Online Comics

I pretty much don't read the funny pages any more,'cause all the really good stuff is online. There's a lot of creative and really off-kilter funny stuff going on in the world of webcomics. Here's what I've found to be indespensible on a daily basis.

The daily readers

Nip and Tuck

A new discovery,and a DARNED good one. I read the entire archive in a single extended marathon sitting,and laughed so long loud and hard my kids were seriously doubting my mental stability! I was actually in pain from laughing so much. You have GOT to check this out.

Under The Lemon Tree

This is done by the same chap who does Nip and Tuck (see above). Imagine a typical blue-collar dude,who suddenly sees manifestations of his inner psyche as separate entities. Mayhem ensues on a semi-regular basis. Bravo!

UserFriendly

This goes without saying. One cannot be a computer or network geek without embracing Illiad's magnum opus. He so thoroughly nails life as a network support peon that it's eerie.

Queen of Wands

Take one firey redhead,marry her ex-boyfriend to her best friend,stir in a miserable dead-end tech support job,renfaires,and assorted other madness,and let simmer...

Bruno

Oftentimes serious,occasionally offensive to what some would consider my stodgy conventional morality,but Bruno's just so compelling as a character. I've not seen a more fully-fleshed-out comic character. I do hope she gloms onto some happier times,though. She's had a hard life.

The Joy of Tech

My dearly beloved SpousalUnit put me onto this one. Very funny.

It's Walky!

I don't remember where I first found out about this one. It started life as "Roomies",about the travails and mishaps of some college roomates,and somehow ended up several years in to be about a secret organization dealing with occasional alien invasions,and something about having wrongfully killed all the Martians. Funky.

Melonpool

This one's a lot of fun,but you kinda have to have some backstory. See,there's this spaceship that crashed on Earth,and it's disguised as a very large mallard duck,which turned out not to be much of a disguise,and a captain who tries to emulate James T. Kirk (all those tv broadcasts bouncing around the universe, you see),and a megalomaniac engineer who wants to take over,and a drop-dead-gorgeous protocol droid who made a minor career of being a pop singer,and and and just read the strips!

Diesel Sweeties

Again,occasionally a bit racy,but pixellated robot romance is all the rage. Important philosophical insight: "If anyone else likes it,it can't be good".

Oh,and I do still read the stodgy conventional comics like Crock,9 Chickweed Lane,Dilbert,Doonsebury and whatnot,just not on paper. The Houston Chronicle has today's comics online,with a customizable web interface that lets you build your own comics page. The only strip I can't get there that shows up in The Gainesville Sun is Helen,Sweetheart of The Internet,but since she's online too I still don't have to sully my hands on The Sun!

The stuff I catch up on a month or so at a time

Ballard Street

Back when I growing up,my two favorite strips were The Far Side,and The Neighborhood. I was devastated when Jerry Van Amerongen stopped drawing his marvelously whacked single panels. Then a few years ago,there magically appeared Ballard Street,a daily 2 panel strip featuring some of the eccentrics from the Neighborhood. Well,some time back,Mr. Van A. went back to his original single panel oddball gag a day ,and I've been blissfully soaking it in a month at a time ever since.

Arlo N Janis

No other strip really captures the fun and frolic and occasional stress and angst of married life with quite the deft touch of this strip. I think I've sent more Arlo N Janis archive pointers to the wife than any other strip.

The 5th Wave

I've been reading Rich Tennant's stabs at computers and their people since InfoWorld was a newspaper. Almost unfailingly funny,often bitingly so.

Spooner

This is one of the wife's favorites. Figures that the husband is oftentimes something of a jerk. An innocent jerk,but a jerk nonetheless. You tring to tell me something,hon?

PVP Online

Everyone needs encouragement developing their l33t g8m0r ski11z

Schlock Mercenary

Take one amorphous blob with an attitude,one lax recruiting officer,and a plasma cannon that hummmmmmmmmms ominously,and you have a wonderful recipe for galactic mayhem.

The Fallen Flags,strips I used ot read but have gone away

Hackles

This fine gem of system management and development was coauthored by one of SpousalUnit's fellow unixgeeks. Prime stuff,though tragically no longer in production. Bummer,Drake.

Where The Buffalo Roam

This has long been touted as the first of the webcomics,and it still remains one of the best. Fortunately,the good folks at ShadowCulture have left some samples up for your enjoyment,in the hopes that you'll like it enough to buy a tasty book.

Ozone Patrol

Another ShadowCulture offering,this one covering the trials and tribulations of a cool collection of yuppies (Young Unnoticed Peons) trying to make their way in the world of work and relationships. Somewhere on the site is a semi-complete archive.

Cafe Angst

The final entry in the ShadowCulture triumvurate,this one covered life at a classic yuppie (see definition above) hangout,the coffee house. Except that the cook used to be in the CIA,the dishwashers are bears,and one of the waiters is a trust fund baby who's too rich to really need the job. Archives are unfortunately no longer up.

Starship Utopia

Take one typical underachieving college student,then zap him 500 years into the future,frozen solid in a glacier with nothing but half a bag of Doritos,stick a uniform on him,and make him XO of a massive starship.

Honors House

This one must be mentioned,if only because my very mental,very good friend Doug was one of the creators of this University of Maryland student paper comic that ran back in the early 80s. I keep hoping Doug'll get ahold of fellow creative whacko Jim and gain permission for me to scan and upload the entire run. We'll see. Doug? Are you listening?

Fisher

Another ensemble piece,revolving around our somewhat underachieving namesake.