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Ask Slashdot: What Was Your Favorite Web Comic of 2012?
skade88 writes "It's time to do another year-end best-of roundup! Today's topic is web comics. What was your favorite web comic of 2012? Feel free to use the following categories, or make up your own. 1) Best overall web comic series of 2012. (Any web comic that produced content in 2012). 2) Funniest web comic of 2012. (This one represents the single funniest comic of any web comic series. Provide links!) 3) Best art in a web comic of 2012. (Web comic from 2012 with the most amazing art ever). 4) Web comic that was most relevant to you in 2012. (This one is even more subjective than the others)."
Definitely XKCD!
Best art in a web comic has to be http://xkcd.com/1110/
That is all.
I didn't even read the summary.
Nerf Now was my pleasant discovery in 2012 :)
Yes, some humor can be a bit weird for non-gamers, but you can't just limit yourself to XKCD (okay, maybe you can, but more regular content is better)
Hyperom.com
Who's going to link the relevant xkcd strip?
(my favorites were the what-ifs rather than strips
Christ Muir is teh man! http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
For reliable quality I'd go with Schlock Mercenary. It's not-too-soft sci-fi, consistent and pretty good art, a daily update schedule, very good pacing, and nothing about it annoys me.
Order of the Stick
Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures
The Non-Adventures of Wonderella
Menage a 3
Eerie Cuties
I could list more, but there's five for you. Find the links yourself.
Jesus and Mo
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
1) Buttersafe - http://buttersafe.com
2) Mnage à 3: http://ma3comic.com
3) Bravoman: http://www.shiftylook.com/comics/bravoman
4) Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal: http://smbc-comics.com
By far my favorite web comic, and some of favorites are from this year, like the one below about tic tacs. The link is for the first of a four-part series, so hit next to see the rest. And don't forget the alt text.
http://wondermark.com/813/
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
But I can't post *why* it was so relevant...... **whistles to self**
http://www.theyfit.co.uk/pages/theyfit-comic
Polarbear riding lawyers mother
photo of cash he's never going to see.
EPIC!
http://dementiaofmagic.net/
Top comic "Dondi", created by Gus Edson and Irwin Hasen Distant second "Gasoline Alley"
Then you aren't reading the best web comic out there: Jerkcity
xkcd is great but I gotta throw in for The Oatmeal.
Bravoman has great art, humor, story, and kind of came from nowhere: http://www.shiftylook.com/comics/bravoman.
Like its crazy coloring...don't see enough of that in webcomics!
Not worksafe.
Best overall webcomic series of 2012: Questionable Content http://www.questionablecontent.net/
1 Best: Basic Instructions http://basicinstructions.net/
2 Single Best: too many to choose from
3 Best Art: Girl Genius http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/
4 Most Relevant: Dilbert http://dilbert.com/
In no particular order:
The Oatmeal http://theoatmeal.com/comics
Schlock Mercenary http://www.schlockmercenary.com/
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal http://www.smbc-comics.com/
Girl Genius http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php
I can't decide between the often historical wackiness of Hark a Vagrant and the rocket fueled radical fun at Dr McNinja.
XKCD's Umwelt comic for April Fools 2012, the best comic ever.
Dozens of different comics presented depending on your IP, your browser, your geolocation, and many other factors too numerous to enumerate.
A mind boggling concept, a tremendous amount of work, incredible creativity.
Shout out to Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Tom the Dancing Bug, too. Tom Tomorrow also hits it out of the park on occasion.
It has to be my favorite. It is too bad it doesn't get updated much anymore.
http://pbfcomics.com/
It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
My favorite web comic for several years has been Looking for Group
http://www.sinfest.net/
Carciphona http://carciphona.com/... NavComic http://navcomic.com/... Yeah. I think these two are pretty good. Then there is also Rain over at devianart.
I don't care if I'm wrong. I only care about everyone obtaining something from the discussion.
http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic+index Fantasy comic. Brilliant.
What the heck is a web comic anyway? They're all on the web now. I'd rather see a poll for best non-web comic.
I'd vote for Steve Bell's If... strips as published in The Guardian, but you murkans wouldn't get the jokes. He was also meta before it was mainstream, one of his penguin characters joking in a strip about "the baggy-eyed yanks upstairs" when If... was printed underneath Doonesbury.
Gloriously NSFW. Hilarious.
Why can't I mod "-1 Idiot"?
http://xkcd.com/1110/
End of discussion
1)Schlock Mercenary
2)The Whiteboard
3)Least I Could Do
4) Menage a trois
5)Too Much Information
Alessonislearned.com just came back
http://www.questionablecontent.net/
the most impressive 1) character development 2) character psychic over time.
and over 2 thousands strips...
I just answer everything with Homestuck?
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/
By far my favorite web comic is Troops of Doom. A humor adventure webcomic featuring a mix of slapstick, social satire and geek culture jokes.
http://www.troopsofdoomcomic.com/
Girl Genius
Great art and story
Definitely the best art.
Consistently funny, esp Depressing Comic Week
H.
higher res version.
Imagine if the Justice League met as super-powered children instead of adults. And their gym teacher was Darkseid. And Batman and Superman pretending to be Spider-man with the mouth sound effects (Tchoo!) Its sweet without being over-bearing and hits that perfect note of what it is to be children.
http://jl8comic.tumblr.com/
Well-known it ain't, but the best Sci-Fi story I've seen in years plays out every Monday on Derelict. http://derelictcomic.com/ Great art, great world, great characters.
A few comics have been mentioned several times, and deservingly. If I may add my two cents, however, I would add a few more:
Best art in a webcomic: Loading Artist. Despite it being quite new compared to some of the veteran comics out there, it has shot in popularity this past year and not without reason. Not always the funniest, but definitely the most beautiful IMO. http://www.loadingartist.com/
Most relevant (to me in any case): "The Joy of Tech" by GeekCulture.com. Certainly appeals to the tech-orientied masses and is much easier to understand than comics like XKCD. It might not be as intellectually stimulating, but browsing through the archives is a great way to spend some time and have an easy laugh. http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/
There you have it.
By David Willis.
my favorite is User Friendly, http://www.userfriendly.org/. It's about the inhabitants of a Canadian ISP.
My favorite web comic is Troops of Doom. A humor adventure webcomic featuring a mix of slapstick, social satire and geek culture jokes.
http://www.troopsofdoomcomic.com/
1) Tower of god is by far my most favorite comic of all time. If you ask me Korea is well ahead of the "west" in the webcomic department now-a-days,
In English:
http://www.batoto.net/comic/_/comics/tower-of-god-r1
the official site in the original Korean:
http://comic.naver.com/webtoon/list.nhn?titleId=183559
PS: yes it counts, it is free it is published regularly and exclusively online, it is not manga/manhwa.
2)Funniest? I have to go with go with Scandinavia and the World - although I probably find it funnier than most of the world :).
http://satwcomic.com/
3)best art - that is a tough one as I dont see that as very important. I would pick Meek, good story doesnt hurt either.
http://www.meekcomic.com
I don't expect people to agree with my tastes, they rarely do, but Tower of God makes me feel like a giddy fanboy.
Very clever social and political satire: Tom The Dancing Bug
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."
2012: http://basicinstructions.net/
2011: http://www.explosm.net/
2010: http://xkcd.com/
Brian diarrhea on html formatting at the moment :(
In no particular order I'm currently reading:
1) XKCD http://xkcd.org/ (and yes, 1110 was amazing art even though it's mostly about arcane, subtle or smart references)
2) Dilbert http://dilbert.com/fast (makes actual work seem a little less sad)
3) Lackadaisycats http://lackadaisycats.com/comic.php (guns, alcohol and cats)
4) Unsounded http://unsoundedcomic.com/ (thieves and their pesky offspring)
5) Gunnerkrigg Court http://gunnerkrigg.com/ (a school with mediums, shadows and robots)
Creative and entertaining views and oddities.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
http://www.smbc-comics.com/
Best overall 2012: The God of Highschool, runner up: Noblesse
Best art: The Breaker: New Waves
Best Story: The God of Highschool, runner up: Noblesse
http://depessioncomix.tumblr.com
for cat #4
*** Suerte a todos y Feliz dia!
http://twokinds.keenspot.com/ (be sure to read the one for 2012-12-26 - NSFW? - can't link directly right now because of the stupid "archives" way it uses to make links to past pages)
http://www.vgcats.com/comics/
http://www.xkcd.com/
http://www.google.com/ (you can search for more web comics with this thing!)
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
My first check of the day is on Kevin and Kell, even before slashdot.
1.) Pearls Before Swine ( http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine?ref=comics )
2.) Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal ( http://www.smbc-comics.com/ )
Examples:
* http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2835#comic
* http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2560#comic
* http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2674#comic
3.) Romantically Apocalyptic ( http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/ )
4.) A softer world ( http://asofterworld.com/ )
Do YouTube animated comics count? http://www.youtube.com/user/ZombieSymmetry?feature=g-high-u
These are an animated comic with a Dilbert like take on corporate life for a big Pharma Corp. If you don't know what 5S or Silo's are you just haven't lived!
best online only
1. http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php
2. http://questionablecontent.net/
3 http://www.smbc-comics.com/
4. http://xkcd.com/
and these two are the best of the newspaper comics
1. http://www.uclick.com/client/wpc/nq/ nonsequitur
2. http://www.uclick.com/client/wpc/db/ doonesbury
http://www.viruscomix.com/subnormality.html
Very good stories and art.
Didn't do much in 2012, but I make it something of an annual tradition to read through the archive. http://achewood.com/
1) Paranatural for overall besties
2) WHOMP! brings the funny
3) Lackadaisy Cats because whoa
4) and Girl Genius builds the stuff I wish I were building
Red Meat - always delightfully twisted.
http://www.redmeat.com/redmeat/current/index.html
Hecubas
#1 and #2, best and funniest both belong to Sluggy Freelance in my opinion. #3, best art, is a lot harder to pin down. Pete Abrams on Sluggy Freelance can do some pretty good art, but he's not the best. There are a few possibilities from the stuff I peruse: Charby the Vampirate has some pretty good art or maybe No Need for Bushido. #4, most relevant to me, is definitely very, very subjective. I'm probably just going to have to go with xkcd.
lemonparty.org
I can't choose between the three.
Sci-Fi: Dicebox by Jenn Manley Lee - www.dicebox.net
Fantasy (albeit understated): Family Man by Dylan Meconis - http://www.lutherlevy.com/
Porn (of the fantasy and hilarious type): Oglaf - http://www.oglaf.com
Dresden codak: http://dresdencodak.com - Seriously, nothing posted above comes close.
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.
Definitely dresden codak (dresdencodak.com) for me. I often have to look up terms or people when reading it, especially for the older comics, but the current storyline (Dark Science) is interesting, well-written, thought-provoking, and the art is just beautiful. For people who are interested in transhumanism, you should really read the Hob storyline. In just a bit over 20 pages, it captures the main themes of the idea and presents some interesting insight, and the author manages to avoid lecturing his own opinions.
Surprised to not see anyone recommend Freefall (http://freefall.purrsia.com). For art, I am really taken with A Redtail's Dream (http://minnasundberg.fi/) and The Bean (http://www.beanleafpress.com/). Aw, hell, and The Abominable Charles Shaw (http://www.abominable.cc/). Too many good ones for me to choose just one. My list just keeps growing so I'll stop.
Author of Enyo: Up and Running from O'Reilly Media
Definitely the funniest.
http://www.bugcomic.com/
Since XKCD already has plenty of accolades, here are Anonymous Coward's non-XKCD picks for each category:
[1] Spacetrawler
[2] The Adventures of Dr. McNinja http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/23p18/
[3] Girl Genius
[4] Dinosaur Comics
Best Overall: Hunter Black -- http://www.hunterblackcomics.com
Student: Is it true that the foundation of the universe is paradox?
Master: Well, yes and no.
Best comic about religion tolerance.
Best comic about not tolerating religion.
Who cares? Let's just post big lists of web comics so we can all click and read and woohooooo!
Beyond the obvious (XKCD, Penny Arcade, Dilbert, The Oatmeal) there are at least these:
http://amultiverse.com/
http://www.virtualshackles.com/
http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss.latest
http://chainsawsuit.com/
http://dresdencodak.com/archives/
http://www.happletea.com/
http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2347
Best Art: Romantically Apocalyptic -- http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com
Student: Is it true that the foundation of the universe is paradox?
Master: Well, yes and no.
1) Best overall web comic series of 2012. (Any web comic that produced content in 2012): Gunnerkrigg Court is a brilliant webcomic that has a compelling plot, interesting characters and art that has developed superbly since the comic's beginnings.
2) Funniest web comic of 2012. (This one represents the single funniest comic of any web comic series.): Evil Inc. got the most laughs out of me this year, even if a lot of the humour was a bit Dad-joke-ish. Runners up would include: Penny Arcade , XKCD , Scandinavia and the World and Overcompensating .
3) Best art in a web comic of 2012. (Web comic from 2012 with the most amazing art ever): Dresden Codak is, without any doubt, the repository of some of the most geekiest and beautiful artwork the web has ever seen. Runners up would include: Namesake , Lackadaisy Cats , Sore Thumbs and Avengelyne
4) Web comic that was most relevant to you in 2012: Real Life , because his adventures with Harper are roughly mirroring my adventures with my daughter Hailey.
Honorable Mentions (because they'd likely win categories if there were a couple more here): Bad Machinery (Best Story), Eerie Cuties (Best Black & White), Three Panel Soul (Best Drama) and Wapsi Square (Best Main Character), and Sinfest (Lifetime Achievement) among others.
Funniest: Battlepug -- http://battlepug.com
Student: Is it true that the foundation of the universe is paradox?
Master: Well, yes and no.
Three manhwa's that I've been following, all pretty good. Closer to graphic novels than comics. "Manhwa" is the Korean version of a manga.
Noblesse - Takes a few chapters for the story to get going and arts gets better as story progresses.
http://www.batoto.net/read/_/45/noblesse_v1_ch1_by_easy-going-scans
The Breaker: New Waves - Second season of this series, martial arts centric, need to read first season to get storyline.
http://www.mangareader.net/the-breaker-new-waves/1
Peak - Story of a mountain rescue unit. Very nice art.
http://www.batoto.net/read/_/60456/peak_v1_ch1_by_easy-going-scans
1. Best overall - Menage a 3.
2. Funniest - Sam and Fuzzy.
3. Best art - Massively subjective, I'll go with Supernormal Step.
4. Most relevant to me - Why, my own of course! Among The Chosen. Finished two chapters of Dead City Radio, produced a prequel, and got series production heading forward again after four years going back and sideways.
Unsounded by Ashley Cope. Amazing Art in a amazing universe. http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/comic+index
Goblins, as seen by their eyes by Thunt. Amazing Comedy, Pathos, Cheesy-ness and tons of surprises. http://goblinscomic.com/
For the Slashdot crowd, surely *THE* Linux geek webcomic is a hit?
www.nachocake.com
Right here: http://imgur.com/r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu/C56cW
http://dresdencodak.com/
SMBC has my choice too, but as it was already mentioned, i rise my hand for Gunshow.
http://gunshowcomic.com
I look forward to Freefall, Ma3, SSDD, Devilbear, and GPF. Kevin and Kell is a regular, as is xkcd, Shortpacked, and Wapsi Square. I still like Funny Farm, even though it's in a rerun. I'm too lazy to put in links, but most of them are already in this thread somewhere.
Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
Lackadaisy Cats is pretty much unbeatable for art: http://lackadaisy.foxprints.com/
Unless you also consider the Abominable Charles Christopher: http://www.abominable.cc/2012/08/
Consistently funniest is Oglaf (often NSFW): http://oglaf.com/branding/1/
Questionable content and Girls with Slingshots are personal favourites.
SMBC is the smartest comic out there. He updates every day. Sometimes he isn't as technically deep or impressive as XKCD (which I also love), but I find SMBC covers more topics and Ian way that can be appreciated by more people.
Girl Genius and Gunnerkrigg court get my vote for best long-running stories. Also lovely art and fantastic colours. (When the colourist for GG was sick, the strip was almost unreadable—the line work is very busy, and the colours really give depth.)
While it lasted, Rusty and Co. (TVTropes) was consistently funny and had good art. The lawyers took it offline because of too many D&D references, particularly the author selling a plush doll of his Rusty character. I'm giving it extra credit for the YRO issue.
My runners-up for best overall comic would include Unsounded (first mentioned here -- mod up that comment if you agree), Gunnerkrigg Court (mentioned here), Magellan, Widdershins, and KiLA iLO.
And if nobody's mentioned it yet, TopWebComics is a site listing what webcomics are popular. Anybody can vote through a really simple captcha; you don't need to log in or anything.
For *funniest* web comic, Rusty and Co. made me laugh more than anything else. Runners-up are DMFA, Moron County, EGS, and Sluggy.
For *best art*, I would say it's A Redtail's Dream with Unsounded and Dresden Codak competing for second place, and a dark horse candidacy by Cucumber Quest for its uniquely cute art.
For the web comic *most relevant to me* as a reluctant hero space alien mad scientist vampire elf magical-sex-change victim, it's really hard to find a web comic that speaks to me, you know?
http://www.egscomics.com/
http://www.scarygoround.com/
The new strip is called Bad Machinery; the archives of the author's long-running previous series, Scary-go-round, are also available and well worth a look.
Fred is a terrible comic artist and hasn't grown _at all_ in the 10+ years he's been puttering around with that waste of a comic. It also takes him entirely too long to do a single page and have the audacity to not even bother to ink it.
In that period of time Penny Arcade has changed it's graphical style immensely, having evolved a very distinct, vibrant, and clean look, while meeting deadlines, and even being in color!
Example: http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/box/0/0/6/943006_95411_front.jpg
Another example of a comic with a distinct style that has evolved and is wonderful to look at is Octopus Pie, see:
http://www.octopuspie.com/goodies/book2-coverpreviewtext8.gif
So... die in a fire, weeaboo.
Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
The artist draws everything in vector and often puts a lot of little details into each frame.
A vector viewer is available (swf) allowing you to zoom in and appreciate all the little details.
http://www.alpha-shade.com/0Comics/pages.php
Check them out. Definitely one of the most artsy comics I've seen online.
-- Dave
up 12 days, 22:30, 2 users, load averages: 993.20, 994.21, 994.56
*makes note to limit user processes...
Schlock has become a lot more kid-friendly since Tayler quit his job at Novell and now works surrounded by his children, but it's still entertaining. And he has kept its schedule for a pretty long time. Several other webcomics of that age gradually turned to weekday only, to Monday-Wednesday-Friday, to once weekly, but Schlock Mercenary keeps on updating every day.
Girl Genius has pretty good art, but what I like best is its large ensemble of delightfully inhuman characters. Every time I find a new favorite character, the Foglios introduce another crazy awesome character.
Gunnerkrigg Court doesn't have the very best art, but it's gradually getting better, and the story is intriguing.
xkcd is a comic by a nerd about nerds being nerdy.
Have a nice time.
Derp derp, you apparently have never looked at that particular one.
Do yourself a favor and do so. It's unique.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Really really glad I found this one this year. I think it's absolutely fantastic.
The most relevant web of 2012 for me would have to be the one I started recently with my brother: www.demonarchives.com It has been a blast turning my story into something worth sharing (I hope).
Enjoy post-apocalyptic and singularity science fiction? Check out www.demonarchives.com, a new online graphic-novel.
The Mansion of E has an awesome story. The author spent 9 years covering a 20 hour period, and did an excellent job in the process. Quite the feat.
http://mansionofe.comicgenesis.com/
Specifically this comic: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20121123 It really did just go there in ways I wasn't expecting. Made me quirked a bit, but overall enjoyed this new direction.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
Brooke McEldowney's work is the best available since the demise of new Liberty Meadows.
Contribute to civilization: ari.aynrand.org/donate
I agree with a lot of other people on these, but I'm going to try to put a word out for my favorite comics that don't usually get the light of day.
Best overall:
I've been reading Supernormal Step since it was about a week old, and it quickly turned into my favorite comic. The art started out a bit amateurish, but has matured rather nicely. The characters are unique and likeable, the plot is constantly moving and twisting, and I'm quite happy with the small number of grammatical errors compared to a lot of the other comics I read.
Funniest:
Already mentioned, but go check out Gunshow (frequently NSFW). I love this one because the situations are so absurd. Both the serial comics and the one-offs are completely unpredictable (Wolves, Friday the 13th, Rabbits, Skulls). Honorable mention to The Non-Adventures of Wonderella.
Best art:
Also already mentioned, but for good reason: Dresden Codak is beautiful. I would have voted for Copper, but Kazu seems to have taken a hiatus from it and this IS supposed to be a list from 2012.
Most relevant to me:
This is a tough one, I don't really read comics for relevance. I'll put this out there though: Octopus Pie has some of the most REAL characters I've ever seen in a comic or webcomic.
- "Nobody came out that night, not one was ever seen. But Old Man Stauf is waiting there, crazy sick and mean!"
Not a single mention of NAV? I am disappoint.
Terrible art, awesome on the irony though:
most recent:
http://americanextremists.thecomicseries.com/comics/
a prime example:
http://americanextremists.thecomicseries.com/comics/470
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
Unquestionably Girl Genius for me.
Besides, the Castle just went "clack"...
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
For us Australians, nothing says cultcha like FDOTM.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
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.
egypt urnash minimal art.
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!
CMXdb.com website that indexes many comics strips ^_^
http://abstrusegoose.com/
Specialized content for machine learning / artificial intelligence. I chain-read them for 18 hours till I'd finished!
Romantically apocalyptic is beautyfully drawn using both photos and paintings http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/ Goblins has to be mentioned because of the action and movement in the pictures http://goblinscomic.com/ Scandinavia and the World because of the spot on description of the Scandinavian countries http://satwcomic.com/
I am a fan of red meat, a dark and twisted comic.
Red Moon Rising
And I like that in response to admiration of the nice artwork, she made a tutorial about creating it.
Currently running webcomics
-----
Supermassive Blackhole - A scifi setting about an evil clone bitch working as an assassin to fund a personal galactic quest for lost cloning tech, because the stuff she has is imperfect.
http://smbhax.com/
Schlock Mercenary - Scifi merc story.
http://http://schlockmercenary.com/
Outsider - A scifi story that updates once in a blue moon...
http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/
The Devil's Panties - It's not satanic porn...
thedevilspanties.com/
-----
There other webcomics that have ended, but are still worth reading
Sexy Losers AKA Thin H Line - Arguably the originator of the "fap,fap,fap..." meme.
http://sexylosers.com/
Krakow - A bitter Canadian rant that almost never ends
http://www.krakow.krakowstudios.com/krakow/
I'll second sinfest for best overall. But for funny because of the sheer audacity I like Jesus and Mo http://www.jesusandmo.net/ . Having to post anonymously, I don't want a fatwa on my head for reading that site.
I can't believe Paranatural hasn't yet been mentioned. I'd say it wins categories 1-3.
No idea what number 4 would be though.
www.gucomics.com
Years ago, someone linked me to Woody's website and I've been a fan ever since.
It's NSFW, but it's nicely put together, entertaining, and, well, it's mad science at its finest!
http://eroticmadscience.com/tales-of-gnosis-college-comix/
http://www.theprincessplanet.com/
Consistently funny, weekly (but reliable) schedule. Reminds me a lot of those Rocky and Bullwinkle fractured fairy tales.
Comics I follow are
http://www.sinfest.com/ (hands down the best)
http://www.dilbert.com/ (still going strong and providing daily comfort)
http://wumocomicstrip.com/ (funny)
http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/index.html (mostly pro mac)
http://www.xkcd.com/ (the tool that belongs in every geeks toolbox)
if your pants fit well, it's not only because of the pants
for years, had been Sinfest!!!!!
A quick page search didn't reveal any mention of Subnormality, so here's a link.
Nice blend of geek culture and auto-biographical blog: blog.beetlebum.de. German only, though.
Computer simulation made easy -- LibGeoDecomp
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20031017
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050808
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20070209
I can't decide on a single best webcomic, so that would be either Subnormality, Wapsi Square or Sequential Art.
Funniest would be either Girls With Slingshots, Two Guys and Guy or Shit Happens! (yeah, sorry - it's in German only).
Best art is again either Subnormality, Zebra Girl or Power Nap.
And the most relevant comic to me in 2012 definitely was Wapsi Square, the first thing I check in the morning after getting up (also going by the amount of prints I bought)...
Honorable mentions: Hobotopia, Bear Nuts, Modest Medusa, Flaky Pastry and Hate Farm.
np: Louie Austen - Never & Ever (What A Comeback!)
"I'm not anti-anything, I'm anti-everything, it fits better." - Sole
http://www.fonflatter.de/
Best overall in my book is Johnny Wander:
www.johnnywander.com
Why, you ask? Because of silly nonsense like this::
http://www.johnnywander.com/comics/437
http://www.giantitp.com
http://www.goblinscomic.com
1. XKCD (obviously)
2. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
3. ChannelATE
4. Bug
5. Nedroid
You might also like The Perry Bible Fellowship, Basic Instructions and The Doghouse Diaries. The web is a wonderful place :-)
pintsize?
LICD, Penny Arcade, GU, Dark Legacy, Schlock Mercenary
And this lil mini lop rabbit says I gotta toss in Sluggy Freelance.
*snikt*
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Why the author hasn't had a fatwah issued against him yet I don't know - http://www.jesusandmo.net/
http://boingboing.net/author/wimpyrutherford
Posted on boingboing.net once a week, Ed Piskor's excellent Hip Hop Family Tree is a history of the early days of hip hop (it's currently at about 1981), with beautiful artwork in the style of a 70s comic book.
Fingerpori is very popular in Finland. ;)
Translation of the 27th Dec strip would be "I bought eye shadow that really brings your eyes out" ... "I put too much".
I can't believe there's no love for http://qwantz.com/ yet. Ryan does a great job with the strip and his books too. He has created quite an interesting universe in DC and throws in ideas from language, comic books, philosophy and physics, which is a perfect match for my mindset.
Penny Arcade I either get or don't get, but they have much goodwill to burn from Child's Play and PAX, I can tolerate quite a few clunkers
funny science fiction which tries very hard to get the physics right:
http://freefall.purrsia.com/
Honorable mention to Girl Genius by Kaja and Phil Foglio
Begin here:
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20021104
Be sure to buy the printed books (if you pre-order you can pay extra and get hand drawn art). Victorian steampunk science fantasy suitable for teens and younger children.
William
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
Wasted Talent is about an girl getting through engineering school and then in the real world. It's great art and really funny! My personal favorite is hugo-nominated Schlock Mercenary, which I consider the best overall. It's been around a while, and is always funny, and always updates (no missed comics in over 12 years, even when his datacenter exploded). For best artwork, and a great story, I agree with many other posters in saying that multiple-Hugo-winning Girl Genius wins hands down. I do love xkcd, and most of the other ones mentioned. I should also mention Foxtrot, which is not strictly a webcomic (it's also in newspaper syndication). I also read Sluggy Freelance, another really long-running webcomic. Lastly, I like Free Fall, a little less well-known comic about a genetically modified wolf who gets a job as an engineer for a petty crook, and tries to stop the robot apocalypse.
Did you mount a military-grade, variable-focus MASER on an unlicensed artificial intelligence?
Surviving the World is quirky and cerebral and gives XKCD a run for its money.
I used to follow /GU comics back when I played EQ and it was still being actively done.
-Doug "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke
XKCD, Something Positive, Questionable Content, Sinfest and Gone with the Blastwave...
I need a wheelchair van for my son. Help me get the word out. https://www.gofundme.com/wheelchair-van-for-jj
Best New Webcomic of 2012 By far and away...
Www.EpicEscape.com
It's well inked, well written, and populated with likable characters.
I've been enjoying QuantumVibe - sci fi comic with a female as the primary protagonist.
http://quantumvibe.com/strip?page=1
Yes.
I can't believe none at Slashdot knows the hilarious 2D Goggles a.k.a. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage, a geekish steampunk in which Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage have actually built an analytical engine and use it to fight crime! (sort of).
It's more a one-day experiment running amok than a webcomic, as the update pace leaves us waiting for months, but what's already written definitely warrants reading it.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
Sunstone by Stjepan Sejic (who goes by both nebezial and shiniez over on deviantArt)
This one's a definite winner for me in three of the four categories (best overall, best art, most relevant), and it's an easy runner up for funniest as well. The strip is really about a bunch of friends and their romantic relationships. The artwork is exceptional, and the story goes far beyond the surface trappings of erotica that are its initial appeal. The strip has a sharp wit and will definite make you look at things related to BDSM in a new light.
SMBC!!!
XKCD
Penny Arcade
It's another stickfigure comic ala xkcd
http://thedoghousediaries.com/
They have me laughing on the floor often...
I still really love Axe Cop (axecop.com)
Every episode reminds me of my son, and the way that he interacts with his sister and action figures. Very funny.
I don't actually read that many webcomics but it's a tie between
http://www.hejibits.com/ ,
http://gunshowcomic.com/ and
http://thedoghousediaries.com/
http://www.gocomics.com/lostsideofsuburbia/
Good art, but more importantly, amazing stories. Suspense from comics to comics on one hand, but with story lines with a beginning, middle and an end. Whenever a story line ends, there is a pause, after which a new story begins.
The site is down right now (gocomics getting slashdotted?), but I would recommend reading from the beginning.
Shachar
Sure the art is always the same but it makes me laugh every single time: http://www.qwantz.com/index.php
Best art in a web comic of 2012: http://www.toothpastefordinner.com/
Why no one mentioned that yet?
http://onefte.com/
Cant beat it.
Yes, xkcd is great for us techies.
My favorite is Day by Day . This cartoon revolves around four distinct characters and their interactions with daily life. Sam is an politically conservative engineer, married to Zed who is a retired US Army sniper. They have two daughters. Sam's best friend is Jan, a progressive who has inherited wealth. Jan in turn, is married to Damon - a conservative African-American. The strip revolves around current events, and how they are impacting each of the families - and their extended loved ones.
But only because Sergio Aragone hasn't published a "Groo" web comic. :D
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
For those who have not read GK: The story (generally) follows the young Antimony through her arrival and schooling at Gunnerkrigg Court: a place that merges magic and technology. Nearby is the forest, populated by mythical creatures and gods (think Princess Mononoke). GK is a well told coming of age story between Antimony and her friends. At the same time GK is a beautifully rendered creation myth intertwining morality and the force of human belief.
Tom Siddell has masterfully crafted dozens of characters, each of which has a fully developed personality. Side characters reenter as necessary and provide a wonderful feeling of continuity and believability to the strip. The multiple storylines are distinct in tone and purpose but are never confusing, an issue many of the story based comics mentioned suffer from.
GK's tone shifts smoothly from childish fun (think the first 3 Harry Potter books) to dark examinations of natural and mystical philosophy. Its pantheon and art contains strong influences from Native American cultures and styles, such as the character of Coyote, but also others such as the Chinese Chang'e and the multicultural psychopomps. Tom manages to seamlessly integrate several art styles and mythos into a cohesive world. However, his world includes the mechanical (the heartbreaking story of the robots) and the natural, such as his crab couple inspired by eurypterids. Or this. http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=688. When I wikipedia from GK, it could be to find out more about Muut or xiphosura.
For the overarching story, the intellectual challenge, and the smooth transition between art styles and tone, I put Gunnkrigg Court at the top.
My vote is probably a bit biased because I know the artist but the one I return to most frequently is "Jim 'n George" at http://www.jimngeorge.com/
The only other one I read from time to time is http://www.xkcd.com
Starslip (previously Starslip Crisis), a sci-fi comedy epic from the incomparable Kris Straub, ended its 7-year story this year. If you haven't read it, do. It's wonderful in every way.
it's weird / odd and depressing but funny. i dunno, i like it.
www.nachocake.com
XKCD is fun too but QC is something wonderfully special.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
If you want something different, check out Troops of Doom. GI Joe fighting Star Wars for Lego.
http://www.troopsofdoomcomic.com
http://www.evil-comic.com/
1) Darths and Droids
2) Gunnerkrigg Court
3) Happle Tea
4) Girl Genius