My thesis deals with the Finnish comic scene and with trying to give it more of an online presen-ce. I concentrate especially in self-published comics and zines because that’s what I’m most in-terested in and I see a lot of opportunities for it online. I have studied making comics in Liminka School of Arts and have witnessed the passion that goes into making a small comic zine.

I compare the digitalization of comics with the innovations that happened in the music, book and tv industry. Amazon revolutionized the book industry with the Kindle e-reader, iTunes did the same for the music industry and Netflix changed the way we watch tv shows. An innovation in the same magnitude does not exist in the comic world and we’re still waiting for the thing that would radicalize our comic reading habits.

I set out to find ways for Finnish comics to get more attention online and to find ways for readers to start using a digital comic reading environment.

I designed a mock-up of an cross-platform application designed for finnish comic creators. You could upload your own comics in the app and read other peoples creations.

I interviewed Finnish comic professionals and hobbyists about these subjects, I read articles and browsed an comic discussion forum.

The conclusion was that the finnish comic zine scene is alive and well and that there are more and more people making them each year. The quality of the zines has gone up after the digital presses have become more popular and the zines have also become more ambitious.

It also became clear that finnish comics are not yet ready for the shift online. A traditional paper comic was considered more aesthetically pleasing and more practical than a digital comic. Rea-ding a comic on a tablet was seen as distracting and not as easily engaging than a traditional comic.

Still the digital environment provides new possibilites for comic artists as the technology keeps improving. Also various crowd sourcing sites can enable independent artists to do their own thing without compromises.