I had a small spark of Kickstarter addiction last year. I’ve been able to temper that addiction a bit with the new year, but at least I get to enjoy the first fruits of that limited shopping spree. On the very same day, I received two packages, each one containing a webcomics kickstarter reward.
I had already written about the Widdershins, a comic I had earlier suggested to support. It’s wonderful to see Kate Ashwin’s work in printed form. She’s been a kind person to me and a great artist who’s whimsical whit and stylings have crafted a wonderful world of Widdershins and it’s inhabitants. Johnny Wander, on the other hand, has been a gorgeous diary/journal-esque story of two webcomic artists and their daily life. It’s been a quiet favorite of mine for some time, so having the printed copies of volume 1 and 3 have been a lovely treat to have.
As I read through both of these comics, a sense of nostalgia came over me. It’s been years since I was in the world of webcomics proper. I was a shit writer, attempting to become a webcomics critic of people’s work that spent time (and sometimes money) into this quirky medium. A lot of these comics will never be known-some may just fade into obscurity on the internet. But they still persist, for the love of the medium or just wanting to tell their story.
I found my old bookmarks from my time as a reviewer. Last time I counted, there was close to 300–400 comics listed there. It took me nearly an hour to get through them every day, as I organized all the webcomics by their update frequency. It was a challenge- and I loved it.
But it was a crapshoot. It took too much money, too much time, and the reward was insignificant to my future. At a certain point, I had to give it up. Since then, I haven’t read as many webcomics as I do now. But I still miss it. I miss the enviroment of a truly set of indie comics and their unique artists and writers.
Ah, well.
Wait shit I forgot to order Johnny Wander volume 2…. crap.