Comics 2.0

I’m pretty tired of the 2.0 thing, but I figure it’s good for search engine bots, and I’m not above using the technology to my advantage.

The first section I always used to turn to in the paper (and still do on the rare occasions I read a newspaper) is the comics. A couple of years ago, because I no longer had access to a newspaper regularly, I started reading my favorite comic strips online. They included (and still include, to some degree, in no particular order except the order in which they come to mind):

• Bizarro
• Zits
• Get Fuzzy (sometimes)
• Baby Blues (yes, even before I became a father)

These are just the current strips (that is, ones that are still being produced) I was into. Of course, I was and remain a devoted fan of Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side (thank you to my lovely wife for the complete boxed set of the latter as last year’s Chanukah present). Still, that’s not a long list, and that’s primarily because comics…well… most of them suck. And the business model of the syndicate business newspaper comics artists are forced into sucks (I actually paid for a year of access to King Features’ Daily Ink so I could read my favorites online, but it finally dawned on me that paying $15 to some conglomerate to read three or four comic strips was absurd).

Around the time I had this epiphany, I somehow discovered some web comics, including Sheldon, which at the time was itself syndicated, but which shortly after I started reading went exclusively online. Since then, I’ve amassed a hearty catalog of comics I read pretty much every day (or every day they’re published, whichever is more frequent), to wit:

• Questionable Content
• Wondermark!
• Cyanide & Happiness
• Unshelved
• XKCD
• PhD (Piled Higher & Deeper) (a little less religiously than the others, probably because each day takes me farther from my own time as a grad student)
• User Friendly
• Octopus Pie
• Lucid TV
• PartiallyClips
• Spamusement (which is not being updated regularly any more, but is worth a visit to the archives)
• DM of the Ring, which unfortunately has run its course but is available in all its glory online. Free.
• And of course, Sheldon

Anyway, you get the idea – look how long that list is, and look at the variety of subject matter and diversity of artwork in that group. This tiny list is not even scratching the surface of what’s out there; it’s simply all I have time for in my day. The best part of being a webcomics fan is the relationship every reader can develop with the artists/writers. I’ve exchanged emails with several of the artists responsible for the comics on my list, and I look forward to meeting many of them at ComicCon next year.

Go explore the webcomics universe. I guarantee there’s something out there to match your unique sensibilities.

*Note: I will add links to all the comics at another time. It’s too late right now and I have to get to bed. Done.