DescentBB

What is your favorite STORY webcomic? Not the gag-a-day comics, I love those too, but I'm talking about the ones that are more of an online graphic novel that tells a real story!

At the moment, my absolute favorite is Girl Genius.

Girl Genius is a \"Gaslamp Fantasy\". Think Steampunk, but with more steam and less punk. It's got Adventure, Enormous Dirigibles, Victorian Jules Verne Science, Lightning generators, Romance, Reanimated corpses, Giant robots, Smart Girls!, Death rays, Jaeger monsters, Secret societies, Great hats, Sword fights, Not entirely evil overlords, Talking cats, Transforming warbot calliopes, and, most important of all, Mad Science!!!!

Honestly, it's a great story. There are some scantily clad females, but no actual nudity, and a moral message about doing the right thing, using power wisely, and helping the weak. There is a LOT going on, and so the first few pages can be a bit confusing, but give it through the first chapter and you will be entirely hooked!

================================================================================
Second favorite would be Crimson Dark

Crimson Dark is an absolutely gorgeously illustrated Science Fiction story. It feels a lot like \"Firefly\", but it's not a copycat, it's a story all on it's own. Incredibly detailed space ships, a consistent approach to the science, a very deep and interesting plot, and richly developed characters who, despite the foibles of humanity, try to do the right thing in complicated situations. The ONLY complaint I have with it, is that the author has a real life, and the web comic is on hiatus right now due to the author having just too much college work to do. <sigh>

================================================================================
I was very pleasantly surprised by The Dreamland Chronicles.

Until Alex was twelve, he visited \"dreamland\" every night. There he had all kinds of wild and exciting adventures with his dreamland friends. An Elf girl, a Fairy, and a rock boy. But then, one night, something odd happened in one of his dreams, he awakened with a new sword pendant necklace around his neck. His mother took the necklace, and he never dreamed again for the next eight years.
Of course, Alex just assumed that the dreams were just that, dreams. But now Alex is in college, and receives a box from home. In it is the necklace. He puts it back on, and THAT night, he visits dreamland again. Only now his old friends are all grown up, and Alex is no longer certain if the dreams are just dreams, or whether there might be MORE to them.

================================================================================
FreeFall is another good story.

Freefall is a Science Fiction Furry story about an anthropomorphic wolf engineer named Florence, her kleptomaniac con man alien captain Sam Starfall, a simple and kind robot named Helix, and their mostly grounded starship, \"The Savage Chicken\". Sam isn't a BAD person, he's quite likable, but he has some VERY serious character flaws. Florence is good to the very core, and may even be reforming Sam a bit. The story is funny, exciting, and touching all at once.

================================================================================
And, of course, can't make a list like this without including Sluggy Freelance

Sluggy does magic, mad science, evil bunnies, vampires, star trek parodies, and spamming Satan! Sometimes it's fantastic, sometimes its just ok, but overall, it's been a fascinating story that continues to grow in complexity. Warning: The plot DOES involve demons at points. If that kind of thing offends you, skip it.

================================================================================
So, those are some of my favorites, what are yours?

X2 on the girlgenius. Great Story. It's about at a climaxe right now too.

I've been following

Great story!

Page 1
http://kohad.com/Kohad%201-1.html

This is my friend's comic novel, he's working on. It's pretty strange but he has big plans with the story.

Duper wrote:X2 on the girlgenius. Great Story. It's about at a climaxe right now too.

Yes, 3 updates a week is frustratingly slow when the story is this good.

Octopus wrote:Kohad...

Uhm, not at all to my taste. Sorry. I never was much of a horror fan, a horror story has to have a really good and interesting plot to make up for the gross. And while the artists skill may be admirable, his story doesn't seem to have any plot that I can discern, its just horror and shock. Rather disturbing. It's qualities would be better judged by someone who appreciates shock and gore for their own sake.

HAHAHHAHAA. It's suppose to be funny. I'll have to tell him. (But sometimes I don't get what's happening either, in it)

Kilarin,
Didnt even know about these graphic novels online..thanks for the links. CrimsonDark is interesting.

Order of the stick qualifies as both a graphic novel and a daily (well - thrice weekly anyway): www.giantitp.com/comics

ReadyMan wrote:thanks for the links. CrimsonDark is interesting.

You're welcome! I think you'll really like CrimsonDark!

Gekko71 wrote:Order of the stick qualifies as both a graphic novel and a daily (well - thrice weekly anyway)

Thrice a week is pretty good for a webcomic. Although a good story can really seem agonizingly slow at that pace.

Kilarin wrote:Thrice a week is pretty good for a webcomic. Although a good story can really seem agonizingly slow at that pace.

Tell me about it! I've been following this storyline for years. The characterisation and storytelling is fantastic, but the plot just plods along (which is okay as each strip works on an individual basis - apart from the occasional cliff-hanger). I just bought the back colelction of this guy's work - 350 odd strips, another 300 odd to go - can't put 'em down, a great read!

there are few comics that are as dependable and regualr as Girl Genious. About the only other I've found is Looking for Group it's a twice a week comic and is pretty good and funny. It's based Loosely around the WoW universe, but that's about it. Check it out.

Wow I also never knew these Web Graphic Novels existed. Thanks for sharing man.

Not being a fan of reading these type of literature is about the closest I'll get to reading for recreation that and my study guides

I'm hooked on Crimson Dark (started reading it about 2 days ago at night and already I'm at chapter 3) and I'm also starting to read the MegaTokyo one. This beats buying comic books or going to the library

I'll look into Girl Genius again later but it didn't seem to pull me in like the other two

So are there any others that are down these lines?

GG and MT are both about 6 years old, so you have some catch-up reading to do. It took me a couple days to do each comic.

FireFox wrote:I'll look into Girl Genius again later but it didn't seem to pull me in like the other two

Girl Genius really didn't capture my attention in the first ten pages or so. But, very soon it starts to make more sense, and by the time you hit chapter two (where it switches from black and white to color) it had me totally hooked.

FireFox wrote:So are there any others that are down these lines?

Quite a few actually, but of varying quality.

I'm reading Zap In Space: http://zapinspace.com/d/20030713.html. I haven't entirely made up my mind about it, but so far its fun and unobjectionable.

Phoenix Requiem: http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/viewcomic.php?page=1 is beautifully drawn, has deep characterization, and an interesting plot. BUT, it's theme is distinctly religious, a world with spirits and demons, and I'm not certain where it's going yet. Read at your own risk.

I enjoy Nukees: http://www.nukees.com/d/19970121.html, but it can be very harsh towards theist. The author TRIES to be fair, but Christians annoy him at times, and that comes through in the story. So don't say I didn't warn you.

You can find a whole list of webcomics here http://topwebcomics.com/

Kilarin wrote: Girl Genius really didn't capture my attention in the first ten pages or so. But, very soon it starts to make more sense, and by the time you hit chapter two (where it switches from black and white to color) it had me totally hooked.


You can find a whole list of webcomics here http://topwebcomics.com/

Cool thanks will look into the list and yea I only read up to page 5 or 6 of GG when I switched to Crimson Dark and just got drawn into it Will make an effort to read past the first chapter of GG then

All this talking about Crimson Dark inspired me to go through it from the beginning again. And I ran into this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STFjC7aUwRE

Its a retrospective vid on the first two years of Crimson Dark.

Kilarin, I have to give some serious thanks for informing me of Girl Genius. Most comics don't interest me that much, but man oh man this one is good. As far as setting, plot, and characters go, it's pretty much exactly the sort of thing I like. It feels sort of like a cross between Last Exile, Monkey Island, and Samurai Jack.

The only thing that bothers me is how the coloring is sort of... overdone. Too 3D looking, I guess? I like it when stuff has a flatter look to it, like traditional Sunday newspaper comics, but it seems like a lot of webcomic artists are pretty gung-ho when it comes to coloring. That's a pretty minor gripe, though. I notice that a lot of webcomics are 3D these days. Call me old-fashioned, but I've always liked handdrawn stuff more.

FireWheel wrote:I have to give some serious thanks for informing me of Girl Genius. Most comics don't interest me that much, but man oh man this one is good.

Happy to have introduced you! Are you all caught up on it yet? It's a pretty long story now.

FireWheel wrote:The only thing that bothers me is how the coloring is sort of... overdone. Too 3D looking, I guess? I like it when stuff has a flatter look to it, like traditional Sunday newspaper comics,

I enjoy both styles. But like you said, art is not the KEY component of a good graphic novel. Art is big bonus. It's GREAT when a graphic novel has good art, and bad art can really subtract from the experience, BUT, a good enough story will shine through, even if the art is not exactly to your tastes.

Yup, I read through the whole thing in just a few days. I actually really like the general art style of the comic; it seems to look even better now than in the early pages. I oughta buy some of the print editions sometime.

I guess the only down side to these Web Graphic Novels is the pace Once you've caught up on the story it's tedious to have to wait for the updates

FireFox wrote:Once you've caught up on the story it's tedious to have to wait for the updates

VERY true. And if you think the three times a week updates are slow, the once a week updates can make a story REALLY crawl. But patience is a virtue.

I recently went back and reread both Girl Genius and Crimson Dark from the beginning up to current. My son has got me reading FreeFall to him, from the beginning, so I'm on my way back through that one again.

Going back through an entire story, without having to wait days between strips, refreshed my memory on lots of important details in all three plots. I'm thinking I may need to do this every year or so with the GOOD stories.

Kilarin wrote: But patience is a virtue.

So true! Caught up on Crimson Dark and at Chapter 7 of MegaTokyo doing a chapter a night at my current pace (not a big reader but somehow this is becoming an addiction ) it's gonna be so awful to switch to 3 updates a week on MT

But the upside is then I can start on GG

Sorry for the necropost, but I found a great (relatively) new one, Dreamless.

http://dreamless.keenspot.com

Great story and gorgeous illustration. The only bad part is getting just one page a week, and it's only been around for about a year so you can read the whole thing thus far in one sitting. I'm already a Japan nerd and sucker for a good love story so this was an easy sell, but even people who don't care about either should check it out.

Firewheel wrote:Sorry for the necropost, but I found a great (relatively) new one, Dreamless.

If you're looking for another good one, try Erfworld (www.erfworld.com)

It tells the serialised story of a desktop RPG gamer who is sucked into a parallel Desktop gaming universe (populated by NPCs who all look like plushie toys, and Gods who look like Elvis - don't laugh, it works!).

Updated twice weekly - the writer took about 18 strips to find his feet, but after that it's a sheer delight.

Highly addictive, highly recommended. Start at book 1 if you wish to have any chance of understanding it.

EDIT: Thank you for posting this Firewheel - Dreamless is stunning!!

Today I read all of The Phoenix Requiem (yeah yeah, mentioned halfway up this thread a year ago - somehow I never got around to checking it out!), which has the same artist as Dreamless. It's maybe even more impressive, although its pacing is definitely more subdued. I especially like the emphasis on spiritual and religious themes when most fantasy artists are hostile at best towards any type of organized religion.

I'm amazed at Ellerton's artistic output - between four and six pages of Phoenix each week, which she does entirely on her own, and one page of Dreamless. Even more astonishing since she's got a day job. And we get to read it all for free. I love the internet!

Marry Me is another one by the writer from Dreamless, which is short, fast, funny, and quite charming. And a quick read at just 90 pages. I have this weird feeling that most of these comics I enjoy are targeted at girls, with all the romance and whatnot, but I guess I just like a good love story or something.

Firewheel wrote:Sorry for the necropost, but I found a great (relatively) new one, Dreamless.

Yep, I've been following that one. Fascinating story, beautifully drawn. But I have to agree that one page a week can be awfully slow. Ever so often I have to back up several pages and read it all at once just to keep my feel for the flow of the story.

Firewheel wrote:I'm amazed at Ellerton's artistic output - between four and six pages of Phoenix each week, which she does entirely on her own, and one page of Dreamless. Even more astonishing since she's got a day job. And we get to read it all for free. I love the internet!

She out produces just about any other web comic out there. Each page is not only story, but real art, and she manages to put out so MUCH of it.

Duper wrote:there are few comics that are as dependable and regualr as Girl Genious. About the only other I've found is Looking for Group it's a twice a week comic and is pretty good and funny. It's based Loosely around the WoW universe, but that's about it. Check it out.

x2

Thanks for Necr .. er ... BUMPING this post. I lost track of Crimson Dark in a reinstall a while back and I couldn't remember the name. Also, I couldn't find this thread.

So thanks!

Duper wrote: I lost track of Crimson Dark

Now updating on Mondays AND Fridays! More Crimson Dark is ALWAYS good!

Bump

For those who (like me) were huge fans of the Myth Adventures comics from the mid to late 1980s (based on the novels of the same name), Studio Foglio are releasing the original title as a web comic (it's been out of print for years, so I'm well chuffed about this )

Check it out at http://www.airshipentertainment.com/myth.html

Gekko, that would be me as well. I about flipped when I saw they were posting it on their site. I've really missed those comics. The novels are a great read too. Weren't those published in Dragon magazine way back?

Duper wrote:Gekko, that would be me as well. I about flipped when I saw they were posting it on their site. I've really missed those comics. The novels are a great read too. Weren't those published in Dragon magazine way back?

That's possible Duper but I'm not really sure. I know them best as graphic novels (and I would swear that the artwork was slightly different too) - I read the graphic novels regularly but for some reason never ended up buying a copy.

Gekko71 wrote:Weren't those published in Dragon magazine way back?

What's New with Phil and Dixie was published in Dragon Magazine. (Grease up your miniatures!) Same artist, different series.