With no one bossing the artist around, the web allows the art form of the comic to regain its purity. Scott McCloud, author of Reinventing Comics, describes the relationship between cartoonist and reader. With professional syndication, a comic strip submission must be approved by an editor, an editor-in-chief, a publisher, and possibly the owner of the syndicate. They approve what they think the masses consider acceptable. The Internet, on the other hand, starts at the artist and ends with the reader, without any middlemen to wash out the flow of creativity. Imagine how much of the original idea remains when those extraneous, upper-management hands are pulled out of the scenario. With the Internet, the original world of cartooning is being reborn. And what a world it is.
One of my favorite online strips is by a man who calls himself Boxjam. He claims to be an everyday, white-collar family man, but there's a touch of genius in his art and humor that betrays this characterization. To understand the origin of www.BoxjamsDoodle.com, it is important to understand Boxjam's inspiration, the old master Charles Schulz. In a recent email interview, Boxjam said, "I really respect comics that can touch like Peanuts, but it's damn hard to put something so honest and potentially humiliating in it, hoping (but not knowing) that people will relate to it, rather than just thinking, 'Man, what a creep.' Schulz was the best at that. I try."
Though he claims to be an incredibly horrible artist, Boxjam's use of mini
mal
line, uncommon in newspaper comics, is a drawing style that allows the reader
to envision a world to which s/he can relate. Once the reader is hooked
on this bait, Boxjam's Doodle reels 'em in with thought-provoking humor
found in the daily interactions of the normal working father with his family,
co-workers, and an arch-enemy who looks exactly like Boxjam, only orange.
He is revealed not as the unbeatable, champion father figure, but as the
imperfect, take-one-thing-at-a-time human being. His everyday task of throwing
out the garbage provides a running gag. Sometimes, when I read Boxjam's
Doodle, I don't laugh, but instead think, "wow," and then laugh.
Rarely can a cartoonist do that to me. Boxjam is not alone. Hundreds of inspired online cartoonists carry out the beliefs of their predecessors and stylize them in original ways. Some webcomics sites which provide an excellent alternative to the Sunday strip include: www.altbrand.com, which highlights a group of some of my favorite web toonists; www.keenspot.com, which boasts the best on the web; and www.fourtoontellers.com, which features a variety of creative styles.
Since the loss of Watterson and Schulz, a whole new brigade of talented cartoonists have come to life on the web. At the same time, there is also an abundant selection of horrible cartoonists. To claim that web cartoonists are better than syndicated cartoonists is debatable. But one thing is for sure: newspaper comics are money driven, and web comics are heart driven. Once you feel how warm the water is, you'll be ready to take hold and splash onto the online comic scene. Surf their links and discover the works of art you have been missing in the newsprint of the Sunday comics.
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