Webcomics besides the stuckverse

okay, TECHNICALLY it's not a webcomic... it's a newspaper comic. BUT! it doesn't appear in any newspapers i can buy in my city, and there's a new strip released every day; the comic i'm talking about is dan schkade's flash gordon! it's really super great! it's an action newspaper strip that releases daily (i guess i said that already) on the comics kingdom website. and the best part is: you literally don't need to know anything about flash gordon to enjoy it! sunday's strip is a recap of the last week's adventure, so you can basically hop in any sunday (or really just any day). here's today's strip:

>okay, TECHNICALLY it's not a webcomic...
Ignoring everything you just said why is there an egbutt on your post

Yes. I do enjoy other webcomics. I will list some of them for you here:

It Hurts!

Please Forgive Me!

Achewood

Poorly Planned Comics

Cucumber Quest (RIP)

man, thanks for the reminder that i seriously need to catch up on schkade's flash. i fell off like a year ago.... its so good though. schkade's work is seriously underdiscussed

> ...why is there an egbutt on your post

ooh, a lucky penny! let me lean down to pick it up...

i will always and forever tell people to read paranatural. zack morrison wrote summerteen romance!!! theyre just generally good at storytelling and mixing humor with serious moments!!!

el goonish shive and PREQUEL are my beloved im afraid

I haven't read many other story driven webcomics, but I've read all of xkcd and have been making my way through the backlog of dinosaur comics.

I don't know if I'd call story-driven webcomics a "dying breed," but they definitely feel less like a... community? I guess? It used to be that all the big webcomic folks would plug each other and interact with each other, and a ton of them would have their own forums, or at least comment sections, to interact with other readers and stuff. I don't get as much of that sense of interconnectedness now, but I also don't follow as many comics now anyway.

And I guess it's also the case that a lot of the really talented webcomic creators from a decade ago have since moved on to other careers. Like, Kate Beaton is a real published author now, Brennan Lee Mulligan's become a successful performer, and I see GigiDigi's name in the art credits for various video games. There's new creators out there, but it's harder to find them than it used to be, it feels.

That said, I just got by print copy of OSP Red's webcomic that only started in like 2019, and that's really exciting. Her comic Aurora has a really fun mythology and elemental magic system with great characters and I recommend it a lot.

Tinderkell is a reader-submission-driven webcomic in an anthropomorphic universe with political intrigue and cute femboys that only started a couple years ago. I found out about it through PREQUEL adventure, one of the OG MSPA forum adventures that's still going but takes several months to update. Tinderkell updates at least once every month, which is a nice change of pace.

I'm also still following a bunch of the "classics" like Girl Genius (silly pulp adventures about an alternate-history Europe ravaged by mad science with a great steampunk vibe), Order of the Stick (gag-a-day D&D comic with stick figures that quickly morphed into one of the most compelling stories I've ever read), and Dresden Codak (bizarre, extremely pretty comic exploring transhumanism, art deco, and absudist humor which is actually updating semi-regularly now thanks to the powers the artist unlocked after transing her gender).

One obscure webcomic I've been following is Nefarious which is technically a followup to a video game, but I think the comic itself does a really good job introducing everything (and the game itself is kinda clunky, and some of the story stuff in the game is either contradicted or just not followed up on in the comic, so i think you can start at the comic.), a lot of the comic does require you to sub to the creators patreon to view it, but I promise it's worth it, when it gets going, it REALLY gets going. The comic is a psuedo-deconstruction/parody of classic video game tropes, but from the perspective of the villain, who is incredibly trope savy, and even though it's a parody, the comic has some real good emotional moments and some very entertaining setpieces (I think Bridal Royale might be as good of a long payoff as CASCADE sometimes.)

not sure if it counts due to it being another mspfa but a guy gets revenge (aggr) is really good. it's not done yet but a pilot is in progress. what is currently made is phenomenal and i think honestly changed me.

goodness the only non MSPA/MSPFA Adjacent webcomic i've properly read is Hello From Halo Head... It's a very slow burn and it's still updating but it's very good!

what happens next by max graves is phenomenal ! highly recommend

i'll second the recommendation of aurora, and i'd also like to recommend gunnerkrigg court! i've been reading for about 10 years (but it's been ongoing for 20!) and in that time i don't think it's ever missed an update. also, the art does get better, pls trust me on this

Recently Ive been getting into and really enjoying evan damn's work! I would especially rec Vattu, Ive been going insane over it for like. The past few weeks, its REALLY really good.

golden shrike is really just a beautiful comic with fun characters and a fascinating story. art style brings you back to movies like bambi and stuff. it updates every thursday and i've been following it for a few years!

Re: PREQUEL adventure

Prequel is great fun, especially if you've played Skyrim (which I assume most people have) or any good Elder Scrolls game. Glad to see it still getting updates too, they just put out a side story last week which I am excited to read.

Does anyone remember Scoob and Shag? It was a webtoon that I got into in like 2019 that started as a shitpost about scooby doo. I don't trust my young teenage self's judgement on its quality but I remember it being pretty weird and neat. Checked on it again recently and it's not entirely dead, but the updates have been far sparser than in its heyday.

if you're interested in dumb college kids and loads of dumb college kid shenanigans with some heavy parts, i 100% recommend dumbing of age by dave willis. its basically a university au of his other comic, roomies! and its walky!. aside from the shenanigans, its just really funny and im in love with all the characters

i guess i was disappointed in myself for not being able to come up with an actual webcomic cause the question 'what webcomics do you guys like?' kept rattling around in the back of my mind until i came up with something just now.

ive been catching up with 'The Grief Complex'. it's about stepbrothers cam and lynn, the latter trying to take care of the former. cam is a troubled kid in a way that feels very real. i can empathize with lynn; it seems like cam doesn't care about anything, or is just operating on a different set of rules. there is also some strange psychic creature that looks like a tumour. it's a good comic! you can download both phases (i.e. chapters) from https://ottiliere.itch.io/

i'm not sure how exactly to phrase it in a tasteful way: watch out for mentions, consequences of self-harm

i can second the recommendation for Girl Genius with absolute confidence- an ongoing run of 23 years without a single hiatus is insane.

@missmonkeymode OMG evan dahm. my absolute favorite of his is Rice Boy which is only about 450 pages long, a really lovely surreal adventure with a sweet twist. located at rice-boy.com/rb/

@Ludoturge i also agree that it seems like comics are getting less interconnected. I think it's not specifically because project wonderful and things like it are now defunct, but that's definitely a big canary symptom. i suppose i also am not following that many new comics......