Webcomics (part 1)

A couple of months ago, I had to take steps to break myself of a recently resurrected serial comic book habit. It was all going so well until the X-Men series I was following got roped into Marvel's Civil War mega-crossover. I draw the line at buying The Fantastic Four to follow a plot started in another comic that I actually care about. It was a real sink-hole for my pocket money, too.

In the absence of my weekly comic book fix, I've become all the more dependant on webcomics. Fortunately, there's a lot of great content out there. My taste being what it is, please note that some of these comics contain material unsuitable for the very young.


FreakAngelsAward-winning British writer Warren Ellis's weekly webcomic, illustrated by Paul Duffield. Set in a a flooded, post-apocalyptic vision of London, FreakAngels follows a group of young people whose psychic abilities may have links to the city's devastation. Written and illustrated to an astonishingly high standard, the comic, published by Avatar Press, is also available in print form. Ellis's other professional credits include work on Hellblazer, Judge Dredd and Iron Man, as well as TV writing for Justice League Unlimited and GI Joe: RESOLUTE.




The Order of the Stick
Rich Burlew's regular strip mercilessly sends up every cliche of role-playing and fantasy fiction. It's been successful enough to spawn several hard-copy books. When I discovered it, I burned most of a weekend reading it from the beginning.
Okay, so you'll probably only get most out of this if you've played table-top RPGs at some point in your life, but the humour and plotting go far beyond gags about saving throws.

Girl Genius

If you've been taken by the (relatively) recent mainstream coverage and popularity of the steampunk movement, you might want to check out gaslamp fantasy Girl Genius, winner of this year's Hugo award for graphic fantasy. Girl Genius's alternate reality is set in "a time when the Industrial Revolution escalated into a full-on war [and] rival mad scientists are the ruling powers in most of Europe". It started life in print before making the jump to the web. With mad scientists, stunning artwork and a kick-ass heroine, there's a lot to like here.