Creating comics for the web opens artists and writers up to new possible formats for their work. An interesting trend in web comics is the journal comic. Artists are posting comics based on events that actually happen to them or that they observe in real life on a regular schedule, much like a blog in comic form.

The Journal Comic Jam has a large collection of links to these types of comics and you’ll find a wide range of comics there. Some are experienced pros and others are clearly trying this sort of thing out for the first time.

The journal comic sets itself apart from other kinds of comic storytelling that I’ve found on the web in that each strip or page doesn’t necessarily have a beginning or an end. Often you’ll feel like what you’re reading is just a brief clip out of a larger story, but that beginning and ending just isn’t there. But, that’s the idea. The best comics in this form are just that, a snippet or scene right out of the artists real life. It’s fascinating to look at these scenes and scenarios and try to piece together not only what is going on in the artist’s life, but also what about that particular sequence of events made them stand out to the author.

Two of my favorites are Todd Bot by Todd Webb and The Geek Out by Brandon Hanvey.