Web Comics.

Recently, well, actually not very recently, more like since mid last year, I started reading a new web comic. Actually, it was more like early last year, so about a year ago.

Let me start again.

About a year ago, I started reading a new web comic. Hmm, maybe it wasn't that long ago, let me go check, I have a way of finding out.

OK, I'm far too lazy to find out when I actually started reading it, but lets say it was a year ago, so I'm going to start over from the start again.

So, about a year ago, I started reading a new web comic, my brother recommended it to me and I thank him greatly for it. The comic is FreakAngels, and it is brilliant. It's written by a professional comic writer and drawn by a professional comic artist. It's updated once a week, with 6 pages, and it is amazing. I've been reading web comics pretty much since I have had access to the internet, and this has been the best I have ever read.

I think what really sets it apart is because it's done by professionals, who really know what they're doing. Now, I'm not shitting over other web comics because they're not done by professionals, but I think that there are some web comics out there that I read that could learn from FreakAngels.

Let's take Looking For Group for example. It's another one of my favourite comics, the art is brilliant, and the story line is brilliant, but I can't follow it properly unless I don't read it for about a month, and then have a months worth of comics to read at once. This is where FreakAngels is superior. Since it updates with multiple pages at once, it's easier to follow, you have a weeks worth of comics at once. This is where I believe that LFG could be improved. If he updated once a week, or a fortnight, with multiple pages. It would make it flow better. As it is, I've been reading it every time it updates and it's just not flowing for me. I haven't been following the story for a long time and I am going to have to go back and reread a whole lot.

A couple of the comics I read have this problem, and they all seem to be the full page style comics, with large intricate storylines. There are other comics that I read that this wouldn't work so well with. Sluggy Freelance is one where it wouldn't work. Although this isn't because of the lack of large intricate storylines, because I assure you that Sluggy has these, but because of the style of it, and the layout. I would say that Sluggy is similar in style to a Newspaper comic, but with a better plot. When it first started it was a lot like a Newspaper comic, but it has evolved. It works well for what it is.

Another good example of a web comic that is done in the newspaper style of comics is XKCD. It's an extremely good example of a newspaper style comic because you can just jump in at any point and just read, there is no real storyline, and you don't need to know what comics have been to be able to read the new ones. Sinfest is yet another newspaper style comic. I haven't actually read Sinfest in quite a while, but from what I remember, and from what my flatmate has told me, you can just jump in at any point and not need to know what happened previously to be able to follow the story.

I'm not sure where I'm actually going with this blog post, but then again I never do, other than to illustrate what I think makes a good comic, or rather, what makes the comics I enjoy good. I should actually give a list of the comics that I read, and say why I read them.

FreakAngels: I've already explained why I like this comic, but I'll go over it again. It has a good storyline, and amazing art. When it updates it has multiple pages, which makes it easier to follow. It flows quite well.

Sluggy Freelance: I've been following this webcomic for the longest out of all of the ones I read. It's brilliant, and has evolved considerably. It started out fairly simple. It had a simple layout, not much of a storyline, but it has changed since then. Pete Abrahms, who writes and draws the comics, has gotten a lot better at writing and drawing since it started. It has action, drama, comedy, essentially everything that you could want out of a comic. One thing that I like about this comic is that every so often there's a recap comic, that says what has happened, and what is going to happen. Though these can be annoying when you're rereading the archives, but it's brilliant when you're reading the comic daily when it updates.

Looking For Group: This comic was originally based off of World Of Warcraft, but again it's another one that has evolved. It's not so much based off of WoW anymore, though it still has similar elements to it. It has a rather intricate plot and storyline, which I haven't really been following as it doesn't flow as well as FreakAngels. What I need to do is go back and reread a whole lot of the archives to really catch up to date in the story. This comic could be improved by either adding in recap comics every so often, or changing it's updating to be more like FreakAngels.

XKCD: This comic is just brilliant. Mostly it's just one comic gags, but there have been a couple of multi-comic gags. It's a very intellectual comic, and some of them have gone completely over my head, but on the whole it should be understandable by most. Very much like a newspaper comic, only better.

Multiplex: Based in a movie theatre, this comics gags revolve around movies and the people who work in the theatre. I enjoy this one because I am a movie buff, and it gives me ideas on what movies to go out and watch. There's a plot running through it but I haven't been following it that well. It's not because of anything bad with the comic, I just haven't been thinking about it, I check it when it updates, but that's it. I should make an effort to follow the plot.
Ctrl Alt Delete: A gaming webcomic. The reason I like this is because it's about games. Some of his plot lines are stupid and retarded, and the guy is a fucking sleaze from what I've heard, but I still enjoy the comic, even if just for the gaming references.
Manly Guys Doing Manly Things: I absolutely love this comic. The comics are always amusing, and it doesn't really have a long running plot. It's very good.
Oglaf: R18! This is mostly one comic gags, and it's brilliant. It's mostly based around sex and sex related comics, but it's fucking funny. It is very well drawn as well. Hmm, I seem to have changed what I'm saying about the comics as I've been listing them, maybe because I've writing this over the past 3 days.
Gunnerkrigg Court: This comic has a long running plot, which is really good. I've managed to keep up with even though it updates with a single page every few days. I would prefer if this one had an update schedule like FreakAngels, and I think it would be easier to follow that way.
theWAREHOUSE: Puns! SO MANY PUNS! This comic is one comic gags, which works really well. It's comedy is based around puns, so therefore this is one of my all time favourite comics. Some of them take a wee bit to understand, but ultimately worthwhile.
Exiern: This one I found from a banner ad on one of the other comics I read. It's another with a long running plot, but I've been able to follow it quite well, possibly because it's fairly new compared with some of the other ones I read. It might be better with an update schedule like FreakAngels, but for the moment I think it's fine. It does update infrequently though.
VG Cats: This used to be one of my favourite comics. It's full of one shot comics, and it's based around video games. It was really really good, but then it got updated less and less. It's lucky to get one new comic a month now.

Well, that's all the comics I read, and why I read them. I guess that's all I really wanted to add.
To be honest, I don't even know what I wrote at the start of this blog post, and I'm far too lazy to go through and edit it, it's been about three days in the making. If you like this post, then you like it, if not, then you don't.

That is all, thank you for reading.