Webcomics
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"They're all about video games, gamernerds, webgeeks, dorknerds, gamewads, nerdgames, webwebs, and elves."

—Strong Bad,Strong Bad Email #181"web comics"

A webcomic is a comic on the World Wide Web.

They vary in format from gag-a-dayGarfield-style strips to dramatic and/or romantic graphic novels, anthropomorphicQuackup-oriented comics, fantasy comics, Japanese-inspired manga-style comics, and actual manga. Some of the most popular webcomics tend to have acomputer game theme, giving an idea of who their key audience are (or, perhaps,where the author is coming from).

The medium as a whole suffers from the same problems asFan Fic with regards toSturgeon's Law: a low barrier to entry means that the entire 90% of crap is visible. While many of the webcomics — particularly those on free community sites likeSmack Jeeves,The Duck,Comic Genesis andComicFury — are considered low quality, there are many high-quality comics out there.

Some webcomics, such asPenny Arcade andxkcd, for example, have even gained sufficient popular and critical acclaim to earn their creators a living wage from their work, usually via sellingThe Merch. As was noted on theComic Strips page, the bar for success inSequential Art was set fairly low by the old newspaper syndicates and comics publishers, so "a living wage" rather than movie/rock star extravagance is all anyone ever expected to begin with.

Webcomics work on a very different set of standards than other fiction. Almost all webcomic authors are working pretty much entirely alone as they both draw and script their comics and most do not plan any further along than to the end of their current story —sometimes not even that far.

Many of them try to adhere toa schedule they aren't really capable of meeting, resulting in them rushing to meet their deadline and making mistakes that should be avoidable. So many of the good 10% lack qualities standard in traditionally professional works. This can be because of the lack of editorial input as well as the lack of lead time. Not all webcomics suffer from this, though, and even the ones that do can still be interesting. Arguably, some strips benefit from their rawness.

Growing in popularity in recent years, webcomics useTropes just like any other media, and thus can be seen cited throughout the wiki.

Also, for further reading on this topic, we recommend you watchthis instructional video, courtesy ofWelcome to.... And while you're at it, be sure to check out our lists ofWebcomic Tropes andPopular Webcomic Sites as well!

Want to search for specific kinds of content/genre/presentation for a webcomic?The Webcomic Travelogue has got you covered!

Due to the ever-increasing size of this article, it has been split into several different sub-lists. These lists are not exclusive, so individual comics may show up on multiple lists as appropriate.

^{note to all potential editors}Also, due to recent concerns over the growing number of webcomics lost because of the fleeting nature of webcomic domains, the fact that theWayback Machine rarely, if ever, properly archives webcomic sites, and the fact that many webcomic artists have proven themselves to beunreliable and/or prone toCreator Breakdowns involving the deletion of all available copies of their comics, we at TV Tropes are now urging you to save copies offinished,seemingly abandoned, and otherwise at-risk web comics and post these copies on reliable long-term hosts such asarchive.org

as mirrors. Be sure to also include a link to said mirrors on the comic's work page, after all, what's the point of troping a work if nobody can find it? By the way, if you do actually want to archive a webcomic, you can either do so through a webcomic scraper (if you want more information on what arethose, we recommend you readthis

thread onReddit), or by volunteering to Archive Team, subscribing toarchive-it

or contactingDataHoarder

. Your options are truly endless.