Winston Rowntree (whom I’ve never met) and Subnormality might be the greatest of the all.
Rowntree captures some universal truths time after time in Subnormality. The connections between people that both connect and separate people in odd ways. He captures both tragedy and happiness in ways that no one else does.
He also plays with form and space in his comics that sometimes make them seem like e e cummings poems. Odd blank spaces that are contrasted with occasional super-crowded panel-groups to create the mood that is required by the story being told.
I just wish I could write as well as Rowntree, much less draw.
I keep going long stretches without reading it, but I do love Subnormality. It’s not uploaded nearly as frequently as most, but I’ve never seen an update that wasn’t worth the wait. Rowntree’s also been doing some writing for Cracked, which I’ve really enjoyed.
Wow, based on the OP’s link to the webcomic, holy moley, it looks like it requires quite the time commitment based on comic length alone! I prefer my webcomics short ‘n’ sweet (like xkcd or Ctrl+Alt+Delete), since I usually read them at work.
I dunno, I’ve been working through the archives and the jaded/cynical under-employed but knows what’s wrong with society 20-something angst is getting old fast. I’m guessing the stories involving pink-haired girl are at least semi-autobiographical and they come across as rather whiney.
It all seems rather hit and miss. Every once in a while she’ll have a really funny or touching one, and then it’ll be yet another wall of text leading to a kind of obvious punch line, or nothing at all.
And the sphinx comics do nothing for me: “I’m a monster and more than a bit of a dick and I’m going to eat you unless you do as I say.” loses its charm after a few repetitions.