I suddenly remembered that Questionable Content has been running so long that Narbonic made a satirical reference to one of its original main story lines. (It’s in part of Helen’s break-up speech to Dave.)
Anyway if you do check it out, bear in mind that the art, the story lines, and the general worldview all improve steadily over the many years it’s been running now.
If it’s the reference I think you’re referring to, to give away the reference would be to give away a HUGE spoiler for anyone who has not yet read Questionable Content.
If your looking for scifi-ish things with humour you might like Spacetrawler and The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob (and, if your willing to move into the more absurd end, Station V3)
On a sidebar thought to this: are you guys going to let GoComics rerun repeats of “Skin Horse” after we reach the bitter end? (‘Cause some of their repeats freeze up for months at a time…)
I do enjoy Freefall, but the author’s addiction to certain flavors of bad opinions can be a bit grating. As I recall for the first several years of the comic characters keep voicing various lines about “ha ha people who believe in climate change are so dumb”, which he suddenly shut up about after a certain point.
I recall nothing of the sort- and I’ve recently finished rereading it for the umpteenth time. As it takes place on the planet Jean, not Earth, Earth’s climate is irrelevant.
I recommend Spacetrawler by Chris Baldwin. You may know his work if you have read the graphic novel Willoweep Manor, on which he and Shaenon collaborated.
I’ve been enjoying pretty much anything John Allison has done–Bobbins, Scary-Go-Round, Giant Days, Steeple, Destroy History, and so on. Plus Girl Genius, Order of the Stick, xkcd, and a few others.
And of course Narbonic, which ought to be required reading for any Skin Horse fan anyway. And Li’l Mell. I’ll second Sean K’s recommendation of Willoweep Manor, too, though as noted that’s a graphic novel rather than an ongoing comic.
OotS is fun, and xkcd, and I really loved Narbonic. I started reading that one after I started reading this one, because I was enjoying this one a lot.
Well gee, about the only one that I read that others haven’t mentioned is Magellan.
Oh also, Outsider, Grrl Power and Puck. Also Wilde Life.
I read too many comics.
Plenty of good suggestions already, but if you were strong enough to get through the early Dominic Deegan art, may I recommend Schlock Mercenary? Ran some twenty years at a strip daily, very funny while managing to spin a solid arc-based science fiction epic
If, on the other hand, you’re into fantasy, I highly recommend Unsounded. Been running since 2010, updates regularly with scheduled hiatuses, beautiful art, great worldbuilding, and starting back up for its final chapter on July 1st
Skin Horse, Girl Genius, and Sluggy Freelance – you have good taste, woodensarsen! In addition to other comics recommended here, Supervillainous on SpiderForest is good, and it’s finished. The writer, Zappit, has a new comic called Huzzah! which is shaping up well so far.
I just totaled up the cartoons I read online—I might have counted a couple twice—but it adds up to a hundred and twenty-five cartoons. Some are the commercial newspaper kind (I stopped getting the local paper regularly ’cause of erratic delivery), a couple are ones that publish a few strips every year or so, some have finished their run and are now in repeats…but that’s what I look at.
You might want to have a look at my favourite: Stand Still Stay Silent. It’s a fairly long, completed comic in a Post Apocalyptic Light style, set in the Nordic nations. Small cast, no serious interpersonal aggro. It features a wide variety of horrific monsters, and the author, Minna Sundberg, makes you sorry for the monsters, which are (mostly) ex-human.
If you like it you can also read A Redtail’s Dream which Minna wrote first, also completed.
(If you are religious then you will want to continue to follow Minna further; however, many non-religious found her latest (short-form) comic was not to their taste.)
So many good comics have been recommended, but no one’s mentioned my favourite two yet, so I’lll chip in with Digger by Ursula Vernon (now completed) and Drive by Dave Kellett
Put all your best ones on it,
I’ll put bees in their bonnet.
And I’ll talk to reporters straightaway.
Passed up fields of clover
Just to talk it over,
With my words in mangled disarray.
—from “Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet,” words by Stanley Murphy, music by Percy Wenrich, sung by The Big Bad Wolf and Bugs Bunny.
Last night I dreamed that I was looking at the final strip. Like other times I’ve looked at things like that in my dreams, I couldn’t see a thing, it was all an incoherent blur. (So much for psychic powers.)
I can’t stand much more of the suspense. End of the week, get here sooner.
Sounds like an excellent test for anyone with remote viewing / scrying gifts…
I predict Saturday’s strip will have Tip emerging from the saucer with Moustachio at his side, ala’ “The Day The Earth Stood Still“. And Sunday’s conclusion will be a huge montage whirlwind of reunions until Unity says to Sweetheart “I still think you should conquer America.”
To add to several other very good suggestions, I’d like to add Widdershins. I’d tentatively recommend unsounded, but it has a LOT of body horror, and covers some very difficult subject matter, so your mileage my vary.
They looked for a really big got. The names on their list, quite a lot. They went all through their list, but what name have they missed? The collective bee group called Gavottte.
Digger YES! Speaking of which, for those of you who may have been living under a rock, a new print edition of Digger is also funding currently on the K-word. So if you have any money left over after funding Skin Horse vol 11 & 12, you can conveniently get rid of it and get an epic comic about a very practical wombat in return.
Of the above suggestions, I would second the recommendations for Digger, Questionable Content, Alice Grove, Namesake, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Freefall. El Goonish Shive I would recommend with a qualification that the opening strips are not good and there is some problematic stuff before you get to the good part, so if it isn’t grabbing you at first, try skipping a few of the early storylines and potentially coming back to them later when you see where the characters are going.
This strip is pure win
+1
I discovered Skin Horse after Dominic Deegan ended (yeah I started way from the beginning!)
I wonder what I’ll follow next. I’m already reading Girl Genius and Sluggy Freelance.i followed Sorcery 101 to the end.
If you’re chasing some of the olden good ones, you could try El Goonish Shive.
Well, if you haven’t read Narbonic already, you need to.
Your list so far suggests we have partially similar tastes, but I try not to recommend too much at once unless somebody specifically asks.
Hey, if you’d like suggestions, ask away! I have plenty, and I’m sure my compatriots do as well 😀
Gunnerkrigg Court and Nothing Special are also excellent.
Nothing Good looks nice. I’m enjoying it so far.
Gaaaah Nothing Special!
I’m fond of “Wapsi Square,” which has recently resumed production. There’s “Endtown.” And I’ve grown fond of “In Security” over on GoComics.
Try SSDD, English anarchist comic, NSFW.
Mookie did revive Dominic Deegan, with new characters in a “200 years later” storyline.
I read Girl Genius, which is a good choice, but let me recommend Questionable Content as well. It makes weekdays worth getting up for.
I was also going to suggest ‘Questionable Content’. Also Jeph Jacques’ other SF webcomic, ‘Alice Grove’ – shorter, more SF-actiony, and now completed.
I suddenly remembered that Questionable Content has been running so long that Narbonic made a satirical reference to one of its original main story lines. (It’s in part of Helen’s break-up speech to Dave.)
Anyway if you do check it out, bear in mind that the art, the story lines, and the general worldview all improve steadily over the many years it’s been running now.
Any help tracking that down would be appreciated!
If it’s the reference I think you’re referring to, to give away the reference would be to give away a HUGE spoiler for anyone who has not yet read Questionable Content.
How about just a hint as to where to look in the archive, which is not as user friendly as Freefall’s?
Which archive? Narbonic or QC?
Agreed on Girl Genius, although somehow I lost track of it. Need to get caught up! Thanks, Manifesta for the reminder!
If your looking for scifi-ish things with humour you might like Spacetrawler and The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob (and, if your willing to move into the more absurd end, Station V3)
On a sidebar thought to this: are you guys going to let GoComics rerun repeats of “Skin Horse” after we reach the bitter end? (‘Cause some of their repeats freeze up for months at a time…)
Freefall is a favorite of mine. It is both consistently funny and on the hard end of SF.
Carry On had a weak start, but once the creator starts plotting some African political drama it becomes compelling.
There is Kill Six Billion Demons for your high fantasy needs.
I’m seconding Freefall.
I love Freefall. There’s also Quantum Vibe for good SF.
Fourthing Freefall here. It just keeping better!
I do enjoy Freefall, but the author’s addiction to certain flavors of bad opinions can be a bit grating. As I recall for the first several years of the comic characters keep voicing various lines about “ha ha people who believe in climate change are so dumb”, which he suddenly shut up about after a certain point.
I recall nothing of the sort- and I’ve recently finished rereading it for the umpteenth time. As it takes place on the planet Jean, not Earth, Earth’s climate is irrelevant.
I recommend Spacetrawler by Chris Baldwin. You may know his work if you have read the graphic novel Willoweep Manor, on which he and Shaenon collaborated.
Spacetrawler, both the earlier story and the current one, are gold. So are all of Baldwin’s other comics, especially Bruno and Little Dee.
I’ve been enjoying pretty much anything John Allison has done–Bobbins, Scary-Go-Round, Giant Days, Steeple, Destroy History, and so on. Plus Girl Genius, Order of the Stick, xkcd, and a few others.
And of course Narbonic, which ought to be required reading for any Skin Horse fan anyway. And Li’l Mell. I’ll second Sean K’s recommendation of Willoweep Manor, too, though as noted that’s a graphic novel rather than an ongoing comic.
OotS is fun, and xkcd, and I really loved Narbonic. I started reading that one after I started reading this one, because I was enjoying this one a lot.
Well gee, about the only one that I read that others haven’t mentioned is Magellan.
Oh also, Outsider, Grrl Power and Puck. Also Wilde Life.
I read too many comics.
You might try Vexxarr
Plenty of good suggestions already, but if you were strong enough to get through the early Dominic Deegan art, may I recommend Schlock Mercenary? Ran some twenty years at a strip daily, very funny while managing to spin a solid arc-based science fiction epic
If, on the other hand, you’re into fantasy, I highly recommend Unsounded. Been running since 2010, updates regularly with scheduled hiatuses, beautiful art, great worldbuilding, and starting back up for its final chapter on July 1st
Schlock Mercenary was a very good comic, and, even though it’s finished now, there’s certainly enough there to keep a person busy for a while.
Skin Horse, Girl Genius, and Sluggy Freelance – you have good taste, woodensarsen! In addition to other comics recommended here, Supervillainous on SpiderForest is good, and it’s finished. The writer, Zappit, has a new comic called Huzzah! which is shaping up well so far.
I’d recommend Namesake! Long-running comic with fairytale characters, eldritch creatures, and some of my favorite art in webcomics.
I just totaled up the cartoons I read online—I might have counted a couple twice—but it adds up to a hundred and twenty-five cartoons. Some are the commercial newspaper kind (I stopped getting the local paper regularly ’cause of erratic delivery), a couple are ones that publish a few strips every year or so, some have finished their run and are now in repeats…but that’s what I look at.
You might want to have a look at my favourite: Stand Still Stay Silent. It’s a fairly long, completed comic in a Post Apocalyptic Light style, set in the Nordic nations. Small cast, no serious interpersonal aggro. It features a wide variety of horrific monsters, and the author, Minna Sundberg, makes you sorry for the monsters, which are (mostly) ex-human.
If you like it you can also read A Redtail’s Dream which Minna wrote first, also completed.
(If you are religious then you will want to continue to follow Minna further; however, many non-religious found her latest (short-form) comic was not to their taste.)
“Tales of the Questor” is pretty neat, too…
So many good comics have been recommended, but no one’s mentioned my favourite two yet, so I’lll chip in with Digger by Ursula Vernon (now completed) and Drive by Dave Kellett
God reading through this has taken me on a wild ride of remembering old webcomcs and remembering how good it once was.
Oh, and I highly recommend Melonpool.
Aww, I’m sure Gavotte has a recipe for Scotch Fingers to die for.
So does Unity, but every word in that sentence is a lot more literal in her case.
I’m not sure that this is such a big get, since all the footage of Gavotte is going to be on the Bee Roll.
https://media.giphy.com/media/SUeUCn53naadO/giphy.gif
Those who love flying may enjoy the Sasser Bros. “Chicken Wings”…
Nick is looking very cubist in the first panel.
Gotta love the smile on his daughter’s face.
Hard to tell at that age, but I think she favors Dr. Lee.
Wait until her vocabulary expands a bit, then her father’s genes will become much more evident.
Except for the little detail that vocabulary is entirely learned, not genetic.
Gavotte doesn’t ordinarily talk to the press?
The press usually isn’t all that trustworthy. These guys are a rare exception.
Everyone knows wildflower honey is where it’s at anyway.
Where’s the “LIKE” button on this thing?
Dang oldfangled forum!
Put all your best ones on it,
I’ll put bees in their bonnet.
And I’ll talk to reporters straightaway.
Passed up fields of clover
Just to talk it over,
With my words in mangled disarray.
—from “Put On Your Old Grey Bonnet,” words by Stanley Murphy, music by Percy Wenrich, sung by The Big Bad Wolf and Bugs Bunny.
Still waiting for Tip and Tigerlilly. Tip was pretty much the introductory character, after all.
The way it’s going, there might just be time for a quick group photo and they’re gone.
I’m waiting for an army of robots, all of them calling Tip “Daddy”.
Tip is The Daddy
They said Benjamin Franklin has thirty or so kids, but only one wife. No wonder Zombie Ben Franklin calls himself Dan.
Last night I dreamed that I was looking at the final strip. Like other times I’ve looked at things like that in my dreams, I couldn’t see a thing, it was all an incoherent blur. (So much for psychic powers.)
I can’t stand much more of the suspense. End of the week, get here sooner.
The problem is you looked too far into the future.
BTW; that last strip IS hilarious, and your post is right on target.
Sounds like an excellent test for anyone with remote viewing / scrying gifts…
I predict Saturday’s strip will have Tip emerging from the saucer with Moustachio at his side, ala’ “The Day The Earth Stood Still“. And Sunday’s conclusion will be a huge montage whirlwind of reunions until Unity says to Sweetheart “I still think you should conquer America.”
To add to several other very good suggestions, I’d like to add Widdershins. I’d tentatively recommend unsounded, but it has a LOT of body horror, and covers some very difficult subject matter, so your mileage my vary.
Gah, this was supposed to be tagged as a reply to woodensarsen above
Yeah I gave up on unsounded after it became too much and too repetitive.
They looked for a really big got. The names on their list, quite a lot. They went all through their list, but what name have they missed? The collective bee group called Gavottte.
Long since completed, but Digger certainly bears mentioning
Digger YES! Speaking of which, for those of you who may have been living under a rock, a new print edition of Digger is also funding currently on the K-word. So if you have any money left over after funding Skin Horse vol 11 & 12, you can conveniently get rid of it and get an epic comic about a very practical wombat in return.
So many great recs for future reading material! You guys are the best!
Yesss!
Just bookmarked this page!
Of the above suggestions, I would second the recommendations for Digger, Questionable Content, Alice Grove, Namesake, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Freefall. El Goonish Shive I would recommend with a qualification that the opening strips are not good and there is some problematic stuff before you get to the good part, so if it isn’t grabbing you at first, try skipping a few of the early storylines and potentially coming back to them later when you see where the characters are going.