Looking for web comic recommendations

[TheNatureRoy]

I'm curious to see what the current state of web comics are. Can anyone point me in the direction of some quality ones to check out?

And for clarification, I'm interested in seeing what exists in terms of comics that are more serious in tone, contain serialized story-telling, and relatively high production values. Stuff more in line with what you would normally find at your LCS as opposed to the Sunday newspaper.

And I'd be most interested in seeing comics that are at-or-near the standard of monthlies and OGNs but also actually take advantage of their unique medium and the creative opportunities it presents as opposed to simply being standard comics published on the web as opposed to print.

I have some ideas of my own in that regard, and I'm sure there are plenty of people out there already doing something like it, but I'm pretty unaware of the whole scene at the moment. I'd appreciate some guidance.

[LittleHouse]

Can't go wrong with Kukuburi (http://www.kukuburi.com/).

[Stupendous Man]

BATTLEPUG!!! (http://www.battlepug.com)

[EmarAndZeb]

And for clarification, I'm interested in seeing what exists in terms of comics that are more serious in tone, contain serialized story-telling, and relatively high production values. Stuff more in line with what you would normally find at your LCS as opposed to the Sunday newspaper.

I read some adventure/fantasy comics that might be in line with these criteria...

The Meek (http://www.meekcomic.com/)
Unsounded (http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/)
Family Man (http://www.lutherlevy.com/) (caution: some NSFW scenes)

These may be not be as serious as you're going for, but they aren't just "gag a day" strips, and they're pretty high quality.
Bucko (http://www.buckocomic.com/) (caution: some NSFW scenes)
Octopus Pie (http://www.octopuspie.com/)


And I'd be most interested in seeing comics that are at-or-near the standard of monthlies and OGNs but also actually take advantage of their unique medium and the creative opportunities it presents as opposed to simply being standard comics published on the web as opposed to print.

This one's a little trickier for me; I'm not necessarily keeping up with the avant-garde in webcomics, if that's what you mean. However, some of Emily Carrol's comics make use of layouts you can only get away with on the web. Not quite the "infinite canvas", except maybe with that Jose Arcadio one, but something like it...

http://emcarroll.com/comics/josearcadio.jpg
http://emcarroll.com/comics/faceallred/01.html
http://www.emcarroll.com/comics/anu/page01.html

As far as I know, she maintains an art-blog (http://emcarroll.blogspot.com/) where she sometimes delves into sequential art more than a running webcomic, but yeah.


As far as a ridiculous amount of incorporation of web multimedia and interactivity and whatnot, MSPaint Adventures is worth checking out. At first blush, the art is unpolished, obviously, but it gets increasingly elaborate and complex (along with the story) as things progress. I'm not sure it's a "comic" in the proper sense, but I lump it in with webcomics in my mind, and it definitely includes comics as part of its narrative at certain points. The current adventure "Homestuck" is definitely something that couldn't be published in a book.

MSPaint Adventures (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/) (caution: HUGE archive)

[Tim Simmons]

BATTLEPUG!!! (http://www.battlepug.com)

Battlepug is pretty amazing.

I'll shamelessly pimp Spy6teen (http://www.spy6teen.com), which is mine-- but I think fits the criteria you'd mentioned above...

ReMind is pretty stellar: http://www.remindblog.com/2009/11/03/remind-spread-1/

Gotta dig into it more, but I started Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name: http://hanna.aftertorque.com/?p=4 and it looks pretty promising.

Hmmm-- I'll be back later w/ more suggestions.

[TheNatureRoy]

Thanks everyone.

There was one in particular I remembered coming across on this forum months ago and it was driving me crazy until I just finally tracked it down. It's a good example of pushing boundaries in terms of design and web comic construction (admittedly a lot further than I would want to do myself, but it's still inspiring):

http://www.nawlz.com/

[Ryudo]

greyhavencomics.com has four webcomics that just started.

[Marcdachamp]

greyhavencomics.com has four webcomics that just started.

:heart:

[batroc the leaper]

Dr. McNinja.

Freakangels

[michealdark]

Short Packed can be quite good. Cyanide and Happiness always brings a smile to my face

[kacangpool]

essentialwebcomics (http://www.essentialwebcomics.com/showcase/featured-webcomics)

[EmarAndZeb]

Was just pointed to this thing... I don't know if it's "serious" in tone enough for you, but the art is quite good, and it's definitely making full use of the medium...

http://hobolobo.net/

[shoelaceless]

BodyWorld (http://www.dashshaw.com/bodyworld_prelude.html)
2001 (http://blaiselarmee.com/)
Everett (http://www.connorwillumsen.com/everett/index.html)

[shoelaceless]

Was just pointed to this thing... I don't know if it's "serious" in tone enough for you, but the art is quite good, and it's definitely making full use of the medium...

http://hobolobo.net/
Wow, this is a little clunky but I love the idea of the layers scrolling at different speeds to create perspective.

[EmarAndZeb]

Yeah, I've seen parallax effects used in CSS layers before, but I'd written it off as something that wasn't useful for web design; Too distracting to be the background of a website. As an effect in the focal artwork of a page, though, it's fairly neat. I think this idea has potential.

[Tim Simmons]

Thanks everyone.

There was one in particular I remembered coming across on this forum months ago and it was driving me crazy until I just finally tracked it down. It's a good example of pushing boundaries in terms of design and web comic construction (admittedly a lot further than I would want to do myself, but it's still inspiring):

http://www.nawlz.com/

Nawlz is as amazing as it is confounding.

[ZombieSpeedball]

Let's Be Friends Again (http://www.letsbefriendsagain.com/)
Boxer Hockey (http://boxerhockey.fireball20xl.com/)
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things (http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/)
Johnny Wander (http://www.johnnywander.com/)
Three Panel Soul (http://threepanelsoul.com/)

[Andreas]

BodyWorld (http://www.dashshaw.com/bodyworld_prelude.html)
2001 (http://blaiselarmee.com/)
Everett (http://www.connorwillumsen.com/everett/index.html)

I had seen the other two before, but Everett (http://www.connorwillumsen.com/everett/index.html) is freaking fantastic.

EDIT: might not be safe for work.

[CapnChaos]

My webcomics reading has fallen off pretty sharply, but I still read some that I've been catching for years. Girls with Slingshots, PvP, Questionable Content...

My favorite comic was Scary Go Round by John Allison, but it ended. Now he's doing a new project that is fantastic called Bad Machinery.
http://scarygoround.com/

Kate Beaton's Hark a Vagrant is also highly recommended.
http://harkavagrant.com/

[The Hodag]

And for clarification, I'm interested in seeing what exists in terms of comics that are more serious in tone, contain serialized story-telling, and relatively high production values. Stuff more in line with what you would normally find at your LCS as opposed to the Sunday newspaper.

I've mostly ignored the web stuff, but this is what might interest me, too. I'll be interested to check out some of the responses here.