Comic Review: Internet comics, no particular theme

I tried to divide this into a theme where I could pick three again, but the most likely theme did not have an obvious name, and I realized that the ones I haven't read yet are probably ones that I will cover based more on their authors, so this is just throwing several things out there.

It is going up late, but there are really a lot of reading options for your long weekend.

Wondermark: http://wondermark.com/

by David Malki

Old-fashioned pictures are combined with rather current exposition. The jokes often have fairly long setups, where the result is more likely to be a smile of understanding than an loud guffaw, but I find that many of them are applicable, and I end up sharing them with others. The Terrible Sea Lion was exactly right, and the one about daycare being wasted on the young made me jealous.

XKCD: http://xkcd.com/

by Randall Munroe

The jokes are generally centered around math, language, technology, and human relationships. The art itself is usually pretty simple, with stick figures, but then something of amazing and beautiful complexity will appear. The humor is sometimes weird, which works for me, and sometimes it is entirely above my head, however, there is a disclaimer right on the page:

"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

This double liberal arts major (Romance Languages and History) still enjoys it.

Dumbing of Age: http://www.dumbingofage.com/

by David Willis

This one focuses on the lives of the mainly freshmen students living in the dorms. It would be really easy to make some of the characters unsympathetic stereotypes, but there is a nice humanity to the strip. Some aspects of college and dorm life feel very familiar. There is a fair amount of focus on sex, which I don't remember as much from my time in school, but it certainly seems plausible.

The White Snake: http://www.jenwang.net/whitesnake/

by Jen Wang

There is currently only one chapter up, but it is really intriguing. The story switches from a collection of snakes where several snakes are missing and a person is dead, to the therapy session of a seemingly open and rather unworldly girl. I do want to know what happens next.

Kate or Die!: http://kateordiecomics.com/

by Kate Leth

This is often really cute, and then sometimes it kind of dragged for me. I can't write it off though, because it frequently touches on issues of depression and identity that are handled really sensitively, and I know there is a need for that. It is probably best to not expect too strong a theme. Sometimes it functions more like a journal, sometimes there is a story, and you take it as it comes.

Ducks: http://beatonna.tumblr.com/post/81993262830/here-is-a-sketch-comic-i-made-called-ducks-in

by Kate Beaton

This is different in that it is not fully developed yet. The drawings are rough sketches, and at least for when I was trying to read it, the individual issues cut off, where there were parts and connections missing. It is more of an experiment in that way, checking to see if there is something there. And there is. I believe there are important themes there, and that it would pair well with Underground from yesterday - perhaps not quite as action-packed, but with the focus on environment, industry, and human cost.

I thought I was going to cover three more, but of those left, they are all taking long enough to get anywhere that I can't tell where they are going. That's not an automatic reason for dismissal, but it may be a good reason to come back in a few months and see what's happening.