Look at the difference in subject matter between webcomics compared to traditional comics. Does the lack of payment and corporate censorship alter how webcomics stories and art are crafted? Do webcomics cover darker/more controversial content than traditional comics?
A particularly interesting subsection of this would be to look at the racial/sexuality/gender representation in both webcomics and traditional comics.
Webcomics are not able to earn revenue in the traditional sense that traditional comics are able to, but I think webcomic artists ultimately have freedom of expression in how to tell their story and how it is crafted. Traditional comics may be looking for a number of things such as a particular style, topic, or issues the characters deal with and are allowed to deal with. Webcomics worry about none of those things, as the artist works as publisher and producer of the work in question and the only limitation is time and effort to make the comic. While they don't make money from "purchases" of the comic, ultimately there is a level of accessibility provided by being on the Web. Artists can also receive donations from fans who enjoy the work, or set up a system to receive money from viewed advertisements on whatever site the webcomic is published to. Good topic! Would be a nice topic for further research. – Nayr12309 years ago
A big problem for webcomics is that they tend to be written by one person which can limit the point of view of the work. One person's biases and social ideas will vary heavily from others, and that includes what should or should not be censored. One artist can be just as conservative as boardroom of people, and in addition that person has even less reason to try something new. Many of the webcomics I've seen or read about that deal with "darker" content tend to be rather shallow. Just because you are allowed to portray limitless gore doesn't mean you'll be doing it in an interesting way. – Arca9 years ago