By: T Campbell Publisher: Antarctic Press Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Antarctic Press Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 192 Publication Date: June 14, 2006
Product Description: One of the more remarkable phenomena associated with the World Wide Web is the web comic: serialized comics strips (or single-panel episodes) produced originally and specially for viewing on the web. Noted web historian T. Campbell has compiled a comprehensive history of this remarkable development in the comics industry and history of literature.
Good, but confusing First, let me say: This is in no way a very bad book. I bought it to learn the history of webcomics, and I learned many new things from it, so it fulfilled its purpose, and for anyone interested in information on the earliest webcomics, I strongly recommend at least the first couple of chapters of this book.
However, a couple of things confused me. First: Who IS this "T Campbell"? I bought this book from Amazon partly based on the fact that Amazon describes the author as a "noted web historian". Noted by whom? According to the book cover, he's written a couple of webcomics, and he's done a podcast. Not exactly what I expected from a "noted web historian", I at least hoped that the book cover would tell me where Campbell has studied and/or worked with the history of the world wide web (which I have started to believe he *hasn't*).
Please note that this is not in any way meant as an attack on Campbell, as I said, the book is okay, but seriously, Amazon, don't describe a man as "noted web historian" without something to back it up with. I'm sure he's a wonderful human being, and that he has quite an amount of experience in what he's writing about, but the Amazon description gave me the impression that the book was written by a scholar. Writing five or six webcomics doesn't make you a scholar.
The cover also said that I could get more information and full credits for the book [...]. I went there, and found a shut-down blog. Okay, so websites change with time, but when you write on a book cover that some information is available on a certain website, that information should stay on said website for at least a couple of years, if you ask me.
And my last and perhaps most annoying problem with this book: no page numbers. The pages aren't numbered, not one of them. I can accept that in comics or perhaps in fiction books, but I bought this book to use it in my Master's thesis, and I need to quote it. Sure, it's not a big problem, but it's really annoying to not have those little numbers on the bottom of the page when you really need them.
But when you look away from all those circumstances and read the text itself, I have to say that I find it excellent so far.
From an expert WebComic author T Campbell is one of the most respected figures in the WebComic world. He contributes to six comics on wide variety of topics. This is an expansion on his posts from Comixpedia.
Webcomics originated in the 1990's with artists whose topics were not traditional for publication in newspapers. These young creators thought outside of the box and started to publish serial comics online for others to read. No one would know how much of an impact these first artists would have because ten years later hundreds of comics had sprung up all over the web and a whole generation of artists, writers, and fans created an amazing chapter in Internet history. To learn more about webcomic origins, and the impact on the art, fan, and computer world read this book from someone who is one of the most experienced in the field.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
