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TerinasTiger

Webcomics That I Read (That I encourage you to read too!)

Here's a list of webcomics that I read, that I think you might enjoy as well. A number of these helped me during rougher times of my life by giving me things to be interested in. Some of them are just fun stuff that makes me smile. Others are just things that have had an influence on me creatively. Regardless, they're all worth a look in my book. If you ever want to talk to me for some weird reason and don't know me at all, bringing up one of these things is probably a good way to get me chatty. I'm very talkative about stuff I like.

And yes, I am using a journal to blatantly plug things that interest me, and shamelessly so!

1.  The Order of the Stick: The worst thing I can say about The Order of The Stick is that it's a very interesting and creative story that is shackled to an outdated set of rules for a popular game. Some of the jokes about the rules of said game might go over the heads of some people who don't play said game or are unfamiliar with earlier editions of said game. I wanted to make sure I prefaced all the good with the bad, so that people knew what to expect before diving in.

The second worst thing I can say about it is that it uses stick figures.

If you're still reading, let's clear the salt off the table and start talking sweet. The Order of the Stick is one of the things that influenced my writing style, and helped shape how I think about characters and characterization. Yeah, I'm sure most people don't read the stuff I write for the deep and innovative characters, but that doesn't mean that I don't think about these sorts of things when I craft a tale. The PDFs and printed books contain fun little essays by the author about his writing process and the directions he takes characters in, and stuff like that is stuff I studied when looking to create my own characters. It's actually not unreasonable for me to say I might not be here, writing now, if I didn't buy his "On the Origin of the PCs" book when I was a fair bit younger.

The story itself is probably one of the better done examples of a typical fantasy trope: There's X number of things, they're a MacGuffin that one side is charged with defending and another side is charged with conquering, and the story will take you to each one before building up towards a climax. But what makes it INTERESTING is the characterization, the interplay between different characters, and watching people grow as the story goes on. Two of my favorite moments from the entire story include: a) A metaphorical battle between two characters over the direction and shape of the story that is wrapped around a LITERAL battle between the two of them over the life of a third party (I can only HOPE to someday manage something that creative!) b) A character that I used to hate suddenly becoming interesting when they get everything they ever wanted and then immediately regret it afterwards. c) A case study of three different romantic subplots and the interplay between them, showing different dynamics of romance and exploring each one in further detail.

2) Prequel: (Aka: Making a Cat Cry: The Webcomic) A Tragic tale of a Khajit trying to start a new life for herself in the setting of Elder Scrolls: Morrowind. If you're a fan of Homestuck-esque stories that are player driven, cross genres to engage the reader at times, and use pre-existing lore to tell a fascinating story, this one's for you. Also, if you love reading. Prequel is definitely a writer's webcomic rather than an artist's webcomic. The biggest complaint I have about Prequel is that in some senses the plot feels like a roller coaster. Every time you get a "up" moment where it feels like the main character, Katia, is getting somewhere in her life, there's an unspoken undercurrent of ominous anxiety as you wait for something terrible to happen to her (Frequently caused by her own mistakes). You will emphasize with the plight of the main character, and you might find yourself crying as well. Because more often than not, she only has herself to blame. And by that, I mean she only has us. Because the readers steer her actions, and we are horrible, terrible people.

3. Elfquest: Elfquest was my Dragonlance, back before I knew what Dragonlance was. One of the first things I remember reading, and possibly something that shaped a lot of how I write and how I see stories now, even if I don't fully understand how it influenced me. The story is ORIGINAL, and even though it came out in the 80ies, it has aged incredibly well. Elfquest is an amazing comic gathered online and free to read now, which probably contributed to my TF kink and my fondness for werewolves... Seriously, if you love fantasy works at all, you owe it to yourself to at least look at this one. The only thing it's missing are dragons.

4. Hero Oh Hero: A trifurcated story centered around 3 characters: Burk the muscled brute, Tobi the little fixit, and Noah the... persistently annoyed.  At some point I'm certain these three will meet, but so far the story's done a good job keeping their stories separate while at the same time using each perspective to develop the greater "world" collectively more and more. I've been really digging on this one lately, as I feel the system of Magic they've got is both interesting and well done for me, and the stories of each of the 3 characters do a great job feeling like they convey different themes and differences in tone. It's fun to read about Noah struggling to keep his secrets amidst all the intrigue around him in one chapter and then jump to Burk trying to fight a flying witch in the next. I WILL warn any prospective readers that there's some elements of body horror/grossness in the story, but if you can tolerate that, it's well worth the look. The current storyline (A Tobi tale) feels very much inspired by Dangan Ronpa, but is at the same time quite original in what it's doing with similar elements.

5. Suburban Jungle: Rough Housing: Hey, a furry webcomic! Neat! Suburan Jungle: Rough Housing (which I'll abbreviate to SJ:RH from hereon out) is the sequel to one of the earliest Furry webcomics I know about, Suburban Jungle. It is also a stand alone story that doesn't require familiarity with the previous comic to enjoy it. It's got a small archive, but feels like it's only now starting to hit it's stride. A fun slice of life comic about Charity Cheegar, a girl fresh out of Business School finding the Hotel/Bar she's been asked to manage has been a dumping ground for the past number of years. See her cope with other people's past issues, her own personal problems, and struggle to keep her new home afloat. Also, there's a surfing fox, which makes any comic about 45% better.

6. DMFA: Another furry webcomic, and one of the ones that got me into the furry fandom (Along with Suburban Jungle!). DMFA is... well, it's hard to describe. A long running fantasy-esque story centered around the denizens of the Lost Lake Inn. A story about fae and dragons and incubi and demons and ferrets and chaos, with a fair amount of snarking thrown in for good measure. If you're looking for a story that can build mystery while at the same time not taking itself too seriously, DMFA is for you.

7. Paranatural: Paranatural is a comic I discovered entirely too late. It feels like a mix of Bleach, Persona, and Scooby Doo by way of Earthbound. If you're confused by that last sentence, my advice is just to read it and take a look. Paranatural is at it's core a story about a school club that fights ghosts. The art style is bombastic and cartoony and the content has been (so far anyway) largely safe for work, but the plot is deep and dark while at the same time quite colorful and amusing. I'll also give it credit for somehow managing to work in the phrase "purge the ranks" in a way that doesn't sound ominous and creepy. But then I'm random like that.

8. Skin Horse: A comic about a Black-Ops Social Services Group for non-human sapients. If you understood that last sentence, you'll probably enjoy Skin Horse. This comic, like Suburban Jungle, is a sequel of sorts to a previous comic (Narbonic) but is also a stand alone story that really doesn't require any knowledge of the past work to appreciate. I also give it credit for being very true to it's subject matter: Skin Horse draws a lot of inspiration from the "Oz" series of books, old Disney stuff, and various other fairy tales and children's stories and builds off of that source material amazingly well. It feels very much like the story is building to a climax in the coming months... I strongly encourage you to read it before it ends!

Of course, I read other stuff too, but this is what I'm kinda jazzed about lately. I wanted to share it somewhere, hopefully here some of these will find new people interested in them.

Enjoy!
Viewed: 20 times
Added: 5 years, 8 months ago
 
aunkown
5 years, 8 months ago
Cool!
Hawkbot
5 years, 8 months ago
I'm a big fan of Prequel and Elfquest has been on my list for ages. I'll have to check out the others.
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