"Where's the Comic?"

"Wasn't Nukees supposed to be part of the 'Webcomics Awareness' project? I expected something funny and witty and full of nifty panoramic shots of King Luca chasing herds of buffalo across a full color sunset."

This is it, folks. No art. No punchline. Just some boring words and that ugly orange background you've come to hate at this site.

My work speaks for me, so I don't feel compelled to speak for it. I'm not about to tell you what you need to do in order to make webcomics survive. I'm not going to whine and beg you to appreciate us webcartoonists. And I'm not going to whine about how I do this for no money.

I choose to do this and you choose to read it. It's a good attention economy we've got going and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Instead, I just want everyone to realize that I didn't have time to draw a "special awareness" strip for today like others have done. That doesn't mean I didn't have the energy, or the idea, or the chutzpah. It means that the two to three hours it takes for me to draw a strip were not available to me for the past month that this has been planned.

This is the condition of nearly every webcartoonist whose work you love. And yet, look what they have all been able to do. Daily strips, active forums, interactive games, nifty T-Shirts, etc. etc.

Imagine what they could do if they had more time?

You are not obligated to do anything for webcartoonists.

Instead, you should think about what kind of entertainment we could bring you if we weren't coming up with our ideas during bathroom breaks at work, sketching storyboards on the bus, pencilling strips while eating dinner at the drafting table, inking at three in the morning, crying silently thinking about our readers seeing an unupdated site. This is what we do in every nanosecond of spare time we can steal away.

Think about what we could do.

Support your favorite webcartoonists not for them, but because of you. You don't need to donate money. You shouldn't, in fact. That's not a sustainable model. Instead, use your mind. Use your own ablities and contacts to find the best way you can make this business thrive, because you're an invested stockholder. Tell advertisers that our brand name makes theirs more attractive. Convince your business that they should sponsor a site that people love and never leave, rather than sites so unappealing, that people click on their banner ads out of boredom. Who do you work for? Who do you know? What can you do? Donate time. Donate skill. Find a way.

But do it for yourself. We're just fine, thanks.

- Darren
- Happy Cartoonists Day.