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Webcomics I'm Currently Following That I'd Rec
Another rec post, on account of I like shilling things I'm fond of. Grouped by their genres-as-I-understand-them, sorted alphabetically by title.
Fantasy
But I'm A Cat Person, by Erin Ptah.
And I quote: "Two ordinary graduates accidentally adopt a magical shapeshifting battle monster." Set in the modern(ish; 2010, I think Boston) day, where the one major change to the universe is that there are magical constructs known as Beings that were created at... various times in history... and based on a species or type of animal, and have the ability to shapeshift between human and animal forms. And other things. They participate in something called "The Game", wherein they fight each other for... bragging rights, pretty much.
This doesn't really change history, but shit gets real anyway in story present, starting with political campaigns and continuing through with learning magic and uncovering shadowy dealings by prominent Being researchers. There may be an apocalypse on the horizon, I'm not sure and probably neither are the characters. Features a lot of Jewish and Christian [mythology/theology/stuff]. Heed the about page's content warnings.
As of this writing has 28 chapters, I believe it's coming up on a Dramatic Finale at some point soon. Updates Mondays and Thursdays (mostly).
El Goonish Shive, by Dan Shive.
A ludicrously long (more than 16 years old, and updates fairly regularly and frequently) comic about a (sometimes) boy named Tedd and his magical transformation gun, only it then gets far more complicated and interesting and plotty. Features a hell of a lot of genderbending and, given that this was a comic started in 2002 about primarily male-to-female genderbending, has gone through a lot of growing pains, in art evolution, plot quality, and sensitive-topic-portrayal all.
There's a lot of magic, some aliens (and alien-human-squirrel hybrids), a secret species of immortal pointy-eared people, a canonical multiverse, card tournaments about Totally Not Magic: The Gathering, the slow-and-then-not-so-slow peeling back of the Masquerade... Recent years have seen the introduction of at least one definitely trans new character as well as the decision that Tedd's experience of gender is consistent with genderfluidity, and characters have been super queer sexuality-wise for much longer.
There's a main comic, which is Long As Hell; a sketchbook, which sees much more sporadic updates; a newspaper-style-strips section with arcs of varying canonicity that is also Long As Hell although it took a break for a couple years so it's Less Long; and a Patreon where Dan posts voted-for-by-patrons noncanon art of various transformation shenanigans, as well as other things. Main comic updates Mon-Weds-Fri mostly, same for EGS:NP, and sketchbook updates whenever.
Leif & Thorn, also by Erin Ptah. (Looks, she does good work, ok?)
Set in a totally separate world with magic and knights and magic knights, where the eponymous Thorn and his magical knight team are assigned to guard the embassy of the foreign country Sonheim in their native country of Ceannis. Leif is a gardener at the embassy, and also aslave indentured servant. Cue slow-burn m/m romance amid a lot of other plot. IMO this comic is far from primarily about the title characters' relationship, although that is in fact also an important story arc.
The worldbuilding is exquisite, from geography to society to the magic systems to clothing, and the societies are realistically imperfect while also being less worse or even better than real world societies and countries in terms of e.g. queer acceptance, with natural-feeling takes on, say, trans people that take into account a totally different trajectory made possible by magic. (Take, for example, Juniper Explains: Medical Microchips, wherein they discuss theirs and also what we in our universe would call trans people but what in Ceannic culture doesn't get a specific adjective separating them from cis people of the same gender.)
As of this writing has 29 chapters in 3 volumes (volume 3 in progress) as well as a bunch of standalone AUs, canonical side stories, canonical (sometimes) Sunday Specials (including [Person] Explains: Some Aspect of Worldbuilding), etc. etc. etc. Look, just look at the archive page.
Updates every day of the week; Monday-Friday is newspaper-strip-sized comics, Saturday is sketchbook-and-non bonus art, and Sunday is either a double-size newspaper comic continuing the main story or full-page Sunday Specials. There's also a wiki with extra worldbuilding, although Ms. Ptah has I believe said something to the effect that it's not necessarily set-in-stone canon until it appears in the comic proper.(Oh god, watch her come correct me in the comments)
The Order of the Stick, by Rich Burlew.
Honestly given that this started in 2003 I think most people at all familiar with Dungeons & Dragons know about this, but OotS is a self-aware stick figure ?parody? of D&D working with mostly 3.5e rules and pretty much no fourth wall. The eponymous adventuring party starts out killing goblins for loot, and then the bard Summons Plot Exposition and it turns out they're trying to stop the lich Xykon, and then it turns out Xykon is trying to control a gate to... somewhere, and then it turns out the gate is actually holding in an eldritch abomination that killed an entire pantheon of gods called the Snarl and Xykon and hisminion handler minion local noble anti-villain minion Redcloak want to control this Snarl and do bad shit and the Order of the Stick is called to protect the world from Xykon and the Snarl and etc. And then recent pages have totally blown open the scale even wider, it's great and I love it.
Has gone through some growing pains with regards to unexamined misogyny, arguable transphobia, and "ha ha sexualities and genders outside cishet are weird and sources of comedy", and surely other things I'm forgetting, but I would recommend it anyway because it's Fucking Great. Also contains a lot of semi-cartoony violence, but what do you expect, it's about a D&D adventuring party. There's several books' worth of content outside the main comic, although none of it is strictly necessary to enjoy the story.
As of this writing stands at 1147 pages (which are sometimes more than 1 printed page in size); updates... sporadically. Currently seems to be somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks between pages; Rich has made and will make no promises about any kind of update schedule; don't ask on the forums (just don't). There's an RSS feed you can subscribe to.
????? Eclectic Geeky Nonsense ?????
xkcd, by Randall Munroe.
Largely standalone and incredibly geeky jokes; there is no shame in using explain xkcd if you don't get it. Despite the adage that explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog, I find the jokes that I get already aren't ruined, and the jokes that I don't get are largely made comprehensible and clever, by being explained. Sometimes comics are mostly not jokes at all but instead fucking huge infographics about money, movie narrative charts, gravity wells, or Earth's average global temperature since 20,000 BCE, although those tend to include jokes anyway.
Munroe is blatantly and unashamedly political, scientifically minded, and makes comics about everything from computers to animals to space. As of this writing there are 2081 comics, and xkcd updates Mon-Weds-Fri.
Fantasy
But I'm A Cat Person, by Erin Ptah.
And I quote: "Two ordinary graduates accidentally adopt a magical shapeshifting battle monster." Set in the modern(ish; 2010, I think Boston) day, where the one major change to the universe is that there are magical constructs known as Beings that were created at... various times in history... and based on a species or type of animal, and have the ability to shapeshift between human and animal forms. And other things. They participate in something called "The Game", wherein they fight each other for... bragging rights, pretty much.
This doesn't really change history, but shit gets real anyway in story present, starting with political campaigns and continuing through with learning magic and uncovering shadowy dealings by prominent Being researchers. There may be an apocalypse on the horizon, I'm not sure and probably neither are the characters. Features a lot of Jewish and Christian [mythology/theology/stuff]. Heed the about page's content warnings.
As of this writing has 28 chapters, I believe it's coming up on a Dramatic Finale at some point soon. Updates Mondays and Thursdays (mostly).
El Goonish Shive, by Dan Shive.
A ludicrously long (more than 16 years old, and updates fairly regularly and frequently) comic about a (sometimes) boy named Tedd and his magical transformation gun, only it then gets far more complicated and interesting and plotty. Features a hell of a lot of genderbending and, given that this was a comic started in 2002 about primarily male-to-female genderbending, has gone through a lot of growing pains, in art evolution, plot quality, and sensitive-topic-portrayal all.
There's a lot of magic, some aliens (and alien-human-squirrel hybrids), a secret species of immortal pointy-eared people, a canonical multiverse, card tournaments about Totally Not Magic: The Gathering, the slow-and-then-not-so-slow peeling back of the Masquerade... Recent years have seen the introduction of at least one definitely trans new character as well as the decision that Tedd's experience of gender is consistent with genderfluidity, and characters have been super queer sexuality-wise for much longer.
There's a main comic, which is Long As Hell; a sketchbook, which sees much more sporadic updates; a newspaper-style-strips section with arcs of varying canonicity that is also Long As Hell although it took a break for a couple years so it's Less Long; and a Patreon where Dan posts voted-for-by-patrons noncanon art of various transformation shenanigans, as well as other things. Main comic updates Mon-Weds-Fri mostly, same for EGS:NP, and sketchbook updates whenever.
Leif & Thorn, also by Erin Ptah. (Looks, she does good work, ok?)
Set in a totally separate world with magic and knights and magic knights, where the eponymous Thorn and his magical knight team are assigned to guard the embassy of the foreign country Sonheim in their native country of Ceannis. Leif is a gardener at the embassy, and also a
The worldbuilding is exquisite, from geography to society to the magic systems to clothing, and the societies are realistically imperfect while also being less worse or even better than real world societies and countries in terms of e.g. queer acceptance, with natural-feeling takes on, say, trans people that take into account a totally different trajectory made possible by magic. (Take, for example, Juniper Explains: Medical Microchips, wherein they discuss theirs and also what we in our universe would call trans people but what in Ceannic culture doesn't get a specific adjective separating them from cis people of the same gender.)
As of this writing has 29 chapters in 3 volumes (volume 3 in progress) as well as a bunch of standalone AUs, canonical side stories, canonical (sometimes) Sunday Specials (including [Person] Explains: Some Aspect of Worldbuilding), etc. etc. etc. Look, just look at the archive page.
Updates every day of the week; Monday-Friday is newspaper-strip-sized comics, Saturday is sketchbook-and-non bonus art, and Sunday is either a double-size newspaper comic continuing the main story or full-page Sunday Specials. There's also a wiki with extra worldbuilding, although Ms. Ptah has I believe said something to the effect that it's not necessarily set-in-stone canon until it appears in the comic proper.
The Order of the Stick, by Rich Burlew.
Honestly given that this started in 2003 I think most people at all familiar with Dungeons & Dragons know about this, but OotS is a self-aware stick figure ?parody? of D&D working with mostly 3.5e rules and pretty much no fourth wall. The eponymous adventuring party starts out killing goblins for loot, and then the bard Summons Plot Exposition and it turns out they're trying to stop the lich Xykon, and then it turns out Xykon is trying to control a gate to... somewhere, and then it turns out the gate is actually holding in an eldritch abomination that killed an entire pantheon of gods called the Snarl and Xykon and his
Has gone through some growing pains with regards to unexamined misogyny, arguable transphobia, and "ha ha sexualities and genders outside cishet are weird and sources of comedy", and surely other things I'm forgetting, but I would recommend it anyway because it's Fucking Great. Also contains a lot of semi-cartoony violence, but what do you expect, it's about a D&D adventuring party. There's several books' worth of content outside the main comic, although none of it is strictly necessary to enjoy the story.
As of this writing stands at 1147 pages (which are sometimes more than 1 printed page in size); updates... sporadically. Currently seems to be somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks between pages; Rich has made and will make no promises about any kind of update schedule; don't ask on the forums (just don't). There's an RSS feed you can subscribe to.
????? Eclectic Geeky Nonsense ?????
xkcd, by Randall Munroe.
Largely standalone and incredibly geeky jokes; there is no shame in using explain xkcd if you don't get it. Despite the adage that explaining a joke is like dissecting a frog, I find the jokes that I get already aren't ruined, and the jokes that I don't get are largely made comprehensible and clever, by being explained. Sometimes comics are mostly not jokes at all but instead fucking huge infographics about money, movie narrative charts, gravity wells, or Earth's average global temperature since 20,000 BCE, although those tend to include jokes anyway.
Munroe is blatantly and unashamedly political, scientifically minded, and makes comics about everything from computers to animals to space. As of this writing there are 2081 comics, and xkcd updates Mon-Weds-Fri.