I like nerd jokes. I like Lego. I like Indiana Jones, but more than anything I like silly jokes and plays on words. Irregular Webcomic delivers these things in huge meaty dollops. To be honest, there’s not really a lot more to be said about this comic. If you don’t like parody humour and you don’t find puns in any way amusing then this one is not for you. If you don’t like comics that are photographed as opposed to drawn, then this is not for you. However, if you’re willing to give this rather, ahem, irregular webcomic a chance I think you’ll find something in it that will make you laugh. If nothing else, David’s facial expressions are just darn right hilarious.

On a quick technical note, it’s nice to see that Irregular Webcomic allows for pretty versatile searching, and the ability to browse strips by theme/ storyline. On a less technical note, thanks to Not12x for recommending this comic to me in the first place, and thus helping to fuel my insomnia.

Work has me far off the beaten path this week, with almost zero net access; thus, brief updates.

Kristofer Straub’s given us some wicked satire over the past year in Starslip Crisis, and his lead character, Memnon Vanderbeam, has been a reliable buffoon. Even his mopery over the death of the love of his life has been played more for laughs than anything … until last Friday. He can get her back, but it will take 400 millenia. So what is he to do, but to stop whispering and give the command: Begin.

Beautifully written, heartbreaking, and new depths to an established character. Kudos to Straub, and our wishes that Vanderbeam doesn’t have to wait quite that long to get Jovia back.

One of my all time favorite web comics has to be A Softer World by Emily and Joey. The stylized photographs along with the eerie statements give you the impression that you are only witness to half of story. Sometimes the strips can be off-beat and humorous, and other times they can be a little on the creepy side.

The writing is poignant, and actually causes you to stop and think about the characters in these three-panel strips, which is odd considering that none of them are recurring. It is truly a testament to the artists when a reader develops a sense of sadness or fondness within the context of a single strip.

I don’t want to undermine the humor of A Softer World with all this talk of creepiness. The format of the strip allows for some weird one-liners that include cats cleaning hair, gang morals, and the devastation of someone who can’t contain his lust.

This comic has raised my eyebrows repeatedly throughout the years, either through slow sadness or disturbing humor. Maybe if I pray enough this comic will be around for many years to come to decorate my desktop and brighten my day.

Okay. Here it is, the last in this particular run of Single Strip Appreciation Week (TM). Today we are revisiting one of the strips that really turned web comics into a social thing for me. I used to just sit and read Sluggy Freelance in my room and really not bother anyone about it because they had no freaking clue what I was talking about. Penny Arcade; now that was different. The strip in question was a real hit with my friends. We’re the type of kind supportive brethren that constantly dash each others hopes and dreams, and laugh maniacally while doing so.

As you may expect, this issue of PA was a milestone for us. If someone asked you whether you wanted to go to the shop at like 4 A.M, all you really had to do was mention the word “re-burn” and their spirits were immediately crushed. For Penny Arcade, I really think this strip is a land mark. The writing is scathing, funny, smart and memorable all at the same time and the art style has settled into a nice groove; nice enough for us not to have to look past bad drawings to see the funny joke. That’s pretty much what good web comicing is all about. PA has developed leaps and bounds since this six year old strip. It has become influential. Be that as it may, any time you come round here with your crazy ideas about a truck load of shrimp and a performance art installation, you know exactly how you’re going to get served.

Next week I will return you to your regular programming, but I’ve had a lot of fun taking a look at my favourite instances in web comics. I hope you have too!

Two ways to check out ‘Mega’ webcomics this week, going back through all your favorite gags. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll remember the good times.

First up, Diablo the Chicken’s megaGAMERZ 3133T is going into reruns. Started on 22 June 2005 and ending not quite a year later with the Deathrumble, you’ve got an eye-popping 49 self-contained storylines and a cast of dozens (including my personal favorite, Fishapod). Given the tremendous demand to see them again, Diablo has added one to the year, and opted to rerun the entire series from the very beginning. No revisions or redraws, no commentary track, just pure gamery goodness. Hop on board now while you can and enjoy the thrill ride.

And secondly, Megatokyo released volume 4 this week (following a shift from Dark Horse to CMX, an imprint of DC Comics), covering chapters 5 (starting 25 February 2004) and 6 (ending 1 August 2005), you’ve got a year and a half’s worth of strip, plus various side-stories, fillers, and sketches.

However, this is not a review, given that everything included only accounts for about three days of story time, it’s hard to say whether or not the story is progressing without reading the entire damn thing. Some day, Fred Gallagher will finish MT and reading it all in one go will either prove to be very satisfying or deeply disturbing. Neither outcome, however, will shift anybody from their present opinions on the man and his work, so if you like MT assume you need this book, and if you don’t, assume your ten bucks would be better off contributing to the purchase of Tezuka’s Phoenix, volume 7.

Yep, it’s officially summer and it is hot as balls in Texas right now. But do you know what’s even hotter than balls? Today’s Leave It To Jesus strip!

YOU’VE JUST BEEN SEGWAYED!

So today’s Leave It To Jesus comic is all about a conversation that actually happened in the alley behind the creator’s old apartment. It involves a crack deal, a pointless apology, and of course the Savior of all man kind. The creator said that his neighborhood was so bad that scenes of 8 Mile were shot in that alleyway. The horror! I feel bad for the guy simply because he had to be within a hundred feet of Eminem.

Sorry. That joke is only funny if you’re British. And an idiot. my apologies.

Moving swiftly on, next up on Single Strip Appreciation Week (TM), it’s Questionable Content. Now first off, I have to tell you, I love pizza. Everyone should love pizza. I also find girls to be fairly inoffensive by and large, so QC’s Pizza Girl is obviously a character that brings me much joy. The strip in question (this one, for those of you who aren’t paying attention) brings the very nature of Pizza Girl into question. I find that hilarious. Mainly I find it hilarious because it represents a conversation a whole lot of QC fans have probably had ever since Pizza Girl arrived on the scene. It’s breaking the fourth wall without breaking it. By the end of the strip it seems like our potential super heroine is just messing with everyones head. We think to ourselves, “of course she is. I mean, a pizza delivering super heroine? That’s crazy!” Then we remember that we are reading a comic that has a talking robot computer in the second panel ever! We just don’t know what to believe!

Also, I totally want to see Chinese Delivery Man in action. That would rock.

Our friend T-Rex at Dinosaur Comics raised an interesting point today. He noted that after a enlongated period of time, jokes just aren’t funny anymore. I stopped to think this over, and realized that this is quite true. I mean, who sincerely laughs to tears at Shakespeare anymore? And there isn’t a single Murphy Brown episode that I have yet to decipher into any kind of comedy gold.

I guess as times go by, topical humor fades away and only the meat and potatos of comedy are left standing. Shows such as Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, and of course Three’s Company are still here with us today because they honored the age-old practices of physical comedy and perfected timing.

And that leads me back to T-Rex. One of the greatest attributes of Dinosaur Comics is the almost perfected writing and timing of the punch lines. This is one of few web comics that actually cause me to laugh out loud. Today’s strip did exactly that when I read the punch line in the last panel.

Because as everyone knows, I’m dumb for Dinosaur Comics.

My buy-list for SDCC is getting longer, as in addition to Kristofer Straub’s second Starslip Crisis book, there’s a new comprehensive volume of Wapsi Square coming from Paul Taylor. Big, beefy bargain books, too, clocking in at 180 and 160 pages respectively.

Speaking of Blank Label, Steve Troop has a new gig doing puppet videocasts over at Kevin Smith‘s site; the link to Troop’s video wasn’t working on Tuesday, but since he’s scheduled to run on Friday’s, I imagine that makes sense. Also worth noting is a list of fairly impressive names that Smith has contributing to his relaunched site: Fred Hembeck, Paul Dini, and the cast/crew of Scrubs will be bumping elbows with Troop at the website Christmas party.

Given how long Troop’s been at this game, that makes him an overnight success after a decade-plus of grinding effort — our sincere congratulations to him, and wishes for future ass-kickery.

Inverloch and Earthsong being published isn’t exactly recent news, but it hasn’t been talked about here. Megatokyo has been at the book game for a while now, and Fred is on book four. Inverloch and Earthsong both went through a revision process — in fact, you can view the newly drawn pages of Earthsong as “redux” pages on the internet. Inverloch has used redrawn pages as incentives.
Megatokyo included the original art in all of the editions. (I own the first one. I bought it on impulse while in Ann Arbor, squeeing over the fact that I was that close to someone that did webcomics. Little did I know, a year later, I’d be writing for Fleen.) It does, of course, include editions and bonuses. And in reading Fred’s rants, he went through a lot of trouble to make the comics the correct ratio, let alone revise the drawings.

All three works mentioned are aiming for the same thing: an epic storyline. They want to tell a story. So, why the different approaches to publishing? Creators out there, what would you do? Readers and fans, what is it that you prefer?