Webcomics, Part 2

So, tomorrow turned into a week plus a day. You all may have missed my posts and experienced some minor, passing depression, but I certainly wasn't. I wasn't updating because I was too busy having fun with journalism and other wild craziness that occupied my time. Anyway, here we go again. The conclusion to a blogging epic, my thoughts on why you should read the same webcomics as I do.

Ctrl+Alt+Del (http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com)
Another one of the heavy hitters. It's been around since 2002 and recently announced that it would be producing professionally animated and voiced shorts available to its websites premium subscribers. Yeah, it's big, and it doesn't violate copyright laws as grotesquely as 8-Bit Theater, so it can get away with selling books of its archives. It's a little hard to give this a roaring recommendation to everyone because it's so topical and focuses on a certain audience, video gamers, but to those who keep up-to-date on the latest news in the gaming industry, it's gold. Still, for those who don't care about games, it's still strong enough to recommend to the adventurous or those with copious amounts of time. Of all the webcomics with the joke-a-day format I check, it has matured the most of them all. The illustrations have greatly improved since the beginning, but its strongest point is its characters. The relationships between them all are incredibly well-developed, and the writer has kept it interesting with major changes in the circumstances of the character's lives.

Sinfest (www.sinfest.net)
This is, my opinion (which I won't call humble since I'm willing to post it for all the world to see), the greatest webcomic on the Internet. It touches on life's questions and avoids cliches. Come on, God and Satan are characters, and they're funny! What's funnier than the greatest good and evil in existence? A rather pathetic wanna-be player, a philosophical wanna-be whore, some break dancing bookish boy and God's and Satan's respective fanboys! And they're all together in the glory that is Sinfest! It's simply too much. I have laughed out loud more than a few times and take every opporunity to expose my friends and professors to Sinfest. There are flaws, flat characters and some repetitive strips in the past few months, but the current story arc, which is simply amazing, looks to upset this pretty big. Unfortunately, this comic has been on hiatus for the last month and a bit. Gives you all the more opportunity to catch up on the extensive archives. Big warning, lots of sexual innuendo and cursing and stuff that'll offend you if you take your religion seriously and don't like seeing it get made fun of.

Partially Clips (www.partiallyclips.com)
A particularly brilliant webcomic, Partially Clips repeats a piece of clip art three times and adds speech. Hilarity ensues. It's a bit more hit-or-miss than some of the other, hits more often than not, but the brilliance of the gems can beat out anything out there. Be sure to check out Penguin Mom, Gun Fighters, Rock Star, Students on the Steps and Hot Air Balloon (as long as you aren't offended by a certain strong expletive). These are gold. A huge recommendation for this one to everyone in spite of many instances of sexual innuendo and cursing. It's high brow, and you to think about these for a little while. That and their style is just so original.

MegaTokyo (www.megatokyo.com)
Undoubtedly the comic which the most work goes into. The drawings are beautfiul and very professionally done for something being freely distributed on the Internet. They are simply wonderful. The characters are expressive and various angles and distances are utilized to great effect. The story is nothing to scoff at either, about people trying to get a grip on themselves and their relationships in the craziness that is Tokyo. My only real gripe against this otherwise great comic is its frequent use of filler material, stuff that has no bearing on the story. Despite these accolades, it's hard to reccomend. The archives go back several years, and you'll need to read them all to understand the story and the complex character histories and relationships at all. You'll lose a week of your life catching up on it all. It's not a joke-a-day comic either, more in the style of a soap opera than anything else, so it's not for everyone. Those willing to spend their time on it will surely be rewarded though.

Get Fuzzy (http://www.comics.com/comics/getfuzzy/)
To round out my list, I present to you the second syndicated strip I follow, Get Fuzzy. It's been around for a while and chances are good that you've seen it on a newspaper page at some point. It's offbeat humor, very sarcastic and mean-spirited at times but thoroughly enjoyable. I'm simply at a loss as to what to say because it's just so unusual. Of course, it lacks an archive, so you'll have buy the anthologies if you want to get all the Get Fuzzy goodness you can get. A worthy successor to the legacy of Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side as one of the few comics worth reading in a daily paper.