What webcomics do you read?

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Jabroniville
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What webcomics do you read?

Post by Jabroniville »

And which ones did you USED to read?

I think my longest-term one is Something*Positive, which is kind of a weird "Slice of Life" strip that goes in weird directions. As a general rule, the characters are all snarky and rude, but most of them get in trouble for it, so it's not as bad as some people say (it has a rep for over-using the "Straw Man makes Idiotic Argument and gets shot down" trope). It used to be much funnier and a bit more poignant, and I think the writer has lost a lot of steps over the years, just in terms of making things coherent or steady- SO MANY THINGS get dropped as he just forgets about them or never uses them. And a lot of really wonderful characters have dropped over the years.

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Questionable Content: It was really, REALLY good for a while, and I can still read the "100-1000" strips and enjoy them because of the characterization and their interactions- it was a really fun strip that kind of reminded me of what being in your early 20s was like. But after a point, it kind of got obsessed with certain goofy things, and there was way too much preaching about "inclusion" (usually centered around the Robots, which used to be a kind of "Mundane Fantastic" thing that people just ignored and treated like normal, but are not this major thing with civil rights and whatever), and most importantly, the writer gets a "new favorite" every year or so, which results in the complete jettisoning of the rest of the cast. Seriously, in the early days we had a lot of Raven the lovable dope... only for her to disappear completely as new girls showed up. Marigold became a big recurring character, taking over the strip for a year or two with her "dorky awkward girl" antics... only to fall off the face of the Earth when the New Girls showed up from Smif College. And then Claire took over the strip for a while, and now it's all obsessed with the Giant Robot Girl.

---

"GUYS! Come quick! I found the son of a bitch who invented comic sans!"

Overall, I think Achewood is still the best one ever written. It's hard to describe to people, and harder still to get people into (the rallying cry of the Achewood fandom is "My friends still don't get it"), but it's one of the funniest, most well-thought-out, entirely insane things I've ever read. Absolutely fantastic stuff, though the writer is flat-out insane to the point where he disappears into his own insecurities a lot of the time, and so the schedule has been very sporadic. The Great Outdoor Fight is legendary for good reason, but the epic rants the characters get into is an even bigger reason to read.
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by MissRo »

The only webcomic I follow right now is Oglaf. It's a bit raunchy at times but I'm a child and it speaks to my sense of humor. It doesn't exist online anymore (that I can find, anyways) but there was a webcomic called Dead Paddy Murphy that I was obsessed with for years. It was based on this song that's very famous here, and teetered back and forth between comedy and drama better then most webcomics I've read.
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Batgirl III
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Batgirl III »

Order of the Stick
Not the first D&D inspired webcomic, but one of the best and with one of the most consistent levels of quality ever. All done in stick figures.

XKCD
Sarcasm, math, sarcasm, science, computers, and more sarcasm. Also stick figures.

Oglaf (NSFW)
Sex jokes in a pseudo-D&D world. Had a plot once, now it's pretty much just sex jokes. Very much not stick figures.

Oh Joy, Sex-Toy (NSFW)
Semi-educational stuff on sexual health, reviews of various mechanical devices for your naughty bits tingle, and the occasional bit of furry porn from guest artists.

Day by Day
Think of it as Doonesberry from a conservative/libertarian point of view... But with T&A.

Non-Adventures of Wonderella
Exactly what it says on the tin. It's a superhero comic without any superheroics.
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FuzzyBoots
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Superhero comics:
Grrl Power - Slight deconstructed view of superheroes, but it's from someone who clearly loves the genre
League Of Super Redundant Heroes - Humor comic based on deconstruction and ridiculous character.To give an idea, the man character is Lazer Pony, who can shoot lasers out of his eyes but blinded himself the first time he did it, so his aim is often, and he pals up with Good Girl, who was the result of a senile priest accidentally exorcising someone who was genuinely good, making her super-good. The mayor is an alien conqueror who reluctantly accepted the job when the former mayor immediately surrendered.
Sidekick Girl - Val is the extremely competent sidekick to Illuminia in a world where your looks are a major factor in whether you're a hero or a sidekick, and both heroes and villains have unions. Surprisingly enough, very little deconstruction happens.
Evil Inc - Spinoff of Brad Guigar's Greystone Inn, it follows the misadventures of a literally evil corporation. Technically speaking, the current continuity is a soft reboot of the series due to the Ruby of Ragnoor being used to reboot reality. A lot of deconstruction and horrible puns. The author/artist is also branching into adult comics based on the characters available via Patreon.
Evil Plan - Alice Evanson works for Dr. Kinesis, a supervillain. She finds that she enjoys the challenge of the work and starts falling for him.
The Specialists - In World War II, the Nazis have magic-based super-soldiers. The allies oppose them with the survivors of experiments into nuclear energy and other branches of science. Explores how a small number of super-powered individuals does more for propaganda purposes than for actually winning wars. Also doesn't shy away with how casually racist and sexist the United States was back then.
Magellan - Fairly standard piece following a school for superpowered individuals including Kaycee, one of the first students without powers. There are humorous bits, but it's played very straight in-universe.
PS238 - Superpowered elementary school students. Worth reading.
Our Super Mom - What happens when your Superman analogue is also a wife and a husband of two.
Mind Mistress - Slightly stiff and sketchy art quality, but it kind of explores what someone with superhuman intelligence might wind up like.
Atomic Laundromat - The main character has no powers (but his siblings do) and runs a laundromat for superheros and super-villains. Hilarity ensues.
Super Stupor - One of Randy Mulholland's side-projects that he occasionally dips back to. Dark humor just like Something Positive, but also some compelling characters.
Strong Female Protagonist - Allison Greene is basically Silver Age Superman in a world where people were randomly empowered by a series of storms, largely with less extreme powers. The thing is, her main villain, Menace, managed to convince her that punching robots really is doing nothing to save the world (and he's basically right), so she's trying to find another path, constantly having to fight the temptation to solve her problems through force.
Empowered - Technically speaking, the posting online of print comics. Long story short, Empowered follows a girl who gains a super-suit that gives her immense strength, but only when whole, and its durability is based on her confidence, which is paper-thin. The result of the artist writing up a lot of bondage commissions, it's become its own thing with some surprisingly moving storylines.
JL8 - DC characters as elementary schoolers. Very entertaining stuff.
Gregor - This is an odd one. Gregor is a Liefeld-esque grey alien with extreme strength and invulnerability. He did superheroics, but is now trying to live a relatively normal life, but keeps getting pulled into shenanigans like the Vaude-villains trying to get ahold of Oswald the Rabbit, or a supervillain team comprised of David Bowie impersonators attacking the mall where he is. It's entertaining stuff. Some of his backstory finally got revealed, recently, with the arrival of his mother. Fair warning, the comic involves some female toplessness at times.

Other webcomics:
Freefall - A fairly hard sci-fi comic despite featuring as its main characters Sam Starfall, a larcenous squid in a human suit, Florence, his uplifted wolf engineer, and Helix, the none-too-bright robot. It's got plenty of gags, a fair amount of satire, and a very serious storyline about what it means to be human when you may not actually be human. I highly advise the reader app as there are literally thousands of strips.
Sluggy Freelance - One of the true long-runners. It's been all over the place from drama to humor to weird combinations of both. It's not always consistently amusing, but Pete actually has some amazingly intricate plotlines.
El Goonish Shive - Weird mix of transformation fetishes, wacky humor, and gender politics that nonetheless just works for a lot of people. Generally on the silly side of things.
Poppy O'Possum - In a land of funny talking animals and abundant magic, Poppy is one of the species of opossum in the world who lack magic entirely. She can't benefit from magic and in fact can disrupt it by touching it. She's also very, very strong and has a good heart. A lot of exploration of prejudice and a lot of good character-building.
Paranatural - Max and his family move to Mayview, a bucolic but colorful town. He quickly finds out that ghosts and spirits exist and gets involved in the Activity Club, a group of students that help control the spirit population. Much to Max's frustration, the world seems to operate on anime logic, and it's ambiguous as to whether the residents of the town are so weird because of the ghosts, or that the ghosts were attracted to them.
Goblins - Starts off as yet another D&D deconstruction comic. It's become its own thing. Takes some very dark turns about how "adventurers" might appear to the monsters they hunt down.
Girl Genius - Long-running Foglio comic and webcomic set in an alternate Europe populated by mad inventors including Agatha Heterodyne and her crew. Absolutely stunning artwork and deep plot combined with the usual Foglio gags.
Erma - Erma is basically the child of Sadako from The Ring and a normal guy. She has tremendous horrific powers, but is also a young girl who likes to play with her friends.
Ménage à Trois, Sticky Dilly Buns, and Sandra on the Rocks - Sex comedies, all of them, but amusingly done. Generally relatively work-safe.
Monsterkind - Monsters exist as second-class citizens. Wallace Foster is a social worker sent to tend to them. Something sinister is looming in the background of the world, and it's made clear that the monsters are constrained to their ghettoes as much to protect them from humans as anything, but there's also a lot of humor.
O Human Star - Alastair Sterling sterling died before seeing the robot revolution he spawned. Except now he's woken up to find his mind in a robot body with no knowledge of who put him there. Complicating matters, his business and romantic partner, who continued his ideas, is raising a robot with Alastair's personality matrix who has decided to be a girl.
Schlock Mercenary - Space opera. Consistently good, and published daily since June 12, 2000.
Sandra and Woo - A girl and her talking raccoon in an increasingly surreal world.
Kevin and Kell - Fairly formulaic comic in a world populated by animals who still participate in predator and prey with rules. It's enjoyable enough to check in every day.
Flaky Pastry - Pretty silly fantasy webcomic set in a vaguely RPG universe.

Ones already mentioned:
Order of the Stick, Questionable Content, Oglaf, XKCD.

It sounds like a lot of comics, but most update only once or twice a week, some more irregularly. If I started into ones I used to read, I could be here all night. I've been reading webcomics for somewhere around 17 years now.
Last edited by FuzzyBoots on Fri Mar 17, 2017 3:09 am, edited 3 times in total.
Jabroniville
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Jabroniville »

Yeah, Wonderella, Oglaf and The Order of the Stick are all awesome. TOOTS is one of the best fantasty-type stories I've ever read, and actually has some phenomenal world-building in it, especially the whole Azure City/Sapphire Guard thing (such a simple thing to stick "everyone's in blue" and "it's like Asia, sort of" in one thing like that, but it just CLICKS, you know?). I hear tell that Burlew was actually the #2 placing guy behind the dude who invented Eberron as the new D&D Campaign World, and it shows.

I feel kinda bad I got so far behind on my Order reading, but the iffy posting schedule made me forget more and more often to check back, so it's been a while since I've read through everything.

Wonderella is one I oddly always enjoy, but never check back constantly. Was it really weekly for all that time? I've read some AWESOME gags in that ("It's so gay it EATS OUT EVERY NIGHT!" "Honey, it's time to get wonderful!" *aggressively tongues her fingers in a V in her mother's general direction). Possibly the best is "Find me a song by the Decembrists! But not a pretentious one!" "FILE NOT FOUND!", then she slam-dunks the Flag Pole in Mario 1. Just cuz.
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Ares
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Ares »

Webcomics I'm currently reading:

Unsounded - A pretty cool take on a fantasy world with it's own fleshed out mythology, complex characters, ongoing mysteries, and a functional magical system with actual rules. Very fun, very well drawn, albeit, also VERY gory at times.

Atomic Robo - A sentient robot developed by Nikola Tesla spends 100 years fighting evil government conspiracies, giant nazi brains in robot bodies, crazed sentient superscience velociraptors, eldritch abominations from outside of time and space, kaiju, alternate universes filled with vampires, and even more weirdness. Oh, and he was trained by Bruce Lee. If there was anything about those last two sentences you didn't like, I don't want to be friends with you.

Order of the Stick - Like Batgirl said, one of the best D&D inspired webcomics out there.

Goblins - Not as good as OotS, but still fun and well drawn. Basically, what happens if a bunch of Goblins (in a world where they aren't All Chaotic Evil) take adventuring classes. The result is some interesting stories, and one of the better examples of a Paladin in fiction.

Girl Genius - Phil Foglio's long running comic filled with steampunk adventures and buxom women. Pretty good, but a HEAVY investment and has a lot to keep track of.

Dragonball Multiverse - A fun but dumb comic about a big multiversal tournament, allowing for unique match ups in DBZ lore. Fun, but the art is sometimes inconsistent, and the writers own fan theories sometimes can overwhelm the plot, and he has a tendency to focus on his own homemade heroes.

PS238 - A superhero web comic that is, frankly, more fun than a lot of actual superhero comics out right now.

The Perry Bible Fellowship - Fun 'Gag a day' comic with often dark twists. Kind of a more morbid Farside.

Zen Pencils - Artist takes quotes from philosophers, scientists, politicians and celebrities and makes a comic around them. Good stuff for the most part, if a little preachy at times.

Comics I use to read that I no longer follow.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, MD - A fun, very tongue in cheek adventure about an Irish Ninja Doctor. Lots of weirdness, but pretty fun. Recently ended, but still recommended.

Love and Capes - A superhero romance/comedy/adventure comic that shows that superheroes being in long term relationships does NOT actually suck the life out of it, or just suck period. It completed its run, and is still recommended.

Last Days of Foxhound - A strip poking fun at the Metal Gear series. It completed its run, but is still recommended.

Sinfest - Use to be a pretty fun web-comic that went on to develop its characters in interesting, often sweet ways. And then the writer went nuts, has pretty much destroyed most of the beloved characters and uses the comic as a platform to preach about the evils of men and the current government. Still going, and I can't recommend it.

Short Packed - I gave this comic a try for a while, but eventually it just grated on me. The writer constantly uses straw men to argue against, a lot of his arguments are bizarre at times, and the cast became a pretty large group of unlikable douche-bags. The main character is this semi-crazy loon who basically gets away with doing annoying and stupid things because she's 'quirky'. Has apparently ended its run, and I can't recommend it.
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Death Tribble
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Death Tribble »

Regularly Order of the Stick and PvP. I started out as a D+D player so the former just ticks all the buttons.
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Doctor Malsyn »

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It's much easier to just post the bookmarks list. ;P I notice that a few of these comics are read by some of you peopl too, which I find pretty neat. Also some comics ya'll read that I at least used to read. Stopped over the years for various reasons, a couple I'm more glad were dropped then others. PVP is one I regret that fell out of my comics tab, as it was the first webcomic I've ever read, but I admit that I only really understood half the storylines so I figured it was time for a change. As for the ones I don't regret... I'm not even going to start on those ones.
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Jabroniville
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Jabroniville »

For smutty webcomics, I think Sexy Losers still stands head and shoulders above the rest. While it's drawn nowhere near as well as Oglaf (DAT SNOW QUEEN!!! I'd risk emasculation for some o' THAT!), it has some of the best jokes I've ever read in webcomics. And every story arc is just so WRONG yet so PERFECT:

Kenta's Horny Mom: A teenage boy and his MILFy mother... who constantly wants to have sex with him. The creator later did a gag strip that reversed the genders, playing into the fact that despite "it's the SAME JOKE!" it is now SUPER-horrifying and punch-worthy.

That guy with the girlfriend from a coprophagiac family, who is constantly upset that he won't eat her feces.

The guy who was pathologically obsessed with masturbation. And his sister, with the same issue.
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Batgirl III
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Batgirl III »

Is that strip still around? I started reading it when I'd was still fairly new and called The Thin H Line.

Fun fact, it is this comic that is considered to be the source of "fap" as the onomatopoeia for masturbation. Peanuts and Beetle Bailey will never have that kind of cultural impact.

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Jabroniville
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Jabroniville »

Batgirl III wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2017 6:38 am Is that strip still around? I started reading it when I'd was still fairly new and called The Thin H Line.

Fun fact, it is this comic that is considered to be the source of "fap" as the onomatopoeia for masturbation. Peanuts and Beetle Bailey will never have that kind of cultural impact.


"Moon Power Make-Up! Moon Power Make-Up!"
The guy stopped due to "carpal tunnel syndrome", but produced a few more comics after the fact. I don't think it's still actively being updated, and the guy seemed to have run out of ideas near the end.

Huh- here's a thing about why he considers it a failure: https://blog.claycomix.com/posts/on-the ... xy-losers/

It's, uh, super-depressing. Too bad that it never made money- this was the era before someone could just post that thing on any number of graphic websites and get money from commissions & patreon over it.

And yep- it was the first time I'd ever seenthe term "Fap!", and it seemed PERFECT. Quick, to the point, and immediately recognizable, which is probably why it took off so quickly. Sadly, "Schlick!" hasn't had the same appeal over the years, but is just as good. Only Archer topped it, with "Sploosh", though that one more accurately reflects the... END of the operation.
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L-Space
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by L-Space »

Order of the Stick: For the reasons already stated. Thog is the greatest ever
Table Titans: Actually has 2 D&D based webcomic on this site. One where it follows a couple campaigns switching between players and characters. And Binwin's Winions following an experienced Adventurer with party of 1st level kids who Binwin has to constantly get rezzed.
Oglaf (NSFW): Also already mentioned, but wanted to note my personal favorite strip Labyrinth.
Penny Arcade: Dealing with video games and various other geeky items. Have been a bit more hit or miss with me lately.
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Gamebook
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Gamebook »

I read a lot of the same ones other people have mentioned. Ones I follow that haven't been mentioned so far:

Diesel Sweeties: Sarcastic pixel characters going head-to-head in a world of coffee, porn and robots.

Dumbing of Age: Dave Willis' current comic, reusing many of his characters from earlier strips of his but in a college setting with fewer fantastic elements.

Misfile: Gender bending strip but which spends more time on car racing and angels from heaven messing with mortal lives than the agony of the protagonist coping with an unwanted and practically irreversible sex change.

Two Guys and Guy: Surreal and dark humor about two weird men and an evil girl. Made by the same people who do League of Super-Redundant Heroes.

Leftover Soup: Another young people slice-of-life comic but with a lot of philosophical musing, sex and boardgames. Has an overall arc which is drawing to a close.

Bloomin' Faeries!: NSFW comedy sex webcomic with an emphasis on decidedly non-PC sex scenes.

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: A very good webcomic about retired macho badasses and the staff of the temp agency that finds them work. Features loads of video game references and cameos but is not a gaming comic, all the guest characters such as Kratos are depicted as real in universe.

Curvy: Modern-fantasy sex webcomic. The most explicit webcomic I read, making no effort at censorship. Has a rambling overall plot that is nearing climax.

The Noob: Comic set in an MMORPG, from the perspectives of the various players and staff of the game. Has not updated for some time.

Think Before You Think: Comic about a person who can effortlessly read minds, but only uses it to help himself and his friends out with their romantic relationships.

Shiniez: Comic by Croation comic-book artist Stjepan Sejic about love and kinky bondage sex.

The Adventures of Gyno-Star: Comic about a feminist superhero fighting various sexist and otherwise discriminatory supervillains, and many of her fellow superheroes who are almost as bad.

Dasien: A very straight comic about a young superheroine and her developing career as a superhero. Interest added by her lesbian best friend who is in love with her but cannot admit it or even her orientation to her.

Everyday Heroes: Comic about a superhero family and their life being superpowered in the suburbs. The artist has been struggling to update in the last couple of years.

Spinnerette: A webcomic which is more like a regular comic about a young Spider-Man expy and her struggle to be a good superhero, with the aid of her superhero friends.

Superbitch: Comic about a superheroine who is, basically, a bitch. Currently on indefinite hiatus.


I have done builds for many of the superhero comics characters in my build thread.
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by FuzzyBoots »

Gamebook wrote: Tue Jan 31, 2017 12:49 am Everyday Heroes: Comic about a superhero family and their life being superpowered in the suburbs. The artist has been struggling to update in the last couple of years.
Started back up!

That reminds me. That Deaf Guy is a good comic, albeit with somewhat esoteric updates and it hasn't updated for a while.
Jabroniville
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Re: What webcomics do you read?

Post by Jabroniville »

Man, it's hilarious how similar the blog/comments sections on the political comics are. Both the Conservative ones Batgirl mentioned, and the Liberal ones others have mentioned... it's basically long streams of insulting joke-names towards the other side, Strawman Arguments, and childish put-downs of people who aren't even there- the "Echo Chambers" that people so deride these days. Reminds me of why I never get into political scraps, or take the side of one "Wing" anymore. The comics are at least well-written and seem fun.

Though this topic kinda reminds me of the time when I was reading TONS of webcomics in my daily routine. I'd check Something*Positive, Questionable Content, Penny & Aggie (SO GOOD before it went into the "T Campbell is a freaking weirdo who writes murder plots and fever-dreams into what was basically "More-adult Archie" and "Lisa the Most Annoying Meme-Generator Ever"), the Queen of Wands "Rapid-Fire Reruns" and more, then do things like Archive Crawl through Achewood and The Order of the Stick. Nowadays I seem to have cut webcomics out entirely, only doing month-long Archive Crawls these days. The OOTS gang seems to have jumped in Level rather suddenly, as they didn't seem that tough in the "Desert/Elan's Father" arc, and are now wiping out Frost Giants. I'm also not a fan of the new "flesh-colored stick hand" art style.

Also, for posterity, the single-greatest Achewood comic of all time: http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07312006

The first panel of the third line remains the hardest I have ever laughed at anything, ever. I was DYING. I wish it was easier to "sell" people on this weird, F-d up comic.
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