Your favorite webcomics and WHY

Kez

Kez

Welp, apparently I had to get to 10 posts before I could use links, so finally! I did it!

I love the "what are your favorite webcomics" threads on forums, except that they usually devolve into a list of URLs with no context. Plus, I love introducing people to new comics they haven't heard of, and usually giving them a reason to like the comic before ever reading it.

So here's a challenge. Give a link to a comic you enjoy, and a 1-2 sentence reason why you like it. Not the plot of the story, but what it makes it good or different or stand out.

I'll start off:

The Sword Interval, by Ben Fleuter. I love it because it's a paranormal apocalyptic story about getting revenge on the monster who murdered your family--BUT (and this is important) the supernatural aspect is outside of any major religion. I'm quite tired of the "book of Revelation" apocalypses.

EDIT aww damn I can't remove the question title shit
 
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Dave

Dave

Staff member
Kez said:
Welp, apparently I had to get to 10 posts before I could use links, so finally! I did it!

I love the "what are your favorite webcomics" threads on forums, except that they usually devolve into a list of URLs with no context. Plus, I love introducing people to new comics they haven't heard of, and usually giving them a reason to like the comic before ever reading it.

So here's a challenge. Give a link to a comic you enjoy, and a 1-2 sentence reason why you like it. Not the plot of the story, but what it makes it good or different or stand out.

I'll start off:

The Sword Interval, by Ben Fleuter. I love it because it's a paranormal apocalyptic story about getting revenge on the monster who murdered your family--BUT (and this is important) the supernatural aspect is outside of any major religion. I'm quite tired of the "book of Revelation" apocalypses.

EDIT aww damn I can't remove the question title shit
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You should be able to edit your own title. At the top under Thread Tools, click "Edit Thread".
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Ben Fleuter and I go way back, to old keenspace/spot days. His first comic was a paranormal story too, called Parallel Dementia. We were going to do a crossover between our comics back then, but I ended up having to ditch mine because of college. Really wish I hadn't. Parallel Dementia ended prematurely as well. We haven't much kept in contact the last couple years, but that's adulthood.

I haven't started The Sword Interval yet, but I've been reading Derelict for years ... post-apocalyptic water world after strange aliens invaded. I liked it more before when it was just Dang on a boat, but the newer stuff is interesting too. Just too bad it doesn't update very often. I suppose that's because Ben's working on two webcomics at a time now, plus his independent projects.

Aside from that, the main update I look forward to is Dumbing of Age. I didn't think this parallel universe crap was going to work after reading Roomies/It's Walky/Shortpacked's universe for so many years, but it's actually refreshing to see everyone in a different way without aliens/end of the world stuff looming over it all.
 
Kez

Kez

Zero Esc said:
I haven't started The Sword Interval yet, but I've been reading Derelict for years ... post-apocalyptic water world after strange aliens invaded. I liked it more before when it was just Dang on a boat, but the newer stuff is interesting too. Just too bad it doesn't update very often. I suppose that's because Ben's working on two webcomics at a time now, plus his independent projects.
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I loooooove Derelict. I never got into Parallel Dementia, but heard good things about it. One thing I love about Derelict is even though Dang is like, hard-core survivalist, she's so soft-spoken! She may have trouble finding the right words, but she WILL kill you.

PatrThom said:
This so fits your avatar.

--Patrick
Click to expand...

I have NO idea what you're talking about....
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

The Order of the Stick, by Rich Burlew - What started as one-strip D&D jokes became a sprawling fantasy epic with twists and turns rivalling the best fantasy novels on the market. Its minimalistic art style perfectly suits the cartoon hijinx while also emphasizing character moments. I would strongly argue it's a great example of storytelling (especially setting things up that don't pay off until LONG after, when you least expect it) and character development.

(EDIT: Also, might I suggest moving this thread to the Media Madness subforum?)
 
Kez

Kez

ThatNickGuy said:
(EDIT: Also, might I suggest moving this thread to the Media Madness subforum?)
Click to expand...
Sure, if that would work better! Can an admin/mod help us out?

I peeked in there before but all I saw was movies. Of course, NOW I see a webcomics thread.
 
strawman

strawman

Schlock Mercenary

Sprawling, self consistent science fiction romp through the universe. Interesting thoughts on diplomacy and relationships. Reasonable characters. Fun and funny.

Sluggy Freelance

I just can't let this one go, though there have been periods when it hasn't been what I expected it to be. Funny central cast of characters in increasingly weird situations, gag a day comic turned relatively serious. More fiction than science.

Drive, the comic

Started by the creator of Sheldon, it is a slow paced science fiction story with reasonable gravitas and good humor. It's production is slow, but it's worth the wait.

Freefall

Yes, another science fiction with just a tiny pinch of furry. It's hilarious nearly every strip, and is very consistent. One of the very few comics not overloaded with ads and constant requests for reader support, it feels like the author simply enjoys it, which seems rare these days.

Except for drive, these all have extensive archives. Don't dip into them if you don't have a lot of time.
 
WasabiPoptart

WasabiPoptart

Honestly, Supervillainous is the only web comic I read now. I like the story line @Zappit has going.

I used to have a whole list of web comics I read every day. Some, like Avalon (by Josh Philips) and The Life of Riley (Aaron Sacharow and Dan Jaaren), are long gone. The rest, well, I lost interest and had less free time. Though I do still credit Sluggy Freelance as the reason I met my husband.
 
Tinwhistler

Tinwhistler

Almost all of the webcomics I read regularly (Supervillainous, Dr. McNinja, Sluggy Freelance) have an overarching storyline, which is what I like about them. As a kid, I'd read Spider-Man comics in the paper for the same reason. I always hated the Sunday paper, even though the comics were in color, because Sunday comics never followed the story line.

The only real exception I have is Oglaf. I like that one because of the bawdy humor and extremely well drawn genitals. ;) But there are some storylines woven in there too, which is a big added bonus.
 
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Denbrought

Denbrought

Webcomics I currently read, or read in the past and stood out. Heavy emphasis on smut, which is interestingly not the case for other forms of media I consume.

Sexy Losers [NSFW], the classic (and basically over) webcomic that gave us "fap" and "shlick". I think TV Tropes' synopsis is good enough at explaining why I like it even to this day: "Drawn in an animesque style, it followed the antics of several different characters. They include a hentai artist, a necrophiliac, a compulsive masturbator (and his equally compulsive masturbating sister), a bored housewife trying to seduce her son, a group of scientists developing bizarre sex aids, several porn stars, and a couple of stage magicians."

Order of The Stick, which is a decent gag-per-page comic glued to a fantastic story. I'd read it all the same if it was a written serial, but the comic medium does inject a lot of levity that I'd probably miss. Good all-around if you enjoy D&D-nerd culture.

Chester 5000 [NSFW], a mute/textless comic about sex, polyamory, and robots in an imaginary everyone-is-nice steampunk-y Victorian England. Jess Fink (the artist, whom I'm fond of) recently finished it, so be aware that it's over.

Oglaf [NSFW], for the reasons that Tinwhistler outlined above.

Price for Freedom [NSFW], a smut comic with an interesting plot, which I read mostly because it's drawn by a NSFW artist I'm very fond of, by Arbuz Budesh. His English is not great (he's generically Eastern European), and he still has a lot of room to grow art-wise, but I greatly enjoy his work nonetheless. He's done shorter comics in the past, but this is his only long/ongoing one. The actual source of the comic is Arbuz's HF, but that site is a mess so don't bother.

Alfie [NSFW, and the best domain name], a smut comic with a so-so- plot, which I read entirely because of it being drawn by InCase. If you want to see halflings, elves, and humans fuckin' in a fantastic artstyle, read on. InCase has done many other comics, mostly one-shots, but this is his only ongoing webcomic.

Honorable Mentions:
Goblins Comic, which is a <same description as Order of the Stick above>, except that the author has never understood scene pacing, so it randomly grinds to a halt so we can spend 20 pages on a round-by-round fight and, unlike with OOTS, there is no end in sight. I will most likely not pick it back up until he finishes the story or quits permanently.

Questionable Content, a trainwreck that I check out every few months to monitor the author (and comic)'s slow descent into insanity and/or inanity. It mostly generates good content for /co/.

PvP online, by Viktor von Doom The Kurtz. I haven't read it since sometime a few months before the image comics debacle. Recommended because between reading this comic and hanging out in the forums for it, my English went from mediocre to "let's send you abroad."
 
jwhouk

jwhouk

Wapsi Square - Okay, okay, wait. Don't look at it as boobs. There is one hell of a story under it all - and it's got a really BIG archive if you're going to do a crawl. But it's essentially moved on to a "next generation" model, with the "originals" making appearances every so often. The joking tagline the fans have come up with is, "Come for the boobs, stay for the story."
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Camp Weedonwantcha. It came out of that webcomic maker reality show type thing Penny Arcade ran. It's about a camp, full if children who were, for one reason or another, unwanted. Sometimes absurdist humor, often quite touching, sometimes genuinely sad or funny. In the beginning it's mostly one-offs, later there're more storylines, and you slowly start learning all the campers' back stories (Spoiler: most of them are sad, considering they got left at camp). Great details in the background, lots of little jokes or information hidden away all over.

XKCD. Do I seriously need to describe this one? Just read it already.

SMBC. Philosophy/math/sex/graph jokes, usually single panel.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

Also:

Skin Horse. In the same universe as Narbonic (finished), though it's not essential to have read that. Black Ops Social Security Services for transgenics/transhumans/whatever kind of Mad Science left-overs happen to wander by. Goes all over the place, and is completely filled up to the brim with references to various literary works (obviously the Velveteen Rabbit, Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass, lots and lots of others). Long running stories with all kinds of funky stuff, gradually becoming more and more complex and involved. In that way, quite similar to Narbonic, which is also worth a read, by the way.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Denbrought said:
Questionable Content, a trainwreck that I check out every few months to monitor the author (and comic)'s slow descent into insanity and/or inanity. It mostly generates good content for /co/.
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I will respectfully disagree with this one. QC is the only webcomic I currently read that regularly makes me laugh out loud.

I will throw into the ring:

The potentially obvious Homestuck. It took me a long time to get into it, but I ended up hooked hard. Funny, bizarre, surprisingly well planned out, and potentially wrapping up in April giving you lots of time to burn through the thousands of pages already existing. Just avoid the fandom. :awesome:

The NSFW and ridiculous Demon. It's a bizarre tale thus far, but really interesting. I won't say too much about the story, only because it ruins the beginning sequence a bit, which may be the best part.
 
Bubble181

Bubble181

I absolutely and totally couldn't get into Homestuck. I just don't understand it, or something. It's about as "good" as Ghastly, as far as I can judge; which apparently is more because of my lack of understanding than actual lack of merit.
 
Fun Size

Fun Size

Bubble181 said:
I absolutely and totally couldn't get into Homestuck. I just don't understand it, or something. It's about as "good" as Ghastly, as far as I can judge; which apparently is more because of my lack of understanding than actual lack of merit.
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I started reading it no less that four times. The first three were all "Really? People are into this?". For some reason the last time I kept reading and it was like falling down a rabbit hole. I would imagine, though, that it's highly dependent on your sense of humor, not as in "you just don't get it", but as a taste thing.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
QC's ok reading. Most of what is wrong with it is its fanbase. As long as you can stay away from them (and that's easier to do when you read by RSS feed), it's not too shabby.
Fun Size said:
The potentially obvious Homestuck. It took me a long time to get into it, but I ended up hooked hard. Funny, bizarre, surprisingly well planned out, and potentially wrapping up in April giving you lots of time to burn through the thousands of pages already existing. Just avoid the fandom. :awesome:
Click to expand...
 
Yoshimickster

Yoshimickster

I mean to read more of Homestuck...but am constantly losing my place, as there's one part where they ask you to pick what character to follow, and then I pick both, and then one side finishes earlier, and then fuck all.
 
CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Questionable Content is one of those things I check because it's a habit, but I'm trying to break it. It is the epitome of Nothing Happens: The Comic.

I think the only one I still check because it's entertaining is Whomp! because Ronnie is a cool dude.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Well, heck, I can just go down the list of what webcomics are in my RSS reader (feedly)...

  • Abstruse Goose - (defunct 2 years now) Very much like XKCD. Cerebral nerd humor.
  • Awkward Zombie - (updated 1/wk) Video game humor from a the perspective of a frequently exasperated female gamer. One of my favorites.
  • Basic Instructions - (ended, now republishing comics in chronological order again) cynical life lessons disguised as how-tos.
  • Berkeley Mews - (updated 1/wk) subversive, silly humor.
  • Bob the Angry Flower - (updated 1/wk) surrealist insanity from an ultraleftist addicted to non sequitur (the fallacy, not the newspaper comic)
  • Brentalfloss: The Comic - (Defunct 1 year) Video game humor from the mind of the guy who adds lyrics to video game music.
  • Buttersafe - (updates 2/wk) Absurdism frequently featuring a bend into the darkness.
  • C-Section comics - (updates ~2/month) social commentary with the snide turned up to 11.
  • Chief O'Brien at Work - (Updates 2/month) Feel sorry for poor Miles, his life is a wreck and his job is a joke. Laugh to feel better about yourself.
  • The Oatmeal - (Updates ~1/month) Nerdy, manic stories by a nerdy maniac.
  • Ctrl-Alt-Del - (Updates 3/week) Gets a bad rap because it used to be formulaic walls of text. Since the "2.0" reboot, it's gotten much better. Video game/geek humor.
  • Darths and Droids - (Updates 3/week) An excellent retelling of Star Wars as an ongoing long-running tabletop RPG. Awesome.
  • Day by Day - (updates 1/day) Gotta be honest, I only read this one for the hypersexed half-asian redhead ultraconservative. Uhngh. Probably way too heavy on the Fox-News factor for many other people here to stomach. Frequent nudity.
  • Digital Pimp Online - (updates ~3/wk) cycles through a number of comics, currently "Joe Loves Crappy Movies." I subscribed for "Another Video Game Comic," which I like better, but has been on hiatus since 2014.
  • Dilbert - (Updates 1/day) You know damn good and well what this is.
  • Dragon's Burn - (Updates ~2-5/mo) the story of an asshole knight who moves in with a female magic dragon and a small thief cat.
  • Dungeon Grind - (Updates 3/wk) the life and times of the lowest monsters on the totem pole working in the dungeon of a lich.
  • Erin Dies Alone - (Updates 2/wk) From the makers of Critical Miss, follows the video-game induced hallucinations of a shut in who hasn't left her apartment in months. Funnier than it sounds, honest.
  • Erma - (Updates ~2/mo) What if the ghost girl from The Ring got married and had a kid, and they sent that kid to public school?
  • Cyanide and Happiness - (updates 1/day) The indescribable joke-a-day stick figure website that's like watching a car wreck - you can't look away.
  • Extra Fabulous Comic - (Updates ~6/mo) More absurdist flailing that keeps you sane by being insane.
  • Fanboys Online - (Defunct 1 year) A comic about gamers growing up, getting responsibilities, and zippers the size of your shoe soles.
  • Goblins - (Updates ~1/mo) An excellent story taking place in a world governed by the rules of RPGs, when suddenly monsters discover they're allowed to pick a class and level up, too, like adventurers. Great stuff, too bad it updates so slowly and is known to go on hiatus for extended periods.
  • GU Comics - (updates 1/wk) Mostly keep reading it out of habit at this point.. it used to be a gag-a-day MMO gaming comic, now it's more like a geek-slice-of-life thing.
  • Gunnerkrigg Court - (updates 3/wk) The coming of age of a mysterious girl of hidden importance in a world where humans and (super)nature exist in an uneasy truce. Mostly good, sometimes gets off into the weeds a bit in the adolescent stuff.
  • Gunshow - (defunct 2 years) The comic that set the standard for aggressive nihilism. You gotta read it. Especially "The Anime Club" arc.
  • Hamlet's Danish - (updates ~1/mo) You guessed it, more absurdism, with surprisingly decent artwork.
  • Hejibits - (updates ~1/mo) yet another gaming webcomic with no continuity. But it's pretty good.
  • Busty Girl Comics - (Defunct 4 years) body-positive commiseration on the difficulties that come with having a generous bosom.
  • I am Arg! - (updates 1/wk) People who grew up with gaming are now old enough to get married. This is a humorous look at the life of one such man and woman.
  • Trigger Star - (Defunct 4 years) Yet another RPG-world story, this one with a decidedly raunchy twist.
  • It's the Tie! - (Updates 1/wk) Dude... I'm.. I'm not even sure. I guess you could call it a storyless gag-a-strip with no real focus other than being silly. I'm noticing there's a whole lot of absurdism on my plate these days...
  • Living with Hipstergirl and Gamergirl - (updates 1/wk) Cheesecake, pop culture humor, and social commentary. What's not to like, eh?
  • JL8 - (updates ~1/mo) ♫ DC Comic babies, we make our dreams come true ♫ DC Comic babies, we'll do the same for youuuu ♫
  • Kipen Manga - (updates ~2/mo) a lampoon of common manga tropes mixed in with plenty of bathroom humor. Very decent artwork, looks authentic.
  • Let's Be Friends Again - (defunct 2 years) a comic mostly about comics, specifically about the dumb things comic companies do.
  • Let's Speak English! - (updates 1/wk) the comic diary of an American as she teaches English in Japan. Cute.
  • Manly Guys Doing Manly Things - (updates 1/wk) What's a beefy video game character to do to pay the rent once his video game is over?
  • Megatokyo - (Updates ~4/mo) Holy shit, yes it is actually updating again. But it's still the same weeaboo crap it was 10 years ago. I don't know why I still read it. Maybe I'm hoping for some closure with a graceful end to a story I started reading 15 years ago? I know, call me an optimistic fool.
  • Menage a 3 - (Updates 3/wk) Ok, imagine if 3's Company took place in modern Montreal, the cast were all in their early 20s and drawn in the style of Archies, and there was a WHOLE lot more sex going on... and you've basically got Menage a 3. Frequent nudity.
  • Nerf Now! - (Updates 3/wk) Sometimes you just want TF2/DOTA humor with a teensy touch of cheesecake.
  • Nukees - (Updates 3/wk) Still going strong after all these years. Can you believe it started in 1997? Was a strip about Berkeley students in the Nuclear Engineering department, and it just took off from there.
  • Oglaf - (Updates 1/wk) probably the best dirty humor on the net today. Even when the humor isn't dirty, it's usually excellent. Near-constant nudity and graphic depictions of sex.
  • Penny Arcade - (Updates 3/wk) - I'm not even really sure what this is about now. It used to be gaming/geek humor, now it's just an ongoing chronicle of Mike Krahulik's artistic regression.
  • PHD Comics - (Updates 3/wk) - My thrice-weekly affirmation that I made the right call not going to grad school.
  • Questionable Content (Updates ~1/day) A story about very flawed people making mistakes and learning to live with them. It's quirky, and can sometimes be anvilicious, but it's generally enjoyable so long as you don't interact with the fanbase.
  • Sandra and Woo - (Updates 3/wk) Originally started out as the story of a girl and her adopted pet racoon, got kinda unhinged and went all over the place. Humor ranges from dick and fart jokes to jokes about preferred programming structure. Often pushes the audience's comfort zone and/or gets heavy.
  • Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - (Updates 1/day) Comics about angry sociopaths in opaque glasses to illustrate life's inherent absurdity.
  • Scandinavia and the World - (Updates 1/wk) Each character depicts an entire nation, their interactions based upon how nations act toward one another historically. The thinking man's Polandball.
  • Supervillainous - (updates 3/wk) Drawn by our own Zappit, an excellent comic about a villain and the curveballs life throws him.
  • Table Titans - (Updates ~3/wk) Yet another story of D&D groups, and their characters. Decent reading though.
  • Taihen! - (Defunct 6 months) A german woman's perspective on video gaming and Japanese culture. I'd like it more if it didn't use Tapastic, I hate Tapastic's layout.
  • The Cummoner - (Updates 2/wk) Ok, full disclosure, this is just smut. All naked sex all the time, goopy splooshy nothing-forbidden porn comic, mostly centered around a young witch who loses control of her magic when she... yeah... and the problems that arise thereof.
  • Critical Miss - (Updates 2/wk) It's a comic about video games, and to a lesser degree, video game journalism, and to a somewhat-not-as-lesser degree, mental illness.
  • Three Word Phrase - (Defunct?) Absurdism from one of the artists who does Regular Show.
  • VG Cats (Updates ~1/mo) A dumb guy cat and an angry girl cat make video game jokes, infrequently.
  • Wilde Life - (Updates 3/wk) X-Files meets Eerie Indiana. A guy lives with a ghost from the 50s and has a teen werewolf for a reluctant friend. Everybody in town seems to have a secret.
  • XKCD - (Updates 3/wk) You know damn good and well what this is.
  • You Suck - (Updates ~4/mo) Yeah, this is pretty much just more smut. The life of a girl who adopts/is adopted by a succubus. They can't communicate well, so there's lots of misunderstandings.
 
Kez

Kez

GasBandit said:
I'm a big Oglaf fan, too, but Tin covered that, soooo..

Wilde Life http://www.wildelifecomic.com/
It's a bit of X-Files-meets-Eerie, Indiana. I just like that sort of thing.
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Wildelife is probably my FAVORITE comic right now, or at least tied to Gunnerkrigg Court (http://gunnerkrigg.com). My preference in comics is definitely towards long-form, urban (rural?) fantasy types. I can't get into gaming comics like PvP at all. I tried Homestuck...it was a giant NOPE.

Anyone read Demon of the Underground? (NSFW). Young guy with a mysterious tattoo, a ferret, and a telekinetic dick falls into the Underground--a world of murderers and thieves that is literally underground. It's damn amazing. And what could even beat that premise?

I also loooooove Firelight Isle. I have never seen such a beautiful comic. Like seriously, if you liked Paul Duffield's previous work (like FreakAngels, also NSFW, also something you should read), you will love this. A bit more fantasy, a lot of creepy culture and overbearing traditions, and two young people trying to buck the system. Maybe. I'm curious where it will go, but I just drool looking at the pages.
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Kez said:
Wildelife is probably my FAVORITE comic right now, or at least tied to Gunnerkrigg Court (http://gunnerkrigg.com). My preference in comics is definitely towards long-form, urban (rural?) fantasy types. I can't get into gaming comics like PvP at all. I tried Homestuck...it was a giant NOPE.
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Try Goblins. And maybe Dragon's Burn.

Anyone read Demon of the Underground? (NSFW). Young guy with a mysterious tattoo, a ferret, and a telekinetic dick falls into the Underground--a world of murderers and thieves that is literally underground. It's damn amazing. And what could even beat that premise?
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Indeed. I'll have to check that out.
 
Zappit

Zappit

Staff member
Nobody mentioned Atomic Robo? Written by Brian Clevinger and drawn by Scott Wegener, it's about the greatest creation of Nikola Tesla - a sentient robot built to continue his work after he passed. Robo was like a son, even going through a rebellious teenage phase. As an "adult", Robo has assisted the U.S. Government in many covert operations against its enemies through the decades.

Plus, the comic's hysterical.
 
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