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stoutfellowI'm a relative newcomer to the world of webcomics; it was only a few months ago that I began following one regularly, for the first time. Under the cut are some comments on the ones I'm currently following.
In no particular order:
1. "Partially Clips" was the first comic I began to read, after LanguageLog featured them a couple of times. This was the first one, but this was the one that hooked me. It's kind of hit-or-miss; it misfires (for my tastes) fairly often, but when it's on, it's on.
2. I'm not sure who brought Ozy and Millie to my attention, but I really enjoy it. It's at its best at its most lunatic, as in the storylines concerning Millie's father and Ozy's cousin-by-adoption Isobel. Still, it's Ms. Mudd who's my favorite, and she hasn't gotten enough play lately.
3. Like "Partially Clips", Two Lumps is on my friendslist. Sure, it's a fairly standard two-player schtick - the smart sarcastic guy and the fat dim guy - and the fact that they're cats doesn't make it all that much more original. Still, it's often hilarious. Snooch's recent Cthulhu imitation was glorious.
4. I was introduced to Schlock Mercenary a few weeks ago, and it's vaulted to the top of the list, as far as I'm concerned. The central characters, especially Schlock himself, are weird enough, and the more peripheral ones get meaty storylines from time to time as well. (I'm waiting for Shep to get his own arc; there's got to be something there!) Elf, who is one of my favorites, has been getting a good bit of attention lately. (One of my favorite bits was a while back, when she was given prosthetic legs after the fight in the wilderness preserve. The doctor was apologizing for the fact that they weren't a good fit, and explaining that it'd take a while for her to get used to them. Elf looks down and frowns, a bit thoughtfully. Then she raises her head, grins enormously, and says "I'm tall!" I just loved that last panel.)
5. The others that I have bookmarked all stem from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeriendhal's introducing me to WebSnark a little while back. Casey and Andy is rather self-satisfied, a lot of the time, but it's amusing enough that I keep following it. (The recent strip about Descartes pinged my math-history geekhood a bit; they got their facts a little bit wrong. I'll spare you that bit of pedantry.)
6. PvP is funny sometimes; the recent werewolf storyline was not bad, and - somewhat earlier - the arc about the pregnancy scare was rather touching. (That was the point at which I started reading the strip.) The humor gets rather gross at times, and in an adolescent way, which is something of a turnoff for me. That sort of thing can be done better.
7. And it is, in Questionable Content. I've been reading the archives of that one, and enjoying it a lot. There's occasional blue humor, but it never slips into the hur-hur-hur zone. The current storyline, involving Faye's backstory, is pretty grim, but it shows definite promise. The occasional references to indie-music and goth culture blow by me; I'm sure I miss a lot of inside jokes, but there's enough else going on that I can still enjoy it. The only real negative, for me, has to do with the sidebar commentary, which is sometimes a bit precious; it reminds me of nothing so much as the episode-ending voiceovers from the Adam West "Batman".
8. I've also been reading the archives of Something Positive, and I'm actually a little dismayed. Davan, for example, in his current incarnation, appeals to me somewhat, but his character in the earlier strips, three or four years ago, is distinctly unpleasant. In fact, that's true of almost all of the characters. I'm vaguely interested in seeing how they got from there to here, so I'll continue with the archives, but it's taken some of the shine off the series for me. (I do love Choo-Choo Bear, though.)
So. Does anyone have any nominations for other strips I should read? I know I ought to add "Girl Genius"; I've looked at it a couple of times, but haven't gotten around to bookmarking. (Foglio is a delight as a cartoonist. Anyone else remember the bear-festooned fountain in the TPB edition of Asprin's Little Myth Marker? I love that picture!) Anything else?
In no particular order:
1. "Partially Clips" was the first comic I began to read, after LanguageLog featured them a couple of times. This was the first one, but this was the one that hooked me. It's kind of hit-or-miss; it misfires (for my tastes) fairly often, but when it's on, it's on.
2. I'm not sure who brought Ozy and Millie to my attention, but I really enjoy it. It's at its best at its most lunatic, as in the storylines concerning Millie's father and Ozy's cousin-by-adoption Isobel. Still, it's Ms. Mudd who's my favorite, and she hasn't gotten enough play lately.
3. Like "Partially Clips", Two Lumps is on my friendslist. Sure, it's a fairly standard two-player schtick - the smart sarcastic guy and the fat dim guy - and the fact that they're cats doesn't make it all that much more original. Still, it's often hilarious. Snooch's recent Cthulhu imitation was glorious.
4. I was introduced to Schlock Mercenary a few weeks ago, and it's vaulted to the top of the list, as far as I'm concerned. The central characters, especially Schlock himself, are weird enough, and the more peripheral ones get meaty storylines from time to time as well. (I'm waiting for Shep to get his own arc; there's got to be something there!) Elf, who is one of my favorites, has been getting a good bit of attention lately. (One of my favorite bits was a while back, when she was given prosthetic legs after the fight in the wilderness preserve. The doctor was apologizing for the fact that they weren't a good fit, and explaining that it'd take a while for her to get used to them. Elf looks down and frowns, a bit thoughtfully. Then she raises her head, grins enormously, and says "I'm tall!" I just loved that last panel.)
5. The others that I have bookmarked all stem from
jeriendhal's introducing me to WebSnark a little while back. Casey and Andy is rather self-satisfied, a lot of the time, but it's amusing enough that I keep following it. (The recent strip about Descartes pinged my math-history geekhood a bit; they got their facts a little bit wrong. I'll spare you that bit of pedantry.)6. PvP is funny sometimes; the recent werewolf storyline was not bad, and - somewhat earlier - the arc about the pregnancy scare was rather touching. (That was the point at which I started reading the strip.) The humor gets rather gross at times, and in an adolescent way, which is something of a turnoff for me. That sort of thing can be done better.
7. And it is, in Questionable Content. I've been reading the archives of that one, and enjoying it a lot. There's occasional blue humor, but it never slips into the hur-hur-hur zone. The current storyline, involving Faye's backstory, is pretty grim, but it shows definite promise. The occasional references to indie-music and goth culture blow by me; I'm sure I miss a lot of inside jokes, but there's enough else going on that I can still enjoy it. The only real negative, for me, has to do with the sidebar commentary, which is sometimes a bit precious; it reminds me of nothing so much as the episode-ending voiceovers from the Adam West "Batman".
8. I've also been reading the archives of Something Positive, and I'm actually a little dismayed. Davan, for example, in his current incarnation, appeals to me somewhat, but his character in the earlier strips, three or four years ago, is distinctly unpleasant. In fact, that's true of almost all of the characters. I'm vaguely interested in seeing how they got from there to here, so I'll continue with the archives, but it's taken some of the shine off the series for me. (I do love Choo-Choo Bear, though.)
So. Does anyone have any nominations for other strips I should read? I know I ought to add "Girl Genius"; I've looked at it a couple of times, but haven't gotten around to bookmarking. (Foglio is a delight as a cartoonist. Anyone else remember the bear-festooned fountain in the TPB edition of Asprin's Little Myth Marker? I love that picture!) Anything else?
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no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 01:41 am (UTC)Sluggy Freelance (http://www.sluggy.com) is a classic, though it's certainly been spotty lately. Some of the recent storylines have been ponderous and highly focused on individuals, rather than the ensemble, which tends to be more enjoyable.
Penny Arcade (http://www.penny-arcade.com) is vulgar and funny and dedicated to the subject of video games, for the most part. It also lacks any sort of continuity, but for a handful of strips here and there. Familiarity with the video game world is immensely helpful, but not always necessary.
Starslip Crisis (http://www.starslipcrisis.com) is a fairly new webcomic, about a traveling art gallery in space.
Those are the ones that I read regularly. User Friendly (http://www.userfriendly.org) was my entry into webcomics, way way back in the day. Very much all about the Open Source movement, though there are plenty of nice pop culture references. I just got kinda bored with it.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 08:20 am (UTC)The other comic I started reading online was Dilbert, but naturally that's not really a webcomic. (The only comic besides QC I am strongly attached to is Doonesbury)
You're already reading Questionable Content, which is my most recent discovery/obsession. So funny, and while the most recent bit has been disturbing, I hope it will be a good piece of character development (Faye was a little weak when her core role was punching Marten in the arm.).
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Date: 2005-12-08 02:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 01:47 am (UTC)It's Walky!/Roomies (http://www.itswalky.com) is ... a weird little study in how a one-off joke about alien abduction turns into a massive and largely self-contained storyline. What amazed me was how the author managed to retcon some of the smallest details into major plot points late in the tale. I thought it was crazy good science fantasy. Since the end of the Big Story, it's scaled back down into basically a two character strip, more focused on humor than big ol' honkin' stories.
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Date: 2005-12-08 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 01:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 03:42 am (UTC)I've been trapped in its archives trying to get the back story down...and shaking my head saying "This is my life."
Good list.
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Date: 2005-12-08 06:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 09:27 am (UTC)I've just read the whole thing from the beginning since I've been sitting at home -- love it!
and put it on my friendslist as:
no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 07:23 am (UTC)Anyway, a couple more:
Freefall (link: http://freefall.purrsia.com/) : Freefall covers the adventures of Sam, an alien with kleptomania and his own starship, his robot sidekick Helix, and Florence, a genetically engineered "Bowman's Wolf" who serves as theirship's engineer (and whom they acquirred under false pretenses). Like Schlock Mercenary it's a Hard Science sci-fi strip. Unlike Schlock it's bit a more deconstructed. The story has been running for about five years now, and I think tehcincally covers just a couple of weeks in realtime. But it's consistently funny, occasionally quite sweet, and never forgets the details.
Terinu (link: www.terinu.net): This one is also sci-fi, but in a more Space Opera mode, and done in comic book format (dead trees edition are availible). I actually find it vaguely similar to Joan D. Vinge's "Catspaw" books, with a little bit of Robert Heinlien thrown in. It's about Terinu, a young alien boy who apparently is the last of his species, and somehow is at the center of a brewing intergalactic war. I know that sounds terribly trite, but the story is well-written, the characters are fun and self-consistent, and Peta's artwork is gorgeous.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 11:11 am (UTC)A Miracle of Science (link: http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/): The concept is similar to Girl Genius. Instead of The Spark, many scientists suffer from Science Related Memetic Disorder (SRMD), which has similar effects (though without the Instant Gadgeteering advantage.) The story follows Benjamin Prester, a member of the Vorstellen Police (dedicated to tracking SRMD sufferers), and his partner Caprice Quevillion, a citizen of Mars and member of the very powerful (though not omnipotent) Martian group mind, as they track a certain Dr. Haas though the Solar System, trying to stop his plan to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
As you can probably guess, the comic doesn't take itself overly seriously, but it's got good characterization, and a pretty good storyline. Benjamin and Caprice have their work cut out for them, and the world that's presented, with it's mix of old fashioned pulp action and Transhumanism, is quite fun.
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Date: 2005-12-08 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 09:28 am (UTC)Oh, and thanks, the timing is great! I finished reading the librarian one and was just thinking that I had to go find more to read through while I'm sitting at home resting. :-)
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Date: 2005-12-08 03:26 pm (UTC)Evil, Inc
Legostar Galactica
Irregular Webcomic
Pibgorn
no subject
Date: 2005-12-08 04:33 pm (UTC)http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
And Count Your Sheep
http://www.countyoursheep.com/
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Date: 2005-12-08 05:30 pm (UTC)And for gaming silliness, Order of the Stick (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript).