Jimmy O'Hair

Webcomics in the New Media Age

It almost seems like a bygone era now when hearing stories of how the first section one would snatch out of a newspaper was the funny pages. Even the 40th President of the U.S., Ronald Reagan, stated publicly the first thing he read in the paper was the funny pages. Can you imagine trying to grab that section before a President of the U.S.? That’s how big a deal newspaper comic strips were in the heyday of newspapers, especially the separate color section in the Sunday paper. Newspaper comic strips haven’t disappeared, but newspaper subscriptions have declined with all the information on the Internet. As a result, comics have had to find new outlets on the Web for audiences. In a way, it has been an exciting development to give a whole new generation of cartoonists exposure that they would not ordinarily have had, since newspapers mainly run comic strips from the major syndicates. It has also given fresh new voices to comic strips, and allowed them to go places that they wouldn’t have had the freedom to explore in the newspaper. However, comic strips are built on having loyal audiences who read them, and it is much tougher to separate from the pack or have that daily portal to viewership that once was found in the daily newspaper. It is thus increasingly important to have a new media presence, not only through a website and apps, but also through Facebook and Twitter. The web is the main vehicle for this comic strip, “Jimmy O’Hair” (jimmyohair.com), and connecting with the audience remains the goal. People want humor and the web makes it easier to share material, so instead of passing around the funny pages at home, now it is passing comics around via e-mail, messaging, or social networks. So go grab the comic pages … online!