It's drawn and it's written, but is it still comics?

Link to New York Times article through the Ledger because original is now behind subscription wall. International Herald Tribune also has it.

There is a lot of discussion about this controversial article. Primarily it is because a print comic artist, not mentioned in the article, has a lot she dislikes about web comics.

In discussing this on the Three B's SF mailing list a good selection of good webcomics is linked.

Websnark totally trashes the article but there is a more extended discussion in the comments.

The article has been slashdoted.

I like it because it is really a discussion of Scott McCloud's, (who has a blog here), justly famous books Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics and checking if his belief in the future of comics on the web has been fulfilled. Scott's blog points us to more places the article was debated here, here and here.

The main point of the article is that people aren't really making money on webcomics except on sites that have subscriptions where apparently she didn't bother to explore.