Back of the Envelope

I'm afraid that I won't be posting it inline, but I wanted to point out a Sluggy Freelance comic on UN weapons inspectors, circa October 2002. Look at the whole week's worth of comics if you want context. If you need more context than that, you need to read the whole archives.

It's been a slow day, with only one post. Rather than try to fill my quota with self-important ramblings on politics and such, I decided to give a quick summary of this week in the webcomics I link to in my sidebar. This may become a weekly feature. What I'm writing here are spoilers, of course, but they're so vague that if you're not familiar with the comic, you'll forget all about them by the time you get through the archives.

Sluggy Freelance — "Who is Philinnon? What are the vampires' plans for Torg? Who is spying on the hunters from the dark woods? How many will survive the confrontation between Arminius, Amelia, and Sam? Wow, right when everything's getting good, what better time for an INAPPROPRIATELY TIMED FILLER WEEK! Tune in tomorrow to see what we do! I know I will!" Fortunately for us, Pete's filler week contains some truly gorgeous artwork, such that I'm not entirely convinced it would not have been less work for him to just do the regular comics.

Day by Day — Sam wins her paternity suit, and then it's politics as usual.

It's Walky! — Sal visits Danny while Billie's away, but it looks like he finally grew a spine.

College Roomies from Hell! — The guys are reunited. That's how you know that things are about to get really, really bad.

General Protection Fault — Trudy dreams of friends and enemies. This week has some nudity.

Schlock Mercenary — In Tagon's and Breya's bids to double-cross one another, Tagon gains the upper hand and makes an offer that Breya can't refuse.

Update: This post has been bumped to the end of Saturday.

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.

Day by Day, a daily political cartoon by Chris Muir, is looking to get syndicated. I intend to make that happen, using my vast Internet audience of myself and, if he drops by again, Jay Manifold of A Voyage to Arcturus. If that works, I intend to do the same for Sluggy Freelance and General Protection Fault. You're welcome, guys.