Author Topic: The Webcomics Discussion  (Read 74713 times)

thorny

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #345 on: January 07, 2022, 04:12:07 PM »
Thanks, Jitter! Lots of possibilities for Comic of the Month in there.

Jitter

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #346 on: February 02, 2022, 10:37:06 AM »
More recommendations from Disqus, I think I haven’t seen most of these before

Spoiler: show



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It's always sad when a beloved Webcomic comes to an end.

I don't think anything will quite fill the gap left by SSSS, but an ongoing comic I'm very much enjoying lately is Harpy Gee. It's more high-fantasy and not post-apocalyptic, but one of the main characters is a prince who sort of reminds me of a cross between Emil and Lalli, and his arc involves overcoming his antisocial tendencies to become friends with the rest of the cast.

There's also Suihira: The City of Water, a post-apocalyptic fantasy about a princess who sets out on a mission from the goddess of water to restore life to her desert home. Now that I think of it, she also has shades of Emil and Lalli: She came from a sheltered but neglected upbringing and needs to learn to trust others instead of doing everything herself.

For something completely different, there's Sleepless Domain, a magical girl comic with shades of dystopia. Fair warning that a twist somewhere around chapter three will drag your feelings behind the woodshed and beat them to a pulp and the rest of the comic is mostly about how the main characters deal with the fallout.

I also recommend Khepra, about an angsty young woman who befriends a medical robot in the middle of a sci-fi civil war. It's a reboot of an earlier comic called Tethered.

Those are all ongoing. Freelancers is completed, a space opera adventure about a girl working as a janitor for a mercenary crew who gets bonded to an alien artifact that makes her really good at punching stuff (but not making good decisions).

Mare Internum, also completed, is about a couple of scientists who discover a vast ecosystem under the surface of Mars and must deal with their considerable emotional baggage (one of them is suicidally depressed) in order to escape.

MAiZ, on hiatus, is quite possibly my favorite comic, a low-fantasy adventure about a young archaeology nerd looking for answers about an amulet she found that gives her magical abilities, the strange creature *cough* she befriends who has similar abilities, and some shady, high-tech government agents with unclear motives. The author has every intention of resuming work on the comic but, last I checked, no estimate of when that will happen. If it helps, think of it as a completed comic that ends on a cliffhanger.

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Tarnagh

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #347 on: February 02, 2022, 02:24:39 PM »
Has anyone mentioned A Girl and Her Fed yet?

https://www.agirlandherfed.com/1.1.html

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A Girl and Her Fed (AGAHF) is the story of a girl who finds she is being watched by the government. She and the federal agent assigned to her case form a partnership and attempt to untangle a knotty conspiracy. After that, things get complicated.
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Róisín

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #348 on: February 02, 2022, 10:54:51 PM »
I like A Girl and Her Fed. Funny, dark and relevant. I don’t follow it, but Star reads it and sometimes shows me good bits. I especially enjoy the ghost of Abraham Lincoln and the mad koala. Would read it if I had an extra day in the day.
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dmeck7755

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #349 on: February 03, 2022, 08:54:47 AM »
if these have been mentioned, I apologize. 

I have been reading year in the hereafter (Finnish mythos lightly based) Updates usually Fridays
Wilde Life (updates M-W-F)
How to be a werewolf (T-W)
Gifts of Wandering Ice (post apocalyptic story.  Updates I think are 2x a week)


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dmeck7755

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #350 on: February 03, 2022, 09:05:17 AM »
if these have been mentioned, I apologize. 

I have been reading year in the hereafter (Finnish mythos lightly based) Updates usually Fridays


I looked at earlier pages in this blog, and I did not realize it was not liked.  I really do not see it similar to SSSS.  To me this is an adventure comic. 
But there are loads of different comics out there.  I have only begin to COMIC!!
« Last Edit: February 03, 2022, 09:28:00 AM by dmeck7755 »
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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #351 on: February 03, 2022, 11:04:08 AM »
No worries dmeck! I love YIH and many others do too. There has been some awkward history between parts of the fanbases apparently, but hopefully that is in the past now. It's well worth a recommendation!

And I don't think anyone minds repeats, this is so long that old comments may be obsolete by now in any case :)
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Lee M

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #352 on: March 25, 2022, 12:08:19 AM »
Wow, this is a long thread, so if I mention any that have already appeared, I shouldn't be surprised. Be advised that some of the following contain NSFW content.

To begin with, if anyone hasn't read What Birds Know, the original site is offline but the whole thing is fortunately archived at the Wayback Machine. A bittersweet Scandi-fantasy in which tragic events of the past impinge upon the present.
https://web.archive.org/web/20180328061657/http://fribergthorelli.com/wbk

Elven is a New Zealand comic featuring the, um... comical adventures of a bunch of clueless 21st century elves.
https://elven.co.nz/comic/

In Artificial Incident, a game character cut off from her player has to try to figure out what went wrong with the program, while doing her best to survive the game.
https://www.artificialincident.com/

In Mindfold a totalitarian state sends a dissident to an alien planet, where she finds things very different from what she expected. Nice artwork.
http://mindfoldcomic.webcomic.ws/comics/

DNA: Jay has to deal with some deep personal issues while trying to supervise a bunch of rowdy kids, who just happen to be genetically-modified furry hybrids.
https://dnathewebcomic.com/

Chimeran Legends: Two friends journey through interesting lands, facing dangers and meeting folk of many races. The races, by the way, resemble hybrids of numerous species, hence Chimeran, I guess. The art has somewhat of an MLP:FIM vibe to it, which is no bad thing.
http://chimeranlegends.thecomicseries.com/

Castle Swimmer: An aquatic tale of merfolk, in which a shark prince falls in love with the boy a prophecy says he must kill.
https://www.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/castle-swimmer/list?title_no=1499

Pathways: Chronicles of Tuvana: Peaceful lands are threatened by the resurgence of an ancient empire and a diverse group of people must unite against them.
https://pathways.kitsunekao.net/
The creator has also produced a faithful manga-style adaptation of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, now completed.
https://peterpan.kitsunekao.net/

Finally, there's a comic I was involved with for a while, now sadly halted due to the artist losing his work files: Nightshade the Merry Widow. Definitely NSFW, featuring lots of nudity and sex, but also some terrific worldbuilding and artwork. The people of planet Cyeatea resemble insects and spiders, but the deadlier aspects of predation have been subverted into a kind of BDSM game. If you get caught, you're screwed... literally!
https://lorddarke.thecomicseries.com/comics/
« Last Edit: March 28, 2022, 01:09:38 AM by Lee M »
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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #353 on: March 25, 2022, 02:21:47 AM »
Lee, thank you for the recommendations! These are all new to me, and not among the frequent recommendations.

In this thread I think repetition is both unavoidable and welcome - we have new people coming in and not everyone is going to read it from the start. Also the statuses of comics already mentioned may change so updates are necessary.

Also welcome to the Forum, Lee! There’s an introduction thread in the General board, come say hi! (Not required, just fun)
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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #354 on: March 29, 2022, 03:09:10 PM »
Oh hey! It's my comment!

Let's not forget Phantomarine and Vainglorious, both of which were recommended to me in replies to that comment.

Vainglorious is about a dragon who got banished and cursed into human shape as a punishment for challenging his queen, along with the the human he landed on and the blue elf he got kicked out of their village. Valuable life lessons will presumably be learned at some point. Also the human character bears a passing resemblance to one Emil Vasterstrom, both in appearance and in personality.

Phantomarine is about a princess who is assassinated, challenges the dead god of death (whose name isn't Jeff) and wins, but can't return herself and her friends to life without fetching a magical artifact that Jeff also needs for his own purposes, which he can't get for himself because he can't go on land. There's also Pavel, recently quasi-orphaned and with a nasty case of ghost-bite. It's hilarious, but also deeply creepy at times. There's action, there's adventure, there's tragedy, Jeff is a plesiosaur sometimes, it's great. With SSSS ended and MAiZ on indeterminate hiatus, Phantomarine is probably my favorite still-updating comic.

I think the link to Freelancers in my Disqus post was broken, as are the chapter links on the site itself. This should take you to page one.

Glad to see Daughter of the Lilies getting some representation here. It's also one of my favorites. I think the current hiatus was mentioned, but there's an author-commentary version of the opening chapter running in the mean time, which I'm finding quite interesting.

I see Beyond the Western Deep has also been mentioned. I'll just add that, while I've never read Redwall, I'm semi-reliably informed that if you liked Redwall, you'll like BTWD. If you didn't like Redwall because of its black-and-white approach to morality, then you'll really like BTWD. If you like stories where nobody gets stabbed ever, you probably won't like BTWD. Do yourself a favor and skip the opening world-building exposition chapter when you're first deciding whether you want to read it or not.

I should probably also mention that Harpy Gee is on hiatus again while the writer/artist works on other projects, and only has a few more chapters left before completion.

Let's see, what else is there?

Three Panel Soul is a gag strip that mixes different subjects. Sometimes it's autobiographical, sometimes it's video game parody, sometimes it's cats, and sometimes it's fantasy slice-of-life, among others.

Litterbox is another gag strip, this time family/parenting slice-of-life starring anthropomorphic cats. I'd guesstimate somewhere around 20-30% of the jokes are animal-related.

Tomics is yet another gag strip, this one Christian (specifically, Catholic) in nature. It's not preachy. Truth be told it's mostly Bible puns and general silliness.

If you like video game parody gag strips, you probably don't need me to tell you about Awkward Zombie. It is silly. (Also, Brawl in the Family ended years ago and The Gamercat is on indefinite hiatus, so Awkward Zombie is kind of the only gaming comic I really read anymore.)

Pepper and Carrot is about a young witch student (Pepper) and her cat (Carrot) having various adventures and misadventures. Some of its story arcs get serious (especially recently), but in general it leans toward whimsical and charming. The neat thing is it's completely open source: It's released under a Creative Commons license and the Krita and Inkscape files are all made available. Volunteers have translated it into several languages. (The site boasts 59, but only a handful of those are complete and many are basically nothing.) The update schedule is rather lackadaisical, though.

It's been a while since I've read it, but I remember deeply enjoying Inner Space. It's about the gryphon-like Mag, who, together with an adorable sidekick who runs on kid-logic, must navigate a treacherous world that runs on dream-logic to restore her lost memories and return home. At one point there's a bone dragon, which fans of Minna's creatures will probably like.

If you're willing to take gambles on somewhat more amateur productions, check out Legends of Amora and Derideal.

Amora is a high fantasy comic. The art is pretty nice and I love the characters, but the dialogue writing leaves a bit to be desired. It's about a young girl who gets wrapped up in a family drama between immortal(?) magic users. May or may not also involve time travel.

Derideal (I think it's pronounced Dare Ideal but your guess is as good as mine) is sci-fi action-adventure about anthropomorphic animal characters created by uplift experiments. It's a collection of several sub-series. I recommend starting with Xeno Experiments Nova, since it's relatively self-contained, being a space-faring story set in the distant future of the other storylines. The two that are currently ongoing are the "main" Derideal (a remake/remaster of its original run, which just entered its second volume) and The Void. Derideal is about Aden (a.k.a. Adres), the first uplifted cat boy (not catboy) escaping with his friend from the facility where they were created. The Void is about two groups of characters (one in the present, one in flashback) trying to escape an underground lab where rejected uplifts are banished, with some serious eldritch-y problems. There are some rough edges to the dialogue, and occasionally the art, but overall I'm enjoying it.

I'd plug my own comic but it only has one page out and at the rate I'm going it will be a decade before the remaining six are finished. :(
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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #355 on: March 31, 2022, 02:34:23 AM »
Vainglorious is about a dragon who got banished and cursed into human shape as a punishment for challenging his queen, along with the the human he landed on and the blue elf he got kicked out of their village. Valuable life lessons will presumably be learned at some point. Also the human character bears a passing resemblance to one Emil Vasterstrom, both in appearance and in personality.

Ooh, another Vainglorious fan! It's probably one of the most enjoyable comics I've read - genuinely gets me laughing. It reminds me of some of the funnier graphic novels I read as a kid. The characters are all very stupid but all in different ways and they play off each other really well.
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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #356 on: March 31, 2022, 01:31:07 PM »
That's an excellent way of putting it.
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Jitter

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #357 on: June 27, 2022, 06:54:01 AM »
Just in case anyone else was wondering: Year in Hereafter is not dead after all. The author took the site down for overhauls and simce he had expressed doubts over the whole thing I worried he’d decided to scrap everything and start over. But luckily not! He rebuilt the website entirely, but the comic content is back, and currently at p 600. He’ll be updating sporadically but he is still around.

YIH has many themes that may well interest an SSSS fan: it’s high fantasy in a Kalevala related setting. The art is great. All main characters are white men, but otherwise I like it very much. http://yihcomic.com/index.php
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dmeck7755

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #358 on: June 27, 2022, 09:14:13 AM »
Just in case anyone else was wondering: Year in Hereafter is not dead after all. The author took the site down for overhauls and simce he had expressed doubts over the whole thing I worried he’d decided to scrap everything and start over. But luckily not! He rebuilt the website entirely, but the comic content is back, and currently at p 600. He’ll be updating sporadically but he is still around.

YIH has many themes that may well interest an SSSS fan: it’s high fantasy in a Kalevala related setting. The art is great. All main characters are white men, but otherwise I like it very much. http://yihcomic.com/index.php

I am glad to see it back.  Though I am having trouble with the links (latest page etc.  I had to go to the archive and click the last button from one of the other pages.)  I am not sure if it is my browser or the links are not in place yet. 

I also had to remember my Discus login....      O_O
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Jitter

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Re: The Webcomics Discussion
« Reply #359 on: June 27, 2022, 10:30:19 AM »
The link to first and last pages is the partial picture, not the text. I know because I was stuck on it too :)
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