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rowyn ([personal profile] rowyn) wrote2008-05-22 02:03 pm
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What's Your Favorite Webcomic?

I'm looking for webcomic recommendations! I think I've told my whole friends list my own favorites already, but since it seems unfair to ask this question without answering it: my two favorite comics are Schlock Mercenary, by Howard Tayler, and Girl Genius, by Phil and Kaja Foglio.

Girl Genius has certain advantages to my personal tastes over Schlock Mercenary. It's a gaslamp fantasy, with romance and gorgeous Victorian-esque clothing and dashing adventurers and sexy men and women and airships and mad science and steampunk and humor and lovely artwork by Phil Foglio, whose art I've always enjoyed and -- well, in short, it's got a whole bunch of things I really like in a story. I expect I would love it even if it did not have many of these things: I love Buck Godot and I loved Foglio's Stanley and His Monster and Angel and the Ape and, well, I've liked pretty much everything Phil Foglio's ever done. Including Xxxenophile. But Girl Genius is especially dear to me.

Schlock Mercenary has far fewer natural advantages in winning my enthusiasm. It's a science fiction comic with some hard-sf elements, about mercenaries and wars and betrayals and explosions, and none of these are things I particularly love in a story. (I do like sf, but I generally like fantasy better, especially eclectic not-Tolkien-esque fantasy). Howard Tayler has worked very hard on his art in the many years since he started Schlock, with the result that I'd now describe it as "nice". As opposed to "abysmal", which is where he started. >:) In all seriousness, Tayler has a solid cartoony style now that serves the story well and is attractive. But it doesn't have the rich details that Foglio piles into his work and that make Girl Genius so delightful and rewarding to look at.

Schlock does have a couple of advantages over Girl Genius. First, my Schlock fix is there every day, not just three times a week.

Second, [livejournal.com profile] howardtayler and [livejournal.com profile] sandratayler both keep blogs. So do the Foglios, for that matter, but I don't chat with them via LJ and I do talk to the Taylers occasionally (they even read my LJ! Squee!) so I tend to think of them a bit more like friends rather than just "people whose work I follow". On the other hand, the reason I met them on LJ is that Schlock was already my favorite comic, so I don't think this predisposed me unfairly to like it. :)

Anyway, they're both great comics, consistently funny and entertaining, with well-thought-out stories and great character development. I recommend both highly.

But what I really want to know is: what is your favorite webcomic? And no listing all 30 or 40 that you follow, either. I mean, you can list them all if you want, but if you pick just one or two then I'm more likely to take a look. :) I don't read that many comics right now -- I thinned my list considerably the last time I changed computers -- and I'd like to add some new ones to it now. Feel free to repeat a recommendation someone else made already -- the more people like a given comic, the more likely I am to investigate it, too. You needn't feel obliged to give all the reasons you love it, unless you want to; a link suffices for a plug. :)

[identity profile] bikerwalla.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
http://LFGcomic.com -- A World of Warcraft story, told from the Horde side.
http://overcompensating.com -- with occasional appearances by the g0d of 1nternet, equal parts furry, star trek fan, star wars fan, and tomb raider.

[identity profile] nkcmike.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
User Friendly, and General Protection Fault (although the latter is not as funny as it used to be). And, come to think of it, I believe YOU put me on to both of these.

[identity profile] nkcmike.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 12:02 pm (UTC)(link)
In re GPF, you might be interested to know that Nick and Ki recently got married.

[identity profile] terrycloth.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I think my favorite's still DMFA (http://www.missmab.com/index.php)...

Yet Another Fantasy Gaming Comic (http://yafgc.shipsinker.com/) has a lot of naked halflings... er, I mean, things going for it.

[identity profile] argonel.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 08:32 pm (UTC)(link)
I think you might like Freefall. http://freefall.purrsia.com/ It has some sci-fi elements to schlock mercenary, but without the mercenaries and violence. The characters and storyline are fun and the artwork is average to above average quality for a webcomic. It is consistently updated on a M-W-F basis.

[identity profile] argonel.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
2 more now that I'm home and have my bookmarks in front of me.

The Devils Panties: It's not satanic porn we promise, by Jennie Breeden http://www.thedevilspanties.com/

XKCD, http://xkcd.com/ This one is very geeky and updates on a M-W-F schedule.

[identity profile] verminiusrex.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
http://www.blastwavecomic.com/

It's updated infrequently, but very funny.

[identity profile] beetiger.livejournal.com 2008-05-22 09:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I am just completely in love with Slow Wave (http://www.slowwave.com/) Surreal dreams from readers, lovingly illustrated in four panels.

[identity profile] octantis.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/index.htm

This is less a single comic and more of a nerd nexus, containing the comics Nodwick, Full Frontal Nerdity, Backward Compatible and PS-238, the latter being my favorite among them. I posted about PS-238 before, but I think it bears mentioning again. It's just really nicely written and the art is somewhere between charming and serviceable... Mr. Williams has the artistic chops to do the moods and drama he's looking for. Nodwick and FFN are fun, Backward Compatible is more for video gamers but I enjoy it, and there's an added bonus of William's blog, which always has interesting things and links.

[identity profile] octantis.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
All those comics are by Aaron Williams, I forgot to add. Nodwick, Backwards Compatible, and PS-238 update on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Full Frontal Nerdity is weekly. It's a lot of material to do with that frequency, but Williams pulls it off consistently. I don't know how the man does it, my hat is off to him.

[identity profile] wildcard-47.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 05:11 am (UTC)(link)
My current favorite webcomic is XKCD -- it starts out a little slowly, but evolves into being both cutting and thoughtful. Most of the subjects/stories only need one strip, but there are several multi-strip arcs throughout. Some of the comics are sillier than others, but generally they're very good.

Here's the main link: http://www.xkcd.com/ .

[identity profile] wildcard-47.livejournal.com 2008-05-23 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, nice!

My roommate and I actually have XKCD comics plastered all over the door to our room. From the hallway, it looks like three Sunday papers exploded over it -- but we always have so much fun putting those strips up. :)

[identity profile] narile.livejournal.com 2008-05-24 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Of the ones not yet posted, I enjoy Irregular Webcomic, Doc Rat and The Whiteboard.

[identity profile] telnar.livejournal.com 2008-05-27 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
One that no one has posted yet is Casey and Andy (http://www.galactanet.com/comic/)

[identity profile] octantis.livejournal.com 2008-06-09 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Was going through my webcomics lately, and I forgot how good this one is. http://www.lackadaisycats.com/

It's set in the prohibition era and centers on a speakeasy. It updates somewhat infrequently, but the art is gorgeous and worth the price of admission just by itself. (Admission is free, but... nevermind that!)

I think you might like it.