I haven't seen many reviews of the book, but the ones I have seen were, by and large, positive like I said. I think the two biggest criticisms I saw were 1) it doesn't reference enough other academic material, but they immediately added that that was a broader problem with academia because there was so little about webcomics to reference in the first place, and 2) none of my "key texts" featured any Black/brown creators. That last one is a reasonable criticism; I did include one creator of Japanese descent but the other six webcomics I highlighted were all by white people. I did reference various creators of color throughout the book at large, but their absence in the Key Texts portion was very much an oversight on my part. Although not commented on, none of the Key Texts were by any LGBTQIA+ folks either. Again, they're brought up throughout the rest of the book but not as one of the more in-depth highlights.
Interestingly, the book has not gotten as out of date as rapidly as I feared it might. I believe a couple of the webcomics I briefly referenced in the book have since gone offline, but none of the primary examples. In fact, the most out of date portions are that multiple creators I talk about transitioned since I first submitted my manuscript, and are referenced in the book by their deadnames. I was able to get in a last minute footnote about one of them, but I believe there are three others that are incorrectly named and gendered in my book now. I have to admit that that is very much NOT how I anticipated my book would start to go out of date!
The book ended up offering me some unique opportunities that I never would've even considered in my lifetime. I know that a copy got purchased for and now sits in the Library of Congress. In 2021, the book was nominated for a frickin' Eisner Award! And while there was no in-person ceremony that year and the book ultimately didn't win, I can still call up the YouTube video of Phil LaMarr reading off my name next to the book's cover as one of the nominees. But almost just as amazing, I was asked to be a judge for the 2023 Eisners! It's kind of even more impressive than the Award itself -- after all, they give out around 30 trophies every year, but there are only six judges! I'm sure I would never have been asked to judge if my book hadn't come to the Eisner committee's attention previously. And now, as an academic textbook, Webcomics is starting to get cited in other books and papers and articles.
When I was a teenager, I got my first fan letter published in the pages of Fantastic Four #318. I thought that was incredible because my name could now be linked to comics in perpituity. Admittedly, in an absurdly insignificant way but I was still happy with that because I figured that was probably the most I could ever hope to achieve in the medium. But getting a 300-page book about Webcomics written and published? Well, that's up there with running a marathon -- something I never thought I had the tenacity to accomplish. But then to have it recognized by the industry at large as a work significant enough for one of its biggest awards? Never ever ever ever in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that!
Webcomics is an academic textbook, so sales aren't exactly eye-popping. But that's not why I wrote it. Writing for me is a means to an end, not the end itself. But in the five years since Webcomics was published, that end has given me some absolutely amazing opportunities and even if nothing more ever comes of it, it's already been an incredible journey!
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