Links to some comics related stuff on the net that I find interesting or worthwhile.

Adventures Into Digital Comics, a new film from Sebastien Dumesnil and Top Two Three Films, chronicles the decline of print comic books in the 90's and the rise of digital and web comics as a viable alternative. The supporting site features a growing list of interviews with traditional and digital comics creators. It's worth checking back often. Here's a page where they post news of the latest interviews and status of the film.

Last updated: June, 2005

Action Planet Comics

Mike Manley, longtime artist on Batman and dozens of other top books from DC, Marvel and Dark Horse, is now producing his own comics. Features the beautiful G.I.R.L. Patrol online comic. Mike is also the creator of Monsterman and the editor of the terrific Draw magazine.

 

MetaCops!

Where else can Albert Einstein, Jayne Mansfield and Nicola Tesla meet multi-eyed, brain-in-a-bubble aliens than in this intelligent, witty, time-and-reality-twisting gem by Link Yaco and John Heebink, creator of Doll and Creature and Wrathbone and Bitchula. Not exactly a web comic, but a print comic that's been very well adapted to the web by careful selection and arrangement of the panels in a monitor-friendly format.

 

Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet

Peter Zale's wonderful office/computer related daily strip. Dilbert territory, but with a Gary Trudeau/Berkely Breathed sensibility. I've been recommending this strip for years.

 

At first it was a Net-only strip, but a terrific collection called Techies Unite! has been published by McGraw-Hill and he strip has been picked up for newspaper syndication by Tribune Media Services! Write, call or email your local paper and tell them you want to see Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet on the comics page every day. Not only will you get a great strip, you'll help to promote the Net as a breeding ground for new newspaper comics! And don't miss the rest of the Peter Zale site.

 

Of Historical Significance

These first three entries are of particular interest because of their place in the history of webcomics.

 

Where the Buffalo Roam

By Hans Bjordahl. This is of special historical significance. Argon Zark! may be the first continuing comic created specifically for distribution on the Web (the first "true" webcomic), but Where the Buffalo Roam is the first comic on the Internet. It was a college comic strip that was made available for distribution through Usenet downloads before the Web even existed and later migrated to the Web. Hans is replaying the archive of the strip and collections are also available.

 

Dr. Fun

This is a web cartoon that also predates Argon Zark! Originally syndicated to underground news papers, it was brought to the web in September of 1993. Dr. Fun is a single-panel gag catroon somewhat in the line of The Far Side, created, and still drawn after all these years, by David Farley. The latest cartoon is here

 

Kevin & Kell

In September of 1995, barely three months after Argon Zark! debuted, syndicated cartoonist Bill Holbrook, creator of On the Fastrack (King Features), began posting Kevin and Kell, a Web-only anthropomorphic ("funny animal") comic in newspaper strip format. Unlike (*ahem!*) certain other web cartoonists, Bill has kept a regular schedule ever since. Amazing. I'm not normally a fan of the anthropomorphic genre in comics (with the notable and bizarre exception of Sam & Max), but Kevin and Kell is professionally done and very well drawn. Holbrook is one of the better draftsmen working in syndicated comics today. The site contains an extensive archive of past strips. Print collections are also available.

 

Webcomics and more webcomics

This is just a scattered sampling of things I've come across. One of these days I'll try to organize this a better. If you know of something particularly fascinating in this category that you think I might like, let me know.

 

ZOT! online comic

Scott McCloud's made-for-the-web installment of his classic character. Beautiful stuff. Scott has other online comics on his own site scottmccloud.com, where he's created a playground for his experiments with layout, panel design, storytelling and whatever other boundaries of the medium he can push.

 

Scott is also one of the pioneers of offering online comics supported by micropayments with his story The Right Number (not for children). This is a great experiment and is hopefully paving the way for an economic model that will make it possible for online comic creators to make some money for their efforts, and be able to devote more of their time to creating comics instead of making a living elsewhere and trying to create part time.

 

G.I.R.L. Patrol

Mike Manley's terrific online comic. Unfortunately not being updated at the moment, but the pages that are up are beautiful. Mike's use of color is particularly outstanding here.

 

Bolt City

Home to several online comics by Kazu Kibuishi, including the wonderful, not to be missed, copper.

 

Kazu is also my favorite contributor to Flight, a print collection of work by some very talented new comics artists, many of whom are primarily web comics creators. Flight #1 is in print and available from may comic shops or from Amazon, as is Flight 2. A preview of Flight 2 is online at Graphic Novel Review.

 

Astounding Space Thrills by Steve Conley.

Sci-fi adventure with a good dose of humor. Steve has been producing it for a while as a print comic (inked in Adobe Illustrator, which I find, well... astounding), he is now doing daily color strips (which I also find astounding). You can actually have these strips e-mailed to you or arrange to have them on your Web page. You might want to start at the beginning. Also check out the AST Flash animation strip. Part of the iComics site.

 

Electric Sheep

Several adventurous experiments in online comics format and content, including Delta thrives, The Spiders and many others by Patrick Farley. Very well done. Not for children.

 

Demian 5

Home of several wonderfully experimental online comics, including the wordless and engrossing When I Am King. Some, including When I Am King, are available in their entirety, others have a free preview and are available complete for a modest fee.

 

Buzzboy

by John Gallagher. An online comic, in daily strip format, that captures some of the fun and innocence of 60's adventure comics. Drawn in broad, cartoony style and peppered with comics, movie and pop culture references, Buzzboy chronicles the adventures of "The World's Most Upbeat Hero".

 

Dicebox

by Jenn Manley Lee. Well written, nicely drawn and rendered in emotionally effective color palettes, You can read the first 40 pages of this this character driven sci-fi story for free. Once you're hooked, you can jump over to Girlamatic, where an inexpensive subscription will give you access to newer chapters and updates, as well as 2 dozen other web comics.

 

Nowhere Girl

Emotional, involving, thoughtful and artfully done. Not for children.

 

Beekeeper Cartoon Amusements

by Jason Little, featuring Shutterbug Follies, the full-length edition of Bee's first story, as well as other comics. Wonderfully done and offered either as a page-by-page click-through or as one continuous scrolling page (2.4 mb).

 

Trespassers Online Comics

by Joe Zabel. Joe is a comics artist who worked with Harvey Pekar on American Splendor. He truned to digital art and has been one of the more successful proponents of 3-d rendered comics. Unlike many who try to use 3-d software to create comics, Joe knows how to use the medium to best effect. His characters have real character. His settings, eye for realism and attention to detail sometimes make the strip look like screen captures form a movie. Trespassers is a series of mystery graphic novels, part text, part art, in varying proportions. The link above is to an archived story. The current stories are on the Modern Tales subscription site and are more completely comics in format. Here is Joe's blog.

 

Alpha-Shade

Written by Christopher Brudios and drawn by brother Joseph Brudlos. Nicely drawn webcomic starts out in WW-I style war situations and works its way to recognizable current times. Not quite sure how it ties together yet...Start here. Here is Joe's blog.

 

Deus ex Machina

by Gareth Hinds. An interesting exploration of intelligence, machine and otherwise. The story flows along through several graphic styles without losing its continuity or focus. Part of TheComic.com

 

Capt'n Eli

by Jay Piscopo. An unexpected treat. An engaging sci-fi adventure comic in the tradition of Johnny Quest, featuring high-tech submarines, flying mini-subs, time travel and lost civilizations. It's a well-paced, coherent story carried by solid drawing mixed with imaginative 3-d modeling and a very effective use of color and special effects. The fact that a comic of this quality is apparently in service of promoting a specialty root-beer company is kind of like finding a complete classic Fantastic Four comic in your shredded wheat box.

 

Artbomb

This site for a supplier of print graphic novels also features several online comics, including Superidol by Warren Ellis and Coleen Doran.

 

ArcMage

Duncan Eagleson's exploration of the worlds of magic, stage and "real". Beautifully done with nice touches of animation. He is one of the few who take advantage of the screen and doesn't feel limited to a printed page format. He also plays with rendering styles and drawings that utilize the page color as part of the image.

 

Bugbots, The Mansect Rebellion

by Gerry Mooney and Vicky Mooney. A brash and colorful online comic book about characters that are part human and part insect, with insect-like vehicles and technology. Professionally done with drawings that sometimes have a Kirby-like energy and sense of visual fun. In Issue 4, they are experimenting with JavaScript mouseovers that pop up the dialog and change the image. This promises to be great fun. Like Argon Zark!, the site is best viewed with a recent browser.

 

The Gifted

Stephen Rice's dark and sometimes violent online graphic novel. Straightforward comic pages format. Updated monthly. Not for children.

 

Duncan's Kingdom

Well written and nicely drawn adventure fantasy, written by Gene Yang and drawn (in rich, bold, chiaroscuro black and white) by Derek Kirk Kim, creator of several other online comics..

 

Headcase

Wordless sci-fi comic by Sam Chivers with a Flash-based interface.

 

Makeshift Miracle

by Jim Zubkavich. A complete 172 page graphic novel for 99 cents. Read the first 15 pages and let the story get you involved an then read the whole thing through a simple Bitpass account. It's simple and easy. You don't think twice about dropping $3.00 on a 24-page installment of a print comic, but you're hesitating at 99 cents for a complete online graphic novel? Get over it and move into the 21st century.

 

Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet

See my comments at the top of the page

 

Magic Inkwell Comic Strip Theatre

(Check the Cyber Strips). Cayetano Garza keeps poking at the edges of the comics medium to see what's behind the next corner. He conducts his experiments onto the nature of comics and electronicomics with a whimsical homage to the strips of the early part of the century (particularly the magical Krazy Kat - see my listing under Artists).

 

Sluggy Freelance

A deliriously loopy, over-the-top daily strip by Pete Abrams that ranges from Star Trek and Tomb Raider parodies to college life and time travel. Features Bun-bun, the psychotic killer rabbit, an out-of-work Alien, a vampire baker and others too strange to mention. Go to the viewer guide and start from the beginning. The AJ and the Crudosaur episode features a cross-over with User Friendly (see below).

 

User Friendly

J. D. Illiad Frazer's majorly geekified daily strip that's become pretty ingrained into geek/Web culture. As if Dilbert were written from inside a UNIX box. There is a new paperback collection called Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell.

 

PartiallyClips

Rob Balder's very funny clip-art comic. Updated twice weekly. PartiallyClips was started in 1998 for Scene magazine, which must make it one of the earliest examples of the increasing popular genre. It moved to the web in 2002.

 

Bassettville

One of the things I love about webcomics is that as they become more popular they become more diverse in approach and subject matter. Compare some of the violent and dystopian adventure strips with a strip like Bassettville, Bryan Prindiville's charming and unpretentious feature about bassett hounds, real and imagined.

 

The new way to read comics

For the about the cost of one print comic per month ($3.00), each of these sites give you access to 20 or 30 web comics. Most of them allow you to read the current installment of every comic for free if you stop by every day, so you can get a feeling for what you like (although I think they would do better to offer the first 6 or 8 installments of each to get you hooked first - just my opinion). When you subscribe you can read the collected archives.

 

Modern Tales

 

Girlamatic

 

Graphic Smash

 

Serializer

 

Komikwerks

 

Bill Mitchell's political cartoons

Bill Mitchell is one of the pioneers of online-only political cartooning and, in particular, the use of animated GIF political cartoons. If the above link is out-of date, try here Part of CNN's All-Politics site.

 

Mark Fiore's animated political cartoons

are even more animated than Mitchell's. If you hate Bush, you'll love Mark, and probably vice-versa.

 

Daryl Cagle's political cartoon index

Up-to-date, as well as archived, this is a treasure trove of political cartooning from across the country, across the political spectrum and around the world. Part of MSN's Slate site which also features Doonesbury.

The Cartoon Bank

Huge resource of New Yorker cartoons. You can sit at your computer all day and look up cartoons on any topic, clicking through until you're tired of laughing. Or, you could just break down and buy a copy of The Complete Cartoons of the New Yorker ($60 in stores, $36 from Amazon), and laugh yourself into a coma all at once.

Websnark

Blog devoted to webcomics commentary, news and reviews. Posted by Eric Alfred Burns, a guy who is wonderfully obsessed with webcomics. Includes lists of webcomics with extensive descriptions, arranged according to the time of day they are likely to be posted(!). "For the Snark was a Boojum, you see..."

 

Webcomics Examiner

Online journal devoted to reviews and critical analysis of webcomics as an art form. Also contains feature stories, interviews. Related to the Talk About Comics blog and the Talk About Comics forums.

 

Talk About Comics

Regularly updated blog with an emphasis on webcomics. Part of the Modern Tales group of sites. One of the main contributors if Joe Zabel, who also has his own blog and is the creator of several webcomics himself.

 

Digital Strips

A webcomics podcast and attendant blog. This has largely taken the place of the earlier "web radio" and audio download programs like Joey Manley's Digital Comics Talk. Your hosts, Zampzon and Daku, interview webcomics artists, blog writers and others involved in the webcomics community. You can download the current podcast or archived shows as MP3, and/or subscribe via RSS. The show is informal and fun, but always informative. They also have links to other comics podcasts.

 

Webcomic Finds

Blog devoted to "finding new and lesser known webcomics", which are then reviewed by the blog's author, Ping Teo, who is also a webcomics creator. She writes and draws The Longest Sojourn &The Jaded). Webcomic Finds also includes related topics, including "How Not to Run a Webcomic, the Best of the Worst".

 

Comixpedia

A monthly zine devoted to digital and online comics. Features regular columns and feature articles by a variety of contributors. Not as well organized as I would like, but worth digging through. There's some good stuff here, including regular contributions by T. Campbell and links to webcomics resources.

 

The Morning Improv

Scott McCloud's newspage.

 

Waffle

Blog covering comics, webcomics and other topics by Reinder Dijkhuis and friends. Reinder is the creator of Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan and several other webcomics.

 

I'm just saying...

Blog with lots o' snarking about webcomics and other things. Includes The Plate, a long list of webcomics with brief reviews/descriptions. The site is authored by Phil Kahn, who leads the Biscuit Press comics collective and is himself the creator of the webcomic The Hoojie Crew.

 

Irreconcilable Musings

Webcomics section of a multi-topic blog by someone known only as Wally.

 

The Living Comic

Blog in which Occultatio shares his musings about webcomics. Includes extensive reading lists.

 

The Cartoonist

Blog that focuses on cartoons and related illustration, as well as advertising, Mac OS X stuff, and miscellaneous oddities, (all of which I happen to be interested in).

 

Drawn! The Illustration Blog

A collaborative blog about illustration, art, cartooning and drawing with a healthy dose of comics news and info.

 

The Comics Reporter

Blog devoted to all aspects of comics by Tom Spurgeon, who has been a contributor to both The Comics Journal, and the legendary online zine Suck, as well as being a writer for the newspaper strip Wildwood. In addition to regular news-oriented blog posts, the site includes all kinds of information and resources, including tons of links to comics related stuff on the web. It has articles and info on buying comics, making comics, publishing comics and more. It also includes reviews, commentary and interviews. Much to my delight, it also pays attention to European comics, a rare thing for American comics sites and blogs. Well worth a look around.

 

Digital Webbing

Daily news about which comic-related websites have been updated, including Argon Zark! A terrific resource.

 

Comicon.com

"The World's Biggest Comic Book Convention". This virtual comic convention features "booths" and links to some of the best comic book resources on the Web, arranged like a comic convention with a main exhibit hall, portfolio review, and special guests. Also includes links to "real" conventions.

 

iComics

Closely tied to Comicon.com (above). A news and reviews site devoted to comics on and off the Web. They also feature their own online strips, including Astounding Space Thrills by Steve Conley.

 

Sequential Tart

A comics Webzine with an emphasis on issues of interest to women comics creators and readers. Although they occasionally lapse into worrying about political correctness, it's a good general interest comics zine.

 

Friends of Lulu

From their masthead: "Friends of Lulu is a national nonprofit organization whose purpose is to promote and encourage female readership and participation in the comic book industry." More power to 'em!

 

Broken Frontier

General interest comics industry zine, focusing on print comics, with previews, news, reviews and columns.

 

Newsarama

Zine devoted to the comic book industry, with news, reviews, and features, mostly in the form of forum posts.

 

PopImage

Comic book news and reviews zine, with an emphasis on reviewing complete stories or story arcs, rather than individual issues of comics.

 

BugPowder Weblog

Weblog (hey, kudos for not calling it a blog!) with an emphasis on UK small press comics, and some interest in webcomics.

 

Warrren Ellis

Blog and site for one of the more interesting comics writers currently working.

 

Graphic Novel Review

Just that, often with example art or even previews of upcoming projects.

 

Re:mote Induction

A tech/culture Webzine that pays attention to comics, digital and print. They also cover a lot of other interesting ground, from William Gibson to Web site design philosophy. Here's link to the comics (graphic novel) reviews, the archives of which include a review of the Argon Zark! hard copy.

 

Comic Book Resources

Columns, articles, reference and news on the comic book industry,plus the ZOT! online comic by Scott McCloud!

 

Ain't it Cool News

News, reviews and previews with some focus on comics and lots of info on comics-related movies.

 

Comics from Europe, Asia and South America

Much of the most exciting work in comics is happening in non-English speaking countries. It's not always easy to find these resources. A lot of attention is being paid to manga now in the US, but not as much to comics from Europe and South America. I'll try to add to this as I get time.

 

Don't speak the language? Go to the Language Tools page on Google and enter the site url in the "Translate Site" box. Et voilà! Captain Kirk's Universal Translator! The translations may seem awkward at times, but they follow you through links, even to other sites! Remarkable.

 

Underground Society Magazine

French site with a large section devoted to news and reviews of bandes dessinées, comics, and manga. Includes previews of covers, interviews with authors and a good links section to other French comics sites. A good place to keep up with what's happening on the European comics scene.

 

BD Sélection

French site with reviews of bandes dessinées, manga and other comics, often with a large preview page of the comic. Includes interviews with authors and atists, previews of artwork and more.

 

Auracan

Reviews of French comic albums, usually with cover image.

 

RYOWeb

French language site devoted to Japanese manga and Korean manhwa.

 

English language sites devoted to comics from Asia

I'm no expert, but here are a few sites to start with.

 

Manga Reviewer

Reviews and previews of manga, bios of creators, links and forums.

 

MangaNews.net

Manga news, releases, info on publishers and creators, forums and a long list of links to "scanlators", unofficial translations of Japanese comics.

 

Manga Life

Reviews, news and features.

 

Fanboy Radio

From KTCU in Ft. Wotrth Texas. A talk radio show devoted to the comics industry in general. Sindicated to the web through Cosmiclandscapes.com.

 

'Nuff Said

Comic book radio show on WBAI New York. Unfortunately no longer on a regular schedule. CHeck the site for the next broadcast. They did an interview with yours truly in November of '98.

 

This isn't any kind of comprehensive listing, just references to a bunch of artists and comics I happen to like. I'll add interesting things as I stumble across them.

 

Moebius

Otherwise known as Jean Giraud. A lot of people have asked me if I have a favorite comics artist. Moebius is at the top of the list. This guy has more imagination in his little finger than 100 superhero artists put together. The link above is to Moebius Arcana, part of the Starwatcher site (which is a great reference on French Comics in general), informative, but not well organized. The French Moebius site is much nicer, if smaller. Dark Horse Comics produced some nice (but inexplicably small) collections of his stuff not too long ago ago. See if you can find some of the softbound Marvel/Epic collections from a few years ago, or the hardbacks that have come out in the last couple of years like Fusion, Metallic Memories and Chaos.. Check Mars Import or Bud Plant's Catalog. Here's a nice HotWired article

 

Jack Kirby

Just to make a liar of myself (and point out that I actually do like superhero comics), here's the guy that practically invented the dynamics of modern superhero comics. Another guy with imagination coming out of his ears, and another one of my favorites. Amazingly prolific, "King" Kirby's career spanned the Golden and Silver ages of comics. Look for his Marvel comics stuff from the 60's and DC work from the 70's. A lot of the credit given to Stan Lee for reinventing comics in the 60's should go to Kirby. The link is to The Kirby Collector, a magazine devoted to collecting Jacks art.

 

Sam & Max, Freelance Police! by Steve Purcell.

My favorite "funny animal" comic book, and I do mean funny and I do mean animal!   Where does he keep that gun, anyway? Unfortunately the comics are being overshadowed by the animated TV show. Here's an actual Sam & Max comic that happens to be up on The Adventurer section of the Lucasarts site.

 

Krazy Kat

George Herriman's enchanted and enchanting newspaper strip from the early part of the century. Timeless. I don't know how to describe this, and many people may find it difficult to relate to, but if you can get into it it's pure magic.

 

Little Nemo in Slumberland

Also from the early 1900's, an astonishing, perception-stretching work of surreal adventure and fantasy. Winsor McCay was a pioneer comic strip artist and the father of Cartoon animation with his animated version of Little Nemo and the famous Gertie the Dinosaur. Unfortunately neither of these sites contains enough of the strip for you to get a feel for it. The link to Little Nemo (above) gives reference to where you can get reprint books. The link for Winsor McCay has more graphics. It's also worth checking your local library. Amazing stuff.

 

Harvey Kurtzman

The brilliant comic genius behind the original Mad comics of the late '50s. Not to be confused with the pathetic shell that's served as Mad magazine for the past 20 years (with the notable exception of Mort Drucker's always wonderful drawings). Also responsible for Help, where he employed both Gilbert Shelton and Terry Gilliam, and Little Annie Fanny in Playboy.This guy played a vital role in twisting my sense of humor into its present state of idyllic dementia, along with...

 

Will Elder

Possibly the funniest comics artist to ever stalk the pages of a comic book. This guy's drawings make me laugh even without longtime collaborator Kurtzman's words. Together they're a knockout punch to the funnybone.

 

Wally Wood

Another Mad Comics alumni, who also did a lot of wonderful work for the notorious EC Comics in the 50's. This guy was amazing and did the coolest 50's style spaceships and machinery you'll ever want to see. He also continued to do beautiful tone-board work for Mad when it became a black and white magazine. Along with Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta, Woody taught the rest of the comics artists how to do cool sci-fi and adventure comics. His stuff had a depth and tactile dimensional feel to it that was never matched. A successor to Hal Foster's sense of solid realism, but applied to the fantastic. Wonderful eye candy. I'm still looking for a good link to another page about him. Anybody know of one?

I'm also looking for good pages about Hal Foster and Alex Raymond.

 

Hal Foster

Probably, the finest draughtsman in comics with the possible exception of Alex Raymond (below).The creator of Prince Valiant and the original artist on the Tarzan newspaper strip.

 

Alex Raymond

For my money, the finest draughtsman in comics when it came to drawing the human form. His figures are liquid and alive. He was the creator of Flash Gordon and Rip Kirby. More...

 

Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud

Unfortunately there isn't a specific page devoted to this book, as far as I know. The above link is to the Amazon.com page which contains a description and some reviews. Scott McCloud's own page has a brief listing of UC and some of his other work.

 

On the surface, Understanding Comics is a fun, fascinating, and highly perceptive look at the nature of the medium, told in comics form. But I think the book goes well beyond that into the relationship of words and pictures, our perception of time and the fascinating mental process of "closure". I find a strong relationship between the "words and pictures in sequence telling a story" aspect of comics and the "words and pictures linked together in paths conveying information" nature of the Web, so I've always recommended this book to anyone interested in the Web, even though it never even mentions computers.

 

In his newest book, Reinventing Comics, he takes on the origins and development of comics as a mass medium and its potential and future possibilities. As usual, his explorations dig well beyond the surface of the topic and delve into such things as the relationship of art to commerce and the contact between an artist and the audience that experiences the art.

 

Like Understanding Comics, this is an essay written in comics form. His ability to communicate this way is so elegant that you may not notice that he's basically reinventing this aspect of the comics medium as he goes along. He's not illustrating written words, as others might do, he's using carefully crafted iconographic images that add additional levels of meaning to the narrative!

 

A good portion of this book is devoted to the new possibilities opened up for the comics medium by the advent of computer graphics and the Net. He gives a nice mention of Argon Zark! in the process.

 

In his previous book, The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln, Scott dives directly into computer comics with a playful mix of 3-D rendering and iconographic drawing that I think Argon Zark! readers will find appealing. The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln is available at most good comic book stores, and many bookstores. Also, look for recent compilations of his delightful early work, Zot! Volume 1 and Zot! Book 2 Volume 2. Great stuff. See the listing for his online work under "Online Strips and Experiments" above.

 

Comics and Sequential Art

Will Eisner is one of the true geniuses of comic art. This is essentially his "how to" book. Along with Understanding Comics, it's the essential goods on what comics are all about. Anyone interested in doing comics or really knowing something about the medium should have both of these books. The height of Eisner's work, and one of the heights of comics art, was The Spirit, essentially an 8 page comic book distributed as a newspaper supplement in the 40's and 50's. Brilliant.

 

Zippy the Pinhead

Bill Griffith's hilarious, bizarre, thought-provoking daily strip. How it ever got into into the newspapers, I'll never know. It's only in a handful, though, so my faith in American Mediocrity is largely unshaken. Also don't miss The Zippy Filter.

 

World Wide Woodring

Jim Woodring's surreal, sometimes disturbing comics. Check out "Jim" or "Frank". Not for everyone, but captivating if it appeals to you at all. Not for children.

 

Alum Falls, Ohio

Damon Rarey's quiet, unassuming slice-of-life stories about teenage life in the 1950s, affectionately told in comics form. Rarey's father, George, was an accomplished cartoonist who chronicled his World War II experiences in the Army Air Corps in a series of cartoon Sketchbook Journals. Rarey senior's drawings carry delightful echoes of many of the best cartoonists and illustrators of the period.

 

Reflux

Ground breaking CD-ROM comic with some interesting ideas about interactivity. Instead of alternate endings or storylines (which bores me to tears), they offer alternate points of view to the same story and additional levels of background information on the characters and story. Mixes animated panels, morphing and even video with traditional comic art.

 

AAA Aardvark WraithSpace Comix Index

A huge listing, well produced and seemingly up-to-date. Includes brief descriptions. One of the best.

 

Alternative Comics: A WWW Guide

Because it focuses on "alternative" comics (which is where the good stuff is anyway) this isn't quite as extensive as the biggest lists. It's one of my favorites, though, because of the brief but thoughtful reviews. Excellent.

 

Stuart's Comic Strip Connection

Huge listing, well-indexed by several categories, with descriptions. Great resource, even if he does give Argon the short end.

 

Yahoo-Entertainment:Comics and Animation

Huge searchable listing with descriptions. Pretty well up-to-date.

 

The Comics Media Archives

No descriptions, but a large, up-to-date alphabetical list.

 

The Comics Hotlist

An extensive list, no descriptions, arranged according to daily, weekly, and monthly updates.

 

Jonah Weiland's Comic Book Resources.

A news and reviews site with an extensive collection of links, devoted primarily to print comics.

 

Cyber Comics

Short but sweet, a fast, condensed listing of web comics, arranged by frequency and presented three ways. No descriptions.

 

Periodic Table of Webcomics

Links to webcomics aranged as a periodic table, by Kevin Pease, creator of the webcomic Absurd Notions.

 

Comix 'n Stuff!

Christian Cosas' mega list is pretty much the grandaddy of web comics listings. I'm not sure if it's being updated these days, though. His "New Stuff" page is a year old now.

 

A2Z Entertainment and Leisure, Comics and Cartoons

A Lycos/Point listing, with descriptions. Small but growing.

 

Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index

Great source for web presence of Syndicated and Editorial cartoonists. Also has a good list of web cartoonists, (including yours truly).

New Comic Book Releases List

Wanna know what paper comics are due out this week?

 

Master List of Comic Book Stores

Wanna know where to buy 'em?

You can also search here.

 

Bud Plant's Incredible Catalog

The catalog is good resource for interesting and hard-to-find comic related items.

 

Mars Import

Online comic store, often good with hard-to-find items.