Library of Congress Starts Inducting Webcomics

>>93205739
Jack or Sabrina Online just because they're both long as shit and have been going since the start of the internet

>no achewood

OP is a bitch, a faggot, and a bitch ass faggot for linking to gawker. Use the original reporting of the story instead of the shitheap clickbait artist..

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/06/13/webcomic-fans-rejoice-library-of-congress-is-launching-a-new-archive-for-you/

>>93205739
The worst webcomics. I can't think of a good US author outside Ashley Cope.

>>93205837
I find your harsh words highly uncalled for.

>>93205882
Nedroid is in the list.

I want to see Ctrl+Alt+Del in there. Just think of how ridiculous that sounds and how much of a shitstorm it would throw up here.

Pictures for Sad Children would be cool for purposes of actual archival, too.

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>>93205739
>mfw they copy every single page from Homestuck

>>93205739
Bob&George, 8-Bit Theater, because they are product of their age, even if the former is honestly pretty bad.

>>93205739
Kid Radd

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>>93206020
>Loss will never be forgotten

>>93206063
This.

And maybe the PCC.

Nominating
Sexy Losers.
8 Bit Theater

>>93205892
I find them completely called for.
However, >>93205837 is also a bitch nigger faggot for linking directly to (((washingtonpost))).
https://archive.is/66iZy

>yfw we get Sonichu in there

>>93205892
I don't like using such language, but it's really for your own good.

>>93206020
The Loss comic is something that I expect to see peer reviewed academic thesises covering in my lifetime.

If this is about the medium you need to archive more of the early influential works too.

Bob & George, 8-Bit Theater, Order of the Stick, Sluggy Freelance, Scott Ransoomair's stuff, Penny Arcade, PvP, CAD, and any that went down or defunct.

I know quite a few on the list are still around today but if it's about preserving the medium? I'm sorry but while I like JL8 it's hardly indicative of the history of webcomics

Honestly, archive them all and let history sort them out.

But if we're going to be offering suggestions, may as well induct Aaron Neathery's Endtown and Andrew Hussie's Problem Sleuth for starters.

>>93206238
>I'm sorry but while I like JL8 it's hardly indicative of the history of webcomics
I think JL8 may also have been added because of the characters. Like it shows how people are re imagining things that have been around for 70+ years and the impact said characters have had on other creators and mediums

>>93205837
>>93206133

How about actually posting to the Library of Congress site:
https://www.loc.gov/collections/webcomics-web-archive/

>>93205739

Fuck!!!! Please don't tell me that Dobson and his shit-tastic art will be preserved for all time. Fuck that fat, talentless, retarded man-child. My rage will know no bounds if the Library of Congrees thinks his shitty art deserves to be archived.

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You burgers better get the universal masterpiece that is Loss on there.

Oh, and none of you dumb fucks even bothered linking to the actual archive: https://www.loc.gov/collections/webcomics-web-archive/

Here's what's on the list:
>The Abominable Charles Christopher
>As The Crow Flies
>Bendependent
>Chester 5000 XYV
>DAR: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary
>Darwin Carmichael is Going to Hell
>Dinosaur Comics
>Eat More Bikes
>Girl Genius
>Girls With Slingshots
>Girly
>Gronk
>Hark! A Vagrant
>Hobo Lobo of Hamelin
>Hyperbole and a Half
>JL8
>The Loneliest Astronauts
>Magical Game Time
>Manfeels Park
>Nedroid Picture Diary
>The Nib
>Nimona
>Octopus Pie
>Oyster War
>Priya's Shakti
>Questionable Content
>Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
>Scenes From A Multiverse
>SHE-SPAN
>Shortpa
This list is worthless.
>Shortpacked
>Sin Titulo
>The Sinking Ship
>Sticks Angelica
>Sticky Comics
>Stop Paying Attention
>Unshelved
>What's Normal Anyway?
>xkcd

Fucking hell, who curated this list?

>>93206133
You're a retarded bitch ass nigger faggot cocksucker for not just linking to the Library of Congress site.

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>>93206399
>No Homestuck

>>93206399
>This collection focuses on comics created specifically for the web and supplements the Library of Congress’ extensive holdings in both comic books, graphic novels, and original comic art. Webcomics are an increasingly popular format utilized by contemporary creators in the field and often includes material by artists not available elsewhere. Webcomics selected for this collection include award-winning comics (Eisner Awards, Harvey Awards, Eagle Awards, and Shuster Awards) as well as webcomics that have significance in the field due to longevity, reputation, and subject matter. This collection includes work by artists and subjects not traditionally represented in mainstream comics, including women artists and characters, artists and characters of color, LGBTQ+ artists and characters, as well as subjects such as politics, health and human sexuality, and autobiography. The content of these websites is captured as it was originally produced and may include content that is not suitable for all ages.

So THAT'S how Shortpacked got in here.

>>93206459
>This collection includes work by artists and subjects not traditionally represented in mainstream comics, including women artists and characters, artists and characters of color, LGBTQ+ artists and characters, as well as subjects such as politics, health and human sexuality, and autobiography
Well goddammit

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>>93206485
Oh no

>>93206320

Obviously, but it's still not exactly the first example you'd think of when you think webcomic.
>>93206399

I find it infinitely sad that Questionable Content was archived before almost anything else. SMBC is nice to see there though

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TSO archive when?

I think I see what's going on here.

Okay, it looks like one of the factors in getting your page into the collection is to own a dedicated website. LOC uses a system like the Wayback Machine to archive sites (or it uses results directly from Wayback) so I doubt that it'll grab stuff like GoComics, which means no Endtown. Damn.

>>93206526
>I find it infinitely sad that Questionable Content was archived before almost anything else. SMBC is nice to see there though
That was my first WTF moment.

I fear the day that Dumbing of Age gets added.

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>QC, JL8, Shortpacked are somehow worthy of preservation as "American culture"
>Achewood is not in the archive

What the fuck are these idiots smoking?

>>93205739
I'd like minus. or anything else by Ryan Armand archived.

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>>93206149
>tfw after humanity had destroyed itself aliens find the hard drive containing sonichu and base our entire culture and history on chrisville

>>93205739
Sandra and Woo
Megatokyo

>>93206526
>Obviously, but it's still not exactly the first example you'd think of when you think webcomic.
I think the prune eaters at congress went webcomic -> comic -> cape logic and voila, JL8
I like the strip too, but yeah, not the representative of the genre I'd go with

>>93206399
We need to get Oglaf and Dr.McNinja in there.

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>>93206393
My god. . .

>>93206399
>Hark! A Vagrant
The webcomic that started all this sjw shit.

>>93206577
>Farinas when

>>93207121
how Kafkaesque

they should get some kc green stuff like Gunshow, Back, pinnochio, or He is a Good Boy on there

>>93206399
pleb trash.

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>>93206399
Man, when you put then all together like that... webcomics fucking suck, man.

Well, at least Sinfest isnt in

>>93207400

This is not a particularly great selection of webcomics.

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>>93206399
>years ago everyone was saying webcomics were gonna take the world by storm and become the new medium for comics

>now the most notable webcomics are just glorified newspaper gag strips, genre fantasy schlock, "relatable" comics about a bunch of whiny millenials, literal shitpost comics, and preachy shit
>and mostly because they were there first, not because of their actual quality

Christ, when is someone gonna make a magnum opus comic to wake everyone the fuck up to not make shit?

>>93206399
this is fucking trash
nedroid is the only thing that deserves to be on there

>>93207508
people try but no-one reads them

>>93207508
got any suggestions? Most of the webcomics I enjoy are mostly glorified shitposting, like It Hurts!

>>93207515
I don't like Dinosaur Comics, but I do think it's format is noteworthy enough for it to belong there.

jerk city

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3 years ago someone on /co/ said that independent online works would soon receive official government archival, the first being either blogs, webcomics, or fanart. If that anon is here, congrats on your astute prediction abilities.

They say it's to "highlight the medium’s contribution to the arts and modern American culture," but it's obvious that it's meant to publicly display factors of possible future copyright cases.

>>93206399
ugh, Questionable Content?

I'm happy that they'll continue to expand their list, though, with the permission of the author.

>>93205739
>Assigned Male will get in.

>>93205837
>>93206027
>>93206373
>ctrl F "problem sleuth"
>0 results
Yet Dinosaur Comics makes it in.

>>93206459
>>93206485
Then it makes it make even less sense that 8-Bit theater isn't there.

He is called fucking -BLACK- MAGE EVILWIZARDINGTON for a reason.

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>>93205739
Not a single anthro comic. Not a single one.
I get how over-sexualized furshit isn't everyone's cup of tea, but come the fuck on, at least put Endtown on the list. Or even Utopia for the shit of it.

>>93208351
It just shows how obscure Endtown is to the common webcomic reader:

>This collection includes work by artists and subjects not traditionally represented in mainstream comics, including [...] subjects such as politics, health and human sexuality, and autobiography.
And Endtown certainly hits the first two.

>>93208131
Dinosaur comics is an enigma. I'd say it deserves being in there just for how weird the very concept of it is.

I'm gonna laugh if we get Out of Placers in there. They can tag it with the byline "Banned on 4chan's /co/!"

>>93205739
Minus, Nedroid and PBF are the only webcomics that deserves to be given that kind of recognition. Nice to see that garbage like Shortpacked, Dinosaur Comics, Girl Genius and Scenes From a Multiverse is deemed as more worthy of that honor.

>>93206020
>Loss immortalized for all eternity

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Yo.

>>93207508
We need the internet Alan Moore to wake the fuck up and start work on the webcomic equivalent of Watchmen that has the right combination of genre-bending, artistic merit, objective quality, and popular appeal to rip the whole webcomic craze a fucking new one.

The problem is that all the good webcomics are made by authors who can't into proper networking, and all the bad webcomics are made by authors who fall ass backwards into popular trends and let the hype wave + first mover advantage keep their shitty work afloat.

>>93206171
N O W W H E R E C O U L D M Y M I S C A R R I A G E B E ?

>>93206028
I wonder if they'll induct influential sprite-comics, or if they would shy away from lending legitimacy to a series predicated on copyright infringement. It would at least help define the "transformative" aspect of free-use rulings in artwork.

A shame it'll probably never include Minus, that comic was a treasure. Glad I own it in print.

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>>93205739
If they want to jam in LGBT themes, they can do better shitposting than just Questionable Content, such as LESBIANMYSTERYCLUB, which has influenced every shitty MSPaint comic I've ever pushed out of my ass. Or Fishtits, the only lesbian fish comic worth reading. If they want to go fist deep they could shove Moon Over June in there.

I'm not a big fan of a lot of the comics featured, but Hark! A Vagrant and Nerdroid are pretty fun, and I'm glad to see Michael Deforge got something on there, big bonus for me discovery wise: despite being a fan of his art I haven' actually read any of Sticks Angelica before.

Anybody else having trouble actually using this archive? The Sticks Angelica one doesn't seem to actually function no matter which snapshot I go to, most of the others seem to function fine.

From a historical preservation perspective the project is well intentioned. Makes me want to dig through my old internet website archives (I had a lot of hard drive space but only a 14.4k connection so I saved everything I looked at until college,) and see if there is anything that isn't already up on Archive.org etc.

>>93209918
That would be fucking awesome.

>>93206133
(((Hi /pol/ fag did (You) need something?)))

>>93206390
Think of it this way, Tom Preston could be made fun of by people hundreds of years in the future!

>>93209002
Out of Placers banned on /co/? I swear we've had a half-decent thread every time its had an update.

It is definitely the only furry transmorphing fetish comic that I'm willing to read unironically.

>>93208131
Problem Sleuth is probably harder to include because of its nontraditional format.

I think it's probably good enough to get in, but I want it to not just to spite modern Hussie.

>a whole bunch of irrelevant literally who comics included just for diversity points
Wow great collection. I'm sure skipping over actual landmark comics that had huge impact on webcomics to make way for shit nobody has read is a great way to archive this medium.

>>93206459
>Hark! A Vagrant
>Dinosaur Comics
>Nedroid
>Octopus Pie
>Shortpacked AND QC
>SMBC
>xkcd

I like some of these series, but this isn't really important contributions to the medium, so much as it is a showcase for the mid-2000s East Coast webcomics cabal. And as long as that's what we're going for, where's Johnny Wander? At least that series had some charm.

>>93210100
Well, anon, what are some things that YOU think should be included?

I feel like the big exclusions right now are the classic 8-bit comics, Penny Arcade, and Order of the Stick.

>>93210121
Everything you listed outside of Octopus Pie, Shortpacked, and QC probably deserve to be on here, they're all pretty notable webcomics that shaped a lot of the internet as it moved from the age of forumshit to the age of socialmediashit.

The only webcomic worth archiving is Nedroid.

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When will this masterpiece get archived?

>>93210128
PA is a definite must and its omission is galling considering how massive its impact is. OotS definitely has a loyal following but I don't know if I'd call it "influential". And if you're talking about shit that needs to be preserved for future generations then the works of Ryan Armand need to be in there.

>>93210242
TGT unironically needs to be archived. Losing this gem would haunt future generations.

>>93210245
I mean the archive literally just started. I'm almost certain that PA will get on their, even if PAX has to cram money down the curator's throats to do it.

This first wave feels more like a proof of concept. A lot of safe choices, but mostly just a broad overview of webcomics as a whole, for better or for worse.


It'd just feel wrong to do this without OOTS. Oh, and minus too, that's a really good point.

I also really do hope that MSPA gets on there. Homestuck was a waste of time that broke my spirit but I know deep in my heart that 3-4 years from now we're gonna see a new wave of artists inspired to various degrees by Hussie's work. Hell I'd argue that we're seeing a lot of them now. One member of the music team went off and did his own thing and now we have to deal with fucking Undertale.

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>we need to preserve this unique form of art
>only archive the most sanitized and milquetoast examples of webcomics that fit prescribed notions of what a comic should be
>specifically go for irrelevant titles just to pad your agenda

>>93206238

JL8 was a bit of a surprised, I'd expect it to be on murky legal ground for inclusion in anything official, what with the licensed characters...

>>93210378
DC is okay with it and actually hired the artist to make a few Superman children books for them.

>>93206399
>no endtown
>questionable content
it's like whoever picked this never read a comic before in their life.

>>93210355
It makes sense in a twisted way. Webcomics are mostly milquetoast. This current crop is a blend of good webcomics and webcomics that show what most webcomics are like, that is to say mediocre SOL fluffy garbage.

>>93210412
That's probably true.

There's a good chance that when they did this they just looked for award winning webcomics (and DC gave them a little wink wink towards JL8), then noticing a lack of DIVERSITY in the roster flipped through TV Tropes or some crap to find the most popular webcomics, then picked out the ones that pushed diversity hard enough.

>>93210440
And yet they completely omit the Penny Arcade tradition of webcomics: crass vulgarity mixed with irreverent shock humor. SMBC isn't afraid to work blue now and then but nobody does dick jokes like pig and bald.

>>93205739
>Comics like Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half
Yeah, no

>>93210485
Safe selections, anon. They don't want anything too edgy right now.

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>>93210121
If you consider Octopus Pie to be a snapshot of urban youth American culture in the early 21st century, you can probably justify it being a part of the LoC collection.

>>93210513
PA isn't even "edgy" compared to the shit that exists now, it's the forerunner that opened the floodgates. That's why it's important. PA was like "why yes, I CAN become famous with nothing but video game references and toilet humor" and showed the rest of the internet how it was done.

>no Perry Bible Fellowship
>no Dr. McNinja
>no A Softer World
>>93210635
Eve a cute

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>>93210804
indeed, friendo

>>93210036
>Out of Placers banned on /co/? I swear we've had a half-decent thread every time its had an update.
I would say search the archives, but the 3rd party archives seem to have search issues. But yeah, Out of Placers threads have been getting deleted by the mods for the past few weeks. Started with OOP #50 around the 15th of May. Since then every single OOP thread gets deleted within less than a half hour of being posted. Everyone thinks it's some janny doing the "STOP LIKING WHAT I DON'T LIKE" thing, but no one really knows. Most fans have migrated to /trash/ since the psychomod doesn't seem to have any authority there.

I have bad news:
https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/14/library-of-congress-webcomics-web-archive/

>It's also launching a Web Cultures Web Archive that will pick sites that document cultural development on the internet, such as legendary GIFs or memes. It'll join the Library's American Folklife Center, so those viral images won't be left in isolation -- they'll be treated with the same respect as a classic song and other slices of Americana.

We as a culture deserve to be razed and cleansed.

>>93211141
It's either because OOP is too furry for Psycho Killer or there were too many threads that it became a general thread. The same thing happened to Dumbing of Age; we've figured that starting one thread at night with the newest strips, rather than starting a new thread when one thread hits page ten, seems to sate the rogue janitor.

>>93211504
Probably A, since there was only threads when a new page released. Funny, since Poppy and Endtown doesn't seem to trigger the mod, and both feature far more shit than OOP.

>>93211585
I'm not sure about Poppy, but Endtown only makes threads on Fridays since there's now a more active Endtown thread in /trash/.

>>93205739
Moon Over June

The author took it down right? That has to be archived for all time.

>>93206399
Willis?! Fucking Willis made it on here?!
At least it wasn't fucking DoA

>>93205739
Doesn't this hurt the webcomic creators? It'd be like rehosting their stuff on another site and they don't get ad views anymore.

>>93211711
I think it's got a new home over at Slipshine.

>>93211727
It's probably next.

>>93211731
It looks more like the Library of Congress is hosting archived snapshots of the webcomics' websites, rather than hosting the content themselves. And even if that were the case, they'd likely only scrape and rehost the original strips, not the entire website.

So this is less the Library of Congress rehosting content and more like "Yo, these are comics that we think are important enough to be given notice by the Library of Congress. Or at least its interns. Whoever made this archive. Whatever, it's not like you have any say in what we do."

>>93208131
Dinosaur Comics is basically Ryan North's mini-blog. Doesn't mean it's bad.

>>93210400
Pretty much, yeah. The reason the author couldn't use "Little League" as the comic title was backlash from MLB.

>>93208351
or at least Lackadaisy

>>93206079
>Future Man will interpret Loss as the icon of the radical nihilism that spread through our society, directly leading to the catcalysm known to them as The Days Of Screaming Fire

>>93205739
Dr. MCNINJA

>>93205892
fuck off faggot.

>>93208351
Anthro & Video Game based comics were the first two genres that supported a web comic artist / writer as their actual livelihood. I think that fact alone requires a strong representation of both in this little collection of theirs.

>>93210804
Sexy Losers gave us 'Fap' as a slang term which will probably say with us for a century.
Ghastly's Ghastly web comic had a lot of unfortunate material that will be with us for decades to come too.

>>93211504
The memes of the 2016 election and the primary that lead up to it probably will deserve its own special section for preservation.

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Culturally. Significant.

>>93205739
It Hurts!! should totally get in.

>>93206459
How did Dumbing Of Age not get in, then?

>>93210635
octopus pie is fucking shit.

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>>93213810
Don't you mean it's "the fukken shit"?

>>93210128
Perry Bible Fellowship

>>93209918
They put fucking JL8 in there, which is a walking copyright infringement.

>>93205739
too little too late
too many webcomics have already died and are unretrievable whereas anything still ongoing or recent is being saved by everyone already.

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>>93218116
Who could forget Pictures of Sad Children?

>>93206399
>Octopus Pie
Great to hear, it just ended it's 10 year run and I think this is a pretty good send off

>>93210343
It's not really fair to say that Hussie inspired that when Toby had worked on a number of things before and after Homestuck. I mean a little bit of Hussie's sense of humor seemed to have rubbed off on Toby, but overall Undertale is far more inspired by things like Earthbound, and looking at Toby's pre-Homestuck works it's pretty clear that he had his own style before working with Hussie, and Undertale reflects that style.

>>93210245
>>93210343
I'm a little surprised to see OotS mentioned here. I always assumed that it was far more popular on /tg/ than it is here.

>hark! a vagrant
nice