8-Bit theatre

Utilizing the sprites from the original Final Fantasy game Brian Clevinger has created this popular comic that starts off retelling the classic game, but eventually moves into his own story line.  The story kind of reminds me of a Jackie Chan movie, forget about it, you're just here to look at the colorful pictures and enjoy the well choreographed verbal sparring.  Be prepared for the gaming references, they go back to the mid eighties.  I guess it'll make the vets feel kind of good about themselves.  Then again, it's not like square changed it's RPG template over the course of 2 decades. :p  This comic also includes what I consider to be one of the finest examples of breaking the 4th wall ever, if not just because it's actually weaved into the story.

Started: January 3rd, 2002.

Ended: I don't know, it's probably foretold somewhere in revelations.

9th Elsewhere

Usually I have to think about a comic a bit to state an opinion on it, but this one went on the links list after reading just the first few pages.  It's a great two person job where the creativity of the comic is it's own subject (at least it started as such, before long it was the sole project of artist ).  It's a strangely cute yet sincere plot of one writers debate with self accomplishment, and the manifestations of that esteem.

Acid Reflux

Swords and Sorcery epic that takes place inside the gas bloated belly of the universe - no really.  Not sure if this'll ever be finished, but that's the other edge to the serial web comic I guess...

Started: Oct15, 1999.

Last update: Aug. 4, 2002. The drawn story was never completed, but the scripts for the last parts were posted on the website.)

Alex & Ilia

Yeah, so the first few comics are all about the human guy and his sex life with a reptilian furry that's twice his size... ...yeah.  It's still better than another comic about college kids.  It gets a story eventually, so don't worry.

Started: September 28th, 2003.

Ended: November 14th, 2004.  Just as adventure was starting...

Alice

I feel strange putting cute little Alice right under Poe's monstrosity... ...Oh well.  I kind of think of this as "The Wonder Years" of web comics.  Half of it takes place in the fantasy land that is Alice's head, but a lot of it stems from realities influence.

Started: June 25, 1999

Ended: Sporadically ongoing.

Dec 24, 2003 (sporadic updates)

Alpha Shade

A curious comic.  The day I found it I went through it's archive of 63 pages from the previous year of being live and decided 3 things: 1. The art was amazing.  2. The art was somewhat groundbreaking in that it was one of the few comics to be done entirely in flash paint and 3. Not much had happened in the last year.  Really, as great as the production values are and as wonderfully detailed as the world itself is, don't expect a lot to happen over a long period of time.  It's mostly the story of a single battle within a war with characters who would be maybe too easy to describe.  While your there, make sure not to miss the humorous behind the scenes 4-panel about the author himself.

Amuse Me

Another comic you wish would be updated more often, but wasn't.  It ended on March 23rd of 2003 in a somber manner with about 30-40 pages.  It wasn't the wittiest thing around, but this girl really knows how to control a pencil.

Sometimes I wonder if I should remove mention of comics with no site left.  But you never, know the archives might pop up somewhere...

Antiwang

See that image to the right there?  That's an entire Antiwang strip.  And considering the strips have little to do with each other, there's really not a whole heck of a lot for me to describe here...

AppleGeeks

I followed a link from MacHall to this place, and rightfully so.  You'd almost swear it was the same artist at first, but it's still good enough to stand on it's own.

Ashfield Online

If only all our college teachers were like this... ...although the comic has never shown any students, so I guess that means we'd all be gyping a the mall, or maybe he killed them all, eh, whichever...

Started: Jan. 25th, 1999.

Ended: Feb. 28th, 2003

I read: It goes by so quickly, why stop?

Sep. 26th, 2005.  Holy crap, Ashfield's BACK!

Atland

Comedy fantasy.  It's slow to update, follows a story that probably doesn't have a destination and seems to be made by people running 640x480 resolutions, but it's still quality humor, and I suppose that's what matters.

Avalon

Similar to It's Walky, both in style and subject matter.  The main difference being a lack of an extra terrestrial plot line, it's all real world here.  Sometimes I wonder what it is that attracts people to the melodramatic, do they enjoy the similarities to their own lives?  Maybe they enjoy comparing notes to the bygone years or maybe they even enjoy it as a fulfillment of something they perceive passed them by.  Whichever, Avalon is the story of so many highschoolers (indeed I personally had trouble keeping track of who's who initially) doing the things highschoolers do, if a little idealized.  Creator Josh Phillips apparently suffered from a slight bought of depression so I wouldn't be surprised if the more authentic scenes were born of great concentration (Is it strange to mention such a thing in the links page?).  Oh yeah, watch out, they're Canadian too. :p

Note: Avalon was never finished, though on the site you'll find a text summary by the author of how he intended to finish it.

Started: November 8th, 1999.

Ended: August 24th, 2004.

I read: All of it.

Baby Blues

I don't have kids.

And at this point, I'm not sure I want them...

Blackaby

I'm not giving this comic a mineral rating because I did a 15 page stint as a guest artist for one of the story lines.  Needless to say that should be a sign I have confidence in it.  This brainchild of writer Rachel Astruc and regular artist Viger Persinger follows the demon Blackaby, who'd rather be living the "good" life if it weren't for all the trouble that seems to follow wherever he goes.

If you're interested, my art arc, "The Village", starts on this page.  I've also put more info in a Misc. Art entry.  (That's Viger's art above)

Bobbins

Publishing, sometimes reality, sometimes fantasy, nearly every cast member is a former glue sniffer, some bed jumping... ...the hardest part is trying to imagine them all with British accents. 

Started: September 21, 1998

Ended: May 17, 2002

I Read: All of it.

Brainslug

A boy, a girl, a talking alien rabbit who lobotomized his vet to get out of a good neutering.  I like Andre-Guy Landry's writing style, the story is swift and free of fat, the jokes are equally paced without mercy and have that kind of right angle logic that I find particularly attractive.  Good for a weekly read.

Bunny

The bunny is bunny.  The bunny is zen.  The bunny IS.

Butternutsquash

Gots to love the Toronto. 

Buttlord

Spoof of DBZ, with homosexual undertones... ..er, overtones... ...well, blatant gay jokes.  Good 2 tone drawings.  If you don't get any of it, you haven't seen enough Dragon Ball Z episodes.  It's only a matter of time before they do a Buu spoof and the "inside Buu" jokes push the audience into complete head shaking.

Cascadia

Fantasy comic.  Fighter, mage, ranger.  Questing.  Talking horses.

Chibi Cheerleaders From Outer Space

Featuring antagonists so horrific I dare not feature them on this page.

Chopping Block

Ever wonder what a comic strip would look like if uncle Jason had bought Norman Bates a charcoal set for baby Jesus day?  Probably something like this.

Clan of the Cats

Okay, so you've got the girls from Apartment G-3, one of whom is a natural witch with Judge Parker for a grandmother who in turn owns a cat who acts not unlike Garfield.  It's a serial adventure in the spirit of Prince Valiant with a hint of the x-files.  Got it?

Started: June 20th, 1999

Ended: Ongoing

July 11, 2004.

Coffee Brain

This comic is actually done by a guy named Robert Laughter.  So there you go.  Too bad updates were about as sporadic as updates could possibly be.  I mean, I still hold the record, but still.

no.100

College Roomies From Hell

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Queen of crossovers and contrivance: Maritza Campos.  Awe at her ability to weave strips together to the point of it being a non-daily daily, and tremble at her ability to get every cartoonist from the east coast to the west coast to blend story lines.  Never before have you witnessed such a cycle of spousal abuse like violence culminating in happy endings, never again will you see a college that only seems to have 6 students... ...maybe they go to Ashfield's university.

Commander Kitty

It's funny how irreverence can work so well with some, like here, and so badly with others.

Copper

Though obviously the musings of an adult, Copper chronicles the episodic moments of a boy and his dog against colorful backgrounds.

Count Your Sheep

One of the cuter comics out there.  You will want a sheep of your own after reading the first strip in this series about a little girl, her mother and their mutual imaginary friend.

Courting Disaster

Brad Guigar's Courting Disaster is like the more inhibited and cautious cousin of Sexy Losers.

Crap I drew on my lunch break

Crap some girl drew on her lunch break, and bearer of one of the better web-comic titles ever.

Started: July 30th, 2003.

Ended: Ongoing.

April 21st, 2005

Ctrl+Alt+Del

Games, violence.  Yeah.

Started: Oct 23rd, 2002.

Ended: Ongoing

Aug, 15, 05

Cup of Suffering

Evil, evil comic.  Lot's of irreverent (there's that word again) humor.  Was slow to update, but artwork was clean and colorful, humor certainly had it's style.

Derek Kirk Kim's Comics

One of the truly humanizing voice in the webcomics field.  Even though it's most people's goal it's kind of too bad he's got one foot in the professional arena.  His short stories are kind of spaced out.

.

Diesel Sweeties

I never really got into this comic, but I think I understand why so many love it the way they do.  At least I claim I do, don't be mean by asking me to actually try to explain said attraction.

Dilbert

For office workers everywhere.  Not that the creator works in an office after his great success.  I wager he's got friends that feed him stories.

Started: A long time ago in a...

Ended: I'm sure a fate of accursed syndication awaits.

Dinosaur Comics

I'm posting this here for the amazing fact that somehow this comic has utilized the same one page worth of frames over and over again for years now...

Dire Destiny

Fantasy story.  The comic has an interesting look, with the artist demanding a straddling between the soft detail of pencils and the blackness of ink.  Basically high contrast non line art scans.

Started: February 24th, 2002.

Ended: Ongoing.

Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire

The scarf might make you think it's a Harry Potter fan fic, but stick with it.  The art isn't the greatest, but it conveys the characters and settings well.  What'll attract most people is a more logical sense of humor than you'll see in so many off the wall web comics.  Granted the puns which the characters are at least aware of can run thin sometimes.

Started: May 21, 2002.

Ended: Ongoing.

Sep. 02, 2004

Earthsong

Fantasy comics have faired especially well on the web.  Digital of course won't change your content, but it must be good for artists to be able to use as much space in as many colors as they like, which every stylish fantasy story seems to require.

Eat Kitties

...?

Elf Life

I'm going to get hate mail for this (if I ever get mail), but I couldn't finish this.  I think I actually went into the archives a year but there was something about the layout (and to a lesser extent the writing style) that I just couldn't get a grasp on.  Although looking at the more modern strips it seems to have become less cluttered.  At the very least this sad admission of mine is proof that the way you draw does have a psychological effect on people.  A different effect for each person of course.  Like Everything Jake beware some pages of pure text.

Emerald Winter

Combining a color and a season has too long been the title strategy of the literary world, now it belongs to the webcomic continent!!!

Errant Story

The second opus of Michael Poe.  Expect much more of a story structure than Exploitation Now, even though it has a similar vixen/animal thing leading duo (I wonder if they'll still be the main characters by the end of the story).  Be afraid of the forum patrons, they have a somewhat over inflated sense of purpose and will spend page after page typing verbal molestation "initiations" for new people at the drop of a hat.

Everything Jake

Kind of like if the X-Men had gone to a regular college instead of Xavier's school.  Nicely drawn but I personally find it infuriating that the characters rarely make eye contact and are usually just heads in blank boxes.  They also tend to look like underwear models, and some days are.  Be ready for a few full text pages from author Mike Rosenzweig.

Started: April 10th, 2000.

Ended: Ongoing.

I stopped reading: Right around the time I realized the Author would probably rather be writing novels than drawing comics.

Exploitation Now

Exploitation of women and animals and the stranger connections that make you laugh, and 1 of only a few comics I've read through twice and not just to look at the great art.  This comic might actually be a good place to start if you are new to web comics in general, learn to swim by just diving in.  Beware of quick shifts in main characters, story lines and a sudden ending, though Poe's disciples have prophesized the day their original messiah will return [Probably not until ES is done].  Some call it potty humor, but it's got intelligence and I've seen much more vulgar comics.  Maybe one day I'll get drunk and link them here...

Extra Life

One shot jokes, mostly about gaming and popular culture.  Make sure to check out the Real Toons sub-comic if your into realism first person shooters, especially if you remember the UT mod Infiltration.

Final Fantasy Excursions

Sprite comic about characters from old Nintendo games.  Similar to 8-bit theatre.  I should probably do some digging and find out which came first so I could make fun of the other one sometime.  Why the artist didn't bother to also take the time to rip some backgrounds I'm not sure, but it's still an ok diversion once you've read through all your other book marked comics for the day.

Started: Unknown

Ended: Sep. 06, 2004

I stopped reading:  ...not sure I started.

The Forge

Never finished, and personally I think Dean kept all his better ideas for his main strip, Real Life.  This one was some kind of promotional venture for a retail swords site he apparently had done business with.

Started: ...can't seem to find it now...

Get Fuzzy

Conley is covering two demographics here by owning both a dog, and a cat.  That, my friend, is what you call business savvy.

The Girl in Black

Rose Crowe proclaims "read it while it's there" on her blog.  So, I guess you might as well.

Girls with Slingshots

Girls with Slingshots and Wapsi Square are a lot alike.  I started reading them both at the same time and was apparently in the mood for a female-centric comic where common life problems are handled with snark and, spunk?  Is that the word?  Either way, both thrive on entertaining observational insight and a healthy, but sporadic amount of boob jokes.  One difference is that one's written by a guy and the other a girl, how long did it take you to figure out which is which?

Started: ?

Girly

By the same author of "Wendy", seen below, this comic is just spur of the moment.  I can tell you that the frame to the right isn't really a good example of it's humor, the fact that the next 4 frames after this one are just the man staring at the muffin while the women shrink away, is

Her!

Her!  Pig!  ...is the normal one?

H.S. Kim's Comics

There are actually three seperate pieces to see here.  Crazy Kimchee is basically the random thoughts of the very irrational parts of the author's mind.  The Second (and main attraction) part is Kung Fool, the story of two female roommates, one smart and tempered, the other loopy and slightly naive... ...hmmm... ...well anyway, in this comic they get into the business of cheap action cable shows.  That's the twist.  The 3rd part is Glendale Manga club, which takes the same character designs to different settings, that's had a pretty short run though.  While the layout of the sight may seem disjointed at first, bear with it.  Kim is fairly technically proficient and has been one of the earliest artists to utilize the flash format that ensures smooth line work and brings a certain immersive factor to his stories.  He's also some kind of obsessive compulsive about linking an ungodly amount of miscellaneous sites in each update, you could visit for that alone.  It just so happens that Kim is also the author of the single greatest character drawing tutorial ever.

Homestar Runner

You might have seen this one before.  Flash animations based around simple characters in short features.  Some people will tell you to go to Stongbad's E-Mail section and look at no20, "spring cleaning" first.  I think you might as well work your way up to it.

How Not to Run a Comic

Not really a well of creativity so much as Mr. Bob, Phalanx, Terotrous and mcDuffies sitting around scrutinizing examples of what NOT to do... ...in case you couldn't tell by the title.

It's Walky

Started off as a college life strip, ended up with secret organizations battling alien hoards and a giant metal monkey.  [And it wasn't until I wrote that sentence that I realized how WB channel worthy this story line is...]

Started: September 8, 1997 (As "Roomies").

Ended: Main story concluded, but still updating.

I stopped reading: ...never.

Kevin and Kell

Man did this thing just keep going and going and going.  Anyway, what if Disney made a web comic?  It might be a little like this.  But at the same time Bill Holbrook is able to weave the various story lines into each other to form a universal coherence.

Dec. 3, 2003

Konsekai:Swordwaltzer

A good example of modern computer coloring can elevate already good line art.

Krakow

I'm sure there are some plot threads pulling together here, I'll tell you when I find one.  Short spurts of story grant the best humor, nothing better than sending a succubus to be converted to Mormonism.

(The image to the right is actually from the writers other comic, Marilith, about assasins.  But it's got better art then Krakow, so... :p )

Least I Could Do

The majority of jokes about in this comic center around the character of Rayne Summer and his promiscuity.  Admittedly the strip took a dive when the author attempted to make him (relatively) sympathetic by having him actually care about someone.  Some characters just don't deserve to be redeemed, we don't want , we don't want to know Hannibal Lector's motivation.  But that's just my opinion and the strip hammered on, with decent results.

Lethal Doses

I'd tell you about this, but it's not updated often enough for me to remember what the hell happened.  Art by "Hotsoup" Lem, who also did the images for Fargo's Daily Victim column.

Started: March 8th. 2002

Ended: Aug 28th, 2003.

...aaaaaand holy crap it's back on june 19th 05?

Life's so rad

Gets a few points for simply having the word rad in the title.  Ms. Marie likes to incorporate elements of her real life (to many critics annoyance) and seems hellbent on expressing her "indiness" or something... ...makes me think of hippies.  The archive runs like a musical reference catalog and if anything says something about the comic it's that she puts a mini-mug shot of herself up with every post.  She likes Elliott Smith, that's a plus.

Started: Well...

Ended: It's kind of hard for me to say now Corey!

Little Gamers

Do you like abrasive hippies?  Good, you're gonna get them, and a huge side dish of leet speak.  It's a little slice of irreverence brought to you by Christian Fundin and Pontus Madson (Who thankfully returned after a short "hiatus".  I say thankfully not because of any contributions he might have made to the comic, I don't know who does what, but because it's always good to have a guy named Pontus on your side).  Maybe he wanted to be back in time to launch his "Gamers for peace" program in response to the US invasion of Iraq.  Gamers, leechers, slackers, dealing teh fluff and probably awaiting trial on a few counts of manslaughter, these guys basically throw whatever they feel like at the screen.  There's no real artistic flair to be seen here, although there's certainly a kind of Southpark like allure to cute little vector characters abusing each other, especially when some of them are ninjas.  You can't go wrong with ninja.

Started: December 1, 2000.

Ended: Ongoing.

no. 833

Lulu Eightball

Launch those rockets baby.  Launch them into your four panel non panel self exploratory goodness.

Mac Hall

College students, some gaming, some of the best artwork around by Ian McConville (who is one of the few artists around that can be forgiven for slow updates).  Writing: Matt Boyd, who'd probably rather he had a job in journalism.  Sometime around the beginning of the 2005 strips Ian started doing something that actually hadn't been done well in web comics before.  He started sampling color from photographs so even though his characters were comical in proportion, their lighting and color shades someone echoed a more realistic universe.  You don't see that combo very often.

Started: Alpha.

Ended: Omega.

Mac Studios

Hmmm, how do I describe this... [that makes it sound like some kind of mindf*ck, but it was just a regular comic-and that makes it hard to describe.]  After a while the site was taken down, left only with a quote from Oscar Wilde: "It is better to have a permanent income than to be fascinating."  You might still see mentions of it in the blogs of other comics.  I think there's a crossover strip in the MacHall archives.

MegaTokyo

One of the better drawn comics out there, Megatokyo belongs to the Japloitation genre (is that a word?  If not it should be).  Piro's style is obviously manga influenced, but somehow manages to be something new and unique [translation: all the character's heads look like lemons].  The earlier times (before co-writer Largo departed and "trackball / shirt guy" Dom filled the space) the story had less of a serial novel feel, but it's always been good.  Beware reading the news archives as looking through old comics, before Piro had all day to work on the comic, he was prone to late/missed strips, and had the most highly honed apologizing skills of any man in the universe.  So much so that it eventually became the staple joke about him for other strips.  But it's probably for the best or else they'd still be poking fun at young girl thing... ...Also be prepared for a different kind of pacing.  A Single day in this world can take up a hundred strips.

Started: Aug. 14th, 2000.

Ended: Well considering that the earth will fizzle out in a few billion years and it takes one year to get through a day in Megatokyo time...

Minding My Own Business

A little frustration, a little music, a little love.

Miss Dynamite!

I think in this case "Miss" puts it under M, and I'm sticking to it!  Also, gratuitous lesbians, gratuitous violence, you know who you are.  I haven't actually read much of any of this, but I think I got the drift after a few pages.  See also Sirkowski's Deviant Art page.

Mondo Mecho

Two roommates starve between jobs in a future society sustained by androids.  Kind of slow going.

Morrowind: More time killed

Short, funny adventure of the Mac Halls artist's travels through the game of Morrowind.

Movie Comics

They've been accused of being vulgar, sexist, racist and anarchist, and it's probably all true.  But if it makes me laugh I'll put it here.  Kind of the Penny arcade of the movie world.  And unlike some comics like Movie Punks, this one actually concerns movies.

Started: March 1st, 2002.

Ended: December 2003.