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The Webcomics Weekly #67: Favorite Webcomic of 2019

By | December 30th, 2019
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2019 is in the books and with it the first year (or there abouts) of Webcomics Weekly coverage. As always this column is back in your life, but with a twist! No reviews this week, instead a simple but complex question: What is your webcomic of the year? Some of us went and picked one, others picked multiple, and some dodged it entirely. That wide spectrum is kind of like the medium of webcomics itself, infinite possibility, you just need to go find the one you like.

Robert Pleasant

What a year it’s been for webcomics. We’ve seen smash hits like “Lore Olympus” rise, long-running titles like “Looking For Group” continuing to put out great content, and lesser-known favorites like “DungeonMinis” continue to entertain. So, what will take my top pick? Could it be “Order of the Stick,” which wrapped up the year by concluding an arc that saw many a character death, revival, and revelation? Or maybe “Dungeons & Doggos,” a light-hearted dungeon crawl with furry heroes? (You might be noticing a fantasy theme with these. What can I say? I have a type.)

In the end, my pick for my favorite webcomic this year has to go to “Weregeek.”

For those unfamiliar, “Weregeek” is a webcomic about, well, geeks. It began with the protagonist, Mark, discovering his previously-suppressed nerdy side and delving into a wide world of geekery. It explored tabletop games, LARPS, conventions, Renaissance Faires, and so much more, all with a great deal of love. The characters continued to grow in new ways, relationships were built or broken, and we continued to see multiple stories grow both in and out of the characters’ games. It’s a loving tribute to nerd culture that’s both humorous and relatable.

Most recently, the story took a bit of a more painful turn, as Mark discovered the hard way that polyamory is not for him. It’s a moment that was built up well, leaving readers wincing as they knew what was approaching and hoped that someone would get through to him. But that in turn led to a bright spot, as the comic delved into the importance of having a support network and of being able to reach out and accept help. It’s not always funny or easy, but it’s an important part of the character journey.

You want humor? You want great characters? You want a comic that knows what it means to be a geek and embraces it fully? You want heart? You’ll want to read “Weregeek.”

Michael Mazzacane

Picking a “favorite” webcomic for a whole year is tough, for starters I am inclined to never pick just one thing – I love all my webcomic children equally. Than there is the sheer variety of webcomics that are available to read and how that variety is in and of itself one of my chief reasons for wanting to explore this medium (sub-medium?) further. Here are some of my favorite things that came from reading webcomics this year.

One of my favorite things I’ve done this year is reading “Blood Stain” by Linda Sejic and working through a re-reading of “Agents of the Realm” by Mildred Louis. They are both fine comics and worth checking out, but the shared aspect between this work place comedy and magical girl story is how both artists remastered their comics. Louis did some art touch ups and lettering passes when she ran Kickstarter campaigns to publish collections of her comic. Similar work was done by Linda Sejic when “Blood Stain” was published first by TopCow before reformatting things again when she began serializing the series on platforms like Webtoons and Tapas. Through these remasters the reader is able to see the change in style both artists have gone through, think a more granular version of those decade art posts you see on Instagram, and the mutability of the digital comics to be like water and fit new forms.

The growth of Webtoon and an honest to goodness marketing campaign was a big deal this year. I saw actual bus advertising in and around UCLA, which is something Marvel or DC would never go for. This year has brought a consistent feeling of unease in the Slack chat about the size of Webtoon and the potential ill effects of how that size is martialed, against both creators and what kind of content is deemed permissible, but until those sort of ill effects occur I see a platform/publisher (a whole other slice of the ill effects pie) that is trying to do something for the medium/business of comics publishing for the first time since ComiXology came aboard.

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Mike Oeming using the internet and platforms like Webtoon to serialize and promote his fantasy comic “The After Realm” before going to Kickstarter to accrue capital to print it, and then using it to publish through Image is the arc of how I think most independent comics will-should go at this point. While this isn’t a webcomic specifically, Ed Piskor’s use of live streams for his inking sessions of “Red Room” and posting grindhouse-esque Ken Burns effect motion comics out of it and posting pages on his Instagram creates a similar response of interest when I find a webcomic or something that was originally a webcomic. It allows the reader to get an idea of what the product is with little buy in or risk on their part with potential for a high reward. Something like “Wolfsbane” would be a cool but low selling Image book, but through their deal with Webtoon the creative team have a chance to promote it and see some return on investment before reserializing it elsewhere per the terms of their agreement. Getting a better sense for how webcomics can fit into a larger business of publishing was a fascinating thread to pull at this year.

Jason Jeffords

To me it feels weird writing my Best Webcomic of 2019. This is due to a few reasons. Primarily because I jumped in late, and this was my first year of reading Webcomics. This in mind I feel as if I am still a newborn in the wonderful world of Webcomics. Nonetheless, I will do my best to inform you why my pick is in fact my pick. But, before we go any further I will regale you what makes something a “Best of 2019” pick. Just let me look at my notes.

Ah, that’s it! There is no hard rules of what makes something the best, it’s all up to the writer’s opinion. So know as I may choose [REDACTED] as “my personal” best Webcomic of 2019 I’ve read a multitude of other great ones this year, and they all were amazing in their own ways.

When someone sets out to make a Webcomic you can tell they do it with love and determination. I may be able to write (hell, I barely think I can), but these creators write, draw, color, letter, and a myriad of other things, and sometimes they go unnoticed. With that in mind, if you are a creator, kudos to you, keep up the hard work. I’ve learned that Webcomics are amazing and should be read by the masses. Okay, I may have rambled and got ahead of myself, so let’s kick it back into gear.
My Webcomic of 2019 is – insert drumroll here – Sam Beck’s “Verse!”

If you’ve read my previous write-ups for “Verse” – no, there won’t be a quiz – you’d understand why I’d latch to this Webcomic. While reading “Verse” I was instantly sucked into the world with how beautiful the art is, how fantastic the characters are, and the science behind everything. But, there is one thing that stood out the most. Just how much history/world building Beck put into her story. It feels as if Beck spend a fair amount of time planning out the history of the world, its characters, how they inhabit the world, and fleshing out little details that make a world feel real.

This emphasis on history was a large part of this year for “Verse”, as Beck brought back The Man in The Hat. Why is this character important? It turns out The Man in The Hat is one of the fabled twins that has a religious following, Lahel. This reveal of a character that was seen in the very beginning was huge, as it was a revelation, and a huge turning point. Beside this huge moment, I absolutely adore everything about “Verse”. Personally I can’t get enough of Beck’s wonderful world.

But, as I said in the beginning (mind the corniness) you are all winners. Seriously, if you just started, in the middle, barely update, you all busted ass doing something you love that others can’t say for themselves. As someone who writes for multiple sites and finds myself writing most of my week on top of working, trying to add a cohesive story and amazing art into a Webcomic and then promoting it is next level. For all the Webcomic creators out there, give yourself a pat on the back. You sure as hell deserve. Oh, and have a good New Year!

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Dexter Arnold

Where to even begin in trying to find a “best” webcomic of the year? For as many as we cover in this column we barely even scratch the surface of what is out there (let alone the good ones.) I can only speak about what I’ve covered myself but, like my peers here, there’s no way I could choose one single series. It would be like having only one beer, sheer blasphemy.
So with all that said I’m Dex from WhatCulture and these are 10 webcomics you should be reading in 2020.

Just kidding. But there were a handful of entries from 2019 that I really enjoyed. As a horror fanatic and general purveyor of the weird “Disorder” and “Chickenface” especially stuck out to me. Erika Price’s visuals truly presented the titular subject matter. It is utterly unsettling to look at in all the best ways. That same discomfort can also be said of “Chickenface,” though KJ Murr takes a more absurdist approach. There’s a character eating their own deep-fried hands. It really is troubling to laugh at.

“Endless Halls” was another oddball series with weird but wonderful art by Christian Navedo. Sadly there hasn’t been an update on it since May so this one is stalled indefinitely. The more lighthearted fantasy ride “A Nice Long Walk” on the other hand, is still running and published a new installment this week. Jake Lawrence’s work rides on the whimsical side but it’s adorable, and it’s funny.

But if there was one artist that stuck out to me the most this year I would have to say Lucy Knisley. Lucy let us into her world with her partner, their son, and the ever-popular Linney the cat. Shortly after our column published, we were all heartbroken reading the sendoff off to Linney as she drifted away in a tear-spewing moment. Like, ugly cry, snotty when you read this thing. We’ll all miss Linney, but we’ll always have the strips that Lucy made of the family feline. Long kick.

All in all, it was a great year for webcomics. Here’s a second bear to a brand new year and a happy holidays from all of us here. Cheers.

Elias Rosner

Wow. A whole year has gone by. It feels like only yesterday that we were doing our year end recaps last, only a couple months into our webcomics initiative. Since then, I’ve read so many webcomics, good and OK, fun and serious, gorgeously detailed and refreshingly minimalistic and my love for the medium (genre? branch?) has only expanded.

Over the course of the year, I also gained a greater appreciation for the creator’s side of things, through our Interview with a Webcomic series. I got to hear about concerns with platforms, of the grueling nature of burnout and keeping up with a schedule for a work that may be creatively fulfilling but financially burdensome. Of the tools and tricks of the creators and the vastly different starts each comic creator had. I wrestled with the great benefits of Webtoons and the worrying nature of hegemonic platforms and what that may be doing to the way we make and read webcomics. I had many thoughts, most of which I’ll share elsewhere, I’m sure.

Hi, it’s ya boi, Elias. I’m one of the two voices you read at the top of each week’s Webcomics Weekly along with my partner in crime Mike Mazzacane and this is my Year in Webcomics.

It’s nearly impossible for me to pick a singular comic that is my “favorite” of the year; I love all my webcomic children equally. . .except you [REDACTED]. You know what you did. It’s a question that, for anything, fills me with a deep and existential dread because what does it mean to be “favorite?” How can I choose just one, they all have merits that let them stand on their own in different ways?

Welcome to choice paralysis 101. First lesson, ramble and explain yourself so people get bored and you never have to commit. But commit I must! Otherwise, the editors will have my head and I’d like to keep that, thank you very much.

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I’m going to pick four that did really cool things this year but i could have easily filled this with, like, twenty or more.

“True Beauty” needs no introduction. It is one of those comics that has had a meteoric rise and has consistently delivered, week after week, on that good, good romance comic-ness. It’s funny, emotional, and has a fantastic approach to make-up and fashion that both wrestles with the manufactured nature of the industry without dismissing the ways it brings the main character joy as an art and skill. It’s great y’all and if you want more recs, where I heard about this one, read Claire’s Webtoons review column over at Women Write About Comics.

“O Human Star” is nearing its conclusion, wrapping up story threads in the works for years now. It’s been a powerful and tearful year for these characters and each new page brings with it Blue’s quiet, understated approach to kicking us in the gut with the feels and fantastic character work. Want an example of powerful sci-fi comics at their finest and most thought provoking? Look no further than this one and, for a fun discussion of the comic from the year’s start, here’s our interview with Blue!

Yes, I am an awful shill.

“Skulls and Coins” is majorly fucked-up and I love it for that. It comes out infrequently but the world Adrian is building is one I want to explore more of and I eagerly await each new chapter. The black and white artwork is rich and horrific, something I am a sucker for, and the natural peppering of lore into the story of these few recurring characters is like catnip for me. Interconnected short-stories with characters that pop in and out with a story in the background we have to uncover? Yes PLEASE.

“Boxcar City Rush” has only just begun but it has captured my attention and my interest in a way that not many other webcomics have recently. Its aesthetic is angular and jaunty, reminiscent of Persona or the Kagerou Daze project. Each panel oozes with high-octane energy and a distinct, uncompromising style and I wanna know what’s up with the ghost! Plus, it’s got a bespoke website and those who know me, know I love me a good bespoke website design. It’s part and parcel of the experience! Just like a book cover.

And you know what they say, always judge a book by its website and always end your articles on a non-sequitur.

Wait. . .


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