I have decided to take a closer look at the various online comics that can be read for free online. Here is a list of the online comics that can be read for free along with a bit of information on each.
I would like to be very clear on the fact that I have not read all of these comics and cannot be sure of their ratings. I am hoping that everything I link you to is PG13 at it’s worst and never past that. I am very sorry for anything inappropriate that takes place in the following webcomics as most are comics with which I have not yet been acquainted.
Something Positive:
http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html
The first online comic that I took a peek at today was Something Positive. However, my firewall says that something malicious may contaminate my computer if I view it today so I’ll just put that one on hold until they figure out the problem and repair their site.
Although it can still be viewed here in the meantime: http://somethingpositive.wikia.com/wiki/Something_Positive_Wiki
I’ve looked at it in the past however and I remember thinking it was hilarious, though in a rather cynical kind of way. They have a bald boneless cat named Choo Choo Bear who is pretty amusing. The characters do develop over the course of the story, and that art changes as well. The comic artist started favoring more simplistic designs and has stuck with them lately.
This comic has it’s own Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_Positive
along with it’s own wiki: http://somethingpositive.wikia.com/wiki/Something_Positive_Wiki
As you can see on the Wikipedia page this online comic has won awards in the past for both “Outstanding Character Writing” and “Outstanding Dramatic Comic”.
Garfield Minus Garfield:
http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/
This website takes Garfield comics and edits out Garfield leaving his owner talking to himself like a schizophrenic. He has gotten permission from the original creator of Garfield to do so, so no hard feelings. It makes for a pretty amusing read, although I should probably warn you that it starts to get depressing in large quantities.
Twokinds:
This web comic has it’s on wiki http://en.wikifur.com/wiki/Twokinds and it was from here that I found a description of the comic as I haven’t started reading it just yet, “Twokinds is a webcomic created by Tom Fischbach, following the adventures of Trace Legacy and his companions, Flora, Keith and Natani. The story focuses around a love interest between Trace and Flora, with side plots ranging from Keith and Natani’s relationship to the internal and external obstacles that they all face on their travels together.
Twokinds won the 2010 Ursa Major Award for Best Anthropomorphic Graphic Story.
As of February 2010, the comic is updating once a week, generally on a Wednesday.”
This web comic, along with it’s own wiki : http://twokinds.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page has a Deviantart Group for fan art : http://twokinds.deviantart.com/ and a forum for it’s fans to get to know one another : http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TwoKindsForum
A Redtail’s Dream:
http://www.minnasundberg.fi/This is another webcomic that I have not yet read. Here is a description of the comic as found on it’s homepage, ” ‘A Redtail’s Dream’ is a webcomic which updates every day except Sundays (because that’s when I sleep, apparently), telling the tale of a young man and his dog on a very much involuntary journey on the other side of the Bird’s Path, in an artificially created dream existence. As the only ones aware of their unusual situation, the duo has been given the task of bringing their fellow villagers back into their own reality before their souls are passed on to the realms of Tuonela. And the two are attempting to do so with zero enthusiasm.”
From what I have read on other websites this comic holds a great deal of Finnish Lore. From what I have seen, the artwork is incredibly impressive. Don’t believe me? Just click on “New Reader? Start Here” on the comics’ website and start paging through.
This webcomic has a Facebook fan page that you can like or follow for more information and for updates on the webcomic :https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Redtails-Dream-webcomic/136782976447885 and you can find fan art for it on Deviantart (Though it didn’t seem to have it’s own group).
Homestruck:
http://www.mspaintadventures.com/
A friend of mine has been wanting me to read this for quite a while and it seems to be one of the more popular webcomics. I would like to warn you however, that it is not a comic for the indecisive. I have not been able to read it properly because it asks me to choose a name for the character and I cannot (though my friend has told me countless times that it makes no difference).
Homestruck has a Wikipedia page if you are interested in doing research on the comic before reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestuck but I would advise avoiding the “Plot” section as there will be spoilers. The webcomic is somewhat animated, as it is interactive, and has over 6,000 pages along with a complicated plot.
This webcomic also has it’s own meme http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/homestuck and it’s own wiki : http://mspaintadventures.wikia.com/wiki/Homestuck
Due to it’s popularity you can find a great deal of fan art online, along with fan videos on youtube, and fan posts on websites ike tumblr, reddit, etc. Homestruck has a Facebook Fan Page : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Homestuck/134211469925249 and it’s own fan forum : http://mspaforums.com/forum.php?s=0f3bb2d3ca3ba6920a7bd1618720fe3a
xkcd:
“A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.” this site features simple drawings and focuses more on the dialogue. It does have characters that you will start to recognize and seems to have a sort of simpler sense of humor. I have seen posts from this webcomic being shared on Facebook but didn’t know that they were from until now as it’s style is much less recognizable than Cyanide and Happiness (which I should probably include in this list as well).
This webcomic has a Wikipedia page, found here :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xkcd and the comic’s creator and writer has a Twitter : https://twitter.com/xkcd
xkcd also gives you the option to purchase any comic as a poster.
Cyanide and Happiness:
http://www.explosm.net/comics/3192/
This webcomic can get extremely inappropriate. Every comic can be read as a stand alone without having to start from the beginning. They have a youtube channel with Cyanide and Happiness animated shorts : http://www.youtube.com/user/ExplosmEntertainment?feature=watch a Wikipedia page : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanide_and_Happiness and a Facebook fan page : https://www.facebook.com/explosm
If you are a fan of any of these comics and can think of something I forgot to include please notify me via email. I would be more than happy to learn more about these comics.
Also if you know of any web comics that people should look into and read please feel free to suggest them in the comments.
ifroggeh 