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What are your favorite webcomics?
This seems slightly more appropriate in ~arts than ~books, but a mod/admin can move it if need be.
I want to know what webcomics you've read through in the past that you've loved, and what webcomics you're currently reading through. Send me your recommendations, both longform and comedic!
Currently I'm reading Kill 6 Billion Demons and Third Voice as they update. I've read Evan Dahm's earlier stuff as well (Rice Boy, Order of Tales, Vattu), and I'd recommend those, especially Vattu. Stand Still, Stay Silent was really solid. Shame about how it ended. I tried to give her new stuff a shot, but it is just grating unfortunately.
As far as the funny ones, XKCD, SMBC, and Oglaf are all fantastic.
What do you read?
My all time favorite is still Perry Bible Fellowship. It's absurd, beautiful at times, expressive as hell, and is at once subtle and obvious. This one is prob my personal favorite
This one is my all-time favourite!
I got to meet Nicholas Gurewitch once at a book signing many years ago. Absolutely my favorite modern comic artist.
Oh I was sure you were going to pick the one with kids riding rainbows
Ooh, this is my kind of topic. I love webcomics. A lot of my favorites have already been listed here (though I'll link them anyway) but I have a few that haven't been mentioned. All links go to the first page, rather than the homepage.
Now for the ones that have also been mentioned by someone else:
My top three from other people's lists are Paranatural, Sleepless Domain, and Unsounded — if you haven't read even a single of one of them do yourself a favor and fix that. Kill Six Billion Demons and Gunnerkrigg Court are also wildly good (and Gunnerkrigg Court is a prime example of art getting better as time goes on [as is Paranatural]). Wilde Life has me hooked. Ava's Demon is so pretty; a bit slow, as others have mentioned, but there are like 2,000+ pages to go through so it's a decent chunk of reading regardless. Rain gets a big recommendation from me, though it is a bit more niche. Special shout out to @CannibalisticApple, by the way, for apparently being The Exact Same Person as me — I will throw my recommendation behind everything they've posted, even the ones I haven't read (yet).
Well now I have many more to read, so thank you! I've been wanting more webcomics to read, so this is perfect!
Oh wow, if that's true than the artist has increased his output by nearly tenfold!
Seriously, though, this webcomic is famously slow to update and it doesn't take much searching to find angry fans frustrated about the pacing of it's output because there has been points where it had been months with zero new pages. While I have enjoyed Dark Science, I would recommend newcomers to stop before they reach that arc.
Edit: I just checked the wayback machine and it looks like Dark Science was started in 2009.
17776 was great, and it's sequel 20020. I'm starting to despair we'll ever see 20021 tho
I started reading The property of Hate and promptly failed to continue working my way down this list. So thank you immensely
My favorite not mentioned here is Gunnerkrigg Court. It's a longform comic I've been reading for years.
I was just about to post this myself. I need to catch up since I have fallen off.
The comic is a mix of fantasy, sci-fi, and mythological, focusing on a girl at a magical school. The art and storytelling evolves over time as the author improves.
I'd say now is a great time to catch up, as we're approaching the end! I'm trying my best to not forget and keep up because I can't imagine binging the rollercoaster it's going to be when it finally ends.
I think we're getting close to the end now. But it's been a good ride.
I've been reading Gunnerkrigg for years. I'm curious how it will end as it seems to be wrapping things up. Layers upon layers. I also love seeing artists improve that much over time.
Oh wow! Amazing it's still ongoing. I remember reading this when I was in high school. And I'm now in my mid-30s!
It's nuts that it's still going. Over 18 years of the author's life have been put into that thing.
Gunnerkrigg's the one for me. With only a handful of times I've missed/forgotten, reading the new page every Monday/Wednesday/Friday almost first thing in the morning has been a ritual of mine for over a decade.
Unfortunately I think it's kind of fallen off over the last five or so years - the two big mistakes in my mind were completing Annie's character arc in chapter 57, so she's just kind of "normal" now and has no more growth, and Loup as a character just not being as interesting/fun as Coyote or Ysengrin alone - but it still sucks me in and I'm really hoping Tom sticks the landing with the ending. The comic's really hyped up whatever Coyote's big plan is, Tom's gotta have a good ending/twist in mind...
I love off the wall silly/dumb comics. In no particular order here are some of my favorites.
Extra Fabulous Comics
The Farside
Mr Lovenstein
Last Place Comics
This one is having me in stitches.
I love Extra Fabulous but never followed them because they always made their way to Reddit. Bookmarking their site now, thank you!
It sounds like Buttersafe might be up your alley.
I love it!
Homestuck is my favourite thing that you shouldn't bother reading. Seriously. You don't want to.
The one good thing about having read Homestuck in the past is that it gives you the ability to make casual references to it mid-conversation and watching someone do a mental stutter-step as they realize what you just said.
The thing about Homestuck is that I read a ridiculous amount of Homestuck and yet it's still dwarfed by the amount of Homestuck I haven't read.
I appreciated the convoluted plot, I really did, but once I fell off it it was impossible to get back.
The one thing stopping me from reading Homestuck is the inability to figure out what the last page I had read was because there was quite simply too many of them to keep count of them. Every time I'd change computers I'd lose my place, and I don't think I ever got past the point where a second character was introduced.
At this point, I kind of wish there was a physical version sold on microfiche, just for the simple fact that I could put a bookmark in it.
Knew it'd be here. Just didn't expect it to be so high.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is a wonderful combination of erudition and silliness.
Kill Six Billion Demons
Absolutely an incredible journey, almost finished now too.
Came here to share this too, it's got a great story (especially if you take the time to read the lore usually just put under the comic itself) but I think it's greatest strength is just the author's artistry. The sheer number of original characters he's designed just to be in the background of a single panel, and the high res spreads he makes a few times each "book" are always incredible.
I've always been a fan of SMBC, XKCD, Oglaf, Sam & Fuzzy, and PBFcomics. For a scifi bent, Schlock Mercenary was an absolute monster of a comic, Howard did updates literally every day for over two decades. Kris Straub's Starslip was another great one!
Lately I've been enjoying Swords Comics (literally comics about swords, it's freaking great), Red Dot Comic, Colms Comics, and anything Shenanigensen makes (Blue Chair, Live with Yourself, for example).
Oh, Least I Could Do and Looking For Group are also consistently entertaining.
Schlock Mercenary is just fantastic. I still go to the webpage every few months hoping the author has found a new project.
Howard actually does have stuff going on! He's been busy with merchandising and making books. There's an rss and email newsletter you can subscribe to on his website.
For anyone unfamiliar, SchlockMercenary.com
Questionable Content and Dumbing of Age are two of my favorites.
Darth & Droids. It was inspired by an LotR-based comic where it takes screenshots from the movies and puts in dialogue bubbles where the characters are actually people playing a D&D knockoff game in a world where the movies don't exist. It was the thing that got me to play D&D rather than thinking it was for loser nerds. Little did I know that I was actually a loser nerd (I knew).
Is that still going? I remember getting current to it when they'd just gotten into A New Hope years ago and just lost track. I should go back and catch up with it. Also need to learn Summon Bigger Fish.
Looks like they're doing sequels now. It's important to remember that there is always a bigger fish.
Joe vs Elan School was one that sucked me right in. I believe he said he is shooting for 100 chapters, so it’s nearing its end.
This one is a must read, it's extremely eye opening and really shows how fucked you are in the US if nobody is looking out for your wellbeing as a minor. Institutions can basically do whatever they want to children as long as the parents approve it. And the authorities don't want to investigate claims of abuse made by 'troubled youths' since the optics are bad no matter which way it ends up, so they just ignore it. (Or worse, are bribed to ignore it, in the case of the school in the comic)
Every time I read some of this, I feel like I'm a little messed up mentally for the next few days.
The thing that gets me the most is I could see my parents doing that to me when I was a stupid kid. Fortunately, they didn’t…
Oh, I have many I can list. This post will get long, so here goes!
I am surprised I have yet to see anyone mention Paranatural. It's about a school club that deals with supernatural powers and entities, and it blends superb writing with hilarious parodies a lot of common anime tropes and cliches. The format has shifted to be basically illustrated novel due to wrist strain, but this is one of the best comics I've seen in every aspect. Not just the writing and art, but even in technical aspects with how panels are formatted and framed. I highly recommend it.
My absolute favorite at the moment though is Sleepless Domain, a magical girl comic by cubewatermelon (my favorite webcomic artist!). The first two chapters are drawn by someone else, but she took it over completely after that. A big word of advice: Don't look at the character page, it has major spoilers. And read until Chapter 3 before making any judgment.
Also by her is Kiwi Blitz. Basically it's about a rich girl who decides to use a mecha kiwi to play Batman. It hasn't been updated in a long time though due to life reasons. It plays with a lot of fun anime tropes and cliches though, so it's a fun read!
Then two that are definitely niche but can appeal to the LGBT crowd: Rain and My Impossible Soulmate, both by the same person, Jocelyn. Art-wise I'll readily admit they're pretty plain and they can get cliche at times, but I love them anyway. Rain is about a trans girl publicly presenting for the first time at a private Christian high school, and it's the comic that actually gave me my first insight into the trans community. I followed it for years, even got some friends into it. It wrapped up last year, and I've been a bit sad it's over. The second one, My Impossible Soulmate, is an isekai story about a lesbian high school girl (who didn't die for once, the series is technically a prequel to Rain so we know she's alive). It's still really new, and chapter 3 will start next week. So far the world building has been interesting, the magic is less combat-oriented and used more for daily life.
Moving away from anime-esque webcomics, there's Wilde Life. A man moves to Podunk (literally, that's the town's name) and rents a haunted house from a witch. It uses a lot of Native American mythology and is pretty dang fun, with a bunch of spooky moments without being an overt horror comic.
And as a final recommendation, Shaderunners. It's set in a prohibition-style world, but instead of bootlegging alcohol, they're bootlegging color. Despite being set in one city the world building is phenomenal, with a lot of well-developed original cultures and even slang. The art is also great, it really knows how to use the limited colors to maximum effect.
Sleepless Domain is fantastic! Agree with avoiding the character page before reading. All I'll say is it is a deconstruction of many tropes, but as the author says on Discord, it's not Madoka!
I actually keep a list of these. A few of them have been mentioned already, but I'll post the entire list, as each link points to the first comic. Some of the comics also probably waned in quality over time, but the earlier strips are still worth reading.
A Softer World
Even though I love most of the comics on this list, for some reason "A Softer World" is close to my favorite. It isn't techy or geeky; it is dark, wistful, surreal, sometimes a little twisted. It's like little peeks into lives that I will never live.
Death to the Extremist
I love the complete absurdism in DttE. It's like a "deconstructed" webcomic. I wish the original website were still online, but at least Web Archive has it cached.
Irregular Webcomic
This comic has been running for over 20 years! It is actually individual episodes of different "series" of comics (with story lines including Indiana Jones, Steve Irwin, D&D, Star Wars) and sometimes there are crossovers).
Darths and Droids
Another comic by the same guy as "Irregular Webcomic". This one re-tells the story of Star Wars as if the characters are being played in a sci-fi RPG by players who live in a universe where Star Wars doesn't exist.
8-bit Theater
Help Desk
Perry Bible Fellowship
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
xkcd
SinfestThis comic has taken a horrific turn. I would have NEVER put this on the list if I had been paying attention to it recently. Thank you to @AncientOakTree for pointing this out.
Megatokyo
Dinosaur Comics
Order of the Stick
Just a quick warning for anyone considering Sinfest: The early strips contain a fair amount of very outdated racial humor that can be offensive, and the latest strips have leaned hard on alt-right content and transphobia.
There were a few decently solid years in the middle, but it's quite a minefield as far as webcomics go.
Oh... dear god...
I hadn't read it in ages. I had no idea. :( Thank you for pointing it out.
No problem! I also hadn't read it in ages before checking it out a while back and it was a shock, especially after the period where it was extremely feminist for a while.
That was my thought, too. I had already lost track of it before the "radical feminist perspective" (the author's words) shift, but after that it didn't really click with me any more. At the time, I didn't realize he was probably referring to the "TERF" perspective. I was almost as surprised that it was still being produced as I was to discover the author wound up as a Trump supporter.
Dinosaur Comics is still great! It hit 20 years in February as well. Ryan North is also writing the ongoing Fantastic Four series.
Sluggy Freelance is my favorite webcomic overall. I started reading it back in 1999 and read it regularly for the first decade or so. After that I have just been catching up on it once a year in August. The comic itself started in 1997, so you have about 26 years worth of material to go through. A lot of the early stuff focuses more on 90's gaming/sci-fi culture, but becomes more of it's own story as it evolves.
For newer long form comics, I liked El Goonish Shive and Questionable Content early on, but have mostly lost interest in those. I also read Real Life Comics and 8-bit Theater back in the day.
For more daily comedy/commentary/warm fuzzy stuff, I read XKCD, Catana Comics and Pizzacake.
Props to Sluggy. One of my favorites. I fell out of touch with it several years ago and thinking about catching up is super daunting. I know I need to do it eventually cause it has to be winding down by now.
If you like k6bd and ssss you might also like unsounded
It updates 3 times per week and sometimes an entire scene of pages gets dumped at once.
Also ava's demon though this one is on a very long hiatus. But the art makes it worth it.
Wow, unsounded looks incredible! It’s so wild to me that so many talented people just put this stuff out there for free
Gone with the Blastwave is pretty much the only comic I read regularly, or at least go back to often because new entries are so very rare these days. It started around 2005 but only has 80 pages so far and we're lucky to get one new page a year at this stage. I don't want to say too much about it but if I had to give a brief description then think of a slightly darker version of Red Vs Blue in a war-torn apocalyptic setting. Check it out if that interests you, I'm sure Kimmo would love a few new readers.
Love that comic too! Quite the hidden gem, I was lucky enough a friend recommended it to me.
I haven’t read a lot of web comics but I just read all of the released issues of Lore Olympus and I enjoyed it. The art is amazing even if the storyline feels like it’s more for young adults. It’s silly and very entertaining.
Oh shoot, I forgot about Lore Olympus! I should go see if they released anything since I last checked it.
They just released a new issue on June 24th and another one drops in 2 days. They are still going!
Here's a list of my favourite webcomics, with some short descriptions. (Links are to the first page of each comic, since webcomics really like putting spoilers on their main page...)
Sleepless Domain
Basically magical girls with intermixed horror; I'm not really sure how to better describe it.
O Human Star (complete)
A scifi story with LGBT themes; quite good, and has won a lot of awards.
It's one of the rare comics with a fully completed story, so I'd recommend it even just for that.
Aurora
A sword & sorcery fantasy story; a bit more lighthearted than the others mentioned here.
Not quite as polished as the above two, but still quite good. (Like most webcomics, the art improves over time.)
The Weave (on indefinite hiatus)
An urban fantasy murder mystery with Celtic folklore.
This one stopped around the start of the pandemic, and looks like it probably won't resume; though if you're fine with that, it's still a good story.
I think this is the first time I've ever seen anyone else mention O Human Star! I wholeheartedly recommend it. There's no story that's quite like it, and although it goes into some dark places at times, it's very wholesome overall.
I've been following GPF Comics for over 20 years. It started in 1998, as a geek/programming jokes cartoon but quickly evolved into a great sci-fi saga. The author, Jeffrey Darlington, recently announced he's wrapping it up. The story will have a proper conclusion, probably in a couple of years. I bought a premium subscription to support him, it gives access to HD quality and one week read-ahead access (he publishes 3 strips per week nowadays, but during the peak period it was daily and colored, with expanded strips on Sundays).
The site itself is fully maintained and automated by Jeff, and is worth it in itself, having evolved very little in the past 25 years.
As you can tell, I'm a huge fan of it. The characters are well written, the story is consistent, there are sometimes story elements linking back to arcs from several years ago...
If you read and find yourself a bit put off by the geeky aspects (like usage of the word 'kewl' which irritates me for unexplainable reasons), please try to keep reading, as it gets better over time, but you need to read it to understand future references.
There are also a few times where characters will dream, which usually means a parody is coming for a few weeks (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter mainly). I personally never really liked those, but these can be skipped without losing the main threads of the story.
I hope I sold it well !
I like reading stuff on WebToons like Omniscient Reader and I'm The Grim Reaper.
There are some really great Webtoons! What I've read of Tower of God has been great, and for horror fans I'd give a strong recommendation of Sweet Home.
I haven't read a whole lot of TOG but it's on my list for some day
TOG is really good there are couple of arcs where it kinda drags (imo) but it is great overall and they did an anime on it as well.
Also check out The world after the end it is on the same universe as omniscient reader if you haven't already,it has some of the best fight scenes visually.
Yeah that's why I haven't finished TOG yet but I will catch up someday lol. I did watch the first season of the anime but lost touch after that so I'm not sure if they did more.
TYSM for the tip about The World After The Fall, I'll definitely add it to the list.
I've read so many over the ages. I was a huge CTRL+ALT+DEL fan until some of those... unsavory revalations came out about Tim.
I used to love White Ninja but I got bored of it.
8 Bit Theater is incredible if you've never read it but that ended awhile ago.
All I still read regularly now is Penny Arcade and Questionable Content. I really enjoy both although I've been struggling more with QC as of late. Great thread topic, maybe I'll pick up a few new webcomics!
QC was one of my favs for a long time but the theme and direction shifts every few years as the author's values / perspectives on life changed meant that sometimes I felt like I was reading a different comic. If it wasn't in my 'read every day' tab I'd have probably dropped it a while back.
Honestly I read it out of habit at this point. I'm not super invested in any of the story lines it's just part of my routine.
As a longtime fan of Greek mythology, I’ve been quite taken with the story development and artwork of Lore Olympus.
I absolutely adore Achewood by Chris Onstad. The 90’s ClipArt-style drawings takes some getting used to, but the dialogue is just fantastic - every character has depth and complexity and their own voice.
Edit:
I can also recommend Swan Boy
I love achewood. Haven't quite gotten the patreon for new strips yet but I'll probably do it soon.
Questionable Content, Pepper & Carrot, XKCD!
I still read Kevin & Kell, which is a newspaper-strip-style comic that's been running daily since the early '90s. It's about the marriage of a wolf and a rabbit in a world that is initially prejudiced against inter-species couples as a thinly-veiled analog to interracial couples. It focuses on their blended family (each has a kid from a previous marriage, plus their half-bunny/half-wolf toddler), with a backdrop of technology, the internet, and other nerd-adjacent things. Since it's been running so long, reading it from the beginning is like ... I don't know, getting a montage of technology from the past 30 years. The tech in the early comics is almost painfully nostalgic lol.
And then I also read Oglaf, always NSFW, which is just a funny smutty comic about smut with lovely art.
I've been wanting to read more comics, but I never know where to find newer ones since I can't personally stand the Webtoons/Tapas vertical scrolling format, so I'll be happily browsing the suggestions here :)
Adventures with Eggie A new fantasy adventure story with some recorded songs from the creator mixed in.
Slackwyrm Funny comic centered around the hi-jinks of a lazy dragon and his friends.
Girl Genius Long running steampunk adventure with lots of fun characters.
Litterbox Comics Funny and wonderfully drawn panel comic that always makes me smile.
oglaf. for... reasons. and the occasional social commentary
BoneQuest, for identical reasons as you enjoy Oglaf.
I am missing darklegacycomics in this thread. I stopped playing WoW a long time ago but these comics are stil funny.
Oh my, they're still going?? The art has taken a shift since I last read it ...
Ok, I've stopped playing WoW years ago, but this one hits harder than it should!
I recommend anything that is on http://panelsyndicate.com/
They do great work and do not often charge money for them, you can pay what you feel instead.
Adding to this, the Private Eye is absolutely phenomenal. I grabbed both the digital and the hardcover.
BoneQuest followed by Questionable Content. Everything else is normiecore trash.
Is QC still any good? I fell off that train half a decade ago.
Fully agree with your BoneQuest recommendation. Not only do they still use IRC as their primary means of community-building, they also run internet radio live streams every weekend.
HUG-A-LUG-A
QC is comfort food. I like the characters.
The two main ones that I keep up with are Dino Comics which is a webcomic about Anxiety, Depression, and ADHD. A fantastic series for anyone with mental health struggles. Also a similar shoutout to ADHDinos for more directed, but less frequent comics about ADHD.
Then there's The Weekly Roll which is a D&D comic that always holds the characters in universe, but really captures the feel of what player controlled characters would be. It's now on a bi-weekly basis rather than weekly though due to the author having just had his first child.
Many years ago now, I heard someone say that you could replace the caption under every single New Yorker cartoon with "Christ, what an asshole!" and it would be as good. It's been true for every one I've ever seen, and it's been stuck in my head ever since.
Steve Lichman is just trying to navigate life with his monster friends. Hilarity ensues.
Existential comics makes fun of famous historical philosophers and their ideas. No one is safe! One comic per week on monday (often long) and if you're lucky, a blurb at the bottom explaining the joke and the philosophers in it (there are many of these).
Devil's Candy is a professional grade manga about two demon children, their Frankenstein's monster (a girl) and their demon school. It's cute and really well made, but it's sooo slow (due to the artist having to take breaks, perfectly understandable). For example, looking at the release dates for the first and last pages of the last full chapter it seems to have averaged just slightly over one page per week. I usually only look at it a couple times per year.
Goblins is one I have been reading for years. It started in 2005 and Ellipsis has improved her art over the years. The intro page, where that link goes, shows a lot of the growth.
The story follows a group of Goblins that decide to become an adventuring party when they tire of their village being attacked. From this fairly standard start, Ellipsis has taken these characters and shown tremendous growth as they deal with the consequences of their actions and try to find their place in the world.
Currently, Ellipsis is updating a couple of times a month, but there is a decent amount of story to catch up on first.
I can't believe I got through this whole thing without a mention of Penny Arcade or PVP. I don't think I saw (http://drmcninja.com)[http://drmcninja.com/] in there anywhere and that's a really good one.
Is there an iPad app I can use to subscribe to all the webcomics listed here so that I don't have to go and visit every one of them?
I used to avidly read webcomics in the early-mid 2000s but didn't keep up with most of them. But one I did keep up with, and always always enjoyed, was whatever was John Allison's current thing.
He did Scary Go Round, Bad Machinery, Bobbins and others including Giant Days which has been published as an actual comic. All of them cross over with the same characters and town and vibes involved.
For anyone who wants a deep dive... there's over 20 years worth of reading there at this point. Charming British whimsy up your back end.
Years ago I stumbled upon Jim Benton's comics on Reddit - he's brilliant and hilarious.
False Knees. Absurdist humor plus birds – it’s pretty great.
Axe Cop is the creation of 5 year old Malachai Niccole, with art by his brother Ethan. The first installment gives the origin of Axe Cop and his recruiting of Flute Cop, who transforms into Dinosaur Soldier when their mission to decapitate a bunch of dinosaurs results in him being exposed to their blood. This installment is one page long, and sets the mood for the rest of the run.
My favourite D&D esquice comic ist Alderwood, can't recommend it enough.
I really loved A Modest Destiny. It is long since done, and I don’t think it was fully completed, but there are several completed arcs. It’s dumb at times, and has some “of the times” humor, but man is it nostalgic for me. I love the sprite style art, and I liked that it went from simple jokes to fully developed characters.
https://cad-comic.com/
Especially the story arc of Ethan and Lucas
Two Lumps, a webcomic about two cats that's been going on for years now.
Koirakoira, an anxious dog. I identify with a lot of these. Comic strip style.
I've been reading comics since my family finally moved off dial-up way back in 2005. I have QUITE the bookmarks, and have watched many, many, projects die, and a small lucky few finish and even move on to the next project. Shout out to Two Rooks, which I no longer have a link for (I don't think it's even online), and somehow managed to finish despite every setback, sometimes I wonder if I was the last person reading it when it finally ended but that can't be the case because the author said multiple people reached out to her.
I've curated my list and cut out everything that was already mentioned in this thread, though I'm honestly amazed at how little overlap there is. I'm definitely going to be adding all the ones y'all mentioned that I don't read yet, and of course I'd like to second the recommendations for Unsounded, XKCD, Girl Genius, Gunnerkrigg Court, Wilde Life already mentioned in this thread.
My tastes lean strongly towards fantasy, although there's some post apocalyptic and sci fi stories listed too. I do not read slice of life or humor comics and there are none listed, so if that's what you want no need to go through these links. I'm somewhat tolerant of poor art but in my opinion the art of all of these does contribute to the story rather than detract from it, and I specifically call out the ones I think are beautiful.
These are listed in order of my most to least favorite, at this point in time (I shift them around a lot!)
Harbour Master - SciFi comic. I just love the story and all the topics it touches on, and the world and character design are awesome too.
Of Conquests and Consequences - Really great coming of age tale in a fascinating non-fantasy setting. I recommend reading this one through to the latest update, and then reading it through again, as a lot of the early interactions are easier to follow once you understand the characters better.
Tigress Queen - also check out her other comic which is unfortunately on hiatus, Far to the North Low magic fantasy setting, gorgeous intelligent and strong characters.
Widdershins - Steampunk Fantasy with great characters. I also really like her previous DnD comic, Darken. It obviously hasn't aged that well in terms of the art style, but it has a great story and a fond place in my heart.
PhantoMarine - High magic fantasy setting, of course I was immediately hooked on this one because the character shares a name with my online handle, and I love maritime stories (full handle: Phaedra Thallassa), but I'm sticking around for the plot twists.
Tiger, Tiger - another high fantasy maritime tale, this one about SCIENCE and love and terrible gods.
Daughter of the Lilies - another high fantasy about a group of adventures. Gorgeous art, awesome characters and intriguing plot.
White Noise - I think this comic is fundamentally an exploration of intersectionality, but in this case the intersectionality of being queer and being a hybrid fantasy creature, with all the fantasy complexities that brings. Great art, lovely story, and definitely one I come back to every Monday to read the updates.
Rising Sand - I'm not usually one for post apocalyptic but between the setting, characters, and art, I cannot wait to see where this one goes next.
Exiern, you know, I never expected to like this one so much. You think it's an overly sexualized conan-style adventure, and it IS, with far too many cringy jokes about boobs, but it's also a complex story arc with plotting and a sensitive take on how it feels to be trapped in the wrong body.
Flaky Pastry another old classic, a whacky fantasy adventure following a trio of misfit roommates.
The Challenges of Zona - another pretty sexualized conan-style fantasy adventure, but again with a surprisingly complex plot and endearing characters, along with a unique and interesting magic setting.
Carciphona - this is a more traditional manga-style fantasy with gorgeous art.
Namesake - Another one I'm shocked to see not listed here, as this writer/artist duo is the darling of the comics circles I'm in. High fantasy with a high stakes story.
Kamikaze - another post-apocalyptic one, it's just an interesting story that keeps me hooked.
Hel - the continuation of Drowtales by the same team, both comics are what you would expect from a high fantasy adventure about drow, lots of backstabbing and way too many characters to keep track of, a great one to read from start to finish.
Wychwood - high fantasy post apocalyptic setting. Again, I don't really like post apocalyptic, I'm mostly following this one because I LOVED her previous comic Chirault, which is a more traditional fantasty setting and really worth reading (I have the print version!)
The Thief of Tales - similar to Ava's Demon linked elsewhere in this thread, this tends to have single panel updates, although it updates a lot more frequently. I'm not really sure where the story is going, I'm here for the art.
The Storm Stained - this one is really cute, about a little fairy with far too much on her shoulders. Also check out the author's previous completed story, Earthsong.
Journey Upstream - I haven't actually read this one yet, but the artist has two fantastic completed comics, Stand Still, Stay Silent (mentioned in the OP) and A Redtail's Dream
Romantically Apocalyptic - another surreal post apocalyptic story
I'm replying to my own comment because I would like to call out another category of comics.
#The Graveyard
These are comics that I loved, and have not updated in years if not decades. I still check back in every once in a while to see if there's any sign of life. If you are ok with reading just part of a story for what you can get out of it, knowing you'll probably never see the end - I think these are worth it just for what exists now.
There's even more that I have bookmarked but the links are dead. I guess they exist only in my memories, now :(
Halflight - beautiful coming of age story about a drow wizard.
Nahast - nooooooo the link finally died. I guess I'm linking this just in case anyone else read it and wants to talk about it. Man this one was good.
Spindrift - the most GORGEOUS freaking art on the internet, and compelling characters. I am so, so sad about this one, and the reason it ended is super tragic as well.
Flux - post apocalyptic high fantasy. The adventures of a very scary woman as she seeks to find her place in the world.
Rune Writers - High fantasy, a creepy old necromancer and a young runewriter have their spells backlash and go an adventure to fix it.
String Theory - actually this one kinda still updates VERY rarely, but it follows a mad scientist who is seeking to put his life back together after he was framed for murder.
The Punchline is Machismo - a bunch of hard hitting jokes about video games, particularly the toxic masculine characters found in them trying to fit into a normal society.
Galaxion - sci-fi fantasy following the adventures of a lost spaceship.
Red Moon Rising - Gorgeous watercolor style art, complex political drama.
Keys - this one I never really saw mentioned anywhere else, but for some reason I find the story deeply compelling. Unfortuanately, I'll never know how it ends.
Blindsprings - gorgeous art, following story of a bunch of children trying to regain their birthright magic powers in a world where scientists are replacing magic.
Astral Aves - High fantasy with creepy good witches and weird evil knights.
Fey Winds - High Fantasy DnD-style story
Kagerou - I don't even remember what this is about, I'll have to read it again.
Headless Bliss - a demon princess and a story explore the worlds. Coming of age fantasy.
Terminal Lance is a web comic written by a former US Marine and it centers on funny quips about the Marine Corps, with some further educational commentary by the artist. I remember reading then when I was still in and laughing, sometimes wondering if he was watching me! A few times it was spot on to an event that had just occurred in my own military career!
Definitely bookmarking this thread.
I have not read almost all of these. Oops.
Have always enjoyed XKCD, but I'm gonna spend a bunch of time checking the rest of these out.
Aeolys' Rimworld comics
There are lots of great ones on here but I'll list some of mine including some that have been mentioned and hopefully a few that haven't.
Still Active
-Cassandra Comics - Short comics about everyday life, struggling to become a functional adult.
-CommitStrip - About a couple software developers. Some chuckles, but I don’t follow it regularly.
-Diesel Sweeties - Follows a group of young adults and robots, mostly about their love lives. I’ll be honest I lost track of it years ago but I occasionally read a few pages.
-El Goonish Shive - A long running comic about a group of young friends, starting in highschool but recently into college and their misadventures with magic mostly focusing on transformation.
-Gone With The Blastwave - This one updates once every several years at this point but it’s a fun post apocalyptic story following different armies fighting in a ruined city.
-Hyperlane Nomads - A relative newcomer following a group of StarWars clone soldiers. I’m interested to see where the story goes and hopefully Disney doesn’t sue them into oblivion.
-Least I Could Do - Following obnoxious asshole Rayne and his friends, their lives, romance and jobs. It starts pretty rough, both art wise and tone/take on things, but it’s worth sticking out. The writer and author have grown considerably. Warning, lots of NSFW topics and some PG-13 imagery, mostly in the earlier years.
-Lore Olympus - This is a long running reimaging of the love story between Persephone and Hades as well as the rest of the pantheon of Greek gods in Olympus. It helps to have a passing knowledge in their history, but it’s enjoyable without as well.
-Megatokyo - This one is very rarely updated these days, but the archive is fun to go through. Follows the stories of Piro and Largo as they are stranded in Japan. Lots of video game, movie and anime references. Sprinkle in some robots and romance and there's a little bit for everyone here. The art style has improved greatly over the years, but I don’t know if the author even knows where things are going at this point. I’ve accepted that it may never have a logical end but that’s ok.
-Nerf Now - Very NSFW most of the time. There isn’t really a coherent story here, mostly just a regular cast of characters referencing various video games and other pop culture. I don’t follow it regularly, but it’s fun to browse once in a while.
-Oglaf - 99% NSFW almost all of the time. Again no real story here, just individual episodes with different characters in a fantasy setting, generally revolving around magic and sex of course.
-Penny Arcade - I’m sure most people have heard of it at this point. It’s come a long way from where it started but still follows the lives of Gabe and Tycho and mostly about video games.
-Pepper & Carrot - About a young witch and her adorable cat. Updates infrequently, but considering how extremely well done artwork is I’m willing to wait.
-Pizza Cake Comic - Relatively new comic about a 30 something woman, her family, life and cats mostly.
-Questionable Content - About a group of 20-30 somethings, their favorite coffee shop and android friends. It’s been a long run and the author has at times been a bit heavy handed on some topics but I check up on it from time to time.
-Soggy Cardboard - Follows a young mother, her son and friend. It jumps back and forth between them being young children and young adults depending on what scenario the comic is about which can be jarring at first, but I’m still occasionally checking it.
-Terminal Lance - Tales from a marine about his time in the service. Even if you are not familiar with the US Military/Marines it can still be entertaining.
-The Dreamland Chronicles - This is another one that is hard to categorize. It finished many years ago and the old comic can be found out there or purchased on Kindle but has recently been rebooted with a better art style and is slowly progressing, but hasn't been updated in many months.
-The Oatmeal - Not a coherent story but each comic deals with a particular event, or topic. Earlier ones were mostly focused on humor and have drifted more towards addressing issues/political topics in recent years.
-The Perry Bible Fellowship - Another that has been around forever and I’m sure you’ve heard of. It doesn’t update often but it usually puts a smile on my face when it does.
-XKCD - I’m sure you’ve seen ‘those stick figure comics’ around the past few decades. Lots of math related humor that often goes over my head, but explain xkcd comes in handy.
Completed\Dead
-AppleGeeks - Comic about college friends, centered around technology and games mostly. It finished many years ago, but I enjoy a good nostalgia binge once in a while.
-Dominic Deegan - I’m including this one here even though the comic is still technically updating. It follows a long but well done story about an oracle and his friends trying to save the world again and again. It finished several years ago and has continued within the same universe, but I’m not a big fan of the newer story. That said, the first 45 chapters are great. I will warn that the art is kind of rough in the beginning but it gets better.
-Hyperbole and a Half - Comics about a young woman and her struggle with mental illness. I found it communicated things in a way that I didn’t quite have the words for. I would strongly recommend giving it a try.
-id10t comics - Funny IT related comic. Unfortunately the artist has moved on, but they are still good.
-The Wotch - Follows Anne, a very powerful witch and her friends through high school and on many adventures. Anne’s magic tends to focus on transformation, usually changing someone’s gender for a joke. It’s more or less dead at this point.
-VG Cats - Following the lives of several cats, mostly about video games, movies and pop culture.
Other than A Softer World, which has already been mentioned (my fiancé and I even have the books for that comic), my vote goes to the long dead A Modest Destiny and the other Squidi comics.
They’re what got me into webcomics in the first place as well as inspired me to check out Dragon Quest, and the pixel art meets Disenchantment/Futurama humor is still right up my alley. There are a couple instances where things didn’t age particularly well but hey, that’s true for all media.
It’s not a comic I ever see mentioned but I remember it being hyped up back in the day and I don’t think it deserves to be forgotten especially given the influence it had over me. I still go back and read it every some-odd years.
Pretty fond of Quark Comics.
Those little planet comics are adorable.
One of my favourites I don’t see mentioned here, was 8-bit theatre. It really grew in quality as it went on. And has some of my favourite humour in it.