I mean, it wouldn’t be very fair of me to make a webcomic and then not read anyone else’s, right?
In no particular order, although the last one is left last because it kind of sucks:
I discovered Sheldon and PVP (see below) from the Webcomics Weekly podcast. It’s a quaint all ages comic by Dave Kellet (easily the nicest man in webcomics). He handles both the writing and the art, and is very good at both. I certainly enjoy the comic, but it doesn’t really make me laugh out loud. I think it’s because Kellet is a very smart man and I am not. Sometimes it feels like the jokes are going over my head, which is an odd thing to say considering that it is all-ages. But it is always good for a chuckle and he does make some insightful pokes at geekdom.
PVP is written and drawn by Scott Kurtz. From what I’ve listened to on their podcast, Webcomics Weekly, and read about him, he is a loud mouth, pain in the butt, heathen, bleeding heart liberal. However, I don’t let that get in the way of enjoying his comic. What started out, almost 10 years ago, as a videogame/pop culture comic, has evolved into an entertaining webcomic sitcom. The comic has a deceptively simple art style and his writing is always so sharp, that some times it doesn’t matter if there isn’t a punch line, because it’s still just a joy to read.
This comic is written and drawn by Chris Eliopoulos. Like Sheldon, it is an all-ages comic. It’s a cute little comic about a boy, his two aliens, and, occasionally, the Grim Reaper. It’s got some sharp writing and some very expressive art.
Max vs. Max is written and drawn by Wes Molebash. It’s only a week old, but I’m reading it based on the strength of his previous comic, You’ll Have That , which was a great comic about married life. Max vs. Max, according to it’s banner, is about life, faith and relationships. So far it’s seems to be right up my alley and just as good as You’ll Have That. Ironically, it also seems to be the only comic I read that actually agrees with any of my personal sensibilities and beliefs.
This comic is written by Ryan Sohmer and drawn by Lar. This is the closet to an R-rated comic on this list (well, maybe the next one is a little R-rated, too). It’s about an unrepentant man-whore and his friends and family. It is, ninety percent of the time, laugh out loud. The other ten percent it’s borderline tedious because Sohmer’s bleeding heart liberal tendencies bleed out over his scripts. But I skip those strips. Easily the best part of this comic, is their Sunday strip, which takes place during the lead character’s past, when he’s approximately 5-6 years old and the shenanigans he gets into it.
I have a confession to make: I wrote this column just so I could rag on this comic. It is written and drawn by Joel Watson, who is easily the laziest (and whiniest) man in webcomics. And, in continued interest of full disclosure, my complaints have to do mostly with the production of the comic.
You see, the comic is supposed to have a release schedule of Mon, Wed, Fri. On the internet, I believe there is nothing more important then deadlines, especially when you’re in business for yourself. You need to make sure you have something on your website and need to have it up there regularly. If you don’t, people will go elsewhere for their entertainment. There’s plenty of stuff out there. Since I’ve been reading this comic in the past six month, I don’t think there’s enough fingers in the world to count the number of times he misses his deadlines. Reading his blog and twitter it’s like reading a list of the top 100 excuses for why he can’t get his comic out. It’s everything from medical reasons, to having to draw too many personalized sketches for his books, to his dog eating his laptop(admittedly a slight exaggeration, but still, it gets my point across). There is always an excuse as to why he can’t get his comic out on time.
Allegedly, this is supposed to be his full time job. And that’s what really irritates me. Because One Stray Word is my full time job. This is all that I do and there is always something on this website for you too read. Just because you work for yourself doesn’t mean you don’t have to be professional about it. How do you build anything if you’re not professional about it? If it just comes out whenever you feel like it? That’s not being professional, that’s just being lazy. But then, the guy has an audience big enough to support doing a print run of his comic, apparently, so what do I know? Maybe I need to be more lazy with my output.
As for the comic itself, more often than not lately, it just isn’t funny or entertaining. It’s supposed to be a comic poking fun at pop culture or something like that. So someone please explain to me how the above sampled comic is supposed to be funny? All he’s doing is recounting the article from Yahoo News!
So, those are the comics I read. Feel free to add them to your daily reading, as long is you don’t drop Rupert & Me, of course.
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