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I'm sure the masses will be delighted to quip about this left and right. Hell, this submission is an example. Gotta tell everyone about that new fauxretro that's mostly comic sans, primary colors, and synthetic ugly.

Oh wait, if that's original and novel then SBAHJ is a screaming display of creative brilliance that would drown out Ragnarok.

Luckily for everyone (except Adobe) Flash is in [its] death [throes] in 2017

Not quite everyone. Flash is still very important for people who read and study the existing corpus of electronic literature, much of which was created using Flash. Whether that was a good idea (not really) is irrelevant; that's what the authors used, and we need an implementation to continue reading those texts.

Some of that Flash-based e-lit has a large audience, and some of it is culturally significant. This may be a niche application, depending on your point of view, but it's not an insignificant one.

That said, of course I'd like to see Flash replaced by an open-source player (or converter) that's well-designed and tested, with unnecessary features removed or at least disabled by default. I'd like to see far less Flash used on the web. The existing security disaster that is Adobe Flash certainly needn't continue in order to preserve access to Flash-based e-lit. But getting rid of Flash entirely is not a Good Thing either.

homestuck at MS paint adventures started in the mode of a collaborative interactive novel. It was updated 5 times a day by the author with input from all the players/readers, although as the audience grew beyond the thousands it was not possible to maintain this method going forward.

It may we worth checking out if you have not seen it yet.

I was hoping someone would bring up Homestuck. This webcomic never ceases to amaze me.

Yes, I would say it is "Best overall web comic series of 2012". Despite the young age of the characters and some of the younger themes (which are hardly the main points of the story at all), it is by far one of the most brilliant things I've ever encountered. The plot development and how everything connects over time are absolutely incredible.

Concerning the humor, it's certainly based on "randomness". But if you're a fan of that, then Homestuck is a great place for it - especially due to the unique development of its earlier acts. Seeing as Homestuck is written as if the reader is playing an adventure game, the author forced himself to use reader suggestions as the "commands" given to the characters, so the story often takes some very random and very funny twists.

The art in itself is also incredibly unique. Andrew Hussie, the author, does a great job of making things look shitty where it works (for example, the internal webcomic Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff, but does a wonderful job of making key scenes look fantastic in contrast. His art style is also something that develops the comic - the common lack of arms on characters and the idea that the entire comic was made in Microsoft Paint (where the name MSPaint Adventures comes from) certainly add to the work.

Relevancy? Well, considering the awfully strange universe that Homestuck takes place in, the literal plot is hard to relate to at all. But there are a huge number of characters that all have entirely different personalities, and every single one is characterized extremely well. With this in mind, the interactions between characters are relatable for a huge number of people.

I have never recommended anything more than I have Homestuck. It's a great story full of brilliant twists, exciting moments, relatable characters and fun. Not to mention that it has a huge community of (mostly) excellent people reading it.

I agree. Homestuck fits every category.

Always love XKCD - The giant mega-comic strip Drag and Click from this year was wow!

Homestuck is pure evil genius. You have to start at the beginning. Trust it.

Stardrop has a lot of heart and written brilliantly. Also need to start at the start.

Union of Heros German Photocomics. Love this strip!

Decrypting Rita, the sci-fi comic I write and draw, has certainly been the most relevant to me this year.

It's about a robot lady who's dragged out of her timeline and scattered across four separate realities. And a couple of hive-minds, one of which intends to assimilate the whole Earth. Also of course it's about the other versions of her - a normal lady in the here and now, a dragon living with her elf boyfriend and girlfriend, and a wizard journeying to the center of her world of floating islands. I try to keep it pretty fast-moving and action-packed despite it swerving into "what is reality?" territory now and then, though the page update rate has slowed to a crawl as I deal with fulfilling the Kickstarter I ran for the first collection of it.

Homestuck is the best web comic around, IMHO. Andrew Hussie is consistently pushing the boundaries of what a webcomic "should" "be" and making this crazy pile of transcripts, animgifs, and the occasional game or animation work as a coherent whole.

In terms of art, Bittersweet Candy Bowl is pretty great. Although the earlier chapters are simple line drawings, the later chapters are beautiful made in watercolor.

Homestuck is the other webcomic that I follow regularly, although one might argue that the high point of Homestuck came last year with the release of the [S]Cascade animation.

In terms of art, Bittersweet Candy Bowl is pretty great. Although the earlier chapters are simple line drawings, the later chapters are beautiful made in watercolor.

Homestuck is the other webcomic that I follow regularly, although one might argue that the high point of Homestuck came last year with the release of the [S]Cascade animation.

http://www.mspaintadventures.com/

Seriously, flash/gif-based webcomics like Homestuck have been doing this for a while.

The coolest looking animated gifs I've ever seen are on mspaintadventures.com

There is no enought 4chan memes to explain how alone this guy is right now.

Personally, I'd use this Homestuck meme for that

The plan ruse was a distaction!

Although it's not quite the same, you might enjoy MS Paint Adventures, along with the fan adventures in the forum, and other similar things around the net. They've mostly given up on actual branching stories, but they're essentially CYOA stories drawn a panel at a time based on user input.

If you have the time to read through it all, Problem Sleuth is an excellent example, if not one of the best.

Although it's not quite the same, you might enjoy MS Paint Adventures, along with the fan adventures in the forum, and other similar things around the net. They've mostly given up on actual branching stories, but they're essentially CYOA stories drawn a panel at a time based on user input.

If you have the time to read through it all, Problem Sleuth is an excellent example, if not one of the best.

Trolls? In my Slashdot?

Here's my two cases for Flash:

Homestar Runner
MS Paint Adventures (the current story, Homestuck, has some amazing timed animation/music segments done in Flash)

Now, yes, Flash could be replaced with someone else. But, as of right now, the animations are done in Flash, not anything else, and I'm still going to visit them (Well, maybe not H*R if they keep not updating, but the long-awaited End of Act 4 for Homestuck ought to be awesome.) There need to be the tools to do the animation work that are as good (to the artists/etc.) as Flash, not just the capacity to play them back.

I'd like to add an awesome little webcomic I found a few months ago: http://www.mspaintadventures.com/

It's not finished yet. It's been going on for more than a year now, and tells a ridiculously convoluted story. The fans compare it to Lost in its complexity. And the kicker? Most of the storyline is fan-generated and fan-driven. Which is why it meanders about.

The current Homestuck involves Flash and sound and large amounts of animated GIFs. If you'd like the storytelling "purer", just panel pages, you can see the older completed story "Problem Sleuth" on the website (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=4).

Mod parent up +1: MSPaint adventures.

I am going to use the word 'graspulate' frequently in conversation from now on.

Personally, I prefer COMPLETE BULLSHIT

(Reference, for those who don't read MS Paint Adventures. You should.)

Is it just me or am I noticing more cites to the Lovecraft mythos?

This article.
This one.
Then I head over to this site and see this.

Is there a sudden resurgence in Lovecraft as an Internet meme that I'm unaware of?

Is it just me or am I noticing more cites to the Lovecraft mythos?

This article.
This one.
Then I head over to this site and see this.

Is there a sudden resurgence in Lovecraft as an Internet meme that I'm unaware of?