Webcomic
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Webcomics, Online Comic Books, or Internet comics are comics published on a website, often exclusively, providing easy access to an audience, though some are published in books and newspapers but maintain a web archive.
Webcomics are like self-published print comics in that almost anyone can author their own webcomic and publish it. Over 18,000 webcomics now exist online, from traditional comic strips to graphic novels, covering many genres and subjects. Very few are financially self-sustaining.
Some artists are able to work on their webcomics full-time without needing a day job to support it. This group of "professional webcomic artists" includes Rich Burlew of The Order of the Stick, Tarol Hunt of Goblins, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins of Penny Arcade, James Kochalka of American Elf, Randall Munroe of xkcd, Brian Clevinger of 8-Bit Theater, Eric Millikin of Fetus-X, Tim Buckley of Ctrl+Alt+Del, and many others. Most of these artists began their comics as a hobby, but succeeded to the point that they could live off donations and merchandise.
There are different ways for webcomic artists to earn money, such as donations, advertising, and merchandising. Some use tip jars (through PayPal, for instance) or solicit donations through drives. Some sell merchandise featuring their artwork, or sell their artwork directly, sometimes under commission. If a webcomic has enough traffic, advertising and/or subscription revenue can also be generated. Some successful webcomics have subsequently been reprinted in book compilations, often self-published. Examples of webcomics in print include PvP, Penny Arcade, Sluggy Freelance, and Megatokyo, as well as many others.
Some webcomics, such as Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet, Van Von Hunter and Diesel Sweeties have been syndicated and published on daily newspapers' comics pages. Others such as The Perry Bible Fellowship and PartiallyClips have been published in smaller alternative newspapers, or printed in magazines, such as The Order of the Stick in Dragon Magazine and Get Your War On in Rolling Stone.
However, for most artists making most webcomics is a labor of love rather than money-making opportunity, with artists paying for the costs of art supplies, server hosting and other expenses out of their own pocket while seeing little return. For artists who pay for their own hosting, bandwidth is a concern; the more popular the comic becomes, the more costly hosting becomes. There are a variety of webcomic hosting sites; some provide free hosting but require advertising, others are paid for and have no such requirements. Webcomic-oriented hosts will often provide software to reduce the technical knowledge required to set up a webcomic and its corresponding webpages.
In addition to individual artists' efforts to profit from webcomics, there are various Internet entrepreneurs striving to develop business models as well. Scott McCloud, a long-time supporter of using micropayments to fund webcomics, was an advisor for the micropayment company BitPass. Some webcomic publishers, such as the Modern Tales family of sites, have used a subscription model.
Awards
A number of comic awards have added categories for comics published on the web. The Eagle Awards established a Favourite Web-based Comic category in 2000, and the Ignatz Awards followed the next year by introducing an Outstanding Online Comic category in 2001. After having nominated webcomics in several of their tradition print-comics categories, the Eisner Awards began awarding comics in the Best Digital Comic category in 2005. In 2006 the Harvey Awards established a Best Online Comics Work category, and in 2007 the Shuster Awards began an Outstanding Canadian Web Comic Creator Award.
The Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards consists of a number of awards that have been handed out annually since 2001. The award has an online award ceremony which is essentially a series of comics depicting the "ceremony" by a variety of artists. The 2007 awards also had a real-life awards ceremony at Megacon.
The Clickburg Webcomic Awards (also known as "the Clickies") has been handed out annually since 2005 at the Stripdagen Haarlem comic festival. The awards require the recipient to be active in the Benelux countries, with the exception of one international award.