D-Generation SeX.

To Be Continued. Sorry about the massive delay on this. Clearly I can't follow my own advice on bevity

Lord SuperC

Behind the Panel of Pixels : Webcomic Fucktardary and How to Avoid it

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Sally Protest by David Gonterman

Behind the Panel of Pixels:

Sally Protest by David Gonterman

Introducing Gonterman, or a Baptism of Fire

David Gonterman. David Gonterman. A forgotten page in the book of great webcomic failures. While there have been far greater and more explosive terrible webcomics (which will be covered in excruciating depth (hopefully only for me), few downward spirals have been as elongated and detrimental to the webcomic world than Mr Gonterman. Younger users of the internet (as in people who didn't use the internet until the second half of this decade) have probably never heard of this man, this cornerstone of everything BtPoP is trying to stop, and for them, this comic primarily serves as an introduction, as this comic, the infamous Sally Acorn (the title on the first page, though it is typically titled Sally Protest, or The Sally Protest) was probably the work that distilled in six pages the David Gonterman experience, and the perfect start to our exploration of all the works of such an artist.

First of all, a brief biography of the man who calls himself Daveykins Foxfire. A thirty-something fanfic (or 'fanfict' as his rather peculiar writing fingerprint would suggest) writer and webcomic artist, he was probably the most well known name in the more alternate webcomic world of early AOL users. There were earlier and far more famous artists and comics than him (Eric Monster Milkin, Sluggy Freelance, Doctor Fun), but his works represented the postmodern counterculture known as fan works. All of Gonterman's works either were fan made continuations to existing copywritten works or so heavily based upon them one could barely tell the difference. Part of the reason is that this had made him somewhat popular in the early years of his web use. His elaborate, convoluted (and interwoven with a ton of other works) fanfiction based on the Saturday Morning Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon and accompanying Archie Comic series, Blood and Metal had won him friends, collaborators (including the tragic co-author of The Rangers of NIMH) and even an online girlfriend. The story, which later spawned a prequel (The Piasa Bird, infamous for it's racist content) and a sequel (Sailor Moon : American Kitsune, his most controversial and infamous fanfiction, the racism is far more vitriolic and is compounded by blatant homophobia, sexism and what can without hyperbole be described as outright rape of a continuity: the greatest sin a fanfiction writer can possibly do!) formed the main part of the Davey Crockett trilogy, which told the story of David 'Davey Crockett' Kintobor, the estranged son of the antagonist of Sonic the Hedgehog, Doctor Robotnik.

Fanfiction isn't the main focus of BtPoP but the entire trilogy demonstrates all the main (and incredibly disturbing) quirks of a Gonterstory. The invincible self-insert hero who gets more powers than most deities. The impenetrable storylines. The massive crossing over of characters and plot devices from other works. The complete lack of any basic narrative principles. Sailor Moon American Kitsune was the undoing of his relationship with his rather tenuous fanbase, they outright rejected the work for its appalling lack of taste or tact, but this is a tale for another day. Gonterman dubbed himself “The internet's most dangerous cartoonist” and slipped further and further into obscurity.

His slow disappearance from the online equivalent of the limelight leaves a massive trail of abandoned, rushed or otherwise spoiled ideas he never had the ability to take advantage of. Those comics are upcoming but right now is an example of the reactionary nature of some webcomics. A lot of webcomics, due to being exceedingly quick to script, design and publish, as well as being explicitly dated are topical, dealing with not so much newsworthy events but certainly rooted in a particular time. Sally Protest is no different, and is the most explict, though far from the only example in the Gonterography. Typically, when people pen an explicitly topical work, it's about something important, like political events or national tragedies. Gonterman's use of the medium for a fictional subject matter leads to the implication that the man has difficulty prioritising real and fictional worlds, and Sally Protest touches on this odd paradox, albeit somewhat unintentionally.

However, this does mean one needs to explore briefly the context of the 1997 Gonterworld (Right, I'll try to hold back on the Gonter-puns, promise!). 1997 was not an especially good year for Sonic or Sega. The Sega Saturn had picked up some momentum in Japan, but in other markets it was sinking like a stone, and part of the problem was the lack of any system selling game, typically the job of a certain blue mammal. Original plans for a Saturn Sonic game (to be called Sonic X-Treme) were after a very tragic and rushed development schedule scrapped after project leader Chris Coffin nearly died from overworking in December of 1996. This forced Sega to port one of their other flops, Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island, to fill the gap. Three months later, Issue 47 of the American print comic Sonic the Hedgehog is released in which animated series character Sally Acorn plummets to her supposed death, starting the controversial Endgame Arc, which divided opinion of the comic and only three issues later Sally's 'death' was reversed due to the backlash by fans at the end of said arc. The comic could be dated to within those three months, presumably within the week of Endgame part one being published, and the opinions are just as spontaneous, irrational and half formed as one could imagine...

The term 'Brain Fart isn't what first comes to mind...'

…by the opening splash page of utter horror, where not even the spiky foreground and background are safe from being fucked up. An existentially and subtly deformed Sally Acorn does her best Roger Daltrey impression while holding aloft a comic somehow worse than the one I'm currently reading. The first curious thing to note about David Gonterman's artistic style, and part of the reason why he's still actually got a fanbase of sorts is that if one merely glances at some of Gonterman's artistic attempts one could be fooled into thinking he's at least somewhat competent, a belief shattered if one looks at it for the same amount of time one takes to blink. The work is very jutty and aliased though not all of that is the fault of the artist but poor compression attempts and the pitfalls of early scanners. However, even with the pixellation, it's clear to see no cleanup work has been done, with very blatent and easy to fix mistakes being kept in the final product. Also, the supposedly shaking fist looks more like a colony of mosquitos are fighting a great war against the toaster welded to her arm. Also, more emphasis are placed on the bit of her body where boobs would be, were she not a squirrel. That's all I'll say about that. No joke here. Just, sexualisation of a squirrel. Let's move on shall we? Down to the bottom right wall of text being spoken by her... oh god damn it! I'm well aware that the hilarity of someone's genitalia being an orator is a goldmine for 'comedy' such as my own, but in seriousness nothing I could write about could beat the text, for Gonterman's writing is somehow worse than his art. From what I can tell from the heavy compression, Sally's snatch wants to “get [her/its] hands on Ken Penders” and she'll “personally make him a eunic”. Quite what an 'eunic' actually is becomes probably the most satisfying subplot of the entire work. Until I see a sequel to Sally Protest, my personal bet is that it's the squirrel equivalent of a fur coat, made from a human's ears...

Ahem! Sorry, got a little carried away there...

In any case, the livid labia continues her/its poorly written rampage, turning the aggression towards a “'hedgehog' [she's] supposed to be in love with” making it sound like the worst soap opera in history not made by Channel 5. I was feeling rightly cynical of the prospect of another five pages of this, then it asked the question we all wanted to know:

“Why should I even think about this

snobbish rude sneaker-smelling

...running...

*pin*- coushin?!?!?!

Again, the lexically playful nature of Gonterman's dialogue left an old critic like me spellbound and made me wonder if a 'coushin' and a 'eunic' were in some way part of a semantic field? Spelling and grammar destruction aside, this dialogue is a classic example of what can go wrong when an author hijacks an existing, vaguely fleshed out character (insofar as she has a personality, motivation and romantic sub-plot) and uses them as a soundboard for their own frustration. This, I think in essence, is the first lump on the long cancerous road of David Gonterman.

When Mullets Collide: Part 1

Then the next page, in what I can assume to be some kind of joke, one of the oddest characters in the already bizarre and messed up Gonterverse appears, Jonathan Brisby. Apart from looking out of place and almost competently drawn, apart from the painfully damaged hips, he's probably one of the few examples in history of a copyrighted character from another company becoming the mascot of sorts for another company, with only fanon and Gonterman's art to distinguish the two. They exchange painfully written dialogue about the mid-90s comic world, from Archie to 'Spaz and Harvo', which I was barely alive in at the time and now have to try and contextualise for you lovely invisible people out there, which resorts in a single colour (white being a colour after all) rainbow flying out of an incredibly lazily drawn single pixel house and into an equally badly drawn cuboid with a badly written series of fanatical whinings masquerading as a paragraph. To decipher for people who can't read idiot:

“Please dispose all of

Marvels and DCs

except Image artists

here, please

Keep America Beautiful”

For most people even vaguely familiar with the concept of a comic book, the first two names will be intimately familiar. Marvel Comics and Detective Comics Comics (DC Comics) are the two biggest names in comics and creators of pretty much any major American comic book hero you could care to mention. In the 90s, they had some highs (The Death of Superman, Knightfall) and some incredibly deep lows (the entire Clone Saga, the most controversial Marvel story in history, and essentially retconned completely out of existence). For this, along with the usual undercurrent of revolution that was becoming increasingly commercialised throughout the 90s was where independent comic companies started to find their market share, such as Image Comics. Why am I going on about this? Because Image, particularly during this moment in time was one of the worst comic companies around, churning out repeatedly the same Liefeldian designs in several awful series, the comic Youngbloods (By Rob Liefeld himself) being by far the most prolific offender. Youngbloods demonstrated everything wrong with 90s comics, most of which we will return to very soon. But for now the main connection between the two is the skewed perspectives and rather... interesting morality, to say the least. And with the third panel, we return to the wonderful Gonterctionary, as a very “scroned woman” is after Archie Andrews “@$$” while Brisby and a haracter introduced as “MechTail” exchange pleasant mysogynies and objectifications. Lovely. For the record, Sally Acorn and Gadget from Chip n Dale's Rescue Rangers were until recently the two furry pin ups, and somewhat unprofessionally I did throw up in my mouth while writing that. The only purpose this all serves is to lead us to more conversations between mulleted furries, which I hope will become the title of Gonterman's anthology some days. Oh, and MechTail insisting he has to 'get her back before...'

Thank heavens that thought was only half finished because otherwise we wouldn't have to set aside a whole third of a page to a non-explanation about the setting and why leaving a house has become the sudden and only element of antagonism and conflict in the story. We learn that Sally is for some reason 'a four and-a-half tree squirrel' and 'MechTall' chimes in explaining that she somehow missed out on that fact. Not how, or why but just simply that it is. All this from a bird's-eye view of beautiful Gonterland with it's rolling scribbles and interconnected circles. It's a rather depressing trend in a lot of more amateurish webcomics that backgrounds are either nonexistant or even more rushed than the rest of the art. The reason for this is absolutely obvious : When time is at a premium one focuses their effort on the vital aspects of a panel, typically the characters and any other focal point of a particular panel. As a result, backgrounds, being large, cumbersome to draw and typically requiring detail above and beyond the effort possessed by such artists tend to only be placeholders. However, most people tend to focus on anything inconsistent, so such lazy details are highlighted. The solution is rather obvious in theory, which is simply to either place as much effort into the background as the other artistic assets, or to omit them entirely. Gonterman appears to be in part following this theory, only drawing backgrounds when they are absolutely necessary to the narrative he is attempting to tell, except for this panel, which serves to show nothing other than Gonterman cannot draw anything that lives in the real world. Then we see another one of Gonterman's most infamous traits, the spoken sound effects, as Sally responds to plaintive cries of her name with ''. The rather interesting trait of this is that almost every single time Gonterman does this in his works it has the side effect of actually making more work for him. He has to write the whole thing, as opposed to rely on a typically very short onomatopoeic word. So “Waaaaah!” has become longer and lost the entirety of its meaning through poor lexical pragmaticism. Well done.

Exposition Hell

'Paul' MechTa[i/l] (The greatest name in the world, besides Daveykins Foxfire of course) tries to comfort 'Sal', who asks the question every single one of us did when they stumbled onto Foxfire Studios' website: “Where the hell am I?!?!?!”, which leads to another two thirds of the page being taken up with banal exposition of a completely different story to the one I'm reading and rather limp-wristed shots at Archie Comics. This is the second page in a row to suffer from this Narrative irrelevance, where the story is halted so a different (and typically far more interesting than any of Gonterman's story). This is common in webcomics and fanfics, where a community typically gives cameo appearances to other artists' characters. For some reason, while the first two panels show them in a tree, they somehow warped to a bedroom (okay), which they are lying next to each other on (okay) and Sally is apparently naked (oh fuck you! Okay?). Then for some reason, David Gonterman continues the exposition, which leads to the rather unfortunate implication that he's in the room looking at something already suspicious. Moving as swiftly on as a gazelle from a French restaurant, Gonterpedia goes on to explain that his “anger over your 'death' caused you to have another life in my Fanfiction universe, I'm afraid.'

Being afraid is a typical reaction to exposure to a Gonterwork, that's true (Still trying to kick the habit, I'm afraid). And then Davey Stu goes on to give the wonderful and unworthy readers some of his 'humblest of opinions', a phrase when used by Gonterman carrying about as much weight as the heaviest feather.

The face that haunts a thousand furry nightmares...

Followed by even more incomprehensible exposition, as David Gonterman shines a crystal into Sally's eyes like a interrogator in his hauntingly square furry torture chamber bedroom, claiming he got it from “Another DiC-Cancelled Cartoon Show.” What is meant by this is likely lost to the midsts of time and Gonterman's head, as he never cares to explain this, like any of the other four subplots in this comic alone that are never elaborated upon, and this crystal, which apparently 'has a mind of its own' is never explored, and thus is yet another plot device introduced without explanation and dropped with even less. Apparently Gonterman is learning to control it with the power of his square computer on the desk. From the time period and context I'd say it must be an Acorn. David, being the benevolent 'DiCtator' that he is, offers his loyal subject a chance to escape the horror of the fanfiction universe but Sally, the squareness of Gonterman's room infecting her face declines, for not wanting to live in syndication, seemingly content to wait and '' an acorn until she gets brought back into the Archie comic. Attempted friendly non-consensual sexual advances made by Johnathan Brisby may persuade her to the contrary, but she seems rather demoniacally pleased.

Sally, interdimensional furry harlot squirrel

So the comic goes full circle, the fire of rage becoming a smouldering flame of catharsis as the awful Archie comics (that were in the big square thing weren't they? Why would you take them out of there?) along with a Marvel and DC comic for good measure, as it is clear the ideal way for couples to show their love is to set fire to comics together, while Sally talks about Sonic, the 'rude sneaker-smelling pin coushin' he was introduced as in the first paragraph. While initially I believed this to be a plot-hole, possibly it is a symbol of catharsis, that in the end when one can clear the initial shock of things that change one's life, then one can see a new perspective on things. Which makes Sally either a philosopher or very badly characterised, we may never know. And so the comic ends on Paul MechTall watching and trying to bite his tongue as Sally whistfully thinks about her other lover from another dimension. How touching. As a rather particular final note, there is the credit block, which sort of ruins the idea that the concept of redemption I was getting from the text is anything other than random chance. Here it is in full:

No thanks go to Ken Penders.

May he rot eternaly in Hell

Along with Scott Lobdel and

the Dorks in DC Comics.

Because when Gonterman is calling someone a dork, shit just got real!

In conclusion, I suppose it's difficult to really tie all the pieces together, not just because I didn't have a concept in mind when writing this post but also because Gonterman's work at its worst defies trying to apply patterns and constants to them, because nothing in them lasts long enough to become constant. In a comic as short as this you only got tiny flickerings of this, but even here you get the impression that Gonterman has an obsession with tying in all his voluminous pieces of work, even to the detriment of the project he's working on, particularly when said project is intended to be a piece complaining about the sudden death of a character in a comic book and yet ties in to four different works of fiction. In the end though, this is but the first step on a long arduous Gonterjourney, to try to find enlightenment.

Lord SuperC

Behind the Panel of Pixels : Webcomic Fucktardary and How to Avoid it

Apologies and schedule setting

I know I said I would try to get a post done for christmas eve, but due to circumstances beyond my control it was a little later than that, fear not. It's done and will be uploaded in the next half hour

Also, the schedule will be I think Tuesdays and Saturdays, probably in parts a lot smaller than this was. This was a pain in the end, let me tell you.

Post Schedule

I should probably have mentioned this in my welcome post, but I will try to have a full article of somekind weekly, either a whole review of a comic, an essay on something specific or a part of a much bigger review. Not sure what schedule I'll have for it yet, although I think Tuesday and Friday will be the days to expect updates. Will this count tomorrow? Stay tuned, I'll see if I can rustle up a christmas treat.

Behind the Panel of Pixels : A Blog about Webcomic analysis, fucktardary and how to avoid it

Hello there, and welcome to my blog, Behind the Panel, which among other things primarily explores the mysterious, occasionally horrifying but always rather interesting world of webcomics, and through occasionally caustic, occasionally academic analysis of such a fluid medium, will hope to legitimise this relatively niche medium as well as other comparable internet media in the realms of academia, or if not we'll have an awesome laugh trying.

What are webcomics, it's not something I've heard of?

Well, good albeit unenlightened sir, allow me to explain this deceptively simple premise! A webcomic, you see, is a series of comic strips or pages (with me so far?) that rather than be published in books, booklets or syndicated in newspapers, are (typically) self published on the internet. A comic page/strip (both are fundamentally similar for the purposes of this blog) is simply a series of pictures connected (through layout, positioning and context) to each other to form some kind of narrative. This can be as simple as telling a knock knock joke or as complicated as a hand to hand fight or other series of complex actions. At it's most sophisticated, comics and graphic novels (sequential art published in substantial book editions as opposed to in a small series of comic booklets) reach a level of artistry as sophisticated as (though not comparable to) films or literature. Any reader of revolutionary graphic novel Watchman can attest to that.

That's all well and good, but that's published comics and graphic novels. What does that have to do with webcomics?

Well, webcomics, like many new mediums is for all intents and purposes a hybrid medium, in that it has the potential to use all manner of media freely. This is largely limitless and at its most inclusive includes actually using other media and dressing them in the conventions of the comic it happens to be a part of(i.e. calling it part of the comic). These are to be discussed when discussing other media, something we shall deal with when it comes. However, there are several concepts unique to webcomics which are an advantage of the use of a digital medium, the main one being the 'infinite canvas'. This is somewhat self explanatory; one can make a comic as big or small as they like, to fit whatever artistic purpose one likes. However, any actual use of infinite campus hampers any attempt at publication though, which tends to be the secondary aim of quite a lot of webcomic authors (the amount of time, money and energy it takes to willfully produce a successful webcomic can be substantial, so the first priority has to be a love of one's craft), so the toying with conventions in this way is very much a rarity. Other ones are the integration of music, and culminations with a growing trend in 'flash comics' which are essentially multimedia comics, featuring text, voice and varying amounts of animation and interactivity. The most notable success story of this type is the Newgrounds.com sleeper hit Broken Saints, which has since been released on DVD.

Even when sticking to conventions, there are webcomics that display a sense of artistry, writing craft and emotive strength to rival conventional comics, and the possibility is still there that a webcomic could match the quality and literary depth of some of the greatest works of other media. After all, with an almost limitless space for anyone to join in and hone their craft, the opportunity for one person (or a group, the great thing about webcomics is that collaboration and community takes many forms) to take that bold leap forward is so much closer.

Popularity and proliferation are hardly barometers of quality, artistic worth or justification for analysis are they?

While on its own a fair point, the inference I get from this is identical to the case made against analysing film, then television, video games and new media as a whole. It took the legendary Frankfurt School, to begin analysing film and television, then radical thinkers in the late 1990s for video games and the rise of Media studies to aid the case for new media. The point being that elitist, traditionalist snobbery should not be a justification for credible worthy literary artifacts to be ignored, and while this blog will not in itself retain the harsh professionalism necessary for publication in journals, perhaps it will open the long overdue floodgates for analysis.

When did this art form begin then?

Well, this is a source of debate as to what counts as the 'web' but as early as 1985, with Witches and Stitches, the first comic by later commercial success story Eric Monster Milkin (He of Fetus-X fame), but the first webcomic on archive was a year later: the furry archetype T.H.E. Fox. A simple single panel comic made on a C64, T.H.E. Fox was the missing link between newspaper comics and the internet as it existed at the time. The first comic actually on the web, Doctor Fun, came seven years later with the birth of Netscape and the birth of the web as we know it.

1985?! That's an awful long time ago, how have I not heard about it until now?

Because it took until 2000 for enough people to have fast enough connections to load webcomics at any satisfactory speed. Indeed the marriage of technology and artistry is part of the reason why webcomics have become a lot more sophisticated in the 10 years since the year that spawned 3 internet success stories: Megatokyo, Bob and George and Penny Arcade.

What kind of success are we talking about?

Quite large. The right comics will be published in book form, providing enough revenue to sustain oneself on, as well as merchandise sales etc. That's the path of success Megatokyo took. Penny Arcade, while not published or syndicated to my knowledge, created a massive fan following, became a key part of video gaming culture (and proved the power of webcomics within the growing subculture), created one of the biggest gaming conventions of the year, PAX, a gaming charity Child's Play, several games, as well as god knows what else. With ability, knowledge, cultivating a fanbase and a lot of luck, there is big money to be made in webcomics. However, commercial gain should not be the primary focus of any artist, as the corrupting power of cash can contaminate one's work like a virus.

Ah, you've sold me on this, this means that any webcomic around is brilliant right?

Ah, this is where the great advantages of webcomics and the reasons why their proliferation has so much potential starts to fall apart a little. Like all media, webcomics have their own atrophied specimens, the Monster A Go-Gos, the Eye of Argons, the My Mother, the Cars of the webcomic world. And because of proportional representation of the webcomic world, there is a mammoth amount of awful webcomics, be it due to deliberate lack of effort, relative inexperience or a sheer lack of talent, bad comics far outweigh good ones, and occasionally the sheer level of awful in some of the worst offenders on issues of artistry, narrative and taste make them unpalatable. This is where Behind the Panel comes in. This blog is here not just to name and shame those comics that separate men from their stomachs, but also to hold them up to demonstrate the issues surrounding webcomics and the wider world.

Lord SuperC

Behind the Panel of Pixels: Webcomic Fucktardery and how to avoid it.