Warren Ellis' “FreakAngel's” Is Not Only Hands Down the Best Web-comic To Date, It is Almost Certainly Potentially ...the Future of the Industry

There is no doubt that the Internet is one of greatest inventions to date for humanity.  The ways in which it has changed life on planet Earth are as yet immeasurable.  Yet for the comic book industry the Internet has not yet quite caught on.  Marvel is the only major publisher to date that has an option to legally view comics in a digital format, but only from a small selection of their collection. The biggest change to the industry from the perspective of the Internet is from the illegal copying of paper serials into digital format.   Then the comics can be downloaded digitally, usually by the use of the torrent network or directly viewed online ...this is known as pirate scanning.  This practice is generally frowned on by the magazine industry.  In an attempt to stem the practice the Marvel legal team forced the shut down the server of Z-Cult.Com, the biggest comic scan website back in 2007, with a lawsuit.  Undeterred, illegal have flourished. The other revolution within the comic industry has been with the concept of webcomics.  This is the posting off free comic serializations on the Internet, mostly in .jpeg format. To date most works have been posted by amateurs; showcasing their work in the hopes that it will lead to future paid commissions, or to create hype to incite future sales of their publication.  Some on the other hand post work just for personal enjoyment.  As the once niche market matures, there are now a handful of professional web-comic artists and writers, making their income solely off the profits from web advertising and selling print copies of their serials.