Jimmy Olsen’s Blues

Today’s 10 was supposed to be the Top 10 S… oh, to hell with it; it was going to be lame, we caught it early^[1] and excised it, and I won’t bore you anymore with the Untold Tale.

We brainstormed anew. Actually, it was really just me throwing out even more tired ideas and Allen logically and methodically shooting them down. Finally, after dozens of minutes, I blurted, “What about 10 Webcomics? We can’t just read and write about Big 2 stuff forever.”

Allen, obviously bereft of any better ideas and tiring of the struggle, agreed (or at least didn’t shoot it down). He didn’t bother asking if I had read or even knew of 10 different webcomics. (The answer to those questions: Nope and nope^[2].) But I liked the idea of trying new things, and the more I thought about this post, the more of a purist bent I developed. I would leave the discovery of these selected ten in the hands of fate. Fate, and search engines.

My first Googling (“webcomics”) produced thewebcomicslist.com, but that would’ve been way too easy, plus I wanted my selections to be totally random, and not pulled from a list of titles conveniently grouped together by genre. Back to the drawing board. Via random word generator, I tacked on a single extra word to the “webcomics+” search string (if you’re curious, I’m listing those words as well). Ten searches later, it’s Webcomics… and adventure!

These are presented in chonological order only. They do represent the first ten titles I was able to click through to from my search results. They do not represent webcomics that I necessarily enjoyed. Adventure!

1. Insisting: Good-Evil.net’s Funny Webcomic.

The site itself (enormously staffed and videogame-centric) was more interesting than this Photoshoppy cut and paste job they irregularly feature. Its afterthought nature isn’t what I imagine when I think “webcomic”.

2. Excess:The Smashing Adventures of the Bottomleys , by whoever Lowroad 75 is. On the other hand, this is what I imagine. Once you get used to the scrolling and the navigation, you can focus on the comic, which isn’t bad at all from what I read. A gently funny and slickly drawn tale of an absent-minded genius scientist and his family. There’s a multiverse in this one, so my Final Crisis digging ass has to appreciate it a little.

3. Little: Little Dee, by Chris Baldwin. Cute talking animals and not unfunny. Very newspaper comic-y and a well organized site, to boot.

4. Exhaustive: Roswell, Texas from Big Head Press, L. Neil Smith and Scott Bieser. Not cartoonish at all, and easily the closest to an actual comic book presented on the web I’ve seen so far, and the page viewing is really ideal here. Again with the alternate universes, wheee!! So far the only one I’d read in printed form.

5. Resolved: Forest Dew, by Florentina Heldrad. Hard to believe it took me this long to come across some manga. Pretty and spacious, by an obviously talented 19 year old girl.

6. Potentially: Sexy Losers (Extremely NSFW!!), Okay, got the manga, now where’s the porn? Oh it’s here, in spades. NSFW, and of course it is, I was pointed to it by a site called LOPOW-List of Potentially Offensive Webcomics. I didn’t find it offensive, but other than the Cuckolded Husband series, I didn’t find it entertaining either.

7. Rarely: Questionable Content, by Jeph Jacques. This one took awhile to find, as the early search results pointed mostly to review sites without working links. Probably worth it, as QC’s been around for awhile, it appears. Professional and smartly funny, in a “better sitcom” kind of way. With talking iPods and computers. I may actually go back and read all of these.

8. Quick: Quick Stabbing Motion by Brandon Southgate and Keegan Mullin. I’m no snob, but… eh. Juvenile, trying waaaay too hard to be anti-social, and the kind of stuff that’d get them on an FBI watch list if they weren’t Canadians.

9. Syndicate: Player Vs. Player- I know. It’s popular. Doesn’t mean I’ve ever read it. But I might start reading it more now that I’ve seen this (scroll about halfway down–under “Cre-Haters”). Scott Kurtz really takes his work seriously.

10. Simulating: Irregular Webcomic – I’m sort of a sucker for any use of action figures, Fisher-Price toys, whatever, in storyboard form. This was a hoot. I’ll be back to this one.

(C)2008 David Morgan Mar

So there, internet. Our first post without a single mention of Batman, Superman, Wolverine, or capes. This has been Webcomics…and Adventure!

[1]But not early enough–we pounded away at it for almost an hour, so there’s probably no way you won’t see it sooner or later. We hold out much hope for “later”.

[2]I do in fact read four regularly: R. Stevens’ DieselSweeties; Cameron Stewart’s Sin Titulo; Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield’s Freakangels as mentioned a few times here; and The Rack by Kevin Church and Benjamin Birdie. All are recommended.

Because we haven’t mentioned Warren Ellis in about an hour, go catch up on Freakangels, the free weekly webcomic from Mr. Ellis and Mr. Paul Duffield. The new installment’s up today, all previous pages available as well. You can even subscribe to the RSS feed, the better to wean yourself from relying on me to remember for you each Friday.

And again, it’s free. It’s also good. Go read it now.

Presenting the Greatest T-Shirt In The Habitated World:

From R. Stevens, mastermind/provacateur at Diesel Sweeties. (Note that the link doesn’t take you directly to the shirts. That’s the plan–don’t go straight to the shirts, read the comics, which are mighty fine.)

Getting this in the mail today drained nearly all the heat from the burning glare I’ve sported since I was told, “We sold out of Astonishing X-Men #25 in 20 minutes.”

UPDATE! Totally forgot he threw this in for free, in convenient sticker form:

What have I been doing instead of maintaining this blog? Well, on Fridays I read Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield’s ABSOLUTELY FREE and absolutely stunning Freakangels webcomic.6 pages a week. For free. And for their generosity, you should pay to get the inky, papery collection when it comes out.

Poke around, catch up–I think we’re 15 installments in as of today. And join the messageboard, too; just remember to bring your brain, your sense of humor, and a good temperament.

What about the other six days a week you neglect me? the blog asked.

I have no good answer.