Best currently published comic strip

Cafe Society
1

Based on this thread, I wanted to get an idea of what people consider to be the best currently published comic strip is. What will get the nod when powerhouses like Peanuts, Calvin and Hobbes, and *The Far Side *aren’t eligible? Note that for the purposes of this poll, “currently published” means that it’s being regularly updated. If your favorite is a brilliant online strip that had its last update in 2009, it doesn’t count. :slight_smile:

I tried to include everything I could think of that might be a contender by looking through Yahoo’s list of comics and stuff people mention on the thread - apologies if I left your favorite out.

2

Lio, definitely. Has the whimsy that C & H often did.

As an aside, seems there is no definitive comics site on the web-every major site seems to always be missing some essentials. Must be a rights thing as to why they just don’t sign up and run every strip available.

3

Off-line comic: Tom the Dancing Bug

On-line comic: Order of the Stick, Achewood, Penny Arcade, et al.

4

Ugh, yeah, I see that. I didn’t even know about GoComics. I hope I didn’t leave too many good ones off the list.

5

xkcd

6

I’ll second the XKCD vote, just twisted enough…

7

Order of the Stick, followed closely by XKCD.

8

Of the few comics I read in the morning paper, I find that F Minus is the one that makes me laugh the most consistently. I think it’s really good.

9

Lio sucks.

It’s the same “joke” over and over again: Weird kid likes aliens and monsters, which freaks out his dad!

10

I’ll go off the menu and pick Retail. Very good characters.

If forced to pick from the choices listed, it’s Pearls before Swine for me, mostly because of the guard duck and the crockydiles.

11

Of the ones I see, it’s a toss between Argyle Sweater and Bizarro.

12

If I had to pick one, Girl Genius. If I had to pick five, I’d add Something Positive, Skin Horse, Questionable Content, and Order of the Stick.

All online comics. Newspaper comics? Do they still make those?

13

I think Zits has to at least be in consideration.

14

A few years ago I’d have said Get Fuzzy without hesitation, but I think Conley’s running out of ideas. It’s been inconsistent at best lately.

So right now my vote goes to Pearls Before Swine. It’s twisted enough that it can still surprise me, smarter than it looks but not afraid to go for silly and stupid now and then. Makes me laugh out loud more than a comic strip should have a right to.

As I did in the other thread, I’m going to put in a plug for Scary Gary, which kind of does for monsters what Pearls does for animals.

15

What he said…

16

I’ve really been getting a kick out of Questionable Content lately. I didn’t even know about it until another thread here on the boards referenced it.

17

**Boondocks **is not a currently-running strip.

18

I think newspaper strips and online strips are such different beasts operating under such different parameters that it’s not fair to compare them to each other. You should really have two different polls. That said, I voted for Pearls Before Swine. It’s the only strip of either flavor I regularly read because it makes me laugh out loud on a fairly regular basis.

19

Frazz is the one I always look up first every morning. I consider online strips to be a different creature than the others as well.

9 Chickweed Lane was a close 2nd.

20

I also agree that webcomics are a separate category from print comics (even if I do read my print comics predominantly online, any more).

And while it wouldn’t have gotten my vote (my favorite is Frazz), Zits is good enough that it should have a mention on the list. Non Sequitur is another good one, though it can tend to hang onto a story for longer than it should.