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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

http://paranatural.net/chapter-3-page-2/

Okay, I'm sold. Not a huge fan of ghostbusting magical realism usually, but this is really well written.
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Avoraciopoctules
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

http://awkwardzombie.com/index.php?page=0&comic=120913

Nice. To be fair, the Case 2 fakeout where they spring lucha libre on the player after building up the yokai stuff was pretty hilarious.
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Post by rampaging-poet »

The Dragon Doctors has started updating again. The author was busy colouring old pages for awhile after moving to a new site, but the first new comic in months was just posted.

The Dragon Doctors is set in a far-future fantasy world and follows a team of magical doctors who are among the best in their respective fields. The team leader Mori is a genius doctor and leading magical researcher. Kili has spirit vision so powerful that it's still top-class despite tatoos that would permanently seal away the powers of ordinary shamans. Sarin is an incredibly powerful wizard who specializes in magical transformations. Goro is an ex-military surgeon with some healing magic.

The first chapter involves the entire team being permanently gender-bent after fixing a cursed valley in which men started turning into women and nothing could grow. The latest finished chapter finally explained why the curse was there to begin with, and intervening chapters generally focus on the more unusual patients the doctors treat.
Other webcomics I read that have recently started updating again are The Wotch and MSF High, both of which had been on hiatus for some time. The Wotch is pretty much standard "chosen one must save the world" stuff set in the modern day, but the male main characters get turned into girls a lot. The title character is the current incarnation of chaos in some fundamental way, and she is opposed by the incarnation of order, and evil overlord from another dimension that wants her powers to increase dramatically for an as-yet unspecified purpose. This was actually the webcomic that introduced me to the idea of webcomics in which magical transformations are common place, and their links page lead me to several other comics that I read for years.

MSF High is about a magical high-school for potential heroes summoned from around the galaxy. Students so summoned end up in their "ideal form," and there's a lot of miscellaneous transformation going on. For example, one of the current main characters is a pixie who used to be a towering orc before the school nurse transformed him because she'd grabbed a pixie-sized bandage and didn't want to go back for another one. Notable features of the school include the fact that it respawns all students overnight so dying just makes you miss a day of class. The universe has a lot of faster-than-light travel which mostly uses renamed Spelljammers, and for reasons unknown to the characters there are an awful lot of alternate Earths complete with similar histories out there, most notably one inside a gigantic anti-magic field that they can see but not reach. Also, there's a terrible RPG of it created by the authors, and they recently made the character creation chapter free. I'll have to give it a proper review sometime.
One of the webcomics linked from The Wotch is El Goonish Shive., which has to be my favourite webcomic for its mix of humour and serious elements. It starts simply: a nerd character and his heroic martial artist friend fight a slime monster they accidentally created in science class. The directions it takes as it progresses are amazing, and aside from some early silliness perfectly reasonable within the context of the world.

And after typing all that I see that it's already been mentioned by a few people years and years ago when this topic was started.
I also read Order of the Stick, Erfworld, Goblins, Girl Genius, Two Guys and Guy, SMBC, xkcd, and Skin Horse. I'm way behind on Misfile, LFG, Sequential Art, and Dr. Mcninja, but I have read most of them.

Finished webcomics that I've read: 8-Bit Theatre, Minus, and Narbonic (twice).

Smutty NSFW stuff: Oglaf and Bloomin' Fairies.
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Post by virgil »

I've been enjoying the Goblins webcomic, as usual. This other forum I lurk at has been complaining pretty heavily at how broken/Mary Sue Kore is, and all of the arguments are pretty much THE reason Fighters don't get nice things in D&D.

Also, I completely do not have any sympathy for people complaining about the art. There's been an obvious and improving progression, and it's certainly better than a number of other, more popular webcomics.
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Post by erik »

How broken Kore is? If anything he's a testament to how pitiful paladins are. I mean, he's at least 14th level since he cast Holy Sword... and he's having some trouble with level what, level 3-4 characters? That's pathetic.

The only reason Kore is worth a second look is because he is far and away the highest level character in the series. Hell, if he was a level 7 wizard he'd be able to TPK the goblins without them ever knowing he was even there.

Web Comics I currently follow:
A Softer World
Bearmageddon
Dresden Codak
Erfworld
Girl Genius
Goblins
Guilded Age
Gunnerkrigg Court
Next Town Over
Oglaf
Order of the Stick
Paranatural
Penny Arcade
Powernap
Rice Boy
Romantically Apocalyptic
Saturday Morning Breakfast Comic
Schlock Mercenary Company
The Dog House Diaries
The Trenches
Three Panel Soul
Unsounded
XKCD
[edit: gah, I keep forgetting some other comics. I'm sure there's more and this doesn't count the ones that are completed that I don't follow any longer. I have a hard enough time remembering the ones I currently read]
Last edited by erik on Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:34 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

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Post by rampaging-poet »

So Two Kinds just dropped a potential love triangle full of gender confusion.
One of the comic's main characters is Natani. She was born female, but nearly killed by a soul-destroying monster. A risky soul-meld with her twin brother saved her life, but caused her to begin identifying as a man and feeling awkward in the body he had had his whole life. Keith, one of the other main characters, found out about Natani's physical sex, and a romance began to grow between them.

More recently, one of Keith's childhood friends died. It was just revealed that his ghost possessed the body of one of his subordinates - a female subordinate. His first action after revealing himself was to insist that as Keith's appointed manservant, it was he and not Natani that should assist Keith while he bathes. He might just be teasing, but it's really too early to say. I'm a little disappointed by this turn of events though because most of the comic has focused on Keith and his past recently, so bringing it up even more so soon after a big arc about him moving on seems to contradict the themes of the previous chapter.

Narratively, the character makes some sense as a foil to Natani. Natani is an assassin, while Nikolai is a soldier. Nikolai represents Keith's country and his past, while Natani represents the mainland and another future. On the gender-bending side of things, Nikolai is trapped in a body that isn't his own, while Natani feels trapped in a body that always was his own. It will be interesting to see where this leads.
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Post by Ancient History »

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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

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Post by rampaging-poet »

Someone on another forum linked to Eerie Cuties, and I spent the past couple days reading it and its spinoffs. It's about several teenagers at a school for monsters. Main characters include a childish vampire that only eats chocolate, her popular older sister, a young werewolf, and an androgynous snake-woman exploring her sexuality. There's a good mix of high school drama and supernatural shenanigans, and the art is good as well. Also, the gym coach is a ghost pirate.

The spin-off series Magic Chicks and Dangerously Chloe follow characters that transferred out of the monster school. There have been several crossovers between the three series as well. In fact, I'm pretty sure one character's father was introduced in a crossover before appearing in that character's comic.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

There's been some pretty great fanart inspired by page 491 of Cucumber Quest

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Post by rampaging-poet »

rampaging-poet wrote:So Two Kinds just dropped a potential love triangle full of gender confusion.
It turns out this was an April fool's joke. I'm both disappointed and relieved because it would be an interesting direction to take things, but I'm happy to see the main plot advancing again.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

Last edited by Avoraciopoctules on Sun May 04, 2014 9:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

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Post by fectin »

The Dreadful is hosted up on Brian Clevelinger's site (former home of 8-Bit Theater), and is usually good (though gonzo). It could easily, easily be a magical western RPG transcript, in a good way.

It also has occasional fun interludes:
http://www.nuklearpower.com/2014/07/04/ ... n-justice/
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Post by Avoraciopoctules »

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Post by Shatner »

So... Goblin comics seems to be dead. I'm only slightly sad by that... very, very slightly.


Erfworld has resumed the main plot, and with it the return of full, color comics. There is a text-only bit still running as well but it gets slipped in during the mid-update lull.


Digger is indeed super awesome. Wombats are probably the best representations of a dwarf-like culture out there.


I'm shocked no one has mentioned Scenes from a Multiverse. Basically, this guy used to make a long-lived and funny comic called Goats, but the surrealism and wit of it was being strangled by it's own ponderous and convoluted plot. So he put it on indefinite hiatus and made Scenes From A Multiverse instead. Each comic is it's own little stand-alone gag, although some settings and characters are occasionally revisited. It is frequently a topical satire of current news and/or stupidity. To grab a recent example...

Image

I consider it a mixture of Penny Arcade-like culture/snark delivered in the format of Gary Larson's Far Side.
Last edited by Shatner on Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Laertes »

Erfworld has resumed the main plot, and with it the return of full, color comics. There is a text-only bit still running as well but it gets slipped in during the mid-update lull.
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Post by Shatner »

If you read Penny Arcade then you're at least aware that Camp Weedonwantcha exists. It sits alongside the actual Penny Arcade comic and The Trenches at the top of the PA website. And unlike The Trenches, Camp Weedonwantcha is actually good. Really, really good. Man, The Trenches sucks.

The premise is that at the eponymous camp, kids show up... somehow... and stay there. There are no adults and no contact with the outside world; it's a kind of summer camp-based purgatory. Despite what you might think, this comic has stayed pretty far from the big, obvious Lord of the Flies comparison; it strikes a fine balance between themes of Calvin and Hobbes-like childhood wonderment (as well as childhood pettiness) and, for want of a better comparison, Dilbert-like themes of feeling powerless or abandoned.

A deep story is being told with this comic, and it is a rich one. But it's taking its time and making lots of little stops along the way to have fun and develop the setting, and characters thereof. Also, the art is quite good; I find a well-drawn comic is enjoyable in-and-of itself, and really enriches my enjoyment of the actual content. Finally, it updates twice a week, like clockwork: Tuesdays and Fridays. A regular, timely update schedule is also a thing of beauty and should be appreciated.

Image
Last edited by Shatner on Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:07 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Post by Shatner »

Lackadaisy was mentioned in passing earlier in this thread. That is unacceptable. Lackadaisy (also known as Lackadaisy Cats) is the most gorgeous comic there is. That's not opinion, it's a goddamn fact.

Spoilered to prevent your browser from weeping at the realization that it has to display anything OTHER than Lackadaisy.
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So, it's prohibition-era St. Louis and a once great bootleg empire has diminished almost to the point of irrelevance after its founder died and control passed to his widow. The story follows the comedy and tragedy (mostly comedy) of those involved in this operation. Also, everyone is an anthropomorphic cat; that's not actually important to the story but it does kinda stand out. The writing is excellent. The characters are rich and well-imagined. The comic's creator has an obsessive level of faithfulness for the period in which the comic is set. And, once more for emphasis, IT IS THE PRETTIEST GODDAMNED COMIC ON THE INTERNET.

It updates... rarely. It's been limping along for quite a while now with one update every couple of months. And that's a crying shame. Still, 133 pages (large, lavish pages that can cover a lot of ground) have been created and just those alone are justification enough for reading the comic. I mean, we know for a fact that we're missing quite a few Shakespeare plays, but that doesn't make the plays we do have unworthy of appreciation. And yes, I just compared this comic to Shakespeare; if you read it you will see why it, taken as a whole, it measures up.


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Post by Laertes »

Calling Lackadaisy the prettiest comic on the internet is not only a lie but a damned lie. Romantically Apocalyptic is the prettiest comic on the internet. This is a provable fact. Captain has said so, and Captain would not lie to us. Captain has a most fashionable scarf that proves it to be true.
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Sarcasm aside, Lackadaisy looks awesome and I'll definitely have to read it. I have a lot of patience for slow-updating webcomics which are as much about the art as any sort of story or characterisation.
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Post by Shatner »

Oh hey! Someone showed me Romantically Apocalyptic years ago but never told me the damn name. I've tried to hunt it up a couple of times since but hadn't succeeded.

Thanks for the link; that's one small but noticeable hole in my brain that's been filled back in.
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Post by Meikle641 »

Spellcross is pretty good. I like the art style and the action/setting is hack and slash RPGish.
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