Seed, and my concession to webtoon

I'm always a bit behind when it comes to comics. My first attempts at webcomics were attempts to copy the standard Newspaper funnies, which are pretty close to dead (the poor dears). After that I figured journal comics were the right direction, and while some of those are alive and well, it's not an easy market to hit and doesn't have much demand, especially from lesser known artists like myself. RimWorld comics and my upcoming graphic novel are a step in the right direction of comics, but I've had a giant blindspot in my ignoring of comics platforms like Webtoon and Tapas. While they aren't "new" per se, I now recognize that they are quite possibly the future for webcomics, and possibly comics in general. My stubborn "old ways" mindset didn't like that at first because I felt like it would all be taken over by memey, simple comics and destroy the more dramatic and story driven graphic novel style comics that I love to read and make. I was mistaken (and frankly, I still enjoy those memey, cutesy comics. I just don't want them to be the only kind.)

What's more, it looks like Webtoon authors often come out with print versions of their books if they get big enough, which is what I wanted in the first place. I've given in and started posting there myself! I don't know how the webtoons which include music (which is a neat feature) will print that, but I'm sure they can figure out something.

One of the biggest convincers for me is Seed, by Said Polat. Actually, now that I look, it seems Said is the only creator for Seed, which is insane because it's artistically complex (despite featuring a cartoony style) and beautifully written. Seed follows Emma, a misunderstood teenage girl with the standard small friend group and imperfect family situation, as she discovers a textbot app that is actually a hyper advanced AI with an unclear agenda and a disturbing set of morals. Set in a scifi futuristic Earth atmosphere, Seed is my favorite kind of comic. It tells a slowly unwinding story that explores in depth character arts, a  somewhat understandable, but ridiculously dangerous villain, and casual scifi elements. Did I mention it was scifi and that that's my favorite genre? Seed updates weekly (how Said does that is beyond me!) and is available for free on Webtoon.

​