26
votes
Webcomics recommendations
My list of comics I read over a cup of tea in the morning is looking a little stale so I wondered what webcomics people like to read on a regular basis. I'm pretty flexible about content types, the only real requirement is regular updates. If I can jump in without reading a shedload of back issues that would be better than not, but for a good series I don't mind putting in some time catching up.
Here's my current list:
Daily-ish updates
Couple of updates a week-ish
- Mr Lovenstein
- Perry Bible Fellowship
- My Gums Are Bleeding
- War and Peas
- The Jenkins
- False Knees
- Extra Ordinary Comics
- Sarah's Scribbles
- Loading Artist
- Buttersafe
- Poorly Drawn Lines
- Cyanide and Happiness
- Wondermark
- XKCD
Pretty (ok, maximally) NSFW, but Oglaf is fun. Magical fantasy world built entirely around sex jokes. The first half is semi-long-form stories, but then it transitions to one-offs, updating weekly.
Came to suggest Oglaf.
Occasional they have the rare SFW comics, like Fountain Of Doubt and Lair of the Trapmaster and one of my all time favorites, Skulls
For the rest of you, what are your favorites?
Some notes for any potential lucky 10,000's:
The site itself is not searchable from search engines by design.
The archive index, accessible from each comic's Archive link, is highly NSFW.
There is an alt text for each comic, like xkcd.
When a comic has a full lower right corner, it means it is a multi comic short series, and you can click next to read all of it. Like this SFW comic, Aftermaths
Fountain of Doubt is a certified classic.
Also, if you want NSFW dialogue without (usually) NSFW visuals, may I suggest BoneQuest? It’s been running daily since August 1998.
Some GenX techbros uploaded years of IRC logs (mostly containing dick jokes) to an algorithm that puts them through Microsoft Comic Chat and the surreal art of Jim Woodring. Its humor is not for the easily offended, but you’ll really get it if you get it. No need to read the archives: they don’t worry about continuity in any form.
Further, its old Wikipedia article (back when it was still named Jerkcity) was legendary. Unfortunately, it got deleted for abusing the citation system (it had over 200 references, all of which were links to example strips). Attempts to recreate it are swiftly deleted for WP:NOTABILITY.
Northerner is something I think about regularly, and it’s many years old. More recently, Aftertaste was good. Unfortunate that the apprentice doesn’t seem to be coming back…
TIL there is an Oglaf search engine.
"Croquembouche" is a favorite Oglaf comic, at least in part because I've had to make croquembouche and it's such a PITA that it deserves what happens in the NSFW panel. Send this to your friends for the holidays!
Also, the "Hoopla!" series, with the memorable line, "Clearly fun is not for you."
Freefall has been getting three updates a week since 1998, following the antics of an unlikely starship captain, his robot friend slash sidekick, and an uplifted wolf engineer who plays the straight (wo)man to the other two.
Girl Genius has been going on since 2002, following a cast of Sparks - mad scientists - in a steampunk-ish alternate universe, with Agatha Heterodyne being the main character and the eponymous Girl Genius.
The Order of the Sticks started one year later, in 2003, albeit without a set schedule for upgrades. It follows the shenanigans of group of adventurers in a world which follows the rules of D&D 3.5, and who don't really believe in things like a fourth wall.
Gunnerkrigg Court started in 2005 and has been seeing three gorgeous updates a week ever since (yes, the art gets much better). It starts out in a school, which sees magic and high technology intersect and sometimes collide, following the story of Antimony Carver.
Kill Six Billion Demons has not been updated nearly as regularly, but it's something which needs to be experienced. It follows Allison, a sorority girl who is given a key of kings, and thus thrust between the most powerful people of the universe.
Gunnerkrigg Court is one of the best webcomics ever. I just love how it’s shrouded in mystery without really beating you over the head with it. It’s just the way the world works, and what few people understand it aren’t interested in talking about it. And the author takes excellent advantage of it by completely subverting your expectations several times. You’ll learn about something only for the payoff to come more than a decade away! I wish that I could get more people into it but it’s extremely difficult to explain what the appeal is.
I follow Girl Genius and OOTS already, and I'd like to add Grrl Power to your list, a lighthearted superhero comic. Here's the first fight they got into to give an idea of tone: https://www.grrlpowercomic.com/archives/comic/grrl-power-200-something-finally-happens/
There were a ton of good suggestions in this thread from last year, and personally I stand by all the ones I recommended there.
This is more graphic novel than webcomic but I'm really enjoying Tiger Tiger. It's updated once or twice a week. Great storytelling and characters, I'm literally obsessed with it right now. It's a story of a young noble lady, who steals her brother's identity and his ship to sail across the world to research sea sponges and instead runs into some situations. It has some good comedic moments too.
Another great one for storytelling and characters is Broccoli Soup. Don't be fooled by the cutesy style, while whimsical the story is quite deep as well. It's currently on hiatus but once it picks back up posts get made quite regularly. It's the story of Broccoli who is brought into being by Doris, who is essentially a god of everything (or so we assume) and who insists on everyone and everything needing to be Polite and Good. As Broccoli starts to venture out more and more, eventually their (the character is non-binary) perspective changes over time. If you're getting Coraline vibes from it don't be surprised, that's one of the inspirations. There's even a music video on YouTube made by the artist.
Something more along the lines of PBF in terms of surreal humour is The Other End comics. Updates regularly and there's more if you're willing to support on Patreon.
Finally, for more episodic stuff and if you feel racoons are your spirit animal, check out Raccoon Comic. It doesn't update as frequently (maybe once a month to every other week).
I may edit to add more if I can think of others, there's so many out there!
Edit: adding a bit more info on each.
Edit 2: Another couple of episodic ones that update regularly and are a lot like some of the ones you've listed:
Safely Endangered
webcomic name
Sluggy Freelance. As far as I know it's still going since 1997. Aliens, demons, a maniacal lop eared rabbit, high tech weapons, Santa and black ops elves, a sinister corporation... This thing goes places 😊
It's been awhile since I was current, but The Seventy Maxims of Maximally Effective Mercenaries has lived rent free in my head for decades.
Dresden Codak is good, as mentioned by whispersilk, but 'slow to update' is an understatement.
These are 'done' but I think they're worth reading:
Rice Boy: Rice Boy, Vattu, and Order of Tales are all fun, strange worlds with very nice art. (There's apparently a new series I need to read/catch up on of is)
1/0: Webcomic from 2000 that does a lot of interesting stuff with the 4th wall. Pretty basic, but has the interesting quirk that the characters know the comic will end on strip 1000.
Minus: Neat watercolor comic, has at least one page that made the internet rounds years ago. Think more powerful, generally happier Mathilda.
I lost my bookmarks ~2015 and had 50+ webcomics I was following at the time. I know there's ones I can't remember that are just lost to the ether. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
I feel like Dresden Codak has become the author's personal therapy vent, right down to the protagonist having a relevation from someone being told off for saying art commissions are too expensive.
That seems accurate. It's honestly been awhile since I've caught up because it's so slow, though will probably do that now. I was a bigger fan of the weird stuff before Dark Science.
I tried picking up a bunch of new webcomics this year and to my irritation they kept going on massive hiatuses or having really unreliable update schedules, which made them unsuitable for regular consumption. I sympathize with the artists who surely can't make a living off the comic (or didn't want to? Some of these had beefy patreons) or probably had studies to deal with or changing life circumstances, but it's still frustrating. Older webcomics like SMBC or Penny Arcade (which you listed) remain as reliable as ever.
Here are two recommendations that so far didn't mysteriously stop updating.
Humor Me - The tale of two siblings, Charlie, a girl who attends high school dressed as a boy, and her little but extremely smart brother Lucien, who have been abandoned by their father and unbeknownst to anyone are living on their own. Unfortunately I do recommend reading the back issues. Updates fridays like clockwork (some periods of time it has updated more frequently).
The Little Trashmaid - Fully visual comic (no words) about a mermaid who befriends a human guy (and later his boyfriend). Strong focus on oceanic pollution, very bittersweet at times (mixture of comedy with the revolting reality of how we treat our oceans). You don't need to read the back issues, although you probably want to? Updates twice a month but each update has multiple pages.
Unfortunately the only thing I have to recommend is the exact opposite of what you asked for: a series that has ended and is quite long. I’m only recommending it because I appreciate the story and the art, and don’t have a chance to share it often: Stand Still Stay Silent
It gets pretty dark.
I found one off of Mastodon recently that I haven't seen mentioned in the previous thread or this one!
Rising Sand is a new-ish(?) webcomic with some really good (in my opinion) art, and a really interesting world built into the story. There are several character stories interwoven with a "meta-story" and each other, and it's looking to go some interesting places from what I've read. I like it!
runway to the stars is new and so getting quite frequent updates. IMO very interesting premise of a hard-scifi-style world with non-human characters
Bluechair - assuming you haven't been on the internet for the last 10 years, you might have seen Shen's comics in a meme format, similar to that of Mr Lovenstein.
Safely Endangered - same deal with Bluechair and Mr Lovenstein.
I've enjoyed The Other End as of late. Very clever absurdist humour. Can get crass but never offensive.
Granted, it's been popular on reddit for a good while. Not sure how much good I'm doing by adding it in.
I like awkwardzombie. She makes comics about video games.
For a near dead but still good backcatalog, Id also recommend https://nedroid.com/
The only one I'm currently reading is Sleepless Domain which is sort of a magical girl dystopia comic.
Every so often I catch up on Darths and Droids which is Star Wars reimagined as an RPG campaign,