Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Hail the Best New Medium

"Strong Female Characters" by Kate Beaton, Carly Monardo, and Meredith Gran


The promise of the internet, especially Web 2.0, was that everyone would get their voice heard. That marginalized people would find a way to get an audience. The truth is that there are still gatekeepers. There are costs to getting out on the internet, both financial and social. Anita Sarkeesian provides a magnificent example of someone who used Web 2.0 to get her message out and was subsequently assaulted and shouted down.

So I find it interesting that, somehow, webcomics have found a way to fulfill the promise of the internet. There are deeply problematic portions of the webcomic world, many of whom are popular. Some of them very overt (see: Least I Could Do which I am not linking directly to, but here's a nice angry summary). Some of them usually harmless until the privilege gets in the way (See: Penny Arcade's dickwolves debacle). But out there, there's more. There's women thriving with making great stuff and not compromising on their values.

There's Kate Beaton, making hilarious comics about history, Canada, and feminism and often all three at the same time. There's Coelasquid/Kelly Turnbull mocking hypermasculinity in pop culture and making fantastic comics about video games. There's Meredith Gran and Danielle Corsetto doing genuine-ass slice of life comics from a female perspective and rocking it. They're all out there making great media.

But it goes further. The best NSFW comics you'll find on the internet? Chester 5000 XYV (did I mention NSFW?) and Oglaf (no really! NSFW!) from Jess Fink and Trudy Cooper respectively.

But then it's not just women; there are men writing webcomics who just sort of get the idea that they can write female characters and have them be amazing without sacrificing anything to patriarchy (in ways way beyond people like Joss Whedon have done). There's Tom Siddell who probably currently has the best story and characterization of any webcomic currently running- with two female protagonists (gasp)! There's John Allison, whose charming British wit follows an even split of genders in his protagonists without any problems. There's Sylvan Midgal (NSFW again) whose sexy comic about transdimensional love and candy is one of the most unique NSFW comics on the internet.

And all of this is happening because they are fulfilling the promise of the internet. There's no gatekeepers determining if their view or content is appropriate for the world- there's just the artist and the audience. And the audience who gets it loves it. They're not the margins, they're a big slice of the reality. The webcomic world at large doesn't fight them, they lift them up and promote them. Somehow, this is a medium where people can succeed based on their talent and succeed wildly because their perspective is unique, in contrast to any other medium where the uniqueness of a perspective means the end gatekeepers don't get it and don't want it.

It's just...it's so beautiful.

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