So, after I go through the firewall logs and run some early morning tests for the hour or so before anyone else gets in to work, and after the nine a.m. meeting and dealing with any bugs I did find in my first testing sweep of the day, I like to settle down with my favorite webcomics. I'll read a few, go back and do some more work, read a few more. They help keep the day from becoming monotonous. In theory.
Questionable Content heads the list, and is the first comic I visit; first off, it's (week)daily. Secondly, the art is quite good, and is also very visibly (ha!) evolving as the strip goes on. Third, I enjoy the constant references to a musical culture I know absolutely nothing about. Fourth, I like the characters. And lastly, Jeph is a really nice person.
Then I usually check PvP. It's also daily, and I like the clean art, the characters, and Kurtz's sense of humor. Plus he's also frequently a nexus of controversy in the webcomics world, thanks to his blunt naivety.
Some days I will skip over to Something Positive, which of course is anything but. If you like your humor black, S*P is for you. Wow. Anyhow, the art is not great, but there's just something unique and brutally refreshing in the way Milholland handles his characters.
Now, if it's a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, I'm in luck: that means that Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures is out. Stop looking at me like that. Yes, it's a furry comic. Hey, it's also very very good - clean art (always in color!) and witty dialogue.
I follow that up with The Order of the Stick - hey, I'm a gamer. Burlew's art is, in a very ironic way, clean and enjoyable, and his writing is excellent. He created an interesting niche comic, and is serving it very well.
After OotS comes a piece de resistance: Girl Genius. I have been a Foglio fan for years, and Girl Genius is a marvelous tale. It's frustratingly slow, sometimes, but that's just a reflection of always wanting to know what happens next. And I know the speed at which Foglio works, so getting three pages a week, reliably, is actually pretty darn good.
I'm gonna go two paragraphs with this one and observe how much I've enjoyed the last few strips; Baron Wulfenbach is an fantastic character. I really, really enjoy him. He's a distillation and combination of so many iconic character traits; the disciplinarian father, the brilliant strongman, the taciturn teutonic technocrat. Plus he has awesome hair.
Then from those three, which for some reason group together in my mind, I'll check on Loserz. Schoenek really captures something about teen life; the comic is funny because it's true. His updating schedule yo-yos from a week without to three a day, but the characters and story are worth it.
Also a yo-yoer, I enjoy Aikida rather a lot, too. Fenris has a signature style which has grown on me, and when he does stick to regular updates it's really worth a read.
Also on the 'a few times a week' schedule, I enjoy Casey and Andy. The art isn't great, and has not changed or evolved an iota in years, but the brain behind the strip is twisted and funny.
Another furry comic - no, I'm not a furry, dammit - that is quite clever and a regular stop of mine is Freefall. Neat characters, good art, and lots of wit. Unfortunately, the story proceeds at a snail's pace; I expect the characters to get off-planet only shortly before the heat death of the (real) universe. But good reading nonetheless.
Last on the Monday-Wednesday-Friday list is the 500 pound gorilla of webcomics, Penny Arcade. Not because it's lesser than any of its predecessors, simply because the bastards don't update the site until well after lunch my time.
There's only one weekly strip I await eagerly; actually, two strips, appearing at the same place and time: Nodwick and Full Frontal Nerdity. I like Williams' art - clean and stylistic, and I like his humor. His updating only on Thursdays, though, angers me, and I may have to send the ninjas after him.
So there you have it. Another Cant column made easy by the use of that wonderful device, the list! Hey, it worked for Rabelais.
- Sun Ra