Lee McKusick

I’ve decided to highight some of my abderian exploits on the Internet; those simple, regularly-updated joys on the Web that cause many smiles and much laughter. Here are some of the ones that I regularly read, or at least try to keep relatively up-to-date with. So without further ado:

Order of the Stick

The non-standard adventures of a standard D&D player group. Roy Greenhilt the fighter and leader of the party, Haley Starshine the greedy rogue with a bow, Durkon the Scottish dwarf priest, Vaarsuvius the seemingly all-powerful, Elan and Belkar the quasi-evil hobbit all work to combat the forces of Xykon, an evil undead lich in typically D&D fashion, with a ton of hilarity ensuing along the way.

Looking For Group

This follows a group of WoW characters. I think this is one of the most story-oriented comics on this list.

Hands down, though, the best thing about LFG is Richard. Richard is the undead warlock in the group. I love Richard. From the very first comic, you can see that Richard is one of those characters that you can easily love because he is so over the top that it’s ridiculous, but one you can totally identify with for that very reason, because you never would otherwise. Did I mention I love Richard?

8-Bit Theater

I haven’t read this one for a long time, and I think I got about 2/3 of the way through the archive when I was reading them. There’s a LOT of these, and they’re long too. You can kill a lot of time with these. This follows the same vein as OotS and LFG, but with the characters and (loosely) story from the original Final Fantasy. Fighter, Theif, Red Mage, and Black Mage are the four plucky heroes on their quest (whatever it happens to be at the time).

I love Black Mage for the same reason I love Richard. Pure cruelty and evil, but with a sense of humor. It’s a perfect mix.

Penny Arcade

A comic about two guys named Jonathan Gabriel (”Gabe”, modelled after creator Jerry Holkins) and Tycho Brahe (representing creator Mike Krahulik) who play games. Most strips are commentaries on either particualr games or news in the gaming industry. I think the main thing that PA as a comic has going for it is its art style, which I can’t really describe, since I’m no artist, but its rather different than anything else I’ve seen.

PA is one of the most popular webcomics, and with the success of events like PAX (Penny Arcade Expo) and Holkins’ and Krahulik’s charity Child’s Play (which is a worldwide toy drive for children’s hospitals), it’s easy to see why. I would encourage you to check it out. Sometimes the language gets a bit course, but if you don’t have a problem with that, go for it.

GUComics

A daily comic by artist Woody Hearn about various MMO and general game news. Check it out…

VGCats

Feline friends Leo and Aeris parody video games (hence the “VG”) in this witty and often hilarious comic.

xkcd

I think I’ve saved the best for last. This webcomic is extraordinary, in that it’s tailored for people like me. The kind of person who while they’re walking along a black and white tiled floor makes up some sort of pattern game where you can’t step on certain tiles. The sort of person who integrates their abnormal intellect in normal life.For example, this is a strip: “Staring at the ceiling, she asked me what I was thinking about. I should have made something up. The Bellman-Ford algorithm makes terrible pillow talk.”

Plus, I love how he uses the title attribute of the image tag to add an extra short message related to each comic you can see if you hover the mouse over it.

Honorable Mentions:

Rooster Teeth

Brought to us from the same people who created our beloved masterpiece of Halo machinima, Red Vs. Blue, this one’s pretty funny at times, but nothing spectacular. Read ‘em while RvB is downloading.

Office Offline

A comic that focuses mainly on Microsoft Office and it’s pitfalls and benefits.

Joy of Tech

I don’t normally read this one, but they’ve had some good ones pop up on Digg. If only their website was designed better. Sigh…

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