No Laughing Matter: How Webcomics Handled the Tragedy
Katie Tandler | Life Section Manager

Being a web cartoonist is something of a unique profession. Unlike syndicated comic strips, which seem to be allowed to stop being funny, internet-based comics have a far higher level of audience interaction, and they are also far more difficult to produce, seeing as these comics don't exactly generate a lot of revenue and a great deal of these artists are either full-time students or people who still work a "day job." It's a labor of love and they have to be constantly making sure their work stays engaging and funny.

So what happens when they're faced with something like the events of the 11th?

At first, the reactions were mixed. While there were those who were able to deliver under the circumstances, there were those such as Penny Arcade and Megatokyo who deemed it best to temporarily take their sites offline. They instead replaced their main pages with black screens bearing a brief message and links to the Red Cross and other such support sites.

Just about all the cartoonists I've seen have urged their readers to give blood and donate money to the Red Cross. Some are going a step further, such as Jeff Darlington of GPF and Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance, and selling artwork prints to help raise money for the cause. Many, many others have created tribute strips to commemorate the tragedy. Tatsuya Ishida's Sinfest, Jeff Darlington's GPF, and John Robey's Suburban Jungle are but a few examples.

However, the most important task these diligent artists are accomplishing is that which they have always done: provided solace and escape to their readers. Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo put it best in his written response to the tragedy:

"On Tuesday, our own medium was stolen from us, and used as a direct assault on the people we serve....The intended targets of these attacks were not so much the people in those buildings - it was everyone of us who has seen the images of that second plane plowing into the world trade center's south tower. The horrible brutality of the timing and the staging of this chills my heart to the core.

"These people were painting with blood.

"...It is a horrible work. I am sickened by it.

"We must take the hearts, minds and souls of our people back. We must not allow such images painted with blood stand in their potency. We cannot let it have a greater impact on the world than the rest of us do. I have never felt more challenged before in my life. We are all artists in one form or another. We musn't let this work stand. We must touch people's souls to better things.

"Life goes on - things change, but life does go on. But we have to work hard to build, collectively, things that will lessen the effect of this horrible work. Everyone in the online comic community, as well as the rest of us who are involved with entertaining and enlightening people every day have much to do, but I think that in the end we will prove far more capable of producing a body of work that makes the footage from Tuesday a piece of history, not an everyday factor in our lives."

(The full text of his essay can be found here.)

And so it goes. Most of the comics I've seen have continued with their regular plotlines, but a couple exceptions of particular note are Thomas Dye's Newshounds and the aforementioned Sinfest. The former has used the events to jump-start a plotline, while the latter does what it does best: provides brief moments of reflection on the state of the world.

So, if you're ever in need of escape, whether it's an epic adventure or just a good dose of irreverent humor, you know where to go. There's no one out there who does it better, no matter what state the world is in.