Top 5 Web Comics That You’re Not Reading But Should Be

Growing up I was a comics fanatic. I would anxiously tear open the comics section of our local newspaper to read all my favorites, and even those I didn’t really understand. Back then I didn’t understand how much effort and work went into getting a comic strip syndicated or how much blood and tears went into the strips and the endless fights with censors who always cut the comics down.

Now that I’m older I’ve come to realize what’s in the funny pages as a kid was only the tip of the iceberg. Of course back then there was no Internet and thus no web comics. But that’s different now and most people in the newspaper comics industry don’t pull out their comics when they retire. They let them keep running and most newspapers are fine with it. This makes it harder for new artists to get their comics syndicated and that’s where the Internet comes into play.

In the last 10 years, the web comics field has exploded. This is mainly because the most active group on the Internet today were the most active readers of comics of yesterday. And so I present to you my top 5 web comics that you’re not reading but should be. These comics are uncensored and completely original and because of that very hilarious.

Sheldon is a comic strip about life. While the cast members are quite wacky, and the story lines are often the most unique of the comics listed. Sheldon has a very simple and familiar look to it which is something you would expect to find in your funny pages on Sundays. Sheldon is probably the easiest comic to start with and get you into web comics.

Sheldon
http://www.sheldoncomics.com

PVP is set in a semi-realistic universe. The cast members of this comic are all nerds who work at a fake gaming magazine called PVP. PVP Online generally runs the gambit of everything happening in nerd culture and things that most people go through in everyday life like marriage, divorce, sex, and having the magical Troll that was assigned to them in childhood be assigned to a new family, etc. PVP is like coffee, it takes all the elements of mainstream comics from the newspaper then strains them down through Scott Kurtz (the creator) who then drips it out onto the web with a little bit of a twist.

PVP
http://www.pvponline.com

XKCD is a brilliant comic. The cast members are drawn as stick figures, but they live in a world that is anything but simple. XKCD is a comic about romance, sarcasm, math and language. The comic always seems to hit readers with mind bending thoughts and endless hours of nerdy humor. Most of the jokes are similar to Gary Larson’s Far Side in the way that it’s enjoyable by anyone, but the more you know about science, math and computers, the funnier the jokes tend to be.

XKCD
http://www.xkcd.com

Diesel Sweeties is a weekly comic strip done in a pixelated style, allowing for both a very limiting look at the world. In the same way, it is a very in depth analysis of our lives, bit by bit. Diesel sweeties has a wide cast of characters including a drunken floozy, a too cool for school hipster, a metal head married to a environmentalist, a toaster and a few robots who are in love with humans. Diesel Sweeties never seems to take life too seriously, doesn’t really attack any major issues and in doing so makes it all the more introspective.

Diesel Sweeties
http://www.dieselsweeties.com

Dinosaur Comics is an odd one to talk about. Many people don’t like it because they simply don’t understand it. It’s a comic strip that uses the same images everyday (with a few tweaks occasionally). Like most of the comics listed, Dinosaur comics is more than it seems to be on the surface. It covers ethical relativism, the nature of happiness and the secret to being loved. Dinosaur comics at most times can be very brash for web comics. It has occasionally been syndicated for newspapers though I’m not sure what markets these were in.

Dinosaur Comics
http://www.qwantz.com/

Honorable Mention

Garfield minus Garfield is… well the site creator describes it best by saying “Garfield Minus Garfield is a site dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb.” I excluded GmG from my list and gave it the honorable mention spot primarily because it’s not an original web comic, but still a web comic all the same.

Garfield Minus Garfield
http://www.garfieldminusgarfield.net

Hopefully you have enjoyed this list. If you feel that I’ve unfairly left anything out of this list, make sure to put a link to it in the comments. And if your an up and coming artist I’d love to see your comic strip.

Mark Condon is a web developer, living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has an endless resource of obscure information about… well everything. You can follow his daily musings on twitter.