I'm From the Internet!

Ok, so when this nubile young blog was being conceived (a hot moment it was too) I was having quite the hard time deciding which of my many stores of possible useless shit to tap into for my first post. So instead of brainstorming lists or ideas or searching deeply within myself, I decided to go on the Internet and mastur.... look at webcomics! And that's when it hit me! I WILL SPREAD THE LOVE OF SOME OF MY MANY MANY TIME WASTING WEBCOMICS!

So just to lay it on the line, these are not in order of favorites or anything like that, they're just the ones I decided to list when I list them. The idea of this list is to introduce you to the many varied styles of webcomics, so I'll probably not list two webcomics I like if I feel they both overlap in style too much. Also a defense of each webcomic is to follow!

1. Order of the Stick (www.giantitp.com)
2. MS Paint Adventures (www.mspaintadventures.com)
3. xkdc (www.xkdc.com)
4. Starslip (www.starslip.com)
5.Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (www.smbc-comics.com)
6. 8-Bit Theater (www.nuklearpower.com)
7. Dr. McNinja (www.drmcninja.com)
8. Scary-Go-Round (www.scarygoround.com)
9. Penny Arcade (www.penny-arcade.com)
10. Dinosaur Comics (www.qwantz.com)

Explanations!
1. Order of the Stick is currently my favorite comic on the inter-webs, but partially that's because I love D&D. However, though this comic follows the adventures of a party who exist in a world vaguely governed by the laws of D&D, it's a story that anyone can enjoy with fantastic writing, fun and simple art, and really genuinely funny punchlines. I hearts it much! If you enjoy this webcomic, I also recommend "Erfworld", "Dungeons & Dorks", and "Looking for Group"

2.MS Paint Adventures. What can I say about MS Paint Adventures? It's one of the most bizzare things to ever make it's way onto the mainstream conscience of the web. You will either not get it at all or absolutely love it. The humor is hilariously off-center and self referential, and the simplicity of the early comics becomes more complicated as the plot does. I recommend you start by reading through the first incarnation "Jail break" until you feel you understand it, and then setting out on the huge undertaking that is "Problem Sleuth" ( a thousands of pages long epic) Don't bother with "Bard's Quest" since it's frustratingly unfinished. If you like this comic, read some of the forum based comics that are a spin-off of the idea of MS Paint Adventures

3. I actually assume most of you have read xkcd because it's just a very funny intelligent and popular webcomic. It's one of those things that makes you feel good to be a nerd, and lets you realize that being smart and interesting and individualistic doesn't mean you have to be a loser or a pariah. It's seriously fun for everyone. If you like it, I recommend you try out either "Buttersafe" or "Cyanide and Happiness" and also the very hit-or-miss historical webcomic "Hark, A Vagrant" (Also I know the writer of this comic and his family personally! Great people.)

4. Starslip is a Space comedy that has one of the best written plots and premises I've ever found online. The majority of the story takes place on a ship that is also an art museum, and the space hijinks ensue. You just have to trust me that this webcomic has some of my favorite story arcs of all time. Read it, it's fun and interesting. If you like this style of comedy and art, but don't care as much for it being clogged with storyline, check out the author's old webcomic which he has now retired "Checkerboard Nightmare"

5. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is a comic I chose as the best representative of the "one shot" comic. Basically they are comics with one or two panels max which imply much of the context for the humor. This one is frankly one of the best out there, and even if it isn't funny every day, it's funny enough that you can make your way through all the old archives and get alot out of it. If you like this comic I recommend "Perry Bible Fellowship" and "Natalie Dee"

6. I put 8-Bit Theater in this list as an example of the "Sprite Comic" which is very popular amongst amateur webcomic writers who can't draw (and very often can't write) so they just use characters from video games. This one is based around the story of Final Fantasy I and it has some great characters although I'll admit it's been dragging recently. It's still worth reading through the archives for the huge amount of good stuff it's produced. If you like this I recommend "Bob and George" which used to run daily but is now finished, and "Neglected Mario Characters" which has a few gems amongst a pile of shit (if you read this one contact me and I'll tell you what to read)

sometimes though, but more often than not it's just 7. Dr. McNinja is the story of an Irish Ninja who is also a Doctor. It's completely absurd, fantastically drawn, and alot of fun to read. You can really start at the earliest issues and watch as everything gets more ridiculous and more awesome the whole way. It can get pretty plottyalot of ridiculous and hilarious action. Everything about this comic is over the top and I love it! If you enjoy this comic I recommend "The Gods of Arr-Kelaan" and "Goblins"

8. Scary-Go-Round is a wonderfully strange comic that's very British and very strange, but also one of my favorites at the moment. It falls into my personal category of webcomics that aren't really based around a gimmick but are generally plot and character driven. Scary-Go-Round exists in a sortof-like-ours world except alot more supernatural and ridiculous things happen every day. It has it's ups and downs interesting-ness wise but overall it's really worth it. If you like this I recommend "Questionable Content" and others I can't think of at the moment.

9. Penny Arcade is the obligatory and quintessential gaming comic which hundreds if not thousands of small start-up comics have tried to emulate. It's really very well done and has a very distinct feel to it, but I'll be frank, you often won't get the joke unless you've played the game or read the news post. Still, I read it every day and enjoy in overall, and it has alot of history. If you like it, I recommend "PVP" and "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" although both of these fit pretty well into the category of #8

10. Finally last but not least is Dinosaur Comics, a comic that has not changed the panel layout since it's inception. It's all about the dialog and the characters and it's amazing. You can get the gist of it from just a few comics. Also Dinosaurs are the shit for reals. If you like this comic I recommend "PartiallyClips" and "A Softer World"

Also I'd like to also recommend "Married to the Sea" but since I wasn't sure if I should call it a webcomic or not I didn't put it on the list! I hope I've given you enough material to eat up the rest of your summer with! I know it's eaten up my life!


This is God's Lonely Man, signing out to go read webcomics!