ARS GRATIA ARTIS:: The Lost Art of Illoing
I am a fandom dinosaur. But you know that already. I wonder if there was a day when the actual dinosaurs - the Brontosaurus and the T. Rex and all the other great beasts - looked out upon their diminishing world and despaired at how much had been changed, how much had been lost. I can't speak for the behemoths, but I can speak for myself and what ( Read more... )
I wouldn't say that there isn't much need (although I understand that artwork is/was a drawcard for potential printzine buyers), but you're right in that there are very few instances of art illustrating fan stories online.
I actually considered creating illos for the next story I wrote... but then I essentially stopped writing. Hah. There are some stories I've seen where there may be a related illo, but mostly, art and fanfic are separate commodities online.
I guess, with the immediacy of the internet, writers no longer need to send their fics to zine editors in order to get them published; they can just put them online (and point people to them) instantly. So, unless they are artists themselves, or they choose to collaborate with artists, you aren't going to see many illustrated stories online.
A couple of years ago, I started an online zine (e-zine) for Star Trek which, in a general sense, took on the form of a printzine (there was a contents page and a collection of stories, poetry and art), but admittedly, the art and stories were quite separate entities.
It's yet another way in which the internet has changed the face of fandom, I suppose.
That was a much longer comment than I expected. Please forgive my very-late-hour ramblyness. :-)
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: It's yet another way in which the internet has changed the face of fandom, I suppose.
Exactly. And I'm not saying one is better than the other, just different. When I first entered fandom, I thought the whole illustrating thing was strange - after all, I'd read books without pictures since I left grade school! But then I got used to it, at least for fan fiction, and it became uncommon to read without illos!
: I guess, with the immediacy of the internet, writers no longer need to send their fics to zine editors in order to get them published; they can just put them online
Oh, I strongly disagree that there's no "need" to send their fics to an editor! No desire, maybe. But from what I've read, in several fandoms, there's definitely a need for editing as more than just a beta read. And, likewise, the stories put up on the Internet don't "need" artwork to enhance them, but in my opinion, they do make it more attractive and appealing.
Exactly. And I'm not saying one is better than the other, just different. When I first entered fandom, I thought the whole illustrating thing was strange -- after all, I'd read books without pictures since I left grade school! But then I got used tod it, at least for fan fiction, and it became uncommon to read without illos!
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I think I worded that badly. What I meant was that authors in the internet age can publish without an editor, not that they necessarily should. It's a case of 'write it, post it' - whereas, in the pre-internet age, the only feasible way for many writers to be published/noticed was to submit their works to a zine editor for publication (with all the conditions therein). Now, you can find a decent-sized readership with a few clicks of the mouse. I think I was trying to make a comparison between the past and present processes of publication. I just didn't do it very well. :-)
And I agree on the need for better editing of fics online. Sometimes, a good story can be completely ruined by bad spelling and/or other common writing errors.
Next time, I'll try not to comment late at night when my brain is incapable of coherent thought... and, yes, I'm breaking that self-imposed rule now. *g*
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I think with the Internet, the range of available themes and styles in stories has broadened a lot. But of course, the editing is almost never as good as in zines.
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