Webcomics

[Ahriman238]

The site seems pretty low on ways to waste time recently. Time to fix it. What webcomics do you like to read? Which do you remember fondly even after they're gone?

Completed;

A Miracle of Science- in a future where the solar system is colonized thanks to mad science, the Vorstellan Polizei stop the mad scientists from completing their various nefarious projects and turn over their research for more productive use. Their best cop, John Prester is partnered with a Martian psychologist for a tough case.

This is pretty vanilla. Some fun ideas, some light humor, a little romance, naturally.


Freakangels- 23 years ago, a dozen children were born in a tiny remote English village. They were all pale almost to the point of albinism, had purple eyes and tremendous psychic powers. Eventually they were hunted by the government, an event put on hold by the end of the world. Now the Freakangels clan run a community of survivors in Whitechapel, in the post-apocalypse.

This one has lots of profanity, immaturity, nakedness. Etc. It really does feel like a bunch of twenty-somethings who may not particularly like each other most of the time, but have stuck together all their lives.


8-bit Theater- Sprite comic of Final Fantasy. Four heroes people complete monsters travel the land, questing for power to defeat Lord Chaos. Or something.

What can I say? This was pretty much the first webcomic I ever read, back in high school. It's weird, funny, pretty dark at points, with the best comedic sociopath protagonist ever. It did run for over a decade though, so it's kind of a huge archive crawl.


Big Head Press- almost a dozen largely sci-fi webcomics. Bills itself as "thoughtful stories" and for the most part it's true. But there's a serious libertarian bias threading through that ranges from "mildly annoying" to "story-breaking." Still worth checking out if you can filter the political messages. They also can't seem to get through a story arc without some NSFW content.

Odysseus the Rebel- the Odyssey with blood and sex intact, and an added plot of Odysseus defying the gods. I really, really like this one.

The Architect- a horror story about staying at the last home of a mad architect (clearly based on Frank Llyod Wright) with a very slow buildup. Mostly notable in being one of two or three stories with no detectable politics.

The Probability Broach- their first comic, and the most egregious soapbox. Win Bear, cop in a decaying socialist America falls through a portal to a parallel reality where the US Constitution was never ratified and it's a colorful libertarian, open-carry paradise with no cops, high technology etc.

Escape from Terra- All about people escaping the socialist hell of future Earth to join the He-men of the final frontier.

Roswell Texas- another alt-history, this time Santa Anna bites a bullet at the Alamo and this somehow butterflies into a continuously independent Texas that gobbles up all the American Southwest (including California). And how various world powers react to the crash of a flying saucer at Roswell.

Quantum Vibe- Girl gets enlisted by a "mad scientist" to study travel to alternate dimensions. Which involves a whirlwind tour of the colonized solar system.

A Drugwar Carol- Scrooge McCzar arrests someone for lighting up a medicinal joint in peaceful protest and is visited that night by the ghosts of drug use past, present and future. One of the best arguments I've seen for legalization, but at some point I really need to run down some of those citations.

Phoebus Krumm- swashbuckling adventure with solar sailors, and relatively little libertarian harping.

La Muse- What happens when you give a liberal activist for all causes godlike superpowers?

The Hook- bizarre bit where music is weaponized, and promptly banned across the Galaxy except on anarchist post-apocalyptic Earth.


DM of the Rings- screencap comic of the LOTR movies, featuring a roleplaying group on one of the worst campaigns ever. Inspired versions of this style for Star Wars, One Piece, My Little Pony, probably more.

[Starglider]

Schlock Mercenary is a consistently entertaining military sci-fi webcomic, which sometimes touches on some quite interesting transhumanist themes.

Gunnerkrigg Court is a beautifully constructed and drawn, slightly surrealist, darkly humorous modern fantasy.

ErfWorld is about a contemporary human transported to a universe based on turn-based strategy games e.g. Wesnoth. The art and characterisation is a bit spotty but the writing and worldbuilding are good.

Homestuck is highly variable in quality, polarising and extremely long-winded. However the author's earlier Problem Sleuth is a nice piece of high-energy adventure game inspired surrealism.

You referenced Darths and Droids; IMHO it is considerably better written than DM of the Rings.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Not Fantasy strictly, but these two have given me much amusement over the last few years:

Second Empire featuring the Daleks in their own universe, rendered in some very impressive 3D graphics. The story follows General Xenol of the First Conquest Army as he realises the Golden EMperor on Skaro is dooming the Dalek race. He decides to take action to stop this. It's complete, although the ending did come a bti out of left field.

Darths and Droids. As already mentioned, a similar premise to DM of the Rings. What if the SW films were actually the adventures of a group of RPG players? Terrifyingly it actually makes more sense than some of the Prequel's plots. Ep I-V are complete, Ep VI has just begun. Gave us the awesome spell of "Summon Bigger Fish" and makes Jar-Jar a fun and likeable character.

[Borgholio]

PVP Online - http://pvponline.com/
PvP's spinoff Table Titans - http://www.tabletitans.com/
Looking for Group - http://www.lfg.co/
Darths and Droids, already linked by EF.
Sandra and Woo - http://www.sandraandwoo.com
User Friendly (defunct for awhile but still funny to go back and read) - http://www.userfriendly.org
Gregor Comics - http://www.gregor-comics.com
Exterminatus Now (ending soon but fun to look through the archive) - http://www.exterminatusnow.co.uk

[Ahriman238]

@Starglider These I'm aware of, though the sheer size of Shlock has made catching up a daunting prospect. Definitely second Gunnerkrigg and Erfworld, which was originally a spin-off of OotS, which gets it's own thread.

Paranatural- Pretty much a kid goes to a high school where Weird Stuff is happening and joins the (Paranormal) Activity Club. It's hilariously funny and the faces and expressions are just priceless. Plus it has some real feeling.

Namesake- Girl falls through a magical portal into the magical land of Oz. Turns out there are "namesakes" who share a name with legendary or literary figures and get sucked into the same sorts of adventures, like Alices going to Wonderland, Peters to Never-Never Land etc.

Goblins- a group of Goblins in DnD 3 (maybe 3.5) make some DnD jokes, their warcamp is leveled by a party of PCs, and they decide to become the realm's first monster adventuring party. Undergoes a tremendous art and storytelling evolution, so you may need to stick it through the first bits. I promise it's worth it, but eventually you reach the end and realize the comic rarely updates and often takes a break of a year or more. Gets seriously, seriously dark at a few points.

[Ahriman238]

I completely forgot about Second Empire. Laser knife duels, DALEK, the next generation and all. How did I forget that?

[Murazor]

Stand Still, Stay Silent has what is likely the best artwork I've ever encountered in a webcomic. After a prologue in which we see how people in Scandinavia deal with quarantines set up to contain a superplague, we flash forward a hundred years into the future.

This is a time in which the city of Reykjavik in Iceland is effectively the capital of the Known World, home of nearly a fifth of the quarter of a million humans who survived the plague, and where there is some interest in going back to the ruins of the old world to recover lost lore.

[SpottedKitty]

Second Empire featuring the Daleks in their own universe, rendered in some very impressive 3D graphics. The story follows General Xenol of the First Conquest Army as he realises the Golden EMperor on Skaro is dooming the Dalek race. He decides to take action to stop this. It's complete, although the ending did come a bti out of left field.

Don't forget the monumental puns, in-jokes and running gags worthy (when you can stop laughing) of the supreme accolade — hold nose, grasp chain, pull.

A few of my favourites:

Freefall - http://freefall.purrsia.com/
Twokinds - http://twokinds.keenspot.com/index.php
Halfway Hotel - http://www.tigerdile.com/comics/halfway-hotel/
Girl Genius - http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/index.php

[Ahriman238]

Next Town Over- the Man in Black White fled into the desert and the gunslinger Zombie Girl chased him. No really, a zombie girl chases a pyrokinetic outlaw through a fantastical version of the wild west, through a series of ever-stranger towns. Some of their history is expanded on, but much remains a mystery. And with all respect, this is the most amazing art I've ever seen in a webcomic.


Earthsong- this comic has been running forever, and has wiped everything and restarted twice. Finally seems to be hitting a climax. Essentially, planets and stars are living beings, but sometimes the people living on planets absorb too much of the planet's core element, developing superpowers that threaten the life of both the effected individual, and the planet and everyone on it. When this happens, they're sent to Earthsong to be purified. But, an evil (and largely dead) planet named Belulous has raised an army to conquer Earthsong and steal the power she was given to save others. We follow Willow, a person who appears suddenly on Earthsong with no apparent powers, and no memories whatsoever.


Wayward Sons- Has been dead for some time, but they've been promising a revival later this year. We'll see. Long, long ago, before the waters drank Atlantis, two starships crashed on Earth. First, the Tytan, a prison ship bound to carry the very worst traitors and murders to eternal exile in the Tartarus Dimension, second the Ulympea, pride of the Panthean Fleet and escort to make sure everything goes smoothly. As established, things do not go smoothly, a mass breakout leads to an uncontrolled dimension hop, booth ships are wrecked and the people involved all gain superpowers and Highlander-style immortality. Once upon a time, the Ulympeans fought the Tytans for the fate of the Earth.

There's something in this one that reminds me so much of Transformers G1, only better. Like if this had been on saturday mornings, I'd have totally missed Transformers to watch it. Maybe because I've always been a mythology buff. That Kronos and Suras actually have a pretty complicated relationship only adds to this.


Galaxion- The Hiawatha, some time ago, became the first ship to attempt FTL via hyperdrive. All they ever found of it was plasma and debris. After running all the maths again and half-a-dozen redesigns, the Pathfinder attempted the jump, and got a couple of parsecs before reappearing crippled and on fire. But this is a comic about the third starship to attempt FTL. Third time's the charm?

I just love the feeling of genuine exploration and a little old-fashioned sci-fi adventure.


Unsounded- an intellectual zombie priest/mage is made the reluctant escort to a half-feral thief girl with a tail. Is oddly endearing, despite dealing with some pretty dark stuff.