I’m going to buck the trend of hip-n-trendy-n-edgy webcomics and nominate Count Your sheep, a webcomic that’s (1) charming, (2) funny, (3) heartwarming, (4) family-friendly, (5) artistically gorgeous, and (6) keeps a regular daily schedule. It can be a little disorienting for new readers, but there’s nothing that can’t be fixed if CYS were to move to dead tree pulp.
Wow, alot of these webcomics look good. They look like perfect time wasters between class and study. 
Confucious say fans of Sinfest have little room to criticize other comics.
Watch, I’ll generate a Sinfest comic. rolls a six sided die a 5 - that means I do the lameass kanji-morph strip that saves me from having to write anything funny. What about tomorrows? rolls a 2 Ah, stupid dog and catty cat.
Dull, dull, deadly dull.
My vote goes for Penny Arcade, and I have indeed bought the first collection of their strips and intend to buy the second, despite having read all of them online.
Those who assert that storylines are necessary - Hello? Far Side? Best comic ever?
List of webcomics, with links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_webcomics
List of webcomics in print: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_webcomics_in_print
I’m fairly certain that PvP is in a few newspapers here and there. Kurtz offers it free to anyone who will run it with his URL.
Even if you don’t think it’s funny, it’s at least professionally drawn, which is more than what you can say for most of the comics linked in this thread. Besides, it’s been disqualified since it’s (hey, there’s a third “it’s”) been pointed out that it was born in a print publication.
It’s funny but it’s still just a talking head comic. It’s like the authors needed some forum for their witty musings about gaming, so they drew avatars to do so for them, and felt that no further effort was necessary past that.
Anyway, I’ve got a non “hip and edgy” entry. Adam and Andy. It’s genuine straightforwardness was hard for me to take at first, but after a while, I started to get it.
Y’know, except for the “gay couple” part. It would never see the light of a non-gay newspaper. Although I do agree, it’s sweet and cute and Asal doesn’t update nearly often enough.
Aesthetics are in the eye of the beholder.
If you replace the word ‘gaming’ with ‘life’, this describes just about every <b>good</b> comic strip, ever. And many bad ones, sure. Ziggy. Garfield. Hagar the Horrible. Beetle Bailey. Calvin and Hobbes. Foxtrot. Dilbert. All Avatars for the author’s witty musings on life.
Nodwick and Dork Tower…oh wait.
Nevermind 
:rolleyes: No. Geeze. I realize that every piece of art work is a soapbox for the artist; my point was that the authors of Penny Arcade seem to have no understanding of their chosen medium past the basic definition of cartoons placed in sequence (or maybe they just don’t have the talent to do otherwise). Watterson was a master of the medium because he didn’t just plop Calvin and Hobbes on the page, standing opposite each other and exchanging quips for four panels. He was talented enough to suggest movement with his stationary drawings. He was confident enough in his understanding of the medium to do crazy stuff like alter the size of the panels once in a while, unlike PA. The same goes for other classic strips. They’re actually cartooning, not hiding the dullness of their stiff drawings under a veneer of stylization and Photoshop effects.
Foxtrot - well, I’m not sure how that strip ever made national syndication. It’s the epitome of a badly drawn talking head comic. I suspect it’s its subject matter - I understand it appeals to “geeks”, a demo known for its bad taste in pop culture.
I’ve seen PA strips suggest movement. I’ve seen them alter the traditional panel configuration. They don’t do so more regularly because, I imagine, the message is their priority. And I’d agree with that priority. PA is consistently funny, insightful, witty, and smart. I buy collections of it when I can get them for free online.
I don’t own any Calvin and Hobbes collections. There’s a sameness to the writing that makes it not worth my while. I like the strip, don’t get me wrong - but not enough to buy it.
To misquote you from earlier:
Confucious say fans of [PA over C&H] have little room to criticize other comics.
And I like PA.
Of course, but if they don’t want to, or don’t know how to maximize the usage of the medium to convey their message then they should choose another medium.
Or better yet, work on their craft a bit more so that they too can become competent in their field, since it seems the strip is a success for them. I read the strip too - it’s funny - but it’s just not a good example of a comic strip. Look at the progression of VG Cats - it got alot better as it went along. PA just got shinier.
The Penny Arcade guys are great cartoonists., and use the medium to its advantage just as much, if not more so, than guys like Treadeau, who’s considered one of the current masters.
I’m not saying that they’re the second coming of Peanuts, but they’re more than just talking heads.
I’ve never found PA to be very impressive. It’s mildy amusing at best, but by no means genius. My biggest issue with it is that the comics often don’t stand on their own–PA is best read after the news post. There’s been some good comics that I really liked, but they’re too few and far between for me to ever want to spend money on a print version. I’d rather see MacHall in print (Actually, they have released one graphic novel, finances is the only reason it’s not in my hands). Although it’s occasionally reliant on background knowledge, it stands on its own a lot better than PA ever will, IMHO.
Since I’m really busy and massively procrastinating, I will jump in and say a big thanks to Ultralifter and others who recommended Dr. McNinja. These other ones are ok or boring. I would definitely buy it. It would work well as a collection of strips or a monthly format (which is what I thought the OP was originally referring to).
Tycho writes circles around Watterson. I value wit.
They are maximizing the medium to convey their message. How often they change the panel structure isn’t relevant to the effectiveness of the communication.
Both “Pawn” and “Otenbafiles” are well drawn and well written. But truthfully I think the chances of them ever becoming published comics are slim to none.
WARNING: Both comics contain nudity and lesbians.