It looks like maybe Leslie Walker started a domino of interest. Starting with her post in the Washington Post her article was reprinted in the LA Times, Biz Report, and DetNews.com. Despite the not so warm reception of the web comic community it was still coverage and exposure for a group of people who can only really count about 10 success stories.
The story doesn’t end there though. The Fort Wayne News~Sentinel has a fresh new article by Levi Buchanan that is pretty short but talks about Penny-Arcade, PvP, and CAD. Unfortunately the article concentrates more on the use of expletives and how the comics rant . You can tell by the title alone the article isn’t exactly flattering. How do we change this coverage to how web comics make hundreds of thousands of people laugh instead of being raunchy?
I didn\’t think the second piece was negative at all. It got its first fact wrong: it\’s at least HUNDREDS of thousands a day on those strips, but the emphasis–
You have to remember that these articles are appearing in the newspaper, where the most offensive a comic strip can get is THE BOONDOCKS. I like PA and CAD, but I wouldn\’t show them to my grandma, and she\’s part of the target audience here. The article correctly states that PA and CAD use vulgarity with purpose, and that not all gaming strips are vulgar.
Sure, it probably wouldn\’t have killed them to include a quote or two. But I\’ve worked at a newspaper, and here\’s how this works: somebody nurses an interest in an eclectic subject like webcomics. And then, suddenly, NOTHING happens– slow news day. They\’ve got two hours to crank out something interesting, and away they go.
All things considered, I thought it was FINE coverage. Certainly a lot better than \”Pow! Bam! Comics are on the INTERWEB now!\”
A couple things I left out–
The title is meant to be neutral, not unflattering. \”Gaming comics are funny\” is a headline for a reviewer, not a reporter. And, well, it\’s TRUE.
And the very first thing they say is that people are laughing at these strips. I mean… I just don\’t see the tone of moral OUTRAGE, here.