What are Webcomics? Webcomics are God's way of saying "Yo guys, when Sturgeon said that ninety percent of everything is crud, he was greatly underestimating how much crud is out there, I'm serious, I see everything, I don't have a choice, my Me, please stop people from making webcomics." They are basically Sturgeon's Law bumped over a few decimals.
For everything you love in this universe, there is a webcomic. But it is a bad webcomic, and it probably is written by a furry.
But we are not here to talk about the terrible webcomics, no no! Let's talk about the webcomics I do not absolutely and totally hate. Finding a webcomic that is really good that you did not know about before is like being the person who is thrown into the labyrinth and not eaten by the minotaur (apropos of which you should probably read Ziggurat in the June edition of the New Yorker).
WARNING: some of these webcomics contain language and themes that will wilt the lavender-soft ears and eyes of those who shy from Things Mature, please also do not show them to your kids.
1. Hark, a Vagrant! by Kate Beaton, proving that history and (yes!) even canada are fine fodder for complete hilarity
2. OVERCOMPENSATING by Jeff Rowland, which is basically what jeff hallucinates his real life into, starring himself and a cavalcade of people and events which may or may not be real (Weedmaster P for instance is a comic foil representing drug use but may indeed actually be symbolic of all humanity). It is also bearably yet massively crude.
3. DINOSAUR COMICS is the product of the only person I know who writes a webcomic. Like, not 'draws,' or 'collaborates.' It also features God offscreen. You know he is god because he gets ALLCAPS TEXT.
Just start viewing random ones, seriously.
More to come, please contribute your own!
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I really hate Dinosaur Comics. It's use of exactly the same bloody 6 panels drives me crazy. And the fact that the dinosaurs actions have absolutely nothing to do with what they're talking about. I can't stand it. It gives me a head ache to try and read it. I'll take stick figures over that any day (yay XKCD!).
Plus the animation style the dinosaurs are done in bothers me too. I dunno why it does, but it does.
My favorite web comics would have to be the three I read every morning... except that two of them post only three times a week and the third posts only on weekdays, but still: Dominic Deegan, XKCD, DrMcninja. Dominic Deegan is a fantasy comic about a seer named Dominic Deegan. It has it's ups and downs, but I generally very much enjoy the characters and the story telling. XKCD is... well it's amazing and if you're posting on this forum and haven't already run across a thread about it then you clearly haven't been paying attention. DrMcninja is about an Irish ninja doctor who regularly has to save the world from zombies, deadly ancient temples and occasionally save children who've just come down with Paul Bunyan disease.
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Blayne Bradley
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I liked Ctrl Alt Del, XKCD, Penny Arcade, 8-Bit Theater, Order of the Stick, I'm experimenting with Drow Tales, ExterminatusNow, Zero Punctuation I geuss counts as does Unforgotten Realms and Unskippable. And Erfworld.
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I have a friend, Pete Stathis, who is a professional comic book artist. He's currently making his first independent work available as a web comic. You can find it here. I'd say the story is better than most and the artwork is amazing.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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Before wading into the "what webcomics I like" part, I'd like to briefly talk about webfiction - essentially webcomics without pictures. It's a growing trend to self publish your writing online. Like webcomics, there's a lot of crap out there.
So far I only seriously read one web-story, which is Tales of Magisterium University. At first glance it looks like a Harry Potter ripoff. (And, well, it kinda is). But the world Alexandra Erin has created is incredibly well crafted, the characters are all completely 3 dimensional. She takes the world of D&D and basically brings it up to the modern era, and does a fantastic job of showing what would realistically happen if a Greyhawk-type world was given another thousand years of evolution. The main character is a half demon trying to fit in at college, dealing with all the issues that come along with that.
(Unfortunately?) it's Harry Potter for adults in another sense of the word. I wouldn't describe it as erotica, but the author has a self appointed goal of demonstrating that sex does not need to come at the expense of the story. Most fiction and movies are set up so that, when sex does happen, the specifics are pretty much irrelevant so you can easily skip right over it. Erin strives to make the sex itself meaningful to the development of the characters. Overall I'd say she succeeds (although there's some growing pains in the first few chapters), but a lot of people who would otherwise be interested tend to get weirded out.
Anyways... back to Webcomics:
Girl Genius and Efworld are the two webcomics I'd actually consider purchasing hard copies of. Solid, interesting and funny stories all around.
There are plenty of other good comics, (Something Positive is probably the only one that hasn't been mentioned yet) but they're all good for pretty much the same reasons - clever and sarcastic humor with a nerdy bent. It's not that it's so hard to find good comics, just hard to find ones that actually stand apart from the crowd.
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I've given up on Dominic Deegan a while ago. I really liked it, but then it went through some not very interesting story lines, then some more, then I decided I had enough.
In addition to xkcd, Order of the Stick and Erfworld I also follow:
- Starslip Crisis or "Starslip" as it seems to be called now. Comedy in space, although the current storyline is more like episodes of Star Trek, and not very interesting ones. - Sam and Fuzzy: often quite absurd. Crazy fun with a laid-back guy and his weird bear(?). - Questionable Content: not that questionable after all. Sort of like "Friends" in webcomic format, with a side of indie.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Penny Arcade XKCD Garfield Minus Garfield Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life Questionable Content Order of the Stick Erfworld Sinfest Crimson Dark
I used to read Megatokyo, but got tired of it. I might be burning out on Sinfest, too, and Crimson Dark is taking forever to go anywhere. Erfworld is also borderline nonsensical when you only read a strip or two a week, it would be much better in a book format.
The others I read as soon as my RSS feed grabs the new strips. I loved Penny Arcade's recent Automata strip and am thrilled that they'll be continuing it.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Hey... speaking of web comics, what the heck happened to Save Hiatus? It went on Hiatus back in February and I haven't heard anything of it since. The site looks dead. Chris, what's going on with that? We want more Hiatus... err less, hiatus more comic!
Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Dead Winter (which I enjoy just enough to keep reading, but which isn't fantastic, though it has its moments) Dionsaur Comics (which probably fits my sense of humor better than any single other webcomic being made) Dominic Deegan (which I stopped actively enjoying some time ago, but haven't yet broken the habit of reading) Girls with Slingshots (which is mildly entertaining; I'd give it a solid B) Gunnerkrigg Court (which I started reading at Neil Gaiman's recommendation. It's okay, but in the last couple of months its been failing to hold my interest. I'm pretty close to giving up on it for a while) Order of the Stick (which I love. It's one of my top three webcomics) Questionable Content (which I also love. Or at least, loved. The older storylines drew me in more than the current ones have been. Still, it's a great comic) Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (which I enjoy, and frequently laugh at) Sinfest (which once in a while has a decent Sunday strip, but mostly just bores the crap out of me. I mostly keep reading it as part of an effort to understand why people whose taste I respect enjoy it. Something Positive (Which was my aboslute favorite strip for years, and the archives of which I love. The newer material, sadly, is pretty lackluster) Randy's other strips, when he updates them. Which is nearly never (which are all pretty solidly entertaining. Well, all except Midnight Macabre; that one never really caught fire for me) Thunderstruck (which I love. This is another of my top three comics) XKCD (which I like, but don't love) Zombie Hunters (which rounds out my top three, having edged out Questionable Content for third place at some point)
I have read regularly but within the last 6 months or so have gotten out of the habit of reading: Achewood Anders Loves Maria Bear and Kitten Crimson Dark Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life Octopus Pie Overcompensating Pictures for Sad Children
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Blayne Bradley
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Ive actually gotten through a few hundre strips of Exterminatus Now and its really funny its Sonic the Hedgehog meets Warhammer 40k with dakr humor thrown in.
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My absolute favorite has to be The Abominable Charles Christopher. The art is beautiful, and the stories tend to be sad and haunting mixed with enough humor to keep it from being morbid.
I'm also in love with Dreamless. It's about a British girl and Japanese boy who see through each other's eyes when they sleep. The artist for that has a faux-Victorian one called Pheonix Requiem I adore as well. I'm not sure it's quite horror or mystery or suspense, per se, but you get the general idea.
I'm not sure if it's also faux-Victorian or if the protagonist just dresses like it is, but Devil's Cake is ... restrained slapstick? It's hard to explain, but I like it a lot.
A Girl and Her Fed gives me my thrice weekly dose of subversive humor, complete with the undead and technology run amuck.
And for adorable happiness, I like Nemu Nemu. Does it get cuter than dumb stuffed dogs with speech impediments? I'm not sure.
Though Swoop from One Swoop Fell might give them a run for their money. He's a fat bird who can't fly - unless his narcolepsy kicks in. Weird story, gorgeous art. Swoop's my current wallpaper, even.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Corwin: - Questionable Content: not that questionable after all. Sort of like "Friends" in webcomic format, with a side of indie.
it ain't just a side! qc is so directly indie that the only way to witness more indie concentrated in a single location is to have an Urban Outfitters store transform into an autobot barista that fires cans of pabst blue ribbon while listening to The Mountain Goats.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by AvidReader: I'm also in love with Dreamless. It's about a British girl and Japanese boy who see through each other's eyes when they sleep. The artist for that has a faux-Victorian one called Pheonix Requiem I adore as well. I'm not sure it's quite horror or mystery or suspense, per se, but you get the general idea.
If you like Dreamless, you might check out another of the author's comics, Marry Me. I think it's a great romantic comedy.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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I'm just hoping I'll get more "When Parker Met Guy" sometime. The artist picked kind of a weird spot to stop, or he picked a weird ending. One of the two.
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I'm lukewarm about Dinosaur Comics -- I've liked some I've been linked to, but have never gotten hooked enough to read it regularly -- but I did find the assessment in the second comment here to be interesting:
quote:...if you’ve never tried scripting the words for a comic, it’s actually really hard. Even harder if you can’t juggle the imagery around.
North is, to some degree, doing the comic equivalent of running a marathon in heavy weights.
Personally, I read, in descending order of interest: Something Positive (Cynical, touching, and funny by turns. If I had to choose only one webcomic, this would be it. I don't think it's gone downhill at all.) xkcd (Supremely geeky and funny. If I had to choose only two webcomics, this would be the other.) Girl Genius (Adventure! Romance! Mad Science! Also, wonderful art.) The Order of the Stick (Most excellent, if you've ever played Dungeons and Dragons.) Punch an' Pie (I'm not ecstatic about the new three-panel format, but that's because I want more of a good thing.)
quote:Originally posted by Corwin: - Questionable Content: not that questionable after all. Sort of like "Friends" in webcomic format, with a side of indie.
it ain't just a side! qc is so directly indie that the only way to witness more indie concentrated in a single location is to have an Urban Outfitters store transform into an autobot barista that fires cans of pabst blue ribbon while listening to The Mountain Goats.
I have no idea what you just said.
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The premise for "Dreamless" looks interesting.
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
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Sadly DM of the Rings is long since done and over, but it is the most consistently funny web comic I've had the pleasure of reading.
Posts: 47 | Registered: Mar 2005
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DM of the Rings inspired Darths and Droids, which gives the same treatment to the Stars Wars films and is definitely worth a look.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:quote: Originally posted by Alcon: I really hate Dinosaur Comics....the animation style the dinosaurs are done in bothers me too. What do you mean by "animation style"? Is there an animated Dinosaur Comics that I'm not aware of?
...ummm... art style? Drawing style? I dunno why I put animation there. Brain fart, I guess. Posts: 3295 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I dredged this up to share a link to the webcomic that my daughter Charlene and I are collaborating on. It's a dramatic science fiction story with a slight manga tang called The Girl and Her Beast. We've just got the cover and page 1 up, but we'll be updating with more pages soon.
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David that is completely awesome that you and your daughter are working on a project together. I cannot wait to see more!
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Short Packed is toy-geek friendly and is generally just silly. Oh yeah, and loads of Batman jokes.
Treading Ground follows a twenty-something in the retail grind and his struggle to not have sex with a teenage girl who hangs out despite his platonic stance. Sporadically nsfw.
The Space Between is about a sports fan, his nerd roommate and his violent female best-friend.
Menage A 3 starts when a hapless comic geek finds... himself needing new roommates, for non-puritanical reasons. The writer and setting are Canadian and include some phrases in french, nudity and sexual based humor are abound but never smutty.
Oglaf NSFW it started when they tried to make a pornographic comic that became more comedy than anything, much of the humor is about D&Desque fantasy and the art is superb but if you cant get past the dirty bits its not for you. The link is to a totally clean strip in case you would like to atleast check it out.
I would like to add my referance to Questionable Content, updates every weekday and from beginning to current you see Jeph Jacque improve as an artist.
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My husband really likes Ramon Perez's artwork and got me hooked on Kukuburi, but unfortunately it's been shelved for the moment due to Perez's other projects.
And speaking of shelved projects, Mr. Squicky, what happened to Pete Stathis? I rather liked Evenfall, but that's another one that is so far distanced from its last update that I don't even check anymore.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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A few that nobody has mentioned yet. All three of these are fairly slow to update. They're more story-driven and less punchline driven, but they're quite exceptional in my opinion. They don't work as a daily/weekly dose sort of comic the way Penny Arcade/XKCD/SMBC et al do. More like, check in once a month and catch up, or even simply wait till a given arc is over and read through in one sitting. You get a lot more out of them that way.
String Theory: Shows an eccentric scientist and what is likely his descent into proper mad-science villainy. Probably the weakest of the three, but considering how good the other two are that's not much of a criticism.
Lackadaisy Cats: This one does feature anthropomorphic cats, but the art is fantastic and the setting is a Prohibition era speakeasy. Incredibly well done, and probably the funniest of the three.
The Meek: Amazing art, three dimensional characters, multiple complex storylines... and a very slow update schedule. This is really more of a graphic novel than a comic. Very much worth a look.
So, yeah. Them's some good comics.
PS: For the diehard fans of S*P, I'm curious. How do you get past the intense, relentless misanthropy and contempt for humanity that Milholland pours into every comic? I check in on the comic, and it even gives me an occasional laugh. But man, it's hard to stomach some days. That's about the most incorrectly named comic I've ever seen (is that supposed to be part of the joke? It's probably part of the joke.)
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:(is that supposed to be part of the joke? It's probably part of the joke.)
If you have to ask, I don't even know what to tell you. I mean, the logo for the strip is an angry smiley face.
I think S*P is hilarious and (with some frequency) poignant. The only thing that really bothers me is that each of the characters speak in pretty much the exact same sarcastic tone. He does a good job of making the characters unique in terms of overall personality and emotional arcs, but all the "likeable" (I use the term loosely) characters have the exact same sense of humor.
The author is obviously pessimistic about things, but the point of the strip is that the world isn't *quite* as bad as it might look sometimes. The main character tell himself and others that he hates humanity, but despite a lousy job and a string of unfortunate events, he has friends and family who love him, who would do anything for him and he'd do anything for them.
At first glance, the title "Something Positive" seems like sheer irony, and for the most part, that's the whole joke - that a strip called "something positive" starts out with a guy mailing a coat hanger to woman's bridal shower. But just often enough, we get a glimmer of hope or joy or love or innocence, and it is those moments that make life worth living, even people whose lives generally suck.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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As for the (year+ old) debate about whether Something Positive has gone downhill... I think part of it has to do with the strip exhausting the material available for dark jokes. All of the shock value is gone, and characters repeating the same kinds of one-liners is getting old.
I also think that the author stretched things out a little with a "will they won't they" romantic plot that he essentially included just to mess with people. He has a strong grudge against romantic comedies where the person you first meet and fall madly in love with is the person you end up with forever and ever, because life doesn't usually work out that way. So he went out of his way to subvert the trope, which I understand, but in the process two characters basically didn't develop for over a year.
That said, I don't think the strip has jumped the shark. It's still funny with some frequency, (Fortunately, some of the jokes DON'T revolve around sarcastic one-liners), and while the plot is winding down, I feel like it's winding down with purpose. Originally he said he had an endpoint in mind. It's stretched on a bit past the originally stated end-date. But I think he's still intending to wrap it up.
Or maybe he's just too lazy/nervous to start a new project. This IS how he pays his bills, after all, and starting a new comic wouldn't guarantee the same audience. (I don't think his side projects were ever as popular).
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: But just often enough, we get a glimmer of hope or joy or love or innocence, and it is those moments that make life worth living, even people whose lives generally suck.
I guess the problem I have with it is that the way that Davan's life sucks (at least that I'm talking about) is entirely his own making. He treats most people with contempt. He's massively elitist. He actively goes out of his way to hurt people. The rare times he tries to "help" people he gives them advice that is heavily colored through an incredibly dysfunctional misanthropic lens.
So any moments of hope or joy or love tend to feel either undeserved, because he's such a callous jerk, or irrelevant, because I know they won't actually have any significant effect on him or help him develop into a better person. One who isn't despicable, I mean.
Hm. I should probably stop now. I feel much more strongly about S*P than I realized. I've been reading it for so long, and I really just don't know why anymore. Every time I do I feel like I need a shower. Really keep meaning to stop, yet I keep going back.
Sorry to be so vehement about it. If you get something positive (heh) out of it, then that's great.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I absolutely would not recommend the strip to everybody. (I was assuming you had glanced at a few random strips, rather than read the whole thing). Different people find different things funny. I know what's like to keep reading a strip you don't like because the habit is so ingrained, and don't have any recommendations for stopping, but if really bugs you that much I'd try.
I definitely agree that Davan's life sucking is largely self inflicted, but it's also clear that he wasn't born that way nor became it randomly - I suspect the "elitist" part would be there no matter what - but the implication is that he was hurt by enough people early in life that eventually he stopped trying. Which doesn't make his behavior a good thing, or excusable, but it makes it understandable IMO.
I also think part of the point is that the author is subtly making fun of Davan's pessimism. He is not intended to be a role model. If anything, he's an example of what NOT to do. Most of the time. That might just be my reading of it though.
"House" has demonstrated that there's a sizeable target audience of people who like to read about elitist jerks. Sometimes because they ARE elitist jerks in real life, sometimes because they just like to imagine what it would be like to get away with saying stuff like that on a regular basis. It's not for everyone, but they're definitely out there.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Okay now I really need to examine this, because I absolutely love House (well, the first three or four seasons, I haven't watched it in a few years.) I wonder what the difference is. It may just be that House is using his elitist jerkism for the forces of good. He's right so frequently, but even disregarding that, so much of what we see him do revolves around helping people, even if he doesn't necessarily like the person.
Davan usually seems to use his jerkiness to hurt people for humor's sake. And the times when it seems like Davan is "supposed" to be right and actually helping someone (like when he talks to Mike/Kestrel/etc.) I often feel like he's still looking at everything through a horrendously warped worldview.
House, while being a huge jerk, also values things like truth, rationality, and problem-solving. And those are really great virtues, and ones that are often in surprisingly short supply. I have a hard time finding any virtues in Davan these days.
Also, I definitely have a different view of the author than you. Through his notes I tend to get a pretty strong misanthropic vibe from him, which I think may even further taint my reading of his work. So there's that.
Thanks for the interesting conversation though! Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I think the author IS misanthropic to some degree, and the worldview you see Davan espousing when he's "helping" people is probably about what the author believes. I can't remember a good example offhand, and I'm not sure whether or not I'd disagree with you about whether it's genuinely wrong.
A good line from Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is "it's really hard to be so pessimistic that you continuously undershoot Reality... BUT you have a choice about how you feel about the world being the way it is." I don't think Davan is necessarily wrong about things in a factual sense (how likely good/bad things are to happen) but that he does take an overly negative view about things that isn't right or wrong, just depressing.
As for "hurting people for fun," I think House may frequently come up with better justifications for his abuses than Davan does but that the bottom line is that they both make fun of people they perceive as stupid, purely because they like to. House actively finds ways to be mean that he can somehow justify, Davan doesn't bother doing that so much. I think you *might* consider House a "better" person in that regard since he DOES make that effort for whatever reason, but the difference in overall "goodness" is slight.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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Right now, I think the best webcomic currently in production is actually Gunnerkrigg Court. I'm pretty critical of these ventures, but it manages to hold my attention, and has a legitimately inspired story.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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To me, the question "How do you get past the intense, relentless misanthropy and contempt for humanity that Milholland pours into every comic?" is rather like "How do you get past the bitterness of dark chocolate?" The things you want to get past are precisely the things I savor. Tastes differ.
On another note entirely, while it hasn't (yet?) joined my list of regular reads, Axe Cop (written by a 5-year-old and illustrated by his 29-year-old brother) is well worth a look. Check out this animated version of the first episode.
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Axe Cop sounds neat... Reminds me of how I would type up my kids' crazy stories when they were that age.
Posts: 1144 | Registered: Feb 2001
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Periodically I try to get into Schlock Mercenary and it never manages to take, but I keep hearing good things.
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Awesome! Thanks for those links. I totally get a different vibe from the author, but clearly (to some extent at least) that's me projecting.
Posts: 3580 | Registered: Aug 2005
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Blayne Bradley
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Misfile I'll give props as being fairly fascinating.
As well as Power Puff Girls Doujinshi
I'll also say that Ctrl-Alt-Del has probably significantly improved recently though its still the kind of humor that I find funny becuase its [i]relateable[/b].
Penny-Arcade is still awesome, Erfworld is still awesome, so is Oots, and I think I stumbled across a really excellent one I have trouble continueing through because of how good it is; The Meek.
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