Broken Frontier

"Comics' triple crown." That's how one blogger described May 5, which was Free Comic Book Day, Cartoonists' Day, and Online Comics Day... as well as Cinco de Mayo. Such convergence makes you imagine picking up free comics in the morning, searching for Bill Watterson in the afternoon, and then posting a doodle about both activities in the evening, while drunk. But May 5 appeared to have too much of a good thing.

Webcomics Awareness Day began in 2001. Its name was synonymous with its mission: spread awareness of webcomics-- all webcomics. Webcartoonists would celebrate the holiday with a themed comic strip and a link back to the "Webcomics Awareness Day" hub site, which in turn linked to all of theirs.

The idea was very much of its time. It had only been a few years since webcartoonists began to become aware of each other as a community, and a link network was one of the best ways to acknowledge one another in the days before linkblogging and Myspacing. The Keenspot-Keenspace community seized on the idea, and in its first year it secured 37 participants, including Keenspot co-founder Darren "Gav" Bleuel. The second year, contributors went up to 41. In 2006, participants numbered nearly 100. This year, though, the number dropped back to 44. And even the previous years' growth curve was hardly in proportion with the webcomics community's.

Though it was a communal effort from the get-go, Jim Alexander kicked things off, and Russ Williams and Aric Campling joined with him to form the project's activist core. Alexander left the webcomics scene in 2004, Williams in 2005. Campling has remained, though he finds less free time for the project these days.

In 2004, the day was renamed to "Online Comics Day," and in 2007, participants wondered whether it was time to change focus. Anne Gibson refined the group's ideas into a more inspiring theme than a simple link exchange. (Disclaimer: I participated in this discussion, and generally agreed with the result.) From the Online Comics Day "About" page:

This year’s theme is “How are you spreading the word?”

In the past, the answer was simple: “I wrote a comic about online comics for Online Comics Day and posted it.” And that’s great! Do that! That’s a big start to spreading the word!

But we’re sure there are other ways to spread the joy of online comics, too.

• Are you printing your favorite comics and taping them to your dorm room wall, pinning them to your cubicle wall, or tastefully framing them in oak and hanging them over the fireplace of your grand English estate?
• Are you telling your friends about your favorite comics or spamming them with links via Instant Messenger while you do your daily comic crawl?
• Are you throwing a costume party where all the guests have to dress as a comic character?
• Are you holding an event on campus May 5th (It’s a Saturday this year!) to introduce online comics and sequential art? (Invite your Art Major friends and encourage them to make some sequential art of their own!)
• Or are you simply posting a few lines to your blog about how much you enjoy comics?

This year, we don’t just want to link to your comic, we want you to tell your stories! If you’d like to contribute a story or an idea, let us know!

So come, enjoy, register, have fun!

Everyone involved hoped these expanded horizons would expand the day. It didn't exactly work out that way: the volunteer count plunged by more than half, and most of those who did observe the day chose to observe it in the same way as before. One of the few participants reported that he accidentally confused the day with Free Comic Book Day.

Technorati data leaves little room for doubt about which holidays occupied the popular consciousness. Its report on the last month's blog posts (as of May 7, 2007) finds 40 results in the last month for "Online Comics Day," 47 for "Cartoonists' Day," and 4,607 for "Free Comic Book Day." ("Cinco de Mayo" has 35,039.)

FCBD moves around each year depending on unpredictable circumstances like the release of motion pictures, so it wouldn't be a factor next year. But the participants I spoke to, like me, are wondering if the turnout would have been much better without FCBD's distraction, and whether the day has a future.

It's too soon to report on where those deliberations will lead, so I'll leave you with personal thoughts. When Webcomics Awareness Day was founded, webcomics represented a severely under-reported, almost entirely separate medium from traditional comic strips and comic books. Today, the formats are converging, and webcomics get regular exposure in newspapers, magazines and online resources covering general "comics culture." If some of the urgency has left Online Comics Day, that may be because the goals that gave the day life have actually been accomplished. And if we can't muster a celebration for that, it's at least worth a smile.

Related and of interest: Daryl Cagle, one of cartooning's best bloggers, shares his memories of Cartoonists Day and wonders if its time hasn't passed, as well.