an excellent implementation of the standard ensemble strip: an angry sysadmin who's also the group's RPG game master, a dumb but lovable guy, an insane artist and his girlfriend, and the emotionless programmer type. funnier office situations than User Friendly, more realistic than Dork Tower, and less preachy than GPF. check out the saga of the Legendary Rock of Rama-Lama, Warren's April Fools revenge on Jay, and the GPF crossover, "Intervention". updates sporadically.
Arthur, King of Time and Space
for those of you with a more medieval bent, check out this webcomic featuring the story of King Arthur as told by several sources... and in several different time periods. the main story lines run in Arthur's time, a Star Trek universe, and modern day; but other timelines creep up now and then. incredibly well researched - this guy knows his Arthurian legends and it shows. personally i like seeing how the artist brings out the personality of each character in the other timelines. updates daily.
a wonderful little comic strip featuring an angry flower named Bob, and his roomates Stumpy (a log, duh) and Freddy the Floating Fetus. angry humor. plus, i've met the author a couple of times, and asked him all sorts of stupid questions about apostrophes. new comics weekly on friday, with mid-week site updates on tuesday.
comics for the depressed; the title character used to remind me a lot of a friend of mine that i haven't seen for a while. the author used to live in MA, but moved out to seattle several years ago. i actually haven't followed this one for a while but i might pick it back up again. great artwork, all single-panel frames. updates monday-saturday.
a fabulous comic strip that's clearly written and drawn by pros. these guys do BNS in their spare time while working the day job, but issue #1 of BNS-the-dead-tree-edition should be out in stores soon, if not already. it's yet another twentysomething ensemble-cast slice-of-life strip, but the artwork (and, honestly, the writing) make it worth reading even if you're sick of the genre.
an introverted underemployed children's book writer keeps a pet guard-dragon and a sometimes-naked, narcoleptic squirrel around for company. cute. updates daily.
a really nice, large-scale comic; only comes out once a month, but I'm currently entranced with the back issues. very fantastical and gentle; there's no laugh-out-loud humor here. it reminds me a lot of the full-panel sundays that Bil Waterson used to do for Calvin and Hobbes. give it a shot.
cartoons for the postmodernist tragically-hip retro-ironic internet-enabled ipod-wearing robotic generation. also, pixellated like an Atari 2600 game. updates weekdays.
the classic and perhaps funniest social satire comic of our time. one of those strips where time actually passes (gasp!), which means characters age, relationships come and go, children are born and raised, etc. etc. nationally syndicated (did i really need to tell you that?), updates daily. (livejournal feed)
Alison Bechdel's classic comic about the life and times of several lesbians. another 'time passes' strip. updates periodically - link is for author's blog.
a strip drawn by Poe, the guy who used to do Exploitation Now. one of those swords-and-sorcery era coming-of-age stories, with a healthy dose of Poe's sick humor thrown in for good measure. updates mon-wed-fri.
an unemployed writer navigates the dating world by getting blasted in a gay bar with her friends. polished artwork, and you can see the progression by reading the archives of the artist's high school/college strips. pretty new still, currently updating tue-thu.
think Sex in the City, but with 75% men in the ensemble, and minus the obsession with shoes. the guy who writes PartiallyClips got me turned on to it, so blame him. updates weekly, usually on mondays.
leftist political humor from the cartoonist who does Ozy and Millie. updates tuesdays. (author's livejournal)
Flash animated comics about Foamy, the foul-mouthed squirrel, and Germaine, his goth owner(?). piss-your-pants funny, but not for those with delicate sensibilites. (read: contains adult language and humor.)
stick-figure comic strip drawn by a guy who really loves d20. he runs campaigns, writes articles and new rules, and draws this strip in his spare time. it's a little hit-or-miss, but if you like gaming it's worth checking out; there are definitely a handful of laugh-out-loud, "oh my god that happened in my game" kind of moments. updates mon-wed-fri.
one of the cutest strips i've seen in a long time, but it fits into the category of 'kid humor for adults'. heavy doses of cynicism, sarcasm, a child's wonder at the world, and as the link banners say, "wisdom for short attention spans." updates weekdays. (author's livejournal)
i was referred to PhD by a labmate of mine at Northeastern, and it's sucked my soul in ever since. grad school humor (duh), updates mon-wed-fri. (livejournal feed)
comics written from clip art. how many different ways are there to make a joke from a single panel repeated three times with no changes? well over 300, and still counting. similar to Red Meat, but has definitely taken the genre to a new level. (livejournal feed)
a current favorite. mock and laugh at the pathetic indie rocker boy and the girls that perplex him with their mockitude and innuend-o-rama! could be based in seattle... but that would be, like, so last decade. besides, the author lives in massachusetts, so northampton is a safer guess. (also, features a cute little android computer.) updates mon through fri. (author's livejournal)
i can't say it's a trend (although see PartiallyClips, above), but the iconographic comics strip has definitely hit a peak in popularity. the basic idea is to craft funny dialogue around a series of cutout characters that are more-or-less repeated from one panel to the next; the comedy often comes from the misuse of the original icon in the new environment. this is one of the earliest examples, and still a strong contender for the top of the heap. updates tuesdays. (livejournal feed)
an amusing little funny-animals strip about a skunk who's a sysadmin for a porn studio. lots of geek jokes, Transformers references, and the occasional stubborn family member to provide comic relief. updates monthly.
pimpin' white boys, sweet-ass ladies, god, satan, an eastern dragon, fundies, and an alcoholic pig. what more do you need? okay, how about great artwork, daily taglines that are as funny as the comic, a wicked sense of humor that tweaks your sense of normalcy, piercing commentary on society, and a "sell your soul to satan" stand a la lucy's psychiatry booth from peanuts. go read it. updates daily. (livejournal feed)
almost as full of angry humor as Bob (see above), but based in Boston and doesn't feature anthropomorphs as its main characters. healthy overdose of relationship angst, gaming humor, sarcastic fun-poking at religions, and life's little absurdities. oh, and don't say the word "furries". another one in the "i've met the author" category - in fact, i even played in a D&D3e game that he ran. updates daily, more or less. (livejournal feed or community)
the short-lived TV series SportsNight was billed as a show about a show about sports that isn't about sports. StripTease is a comic strip about a comic book studio that isn't about comics. updates mon-wed-fri.
ever wonder what would happen if somebody tried to draw a comic strip out of the subject line of every spam message they got? well, me neither, but fortunately somebody did it for us. these are totally hit-or-miss: some days, i blink past them, and some days i fall out of my chair laughing. updates mon-wed-fri.
a bunch of different serial strips, all drawn in the same style by the same two guys. focuses on a superhero-populated continent that's obsessed with kiwis, though some of the stories (be sure to check out the saga of Crushed) take place in alternate times and places as well. great sense of humor. features some nudity, though little to no sex (but a bunch of innuendo, some less subtle than others). also home to Random Comics Theatre.
the comic adventures of two housecats. a must-read for cat owners, because let's face it: you fucking hate Garfield. updates mon-wed-fri. (livejournal feed, or cats' livejournal)
a comic that just keeps growing on me the more i read it. okay artwork, but an interesting ensemble of characters, a shifting focus that provides many different views on relationships, and some really compelling storylines. funny-ha-ha when it tries to be, but mostly it's only funny 'cause it's true. um, except for the totally surreal parts about the chimera. updates five days a week.
