Ask The Readers: Web comics for gamers?

I’ve been a fan of “Penny Arcade” pretty much from day one, and I was overjoyed when my favorite comics from the Dragon magazine “Nodwick” and “What’s New With Phil And Dixie” made the jump to the world-wide web.

Chgowiz Another great webcomic and (hopefully) soon a RPG setting for GURPS is Phil & Kaja Foglio’s Girl Genius. And last but not least I always enjoy reading the latest “Full Frontal Nerdity”. In many ways it reminds me of a modern version of “Knights of the Dinner Table”. And by the way, don’t you think that the bald guy looks a lot like our fellow RPG blogger Chgowiz?

(c) Aaron Williams

What are your favorite gaming-related web comics? Are there any true gems out there that I missed? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

15 comments

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Wyatt

I really enjoy Erfworld, it's currently got 1 "book" of its storyline down and they're prepping for the next one. It has an awesome art style that really compliments the setting. It's about a wargaming nerd who gets magically called into a wargame world that may or may not be real, where all sorts of cutesy creatures and people are in a constant state of brutal wargaming warfare, and the nerd is the last hope of a falling faction who's only a few turns away from devastation.
.-= Wyatt´s last blog ..Nations of Eden: The Dromidae =-.

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Stargazer

Hehe, that sounds like fun. I will have a look!

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Walker

Goblins.

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Saragon

It sort of goes without saying, since nearly every gamer reads it anyway, but you did leave out Order of the Stick.

For inspiration for science-fiction games, Schlock Mercenary is fantastic. (And it's fantastic for just reading, too — it's one of my personal favorites.)

For amazing character sketches, Sinfest is a great read. It's also pretty NSFW, but it's got a huge archive, beautifully expressive artwork, and an amazingly cutting sense of dark humor mixed with hope and an appreciation for beauty. Hard to describe, easy to read for hours.

For superhero games, Evil, Inc. is a good read. Not perfect, but funny and interesting.

(And you totally scooped me on this, Stargazer — I was planning on doing my own list of suggested webcomics for gamers. Look for that soon…)
.-= Saragon´s last blog ..Atlas Games Taking Short Pitches for Unknown Armies PDFs =-.

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Sean Holland

I highly recommend:

Weregeek
.-= Sean Holland´s last blog ..New Monster – Leather Man =-.

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wickedmurph

Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic is pretty good:
http://yafgc.shipsinker.com/

As is the Challenges of Zona:
http://www.soulgeek.com/comics/zona/

So is Tarol Hunt's Goblins:
http://goblins.keenspot.com/

Erfworld is pretty much my favorite, though.
.-= wickedmurph´s last blog ..4e Sandboxing =-.

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David

Erfworld

Order of the Stick

Digger – http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=3

Darths and Droids – http://darthsanddroids.net/
.-= David´s last blog ..The Forge of Fury =-.

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Questing GM

What? No Order of the Stick?

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Alex Schröder

DM of the Rings! http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=612 (complete story)

I also like comics without gamer meta jokes…
http://runnersuniverse.com/ http://www.davidcsimon.com/crimsondark/
.-= Alex Schröder´s last blog ..iPod Restore =-.

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Aaron

What? No love for Clockworks? It's not really a comic about gaming, but it's a comic adaptation of a steampunk RPG game. http://shawntionary.com/clockworks/?p=31. It's not too far along, but it's fascinating.

Plus, it has the Savage Worlds stats for all the characters, and he's building the world (and posting additional rules such as races) on his blog. It's very cool.
.-= Aaron´s last blog ..Want to Ride the Google Wave? =-.

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Hammer

Looking for Group – Comedy-drama in a fantasy setting, originally WoW influenced, but far less do now: http://www.lfgcomic.com/

Hijinks Ensue – It's a geek culture comic, but has some occasional good gaming strips: http://hijinksensue.com/

Commissioned – It's written by a gaming geek and pro-designer in South America. There are several plot arcs going on, including one in which he details over the top adventures of his gaming group. Also, it has Cthulhu Ninja Zombie: http://www.commissionedcomic.com/

FreakAngels – A free comic from the Warren Ellis, which has nothing to do with gaming and a lot to do with super-powered people dealing with life in a post-apocalyptic world. Great inspiration: http://www.freakangels.com/

However, in no circumstances should Ctrl+Alt+Del be assumed to be a gamer comic. It's a void of awful, awful humour, poor art and some of the worst stereotypes you could care to imagine. The artist actually has an ongoing feud with Scott Kurtz of PvP and Gabe and Tycho have even said that they don't like him or his strip.
.-= Hammer´s last blog ..Equipment: Hammer’s Big Green Bag of Holding =-.

    comments user
    Stargazer

    @Hammer: The Ctrl+Alt+Del guy has a feud with Scott Kurtz? Do you have any details?

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Hammer

Oh, and my new GM also looks like both Chgowiz and the guy in FFN. It's one of the gamer arch-types looks I think.
.-= Hammer´s last blog ..Equipment: Hammer’s Big Green Bag of Holding =-.

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Hammer

@Stargazer Only what I can really remember – Buckley is notorious for scouring Wikis and so on to remove criticism of himself.

About 6 or 7 years ago, CAD and PvP ended up running pretty similar storylines. Buckley threatened Kurtz with legal action over it. Kurtz, and the rest of the web-comic industry just laughed at him.

Buckley also has serious control freak issues, claims to have started the webcomic business (PvP & Penny Arcade both started before CAD AFAIK), his forums were run like a communist dictatorship and he's generally an ass to his fans. I'm not even sure how he's managed to maintain enough of a base to keep holding an annual LAN fest.

There's a wee bit about previous accusations here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ctrl%2BAlt%2BDel#Rec

I stopped reading during the ridiculous Miscarriage story arc, but it had been years since I actually laughed at one of his strips.
.-= Hammer´s last blog ..Equipment: Hammer’s Big Green Bag of Holding =-.

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schnalle

my all time favourite is still OotS, but erfworld is a close second. yet.

yafg updates daily and even has goblin-boobs sometimes (yay!).

darths and droids is so funny it brought a new gamer to my DS group. it's a pity, GM of the rings is already finished.

lfg is good, but it draws all it's comedic value from richard, the celebrity warlock. not 100% my taste.