Please don't step on the penguin

As the blog is beginning to move ahead without me, I feel somewhat compelled to make a post about something. As nothing particularly interesting has happened in the past few days, I shall proceed to rant and rave about one of my favorite subjects:

webcomics

How, one might ask, does the discerning nerd find the webcomic(s) that is right for him (or her)? The most reliable source is from other fellow nerds, but if you find one that you can't get any intel on, here's the strategy I use most. Go to the beginning of the current story arc/chapter/whatever, assuming it isn't 200-something pages long like one comic I could mention. If you can't find chapter markings, or if it's just too long, go back a good number of pages (20, 50, somewhere in there) and educate yourself on how things work in this world, according to those pages. From that much you can usually tell if you like a comic or not. Don't worry in the least bit if something you've read doesn't make sense as you're doing this. You're behind by about 500 pages of pure awesomeness, there are probably oodles of inside jokes that whizzed right over your head as you were reading your sample of the comic.

Most people who don't read webcomics do (or rather do not do) so because either it takes too much time to weed through all the garbage out there, or it's just not interesting enough to them. Folks, I'll give it to you straight, there is a LOT of junk out there. Some's badly-written, some's badly-translated, some's just downright nasty (if you find a comic labeled NSFW, find another comic). But there's also a lot of good stuff out there. If you'd like some pointers towards a couple good ones, I'd be more than happy to give them to you.

Dominic Deegan
Rated PG-13 for language, violence, and innuendo
My personal favorite among all the webcomics I've ever read. It's well written, well-drawn, and filled with pure epic win. It's set in a fantasy realm all its own, filled with magic, elves, orcs, dwarves, hobbits, and a talking cat.
There is a chapter fairly close to the beginning of the comic that's somewhat risque, and every now and then you'll come across a bit of... stuff that he could have just as easily left out, but of the 2000+ pages he's done, I'd say you need to throw out 50, tops.

8-Bit Theater
Rated PG-13 for language, violence, and innuendo
Almost as win as Dominic Deegan is 8-Bit Theater. 8-Bit Theater is a spoof on every Final Fantasy game you've ever played, and most of the ones that you haven't. Black Mage, Fighter, Red Mage, and Thief battle their way through the lands in an attempt to overthrow Chaos and restore order to the world... theoretically. They might do it if they can ever stop stabbing themselves in the back long enough.
Black Mage reeeealy likes White Mage, and makes it quite obvious... often times more crudely than necessary. Read cautiously when BM and WM are in the same page.
Tacked onto 8-Bit Theater as side projects are How I Killed Your Master (a martial-arts manga), Atomic Robo, and Warbot in Accounting. All are written by the same guy, all are drawn by different guys. [shrug]

Looking For Group
Rated PG-13 for excessive violence and language
Much less selective than 8-Bit Theater on what it'll spoof. An elf, a warlock, a minotaur, and a female of unknown pedigree all try to find their place in the world. It turns out the elf is destined to be king of an ancient elven civilization. Funny how life works.

Dr. McNinja
Rated PG for violence and brief language
He's a doctor. And a ninja. And he's Irish. Put it all together, and you've got Dr. Mcninja. When he's not treating patients at his private practice, he's fighting zombies, ghosts, pirates (obviously), and tennis-playing robots.

Awkward Zombie
Rated PG for cartoon violence and brief language
A spoof on almost literally any video game you can think of. It's about as full of nerdy win as you can get. Pokemon, Metal Gear, Oblivion, World of Warcraft, Super Smash Brothers... you name it, she's probably done it. If she hasn't, she probably will in the near future.

Comedity
Rated G
Welcome to Comedity. Please don't step on the penguin.
Another of my all-time favorite comics, Comedity chronicles the life of college student Garth Graham, as well as that of the multiple sides of his personality (good shoulder, bad shoulder, 'cool guy', random trivia, Prime (the guy usually in charge), and most notably, the penguin). It has been unfortunately discontinued. However, he continues to ply his trade in

Finders Keepers
Rated PG for violence and language
Take a look behind the veil. There live all of humanity's collective hopes, dreams, and fears. Watch out... nothing is as it seems. Nothing.

Lackadaisy
Rated PG for violence and mild language
New Orleans during Prohibition... you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Speakeasy's are running rampant, and they're starting to trip over each other. Follow the story of Rocky, an accident prone, more-than-slightly crazy, all-around henchman and part-time violinist. He's also a cat. They're all cats, actually.

Helia
Rated G
The girl in the yellow dress, as told by Aaron Kauffman. Accident proneness (is that even a word?) seems to run in her family, she lost both her arms after her mother was struck by a meteor. She later has a new pair of arms donated to her by her best friend. That's about as far in the story as we've gotten so far, but it's a work in progress.

Apple Geeks
Rated PG for cartoon violence, language, and mild innuendo
Who needs a human girlfriend when you can build one out of a Mac? Meet Hawk, an average guy with a not-so-average set of skills. He can build or program pretty much anything, but it has to use Apple software. He avoids Windows like the plague, and just pretends Linux doesn't exist. He makes up for his poor computer gaming skills by building a computer to play for him... and also to be his girlfriend, but that didn't work out so well.
Hawk also built Alice, Garth's computer that he uses over in Comedity. Alice is basically Eve's (Hawk's own android) sister, just less buggy.

I think that does it for now... if I think of another one I'll put it up here.

In the interest of having some sort of signature, until I find one of my own, I've decided to rip off that of my squadron commander.

Happy Groundhog's Day to all, and to all a good night!

Regards,
Spam