Our founder, Sir Bloody William Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William. He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This image was rumoured to have been commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!

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Rants >> Rant 317

::Today's soundtrack: Yaz "Nobody's Diary" ::


You may have noticed, I like comics. I am a fan of both the comic book and the comic strip. One of the great things about the internet is that it gives an outlet to people to create and display their own comics in a way which can potentially be viewed by millions, despite the repeated refusals of the "respected" print medium such as publishers and commercial distributers. Just because you can't get signed anywhere doesn't mean you're not any good. It may just mean that companies consider it a "risk" and they'd prefer a "safer" project. So, go ahead and self publish your hard work to the internets and let the world at large decide whether or not you're any good. As a viewer and reader of many comic strips on the wide world of web, it is actually surprising the level of talent out there. I'd like to present, a short list of some of the most bestest webcomics that I have seen so far:

William Recommends: Webcomics! (with handy-dandy links!)

The Devil's Panties: Not Satanic porn, honest! Jennie Breeden writes a semiautobiographical comic strip proving that sometimes reality is more fun than fiction. Updated every day with a vast store carrying a variety of merchandise and the occasional video log on YouTube, Jennie really cares about her fans! Pour through the large archive and read about Jennie's adventures as a starving art student, her crazy roommates, attention seeking cats, and chasing after kilted men at comic book conventions with a leaf blower! A great black and white strip in the traditional horizontal USA newspaper format.

SinFest: Promoted by its creator as "the webcomic to end all webcomics" and not without good reason. It has a strong foundation with its regular cast of characters, the wannabe womanizer Slick, tall and gorgeous aspiring feminist crusader Monique, hippie slacker pig Quiggly, shy bookworm Criminey, The Devil, Jesus, and even God (portrayed as a hand from out behind the clouds, sometimes wearing hand puppets). The strip satires a variety of topics and nothing is sacred from religion (both Western and Eastern), politics, anime, pornography, gluttony, vegetarianism, hero worship, homosexuality, and practically everything in between. The author aspires to be published as a daily newspaper strip, but has so far been turned down eleven times, and yet maintains this format: a black and white horizontal strip Monday through Saturday and a larger, full colour comic on Sundays.

xkcd: A smart and funny comic created by an ex-NASA employee. The art is mostly stick figures, but the writing is so good, you won't even notice. This highly intelligent comic mainly features science, math, computer programming, and romance, but it also deals with many other topics that strike the author's fancy such as Jurassic Park, Firefly, and word play. The comic has no set format, and can vary from a single panel to many in order to get down the idea of the day. Updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Girl Genius: This comic has an ongoing plot and I love it. It takes place in a steampunk type world where there are people known as "sparks" who are scientific geniuses, only they have been known to get carried away and let the pursuit of science and invention surpass all else, even their own safety. The subheader to this comic is "adventure, romance, and MAD SCIENCE!" and it really lives up to that. The lead character Agatha is a late-blooming spark and there are many who would like to use her talents to their own ends, one of which is the Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, the despot ruler of Europa. The plot is pretty involved and the world is complex, but everything is laid out perfectly for readers to understand during the course of reading. The prologue to comic is black and white but the rest is dazzling full colour. This comic won many awards, probably the most prestigious of which being the 2009 Hugo Award. Updated Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The Order of the Stick: More fun with stick figures, but these are more detailed and full colour. This comic is plot intensive and revolves around the titular group of characters who are and in a world based around Dungeons & Dragons type fantasy and story telling with many references to this fact by the characters themselves such as the earning of XP when defeating villains. The Order consists of Roy a human fighter, Haley a human thief, Vaarsuvius an elf wizard, Elan a human bard/dashing swordsman (multiclassed), Durkon a dwarf cleric, and Belkar a halfling ranger. Their main quest involves assisting Roy defeat Xykon, the evil lich who killed his father. The characters are well developed and the comics are genuinely funny, even if your D&D knowledge is slight. Updating is sporadic due to the authors growing health concerns.

Questionable Content: A full colour comic more or less about the life and friends of lead character Marten. In the beginning, it primarily revolved around Marten and his anthro-PC, Pintsize, but then he met Faye and she moved in with him after her building burned down. The circle of regular characters grew from there and they are all interesting, fun, and different and you gotta love their camaraderie. Best if read from the beginning, but the plot isn't so thick that you couldn't just jump in any old time and catch on after a couple of strips. The humor is usually smart, sometimes quirky, and has the occasional nod to indie rock. Updated Monday through Friday. 

And that's that for now. I know there must be a myriad of other great webcomics out there, but these are my faves of the moment. If you think I missed anything good, please do let me know! I'd love to check it out!

William the Bloody (erratic webcomic creator)