Best Webcomics I’ve Found

Categorized | Nicholas Johnson, comic books

Tags | online comics, webcomic, webcomics

Best Webcomics I’ve Found

Posted on 05 June 2008 by Nicholas Johnson

The internet has brought us all into the information age. One could argue that in spite of the increasingly stupid things that people do, our society is relatively more informed, creative, and knowledgeable. How else would somebody have thought up Youtube, Myspace, and Bittorrent? For practically everything I loved as a kid, there is an online equivalent. File sharing replaced having to swap tapes and “dubbing” them with a dual cassette player. Myspace replaced handwriting letters to friends, family, and pen pals.

The same goes for print media. I can’t remember the last time I bought a newspaper for anything other than the Sunday sale ads. I just read it online. Now when I was a kid….I couldn’t wait to read the newspaper comics, or funnies (as my grandmother calls them). And of course, you can read these online now, too. In my search for archived versions of Marmaduke and Family Circus, I have stumbled upon a variety of webcomics. Most of them are published 2-3 times a week. Some of them are good. Some of them are total crap. All of them give me the same “Sunday morning” feeling. By that I mean, some are classics, like Garfield and Peanuts; while some make no sense, like Apartment 3G.

I have decided to spread the gospel of some of my favorite webcomics for all of you Feasties out there. This will be the first of a series of postings with my recommendations for webcomics. Let’s just call it THE BEST OF WHAT I HAVE SEEN….SO FAR.

The bronze medal goes to MULTIPLEX by Gordon McAlpin. This webcomic follows the exploits of the employees of a cineplex and throws in the author’s views towards movies that (at the time of original release) are in the theaters. I like this webcomic for a variety of reasons. The biggest one is because I used to work at a movie theater when I was in high school, so I can relate with most of the characters. Also, the characters have the distinct division between the ones that are only working there until they get a better job, graduate from school, or are there during summer vacation and the characters that will still be working there 10 years down the road. McAlpin even has the foresight to write characters out of the comic permanently or for appropriate amounts of time. The supporting and recurring cast add to the enjoyment of this soap opera-ish webcomic. BONUS: There is some deep-seeded sexual tension that lingers throughout the entire run.

The red ribbon (for 2nd place) goes to WONDERMARK by David Malki. Honestly, this webcomic deserves to be my 1a selection. It is really well written and the concept is nothing short of genius. Each comic generally stands on its own. There are recurrences of some characters, but it is not necessary to have prior knowledge of any backstories in order to enjoy each comic. I can only imagine that David Malki was the illegitimate son of Gary Larson (The Far Side) and a Victorian era printing press. Just read the comics, you’ll see what I mean. There is a certain beauty in obscure humor with a vein of irreverence. I strongly recommend setting up a new folder in your bookmarks for you to bookmark your favorites. There will be a lot of them.

Finally, (regal trumpets sounding) the best of the best of what I have seen so far. I’m talking about a little webcomic known as QUESTIONABLE CONTENT, by Jeph Jacques. As far as webcomic soap operas go, this is the best. All of the characters are twenty something and incredibly relatable. Martyn and Faye are the primary focus, but the comic delves into the lives of multiple characters. My personal favorite is Hannalore. She is hilarious. Jacques isn't coy about his musical tastes either.

The entire run of QC makes sure to impose the author's musical tastes in the same fashion that a chainsaw lets a tree know it likes to chop it down. Unlike MULTIPLEX, QC laughs at it's obvious sexual tension between the characters. I will admit, I was somewhat surprised with who Dora ended up getting with. I wont lie, I was literally like, "Whaaaaat?!?!" I highly recommend starting at the beginning and working your way through all 1,100+ issues/episodes (I don't know what you're supposed to call them). Considering that Jacques puts out 5 issues a week, it's hard not to get hooked.

Obviously, I have not “read” every webcomic out there, but I have read enough to be able to determine which ones I like compared to which ones I do not. I strongly encourage any of the Feasties to give me any recommendations for ones that are worthy of inclusion in a future webcomics posting.

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3 Comments For This Post

Scott Says:
June 5th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Thanks for these! I’ll give them a look. The online comics I read most frequently are:

XKCD (http://xkcd.com/)
Sinfest (http://sinfest.net)
Piled Higher and Deeper (http://www.phdcomics.com/)
CK Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 11:39 am
“Myspace replaced handwriting letters to friends, family, and pen pals.”

I don’t consider that progress.
Nix Johnson Says:
August 27th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
That statement was simply stating that technology has provided a different means of conducting those activities. I took neither an affirmative, nor a negative stance. I was just making a point that would segway into the rest of my article.

OH and you have poor judgement in hairstyles.