Online Comics

Skip the dissertation and get to the good stuff...

The World Wide Web has become (among other things) the primary home of hundreds of comic strips, freely available for viewing by the masses.  Many of these are created by independent freelance cartoonists, both amateur and professional.  Some do it strictly as a hobby, while others are trying to hit it big in syndication and use the internet as a means to promote their work and gain an audience.

Online comic strips vary widely in terms of quality, style, format, and the frequency with which they are updated (daily, weekly, semi-weekly, monthly, etc).  And given the freedom of expression permitted by the internet, it isn't surprising that some online comics deal with controversial subject matter and have content that some would consider offensive. On the other hand, there's plenty of good, clean, kid-friendly stuff too.

In most cases, the cartoonists maintain a website devoted especially to their comic strips.  A typical comic site will include the following:

• A main page where the current (or most recent) strip is displayed;
• An archive containing some or all of the previous strips (very useful for making sense of comics that have long, serialized storylines);
• A "cast" page describing the main characters;
• An "about" page with the cartoonist's bio and/or the history and origins of his/her comic. 
• Links to other comics the cartoonist likes;
• Banner images and icons that fans can use to link to the comic from their own web sites (as I have done below);
• Other goodies such as fan art submissions, merchandise, and a forum where readers can discuss and dissect the comic.

Personal Favorites

Here are some of my favorite online comics, in no particular order.  Click on any title or graphic to jump to that comic's website.

	Freefall, by Mark Stanley The tale of a slacker spaceship-captain, his hard-working canine engineer and their robotic sidekick.
	General Protection Fault (GPF), by Jeffrey T. Darlington A fine example of the popular "geeks-in-love" genre.
	Making It, by Keith Robinson A weekly cartoon that takes a satirical look at just about every aspect of our society.
	Ozy and Millie, by David Simpson The trials, tribulations and triumphs of a pair of furry 10-year-old nonconformists.  This cute 'n' insightful strip has won well-deserved accolades from numerous fellow cartoonists.
	FEW and FAR Between, by Jonathan "Joda" Thayer An unusual bunch of characters -- some childlike, some godlike, others just plain weird -- populate the far-flung lands that are the setting of this unique fantasy comic.  (Part of the Serializer.net  comics network -- see below.)
	Unlike Minerva, by Terrence and Isabel Marks This quirky talking animal strip (with quirky talking animals who talk quirkily) set in a vaudeville theater on a fictitious island, is the product of a quirky newly-married couple, Terrence Marks (creator and writer) and Isabel Gonzalez Marks (artist).
	Melonpool, by Steve Troop The silly saga of a crew of space aliens who escape being stranded on Earth only to become stranded on an asteroid.  Has been described as "Gilligan's Island meets Star Trek", although it's often funnier than either show.
	Kevin and Kell, by Bill Holbrook Clever talking animal comic centered around a mixed-species family, brought to you by the creator of the newspaper strips On the Fastrack and Safe Havens.  It's a bit soapy sometimes but has well-rounded characters that you (or at least I) really care about.
	The Class Menagerie, by Vince Suzukawa Funny, poignant and nicely drawn college-life strip.  Now in reruns after ending a 5-year stint last November, but it's just as good the second (or third or eighth) time around.
	Elf Life, by Carson Fire A lavishly drawn epic fantasy adventure with lots of high-caliber humor mixed in.  (Has occasional "mature" themes and strong language.)

Directories and Resources

The comics I've listed above are just the "tip of the iceberg"; if by chance none of them appeal to you, there's probably something somewhere that does.  Below are links to some directories and networks where you can further explore the phenomenon of online comics.

• Stu's Comic Strip Connection -- offers concise descriptions of hundreds of web-only and syndicated comics.  Also has a fairly powerful search engine.  Maintained by Stuart Rees.
• The Belfry Comics Page -- another cool directory of online comics, mostly of the anthropomorphic or "furry" variety.  Maintained by some entity called Foxen.
• Keenspot -- a network run by two ambitious web-based cartoonists (Chris Crosby and Darren "Gav" Bleuel), this is the home of 4 comics in my list above (Class Menagerie, Elf Life, GPF and Melonpool) plus about 40 others at last count.
• Serializer.net -- a subscription based comics website with about 25 offerings (mostly pretty avant-garde).  The current episode of each comic is available as a free preview, and for a modest fee, subscribers are given full access to the archives.
• The Nice -- a gathering of cartoonists who do stuff like the 2002 April Fool's Day Mixup.
• Plan Nine Publishing -- a small firm that is doing the universe a great service by publishing book collections of some of the best web comics in existence.

So there you have it.  Feel free to drop me an e-mail if my ramblings happen to lead you to the discovery of some comic strip you really like, or if you care to offer any suggestions as to how I could improve this page (e.g. "Scrap it completely!").  Thanks for reading.