Web-Based Comics

Lumpish Scholar writes "The Chicago Tribune (no registration required:-) has this long awaited article on Web-based cartoons and cartoonists. (A couple of Web-based cartoonists put together the recent Berkely Breathed interview, as reported here.) The Trib article mentions some of my favorite online cartoons: Kevin and Kell, College Roomies From Hell, and Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet (now in dead tree syndication and online here). Other sources: Keenspot, hosting service for forty online strips; Planet Cartoonist's list of the top 100 online comic strips; a similar list from Big Panda; Yahoo!'s same-day-as-the-papers strips; King Features; Comics.com, home of Dilbert (a.k.a. Dilbert.com), Peanuts (Snoopy.com), and other United Media comic strips, and cartoons from the New Yorker; Plan 9 Publishing, bringing online comics to dead trees near you; oh, yeah, and let's not forget that other online strip." I just wish Gary Larson would come back.

Comments

Sluggy Freelance

[Kletus Cassidy]

How could they do an article onWeb comics and leave out Sluggy Freelance. That's the funniest and most innovative of the online comics I've seen and I've read most of the ones they listed.

penny arcade

[redhotchil]

don't forget penny arcade!
©o,,o©©o,,o©©©o,

I see a noticable lack of the one true comic(tm)

[bmetz]

http://www.yellow5.com/pokey/ and since pokey is updated about once a month these days, keep an eye on: http://www.bitterfilms.com/anesthetics.html for pokey-meets-redmeat fun.

sinfest

[Anonymous Coward]

here

Don't forget...

[Ron Harwood]

Dr. Fun, Goats, Bob the Angry Flower and Too Much Coffee Man.

Re:Don't forget...

[Hanno]

And Keith Knight and Carol Lay (Yay!)

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Re:Don't forget...

[Temporal]

And Sluggy Freelance (long, complex, and interesting story arcs, which are hillarious to boot), Penny Arcade (extreme funny), Player vs Player (more fun(ny) with gaming), Sinfest (offensive and funny), and Adventurers (hillarious -- but only if you play console RPG's)! There are so many awesome web comics!

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Re:Don't forget...

[webrunner]

Thanks for the link, by the way.
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The web is reinvigorating comics.

[Heidi Wall]

Picture this. It is 1970. You want to be a comic drawer. You do it in your spare time, and perhaps do your comics for a couple of fanzines and so on. You have an art degree - you are well qualified. What options do you have? Your only real option id to start sending your portfolio around all the major magazines/comic books/ newspapers and so on, in the hope of being accepted for one. However, this is a competitive environment.

Today, however, you can set up your own page and appeal to the viewers directly. If you are succesful, you have your own cult of fans and people start taking notice in the serious press. The web has created an alternative career path for the aspiring cartoonist - even if you are unsuccessful, you can still be noticed and get your work out there.

Also, the freedom from commercial pressures means that todays comics are much more innovative than they once were - the cartoonist is free to create whatever he wishes, without interference. The modern comedic tradition, informed by Saturday Night Live, Monty Python and other such surrealist shows means that the modern comic can be downright bizarre.

This all holds fairly well with the subversive traditions of the comic. The web is reinforing those traditions and bringing them to the fore more than they were.

This is a golden age for comics - they are being reborn.
--
Clarity does not require the absence of impurities,

Re:The web is reinvigorating comics.

[RayChuang]

I absolutely agree! :-)

Comic strips like Kevin and Kell, Sluggy Freelance, MegaTokyo, and several others could not exist in the world of the syndicates because they often have subjects that the syndicates would reject outright as either "violating standards" or too obscure.

It really is a rebirth of the comic strip.

Randy Glasbergen

[egor duda]

I enjoy his site (www.glasbergen.com) for almost a couple of years now. He's posting a new cartoon each day, and sometimes his pieces are really good.

Don't forget Bobbins!

[SpinyNorman]

http://www.bobbins.org/

Lets not forget the multitude of manga based comic

[jandrese]

There all all kinds of comics out these days where the art and story exceed anythign you will find in the newspapers:
Sinfest
Explotation now
MegaTokyo
And for the 18+ crowd: The Thin H Line
Of course I'd never expect a major newspaper to carry anything positive about the Thin H Line. :)

Down that path lies madness. On the other hand, the road to hell is paved with melting snowballs.

Dont forget Fooker and Ki in Gpf-comics.

[cOdEgUru]

I found gpf-comics which is about a group of geeks at a small software company. With regular snide remarks against Microsoft and other references and the usual geekiness makes it quite interesting.

What, no Sluggy?

[Greyfox]

Can't believe you missed Sluggy Freelance Seeing as how it's an option on a slashbox and all. That's www.sluggy.com for you goatse.cx paranoid.

Re:What, no Sluggy?

[Phrogman]

No kidding. Sluggy is an awesome cartoon. I am highly addicted to it, and enjoy it far more than userfriendly to be honest.

Re:What, no Sluggy?

[RayChuang]

I'm surprised that Sluggy Freelance was not mentioned, either.

Remember, Sluggy Freelance has been around since August 1997, a veritable old-timer in terms of online comic strips. I believe it came out about the same time as the first User Friendly strips.

The only major online comic strip older than Sluggy Freelance I know of is Bill Holbrook's KEVIN AND KELL, which (I think) was originally distributed on CompuServe a little bit more than ten years ago.

Best place for dead tree comics online.

[eschatfische]

It's impossible to beat the Mercury News' online comics personalization engine. Most of the dead tree comics out there, only the ones you want to see, same day as the papers, in color! Free registration required, as they say.

I love web comics, but the problem I have with them is that I don't read them on a "daily basis" like the dead tree comics, so the ones with an ongoing storyline or character development lose a lot of their "flow." I like the "one day at a time" feel of something like Doonesbury or the kickass newcomer The Boondocks. When you read 'em all at once, it just doesn't feel right to me.

Other great online strips: the ones at Salon, especially Tom the Dancing Bug and Story Minute. And how could I leave out the deranged genius which is Space Moose!

The world hasn't been the same since Word.com got destroyed by their fish-oil selling masters. However, if you Google long enough, you'll find the old archive of Maakies still online.

Eschatfische.

Everything Jake

[Eloquence]

Well, here's a plug for one of my favorites. It's developing into a really weird storyline, but I like the drawing style. Read it from the start to appreciate it. Many of the other ones I like (ThinHLine, Sinfest) have already been mentioned. Oh, and I don't know if it qualifies as an online comic, but Exploding Dog is neat. I go for the emotional stuff.

And if you really have too much time, check out The Bench, a comic by the readers. Reading the backlog will take you a few years, though.

Now, to the people who have Paypal accounts, start giving something back. A dollar won't hurt you, but it'll help them.

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Gary!!!

[grovertime]

Seriously, where is Gary Larson? I think we at the slash followed by the dot should make a concerted collective effort to get him to come out of retirement to at least pen one more gem poking fun at the bleary-eyed, squirrly, odd open sourcers.

Great moments in science: Einstein discovers that time is actually money. (Larson)

1. 
   what the?
   

WHat?! No Scott McCloud?!

[LionKimbro]

I have a hard time respecting an article on web based comics that doesn't even mention the work of Scott McCloud, easily the person who has put the most thought and effort into the web as a medium for comics..!

Go check out Scott McCloud at once. The article we just read is under-researched.

obComic Plug

[ruin]

I've read a lot of online comics, and I've gotten tired of most of them. It's really difficult for a comic to remain fresh and funny over a long period of time.

Exception: Superosity. Chris Crosby is a freaking genius.
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Subversive comics

[el_chicano]

For politically subersive comics you can't beat Lalo Alcatraz's work. His cartoonista.com has some of the most politically incorrect cartoons found on the net. Lalo's more general political satire site at pocho.com is also hilarous...

On a more serious note, Brazilian artist Latuff has some political cartoons critizing the handling of the Zapatista uprising by the Mexican government (in Spanish).
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!

Great Comics On the Web

[LionKimbro]

I should have included this with the last email... These are awesome links.

First, some from electric sheep, a very socially conscious, interesting, and humerous collection of comics.

• The Guy I Almost Was - everyone who works with technology and OpenSource/Free Software should read this, to get a sense of how some of our idealistic roots came.
• Rush Limbaugh Eats Everything - Rush Limbaugh does Reality shows, and decides to eat... The LAST Spotted Owl.
• The Jain's Death - An insightful and beautiful story on a Jain's lives.
• Overheard at a Rave - A cute story about a daughter who takes her father to a rave with her.

Here are two Scott McCloud links. Scott McClouds greatest works, unfortunately, are not online: Understanding Comics, and Reinventing Comics. Get them at a comic store near you, or at BarnesAndNoble.com. Here's some of his online work, which are of exceptional quality:

• I Can't Stop Thinking! A meta-comic, also by Scott McCloud. Very interesting ideas are expressed here.
• Scott McCloud's "Hearts And Minds" - not my favorite online comic, but a good taste of Scott McCloud's web form, doing things that could *NEVER* have been done in print. (Such as the falling scene in Week 3.)

Finally, Unicorn Jelly, for those who love science, mathematics, and anime. Be sure to check out the alternative time lines, and the powers of ten map of the universe of tryslmaistan.

Interesting site

[Cheesemaker]

there are a few interesting comics online at http://sequentialcomics.com/index2.htm

The print version has some of the most interesting themes I've seen in a long while. I don't remember what exactly is on the web version

One word: syndicates

[BeanThere]

The syndicates have done to comic strip art what the record companies have done to music. Family Circus is to comics as Boyzone is to music.

A worthwhile read is a speech given by Bill Watterson (creator of Calvin and Hobbes, who would not "sell out") called The cheapening of the comics.

Re:One word: syndicates

[K8Fan]

Family Circus is to comics as Boyzone is to music.

It's not as if the net hasn't tried to help this situation. The classic Dysfunctional Family Circus would take a normal, horribly unfunny Family Circus image, delete the original banal caption and invite visitors to add their own caption. The best of these, chosen by editors (people who had submitted many funny captions) would be added. This went on for 500 cartoons before Bil Keane's lawyers shut it down.

Re:One word: syndicates

[BeanThere]

It's not as if the net hasn't tried to help this situation

Yes, it does seem that the Net has been slightly more useful for cartoonists than it has for musicians. Dilbert is probably one of the most well-known examples - none of the syndicates wanted to publish his original Dilbert submissions, so he published them on the Internet. The syndicates were interested after Dilbert became a success.

Re:One word: syndicates

[BeanThere]

Strange, I remember reading something about the history of Dilbert done by Scott Adams (I think it used to be on the website but I can't find it.) He tells how he submitted to a number of major syndicates, all of which (including United Features, as I remember) rejected him. He had scans of the comic strips he submitted, as well as the responses from the syndicates, some of which said 'the humour is good but you should hire an artist'. I couldn't remember all the details, but I saved it somewhere. It definitely did not, though, just "require one submissions package". I'll have to see if I can locate that article. My netscape in Linux seems to hose itself whenever I go to dilbertzone.com.

Newpaper Syndication = Holy Grail ?

[Isaac-1]

This is exactly the kind of article I would expect in a newpaper, implying that web based comics are just there to try to become newspaper comics. Ike

What about foxtrot?

[Zipper123]

What about foxtrot? www.foxtrot.com great comic

Re:What about foxtrot?

[PurpleBob]

That's a print comic which happens to be published on the Web after a two-week delay. I hardly think that counts.
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Obfuscated e-mail addresses won't stop sadistic 12-year-old ACs.

UNTITLED.GIF

[Tom7]

Maybe you will like the very strange untitled.gif , part of the comic soviet of underground keenspot-rejects?

Big Blue Room crisis

[Alien54]

Ack!

I go out into the Big Blue room to be retro, and do some shopping in this place called a store, and when I get back, what do I see?

Anyhow, my two bits of webbased strips:

Sabrina -(mirror here) - Life as a dedicate Amiga user, etc.

Vinny The Vampire - Almost everyone is a hollywood classic monster of one sort or another. But other wise it is a more or less "normal" world.

Supermegatopis - the worlds largest open air insane asylum

FreeFall - Space Opera Lite

GeekComics - 'nuff said

Whatever happened...

[grappler]

Anyone know what happened to the Dilberito? I never have seen one at a convenience or grocery store. Did that fail?

Clever javascript comic strip creator

[Gray]

Comic Strip Creator

You just entry your text, pick your chracters and backgrounds and pow..

Sadly, doesn't work in Netscape though.

Re:Clever javascript comic strip creator

[Ryano]

"Sadly, doesn't work in Netscape though."

Nor does it work in MSIE on the Mac, apparently.

PVP?

[maj1k]

come on, people! check out PVP, my favorite online comic besides penny-arcade.

Online Comic Strip Downloader

[penguinboy]

My program, dailystrips, automatically downloads web comics so that you don't have to visit several different websites.

Re:Online Comic Strip Downloader

[Lumpish Scholar]

My program, dailystrips, automatically downloads web comics so that you don't have to visit several different websites.

There are sites that do this via CGI, too. I deliberately didn't mention them in the submission, because they short-circuit whatever ad revenue these artists are making.

I'm not saying you don't have the write to write or use such scripts. I'm saying there's an ethical decision to be made here.

Re:Online Comic Strip Downloader

[Chester K]

There are sites that do this via CGI, too. I deliberately didn't mention them in the submission, because they short-circuit whatever ad revenue these artists are making.

I did something like this a while back, it's still around, but it's fallen into a bit of disrepair since I don't have the time to update the scripts much anymore. Last I checked, it correctly indexed 70 or so comic strips.

You sign in with an account, and it keeps a list of strips you want to "subscribe" to, and it remembers the last time you've read each of them. When you log in, it presents a link directly into the archives of each of your subscribed strips for every new strip since the last one you read.

It's ad-revenue friendly, since it doesn't bring over the images, it links you to the full archive page, ads and all.

If you like Far Side, then try Dr. Fun!

[antdude]

http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/

:) I believe his cartoons are online only and he still makes new ones!

Does Larson have Far Side cartoons Web site?

[antdude]

I could never find official Web site. Does he have one with his cartoons or is it only on hardcopy prints? Thanks.

KeenSpot also hosts KeenSpace

[strredwolf]

KeepSpot doesn't hold 40+ comics, it hosts hundreds through it's KeenSpace service! I'm hosted there myself.

--
WolfSkunks for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";

Trib's listed strips; more of my favorites

[Lumpish Scholar]

The Trib picked a few strips as a survey of the field. No such list would get everything good. The links I added were meta-sites and mega-sites, not individual strips.

Having said that, here are some more that might appeal to fellow Slashers:

o Goats: nominally a couple of Web developers, mostly about ... oh, never mind, just read it. PG-13; your mom might not like it.

o Freefall: A captain of a starship (that's only flown once in the history of the strip), his robot sidekick, and his furry engineer. SF meets Dilbert in a kindler, gentler way.

o GPF: life at a software development company with an unfortunate name.

o Help Desk: life at the tech support desk of a software megacompany named Ubersoft (with products such as Nifty Doorways and Tactile Basic).

(The last two recently had a crossover, a pretty common occurence in online strips.)

o Acid Reflux (previously here): vaguely-D&D-ish strip about a young god trying to restore the universe her sister abandoned.

o Mega Tokyo: a couple of American gamers stranded in Japan.

o Real Life: a couple of American gamers who know they're comic strip characters.

o Schlock Mercenary: light SF strip.

All have complete archives back to the first strip, so you can catch up at your leisure. Enjoy!

Web comics and alien abduction

[Lumpish Scholar]

Anyone know why so many Web comics have alien abduction themes? I've seen it in Kevin and Kell, College Roomies From Hell, Cool Cat Studio, and maybe Alice. Roomies, now known as It's Walky!, is now entirely about aliens. What gives?

Moderate this one up!

[GlobalEcho]

Moderators, please moderte the above up. Scott McCloud's thoughtful books on comincs are amazing, and arefascinating even to non-fans.

PlanetCartoonist's Top 100 list...

[Chester K]

...apparently doesn't have much turnover at all. My strip was #2 on the list six months ago when I removed the link to vote for me on the list from my site, and today I'm still hanging in there at #8, despite no votes in the past six months.

I still bring 9 to 10 thousand hits a day to my site, but something tells me if you can go six months and only lose six places in the list, there's a lot of dead strips in that "Top 100".

politicalcartoons.com

[Speare]

A daily collection of political cartoons from around the USA, and also some world news, can be found at politicalcartoons.com.

hulagaglgl

[underwhelm]

There is only one online comic worth reading. I try to read it aloud every day (along with several back-episodes) to my girlfriend. I rarely amuse her, but any self-respecting, easily amused geek will find something to enjoy.

If you're disappointed that Watterson's gone...

[CJ Hooknose]

http://ozyandmillie.org/ is a great replacement for those who crave a "Calvin and Hobbes" fix. I'm surprised that the article didn't mention it--despite the author's comments about getting syndication, it's almost as mainstream as "Kevin and Kell" and should appeal to anyone who liked Watterson's stuff. Ah well, they couldn't mention every strip that's worth reading, and that strip just recently moved to Keenspot. The early strips are a bit uneven, but everything from series 5 on is definitely worth your time.

I know I'm not alone in getting more laughs out of 9 or 10 online strips than I get out of an entire page of newspaper strips. Sure, they might be worried that "Sinfest" or "Sluggy Freelance" might offend some people, but as recent MTV/network TV events like "Jackass" and "Survivor" show, the people at Huge Media Coproations know that offensiveness sells. Bah, let them ignore the goose that's laying golden eggs... I'll be viewing webcomics every day and buying merchandise from the ones that are really nifty.

Re:Space Moose

[johnycanal]

How could you have missed the classics on how to manage a business. These give Drucker a run for his money. Recruiting
Motivating
Managing

Other Strips

[ackthpt]

Others which have been on the web for some time:

Alex's Restaurant

Bruno (which has been on the web for at least 5 years)

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