Shifts Within a Webcomic

This is part two of a three-part series I wrote after reading MegaTokyo. I felt I had to really delve into a perspective I view webcomics through, then with those, I could explain in part three why I recommend MegaTokyo. Even if you’re not interested in MegaTokyo, hopefully the perspective is useful.

This piece is about looking at how webcomics change over time. This’ll be useful for later articles, because a large part of the reason I like MegaTokyo is that its thesis hasn’t changed much, so I feel the same emotions reading it as I did in the past.

Also, a note: These probably won’t be entertaining reads! I wound up formulating them as pretty analytical, critical pieces, rather than stirring and witty conversations. I mostly wrote these for myself, but if they’re interesting perspectives for other people, awesome. I also don’t make any claims to this being new or groundbreaking ways of thinking, it’s just me codifying how I want to think about stories.

Part one is here. Also, spoilers for Questionable Content and MegaTokyo.

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Questionable Content 1847

At some point, Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content mentioned that QC has actually been three different comics – at least, I think it was him, I can’t find the quote. Unlike a lot of other comics that changed dramatically, that was a change midstream. It wasn’t part of a relaunch, it wasn’t a change from gag-a-day to storylines – the pivot points in QC were more subtle, but absolutely changes to the core of the story.

(At this point, if you haven’t read my previous piece on theses in webcomics, please do so. I’m going to be writing as though my audience has read it.)

To ground this conversation in examples, let’s start by looking at QC’s shifts, and how the thesis changed each time.

Until #500, “The Talk,” when the possibility is closed of Marten and Faye getting together:

• Marten and Faye will grow closer, exploring and exposing their confidence issues.

#501 until the time skip around #3136:

• Life will change, and your friendships will change. The people who matter to you will move in and out of your life, and when you’re mentally healthy, your own story won’t matter as much as the story you share with your friends.

#3137+, after Faye hit alcoholic rock bottom and Marten entered a happy, healthy relationship, with a bit of time after for everyone to move on:

• Define your identity, separate from your past and the expectations of others, and establish a place for yourself in your community where you can improve it. That is the path to self-fulfillment. 

These were dramatic changes in both the emotional content of the stories, and the narrative focus. To quote the man himself,

(@jephjacques, Twitter, Oct. 26^th)

Backing out to a broader view, I see four types of shifts in webcomics:

• Early Installment Weirdness
• Ceberus Syndrome, a major tonal shift
• Format change (usually going from gag comics to serial, or small stories to long-term stories)
• Changes of thesis
• Subtype: Creators got older

I’m most interested in that last category, because it’s the least disruptive change, but still changes the nature of the comic. If a creator decides to take the comic from gag-a-day to storylines, or make it completely grim ‘n’ gritty, then of course the comic’s essence is going to change. But then there are smaller changes, nothing as obvious, but still completely shifting the story’s thesis. The emotions it inspires are different, the narrative is different.

PvP, 10/19/2005

Let’s talk about some other examples, and some important counter-examples.

PvP, Least I Could Do, Something*Positive, and Penny Arcade: You’ve probably read at least one of these, so my guess is you’ll recognize this moment. At some point in the comic, you noticed that the rougher edges had been filed off the main character, and they were trying to support their friends while teasing them, instead of taunting them horribly. Kids may have been introduced. These changes just make sense: The creators got older. The life experiences that mattered to them became the more reflective, more mature.

For PvP and LICD, the change was the most dramatic, because the shift towards more mature characters happened alongside a shift towards continuity and changes to the status quo. S*P and Penny Arcade kept their formats, but the style and the jokes changed. I’d argue that the thesis change for these stories was enough that they’re basically new comics once after the shift. (PvP and PA are probably the least changed, since the emotional reflection is mostly constrained to the occasional storyline.)

Sam and Fuzzy: Like QC, S&F went through two different shifts, with the start of the Noosehead series and again with the Fix Your Problem series. What’s most notable is that, although the start of Noosehead came with a shift in format (away from mostly gag-a-day), the shift with the modern series just coincided with a time skip.

Dumbing of Age is an interesting outlier. It’s been around for seven years, so it’s past the age where most of the other comics I looked at had their shift, but it’s stayed with the same thesis: following Joyce’s maturation as she becomes more sympathetic to friends, and reconciles her faith and empathy in light of the toxic effect some Christians have on her friends.

It’s an outlier that proves the rule to some degree, though. Dumbing of Age is David Willis’ fourth comic, and two of them had very clear Ceberus Syndrome moments. Dumbing of Age was created with a clearer thesis from the beginning, and Willis also has the Slipshine comics as a creative outlet into other forms of storytelling. By comparison, all the other comics on this list were the creators’ first big comic, so a shift would happen midway. Oh Joy Sex Toy is another example of this, in that it hasn’t changed focus, but it’s also Erika Moen’s third major comic.

I’m also choosing to leave out webcomics that are just unrelated gag-a-day comics, XKCD and SMBC. I went through all the webcomics I currently read, and most of the ones I remember well enough to weigh in on; here’s the breakdown of what shifts they experienced.

So what we’ve seen a lot of is comics change in tone as their creators get older, and a lot of comics change in format, and a lot of comics eventually change their focus.

I’m going to do a quick note: A lot of these changes happened 2005-2008. QC, Sam and Fuzzy, LICD, EGS, PvP, all of those went through their (first) big shifts in that time range. I don’t know if it was because the medium was maturing, or just that the webcomics I read all started at about the same time, and they reached an age where the creator decided something had to change. So, that’s interesting.

Also interesting is that for many of these comics, they haven’t had a change to that degree since then. El Goonish Shive is an excellent example: It’s been ten years since it changed its thesis to focus on questions of identity, and I don’t know that it’s changed its thesis since then. Introduced new characters, certainly, but no new core characters, and although new challenges have cropped up, they’re all still related to the core thesis.

Sam and Fuzzy #1056 

Taking both of those points in, and going back to where this all started, three webcomics are especially interesting: Questionable Content, Sam and Fuzzy, and MegaTokyo. QC and Sam and Fuzzy have both had two major shifts in thesis, QC being especially interesting because it wasn’t part of a major rebranding or anything, just the end of a long-running status quo, in a comic that already had a number of those happen.

And then there’s MegaTokyo. Despite running as long as almost all of these comics, MegaTokyo doesn’t have any major changes, except for the initial shift from wacky gamer comedy to a more emotional shojo plot, which I’m going to discount as Early Installment Weirdness.

There is a shift in focus, and I guess it’s enough to qualify as a change in thesis, but it’s pretty minor. Importantly, it’s mostly a shift in what narrative storyline gets prominence, and a partial shift in who's dealing with what, not a change in the tone of the story.

Before Chapter 10:

• Piro will deal with issues of confidence and fear of being hurt again, having difficulty owning his own feelings; until he succeeds in doing so, and letting go of past pain, he will be never be really in love and have someone in love with him.
• Kimiko and Largo have the same, albeit without the past hurt, instead just having a general fear of opening up.
• Erika, Kimiko, and Ping will deal with defining their own identity and story; others will try to define them and control their lives, and if they let that happen, they will be miserable, controlled, and fake.
• Character focus (ordered by decreasing prominence): Piro, Kimiko, Largo, Ping, Miho, Erika.

Starting with Chapter 10:

• Piro will have to process and let go of past pain, finding reconciliation where it is offered. Until he does, he won’t be able to be completely honest and healthy with Kimiko.
• Miho and somewhat Ping will deal with defining their own identity and story; others will try to define them and control their lives, and if they let that happen, they will be controlled, doomed, and fake. Possibly dead.
• Character focus: Piro, Miho, Yuki, Kimiko, Largo, Erika, Ping.

MegaTokyo #1454

I won’t pretend this is a perfect analysis of the story – there’s a ton going on, and I read through Chapter 10+ in one sitting, so my analysis may be incorrect. But on reflection, those are the core pieces of thesis I could draw out of it.

The biggest change isn’t the specific challenges people face, but who’s dealing with them, and who gets screen time. Largo and Erika have pretty much worked out their issues by the time Chapter 10 rolls around, they’re a pretty happy couple, supportive of their friends. Piro’s still having issues, but now it’s specifically focused on his past, instead of a lack of confidence. Kimiko and Erika’s issues with mass crowds obsessing over their stories has been shifted to Miho.

Take note of that. The third part of this series is going to deal specifically with the fact that the thesis of MegaTokyo doesn’t change much, and that it continues to feel the same.

The Thesis of a Webcomic

This is part one of a three-part series I wrote after re-reading MegaTokyo. I felt I had to really delve into a perspective I view webcomics through, then with those, I could explain in part three why I recommend MegaTokyo. Even if you’re not interested in MegaTokyo, hopefully the perspective is useful.

This piece is about looking at the theses (singular: thesis) of webcomics. This’ll be useful for later articles, because a large part of the reason I like MegaTokyo is that its thesis hasn’t changed much, so I feel the same emotions reading it as I did in the past.

Also, a note: These probably won’t be entertaining reads! I wound up formulating them as pretty analytical, critical pieces, rather than stirring and witty conversations. I mostly wrote these for myself, but if they’re interesting perspectives for other people, awesome. I also don’t make any claims to this being new or groundbreaking ways of thinking, it’s just me codifying how I want to think about stories.

Part two is here.

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Questionable Content #462

So, what do I mean by “thesis”? I’m using the term like we did in five-paragraph essays, where the thesis was a short summary of your argument. To my mind, the thesis of a webcomic is a statement about the comic’s intent, and a summation of what kinds of stories will be told. If the webcomic strays from that thesis, then it’s fundamentally changed its essence.

Let’s start with an example: At the start of Questionable Content, the thesis as I read it was “Marten and Faye will grow closer, exploring and exposing their emotional issues.”

The thesis is the essence of what the comic is trying to capture and convey. As I define them, the thesis is usually a mix of a statement about the world, and a statement about what the characters will face. To use the example above, the statement about the world is that people have issues with confidence and trust, and that’s normal; the statement about the characters is that they’ll be coming to know each other better, and together they’ll be facing the wounds and issues they carry.

The latter portion can also serve as a plot outline – the major challenges that the characters face will need to fit into the thesis. Using early QC as an example, we’ll have storylines about Faye and Marten talking about their pasts, and the damage they accrued from them, and trying to help the other person through the emotional pain of them. Of course there are other stories as well, but the core of the story, the storylines we remember, are about the will-they, won’t-they and the slow revelations of why they’re the way they are.

El Goonish Shive #1764

Why does it matter that we look at webcomics from a thesis perspective? Partly for the elevator pitches, but mostly because it helps understand what the author wants to convince us of.

We’ve all had the moment of trying to convince a friend to read a webcomic. Saying “it’s a slice of life story about a group of friends in a post-singularity world” isn’t very persuasive, is it? Humans are hardwired to be compelled by anecdotes and specifics. Identifying the thesis as fans means we can talk about the core of the story, the will-they won’t-they dynamic and people honestly trying to improve themselves – that’s the part of QC that’s compelling. You’re simultaneously communicating the emotional beats and the specific kind of scenarios that can come about.

More importantly for this piece, the thesis helps the creator figure out what they want the reader to do. This is about to go on a tangent about my philosophy on communication, so hold on tight, I’ll try to keep it short. There’s a theory that all communication is persuasive, that everyone you say or write is about trying to convince someone to your viewpoint – for instance, that saying “I’m sorry that happened to you, how can I help?” is about persuading the person that you care about them, that they matter, that you’re a good friend, etc.

I don’t fully agree, but I do think most stories have a persuasive nature. This is especially true in stories that have a clear moral: “Give mercy instead of vengeance.” “Don’t live in fantasy just to avoid being hurt.” “The ends don’t justify the means.” “This character bettered their life by finding confidence.” Even in stories that aren’t clearly moralizing, we almost always have a moral baked into them – if I tell a story about my hilarious misadventures, what I’m really saying is “Things can go wrong, but we should be able to laugh at it (unless it’s really awful), and weird plans and decisions are still valid.” Stories pass judgment.

Extrapolating that a bit further, stories that have a moral don’t just want to convince you of something, they want to convince you to do something. QC until 500 is telling me to open up to people, to work on my issues, to build friendships and earnestly enjoy life. As a creator, codifying and understanding your thesis means you understand what you’re telling your reader to do. As a reader, understanding the thesis means you can decide whether to do that thing.

Dumbing of Age, "Humility"

And if you do, good news – the creator provided you with a script for how to do it. Reading QC, especially later comics, helped me understand that people aren’t perfect, that I don’t need to be perfect, and I can put myself out there emotionally without having to first fix myself to some unrealistic level. It gave me examples of damaged, low-confidence men being honest with their friends and romantic interests. Early MegaTokyo taught me to be confident, and to understand that if someone else says something to hurt me, sometimes it was them screwing up, same as I sometimes screw up and hurt other people. El Goonish Shive taught me to think about my sexuality and identity, and if something comes up, to think it through without instantly rejecting it.

MegaTokyo #489

So having written all of that, let’s get to a breakdown of the theses for a number of comics. I took a look at a number of older webcomics that I’ve read, though some of them it’s been a long while since I read them. As such, there’s a definite possibility I got some of these wrong; also, I may have drawn out different theses than the creators would have drawn out, in which case they’re probably correct.

• Sam and Fuzzy:
• Starting with Sam and Fuzzy Fix Your Problem: Sam’s attempts to try to better the world and connect with Devahi will fail or compromise his ethics, until he can improve both his pragmatism and moral code.
• Questionable Content:
• Until #500: Marten and Faye will grow closer, exploring and exposing their confidence issues.
• #501 until the time skip around #3136: Life will change, and your friendships will change. The people who matter to you will move in and out of your life, and when you’re mentally healthy, your own story won’t matter as much as the story you share with your friends.
• #3137+: Define your identity, separate from your past and the expectations of others, and establish a place for yourself in your community where you can improve it. That is the path to self-fulfillment.
• El Goonish Shive:
• After the Painted Black storyline: The heroes will discover their identities, exploring and being spurred towards them partially by their interactions with the supernatural.
• Oglaf:
• Until the end of the apprentice era: The apprentice will be subjected to sexy escapades by those more powerful than him.
• Penny Arcade:
• Early: There’s plenty of idiocy and idiosyncrasies in the gaming world; Gabe and Tycho will riff on them, and their own idiosyncratic responses to it.
• More recently: There’s plenty of idiocy and idiosyncrasies in the gaming world; Gabe and Tycho will riff on them, and respond to life’s experiences and growing older in their own idiosyncratic ways.
• PvP: Pretty much the same as Penny Arcade.
• A Girl and her Fed:
• First arc: Abdicating control to people who have no transparency is dangerous; they will use people without caring about the harm they do.
• Something Positive:
• Until about 2006: Trying to be valid and reclaim your time in a world that’s dumb and hostile can lead you to being hostile and sarcastic. Davan (and his friends) will find the people who share your perspectives on validity and prioritize them above all else.
• Since then: Davan (and his friends) will cut through the bullshit of a world that’s dumb and hostile, and invest your time in friends and family, because life will throw challenges at you all, and facing them together is the purpose of life.
• Dumbing of Age:
• As Joyce is learns about her friends’ life experiences and the toxicity of her family’s fundamentalism, Joyce and her friends will struggle her way towards a more genuine philosophy of empathy and good works.
• Least I Could Do:
• Until 2006: Rayne’s pursuit of sex and the entertainment of it are categorically good, and the world is better when people relax and take a joke.
• After 2006: Enjoying sex is good, but the context of how and who you should have it with will be different for everyone. Real fulfillment, which Rayne chases, is in supporting and spending time with the ones you care about.

Next article: Let's talk about when webcomics change their thesis.