Do webcomics tend to be atheistic?

Cafe Society
1

I have a feeling that this question is kind of like asking, “Hey, is it just me, or do all those punk bands tend to be pretty critical of the government?” It seems to me that most of the webcomics I read make fun of religion, usually Christianity, quite a bit, and not in a “poking good natured fun, laughing with them” kind of way, but more of a “pointing and mocking, laughing at them”.

I would guess that this is due to comic artists tending to be young, hip, and above average in intelligence-- basically your typical college know-it-all atheist. Off the top of my head the comics I can think of that have had religion mocking comics are:

Russell’s Teapot
The Thinking Ape Blues
The Fart Party
Subnormality
Dresden Codak
Team Special Olympics
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Sin Fest
Mitch Clem’s various comics
And maybe XKCD, though I can’t think of any specific ones, the comic is overwhelmingly pro-science
Tom the Dancing Bug
Matt Bors

The exception, of course, would be probably the most popular of all webcomics, Penny Arcade. Gabe is a Christian, and Jesus is a recurring character who is portrayed in a favorable manner, though I think Tycho is maybe an atheist or at least not a Christian.

Are there any that I’m missing? Does this seem to be the trend in webcomics, or are there actually good religious webcomics out there?* I suppose it’s entirely possible that I like the comics that I do because the authors have the same sense of humor/personality traits as me.

*And yes, I know about Chick Tracts, but those are hilarious for reasons completely unintentional.

2

Disagree strongly with this one. It’s always been clear to me that he takes faith and spirituality seriously even though he may mock religious convention and the overly pious.

And I can’t think of any specifically anti-religious XKCD strips. AFAIK, he’s rarely, if ever, addressed the issue.

3

Currently because of being very busy at my regular jobs I have put my protects in the back burner, I’m still deciding if I want to get my series in book or web comic form or both.

I think a lot of what you are saying has to do with the fact that there is no way many of those comics would have appeared in syndication, there are some newspaper comics like “Get Fuzzy” “Pearls before swine” and “9 chickweed lane” that do take on subjects that would be inconceivable just 10 years ago in regular syndicated comics, but they are still the exception.

Many of the Web comic creators are already aware of the regular crazy and rude meddling syndicate and newspaper owners subject the comic creators to, so why should successful web comic creators go into the shoe horn of syndication after experiencing the freedom (and some times good revenue) the Internet offers?

Of course there is still more recognition in syndication, but I see that currently syndicates are still more dedicated to keep things the way they are, particularly in preventing alternative views on religion that could generate complaints and loss of revenue.

And this leaves people that have other ideas, particularly on religion, out of syndication. The Internet is virtually the only medium then for comics with those ideas to appear. Big controversy subjects like sex, violence and scientific ideas that rub religion the wrong way create a mix that is not a good match to the image mainstream syndicates and Newspapers look for. So it is not that web comics tend to be atheistic, it is because they do not have other ways to appear in the mainstream.

This in no way stops religious or conservative comics from appearing in the web, it seems though that because they already have more openings in the mainstream that that is a reason why they are not as prominent on the internet.

4

SinFest deals with religion, but though there is humor, it certainly does not mock the idea of the Divine.

It may, however, reflect the cartoonist’s ambivalence between a non-Christian family background, & his own current beliefs.

5

“Pro-science” is not a synonym for “anti-religion.” (on the XKCD comment)

Anyway, there are a lot of little bitty comic strips out there on the Web that would never make it into syndication. A lot of them seem to be kind of specific–I read one on librarians, that sort of thing. I bet if I went looking I could find a bunch of online comic strips that have a pro-religion stance–probably there are quite a few written by random Christians out there or something, but you don’t see those because you’re not looking for them.

6

Here’s a list of Christian webcomics I found:

http://www.donaldscrankshaw.com/posts/1107364528.shtml

7

I guess I always assumed that most webcomics tend to favor Japanese religion; particularly whichever faith is associated with the big-haired people who fight demons.

8

You could make the same argument about TV sitcoms…or this message board, for that matter. It’s not limited to just webcomics.

Not following the strip that much, I’m surprised at this, seeing as the only strip I’ve seen with Jesus in it has him saying (in reference to Mario Kart) “Shit yeah ladies- I bring those blue sparks!”

9

How’s that unfavorable to Jesus? You think the Son of God would be bad at Mario Kart?

10

“What can I say? Jesus is fucking metal.”

11

And how could I forget “Bless you?”

12

Unshelved! I love Unshelved!

13

Like others have said, that’s just not true.

Something Positive has made fun of Woo-Woo Wiccans and hypocritical Christians before (to say nothing of Nailed!:The Musical), and Davan seems to be atheist, but there’s also a few positively-portrayed Wiccans, an increasingly-more positively portrayed Catholic (Mike) and Davan’s parents were always made out to be really good Christians, so it’s mostly favourable.

I know some webcomics authors are religious, like the Mormon creator of Schlock Mercenary, Howard Taylor, but it doesn’t come out in their strips at all.

14

Was actually about to mention Schlock. Not sure if conventional religious themes would really fit in a comic about a mercenary company. That said, they do have a Chaplain, nicknamed “The Ireverend” because of his fast-and-loose approach to religion, who from time to time will be more conventional in his priesting. He’s generally portrayed pretty favorably.

It’s Walky!, one of the comics done by David Willis (who has done Roomies!, It’s Walky!, Joyce and Walky!, and Shortpacked!), has an interesting approach to religion, with several sometimes intense religious debates, ranging from the existence of God to the existence of Heaven and who could go there.

One of the things I like about the comic is that it doesn’t actually resolve most of the debates. People just don’t know for sure in that universe.

15

But to be fair, I didn’t go out looking for atheist comics, either. I found the ones I read usually by posted links I find randomly online, or on the recommendation of comics I already liked. Since I found them without any sort of theme in mind, I was wondering if they represented an accurate cross section of the webcomics community as a whole.

16

Oh sure. I didn’t go out looking for indietits either, but I did stumble across it. Birds who make fun of indie bands, I couldn’t ask for a more tailored-to-my-interests webcomic. Perhaps the divine guides our mouses to webcomics we will enjoy. :wink:

But seriously, it surprises you that webcomics you already like (or readers of them) recommend other webcomics you like? You might not be thinking of a theme, but what do you suppose prompted them to recommend the others, if not that they share a theme?

17

No, it’s not surprising, though the initial draw was usually the humor, and only later did I discover that, “man, this guy also makes fun of religion a lot.” That’s why I made a thread to ask if anyone else thought that it seemed that atheist/agnostic webcomics seemed to comprise more than ~12% of the total, perhaps indicating that nonbelievers in webcomics are more common than in the general population. And we could go into any speculation on why that would be, though I think GIGObuster has a pretty good idea.

E.T.A. Oh, and I haaaaaate Jeph Jaques’ comics. I used to read Questionable Content pretty regularly, but then I realized it was similar to my nasty habit of reading The Family Circus just because it’s there, included along with all the others.

18

What?! You speak heresy!

Although we COULD do with some more Pintsize hijinks. He hasn’t acted up since the Vespa Girl plotline.

19

Hmm…the only ones of those you listed that I read are XKCD and Sinfest. Neither one is atheistic…“pro-science” does not equal “atheistic” or even “anti-religion”. Sinfest is not anti-religion at all…Tatsuya includes religious figures in the strip but all of them are treated pretty lovingly, including the Devil himself. He does poke fun at God as a bit of an asshole. But it’s funny!

I have seen Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I personally think it sucks much more often than it doesn’t. Sometimes I don’t get the joke (and I’m not the only one…SMBC is a regular feature on the Comics I Don’t Understand website), sometimes I do and it’s just flat and unfunny. Occasionally there’s something funny, but it’s rare.

20

Not because I doubt you, but just out of curiosity, cite?