DRAFT List of 100 Greatest Webcomics: Comedy and Drama

Xaviar Xerexes

Last year I posted a couple times (Previous posts on this "research" project were here and here) about a possible article on "ComixTALK’s 100 Greatest Webcomics" which would be something like the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest movies of the last 100 years.

A recurring comment to the previous two posts was what is the criteria for this.  I’m always a little hesitant to give too much guidance when part of the point of asking this kind of thing out loud is to listen to the resulting discussion of what everyone else thinks the criteria should be.  For the AFI list judges picked films based on criteria such as Critical Recognition, Major Award Winner, Popularity Over Time, Historical Significance, and Cultural Impact.

That sounds about right to me.  We’ve got a round decade plus a year or two of webcomics to look at it.  Critical reception (both from peers and critics), and popularity are both relevant to thinking about the impact of a webcomic.  WCCA awards are somewhat indicative of what peers were impressed with in a given year and more recently awards like the Eisners and Ignatzs have recoginized webcomics.  Historical significance and cultural impact are a little harder to pin down but various "firsts" in webcomics are important and comics like Penny Arcade have had a much wider impact on popular culture than most comics do these days (put aside the legacy superheros of comics — what other "new" comic, let alone webcomic, in the last decade has had a wide cultural impact?)

Another thing AFI did that might be useful here to help sort through the vast numbers of webcomics one could talk about is to also think about categories or genres of work.  Just as a simple matter of numbers if a webcomic isn’t one of the best of a larger type of story — or frankly, so startlingly unique it’s hard to categorize — then it’s hard to imagine it’s one of the 100 Greatest…

So to move things along I’m listing another "draft" of titles submitted by the crowds but this time I’ve tried to break them up into drama and comedy so as to help avoid complete apples to oranges comparisons.  In doing that I’ve realized (1) it’s hard in many cases to decide; and (2) there are probably more comedic than drama on the list so far.  I think it would make sense to whittle down the two lists to 75 each so as the final list is no more than 3/4 of one type or the other.  Of course we could further do genre type lists but for now this was enough work on my part.

So — your assignment (if you choose to play):

  1. Name the comic you’re talking about (you’re also welcome to nominate ones not on the list — I KNOW there are many I haven’t even thought about yet — it takes time to review all of the corners of the web)
  2. Tell me where on one the two lists (comedy and drama) it should be (you could give a range of slots if you’re not sure). (If you think I’ve got a drama on the comedy list or vice-versa let me know!  I’m not "done" – this is fairly dashed off still at this point)
  3. Tell me why!  Referencing awards, critics, historical achievements, strengths and weaknesses of the works are all really helpful!

Comedy

  1. Penny Arcade
  2. xkcd by Randall Munroe
  3. Perry Bible Fellowship by Nicholaus Gurewitch (WCCA 2006, 2007)
  4. Achewood by Chris Onstad
  5. Diesel Sweeties by R. Stevens
  6. Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams
  7. Argon Zark! by Charlie Parker
  8. Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio (WCCA 2008)
  9. PvP by Scott Kurtz
  10. Narbonic by Shaenon Garrity
  11. Sinfest
  12. Something Positive
  13. Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew
  14. Scary Go Round by John Allison (WCCA 2005)
  15. Where the Buffalo Roam
  16. Doctor Fun
  17. Space Moose
  18. Leisure Town by Tristan
  19. Kevin and Kell
  20. Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
  21. Checkerboard Nightmare by Kris Straub
  22. User Friendly
  23. Cat and Girl by Dorothy Gambrell
  24. Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North
  25. Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler
  26. Melonpool by Steve Troop
  27. 8-Bit Theater
  28. Roomies! by David Willis
  29. Breakfast of the Gods
  30. Kate Beaton
  31. Get Your War On by David Rees
  32. Goats by Jon Rosenberg
  33. Sheldon by Dave Kellett
  34. Girly by Josh Lesnick
  35. SugarShock! by Josh Whedon and Fabio Moon
  36. Girls With Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto
  37. VG Cats by Scott Ramsoomair
  38. Apple Geeks by Mohammad Haque & Ananth Panagariya
  39. Pokey the Penguin
  40. Lizard by Dave Kelly
  41. Boy On A Stick and Slither by Steven Cloud
  42. Shortpacked! by David Willis
  43. Chopping Block by Lee Adam Herold
  44. Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran
  45. Superosity by Chris Crosby
  46. Piled Higher and Deeper by Jorge Cham
  47. Joy of Tech
  48. A Softer World
  49. Kid Radd by Dan Miller
  50. KawaiiNot
  51. nemu*nemu
  52. Wondermark by David Malki
  53. Ornery Boy by Michael Lalonde
  54. Polymer City Chronicles (the first gaming comic)
  55. Irregular Webcomic!
  56. Butternutsquash
  57. PX! by Manny Trembly and Eric Anderson
  58. The Last Kiss
  59. Evil Inc by Brad Guigar
  60. Boxjam’s Doodle by Boxjam (WCCA 2001)
  61. Little Dee by Christopher Baldwin
  62. Minus
  63. Erfworld
  64. Beaver & Steve
  65. Bob the Squirrel
  66. Mac Hall
  67. Zortic by Mark Mekkes
  68. The Lounge
  69. Skinny Panda by Phil Cho
  70. Butterfly
  71. Starslip Crisis
  72. Greystone Inn
  73. Bite Me by Dylan Meconis
  74. Zip and Lil Bit
  75. Horribleville by KC Green
  76. Looking for Group by Ryan Sohmer and Lar DeSouza
  77. The Adventures of Dr McNinja by Chris Hastings

Drama

  1. Nowhere Girl by Justine Shaw (WCCA 2003)
  2. MegaTokyo by Fred Gallagher (WCCA 2002)
  3. When I Was King by Damian 5
  4. Templar, Arizona by Spike
  5. American Elf by James Kochalka
  6. The Journal Comic by Drew Weing
  7. Freak Angels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield
  8. Immortal by Dean Haspiel
  9. Copper by Kazu Kibuishi
  10. Apocamon by Patrick Farley.
  11. Fans! by T. Campbell and others
  12. Dresden Codak by Aaron Diaz
  13. Dicebox by Jenn Manley Lee
  14. Demonology 101 by Faith Erin Hicks
  15. Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life by Adam Reed
  16. Bruno by Christopher Baldwin
  17. Makeshift Miracle by Jim Zubkavitch
  18. Gunnerkrigg Court
  19. Night Owls by the Timony Twins
  20. Sabrina Online by Eric W. Schwartz
  21. Lackidaisy by Tracey J Butler
  22. Three Panel Soul
  23. Avalon by Josh Phillips
  24. The New Adventures of Death by Dorothy Gambrell
  25. Anders Loves Maria
  26. The Devils Panties
  27. Red String
  28. Stuff Sucks
  29. Sin Titulo
  30. The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kerschl
  31. The Wandering Ones by Clint Hollingsworth
  32. Count Your Sheep by Adrian Ramos (WCCA 2004)
  33. Family Man
  34. Paradigm Shift by Dirk I. Tiede
  35. Digger
  36. Back Stage
  37. IN HIS LIKENESS
  38. FISHTOWN
  39. SuperTron
  40. Street Code
  41. Dear Pirate
  42. Alpha Shade
  43. Bayou
  44. High Moon
  45. Dreamland Chronicles by Scott Sava
  46. Errant Story
  47. Fear My Dear by Dean Haspiel
  48. Eversummer Eve by Denise Jones
  49. Boy Meets Boy by K. Sandra
  50. Inverloch by Sarah Ellerton
  51. Jack
  52. The Zombie Hunters
  53. Dead Winter
  54. Last Blood
  55. Sorcery 101
  56. Bellen by Box Brown
  57. Sequential Art by Philip M Jackson
  58. One Swoop Fell – http://oneswoopfell.com/
  59. Calamities of Nature – http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/
  60. System City
  61. The Dreamer
  62. Simply Sarah
  63. Purgatory
  64. Brat-halla
  65. The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allen Poo
  66. Dead of Summer
  67. Shades
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Xaviar Xerexes

Wandering webcomic ronin. Created Comixpedia (2002-2005) and ComixTalk (2006-2012; 2016-?). Made a lot of unfinished comics and novels.

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