T Campbell's Blog

I hate "teh dr4ma."

It compromises everything I love about webcomics: leeches our productivity, impairs our ability to work together and help one another, turns off the casual reader and encourages our audiences to become narrow-minded street gangs.

But I have also LOVED "teh dr4ma."

Particularly when it happened to OTHER PEOPLE. That way I could sit back, sip a diet soda and cluck my tongue at those poor souls and wonder why they couldn't just get along, basking all the while in the combatants' acerbic wit, the battle's dramatic heat and my own sense of superiority.

But in some capillary of my heart I even loved it when it happened to ME. The attention from new quarters was oddly flattering. And I'm not so devoted to peace and forgiveness that I don't enjoy a good old verbal smackdown when I feel justified in giving one. I would have loved my webfights a lot more if they weren't with people whom, by and large, I respected. I recently got into a frank exchange of e-mails with someone whom I did NOT respect, an exchange which I won, and OHHH IT FELT SOOOO GOOOOOOOD.

I think that anyone who wants to communicate with other people-- which is one of the things comics are all about-- has to acknowledge their inner drama-queen. Acknowledge it, then lock it up and keep it secure. Because it will rule you if you let it.

What astonishes and delights me lately is that I see people actually doing this, at least in the little field that is my focus.

The general world culture certainly isn't any more civilized now than it was in the Nineties, and new media? Probably less. But it feels like webcomics have reached an unprecedented maturity since that flamewar to end all flamewars back in March. (I won't link... you can find it by searching "Pulse Webhead 9.") There are a few practical reasons this might stick:

1) A new generation is working its way in, leaching influence away from the contentious old-timers, and they don't particularly care about yesterday's issues. We all finally recognize, for instance, that "subscription vs. free" isn't quite the passion-stirrer it once was.

2) The old-timers are tired of wasting all our time fighting over nothing important. The battle over net neutrality had a way of putting our little flamefights nicely in perspective, much like that antimatter wall in CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.

3) Webcartoonists are beginning to realize that they are being watched by publishers and Hollywoodians who might just give them money or at least raise their profile, and cultivating a reputation for "playing well with others" just makes sound business sense.

It could stick. I hope it does. There are opportunities to be seized (which I'll cover in Part Four) and new problems to be faced (Part Five). and most of them will have to be seized and faced without me, because I'm entering a new phase (back to that in Part Six). More... tomorrow, at this rate.