
Web comic awareness
Posted in
Off TopicThe pitiful turn out of webcomic customs really disappointed me. While you can dig for an eternity through cr@p comics, a number of gems do exist on the web, some far superior to their printed counter parts.
I have made it my duty to bring these great comics to your attention and hopefully inspire you for fresher custom ideas.
I will rutinly add more webcomics to this list and others are free to do so as well.
The first comic I would like to show you is Ozy and Millie, a long running strip about two elementery school children who have to go through the riggers of school bullies, cliches, the Dot Com bubble of the 90's, insanity, internatinal inccedents and politics. The strip is well drawn and very funny, with the art style evolving over the years it has run. Sadly, D.C. Simpson has chosen to end the comic this year, feeling that she should give the characters the ending they deserve while she still can, but will still draw the occasinal strip afterward's.
Ozy and Millie can be found at
http://www.ozyandmillie.org By the way, did I mention Ozy's dad is Dragon? Yeah, didn't think so.
Jack is another long running comic with a much darker and far more violent tone. Following the story of the tituilar character, Jack who has been cursed to act as both the Grim Reaper and the imbodement of the Sin Wrath for his actions in life, but by far, the greatest punishment he recives in Hell is the inability to remember what he did.
Plagued by his brother sins, predominatly Drip Rat who is the Sin Lust, Jack must battle his own nature and give guidence to an innocent soul placed in his care, Fnar. The strip is very violent, contains nudity, sex, harsh language, suicide, murder, and pychological horror. If you hadn't guessed it yet, it is NOT SAFE FOR WORK!
Because of this, you will have to PM me to get the adress or find it yourself.
Kevin and Kell is one of the oldest webcomics still running. It follows the lives of the Dewclaw family, a rather bizzare collection of souls. Kevin Dewclaw met Kell Dewclaw over the web after his marrige fell apart and found out an odd thing about Kell. She was a wolf. Kevin is a rabbit. See the problem? However, the power of love over comes many things, including the stomach. The two married and their children met. Rudy Dewclaw, Kell's son from her previous marrige and Lindesfarne Dewclaw, Kevin's adopted hedgehog duaghter from his previous marrige.
This odd family comes together to form a funny, dramatic and fasinating story as they struggle to overcome prejeiduce, sickness, and discovering a startiling secret about the nature of their world.
Kevin and Kell can be found at
http://www.kevinandkell.com
Sluggy Freelance is another long running webcomic starring Rip and Torg along with their friends and homicidle mini-lop Bun-bun.
Just go read it! Read it now!
http://www.sluggy.com
Twisted Kaiju Theater is a photographic comic that uses Godzilla action figures for characters. Hilarious, rude, crude, graphic and utterly unapalogetic, TKT is a hilarious read. However, it is not safe for work do to some raccy content. This is not approret for minors or work. Because some content could be considered pornographic, you will have to PM me to get the adress or find it yourself, I'm just making reading suggestions!
Penny Arcade is one of the most well known webcomics featuring mostly gaming humor.
http://www.penny-arcade.com
Dandy and company is a very funny and heart warming comic staring Dandy Dog and Bernard which switches focus between prank wars, water ballon fights, romance, time travel and epic cosmic quests to save the universe and the fabric of reality. I can't kid you here folks! This strip is well drawn and family friendly but is not just for kids with a lot of jokes that might fly over their heads.
DaC can be found at
http://www.dandyandcompany.com
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Looking for Group is a great comic that paradoies D&D and World of Warcraft conventions while doing it's own, well written story. Don't feel like giving long explanations of the comics right now so live with it. LfG can be found at http://www.lfgcomic.com/
No Room For Magic is another webcomic by the guy who does Count Your Sheep and Wisdom of Moo, so you know it's well written and funny. Find it at noroomformagic.keenspot.com
Daisy is Dead about Daisy. She is dead. Hence the title. As a zombie, Daisy must make her was in the world with the rules now changed. Once able to get by with good looks, her new undead state hampers that so she is forced to rely on a fellow zombie, a hippie chick that loves everything and her boyfriend, Sexy Mike Flowerbed. Yes that is his name. Daisy is dead can be found at http://www.daisyisdead.net
A Skewed Paradise, equal parts sci-fi and awesome. The normal set up of normal town meets with strange happenings creates was is so far a fun webcomic. Find it at http://www.aspcomics.net/
Freefall is a long running sci-fi comic staring Sam Starfall an lieing, theiving, conartist alien spaceship captain if a cute blue enviromental suit. Not that he apprently needs it. It's actuall because he's a horrifiying squid like alien that cause emotional truama to anyone who actually see's what he looks like. Yeah, not a good guy but still lovable and tends to hit a few soft spots of loyalty and compassion. The other characters are Helix, a robot with the mentality of a ten year old who is still utterly lovable and Florance Amborse, a geneticly enginered sentient called a "Bowman's Wolf" after her creater Dr. Bowman as the ship's enginer who was placed on Sam's ship do to a clerical error. Or perhaps it was the case of whiskey he used to brid them with. Who knows? Anyway, the strip is well drawn and has some great, well rounded characters and interesting plot's. For a sci-fi webcomic, Freefall has actuall packed in a lot of hard science with just enough outlandishness to not be totally dull. Freefall can be found at http://freefall.purrsia.com/
Awkward Zombie is a favorite of mine. It's a gaming comic that usually stars the cast of the Super Smash Brothers series but ventures into other games like World of Warcraft. http://www.awkwardzombie.com/
And that's about it. Enjoy!
Daisy Owl is a witty strip about Daisy and Cooper Owl, the adopted children of Mr. Owl, a real owl. The strip is done in a simplistic style but does not lack charm. The script is almost always clever and has very tangible characters. It's still fairly young so you can get caught up very quickly. Their is some drug use and other material that may not be right for the younger set but nothing that should get you fired.
Daisy Owl can be found at http://www.daisyowl.com
The Wisdom of Moo is set in a world where toys are alive and sentient entities and done by the same guy who does Counting Sheep so that should clue you into what it is like. The story is a coming of age tale and the importance of making sure to never forget your friends, even if they happen to be talking stuffed animals and baby dolls. The Wisdom of Moo can be found at http://wisdomofmoo.keenspot.com/
Catena Manor is a great comic. Imagine this: a girl obssessed the the victorian era style dress moves into a house populated by: a wanna-be mad scientist predator, his younger 80's obsesed sister, a vain but helpful angel, a surfer dude in co-consperacy with the wanna-be mad scientist, another angel with a crush on the grim reaper, the "beautiful and nows it b@tch queen land lord, and the FREAKING GRIM REAPER. Did I mention the tarantula that plots the conquest of the world inbetween riding on My Little Ponys? No, I don't think I did! Go to http://www.catenamanor.com/index.php for insanity at it's best!
Snafu-Comics is a website that hosts numerous comics, including the titular Snafu. Most of the comics can get pretty raunchy, so beware. Three comics I most recomend are Grim Tales From Down Below, a fan comic leaping several decades/centuries ahead after the end of the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (and possible of Bleedman's other fan comic the Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi a mega-crossover comic that has pretty much every great cartoon character from shows that Cartoon Network axed long before their time) Staring Grim Juinor and his sister Mini, the children of Grim and Mandy (it's a very long and very disturbing story that involves an aborted fetus so don't ask). The comic is drawing to a close after a long hiatus, but don't worry to much about that. The art is cartoony and at times disturbing due to the imagery such as characters being smashed and torn to bits by unstoppable kill-machines and other rather creepy topics. The storyline starts off a seemingly about sibling rivalry, Grim Jr. being the rather average and unremarkable heir to the title of Grim Reaper and Mini being an all to perfect overachiever but quickly does a 180 and goes down the very dark path I mentioned above. Another comic from Snafu is Brain Dead, a very new comic by Nick Touptighttogivealastname and stars Zack who wakes up one morning in hsi girlfriends shirt, hoping for a bright new day, opens the blinds...and finds a zombie apocalypse. Hilarty insues. The last is Suger Bites. I don't feel like describing it to you, so just go to the site and read them. Keep in mind, some material may be inappropreate for minors. You can find them and others at http://www.snafu-comics.com
And now, I shall take my leave and find some more comics that are at least halfway decent. I hate you all.
The first is a rather new comic with only 53 or so comics in its archive on the date of this posting. Cantrip the Magic Rabbit follows the story of Goldie Flutter and her collection of friends as the mystery of Candice a rabbit that was found alone in an abandoned house over the Summer and the motivations behind the strange Vulture Dr. Tripp who took Candice into his care slowly unravel. Goldie herself is a small local celebirty due to her having stared in a number of commercials for her family's car dealership and would much sooner put the experiance of making them behind her, if the townsfolk would let her. Other characters include Parker Ames IV, a very intelligent Prairie Dog with a crush on Goldie that she is oblivous too, and...hmm jeez, there are a lot of characters. How about we move on? The artwork is great and cartoony with a stylized flair to it that makes me love it all the more. The comic has gotten a G rating on the site it's hosted on, so it's relitivly family friendly.
Cantrip the Magic Rabbit can be found at http://www.lancaster-comic.com/cantrip/wordpress/
The next comic is No Rest For the Wicked. Undoubtedly, you have read or seen a twisted take on a fairytale before and this follows much in the same vein, using characters inspired by classic fairytales like The Princess and the Pea, Puss in Boots, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Girl Without Hands. Staring in this twisted tale is November, who is inspired by the Princess from The Princess and the Pea. November is perhaps the most unfortunate Princess ever, having a terrible alergy to peas, bruises like a bannana and a strange curse that causes a frog to leap from her mouth whenever she says the word "altruistic". After the moon vanished from the nights sky, November has yet to gain a nights sleep which is definatly her worst affliction. Told that if she can find the moon, she can finally sleep again, she sets out on a journey and mets a collection of strange characters. Perrault (Puss in Boots) , a sneaky catman and master manipulator that had used his skills to bring himself and his master up to a noble standing and chose to follow November, curious of her quest and driven by a love of travel. Red (Little Red Riding Hood) is a strange and terrifying girl who lived alone in her grandmothers cabin the wolf infested woods. She claims that the wolves disappeared after the moon vanished, however, countless wolf pelts line the walls of the cabin. Rarly seen without her axe and often gathering flowers, she has taken an intrest in November and joined her on her journey, but is deeply distrustful of Perrault who is two things she hates above all else: a flesh eating animal and talking flesh eating animal. Finally there is Clare, a woman with a convoluted and tragic past.
No Rest For the Wicked is done in mostly grey scale, save for Red's cap which is always colored a deep crimson and only adds to her disturbing nature. The comic is often times violent as it is darkly humorous. Well written with a unique art style, I suggest it to anyone with a love for fantasy and a fresh take on fairytales of yesteryear. No Rest for the Wicked can be found at http://www.forthewicked.net
Dueling Analogs is a long running gamming webcomic that is most definatly not for kids! Comic jokes include: infidelity, rape, murder, involentary ejaculation over the annoucment of Megaman 9, a pipe smoking gnome spokesman for Sony, anal violation and it all goes down hill from there. Famed series of strips done include Regected Megaman Robot Masters, Games I'm Glad Were Never Made, and most recently, Rejected Megaman X Mavericks. The comic is done usually every Monday and Thursday, but do to certain life changing events, Steve Neperiskie (think that's how it's spelled) has had several guest strips run in place of the regular strips for a time. Dueling Analogs can be found at http://www.duelinganalogs.com/
I suppose this will be it for this post because I'm tired, lazy and hate you all. Until next time!
The next comic is a very new one that is most certantly not for kids or safe for work! Bear Nuts stars a collection of zoo bears that are throughly messed up. Prozac Bear, Nerd Bear, Death Bear, Gay Bear, Lech Bear, Crack Bear, Gimpy Bear, and Tanked Bear make up the cast of misphits and as you would expect from their names, are not the most kid freindly bunch you can find despite their Care-Bear parody looks. The plots are offensive, insane and disturbing and off set by creepily cute artwork making a bizzare comic that is well worth the time of anyone with a good sense of humor. I won't link the comic so you will have to either P.M. me or look Bear Nuts up on your own.
Alien Loves Predator, the title being an obvious parody of Alien Vs. Predator, is another photographic webcomic using a Predator and Alien action figure in combination with impressive photoshop skill and props. The comic stars Preston (The Predator) and Abe (the letch of an Alien) as they go about their lives in New York City. The story is usually religated to a few short comics with gag strips taking up much of the other content. The scripts are very witty and makes Preston and Abe into loveable and relatable characters. Alien Loves Predator can be found at http://www.alienlovespredator.com/
The Merle kids, upon moving into their new home, discovered a magical wish-granting rodent-like character, visible only to children, already living there. Fueled by licorice, Weesh grants whatever wish comes to the kids' minds. Tate, the middle brother, is a font of bizarre wishes, often steeped in science fiction lore. Olivia, the youngest sister, leans towards flights of fancy and everything pretty and innocent. Last, but not least, Zoey, the eldest daughter, wants everyone to just leave her alone.
The art is good and the script is clever. The comic is good for all ages.
Weesh can be found at http://www.weeshcomic.com
Faux Pas stars a collection of animal actors living on a farm in the Colorado Rockies, most of whom have since retired and try their best not to get eaten, hunted or sold by their human owners. Randy, a simple and innocent young fox takes the lead of this comic, trying his best to hold the world together in between being pranked by the horde of cats that have taken up residence in the barn, falling head over heels in love with Cindy, a wild fox that reciprcates his feelings and photoshoots goinging horribly wrong. Faux Pas is a brilliant piece of fiction that mixes fish out of water humor and plot lines with utter insanity. This is a great comic and is well worth the time.
Faux Pas can be found at http://www.ozfoxes.net/
Sandra and Woo is another young comic with a Calvin and Hobbes bent to it with the expection that Woo is not a stuffed tiger but a simple talking racoon. The comic stars Sandra North, a young girl with a love for nature and a passion for mathmatics that makes her less than popular with the other kids at school. After adopting Woo, it's not uncommon for her to get into trouble because of his actions, but usually gets off pretty easily. Woo is cute and cuddly with a mischevious streak longer than a dna sequance. After escaping from an abusive home, Woo has found comfort and a full belly in the arms of Sandra and her father Richard North. Though wily and often times selfserving, Woo is generally a good guy.
Sandra and Woo can be found at http://www.sandraandwoo.com
First up is Slightly Damned, a darkly humorus webcomic that opens with the death of the main character Rhea Snaketail, a Jakkai . Un able to enter Heaven or Purgatory, but not suinful enough to venture into the gates of Hell, she is left in an outer circle called the Ring of the Slightly Damned under the care of Buwaro, a fire demon and the worst example of a demon ever, and his sister Sakido, a wind demoness and a rather mellow example of a demon, and follows her and Buwaro's unlives in the rocky, barren world of the Slightly Damned with slapstick and sight gags. Then it plunges a searing hot knife into your heart and twists it again and again until your soul has been crushed into dust and then once more delivers the funny.
Slightly Damned can be found at http://www.raizap.com/sdamned/index.php
Next is Tales From the Mynarski Forest. If you are familiar with the early 1920 Chek comic strip and novella The Sly Little Vixen, then one of the main focuses of the comic will be familier. Liska Fox is based upon Liska Sharpears from the original Chek comicstrip/novella but since her early conception has grown and branched into her own character with a far more Sociopathic tint to her. Still, she has made friends with Skippy Rabbit (and remarks that his parents must have hated him), who was once just jittery and a nervous wreck. Since meeting Liska he has since become completly hysterical and spends most of his time trying to keep Liska from killing herself or causing international inccedents. The cast is nice and big with crazy and utterly bizzare characters that play well off of Liska and Skippy. The comic is rather violent and gory most of the times, usually involving roadkill gophers, but is still safe for work, but probably not for the weak of stomach and younger kids.
Tales From the Mynarski Forest can be found at http://mynarskiforest.purrsia.com/
A comic for the more cynical and misanthropic among up, Something Positive. I'm not sure how really to describe it as anything else but a slice of life comic with a sprinkling of oddness and homicide thrown in for good messaure. The comic is definatly not safe for work or for younger readers. The art is great and the script is grade-A. If you like your life with a freaking huge mound of cynasim, then Something Positive can be found at http://www.somethingpositive.net/
Sabrina Online is a long running strip that starts out as mostly computer humor but quickly becomes a slice-of-life humor comic with great character interaction and heart melting moments. And sentiant Transformers action figures that are utterly devoted to the "Mistress", I.e. Sabrina, and seek to aid her in secret. Yeah. Yeeeaaah...so anyway, the strip stars Sabrina, a computer nerd skunk and her friends and relitives and co-workers at Zig Zag studios, propritor of adult video intertanment. She maintains the website, god you people are sick! This info right here should tell you that some material may not be approperate for the younger kids, but nothing explicete is seen, merely implyed. Some momments are laugh out loud hilarious and others give you a nice little "haha-squick" reaction.
Sabrina Online can be found at http://www.sabrina-online.com and updates at the end of each month with usually four diffrent strips.
Well, until next time, I'll be cruising the net to find the few treasures on the web.
The art is superb and the script is funny and smooth. Over all, its fairly family friendly, though beware of Rex. Broken plot device can be found at http://www.brokenplotdevice.com/
Another webcomic that deserves all the attention it can get is Newshounds. A long running comic that follows the story of Kpet News Station. What is unique about the news ancors is that they very well live up to the term Newshounds. The main cast is composed of the egomaniac Wolfram Blitzen, literal hard hitting Renata Fayre, danger fetishest Rachelle O'Shea, Sportscaster Sam Shepard, liberal commentator Alistar Cat, Camera dog Kevin J. Dog, and the janitor Ferris the Rat, and run by their owner Lorna Dilbrook. The sequal Newshounds II is found on the same page and takes a bit darker and more serious tone than the orignal Newshounds, but doesn't forget the funny. The strip shifts from single gag strips to longer, more intracit storylines that find their roots in the gag strips and provides commentary on modern American life and civil rights later on. The art evolves throughout the run of the original Newshounds strips and only go's to mirror the growing, elaborate storytelling.
Newshounds and Newshounds II can be found at http://www.newshounds.com/
Vincifruit is a comic following the lives of Richard "Vinci" Nicolaides and his partner Artisan Sunspot and their very strange lives. And Krispy Kremes Donuts. The comic is mainly a comedy strip with a romantic subplot, but in all truth, reads more like a buddy comedy or an episode of Scrubs revolving around J.D. and Truk. The storylines are usually about they're quirks: Vinci's need to eat anything shiney and metallic (dumb@$$) and Arty's raging vanity and addiction to Krispy Kremes, with the occasional medical emergancy brought about by Vinci eating shines and workplace related mishaps. The comic is fun and work safe (unless you live in the Bible Belt, then you will probably be burned at the stake for reading it), and the art work is cartoony and fluid with characters diabeticly cute. Seriously, you want to pick Vinic up and squeeze him tell he pops like those babies you see in the store.
Vincifruit can be found at http://www.vincifruit.com/
Count Your Sheep is a wonderful and heart warming comic. It can be found at http://www.countyoursheep.com/ What? So I can't give a brief description of a comic now? God! Get off my case, I'm tired!
With delightful art and comical characters that are actual pretty close to home for the actual composers personalitys, The Compozerz may be a young strip, but still one with lots of heart and is definatly going places.
http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Compozerz/
Made by one Neil Griffith aka Patches67 from Deviant Art, The Kraken stars his own creations featured in his Catboy comic strips in a world of High Fantasy. A small island town is the center of a mysterious happenings. A ship beached high upon the rocks with no sign of what caused it, the Dread Pirate Pipi Jones washed upon the shore muttering of a monster, a tailisman of incredible property's, a witch hired by the goverment of the mainland, and a hoplessly optimistic gaurdian who may be the only hope to stopping the coming storm.
The character designs remain relitivly unchanged from Neil's previous works, save for wardrobe in some instances and is rather minimalist with touches of the Golden Age of Animation thrown in for extra flavor. So far, it's family friendly however given that it does have Pipi in it...that my very well soon change. Like...real quick.
http://www.krakenwebnovel.com/index.html
The first comic is House Pets which follows the lives of Grape Jelly and Peanut Butter, a cat and dog repectivly, and the other pets in the neighborhood and their daily lives and adventures. Grape is the more sensiable of the two but is pretty lazy though has a spark of creativity. Conversly, Peanut is the poster dog for ADD with a one track mind and good hearted nature who is easily distracted by a shiny nickle. The strip is pretty new with only 26 comics in its archive but the updates a usually on time. Though usually family friendly, the strip is rated PG because of some really weird moments. Really really disturbing moments.
House Pets can be found at http://www.housepetscomic.com/
Lost and Found Investigations is a strip that has had an eight year run and follows the adventures of small town P.I. Frank Chase and his partner/pet dog Max as they get wrapped up in truly bizzare adventures involving vampire cats, psychotic midgets with telekenetic powers, corrupt cookie company CEO's and so much more. The strip is relitivly family friendly but may not be approaprate for younger readers.
Lost and Found Inverstiagtions can be found at http://www.lostandfoundcomic.com
The new webcomics I have here are legion!
Girls With Slingshots is hilarious and relatible comic about Hazel, a rather unsuccesful journalist living in New York State with her friends and talking Irish Cactus McPedro.
While there is some adult content, there is not enough to classify as having porn on it, but still, it can be rather risky. Especially if you a prudish-d@ck.
Girls With Slingshots can be found at http://www.daniellecorsetto.com/gws.html
Zebra Girl is a fantasy/humor/horror comic that updates...whenever the h@ll Joe decides to actual do some work on it! The comic begins rather humoressly, featureing mostly parody and satire mixed with a bit of horror, but then takes a quick turn into a very dark corner. Zebra Girl is excellently drawn and well written and perfectly safe for work. Weird.
Zebra Girl can be found at http://zebragirl.keenspot.com
Dungeons & Denizens follows the day to day rutine of Min and his coworks in The Dungeon, a corperation of monsters that does buisness with quests for intrepide Adventures in a world that parodies RPG's such as Dungeons and Dragons. The comic is cute and cartoony and family friendly.
D&D can be found at http://www.dungeond.com/
MNT Gaiden is a fan manga about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set in an alternate version of the Mirage Comics Continuity that merges elements from the 2003 cartoon and Image comics continuity. After the arival of a cursed sword leads to the death of Master Splinter the four brother bounds are shattered. Roughly sixteen years later, after the murder of young Agustust Amherst at the hands of a new, feral, mutant turtle, Raphael and Donatello rescue the capture turtle from a goverment facility on the hopes of taming the creature, only to find that the feral turtle is very much sentient and claims to be the very child he murdered. What is the truth behind this mysterous turtle, and will a fractured family finally reunite?
MNT Gaiden is very well drawn but contains a large amount of violence typical of TMNT's comic versions, but excessivly so. It is well scripted and though the main character my seem a little Stuish, it is done so belivable and with such heart, the OC can be seen as fighting right in with the broken future of MNT Gaiden. While some characters may not be familer to those not well versed in Turtle lore, MNTG offers bio's on the characters as well as the diffrences between the mainstream counterparts and the Gaiden versions.
MNT Gaiden can be found at http://www.obscurezodiac.com
Here are a few more great webcomics.
First is Order of the Stick, which spoofs Dungeons and Dragons and other RPGs.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html
Second is Ctrl+Alt+Del, which parodies video gaming in all it's myriad forms.
http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20021023
Third is Weregeek, which spoofs just about every Tabletop and LARP RPG out there. I can't recommend this one enough.
http://www.weregeek.com/2006/11/27/
Fourth is a webcomic that everyone on this site should appreciate. Shortpacked, a webcomic about collecting action figures.
http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20050117.html