With the rise of anime and manga comes the age of the webcomic—a multi-billion dollar industry bolstered by the pandemic that has been marrying together the worlds of art and literature for decades. Aided in part by the marketing powers of social media, webcomics have stolen the hearts and interests of many Arcadia High School (AHS) students via their intricate storylines, wholesome interactions, and bold experimentation with the limits of the format.

One of the most popular webcomic sites is Webtoon, a free platform for both the publication and consumption of webcomics. Most series are completely free but allow voracious readers to buy and use “coins” or “fast passes” to read chapters that aren’t yet available to the non-paying crowd. Serialization and in-app purchases help keep them free and accessible to anyone with a device that can connect to the Internet.

Why all the free stuff? For one thing, webcomics aren’t entirely free; accessing them at all requires both internet connection and a $200 box of metal and glass to read off of. However, due to its digital format, paying for webcomics themselves no longer includes the cost of raw materials, and the art and mailing processes behind each chapter have improved significantly thanks to the advent of digital art programs and email. All this to say that the means, methods, and modes of comic production have been greatly streamlined so that readers with portable devices can access their favorite comics anywhere and anytime, and that picking up where you left off is easier now than ever before.

The student relationship with webcomics is a rocky one. Due to the bingeable nature of the format’s continuous, top-down reading experience, entire weekends can be wiped away scrolling oneself into another world. However, webcomics can encourage students to be free thinkers by satirizing the pressing issues of our societies through those of parallel fantasy worlds; several tackle unconventional subjects of intrigue, such as psychology, philosophy, and morality through characters’ quests and quandaries. 

And thanks to the interconnectedness made possible by the internet—especially social media sites like Reddit and Tumblr—fostering solidarity and discussion through fan communities is easier than ever. The myriad, complex storylines, flawed characters, and signature art styles are also valuable opportunities for younger generations to experience good art and gain an eye for what makes it good.

Prime examples of webcomics that do all of the above include 10Park’s intensely philosophical and psychological horror series, Escape Room; the charmingly witty character interactions of A. Senna Diaz’s Dresden Codak; Lamb Cat’s hilarious Cursed Princess Club, which tackles the consequences of establishing beauty as a parameter of success; SIU’s Tolkien-esque Tower of God; Mike Birchall’s Big Brother-inspired dystopian horror Everything is Fine; and Andrew Hussie’s wildly popular Homestuck.

“We can all learn to spell and write and do algebra, but the arts talk about those things that make us human beings, what we find beautiful, what we care about, how we share, and how we reflect what the world means to us,” said Duante Beddingfield from the Dayton Daily News, echoing the sentiments of Mr. John Keating of Dead Poets’ Society fame: “We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race.”

To accommodate for this explosive uptick in popularity, the webcomics industry has revolutionized to include more genres and works from a more diverse cast of creators than ever before. And while there still are some series that take large teams of artists, authors, and colorists to produce, webcomic corporations have repeatedly distinguished themselves from comic industry giants by opening the platform for anyone with the means to publish their own comic. This invitation paves the paths for indie creators to rise the ranks, and places webcomics unwaveringly on Team Fans in terms of input and interaction.

“Webcomics offer a simple solution to a complicated issue. Instead of relying squarely on large corporations to react to the trends of the public, indie creators are now in a position to tackle this with their own hands, and they’re doing it really well,” wrote CG Glover, staff writer for the Book Riot, going on to note that “the freedom to create something that fills the void of the market is a magic in itself. Indie creators and webcomics accomplish what a lot of mainstream titles struggle with: they allow for the audience and the creators to work together to make a great piece of media that can be enjoyed on a large scale.

As Glover argues in her article, the technology of today can be used to create a more colorful and diverse tomorrow, another freedom of webcomics sadly absent from both the casts—and, unfortunately, creators—of many major mainstream titles.

“Diversity is legitimacy. It’s sincerity. It’s truthiness, to borrow a certain expression,” says C. Spike Trotman, creator of the webcomic Templar, Arizona. “Diverse storytellers mean diverse personal experiences being brought to the table, and more honest depictions of those experiences on the page in fiction. It’s not impossible for a creator to write about an experience they’ve never had; that would be a silly thing to say. But Cis-Hetero-White Male isn’t the default mode of human. Experiences influence creativity, and there [needs] to be more than one set of experiences being reflected on the page.”

And the sacrifice of quality (if there is any) for greater independence and creative control is well worth the end results: extensive, exquisite worlds rivaling those of the most renowned epic fantasies, chillingly crafted stills and scenarios that kindle our morbid curiosities, and scandalous court politics in scintillating gowns—all at no additional cost to patient readers.

As for AHS students, junior Emily Luo remarked that she enjoys reading Lookism, a thriller webcomic about the adventures of one high schooler with two bodies. AHS junior Patience Choi recommends Of Machines and Beasts, the story of a worldwide apocalyptic succession war fought between cyborgs and humankind.The line between visual and language arts is tensile, and if the overwhelming demand for webcomics tells us anything, it’s that the stories they tell—whether they envelop us in their worlds with familiar tropes or drag their nails across all preconceived definitions of a genre—are what bridge the gap between these two disciplines.

Photo Courtesy of WIKIMEDIA COMMONS