Back of the Envelope

Since I mentioned a few already, I decided to put a list of webcomics I read in my sidebar. What are webcomics? In short, they are comic strips published on the web. There's more to it than that, however. Because they are published exclusively on the web, they keep their entire archives online. Aside from meaning that you have several years worth of comics available to read immediately, it also means that it's easier for the artist to create long, complex storylines which refer to incidents occuring weeks, months, or even years previously, since the reader has ready access to the previous events. Thus webcomics tend to be serial comic strips like Prince Valiant or Mary Worth--comics which I never read because I could never figure out what was going on. If they had online archives, maybe I would have. In any case, because of the importance of reading the archives in order to understand the current storyline, the links on the sidebar link to the very first comic in the archives, with the "(today)" link pointing to today's strip. These are not the only webcomics I read; I chose to highlight these because they are some of my favorites, plus they met my criteria of being daily strips, regularly updated (although some of the artists occasionally take short vacations), and in reasonably good taste. Here's a quick overview:

Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams-- My favorite these days. It's about a boy, his mad scientist buddy, and his homicidal bunny. We meet these folks, the male half of the cast, the first week. Rounding out the cast are the women: a man-eating alien, a hyperactive ferret, the magic-addicted ex-girlfriend, and the obligatory "normal" castmember, who's only a little cursed.

Day by Day by Chris Muir — This one's the least serial, more gag-a-day. It's like Doonesbury, only funnier and conservative.

It's Walky! by David Willis-- It starts as a normal college comic strip. Then the aliens arrive. Don't worry, the artwork gets better in time.

College Roomies from Hell!!! by Maritza Campos — This also starts as a normal college strip, but the supernatural stuff starts much sooner. The artwork in this one gets much better with time.

General Protection Fault by Jeffrey T. Darlington — This starts as a normal software company strip, and then... you know the drill.

Schlock Merenary by Howard Tayler — This starts as a normal far-future, intergalactic mercenary strip, and then... well, actually, it doesn't get much weirder than that.

Scary Go Round will be joining the weekly webcomic update, replacing It's Walky!, which ended last week. Scary Go Round is a fun webcomic featuring sassy ladies, zombies, and sassy lady zombies. The most prominent of these ladies are Amy, who is (or was) an art student and has always been something of a lay-about, Shelley, who takes naive innocence to a whole new level, and Fallon Young, a genetically engineered but still not very competent secret agent. The comic also features an inventor, Tim, whose devices work on principles so iffy that they make Sluggy Freelance look like hard science fiction, including a time machine based on the principle that a watched pot never boils. There's also Ryan, who is not too bright, lazy, and often hungover. He's also irresistibly drawn to supernatural trouble. Tim tries to keep Ryan out of said trouble, with the help of their mutual friend Hugo, whose great wisdom is hidden by the fact that I never have the faintest idea what he is saying. In fact, language is one of those things that will first throw you about this comic. It's clever and fast, but very hard to follow, as real people don't talk like that, do they? Well, maybe they do in Britain, which is the home country of the cartoonist, John Allison. You'll get used to it, however. I'd recommend that you start at the beginning, except that it's not really the beginning, as Scary Go Round is the sequel to Bobbins, which starts here. Scary Go Round has now been added to the sidebar.