Exploring the love-hate of new webcomics

Webcomics are good stuff. I don't mean that every webcomic is good, but rather that the general concept is pretty cool. Much like their printed counterparts, these weekly/daily/whateverly short strips are a nice way to start the day with a good laugh or a clever observation.

But, as we all know, the power of the Internet makes everything more awesome, so of course this holds for comics. The trick here is that whatever your center of interest, there's a comic that will appeal to you. There, let me show you...

You like geeky humour, mathematical/scientific references ? Try XKCD, Abstruse Goose or The Doghouse Diaries;

Or would you rather read stuff about video games ? There's VGCats or Penny Arcade for you;

And there's always bizarre stuff like Garfield strips without Garfield.

So that's good, right ? Well, yes, except no. Most popular or semi-popular have been running since quite a long time. So when someone tells you "Dude, you should totally check xyzwebcomic out, it's awesome!", chances are that you'll have to read several hundreds installements before catching up. And that eats at your free time...

So much, in fact, that sometimes it almost feels like a chore. Because on one end you cannot and don't want to stop reading, but on the other side you started 5 hours ago, and it's getting late. But one more strip, right ?

All in all, I now dread it when someones tells me to go read a webcomic. Unfortunately for me though, I'm curious, so I always end up reading anyway. That being said, I'm fortunate enough to have friends with quite good tastes, which leads up to discoveries like the one that happened this year.

And that is A softer world.


My friend Joan mentioned it in an email without further elaborating, but when I checked it out I was immediatly drawn to it. The idea of using photographs is great, and the whole "mood" of the comic is excellent. There's some dark humour, some sweet stuff, a handful of zombies. And Baby Doom.

I don't think throwing around words will do the comic any justice, so here are a few of them I especially like, hoping they'll get you to check out the rest !