Webcomic of the moment

[Dracos]

You know, I read a lot of webcomics.  So do most here.

I even think we may have done this before.  But then that's probably because I exist quantumly at too many fora.

Anyhow, randomness of the moment...a thread topic where I shall ramble on a webcomic each moment.  Possibly more.  Possibly less.  A moment is a really short unit of time after all and doesn't include the awesomeness that is very long run on sentences of doomed plushie lords.  Something like that.  Why hasn't anyone made a comic starring Liddo?  He's totally set for it.  Get him in his star van.

Randomness off!  To kick this off, I'd like to talk about Girl Genius, the latest of Phil Foglio and his wife who've been doing comics forever and are perhaps best known for their works in Dragon magazine "Phil and Dixie".  Notably, he has a pretty distinctive/unique art style as far as I can say compared to most others that I've read.  It's not manga styled, nor is it really what I've seen in the comic books often.  It's pretty nice and relaxing to look at all said and goes well with the story.

What is girl genius?  it's a story that, in their own term, is about adventure, romance, and mad science.   A world where 'sparks' (Genius inventors), rule with their mad science, battling it out for territory and inventing new devices.  This is a land of myth and monsters, held technically in the medieval era, but also an era of clockwork machines, robots with guns, and all sorts of anachronistic devices.  Enter Agatha Clay.  Genius spark.

Or complete ditz.  Hard to tell at first, given everything she touches falls apart, and she's the bottom of the pecking order at her school.  Disaster strikes though, as her prized pendant is stolen, and the mighty Klaus army occupies the city, taking her protecter..as her inborn talents begin to manifest once more.

The series has been in print for a number of years now, but the authors decided whimsically, to go ahead and try out this whole web shtick thing.  So they're releasing pages online of both beginners (year 1 on) and advanced (year 3 on) classes simultaneously 3 times a week.

mmm, sluggy next.
Not enough sluggy chatter these days.  Despite shadow rabbit guardians.

Dracos
Randomrandom...hatesdocumentation.

[Dracos]

Sluggy.

Is it not nifty?  Worship the comic!

Or something like that.  Sluggy is one of those comics that've been going for a very long time.  Eight years I think now.  It's positively ancient as far as webcomics go.  It's also one of those (not so) rare comics that's run as a business.  Huh, much like the last one actually, though Pete Abrams doesn't have this long history in print comics proceeding him.

It follows a small group of wackos.  Their friends.  Their adventures.  Parodies, long stories, short jabs.  Pete is, at his heart, an Entertainer.  Anyone who's heard him speak knows this.  "You guys aren't enjoying my webcomic?  How can I make it more enjoyable for you guys?"

Personally, I'm a rarity.  I like pretty much all of his stuff.  I don't like Ian McDonald, which did saturday's for a spell, but other than that?  It's neat stuff.  I think he does epic well.  I think he does short comedy well.  And most clearly, I think he's a master at interweaving plot threads  over 5-6 year periods.

Right now, he's doing some pretty second year style comics.  We've got Bun-bun.  We've got Torg.  We've got Kiki.  And we've got crazy roadside antics as a group of shadow guardians tries to annhilate them.  Six days of kookiness a week even as the story moves towards wrapping up a long arc that's been set up for years.

Saturday's are currently handled by the talented Clay who is filling a void that was formed in sluggy through the depth of storyline.  Saturday's forget about all the dark stuff that happened.  Takes things back to a lighter time and keeps with the lighter comedy by someone pretty talented at that.

dracos

[Jeram]

I first came across Phil Foglio when playing Magic cards.

He is pure genius.

-J

[Jon]

Gunnerkrigg Court

Main page
First page of the comic

Gunnerkrigg Court is the adventures of Antimony Carver at a British boarding school. The school itself is located in a large industrial-looking complex, easily the size of a city. (In this regard, it is much like Gormenghast castle, or the castle in Ico.) For a science-centric school, though, a whole lot of mythological things keep happening...

Fun and inventive, and the art style is great. I don't want to say any more than this, because you really deserve to come at it without preconceptions. Trust me, it's genius.

[Dracos]

Goblins

http://www.goblinscomic.com/

Goblins is a D&D parody comic that started out with puns and grew from there into sort of an epic adventure, leaning more towards comedy than drama but having parts of both.  Like most D&D comics, it plays with the fourth wall a bit and much of the earliest humor is derived from such.  That said, it plays well to a concept that is rarely tackled and tends to be very enjoyably sympathetic.  Its tagline "Life through their eyes" says it all really.  Goblins in his universe are a good deal more capable than what I'm used to, but they are also significantly more human in such.  Brushing on a few standard serious themes that go along with it, it follows a set of goblins whose tribe has been savaged by standard level one adventurers and their break with tradition to go off and become 'the first goblin adventuring party' complete with generic cover style posing.

So what's good about it?  Its a nice fantasty comic and the writing is pretty good, pleasant to follow with characters that are easy to care about and like.  There's a few going plots, not all involving the goblin mains and generally painting the picture of a living fantasy world complete with people with clear motivations beyond "I'm good, you're evil" and whatnot.  The art is generally excellent, as is the donation comics he runs to help pay for the site following a goblin that tempts fate, dying if he fails to get enough donations.  So far, he's had no fear of that though.

Anyhow, I've been enjoying this and encourage folks to take a look.

[Merc]

Big Ears is the fucking most awesome level 2 goblin paladin -ever-. =D

On the subject of Sluggy Freelance, I used to enjoy that comic. I do not do so anymore. Have not for a couple of arcs in the past. It is sad.

[Dracos]

Yeah.  Its kind of switched genres.  again.  I haven't found any good laughs in a fair bit.  Still read it hopefully.  The five day a week setup really keeps it in said arcs even longer.

[Merc]

Comment if it turns awesome again then, that way I can just ignore it completely for now. As it is, I'll occassionally look in, give a quick browse, get bored, forget about it. If you're following it though, you can keep me updated without me having to bother. ^_~

[Dracos]

Sure thing.  It's part of my daily habit so yeah.

Dracos
Riff makes a shitty romanitc tension character

[SabreMau]

<Dracos> Hey, Dannycat, why don't you add lackadasiy to the SR webcomics thread?

[Dracos]

Bah, ye got to talllk about it for a second.

Anyhow, Lackadaisy is this comic involving gin running.  Sort of 1920s.  Pretty neat, though it apparently moves at molasses speed.

[SabreMau]

The artist works on other stuff aside from the comic, though. Actual high-quality artwork stuff, like this or this.

[SabreMau]

Puppy Kitten Grand Adventure! Surprisingly well-plotted-out.

Story 1:
http://www.divshare.com/download/3601458-1fa

Story 2:
http://www.divshare.com/download/3601459-cc4

[Merc]

Resurrecting thread, because, why not? =)

Just finished reading Petty's Nuzlocke comic, which I thought was pretty neat (it's complete too).

For those unfamiliar with nuzlocke webcomics, they're webcomic adaptations of pokemon runs, in the case above it was one of Leaf Green. There's a little challenge to nuzlocke runs though, you're only allowed to capture the first pokemon you face in each area, and if a pokemon faints, it's considered 'dead' (you have to release it).

Here's the original webcomic, which started as a Ruby run, but is currently moving onto a Fire Red run. This site also hosts a few other comics of other people's nuzlocke runs. Quality and humor varies from comic to comic, I personally enjoyed Petty's the most, though the original is kinda enjoyable too.

It's kind of a neat challenge to take if you play the pokemon games too, and haven't heard of it before. Not like you -have- to draw a webcomic to go along with your game run after all!

[Dracos]

Huh, I haven't seen dannycat around in ages.  Nostalgia.

Huh, that's kind of a neat concept.  Will have to look at it.