Web Comics have quickly become one of my favorite past times in the past three years. When I find a new comic that I really like I can’t help but to read it straight through. It is interesting to see an artists work evolve as the story progresses. Some get more detailed, others get more daring, most become uniform. But the passion for the work is visible.

Web comics are for the most part independent productions. Often just a single person with an idea for a story and graphics software. There is no publisher that handles advertising, and promotion. Most of the web comics are done by people in their spare time, doing the sketching and coloring when there is some free time.

That independent nature is part of why I like web comics. When I was in high school I knew some one who had his own comic book. Even thought he had a story that ran about 15 books he only managed to get three installments printed. The amount of work to draw print and sell the book was more then a high school kid mange. It was possible for him to make enough money to break even on the cost of printing, Since he was limited to selling only at school he couldn’t build a big enough reader base to kept a float.

At the time there was not many places to rent or set up web space, and the few options were beyond the budget of the average person. The years that followed web hosting became cheaper and easier use, and with no limit to the reach to the potential readers it’s no wonder that the independent comics have settled on the web and built a community and economy. Often the artists are high school or college students. There are some who do work full time and up date regularly.

Even with the means to reach a wider population, and a chance to make some money through advertising services a web comic is still takes a lot of work. There are one or two artists whose web comics are their living. Even with some doing very well it’s no guarantee that every one can pay the rent with their own web comic. There are a lot of comics that often are abandoned because of the lack of time and sometimes the lack of money to keep them going.

So as a fan of web comics, and some who is sympathetic to independent artists; I’m offering any web comics a free link. Leave a comment with a url to your comic. You get a link, and I do have to search so hard for something new to read.