looking over webcomics

[marycatelli]

It is traditional in program guides to claim that the panel is about recommending overlooked or neglected works.  I've never known a panel to stick to it.  For one thing, we all think are very favorites are neglected.  Even very popular works can be more popular.

So, tossing aside overlooked or neglected, some of my favorites:

Impure Blood A not entirely human gladiator gets a chance at escape, and finds him in the midst of many intrigues.

Endstone A Sword&Sorcery adventure in a very weird United States. When it says something weird -- like, our obviously human-form heroine is a deer -- you are getting a clue about the world. And how many stories make you wonder whether the guy trying to destroy the world is wrong to do so?

Rusty & Co. The D&D adventures of a group consisting of -- well, a mimic, a gelatinous cub, and a rust monster. Funny.

Bird Boy A clumsy young boy stumbles into legend. (The prologue is a little different from the rest of the tale.)

Gunnerkrigg Court A strange school: "Within the first week of my attendance, I began noticing a number of strange occurrences. The most prevalent of these oddities being the fact that I seemed to have obtained a second shadow."

Thistil Mistil Kistil Posthumous adventures among the Norse gods.

No Rest for the Wicked a world where all the fairy tales are grimly true. Even if it's very slow in updating at the moment. (Like, once in the last year.)

Tales of the Questor In which a talking raccoon wants to be a hero in a fantasy world. Not quite as good but still fun Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger a tale of his descendant-- and I think it's found its grip after some initial floundering.

Sandra and Woo A girl and her talking raccoon. Not like the last two, which were anthropomorphic animals.

Order of the Stick Stories in a D&D world -- very funny, but you have to give it a chance to get going past the gag-a-day to get to the plotlines.  (It also gets better for non-D&D fans then.  And it's quite good.)

Girl Genius   In which mad scientist rule the world -- badly.

Derelict Scavenging in a post-apocalyptic world.

Wooden Rose A Victorian tale featuring two sisters living by an enchanted woods, and the mysterious stranger who meets them.

Roza the Cursed Mage  A girl trying to undo a curse

Erfworld Life in a turn-based wargame! (Yes, it does some silly spelling stuff. Overlook that.)

What are some of your favorites that you want to recommend?

Part of bittercon .

Comments

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

I adore webcomics and track them all through my LJ.

The Wandering Ones (http://wanderingones.com/story/1/1/) In a post-apocalyptic society, a group returns to the ancient Native American ways. This is a personal favorite, it's a very well researched survival story.
Misfile (http://www.misfile.com/) A boy who was turned into a girl, and a girl who lost two years of her life thanks to an angelic screw-up. It's funny and deals with a lot of gender issues.
Wayward Sons (http://waywardsons.keenspot.com/) A reinterpretation of mythology with space ships and superpowers.
Paradigm Shift (http://www.paradigmshiftmanga.com/) A cop volunteered to do some medical testing in college and is now a werewolf.
Earthsong (http://www.earthsongsaga.com/) High fantasy on an alternate world. It's hard to describe.
Sky Pirates of Valendor (http://skypiratesofvalendor.com/spov/) My friend's comic, with pirates, tech, fantasy and a myriad of races.
The Dreamer (http://thedreamercomic.com/) A modern girl wakes up in 1776 every time she falls asleep.

[marycatelli]

Ran across only some of those before

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Some of the more obscure webcomics I love:
Family Man (http://www.lutherlevy.com/?page_id=170): Academia and theology in 18th century Europe. May also contain werewolves.

Haru-Sari (http://www.haru-sari.com/by8w45/story/): Elves, catpeople, and terminal illness.

Interstellar Tea House (http://chaogaogong.livejournal.com/698.html): Cute science fiction about kids, some of them human.

Spacetrawler (http://spacetrawler.com/2010/01/01/spacetrawler-4/): Slap-stick space opera with surprisingly good writing.

The Meek (http://www.meekcomic.com/archives/): Fantasy story involving nudity, violent politics, and book thieves.

Full list (http://kgbooklog.livejournal.com/107314.html) of webcomics I like.

[marycatelli]

Then again, one tends to get more annoyed about one's favorites that really are obscure and not getting the attention they deserve.

[kgbooklog.livejournal.com]

Your link for Wooden Rose leads to Roza instead.

Also, when I looked at Space Ranger, I ended up being asked to do a survey, and it took me a while to figure out the correct sequence of clicks needed to get permission to close the tab.

[marycatelli]

Oops. Thanks. Link fixed now.

For the other -- I didn't get that. I suspect that you happened to hit on a bad ad. One of the great nuisances of webcomics is interferring ads -- but the writers have got to eat somehow.

[dharma-slut.livejournal.com]

Templar Arizona (http://templaraz.com)

The Desert Peach (http://desert-peach.com)

Letters To A Wild Boar (http://letterstoawildboar.com) (My very own darling daughter's strip, sadly abandoned)

<a href="http://www.buttercupfestival.com/> Buttercup festival</a> You might notice that all of these have one common element-- periodic cut-aways to show sweeping scenic panoramas. This is a device that never palls for me...

[marycatelli]

Those can be gorgeous. . . .

But abandonment is always a danger. Especially in dramatic webcomics with arcs. (And as you can see I like the dramatic strips. Some of them are comedramatic, and some have limited arcs, but I like them.)

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

La Macchina Bellica (http://lamacchinabellica.com/comic/chapter-one/the-story-begins/). Gay couple temporarily(?) invalided out of sprawling nineteenth century-style war wind up back at their old university, dealing with PTSD, the sometimes sitcom-esque consequences of helping the more PTSD-prone partner's slightly flighty kid sister escape from being forced into an arranged marriage and join them there, and the Machiavellianly manipulative mother (in-law) from hell, among other things. (Actually, large segments of this series also qualify for the "fantasy of manners" category discussed in another post above.)

Oh, and they're steampunk elves, although the latter word is never used. But their enemies from the more standard human-looking nation have put a lot of effort into developing even fancier airships, mecha, etc., than the pointy-eared Caledonians (I think that's what they're called) have, to compensate for the fact that most of the latter have magical/elemental powers that can be extremely useful in battle.

[marycatelli]

It's very easy to be steampunk without ever mentioning it. . .

[marfisa.livejournal.com]

Actually, the word I was referring to was "elves."