Of Webs and Comics
Salutations, fellow pixel perusers.
A short one today. For today’s blog post, I thought I’d just have a chat about webcomics.
I read eight webcomics regularly and they actually form part of my daily routine. In the morning, when I’m checking out emails from clients or deciding how to structure the day, I pop open all the links on my bookmark bar and see if any comics have updated. It’s a fun way to get started, either with some humour or a little episodic slice of drama.
So, here are four of the webcomics which have become part of my regular routine. I dip into others sometimes too, but can’t be arsed to go into all of them. I’ll tell you about the other four next time, because lazy.
1 – Penny Arcade – https://www.penny-arcade.com/
This is a great webcomic which has been going for donkey’s years. It has no story to speak of, though they do occasionally make a mini-series. Penny Arcade is largely gaming humour, following main dudes Tycho and Gabe (alter egos of the creators, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik) as they discuss the gaming industry or have difficult interactions with games. That barely scratches the surface, as there’s a raft of other characters, but suffice to say that this is a witty comic and it appeals to me with geek humour and references to old school RPGs.
2 – Order Of The Stick – http://www.giantitp.com/
OOTS is probably my favourite, because it has the two things I seek most, comedy and story. From humble beginnings as one-shot jokes about the problems with DnD and realism (Fail a spot check, walk right past a goblin) to an epic, sweeping tale about heroes and villains and gods and all the rest. The clever trick of OOTS is that it swings with brutal speed from silliness to quite nasty events, so you’re never entirely sure if it’s just a daft cartoon or a serious story. The former is more the case, but the latter keeps surprising you with it’s sneaky presence.
3 – Schlock Mercenary – http://www.schlockmercenary.com/
Very close contender for favourite, SM is a webcomic with the same balance as OOTS, but leaning more towards serious story and brutal moments. The series begins with the amorphous blob Schlock signing on to a mercenary company (it’s a space opera) and then spirals into galactic wars, illegal technology and everythign else between. THere’s some excellent humour, mostly very mercenary (as you’d imagine) and there are some genuine moments of shock in the story. Amazingly, SM has updated EVERY day since it started in 2000. Yes, wow indeed! I’ve read through the lot and loved it.
4 – XKCD – http://xkcd.com/
This comic is most unlike the others, because it has no story, just stick drawings. They range from sweet and emotional (more so at the start) to high physics, computer code and maths, most of which I don’t get. By and large, they discuss geeky or historical ideas which are fascinating and funny. My favourite pieces are the big spreads he (Randall Monroe) creates which delve into a subject in great depth, such as a recent example about identifying an unlabelled map, using a flow chart based on his impressive knowledge of geographic history. I wouldn’t know where to even start with this stuff, but he finds a way of making charts and graphs very amusing.
Right, four more next time (and DLYHL on monday!).
Peace and love!
