Comic books are awesome. The Internet is awesome. So comic books on the Internet are awesome squared! Fifteen years ago, the idea of a comic book updated one page at a time and published online for free to the delight of a gradually growing fanbase sounded downright ridiculous and unachievable, but ever since then we’ve seen the formula perfected with mind-numbing success after mind-numbing success. “Penny Arcade”, a comic strip about two guys who sit around and talk about videogames, created an entire genre of “gamers on a couch” webcomics that is still imitated to this very day and launched an entire corporation, with the guys behind Penny Arcade organizing one of the biggest gaming conventions in America, PAX. “Homestuck” is a sensation among nerd circles, and it’s literally impossible to visit any big gathering of geeks without seeing someone dressed as a character from that comic. Hell, even something like “xkcd” showed the world that you can literally just draw stick figures and your comic will STILL be popular if you’re witty and expressive! Over the time, the formula of weekly, self-contained strips evolved to give us huge, overarching plots with complicated characters that rival anything that’s coming from the big comic book publishers, and if you’ve got time to really dig your claws into it, the webcomic niche can provide you with literally countless hours of entertainment. I’m not even scratching the surface here, but below I’ll outline three very different webcomics that I personally really enjoy, with the hope that you’ll either use them as a starting point or at the very least will be able to get a couple of hours of procrastination at work out of them!
1. Darths & Droids
Imagine a world where the “Star Wars” saga never actually existed… In the way that we know it, as a cinematic epic enjoyed by millions of people. Instead, the events from the galaxy far, far away played out as a “Dungeons & Dragons” campaign by a bunch of nerds, each with his or her own personality and quirks, many of which would be, um… Rather relatable to those of us who have dabbled in roleplaying. There’s, of course, the guy who just wants to play by the rules and have a good time, but also the guy who ridiculously misunderstands the rules and tries to attack everything, the guy who min-maxes every single stat of his character to perfection, the girl who’s a lot more interested in roleplaying a character than in engaging in combat and levelling up, the little sister who was dragged along because there was no babysitter available… It’s really, really funny to see all of the beloved “Star Wars” characters being played by these roleplayer stereotypes, who over time evolve into quite compelling characters in their own right. If you love roleplaying, “Star Wars” or especially both, “Darths & Droids” is basically required reading!
2. YU+ME
Okay, I’m going to keep this description pretty brief because it’s one of those comics where the less you know about it, the more you’re going to enjoy it – it thrives on throwing curveballs your way when you least expect it! It starts off as a slice of life with a young girl discovering her identity, graduates to romance, and then springs even more surprises on you to keep you from getting a little too comfortable. Now, a few fair warnings – as is the case with many webcomics, it was completed over a really long time (started in 2004, ended in 2010), and as such reflected the author’s change in personality, skills and worldview. As such, the beginning might be a bit rough, with an angsty teenage protagonist and an artstyle that wasn’t exactly stellar in 2004, let alone today. But I promise, both the writing and the art get a lot better as the book progresses, so if you think you’d be in the mood for high school/romance/drama/adventure/mindf*ck thing, be sure to give “YU+ME” a shot!
3. Split Lip
I’ve made you laugh, I’ve made you cry, now how about I make you scream in fear? I don’t know about you, but I personally adore horror anthology stories like “Tales from the Crypt”, “The Twilight Zone”, “The Outer Limits” and “Black Mirror”. So when I learned that a horror writer by the name of Sam Costello has decided to create his own anthology horror series, in the form of a comic where each story is illustrated by a different artist, you know I had to include it on here! The stories are unrelated to each other and are just a couple of pages long, dealing in matters from the creepily mundane to the horrifyingly cosmic, but always able to pack a punch at the end. Because there’s no coherent plot thread that ties them all together, you can basically just go to the site, pick the one that sounds most interesting to you and start reading! Sure, not all of the stories are stellar, but chances are that if it’s on “Split Lip”, it has the potential to give you nightmares!