Twitter: Another Way of Reading Web Comics

Digital Comics
Twitter: Another Way of Reading Web Comics
By Hervé St-Louis
October 20, 2008 - 22:20

Web comics are the ultimate thing to do for the new digerati that consumes new Web technologies. While most comic book readers and creators are satisfied with following the industry on message boards published by their favourite publishers or commenting on established industry Web sites like Comic book Resources and Newsarama, the real action is happening in the blogosphere and the Twitters of the world.

silvio by Eric Orchard - a Web cartoonist and a Twitterite

It’s not longer sufficient, even to have a blog. The latest chic in the comic book, and new media-creating field, is having a Web comics published on your own blog and commenting about it on Twitter, exchanging data feeds that other subscribers can add to their favourite Web 2.0 communities. If most of the action you get is still on Facebook, then, you’re already out with the crowd!

Seriously, combining Twitter with your Web comic is the best way of letting the world know about it. When I look at both process, they just complement each other! Web comics are not perennial. The creator has to update pages frequently, otherwise his audience will quickly lose interest. Ditto Twitter.

Both Twitter and Web comics are made of small snippets of entertainments that are consumed on the go by a voracious following of Web connoisseurs. These are not long philosophical and complicated pieces of contents meant to be analysed and over analyzed to death. It’s all on the go.

I think that the ultimate thing to do for a comic book creator, to branch out to his readers is to announce the comic strip on Twitter. Unfortunately, Twitter doesn’t allow the type of images which would make it the ideal means to distribute Web comics on the go. That means that Web comics’ artists still need to take care of a full Web site, or host somewhere else. However, I have faith in the future and I really believe that the new way for the most in tuned creators can let the world know about their work, is through Twitter.

For those of you who don’t get what I’ve written above, I’ve said too much already! If I were on Twitter, that would be too much already!

See you all on Twitter, and maybe I’ll have to give up animation and focus on a comic strip I can twit about!