Webcomics predate the World Wide Web and the commercialization of the internet by a few years, with the first webcomic being published through CompuServe in 1985. Though webcomics require a larger online community to gain widespread popularity through word-of-mouth, various webcomics pioneered the style of self-publishing in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Webcomics of the 1980s

Eric Millikin created the first known webcomic.

The earliest known online comic was Eric Millikin's Witches and Stitches, which he started uploading on CompuServe in 1985. By self-publishing on the internet, Millikin was able to share his work without having to worry over censorship and demographics.[1][2] Witches and Stitches quickly rose to popularity, inspiring other artists to upload their works as well.[3]

Joe Ekaitis' T.H.E. Fox was a furry webcomic that started in 1986. Initially published on CompuServe, Ekaitis moved on to Q-Link and GEnie as the internet grew. Early strips consisted of one panel each and were drawn as pixel art on a Commodore 64 KoalaPad, first using KoalaPainter, then Advanced OCP Art Studio.[4][5] T.H.E. Fox was eventually renamed Thadeus and started featuring regularly drawn strips, before Ekaitis stopped updating the comic in 1998.[6]

Webcomics of the 1990s

In the early 1990s, cartoonists produced comics through various Internet protocols. During this period, it was unclear which systems would turn out to be the most successful. Hans Bjordahl, student at the University of Colorado at the time, started posting Where the Buffalo Roam on April 15, 1992 on Usenet, in GIF and PostScript format. Sharing the comic through the Internet, its readership extended through a few states. Even in 1995, cartoonist Dominic White published his comics The Internet Explorer Kit for the Macintosh and Slugs through Gopher rather than the World Wide Web, despite the latter rapidly gaining popularity.[7]

The first strip of Stafford Huyler's NetBoy was uploaded on the World Wide Web in July 1993. Being described as an early example of nerd humor, the stick figure comic made frequent references to technical topics most people with an Internet connection at the time would have knowledge of. Huyler later started the spin-off comic U.Nox, about system administrator Uri Noxen. Despite the small size of Huyler's early NetBoy comics (10 kilobytes), the server it was hosted on would crash when the strip got over six visits per second. In response to the webcomic's increasing popularity, Huyler built a stronger server himself. Despite these limitations, Huyler was one of the pioneers of the concept of infinite canvas, uploading strips in shapes and sizes other than those used in standard printed comics.[7]

The first strip of David Farley's Doctor Fun was uploaded on September 23, 1993. Campbell described Doctor Fun as the "first regular web comic", as NetBoy did not have a regular schedule during its first year. Mike Wean's Jax & Co. was first uploaded in 1994. Using JavaScript, it was the first webcomic to implement a "page turning" interface that encourages readers to read the comic in order. Soon, this effect was recreated by simple HTML, such as with Argon Zark!,[7] which launched in June 1995 and is occasionally listed among the earliest comics to be published on the World Wide Web.[6]

Mid-1994, the Finnish Comics Society launched a collection of webcomics by various authors, initially under the label "NetComics".[8][9] In November 1994, Reinder Dijkhuis started publishing Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan on the World Wide Web. The two of these were the first known webcomic created outside of the United States.[10] The same year, an artist going by the name Eerie created a webcomic on bulletin board systems using ANSI art, titled Inspector Dangerfuck.[7][11]

Webcomics popular on the internet in January 1995 included NetBoy, Aaron A. Aardvark, and The Afterlife of Bob. At this point, fans of traditional comics such as Calvin and Hobbes started sharing such copyrighted comic strips on the internet.[12] By the end of 1995, there existed hundreds of webcomics, most of which were derived from college newspaper comics, and most were short-lived.[7]

Other firsts

In March 1995, artist Bebe Williams launched one of the first webcomics collectives, Art Comics Daily.[13] Newspaper comic strip syndicates also launched websites in the mid-1990s. Other webcomic collectives, like Big Panda, started in the second half of the 1990s. Big Panda hosted over 770 webcomics, including Sluggy Freelance and User Friendly, which started in 1997. Big Panda's discontinuation resulted in the formation of Keenspot in 2000.[14] In 1995, Dilbert became the first syndicated comic strip to be officially published through the Internet.[15]

Though the genre was popularized by PvP, the first video game webcomic was Chris Morisson's Polymer City Chronicles, which started being published on the World Wide Web in 1995. Three years later, in 1998, Jay Resop started the first sprite comic, Neglected Mario Characters.[16]

Timeline

Excluding traditional comic strips such as Calvin and Hobbes that were uploaded illegally, this is a timeline of cartoons that are known to have been posted on the Internet before 1995:

Title Creator Date Service Sources
Witches and Stitches Eric Millikin 1985 CompuServe [1][2]
T.H.E. Fox Joe Ekaitis 1986 CompuServe [4][5]
Where the Buffalo Roam Hans Bjordahl 1991 Usenet [7]
Doctor Fun David Farley September 1993 World Wide Web [7]
NetBoy Stafford Huyler May 1994 World Wide Web [7]
VerkkoSarja (NetComics) Finnish Comics Society June 1994 World Wide Web [8][9]
Inspector Dangerfuck Eerie September 1994 Bulletin board systems [7][11]
The Afterlife of Bob David October 1994 World Wide Web [12][17]
CultuRe Trap Christian Cosas October 1994 World Wide Web [18][19]
Kaleidospace collaborative art project P. Craig Russell October 1994 World Wide Web [18]
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan Reinder Dijkhuis November 1994 World Wide Web [10]
Stocious Tomas Christensen November 1994 World Wide Web [20]
Virtually Reality Eric Scroger November 1994 World Wide Web [21][22]
Aaron A. Aardvark 1994 World Wide Web [12]
Captain Jim Dan Sandler 1994 World Wide Web [23]
Dysfunctional Family Circus Various 1994 World Wide Web [24]
Jax & Co Mike Wean 1994 World Wide Web [7]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Dochak, Sarah (2011-11-29). "Pioneering the page: The decline of print comics, the growth of webcomics and the flexibility, innovation and controversy of both". Gauntlet. Archived from the original on 2015-12-22.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Alexander, K. (2011-11-19). "14 Awesome Webcomics To Distract You From Getting Things Done". Paste.{{cite magazine}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ↑ Team Viva (2011-12-10). "Comic Relief". The Pioneer. Archived from the original on 2012-01-14.
  4. 1 2 Joe Ekaitis (1994-12-04). "Meet Joe Ekaitis — T.H.E. FOX" (Interview). Interviewed by Sherry, accompanied by Lou Schonder.
  5. 1 2 Jeff Lowenthal (July 1989). "Public Domain". .info. Iowa City, Iowa: Info Publications (27): 59. ISSN 0897-5868. OCLC 17565429.
  6. 1 2 Brendan Kachel (2007-09-10). "Better than blogs: Webcomics, the Internet's answer to the funny pages". Crusader News. Archived from the original on 2008-04-28. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Campbell, T. (2006-06-08). The History of Webcomics. Antarctic Press. ISBN 0976804395.
  8. 1 2 "What's New With NCSA Mosaic and the WWW". kitchencloset.com. 1994-06-27.
  9. 1 2 Finnish Comics Society. "VerkkoSarja". Archived from the original on 1997-01-31.
  10. 1 2 Garrity, Shaenon (2011-07-15). "The History of Webcomics". The Comics Journal.
  11. 1 2 Aspray, William; Hayas, Barbara M. (2011). Everyday Information: The Evolution of Information Seeking in America. MIT Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0262015011.
  12. 1 2 3 "Internet shows a sense of humor". The Milwaukee Journal. New York Times: D2. January 17, 1995. Netboy, the leading cartoon denizen of the Internet ... also ... "Aaron A. Aardvark," "Dr. Fun," "The Afterlife of Bob" and "Where the Buffalo Roam,"
  13. ↑ Peterson, Iver (October 28, 1996). "The Search for the Next 'Doonesbury". The New York Times, Pg. D9
  14. ↑ Atchison, Lee (2008-01-07). "A Brief History of Webcomics — The Third Age of Webcomics, Part One". Sequential Tart.
  15. ↑ Gallo, Carmine (2013-10-23). "Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Reveals The Simple Formula That Will Double Your Odds Of Success". Forbes.
  16. ↑ Maragos, Nich (2005-11-07). "Will Strip for Games". 1UP. Archived from the original on 2015-12-08.
  17. ↑ National Center for Supercomputing Applications. "What's New: October, 1994".
  18. 1 2 NCSA Mosaic (1994-10-21). "Related Web Works". georgenorth.net.
  19. ↑ Cosas, Christian. "CultuRe Trap". Maneater. Archived from the original on 1997-05-17. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  20. ↑ Christensen, Tomas. "Stocious Archive". Stocious. Archived from the original on 1996-11-15. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  21. ↑ Scroger, Eric. "Historic Comics". Virtually Reality. Archived from the original on 1999-02-21. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  22. ↑ "What's New! November 1994". shii.bibanon. 1994-11-16.
  23. ↑ Sandler, Dan. "Captain Jim". dsandler.org.
  24. ↑ Churbuck, David C. (1994-10-10). "Dial-a-catalog". Forbes. p. 130.
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