The Paperless Funnies…and Not so Funnies: Explanations and Introductions

Since this is the first post, I believe introductions are in order. My name is Sylvia Chavez and I am a major comic book nerd. However, as much as I love digging into my comic book collection at home or searching the stacks at my local comic book store I have become increasingly addicted to web comics. Now I am not abandoning the paper medium, in fact they might show up in this blog from time to time, but what I am hoping to achieve here is a nice little web comic review blog. I will of course start with the basics, for example where to find them, what to look for, and so on and so forth. I must warn you however that my tastes tend to lean more toward the fantasy themed comics so they will be prevalent. Okay so on to the basics.
As the saying goes, in order to get somewhere, you have to start somewhere. There are several sites dedicated to hosting different web-comics including www.keenspot.com, www.comicgenesis.com, and www.drunkduck.com. Of these three Keenspot is the best, I mean they even get their own Panel at the San Diego Comic Con. Comics hosted at Keenspot are selected carefully based on their quality and dependability in updates.
Yet, I find that the best links come from a comic’s link page. Think of it this way, at a restaurant you ask what the chef recommends in order to get a good meal, so if you enjoy a certain comic and the author and/or artist of that comic recommends someone else’s comic then in essence, it has to be good. One site that I frequent is www.noneedforbushido.com. Not only is NNFB, well-written, beautifully drawn Samurai Parody Comic, it also has an extensive links page. Nevertheless, if you are looking for something other then Samurai spoof or for something particular I suggest you stick with Host sites.
Now trying to find a comic that suits you is really up to you. This is why starting at a host site, i.e. Keenspot and Comic Genesis, might be helpful. They tend to have categorized lists depending on genre and content along with brief descriptions of a comic’s content. I personally go after comics that sound like they have a decent story line, and quality art, but there are times when a comic has to be given a chance. Even looking at one like NNFB you notice how a comic improves over time. Another good tip is going for a comic that has already ended, this may seem strange but it guarantees that the story will have an ending. This way you won’t end up reading a comic that stops updating before a storyline is finished. In my opinion authors that no longer update are one of the biggest problems with web-based comics. If you ever find yourself in that situation just check it every month or so until you forget about it.