One way to think of the history of webcomics is as the big bang of comics. At the beginning there were far fewer webcomic creators and they were (virtually) clustered together much more tightly (hence all the wistful talk of "webcomic community") and then, if the inflationary webcomicology theory is correct, those early webcomic exploded into the universe of comics online we have today.

Okay, maybe that's a bad analogy. Still the early periods of webcomics are of interest to me. I interviewed several creators about the Big Panda website and that era of webcomics. Some of them were hosted at Big Panda before bolting to start up Keenspot. Lots of others were on the Big Panda top list or wanted to be. There was drama, there was top site cheating!, there were comics. Good times...

Putting your webcomic into print can be a good idea for all kinds of reasons. Grant Thomas talks about the reasons why webcomic creators ought to consider making mini-comics, the do-it-yourself way to put webcomic to paper.

Emelie Friberg and Mattias Thorelli are the creators of the relatively new webcomic What Birds Know. WBK concerns the adventures of three young women. That may not sound like much actually, but the art and writing are so sure-handed that readers can already sense they are reading something special. Most recently, Friberg and Thorelli entered their webcomic in the now suspended Webcomic Idol contest which brought them some additional exposure and praise. We interviewed them to find out a little more about the creators of this wonderful new comic and what's in store for What Birds Know.

In his hilarious comic, Wally & Osborne, Tyler Martin has been educating us about Antarctica in a delightful way. In this interview, Martin enlightens us about life, liberty, and the unlikelihood of polar bears at the South Pole.

The second installment of Alexander Danner's new column bringing you selections from the Full Story directory of completed webcomics. This month we look at firsts and beginnings, with five comics by Srdjan Achimovich, Andrew Dabb/Ben Templesmith, Hope Larson, Ryan North/Josh Rosen, and Raina Telgemeier.

Mike Lacroix is a cartoonist, blogger and finely-tuned athlete. He's currently working on his third webcomic, the appropriately titled Foxy Lollop. His previous efforts include the long-running Gluemeat (since 2001) and the underground classic, Aren't We Real. Lacroix and myself were both founding members of the pioneering, but short-lived webcomics collective ALTBRAND.

Cartoonist, writer and two-fisted King of the Hoboes, Calamity Jon Morris offers a plea for hand-lettering in this hand-lettered webcomic.¹

 

¹ PriceWaterhouseCoopers has tabulated all of the votes and reports that the following webcomic is indeed, hand-lettered.