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Every so often i like to do a thread about webcomics I started reading, or stopped reading and why, and of course hope thereby to discover recommendations from you guys.

Just discovered, Mechmaster's Trapped in Amber -- A Dalek Tale"

Mechmaster is a 3D rendering hobbyist with a great sense of story-telling and humour. Mechmaster was responsible for the Dalek Second Empire series which is highly recommended if you haven't read it.

Trapped in Amber has been going a couple of years, though I only discovered it recently. There are quite a few pages built up for a good long read.

Both stories feature the Daleks as the heroes.


Old Favourites

Erfworld has dropped to a fairly slow pace since the proprietor's wife was diagnosed with cancer a few months ago. Fortunately she seems to have some chance of recovery.

The story IMO has got rather complicated, with too many different characters and plot lines going on for a comic which updates only once every 1 or 2 weeks.

That said, I've been with Erwforld since the start, so I'm not letting go. There are signs the current situation is getting resolved, which will bring Book 3 to an end, and I want to see what happens.

Erfworld is based in an alternate world which works on the rules of a turn-based strategy wargame.


The Order of the Stick

This went through a bit of a fallow period earlier in the year when Rich Burlew seemed to only out out a strip every few weeks. The schedule has picked up again, though, and the story is progressing well with a very interesting revelation about the Goblin religion and their lear cleric, who is one of the main villains of the comic.

OotS is a B&B based comic with a lot of RPH in jokes and some surprisingly emotional points in the story.


Galaxion

The publication schedule on this has dropped to almost a standstill, and it was never that fast. I only look in on the page every couple of weeks now.

It's an SF exploration story based in a slightly Star Trekky (i.e. not Grimdark)


Cassiopea Quinn

This strip featuring the antics of a sexy interstellar lady thief is fairly reliable in schedule.

The stories are pretty lightweight, but the artwork is good. My favourite character actually is the blue-skinned space navy captain who is the main antagonist for Cassiopea.


Goblins

Another fairly slow one. The author-artist (it's another one man band) has had a number of health issues over the years which have slowed him down.

The artwork is not everyone's taste, but it's a good story, following the careers of a group of Goblins who get tired of being RPG bad guys and decide to turn themselves into adventurers.


Existential Comics

A philosophy comic which publishes on the dot every Monday, featuring a cast of the great philosophers from history. You can learn a surprising amount of basic philosophy facts from this strip, and it's often very funny.

The first page -- The Machine -- is very long and quite dull, so I advise you to skip it and get to the good stuff which begins on p2.


Girl Genius

The Old Faithful of the webcomics world. Girl Genius delivers its steampunky updates 2-3 times a week. When they don't, it's always for a good reason announced in advance. For instance, the husband-wife team behind the strip are currently celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary and taking a week off from the comic.

Girl Genius has been going long enough now that I probably should go back to the beginning and relive the early great adventures.

I'm not going to mention Oglaf because it's too rude.

OoTS I still follow occasionally, but its lost my interest more than being able to keep it. Not enough Xykon in my opinion lately.

The only other ones of the ones you've listed is Goblins (which frankly I can't stand, art or story wise.) and Girl Genius. Which lost me after doing a Beserk and spent god knows how long in the castle.

Recommendations:

Kills Six Billion Demons:
https://killsixbilliondemons.com/

which is absolutely fantastic in art style, story and world building. Quite possibly the best web comic being published right now.

Ava's Demon
http://www.avasdemon.com/

Again fantastic art and story, however has a nasty habit of going on long hiatuses.

Edit: Forgot to add Unsounded to the list:
http://www.casualvillain.com/Unsounded/about/

Another great fantasy story with superb art.

And still going to recommend Oglaf, as despite the porn strips it's still very funny and the non porn strips are usually the superior ones.

I'll add to the list!

Gunnerkrigg Court
https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2
This one has been going for a good number of years and the artistic style has shifted over those years (check the first page and last page and you can see the big jump in evolution). This is a story of magic and machines, of gods and mysteries. The story goes along at a good pace and it updates three times a week regularly. It's currently going though a pretty major story arc and some big revelations have just happened so its in a very exciting spot right now!

Next Town Over
http://www.nexttownover.net/?p=4
Bit slower to update and sometimes happens only once a week. Great steam-punk artwork and one of those stories where you hit the ground running half way through and learn the origin through the latter part. Lots of action and mystery!

Looking for Group (LFG)
https://www.lfg.co/page/1/
Comical DnD style adventuring! The story meanders a bit here and there and often its more jovial than it is story focused; but its good clean DnD style humour and fun!

Monster Mayhem
http://monstersoupcomic.com/?comic=chapter-1-cover
Slow with some gaps along the way in updating, but very good quality drawing and an interesting evolving story, though its yet to really get up to steam I feel; its still mostly inthe establishing itself phase.

Power Nap
http://www.powernapcomic.com/d/20110617.html
One mans quest for a nap! Ok so its more than that, its twisty and kind of totally off the rails crazy in its own way whilst being firmly sane and on the rails at the same time. Slower updates again, but very good art and a solid story backing to it.

Wildlife
http://www.wildelifecomic.com/comic/1
Regular updates and good artwork; this is the tale of moving to the countryside and finding that its got more wild magic to it than one might expect. Ghosts, werewolves, witches - and those are just the good characters!

My current reads are:

Questionable Content (no idea why; normally I couldn't be bothered with the tales of a load of New England hipsters, but I'm stuck with it now)

XKCD - hit or miss; generally the computer science ones go over my head.

Girl Genius - it's picked up again now, seems to be going somewhere. I might need an archive binge to refresh myself - some of those interminable year-long plots might make more sense if I read them in one day.

I'll need to get back to Order of the Stick - I let it slide when it didn't update for a week or so. Last I read, the airship was being attacked by mountain giants.

I also used to read Gone With the Blastwave - I believe it's finished now, but still worth a look - and there was a sci-fi one I used to look at, featuring a human starship crewman whos ship was destroyed and was then picked up by space elves. Sadly, that got to the point where getting one update a year was pushing it, so again, it dropped off my radar.

I'm loving OOTS recently, pretty much been on a roll since the Count Durkula storyline resolved.

I have finally given up on Erfworld and removed it from my daily bookmarks. I loved it for a long time but I think it started falling apart around the beginning of Book 3, so roughly 3 years ago (quite a ways before the current personal hardships).

XKCD is always terrific.

Steve Lichman is terrific. I have gotten both books on Kickstarter. You can read about 90 pages on the web.

I'm a fan of Questionable Content as well. I couldn't really tell you why exactly, but its one of the few web comics I still read along with XKCD and Penny Arcade.

Erfworld, Darths and Droids, OotS, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal & Oglaf are the only ones I still keep a regular eye on.

Goblins and XKCD I check in on periodically when I remember.

Looking For Group I gave up on as the story became impenetrable and largely just Richard joking about. The Noob was fun but slowed down and stopped. I followed Gods of Arr-Kelaan, can't remember why I stopped. I briefly followed some post-apocalyptic thing with very little text but I can't even remember the name now, think it had 'romance' in it.

Oh and there was a good one called Wayward Sons about 2 ships from an alternate dimension crashing on ancient Earth and the the occupants becoming all the Greek & Eastern deities, but that stopped suddenly (and the last page says "will return late 2015").

Finally I was a very late convert to the non-adventures of Wonderella and read through the whole lot just days before the author announced he was stopping regular updates!

Nobody mentionned SMBC this is an outrage.
Basically it's similar to XKCD, with self-contained strips, no characters/plotlines, lots of geeky jokes, some which required knowing a specific subject, and it's imo even better than XKCD.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Nobody mentionned SMBC this is an outrage.
Basically it's similar to XKCD, with self-contained strips, no characters/plotlines, lots of geeky jokes, some which required knowing a specific subject, and it's imo even better than XKCD.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/

I'm always disappointed by SMBC. It's whole theme is the equivalent of poking you in the ribs and saying 'if you are smart you'll laugh at this. You are smart, right?' It struggles to actually be funny most of the time.

I used to like CAD. Shoot me. Lol

Ctrl Alt Del was decent when it was story based till he reset everything.

I agree that Looking for Group lost its way for a big chunk of time and that its gotten a little too silly for its own good at times. It's a bit better now as they've found a focus for the story to head into.

Darths and Droids was neat but I never found it really clicked with me. That said the one its based off (which finished) DM of the Rings is fantastic

http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612

Also another finished comic - Redtail's Dream
http://www.minnasundberg.fi/comic/page01.php

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Nobody mentionned SMBC this is an outrage.

I literally did 15 minutes before you said that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:
Ctrl Alt Del was decent when it was story based till he reset everything.

I knew I'd forgotten a gaming one! Yes I read that up until the reset, then didn't bother.

 Overread wrote:
Gunnerkrigg Court
https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=2
This one has been going for a good number of years and the artistic style has shifted over those years (check the first page and last page and you can see the big jump in evolution). This is a story of magic and machines, of gods and mysteries. The story goes along at a good pace and it updates three times a week regularly. It's currently going though a pretty major story arc and some big revelations have just happened so its in a very exciting spot right now!

One of my personal favourites right there. The amount of planning that went into this comic makes revisiting it from the start very rewarding every once in a while.

Other favourites of mine are:

Scary Go Round sadly on a hiatus right now as the artist is writing a new arc, but in the meantime I'm enjoying his monthly Giant Days, revolving around a character who was previously one of the protagonists of his works.

PVP Online is one of the ancients of web comics, doesn't update quite as much, but the content on offer is great. Alongside PVP there's Table Titans, about a group of role players and the campaigns they play, well worth reading if you like role play or fantasy stories in general.

The Perry Bible Fellowship, bit of an odd one, updates highly irregularly, but has spawned several gems of absurd, sometimes extremely dark comedy.

I read CAD off and on for a while, but it never hooked me. It wasn't horrible, but I'd never find that comic so good I had to share. No big quit or anything, I just stopped visiting and when I'm reminded to check it out don't start up again.

 ChargerIIC wrote:

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
Nobody mentionned SMBC this is an outrage.
Basically it's similar to XKCD, with self-contained strips, no characters/plotlines, lots of geeky jokes, some which required knowing a specific subject, and it's imo even better than XKCD.
http://www.smbc-comics.com/

I'm always disappointed by SMBC. It's whole theme is the equivalent of poking you in the ribs and saying 'if you are smart you'll laugh at this. You are smart, right?' It struggles to actually be funny most of the time.

I certainly see your point. It's one of those things that is more "humorous" than funny, if that makes sense. I seldom laugh out loud, but it is clever in it's own way. It's the NPR of webcomics, in other words.

I totally forgot about ctrlaltdel, I used to follow it but trailed off like seven or eight years ago, I had no idea it had been rebooted. I stopped following Penny Arcade many moons ago, not too long after ctrlaltdel, probably mostly after ME3 and some of the associated shenanigans with that. The only ones I really follow now are SMBC and XKCD, dont have time for much more.

SMBC is alright. It's a comic I try to get into but generally don't stick with. It feels like its trying to explain the joke a little too much I guess.

 BrookM wrote:

Scary Go Round sadly on a hiatus right now as the artist is writing a new arc, but in the meantime I'm enjoying his monthly Giant Days, revolving around a character who was previously one of the protagonists of his works.

Yes! seconded.

Though i do worry that the hiatus might become a semi-permanent thing. He's got giant days and by night going right now. I like both, but i do miss the daily comic.

 Riquende wrote:
I literally did 15 minutes before you said that.

Sorry I took 15 minutes to write my message .

I also like the following webcomics which haven't been mentioned yet:
Dragonball Multiverse (French but with translations in TONS of languages)
http://www.dragonball-multiverse.com/

Unspeakable Vault of Doom (not very active, Cthulhu humor)
http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/570/

and best of all:

KatRacoon (comic based on popular gifs, that usually is extremely adorablecute!!!)
https://katswenski.com/

What was the reboot for CAD? Did the story just end and restart with something newish?

 timetowaste85 wrote:
What was the reboot for CAD? Did the story just end and restart with something newish?

Yeah, the “world-ending” event arc sucked big time (it was extremely anticlimatic and out of nowhere, without any real tension building, Ethan sacrificed himself or the world exploded or something, I don't even remember), but the new universe is alright.

Girl Genius as mentioned above

Sandra and Woo: A girl, her talking racoon, their friends, the devil and more
http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2018/10/08/1028-dating-tips-for-boys-part-2-of-4/

A Tale of Two Rulers: Zelda, Gannodorf & Link in a story you didn't even imagine there was
http://figmentforms.tumblr.com/post/139806271367/a-tale-of-two-rulers-archive-post

Weregeek, gaming nerds, games, larp and more
http://www.weregeek.com/2018/10/05/

Slightly Damned, and that does describe it pretty well
http://www.sdamned.com/comic/885

Oh yeah - another one that I check in on every so often; the Perry Bible Fellowship:
http://pbfcomics.com/
"the juxtaposition of whimsical childlike imagery or fantasy with morbid, sudden or unexpected surreal humor. Common subjects include irony, religion, sexuality, war, science fiction, suicide, violence, and death." according to Wikipedia.

And just like that, Erfworld book 4 ends (did you not know it was book 4)?

Apparently there won't be a long gap until the start of book 5.

 OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Sandra and Woo: A girl, her talking racoon, their friends, the devil and more
http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2018/10/08/1028-dating-tips-for-boys-part-2-of-4/

I stopped that one when they went full anti-SJW bs.

 amazingturtles wrote:

 BrookM wrote:

Scary Go Round sadly on a hiatus right now as the artist is writing a new arc, but in the meantime I'm enjoying his monthly Giant Days, revolving around a character who was previously one of the protagonists of his works.

Yes! seconded.

Though i do worry that the hiatus might become a semi-permanent thing. He's got giant days and by night going right now. I like both, but i do miss the daily comic.

Giant Days should be over in a couple of issues (though I wouldn't say no to more adventures of Esther and co), then it should be back to Tackleford, maybe focusing on the next generation of young cast members?

Just so long as it isn't Desmond Fish-man..

 BrookM wrote:
Giant Days should be over in a couple of issues (though I wouldn't say no to more adventures of Esther and co), then it should be back to Tackleford, maybe focusing on the next generation of young cast members?

Just so long as it isn't Desmond Fish-man..

Don't say his name too loud!

To be honest a week long fishman story wouldn't surprise me, John A. knows how to mess with his readers.

 LunarSol wrote:
I'm a fan of Questionable Content as well. I couldn't really tell you why exactly, but its one of the few web comics I still read along with XKCD and Penny Arcade.

Jeph has wicked sense of humour, too bad he dumped Yelling Bird! Though lately, QC has been IMO too much about AI's and not enough human characters.

His scifi-comic, Alice Grove was ok.

There's been a sudden dearth of updates, but I recommend everyone spend some time read http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/ , which is about what happens to massively muscular protagonists after their big moments.

I recently tripped over The Whiteboard Comic (http://www.the-whiteboard.com/index.html); it's heavily based on paintball humor early on, but it's done in such a way that a the non-paintballer will understand it easily. Starts out funny and only gets better as it goes.