Web Comics Redux

If you have been paying attention to the side bar labelled Web Comics, you would have realised that it has been steadily increasing in size. Since I never did give a good description to each of them over in that side bar, here's a slightly more in depth look at them, in alphabetical order.

• Cyanide and Happiness is an absurdist comic that features the most unrealistic situations that can happen in real life. More than just a social commentary, it is also populated with terrible puns and sexual innuendoes. I like this comic because it updates daily, and provides my daily dose of WTF.
• Dr McNinja is an adventure comedy about a doctor who is a ninja (or was it a ninja who is a doctor?). The adventures here are usually fun and out of this world, and have several memorable moments (like chainsaw nunchucks!). I like this comic as it satisfies that adventure side of me, without the usual grovel associated with ``realistic'' renditions.
• Garfield minus Garfield is a different take of the cult classic comic Garfield. The difference here lies in the complete and absolute removal of all other characters that are not Jon Arbuckle---this has the strange and twisted effect of showing how truly alone he is, and how his antics are really sad, since he is talking to himself most of the time after all, even if Garfield is present (Garfield's ``speech bubbles'' are really thought bubbles, and is unlikely that Jon will ever know them directly). I find this comic somewhat hilarious as it brings out a different side of Garfield, and it sort of reminds us how loneliness can be such a terrible thing.
• Girls with Slingshots is a slice-of-life comic about Hazel and Jamie, two best friends who take on the city together as they live their lives. It also features a few other hilarious characters, like Clarice (porn store clerk by day, dominatrix by night) and McPedro (a talking Irish cactus). A touch of reality with a tiny bit of absurdism---that's what draws me to this comic.
• Jack of All Blades is yet another adventure comic, but this time it is set in a completely fantasy setting, and thus have a much more comic effect than say Dr McNinja. It is a fun read, and features a cast of very interesting characters, including a shape-shifter and an inventor penguin. I like this comic for its light style and easy comedy.
• Kukuburi is easily the one of the most complex plotlines of all the comics here. Set in a strange fantasy setting, the storyline is just about to be unfolded. The art work is brilliant---each rendition of the phantasmal plane has just enough details to make it believable. A most fun read indeed.
• Megatokyo is what happens when manga meets geekdom. The concept of alternate realities coexisting in the same plane and the complex interrelationships among the characters are the main selling points of this comic. Updates are supposed to be thrice weekly, but is often looser than that. But the wait is usually worth it, as the pencil work is excellent. Fred pays a lot of attention to the details with his pencil work, and all the diehard followers of this comic wait patiently for the next one to be up each time.
• PhD Comics is the first web comic that I started to follow, and still remains among my favourite. Depicting the lives of PhD students and being presented in an easy-to-digest 4-panel style, PhD Comics is a good source of the pain and pleasures of being in the PhD programmes. Some of the jokes can be a bit technical, but most of the comic is accessible by folks who don't have that technical background.
• Questionable Content is a fun slice-of-life comic by Jeph Jacques, and features the lives of the three [current] ladies who work in the Coffee of Doom, as well as Marten, the main male protagonist. Questionable Content balances realism with a dash of absurdism, like the various anthro-PCs like Pintsize and the oversized and somewhat sentient iPod Winslow, in a way that is hilarious and yet not altogether impossible to fathom. I like its depiction of life, and find the stories really interesting.
• Sam and Fuzzy is another absurdist comic (seeing a trend here yet?) featuring Sam, a taxi-driver-turned-fugitive-turned-ninja-emperor, and Fuzzy, a bear of ridiculous strength and propensity for violence whose origins are yet unknown. It updates thrice weekly, and has a really large cast that comes and goes as and when the story leads. The plot line is fairly intricate, yet not impossible to follow as Sam Logan helpfully puts out links to show where a crucial plot item was first shown. I like the smooth nature of the art work and the excellent story-telling of this piece.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is a non-sequitor comic that makes a lot of plays with words. I discovered this comic fairly recently, and so cannot really give much of a description, but from what I have been reading [in the archives] so far, I like its approach towards understanding various aspects of human nature.
• Sinfest features the smooth manga-style of Tatsuya Ishida, and is often talking about current affairs (recent story arcs) and the issue on ``what is life''. Featuring a cast that covers God, Buddha, and the Devil, to the mortals like Slick, Monique (ooo so cute), and the fundamentalist Seymour. I like the depth that this simple comic achieves through the few words that it uses.
• Sore Thumbs can be seen as what Megatokyo was once before, with an emphasis on gaming culture and the clashing of that with various fundamentalist principles. Featuring a cast of cute women and various types of men, this comic is really interesting in the way it depicts the absurdity that arises in real life.
• Perry Bible Fellowship is the undisputed absurdist comic of the list. Most of the humour in this can be seen as ``dark'', but upon deeper reflection, it just shows that ``one must be careful what one wishes for''. The exploration of human reactions and the problems of jumping to conclusions too quickly makes this an interesting comic to use to learn yet a bit more of human nature.
• Wapsi Square is a comic that has a very deep dimension to it. I sort of stopped following it for about a year, but that was because I didn't really have the time nor effort to follow the intricate storyline that is the main feature of this. Perhaps when Winter break arrives, I will have the energy to look at this again, and pick off where I last left off...
• XKCD. You either understand it, or you don't---there is no middle ground. The brainchild of Randall Munroe, this comic is a cult piece, setting off trends and memes all over the Internet. Featuring simplistic stick figures and even simpler backgrounds, XKCD brings out the geek in all of us with its steady jokes from Computer Science, Physics, and Mathematics. If you can understand everything in XKCD, then perhaps you are not too different from me after all...

And so that's a quick introduction to each of the comics that I have on my web comic side bar. Have fun, while I head back to working on some homework that is due very soon...