Favorite webcomics

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TheNighSwan

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(Using the search function, I did find an existing thread on this theme, however the last post in it was from 2011, so I figured it would be better to start a new thread than to necro the old one)

So, I read a lot of webcomics; there's a high turnover rate, as I frequently abandon some and add new ones, but at any given time I follow at least 60 series.

So here's a selection of the best ones according to me, and then you can post yours too!



Vattu, by Evan Dahm.

This tells the life of Vattu, a young huntress from a tribe of nomads who live along a river, until the day when the powerful and expending Sahtan Empire makes contact with their tribe, which brings about great disruption to their life, starting with Vattu being sold into slavery to the Sahtans by the priestress of the tribe…

Somewhere between epic fantasy and historical fiction, Vattu has a lot of impressive worldbuilding, and in spite of presenting a rather alien and original fantasy universe to us, strives hard to do it in a realistic (but not gritty) way, far the usual manichean clichés of high fantasy.

580+ pages, updates 3 times a week; fantasy, some blood and violence.

On the same website you can find two other completed comics by Evan Dahm, set in the same universe, but in different time periods and with rather different atmospheres than Vattu, Rice Boy (439 pages) and Order of Tales (744 pages), as well a number of short stories.


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Cucumber Quest, by Gigi D.G.

Young Cucumber is about to start his first day in magic school to become a wizard, when a sorceress takes over the kingdom and sets on to bring back the Nightmare Knight, a terrifying villain vanquished long ago; and the prophecy says it's up to Cucumber to defeat him again —much to Cucumber's displeasure, who would rather let his action-minded sister Almond to the work.

Cucumber Quest is an affectionate parody of old Nintendo-style adventure/quest and rpg games, with a reluctant hero, a lot of humor, and a really cute and pleasant graphical style.

539+ pages, updates 2 times a week; fantasy, humor, appropriate for all ages.


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Gunnerkrigg Court, by Tom Siddell.

When young Antimony 'Annie' Carver is transfered at the boarding school of Gunnerkrigg Court, she notices a number of stange occurences, starting with her acquirring a second, sentient shadow. She soons befriends the technically minded Katerina 'Kat' Donlan, and together they start to uncover the mysteries of the court and of the woods of Gillitie that face the court on the other side of a huge chasm.

While the story and drawing might at first seem simplistic, Gunnerkrigg Court quickly gets better and starts to draw an intricate plot (but cut into self contained chapters that each tell a complete story) with really good character writing, mixing urban-fantasy, science-fantasy, magic and a dash of horror. Neil Gaiman approved (around the middle of the post).

1413+ pages, updates 3 times a week; urban-fantasy and some other stuff, mild violence and scary imagery.


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Stand Still, Stay Silent, by Minna Sundberg.

After 99% of humanity has been decimated by a mysterious illness, a few pockets of survivors have managed to keep a semblance of civilization in the Nordic countries (Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland). Years after the catastrophe, they finally decided to send a team of explorers to see what has become of the rest of the world. A horribly underfunded team of idiots, but a team nonetheless.

Contrary to almost all post-apocalyptic stories outthere, SSSS' characters are not all cynical jerks or extreme survivalist perpetually at each other's throats, but rather three dimensional beings likeable with their flaws and qualities; Minna Sundberg is really good at writing character interaction; the comic is about friendship, humor, exploration, and in spite of the grim premise, is mostly light-hearted. Except during the occasional encounters with the abominations that lurk outside the civilized areas (if you're thinking "zombies", think again; this universe's background threat is much more terrifying than zombies).

188+ pages, updates five times a week; light-hearted post-apocalyptic, with humor, some fantasy and some horror; pretty scary imagery and some blood, though in spare quantities, so far.

Minna has also completed a webcomic called A Redtail's Dream (556 pages), which was done has a training sting before SSSS, and is a modern fairy tale inspired by finnish mythology.


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Poppy, by Ian Everett.

Poppy is a proud mother opossum who travels the world with her young daughter Lily, in search of a welcoming place to settle in. Unfortunately, in this world, opossums are the only species that can't practice magic, and as such, they are victims of severe prejudice, discrimination, or even outright persecution. But Poppy will not let that beat her down; she has a lot of raw enthusiasm, she bakes perfect pies, and she also has the physical strength of a dozen tyranosaurs… wait what?

In spite of dealing with heavy themes, Poppy is a mostly lighthearted and humorous fantasy story, with good writing, good drawings, and an interesting universe.

121+ pages, updates three times a week (but with a tendency to slight schedule slips); humor, light-hearted fantasy, but with mature thematics, though mostly PG, with some occasional violence.


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The Property of Hate, by Sarah Jolley.

A young girl wakes up to find a man with a tv for head in her room, proposing her to become a hero. She instantly accepts and then finds herself wandering with this man in a strange world where ideas and concepts are literal creatures, where fears, lies, griefs and doubts walk about and present a very real, physical danger; but her mysterious guide might not be all what he claims to be either…

Under a very simple and familiar premise, The Property of Hate creates not only a distinct universe of psychological fantasy, but also a distinct style of writing, where language itself becomes an instrument to the story, and where abundant puns are, for once, not completely out of place and entirely gratuitous.

144+ pages, updates once a week. Psychological fantasy with humor and some horror; not too much overt violence, but the imagery can get a little creepy or impressive, plus some mild bad language.


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Broodhollow, by Kris Straub.

Being an encyclopedia salesman during the Great Depression and having to deal with OCD and superstition-fueled anxiety is hard enough for Wardsworth Zane, but when he gets a 6 month old letter notifying of the passing away of a family member he didn't even know he had, he finds himself travelling to the town of Broodhollow to see if there's any inheritance left to claim; on his arrival, he discovers a town with weird local traditions, including parochial holidays every single day, and finds himself inheriting an antique shop. He also discovers that the town is haunted by specters and grotesque monsters which only him sees at such, and that everyone who lives here long enough starts to get affected by amnesia.

Don't get fooled by the simple, unassuming graphic style; Broodhollow is a really well written horror webcomic that deals with various mental health issues in an informed, non-cliché way, and still manages to get some humor and interesting character interactions in the process.

276+ pages, updates three times a week; horror; disturbing imagery and blood.
 

Moldy

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I am really bad at describing/summarizing things, so bear with me...

O Human Star: robots! One of the main guys, Al, wakes up in a robot body that looks just like his real one. Ironically, he and his boyfriend Brendan used to work together building robots and robot-y things...until he was mysteriously murdered over a decade ago.

Bear Nuts: follows the adventures of a bunch of sentient zoo animals at a discount zoo, with the main characters being bears defined by various traits of theirs and with corresponding symbols on their stomachs...mostly comedy and often plays off a lot of stereotypes. I'm really fond of the art, it's very cute.

The Adventures of Gyno-Star: a feminist superhero who fights such villains as Vlad Deferens, the Happy Homemaker and The Objectifier. A lot of the gags are obviously political-oriented or superhero-oriented...and often a happy mix.

Amazing Super Powers: actually has nothing to do with super powers most of the time. It's a daily gag comic without a continuous storyline or cast.

Channelate: the same type as the above.

Filibuster: Political cartoons, specializing in Canadian politics. The art is lovely (nowhere else have I found so many lovely, glossy graphic-art style political-themed comics). The creator is a moderate conservative, if I recall correctly. The site is *not* loading for me though and hasn't updated in almost a month if my RSS is to be believed. Rather odd since it was started in 2001 and I've been following for years...still if it sounds interesting, might be worth checking into later.

Order of the Stick: Long-running webcomic that probably everyone potentially interested already knows of. Still, one of my favorites and quite fun, a D&D parody with a continuous cast and storylines.

The GaMERCaT
: a cute little sentient cat, loves playing video games, gets up to shenanigans quite often.

Penny & Aggie: popular girl Penny and odd, artistic girl Aggie play out years of rivalry and sexual tension throughout their years at high school. Completed.
 
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Maggie Maxwell

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Cucumber Quest, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Stand Still, Stay Silent are all solid recommendations, for sure.

I'll add on a few:

Unsounded by Ashley Cope - Sette Frummagem is out to make her father, the lord of thieves, proud, crossing the country to claim overdue fines from her wayward cousin. It's a long, dangerous journey, though, and Sette is still young, so she's being well-accompanied/redirected as needed by Duane, a talented magic-user who is not exactly on the side of the living and not-rotting. A thief and her zombie against the world, what could go wrong?

Epic fantasy with amazing art and worldbuilding. 600+ pages. Updates Mon, Wed, & Fri, though is on hiatus until November 10th.
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Gaia by Oliver Knörzer and Puri Andini - Lilith Caillean is set to finish her education as one of the greatest wizards the world has seen in a long time. Her friends are all proud of her and eagerly await to see what she'll accomplish after they all graduate. No one expected her to be framed for an attack on the teachers and students the day of their graduation, with execution as the only punishment for her. The path to saving her is paved with treason, trickery, thievery, and political intrigue in spades.

275+ pages. Updates Tues & Fri

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Namesake by Megan Lavey-Heaton and Isabelle Melançon - Did you know all the stories are real? Alice in Wonderland, Jack and the Beanstalk, Peter Pan, they're all real worlds, and the stories they hold continue, over and over in a balance of worlds, led by the writers and fulfilled by the Namesakes, people given the right name (Alice, Jack, Wendy) at the right time. So what in the world is Emma Crewe doing in Oz?

19 chapters, updates Tues & Thurs
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Blindsprings by Kadi Fedoruk - Once upon a time there lived a princess who lived in the woods with the fairy spirits until the day her contract with them could be fulfilled. But a boy came once and befriended her and promised to take her away. The boy grew up, and he did, just before her contract was supposed to be complete...

90+ pages, relatively new. Updates Tues & Thurs.

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Ava's Demon by Michelle Czajkowski - Since she was born, Ava's been unable to lead a normal life thanks to the torments of a demon only she can see. When she and two fellow students narrowly escape the destruction of their planet, Ava is forced to learn the true nature of the demon and the bond they share.

Sci-Fi adventure. 1200+ single panel pages, breezy read. Updates Mon or Thurs, usually, with 5 to 10 pages at once.

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Erstwhile by Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy, and Elle Skinner - Three artists combine their talents on one site to tell lesser known Grimm tales.

Updates Mon & Thurs with 18 complete stories currently.
 

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Sandra & Woo:

http://www.sandraandwoo.com/

A very endearing comic with the tale of a girl and her pet talking raccoon and a whole host of characters ranging from a boyfriend named after a computer game character and currently going through puberty, to a nature spirit serving as Goddess of all raccoons. A rather fun read.
 

Viridian

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I'm seconding Ava's Demon. Very pretty style, very quick and interesting pace. Really easy to get into.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Oglaf yet. (Not linking to it, since it's very, very NSFW.) In the artist's own words, it started as an attempt to draw porn and devolved into sex comedy almost immediately. There are shapeshifters who foil their own plots, an all-male tribe of tough gay barbarians, a naive and somewhat dim vampire pretending to be a doctor... no single, solid storyline, but it's really funny.
 
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TheNighSwan

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TAMaxwell > most of the comics you recommended I also follow, nice :)

I hesitated to put Ava's Demon and Namesake in my post; I take it you've contributed to the Valor kickstarter too :p?
 

Maggie Maxwell

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TAMaxwell > most of the comics you recommended I also follow, nice :)

I hesitated to put Ava's Demon and Namesake in my post; I take it you've contributed to the Valor kickstarter too :p?

I'm right there with you on having a ton I follow. Lots of long running ones, a handful of new ones, a few I wonder why I still read because NOTHING IS HAPPENING and then continue to read anyway because I know eventually I'll forget why I stopped and then start to reread the archives.

I missed the chance to give to the kickstarter, but I definitely plan to pick up a copy when it's done and out.

Oglaf is hilarious, Viridian, although I wish we'd get a story line again. There've been so many one-offs for a long time.

DAv, Sandra and Woo is a good rec, great for fans of Calvin and Hobbes, I think.

Other recommendations:
Girl Genius (steampunk MWF)
Derelict (sci-fi once a week usually)
Star Power (Star Trek with a superhero, MWF)
Strong Female Protagonist (Superhero, TF)
Wapsi Square (urban fantasy adventure, Weekdays)
Kill Six Billion Demons (Fantasy, holy worldbuilding Batman, Th)
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things (Video game humor + sci-fi, M)
Battlepug (Conan the Barbarian... with a giant pug buddy, once weekly, usually M)
Paranatural (Urban fantasy, MF)

If you can only read one, I'd recommend Paranatural, but honestly, they're all top notch on art and storytelling.
 
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asnys

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My contributions not already mentioned:

Dresden Codak: It's... Well, I guess the best description would be a transhumanist science fiction fable. You will either love it or find it unbearably confusing. Also, incredibly gorgeous art, which is why it typically updates about once every 2-3 months.

XKCD: Mandatory reading for mathematicians, no exceptions.

Skin Horse: The sequel to Narbonic, follows a group of underfunded, underpaid shadow government bureaucrats trying to provide social services to the various mutants, monsters, summoned beings, and genetically-engineered monstrosities kept hidden from the public. One of the main characters is a transvestite ex-Army psychologist man-slut, and he's the normal one.

The Nonadventures of Wonderella: An affectionate parody of superheroes, starring Wonderella, the hard-drinking, poor-choice-making, mother-disappointing superhero for the rest of us.
 

M.S. Wilson

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I definitely agree on XKCD and Wonderella (although Wonderella hasn't updated lately; I think the artist is putting out a book or something) Some of my other favourites:

Planet of Hats A retelling of the original Star Trek episodes by the guy who did Irregular Webcomic

Questionable Content A great slice-of-life strip that started out making fun of indie/hipster culture, but turned into so much more.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal It's hilarious...what else can I say?

Trekker by Ron Randall An ongoing story about a bad-ass bounty hunter in the future; great characters, great action.

Subnormality Probably my favourite webcomic; updates somewhat sporadically, but worth the wait. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, but always interesting.
 

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Yay, webcomics! I love them, it's like finding a new musician no one else knows about. XD

Anyway, here's some of my favorites:

Ava's Demon: Amazing art, fantastic story line about a girl who makes a pact with a "demon." Updates frequently, although right now they're having issues because someone overloaded the server on the website.

Not a Villain: The story of a hacker who wants to quit, but can't seem to kick the habit. She lives in a dystopian environment where the world sucks so people spend most of their time in L.I.f.E, a virtual reality. The art improves over time, but the story is fantastic.

Nimona: Completed comic about a villain who adopts a girl who can shape shift into a shark. Together they conduct nefarious schemes in a PG movie kind of way, until the truth of her identity threatens to tear them apart.

I would add more, but some of them haven't updated in a while. Anyway, check these out if you haven't already, they're amazing.
 

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Applicious--would you be a darling and link them?
 

BusyHoneyBee

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Stand still stay silent is amazing, I'm not very far but the art is just beautiful :D

Here are some of my favourites that I follow; Prague Race, Paranatural, Monsterkind, Never Satisfied and Heroic Villain.

The last two are a little short since they only started a while ago, but they have regular updates and I think it's nice to be able to say that you were there at the beginning :)

Also I would link but I don't know how ^^;
 
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Lissibith

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Also I would link but I don't know how ^^;
If you edit your post, highlight the name of the webcomic, then click the little button that looks like a planet with a couple rings in the corner (it's to the right right of the smilies button) it will let you put in a link. Hope that's helpful!

I've gotten woefully behind on my webcomics. I mostly just read Order of the Stick, Gunnerkrigg Court, Manly Guys doing Manly Things and Twisted Mirrors.
 

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Oh my goodness, so much, so much
Before I start though:

TAMaxwell mentioned Strong Female Protagonist, and I can't praise this one enough. The whole idea of the comic is what happens to this group of superheros/villians after the initial shock of having powers has faded and the "supervillians" are defeated. We get to see how multiple different people cope with their powers and sudden lack of purpose when the initial war is over. Far from your regular comicbook, the story deals with a lot of psychological effects as well. A mindreader discovers that while he perfectly understands others actions, he can't understand himself, and a once "heros" have to deal with the frustrations of a world/society they can't just "save" by beating it to sense. Also the art is amazing. It's really really really good!

Some other good webcomics I follow that haven't been mentioned:
Lackadaisy - The art and writing is done by the same person, but both are gorgeous. Set during prohibition, a group of characters try to keep their speakeasy afloat with both the police and rival bootleggers on their tale. Probably the most historically accurate comic I've ever read, if you don't count the fact that the whole cast is played by cats, of course. Check it out, even just for the art.
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham - Kinda a new one, so not much archived yet. But the art is clean and colorful, and the story is promising. I'm keeping my eye on this one.
Saint for Rent - Watch out, there's time travel. I'm impressed by the world building in this one, but you really have to pay attention as time travel is never not-complicated.
Modus Operandi - I just found this one. I really like the art and it's more complicated uses to tell the story. And I'm really excited for the story as well, politics has never been my thing, but just maybe...




 

rwomeldorf

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I'll give this a little bump.

Least I Could Do - Riddled with ADD, nerd/pervert Rayne Summers goes on everyday adventures with his friends and family while frequently dropping (and mentally involving himself in) nerd culture references and generally disturbing everyone within reach. Hilarious, full of childhood references and memories. Updated daily. Also, I really like Lar DeSouza's art compared to some of the earlier artists who worked on the comic.

Foul Language Comics - Even if you aren't a parent, Foul Language can make you feel like you've had young kids a hundred times over. Hilarious interactions and incidents with kids with a little bit of "how daddy really feels" sprinkled in.

The Gutters - Ever read your favorite comic and wonder what the hell they were doing? Well the Gutters is here to make fun of every idiotic thing that was considered a good idea in comics. I don't think they've updated in quite a while, but I'm not sure if it's officially "dead" yet. Still hilarious.
 

Maggie Maxwell

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The Gutters - Ever read your favorite comic and wonder what the hell they were doing? Well the Gutters is here to make fun of every idiotic thing that was considered a good idea in comics. I don't think they've updated in quite a while, but I'm not sure if it's officially "dead" yet. Still hilarious.

Nah, Gutters is officially ended. They gave their farewell talk in the last issue's news section.
 
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