Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/VG Cats (3rd nomination)

VG Cats

VG Cats (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)

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First off, let's look at the sources in the article:

Out of 49 sources in the article, the only one that is significant third-party coverage is the 1UP.com article. I do not consider the three Joystiq blurbs SIGCOV as they are extremely short, routine fluff about random things happening in the comic.

A search for "VG Cats" on GBooks turned up nothing but false positives. "Scott Ramsoomair" gave a book that reprints Wikipedia articles, a book using one of the comics as a footnote, and a German book that mentions VG Cats for less than a sentence. GNews turned up another interview before quickly devolving into social media posts and unrelated content. JSTOR gave no results whatsoever.

The first AFD was a joke nomination, and the second did not have a sufficient deletion rationale, with 2008-me even arguing to keep back then. However, subsequent AFDs have formed a consensus that the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards are not a well-known and independent award per WP:WEBCRIT, as other WCCA winners have been deleted for lack of sourcing, such as Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Mac Hall, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Count Your Sheep, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Applegeeks (2nd nomination), Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Sabrina Online (2nd nomination), Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Jack (webcomic) (3rd nomination), Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Star Cross'd Destiny (2nd nomination), et al.

This is yet more webcomic cruft from the ancient days when webcomics had a greater hold on the Internet and our standards on articles for them were more relaxed. I think it's abundantly clear that, like so many of the webcomics I mentioned above, this one does not pass current notability guidelines. Ten Pound Hammer (they/them) • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 05:16, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

• Note: this discussion has been included in the AfD sorting lists for the following topics: Video games, Comics and animation, Webcomics, Websites, and Canada. Ten Pound Hammer (they/them) • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 05:16, 19 June 2026 (UTC)
• Delete Precisely as stated, it seems like the webcomic only has a single piece of significant coverage, and Ramsoomair does not seem to pass WP:NARTIST either. Since it fails WP:GNG, it should be deleted. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 15:13, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

• The Canadian newspaper The Record published a decent length article on Ramsoomair and the comic ("Web cartoonist is the cat's meow". ProQuest 267098469.) Google brings up A History of Web Comics volume 1 (Antarctic Press, 2006; ISBN 9780976804390) when I search, but I haven't been able to access. Not sure if you've already checked this one. Bridget (talk) 22:04, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

  Delete per talk page discussion of the above sources. Seem to be passing mentions in the book above. There are still not 3 good sources (especially with SIGCOV) of him. Bridget (talk) 10:12, 23 June 2026 (UTC)~

• Strong Keep, per WP:GNG; WP:SIGCOV in Korowin, E., & Krüger, B. (2024). Perfect Meme Fodder. Das Musical Cats im und als Bild.; Pradas Di Liscia, G. (2017). Blank (null): una historia interactiva en HTML5 calling it "one of the most viral webcomics of the late 2000’s"; MacCallum-Stewart, E. (2009). ‘The street smarts of a cartoon princess’. New roles for women in games. Digital Creativity, 20(4), 225-237; Orland, K. (1901). Save Point: Reporting from a video game industry in transition, 2003—2011; and, to a lesser extent, in Baxter-Webb, J. (2016). Divergent masculinities in contemporary videogame culture: a tale of geeks and bros. Mapping the Digital: Cultures and Territories of Play.;. Carnegie Mellon University. Although the page needs reworking and trimming, please remember that WP:AfD is not cleanup. Thank you. PS- less significant coverage also includes things like: https://www.thegamer.com/hilarious-pokemon-comics-will-leave-laughing/ https://vocal.media/geeks/funniest-webcomics-for-gamer-geeks (both including critical assessment; also note that the previous AfD at least included a list of sources which now are dead links...another indication) --~2026-35976-24 (talk) 12:51, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

  Which previous AfD had the list of dead link sources? I wanted to see if I could find any of them, but I can't even find the list you're talking about. Thanks. ApLundell (talk) 16:30, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

  During the previous one (and 2nd) one Keep voter (Celarnor: not pinging them so as not to be accused of canvassing) presented 5 sources that are now dead links; it's not properly formatted as a list, sorry, my choice of words was awkward. But if you add sources named by myself here + the one source identified as good by the nominator and one more by a Delete voter above, it seems more than enough for Wikipedia:GNG and you can save yourself the trouble, maybe. Thanks. ~2026-35976-24 (talk) 17:31, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

• Thank you.

  The first one is an interview with the creator about video game violence.

  The second one is paywalled even on Wayback, and the company seems to be defunct. However, from what is there, it looks like a listicle.

  The third one is an article about Otakuthon 2007 that mentions VG Cats in passing.

  The Forth one is imperfectly archived, but it seems to be an article with the headline *"Web comics a popular diversion for U. Alabama students"*.

  The fifth one Is the second page of an article titled *"Internet provides new way to get daily dose of funnies"*. VGCats gets only a short paragraph.

  Given what I thought the strip's popularity was, I'm surprised we can't find anything better, but I don't think these are very solid. ApLundell (talk) 23:22, 23 June 2026 (UTC)

• Delete per nom. Go D. Usopp (talk) 04:13, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.