Why Use This Blog?

For a medium that is relatively young, webcomic production is enormous. There are a lot of webcomics available, and they are easy to find. Google "Webcomic," and you'll hit about 5,000,000 sites that mention the word. Unfortunately, only a fraction of what is online is enjoyable to read. Finding the "good stuff" can be difficult and takes a considerable amount of time and patience.
This blog was created as a guide to finding good web comics. As a starting point for new readers, it features links to great comics and tips on how to search for the good comics on your own. I also review comics that I come across in my own search for the best that webcomics have to offer.

A note: this is not a guide to publishing a webcomic. I suggest reading the FAQ of a good webcomic artist for information about how-to, or visiting this tutorial.

Also, this is not a literary review of webcomics. For a literary review, see the Webcomics Examiner.

I now update on Sundays.

January 25, 2008

xkcd

xkcd
Randall Munroe
Gag strip
PG-13 to R

xkcd is something a little different from the usual comic fare that I run across. It is not a beautiful comic in the sense that the artwork is beautiful. But it is a great comic. I have to admit, I am enamored with xkcd.

The author has a way of meshing a cynical viewpoint of the world with mathmatics, coding and a little bit of love poetry that makes it absolutely hilarious. As with most gag comics, sometimes an idea works and sometimes it doesn't. But the hits far outnumber the misses. My favorite repeating gag is the poetic, lyrical "Yo Momma" jokes.

One of the comic's strengths is something that many would think of as a weakness. The artwork is very simple. This is a stick-figure comic. But if the artwork was more complex, I think a lot of the jokes would fall flat.

The only weakness in the comic is that sometimes the author likes to get on his soapbox. When he does, the comic gets text-heavy, and the joke (and the soapbox point) plods to the end without having the same effect as staying simple. Also, some of the earlier comics don't really have a point to them. But this was when the author was just beginning and hadn't found his voice yet, so don't drop the comic if you don't get the first few months of comics.

I will mention one more thing about the comic. It is very math -- and coding -- heavy. I am a liberal arts major, and anyone else who hasn't been through years of mathmatics and CS courses may be like me: I get all of the comics not featuring math, and at least the gist of most of those that do, but sometimes the joke will fly over my head as I have no idea about mathmatic principles beyond simple trig, geometry and algebra. However, feeling stupid sometimes doesn't keep me for coming back for more.