Web Comics Incubation Thread

[Lestat]

Well I thought of this as a small incubation thread where you can post links to web comics you discover. If they gather a strong following they'll probably spawn their own thread and otherwise... well, it's a cozy place.

Geeks:
www.applegeeks.com

Slightly absurd:
www.frozenreality.co.uk/comic/bunny

Political & social criticism (US focused)
http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html

Over to you.

[Ravager]

I'll add a few more:

Sluggy Freelance:
www.sluggy.com

A long plotline woth comics released every day for the last 8 years I think. Well worth going through though.

The Last Days of Foxhound:
http://www.gigaville.com/listcomic.php

Based on the Metal Gear series, though mostly understandable if you haven't played the games (like I haven't)

D&D based comics:
http://thunt.comicgen.com/ - Goblins - Sometimes quite gory, but otherwise good -especially if you understand the D&D references
http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.html - Parody of MMORPG's.
http://www.seraph-inn.com - Inverloch -A very well-drawn comic/story, definitely worth looking at and not specifically D&D (e.g. fantasy style but not D&D set)
http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript - The Order of the Stick - Heavy on D&D references but a good storyline.

Right, that should be enough to keep everyone going for a while.

[ch85us2001]

This is in a few US papers I think, but nothing around here, and nothing international (I dont think) so Ill post it.


GET FUZZY!!!



Dogs and cats, talking dogs and cats. *maniacle laughter*


Wiki Article



Mmmmmmmmmonkeys! *salivates*

[Lestat]

Another two:

Fat Cat

Similar to Bunny but (yes, how did you guess?) with a fat cat instead of a bunny.

Questionable Content

The lives of some socially maladjusted but lovable characters. To get the whole thing you might need to read from the beginning, but it's worth it.

Check also the "allies" and "friends" on these comic pages, you might find something you like. Hey, I only post what I like.

Rav I must say that I liked some of those comics you posted but especially "Inverloch". Really nice artwork and at least more than just the semblance of a storyline, as is too often the case with these webcomics. Maybe because the author is a woman and less obsessed with scoring?

While I don't expect a storyline in comic-cartoons such as bunny & fat cat, usually the ones that make fun of the different fantasy games are a bit too sloppy with storyline & artwork.

[Ravager]

Well, I generally try to go for something funny and/or with a good storyline over the quality of the artwork.
Maybe the artist of Inverloch is really into the artist career, I'm not sure. No doubt having a look through the other parts of the website will shed some light on that.
Out of the ones I posted earlier I'd really recommend sticking with Sluggy going from the beginning. It starts off slow and sometimes the plotlines aren't great. The majority of the time it is very good though.

Also, try Top Webcomics and Buzzcomics (I think those are right), they list the most popular comics as voted for by the comic viewers. At the least it's a good source of comics.

One I'm not posting a link for directly but still recommend is called Lowroad. Search for it on Google. It's quite good.
Perhaps not suitable for minors, but it should be alright for most people.
On second thoughts I will post the link, I provided the warning...
http://lowroad75.keenspace.com/
If anyone's unhappy with me posting the link, please say and I'll remove it.

@Chu, that's a good comic you found there.

[Lestat]

OK Rav, let me express me more correctly. I have no problem with highly "simplified" drawing styles such as those of Bunny, Fat Cat or for that matter the one you just posted. Garfield is in the same category. Simple but very expressive.

Inverloch is totally different, as is for that matter Applegeeks, but they share with the others the following characteristics
- a definite and personal style
- care in drawing & consistency
- style follows function (dreamy epic goes well with style in inverloch as does the style of Bunny and Fat Cat of their dead pan delivery of slighty absurd humour).
- expressive (however simple it still conveys what's needed to convey)

One should not confuse simple drawing with sloppy drawing.

What annoys me with some of the fantasy spoof comics is that I have the idea that sometimes getting accross some insider joke is judged more important than putting up a good quality drawing. The drawing is just a way of showing of how witty they are, and looks sometimes terribly amateuristic if not childish.
And what's worse, that cramming as many jokes as one can in a page is more important than developing a story line. In my opinion you better go for a running gag type of thing (Garfield or Hagar like) and make the gags and joke central, but then they'd better don't pretend there is a story line.

The word I'm looking to translate correctly in English to express what I mean is "verzorgd". My limited dictionary here gives "well-groomed" or "polished" or "taken care off" and that describes what I find in the comics I like (whether it dead pan absurd humour as bunny or dreamy (semi)serious epic as Inverloch).

This doesn't mean I don't like chaotic, or weird or surrealist styling. For instance one of my favourite graphic novel serieses is "The Black Moon Chronicles" which has a very chaotic, overloaded style that assaults the eye, but still very "verzorgd".

Wordt vervolgd - A suivre - To be continued

[Ravager]

So you link specific drawing styles and presentations with certain types of comic?
Personally, I'm more interesting in being able to understand and perhaps identify with what's happening in the comic (e.g. find the jokes funny and understand most of comments in it).

Here's one that is the same kind of thing as Inverloch (in the comic novel sense) and I think the drawing is also very good for it.
http://aido.furvect.com/fallen.htm

[Lestat]

Originally Posted by Ravager

So you link specific drawing styles and presentations with certain types of comic?
Personally, I'm more interesting in being able to understand and perhaps identify with what's happening in the comic (e.g. find the jokes funny and understand most of comments in it).

It is not so much specific drawing styles linked to certain types of comics. It's not really a one on one relationship.

Let's say that a highly stylised/simplified style like Bunny & Fat Cat, or Garfield, of the Far Side, would not really work for epic/heroic fantasy or more graphic novel style, with long story lines.
And on the other hand the style of Inverloch doesn't lend itself very well for hard humour (some little soft joke, maybe).
But for instance the mangaistic style of applegeeks lends itself easily for humour as well as more serious adventure type stories.
Drawing style conveys part of the atmosphere and determines, for me at least, in which state of mind I approach the comic or graphic novel.

You picked out the third criterion (maybe because its the longuest), in fact the order in which I give them, is very much the order of importance I accord them, except that "expressive" should maybe come third or be absorbed in the first two.

Wordt vervolgd - A suivre - To be continued

[Ravager]

Okay, another comic to add to the list...
www.penny-arcade.com
It's mainly about gaming and the like. It's a good one.

[Lestat]

Originally Posted by Ravager

Okay, another comic to add to the list...
www.penny-arcade.com
It's mainly about gaming and the like. It's a good one.

It is.

A few others:

Cascadia
Fantasy/Adventure with a touch of humour (strongly story driven). You need to read from the beginning in other words. It's temporary on hold, but promising and nice artwork (more European-like, reminds me a bit of Lanfeust of Troy).

Earthsong
Fantasy/Adventure, but a bit too airy-fairy in my opinion. But there are many tastes out there. I do like the artwork though.

Butternutsquash
Bit in between Pennyarcade & Questionable content. Temporary on hold but should be starting again in a week or two. In the mean time, read the archives.

[Ravager]

Apparently there's going to be some kind of webcomics convention quite close to where I live in March...and Bunny will be there! Maybe I'll pick up some Bunny paraphenalia.
http://www.ukwebcomixthing.co.uk/ind..._Recordset1=18

I checked out another comic called Boot_Error, which I quite like.
It has transitioned over to office jokes at the moment I think. Very funny at times.
http://gfxjunkie.com/comics/boot_error/

[Ravager]

I have three new comics to recommend...
First up, Darken.

http://www.darkencomic.com/

It's D&D based, incredible artwork (wish I could draw even half that well) and a good plotline.

Daedalus Blue
http://www.daedalusblue.com/

This is more sci-fi based, again very good artwork and an interesting storyline.

And lastly...Scary Go Round
http://www.scarygoround.com/?date=20030410

I'm not sure how to explain this one...but I do like the plotline so far.
Oh, it's not the horror genre.

And all the above are by British authors, how about that for my patriotic duty?

[Ravager]

Ooh...a special Bunny just for Lestat...
http://www.frozenreality.co.uk/comic...dex.php?id=527

Earthbound - A fantasy based graphic novel
http://earthbound.smackjeeves.com/comics/20482/

[Fiona]

I don't know if this belongs here. It is not stories, or anything like a comic. But it is cartoons and Rav's bunnies are a bit like that. Anyway, I'll put it here and if it doesn't fit it won't be the end of the world

http://news.yahoo.com/comics/uclickc..._uc/nq20060302

[Ravager]

I think it's fine for you to post that here, Fiona, it's a good choice in any case.