Terra

One advantage webcomics have over their print brethren lies with their impermanence. Errors can be easily repaired, plot holes plugged, and weak storytelling shored up either through reboots of the entire comic, or of additional pages to help expand the story. A case in point is the science fiction webcomic Terra; after a number of fans complained about the actions of two antagonists felt rushed and incomplete, cartoonist and co-writer Holly Laing inserted a page that helped build up to (and slightly modifying) the scene in question. In addition, Laing is joining a growing number of cartoonists of rewriting their comics’ beginning, while working on a buffer to help eliminate missed updates (though at the expense of a summer-long break in regular updates).

One comment on “Terra

  1. LaFreeze on said:

    Personally I’m very critical about the impermancence of comics. While occassionally a powerful tool it isn’t one for amatures. As they say true art is never finished I’ve seen a lot of comics become to obsessed with fixing their past mistakes and not spend enough time on making the current comic the best it can be. Often times they end up being like the Star Wars movies, slowly bleed to death by minor changes to fix things that so few saw as even broken.

    That said when done right it can be a powerful tool. Many authors have put out expanded editions of books with tweaks to clean them up or bring their events more. The first book in the Dark Tower series underwent a very serious change after its first printing to bring it and its events more in line with what later had been established as the norm for the DT universe so it just goes to show it is the author not the tool.

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