These days, just about anything that’s published on a daily or semi-regular basis is available as an RSS feed. It makes sense, after all, since the whole metaphor (simile?) of an RSS aggregator is that it’s “like your own personal newspaper~!” That is, if your personal newspaper printed updates about software, what your friend had for lunch, and what the Ping had to say about toilets.
But comic strips have remained distanced from RSS, even though they’re the perfect candidates for aggregation. A few popular ones are available (“Get Fuzzy” is one), but others have fought it every step of the way. Even “For Better or For Worse” which has a large archive online and uses Moveable Type to publish, has seemingly disabled the default RSS feeds. And anything on Ucomics? Fergetit… they hold onto their content so tightly you can hear it wince.
Services like Comic Alert and Tapestry exist, but in the past, they’ve been unpredictable, with comics dropping out and coming back at random intervals. I wish the publishers/content owners/syndicators would just make the feeds available. Even if they had small ads attached, I wouldn’t really mind. Just let me keep up on my Rex Morgan, M.D., damn it! (Just kidding. Does anyone actually read those serious comics?)
(ETA: After a closer look at a Comic Alert, it seems really nice. It combines all your favorite comics into a single RSS feed that you can subscribe to. Wonder if it’s breaking any laws.)
Posted in Miscellaneous
Rabid Purse Squirrels February 27, 2008, 5:32 pm
Rabid Purse Squirrels online comic just launched and it has a rss feed!