Thoughts on Webcomics... :: The Life of the Traegorn

The Life of the Traegorn

Current Posts
Archives
RSS Feed

Thoughts on Webcomics...
Posted Oct 11, 2010 - 9:28:56

This morning I started writing a blog entry about webcomics, and it really was just a big list of all the webcomics I read, what they were, and why I liked them. I honestly got about halfway through the entry when I just got... bored. Why was a writing this? Who out of my blogs readers hasn't heard of most of these strips? For pete's sake, these are all things that get far more readers than my little blog posts.

Sure, I could tell you to read Shortpacked! by David Willis, or that his other strip that he just launched (Dumbing of Age) is quickly becoming my favorite strip. But do I need to really tell you what Sluggy Freelance is? I mean, that's one of the most well read comics on the internet.

And I won't even mention XKCD or Penny Arcade.

But I don't think I talked about some of the real reasons I read some of these comics. Like, I read Sluggy still probably because of momentum and that I haven't been interested in the actual story for a while. Or that one of the reasons I really enjoy Willis's strips are because of the discussions in the comment section on his websites. Or that to read Megatokyo you need the patience of a saint.

These aren't things that were coming into the list.

I mean, I think the real reason I load up sluggy.com every day is because I load up sluggy.com every day. It's just something I do - and I don't think I've cared about the story for a while. I mean heck, Abrams pretty much killed off my favorite character, and maybe I'm still a little burnt out from that - but I'm honestly not sure why I'm still reading it.

But I promise you I'll have the damned site open in my browser tomorrow.

I used to read a good ten webcomics every day because of this, and I'm sure it's why a lot of people read newspaper comics every day as well. We do it because we're used to it. We do it because we have routines. We do it because we, as a people, are apparently not that interesting.

So now I'm going to re-evaluate why it is that I read these things, and I think you all should as well...

Unless it's a comic I write. Then you should keep reading those no matter what.
- Traegorn

Best webcomic out there is The Order of the Stick. What started out as just a platform to make fun of silly D&D rules has become a seriously epic and hilarious story.

You made that blog entry and didn't mention Real Life by Greg Dean! I'm disappointed. I saw mega Tokyo which I have read in the past.

Let's note thatWebcomics were part of my growing up because those characters developed my personality to be like those guys.

I read Real Life for a while, but I stopped in my great readership culling back in the day... so as I don't currently read it, I didn't say it.

Ah Megatokyo, the second webcomic I ever read. I still like the comic but I've given up reading it on a regular basis earlier this summer during the 2 updates a month phase. Naturally when I checked back a month later just to see if I was missing anything I find out that Fred started updating at least once a week again.

As for Sluggy Freelance, I'm in the same boat. I don't particularly care for the current story lines but after at least five years of reading the comic, it seems so odd to just stop and never go back.

I usually try and cull the reading list once a year. Unfortunately due to the nature of webcomics a lot of them get culled on their own. I have a lot of comics bookmarked in the "Last updated XXX of 2009" waiting to be finally sent to the bookmark graveyard. Most seem to be either a stepping stone (Applegeeks) or hobby comics(Convicts).

And megatokyo...definitely patience of a saint or at the very least a "Forget about it for six months then come back and catch up on the seven comics you missed" comic.

I would love to see your list of web comics.
I have only recently gotten into web comics.
A few that are read are yours, two of a kind, wootflacks, and a few I forgot he name of right now.