This past week, the usually excellent Very Short List amused me with one of there weekly updates. For those of you unaware of VSL (and that’s not meant to sound judgmental in the slightest), Very Short List is a website and e-mail service that picks one thing each day that they think you should be aware of as far as culture goes (movies, websites, books, memes, etc.). The reason I say they are usually excellent is because the e-mails generally clue me into things I might otherwise have missed (for example, my post on Incredibox derived from an e-mail I received from them). In that sense, it feels like I’m ahead of the curve, feeling “in the know.”
But, as I said, this past week, one of their “alerts” was for–get this–xkcd.
That’s right, the webcomic xkcd. One of the longest running, most popular webcomics (if not websites) on the Internet.
I could only laugh.
This is cutting edge? I thought. Does VSL think they discovered something literally millions of people already read all the time? I couldn’t help think that Columbus would be proud of the claim, as would NBC (”If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s new to you!”).
But then that got me thinking: is this umbrage really warranted? The fact that the same week I saw a proposal for a book about webcomics (not a book for a particular comic, but one actually about webcomics as a medium), and I realized that, despite the fact that xkcd has been around for years (and that this column began by talking about xkcd, maybe we’re not as far along as I thought.
Part of the “problem,” I think, is that for all their pervasiveness, even the most popular webcomics are statistical blips on the Internet. In other words, with so much content attached to URLs, it’s pretty much impossible for everyone to know everything there is about what’s on the web. And maybe it’s hubris or naivete that since Mike and I know and care so much about webcomics that it would be more mainstream than it is. But it’s also more than a bit humbling to hear from a site that I’ve always considered on the forefront of what’s going on culturally that a medium I really care about hasn’t quite made it yet.
And yet, on the flipside, Time Magazine recognized the creators of Penny Arcade as some of the most influential people in America. Now how does that happen, if webcomics aren’t mainstream enough to reach an audience where that influence is felt by one the premier news outlets in the country?
Obviously I’m not upset, per se–any time webcomics can be exposed to a wider audience, I’m all for it. But it also means that Mike and I have our work cut out for us (not to mention all the great webcomic writers and artists actually doing the work). It’s great that VSL has “discovered” xkcd–hopefully this leads to more people exploring all the great, creative endeavors that artists are putting up on the web.
In the meantime, we here at The Funn-e-Pages will continue to let you know about what’s good, what’s new, and where to click. Maybe one day some of these other webcomics will be picked up by more mainstream outlets as well.
Speaking of the “meantime,” one thing that’s going to help us get the word out about webcomics is if you recommend new ones for us to check out. You can do so in our forum. Please stop in and drop us a line about which webcomics you want us to discuss!
