I’m gonna take what bloggers call “the easy road” and just make a list for today. This would be the blogging world’s equivalent of a Brian Michael Bendis comic book…some random words with no defining characteristics mixed in with pretty pictures that someone of far greater talent was able to muster. Excellent!
So, after about 25 minutes of intense research, I give you the deadbeatJONES Top 10 Webcomics in the World list:
Nicholas Gurewitch puts out an often disturbing, always funny strip that will see its first printed collection released soon. The comic is interesting because Gurewitch is able to switch up his styles so easily from strip to strip, allowing for one gag to reflect some sort of wood-cut enlightenment look while the next morphs into something mercifully left out of the children’s board game Candyland.
Three-panel gags created from real photos and cut-and-paste typewriter missives form the basis of Emily Horne’s and Joey Comeau’s work. Subtle and charming would be two words someone may use to describe these comics. I wouldn’t say that, because I’m far too macho. I’m gonna go with “rad” and…uh…”boss.” Yeah.
Ryan North proves that dinosaurs can be funny even when a Canadian writes all their jokes. Every single comic follows pretty much the same format: T Rex asks a question, smashes a house and argues with an other dinosaur. Simple comedic brilliance (though it sounds eerily similar to the format According to Jim used).
The Something Awful forums coughed up this complete and utter mayhem set up in a comic book format. He’s a doctor. He’s a ninja. He’s currently investigating a zombie outbreak that has normal citizens dressed in astronaut gear to avoid being bitten. Oh, and then there’s Bee-Man who’s caught in purgatory.
He’s retarded (in a good way). And poorly drawn on purpose (I hope). But he gets himself into the stupidest situations that you just have to laugh at. Unless you’re a heartless shrew. Or a child who can’t quite read yet. Or the other four people who read this blog.
Scott Kurtz’s magnum opus about the staff at a gaming magazine combines nearly all the qualities I enjoy in online comics reading: geeks, pop culture references and sarcasm. And most of the strips are now available in printed form too, so you can un-jack your head from the grid for a few moments and actually live in the real world.
#4 – Sh*thouse! (via Pipingrad)
It’s been about four years since Phillip Jackson put up a new strip, but even though it’s dead I still think it’s funnier than almost anything else out there. The two main characters are round blobs with tiny lines for arms and legs and yet they manage to be crass and expressive and destructive with ease.
I just stumbled across this site yesterday. The strips start off innocently enough, but the final panels always give you something you didn’t expect. It’s the TWIST that gets you…like saying out loud what you’re actually thinking without feeling bad about it.
This is my guilty pleasure. Unless you’re a roleplaying fan (like Mystery, The Pickup Artist) you might not get some of the arcane references in this comic. This is another one that has been collected in a series of books for your reading ease. I would have shown one of the strips above, but they’re way too big to paste in. Simple stick figures never had so much drama.
Sure, it may seem like a cop-out, considering it’s pretty much known as the most popular comic on the internet, but I like it. I may not understand some of the computer or gaming lingo that they use but I know enough to be able to follow along. Plus, unlike PvP which only covers most of the things I like, Penny Arcade covers them all: geeks, pop culture references, sarcasm, swearing, senseless violence and childish behavior. While reading these strips, I waver cautiously between wanting to befriend the two creators and wanting to punch them both in the taint. And that’s a good thing.
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Order of the Stick rocks! I can’t say enough good things about it.
I think one of the things that makes it work so well is that the author has gone beyond mere parody. The early strips were mostly typical joke strips (although quite funny) which relied heavily on the reader having at least a rudimentary knowledge of Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy cliches. Yet, shortly after it began, the characters began to develop deeper, richer, personalities. The strips, while still funny, no longer seemed to exist solely for humorous purposes, but to actually advance the storyline and deepen our understanding of the characters.
Now, when you read the strip, I don’t think one needs to be very conversant in D&D lore, in its rules or the like. I think its possible for someone to read the strip and simply enjoy the well written characters and interesting plot.
Great choice, Mr. Deadbeat Jones!