Webcomics I'm Reading, Part 4: The Occasionals
If the comics I read regularly are the stalwarts, the webcomics are the "occasionals". Maybe I used to read them regularly, maybe I've always just dipped in and out, but I somehow find myself returning every few months and getting caught up on everything that happened since my last visit.
1. There was a war that destroyed the world. A few survivors haunt the wastes. They look kind familiar, but no matter who they are none of them are dangerous as Weapon Brown. Chuck is an unstoppable killing machine in a world populated with characters from the syndicated comics of yesteryear. He and his loyal dog Snoop try to survive in a world that has given up on hope. Weapon Brown takes takes Peanuts and most every other syndicated comic that has existed and does horrible things to them. The most horrible of them all if Chuck himself. As I love Peanuts, post-apocalyptic fiction and comics history, Weapon Brown rings all my bells. I bought the book. I should warn you that there are other comics on the site, and almost all of the rest of them are terrible. Not terrible as in "bad", terrible as in "no human should read this horrible stuff". It's borderline NSFW. You've been warned.
2. Girl Genius is set in an alternate earth where geniuses called "Sparks" run rampant in a world where a mad science and maybe a little magic are the most powerful things around. Then Agatha finds out that not only is she a super powerful spark, she's also the heir to the long lost Heterodyne clan. Also, everybody wants her to do something for them. I don't actually think it's very good, but I also can't look away. They've even got novels now.
3. I mentioned this one before as it is a spin-off of a dead strip called Goats, but Scenes From a Multiverse is delightfully surreal. Anything can happen and usually does. Sometimes there are story lines, but mostly it's weird one offs. Alas, it updates very sporadically.
4. Speaking of NSFW, Oglaf is very, very, very NSFW due to excessive sexual content. It's also utterly hilarious on its best days. Imagine a fantasy world. A SEXY fantasy world, where every fantasy trope you've ever heard of is subverted by sex in some way or another. Apparently there are even books. Presumably people who buy them are on a list somewhere.
5. Back when I used to play video games all the time, I actually understood most of the references in Penny Arcade. I still drop by once in a while to check things out, but now I rarely understand the references. Fortunately, it's often pretty funny anyway since video games have some pretty standard tropes of their own, but I never feel the urge to read the back catalog, which is extensive after 20 years.
6. Anyone my age who loves comics at all probably knows Bloom County. I own most or maybe all of the books of the original series, which is also available online separately in re-runs. Since it restarted in 2015 I regularly read the new stuff. Since it updates irregularly at best (there were six total updates in 2020), now it really is a web comic.
Still to come in this series, a partial list of the strips that I used to read but have abandoned for one reason or another, and sure, why not the strips I keep meaning to read, which is mercifully short.
1. There was a war that destroyed the world. A few survivors haunt the wastes. They look kind familiar, but no matter who they are none of them are dangerous as Weapon Brown. Chuck is an unstoppable killing machine in a world populated with characters from the syndicated comics of yesteryear. He and his loyal dog Snoop try to survive in a world that has given up on hope. Weapon Brown takes takes Peanuts and most every other syndicated comic that has existed and does horrible things to them. The most horrible of them all if Chuck himself. As I love Peanuts, post-apocalyptic fiction and comics history, Weapon Brown rings all my bells. I bought the book. I should warn you that there are other comics on the site, and almost all of the rest of them are terrible. Not terrible as in "bad", terrible as in "no human should read this horrible stuff". It's borderline NSFW. You've been warned.
2. Girl Genius is set in an alternate earth where geniuses called "Sparks" run rampant in a world where a mad science and maybe a little magic are the most powerful things around. Then Agatha finds out that not only is she a super powerful spark, she's also the heir to the long lost Heterodyne clan. Also, everybody wants her to do something for them. I don't actually think it's very good, but I also can't look away. They've even got novels now.
3. I mentioned this one before as it is a spin-off of a dead strip called Goats, but Scenes From a Multiverse is delightfully surreal. Anything can happen and usually does. Sometimes there are story lines, but mostly it's weird one offs. Alas, it updates very sporadically.
4. Speaking of NSFW, Oglaf is very, very, very NSFW due to excessive sexual content. It's also utterly hilarious on its best days. Imagine a fantasy world. A SEXY fantasy world, where every fantasy trope you've ever heard of is subverted by sex in some way or another. Apparently there are even books. Presumably people who buy them are on a list somewhere.
5. Back when I used to play video games all the time, I actually understood most of the references in Penny Arcade. I still drop by once in a while to check things out, but now I rarely understand the references. Fortunately, it's often pretty funny anyway since video games have some pretty standard tropes of their own, but I never feel the urge to read the back catalog, which is extensive after 20 years.
6. Anyone my age who loves comics at all probably knows Bloom County. I own most or maybe all of the books of the original series, which is also available online separately in re-runs. Since it restarted in 2015 I regularly read the new stuff. Since it updates irregularly at best (there were six total updates in 2020), now it really is a web comic.
Still to come in this series, a partial list of the strips that I used to read but have abandoned for one reason or another, and sure, why not the strips I keep meaning to read, which is mercifully short.