A few of my favourite things

I like webcomics. I read them compulsively, which I consider an extension of being overexposed to the Beano when I was younger. I've also been asked before which ones I read, so I decided to put together a list of the ones I read regularly in ascending order of which I like.

Anyone who knows their webcomics will immediately notice that I tend to go for the story based comics rather than gag-a-day ones. But it still has to be funny. Also, I normally like the artwork to be up to a decent standard, but that isn't always the case.

13. Kitty Litter
The art isn't great but the humour is wonderfully sadistic. Think if Sluggy Freelance were to solely focus on Bun-Bun.

12. Lizzy
Rather inventively uses Flash rather than still images, i.e. stuff happens and speech bubbles appear when you move your mouse over. The plot, however, is yet to really build up and the cybernetic stuff is a bit gory in places. Plus the humour levels are massively inconsistent.

10. Alien Loves Predator
Pretty innovative as far as the art goes. Rather than drawing stuff, this features photographs of action figures against photographs using the gift of Photoshop. The updates have become few and far between recently but some of the humour is priceless, if a bit specific to New York.

9. Maxwell the Demon
The idea of comparing the workings of hell to desk jockeying isn't a new one, but this one still does it wonderfully well with a lot of sharp gags and really nice art. The subplots involving his human girlfriend make for some very funny stuff, and I like the nice touches like Gabriel being a chainsmoker.

8. Belphegor (RIP)
Good while it lasted. It was another hell-based comic, only featuring a lot more of the more classic demonic imagery. It started out as simple potty humour and compuer game references but it eventually managed to evolve into left-wing political satire. Unfortunately, it ground to a halt over a year ago.

7. Applegeeks
This took me a while to get into. Hawk's is possibly the best webcomic art out there, but and he and Ananth have this annoying habit of shifting styles a little too often and taken as a whole, this doesn't conform to any particular style. There will be some favourite story that most people will find, but it may take some searching for. The treatments of Ramadan should dispell any notions of Muslims not having a sense of humour.

6. Hate Song (RIP)
I miss this strip a lot. A lot of really disgusting and incredibly offensive humour that rarely pulled its punches. Kept losing its way a lot but always recovered with something even more disturbing that you'd expect in any one situation. Rather ominously, the banner across the top now says, "changes are coming". Not sure what that means.

5. Scary Go Round
The only British comic in the list but it is incredibly funny in places. John Allison's artwork is good but I preferred his original style to the freehand one that he uses now. The stories tend to meander and not connect with each other and in places they really lose the plot but there are some genuinely charming characters and humour that is far more quirky than most American strips are capable of.

4. Megatokyo
Manga, but made by an American. The pencil artwork, particularly the later stuff, is top notch (despite Fred Gallagher's apparent inability to distinguish between female characters by any method other than changing their hair) and the humour often has me laughing out loud, especially when Ed or Dom make an appearance. Just a shame that the mushy subplots get too self-pitying in places. Some of the parody is classic though, such as rent-a-zilla and the Tokyo Police Cataclysm Division, and the overusage of l33t never gets old.

3. Goats
The genious of this in in the writing, with Jon Rosenberg churning out some real belly laughs on a regular basis, although I think you have to have the right sense of humour for it. Not so sure I like it as much post-infinite monkeys, but the gags alone are enough to keep me coming back if nothing else. The art has also come on massively over the years.

2. The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
The concept is easy to explain but hard to visualise. You have a doctor, who is also a ninja. His assistant is a gorilla, his mentor a clone of Benjamin Franklin and his sidekick a pubescent, velociraptor-riding Mexican bandito who grew his moustache by force of will alone. If you think that is daft, you should see his family. The strip is funny going on hilarious and while the art is done in a very traditional outline and ink way, this serves to further the parody. Relatively new but has already proved to be massively sucessful.

1. Sluggy Freelance
The the webcomic I have read the longest and still my favourite. Good artwork (the later stuff at least), funny and at times hilarious jokes and involving plotlines. Often faces criticism for some of the arcs getting overly complicated (especially the ones with the big back stories) and hard to stick with but if you can, it makes the picture as a whole all the more better. The stories don't seem to conform to any one overall masterplan but I see that as simply being more indicative of how long it has been running for. The general style has evolved over time, but Pete Abrhams continues to keep improving his writing and every now and then produces something that outdoes anything else out there. Ten minutes at a party has to be one of my favourite stories of all time.

So that's it.