October 30, 2000

1:30 PM

Patrick Farley's latest comicis a great halloween treat. Anyone know of other good online comic artists?
posted by mathowie (18 comments total)

Heh, that's wonderful! A great story.

Online comics I read on a daily basis tend to be of the "strip" style, as opposed to a narrative comic, but there are still excellent artists out there.

There's Gabe of Penny Arcade, Jonathan Rosenberg of Goats, Chris Jackson, most recently (just begun today!) of in2itonline, Barry T. Smith of Angst Technology, and Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance. And those are just the ones I've bookmarked. I'll all-too-often end up seeing a link to another comic and end up spending a few hours catching up on the past month or two's worth of strips.

Heh. A definitely geekish flavour to my online comics.
posted by cCranium at 1:55 PM on October 30, 2000

Well, I don't know if this rates as good but the guy who does them is an old friend of mine. The thing's called Maakies and it's got a lot of play at word.com in addition to being printed in a number of freebie papers around the planet.
posted by leo at 2:31 PM on October 30, 2000

leo - cool, thanks so much for that link - I've been missing my weekly Maakies fix since Word went under. Yes it counts as good, by all means. I've been a fan of Millionaire's for what feels like years. Next time you chat w/ him, thank him for getting the site up. I'm off to buy his book now.
posted by kokogiak at 2:44 PM on October 30, 2000

The Parking Lot is Full produces some great macabre stuff that reminds me of Gahan Wilson's illustrations. For completely lowbrow animated toilet humor from a Simpsons artist, Doodie is funny.
posted by rcade at 3:06 PM on October 30, 2000

Bob The Angry Flower is a favorite of mine. Not necessarily an "online" artist but arguably more popular online than in print (I think he's carried by a small alt-weekly in Canada).
posted by scottandrew at 3:53 PM on October 30, 2000

PVP is a great comic with lots of in jokes about gaming, but is able to rise above the genre. It's a strip, so it's different than Patrick's work but good none the less.

I love e-sheep, I wish Patrick had the time to do more. If he'd put a pay-pal donate button on his site I'd pay him every time I read an issue.
posted by captaincursor at 4:23 PM on October 30, 2000

Wow, I can't believe I skipped PVP Online! I don't know what I was missing, it's buried in my daily bookmark adventures, right between Penny-Arcade and Sluggy.

(alphabetic order, dontcha know!)
posted by cCranium at 4:54 PM on October 30, 2000

What about Friend Bear? I think there's some sort of humor there.... don't ask me what kind though.
posted by kidsplateusa at 5:02 PM on October 30, 2000

Argon Zark.

The quality is outstanding. The only problem is that the guy does it in his spare time, and to some extent he's been usng it as a portfolio. He's on the second story now, and as time has gone on the update rate has declined rather dramatically because it's such a good portfolio that he's been getting a lot of paying work. But you'll like the story about the "12 or 13 guys who control everything" which is in the second series, especially the one who looks egyptian.

One thing: Use the most modern browser you can find, because he has taken to using DHTML extremely intensively and other modern features. If you view it with an older browser, you will miss most of the experience. The pages are animated in various ways, and none of it is Javascript or Java or Flash; it's all DHTML.

posted by Steven Den Beste at 5:12 PM on October 30, 2000

I discovered the "Piercing" comic at www.davidgaddis.com by word of mouth. Gaddis' art style evokes Kyle Baker and Paul Pope, with expressive facial movements on slightly stylized figures.

There is no dialogue to obscure the art in this story, which leaves it up to interpretation. I'd be interested in reading feedback about his comic.

This guy came out of nowhere, but I feel that he is very promising.

Jason
posted by JDC8 at 5:23 PM on October 30, 2000

POKEY!!! (hint: don't start at beginning)
posted by EngineBeak at 5:28 PM on October 30, 2000

Taylor - my thoughts exactly. I've loved e-sheep from the first time I found it a year or two ago. I've read every story there at least 3 or 4 times and always love seeing a new issue.

If Patrick sold t-shirts or just flat out asked for donations, I'd be all over it.
posted by mathowie at 5:30 PM on October 30, 2000

nothing beats Chopping Block for dark, morbid humour. And the drawing style is really fresh and original too. Plus it's great for Halloween.
posted by mkn at 6:26 PM on October 30, 2000

I love HoundsHome, Project THINGY, and Bobbins. Also Penny Arcade, which someone else mentioned. And I stole this from Andy, but David Gaddis (bit of a load time there for modem) has a nice storyline up. Beautiful illustrations.
posted by Andrea at 8:20 PM on October 30, 2000

spacemoose
posted by palegirl at 9:27 AM on October 31, 2000

I was going to mention the excellent Bee comic on the Big Words site, but they have apparently bitten the dust (no funny source code). I did not bookmark the illustrators page, and the story was not yet finished. Very bummed.
Am I the only one disturbed by the e-sheep comics? He makes himself appear to be so underachieving that I cannot bear to read sometimes. He is the Joe Matt of the online world. Parts of the The guy I almost wasstruck very close to home, maybe I am freaked out by his ability to wallow.
posted by thirteen at 9:57 AM on October 31, 2000

I had to run out the door last night so I didn't get to mention Doctor Fun. He's been publishing since .. well, since before the web was the only way to go, and gopher at sunsite was the best place to get image downloads. There was a hiatus but he's back. He's not always spot on, but when he is, he's the best heir to Gary Larson's The Far Side that I've found
posted by dhartung at 1:08 PM on October 31, 2000