Key & Compass: About Webcomics

Summaries, reviews, and short remarks about the webcomics I either currently read or have read in the past.

Absurd Notions

Artifice

Main Cast

• Deacon (about). A highly-advanced artificial human, built by the Corporation. Trained to be a soldier. But his abnormal behaviour during a recent mission on Da Vinci Four and his erratic behaviour afterwards has labelled him as malfunctioning, crazy, and dangerous. He is also the last of his model; all of his fellow operatives were destroyed when a booby-trapped landing pad for their spacecraft exploded.
• Dr. Clarice Maven (about). A Corporate psychologist trained in artificial intelligence. Currently interrogating Deacon to find out what went wrong and if he can be salvaged, and she's not too happy with his various evasions to direct questions.
• Jeff (about). A young man and the only survivor from the Da Vinci Four colony. Because of a genetic quirk, Jeff is also a homosexual, and was shunned by most of the puritanical colony because of it.

The Bare Pit

Creator:	Noodtoonist
Years:	–present
Tags:	Australia, comedy, fantasy (light), nudity (explicit), spin-off
Frequency:	Weekly when active, but there are extremely long breaks between storylines.
Links:	Latest comic

Summary:

Sequel to Loxie & Zoot, but still about the residents and visitors at the same Australian nudist site, the Koala Bay Bares. The only real difference is that Loxie and Zoot are no longer main characters; any character can be a main character for a storyline.

Storylines have distinct beginnings and ends, but there can be long (months-long) hiatuses between storylines. Storylines are often about nudity, in particular people's various issues with it. The general tone is mild comedy; characters are never in much danger. Sometimes there's a bit of slapstick or Three's Company-like odd coincidences, but just as often the comic veers into a relaxed carefree mode that risks being humdrum.

Although the comic tries not to be preachy, it may be a bit wearisome for some readers to keep encountering the "there's nothing wrong with nudity" message that forms the basic premise of the strip. The big problem is that all the residents of the Koala Bay Bares drank the "ain't naked life grand" Kool-Aid and have no conflicts with each other. (There are no gossips, no sluts, no drunks, no smokers, no loudmouth opinioned people, no restless people, etc. Some sun, a swim, a quiet lunch, and a leisurely walk around the place seems to be all that anyone wants.) So the author is all but forced to introduce new characters in every storyline to introduce some conflict. And unhappily, that conflict will almost certainly have something to do with nudity.

Main Cast

• Loxie and Zoot. Young co-owners of the Koala Bay Bares. Zoot is the slightly dumb blond type who can forget he's naked when he goes into town for supplies. Loxie is a normal and friendly dark-haired woman. They share the same birthday. There's not much more to say about them, except that all their relatives (when they came to visit) are all more interesting than either of them.
• Willow. Willow is a thin blonde woman attending the local university and who works at the Koala Bay Bares. (I'm not really sure what her job title is.) Her nuanced opinions about nudity, life, romance, etc. easily make her one of the more interesting people in the strip.
• Mungo. An aborginal resident of the Bares. He seems to have a mystical awareness of everything around him, and his predictions of the future are never wrong.
• Tash and Herb. Hippies. Tash is Willow's cousin. They don't get much to do, but are usually around.
• Fred and Janet. The older couple who used to run the resort. They also don't do much.
• Tex Tyler. The closest thing to a villain in the strip, Tex would love to close the Bares down. His outlandish attempts to do so, however, only succeed to make himself look foolish. He hasn't been seen much since the Loxie & Zoot days, though.

Blur the Lines

Buying Time

Ctrl+Alt+Del

Dei Umbra

Dinosaur Comics

Creator:	Ryan North
Years:	–present
Tags:	comedy, dinosaurs, geeky, plotless, silly, talking animals
Frequency:	Weekdays
Links:	Latest comic

Summary:

T-Rex expounds his dubious wisdom on whatever nonsense he happens to think about.

The main gimmick? The art never changes. (Well, almost never.)

There are no story arcs. Most of the strips are independent of each other and can be read in any order.

Main Cast

• T-Rex is the lime green dinosaur who appears in all six panels. A lovable idiot type.
• Utahraptor is the orange dinosaur in panels 4 and 5. He's T-Rex's best friend and somewhat smarter. He usually gets to explain to T-Rex why his latest theory or idea won't work. (Utahraptor is also gay, but that isn't mentioned much.)
• Dromiceiomimus is the pale yellow dinosaur in panel 3. Dromiceiomimus is a female friend of T-Rex's.
• God, the creator of the universe, appears only as a boldface all-caps voice from the top edge of the panels.
• The Devil, the tempter, appears only as a reddish boldface all-caps voice from the bottom edge of the panels.

The Dreamland Chronicles

Elfquest

Everything Jake

Fancy

Finn and Charlie are Hitched / Muddlers Beat

Main Cast

• Finn
• Charlie

Freefall

Creator:
Years:	–present
Tags:	comedy, outer space, robots, science fact, science fiction, silly, talking animals
Frequency:	Weekdays
Links:	Website

Main Cast

• Sam
• Florence

Friendly Hostility

Gene Catlow

Creator:	Albert Temple
Years:	–2017
Tags:	comedy (light), funny animals, inert, science fiction, soap opera
Frequency:	No longer updated. Was approximately three-times weekly until Albert Temple's death in 2017.
Links:	Website

General Protection Fault

Generation 17

Ghastly's Ghastly Comic

Girl Genius

Creators:	Phil and Kaja Foglio
Tags:	adventure, comedy, mad science, science fiction, soap opera, steampunk
Links:	LiveJournal alternate site

The Gods of Arr-Kelaan

Creator:	Chuck Rowles
Links:	Lastest comic, Alternate site, Rubber Mallet Comics

Gyno-Star, The Adventures of

Homestar Runner

Little Nemo in Slumberland

Look What I Brought Home

Loxie & Zoot

Summary:

Loxie and Zoot are the new co-owners of an Australian naturalist resort, the Koala Bay Bears. All would be peaceful and bliss except for one Tex Tyler who'd like nothing better than to shut them down and make them put on some clothes.

(Most of what can be said about Loxie & Zoot would be identical to its sequel, The Bare Pit, so look there for more info.)

Magellan

Creator:	Grace Crowley aka xmung (formerly known as Stephen Crowley)
Tags:	Australia, fantasy, nudity (mild), science fiction, soap opera, superheroes
Links:	Website

Mahou Shounen Fight

The Mansion of E

Creator:	Robert M. Cook
Years:	–present
Tags:	comedy (light), science fiction, silly, soap opera, talking animals
Frequency:	Daily
Links:

Ménage à 3

Minor Acts of Heroism

The Non-Adventures of Wonderella

O Human Star

Oglaf

Creator:	(I found her name by googling, but it appears nowhere on the oglaf site, so maybe she doesn't want her name associated with it?)
Years:	–present
Tags:	comedy, fantasy, homosexuality, medieval, nudity (explicit), sex (explicit), silly
Frequency:	Weekly? On weekends, I think.
Links:	Latest comic

Order of the Stick

Tags:	adventure, comedy, dungeons and dragons, fantasy, gaming, medieval, stick figures
Years:	–present
Frequency:	Extremely irregular. Ideally, it's weekly, but in practice, it can be anything from daily to once every three months.
Links:	Lastest comic, OOTS Wiki

Main Cast (a.k.a. The Order of the Stick)

• Roy
• Elan
• Haley
• Belkar
• V
• Durkon
• plus some affliated non-members:
  • Celia
  • Blackwing
  • Mr Scruffy

The Parking Lot Is Full

Priapus

Punch an' Pie

The Q Man

Writer:	Aaron F. Schnore
Artist:	J. Robinson Wheeler
Tags:	black & white, grim, science fiction, superheroes
Frequency:	Currently inactive and unavailable because of too many hacking attacks
Links:	Latest comic

Summary:

A man known only as the Q Man finds himself to be a superpowered would-be puppet of a very powerful and very secretive organization. Who is he? What is he? There's no reason to believe the Six Million Dollar Man inspired origin story that he was given. Regardless, he intends to be somewhat rebellious until things are more to his liking.

Quantum Vibe

Queen of Wands

Elan Meets Rafa

Real Life

Creator:	Greg Dean
Tags:	comedy, gaming, geeky, real world (kinda-sorta, if you can overlook Tony's inventions), science fiction, silly
Frequency:	Inactive, was weekdays
Links:	Latest comic

Main Cast

• Greg
• Liz
• Tony
• Dave
• Harper
• The cartoonist
• Alan Extra

Sandra on the Rocks

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Sexy Losers

Shadowbinders

Summary

Typical high school girl Mia White literally falls into a steampunk-fantasy world she's been dreaming about, thanks to her grandfather's mysterious antique ring. There she meets Crimson Rhen, captain of The True North (a flying ship); he's the most powerful mage of the world and just so full of himself.

Ship Jumper

Shortpacked!

Tags:	comedy, gaming, homosexuality, jobs, science fiction, silly, soap opera, spin-off, superheroes, Transformers
Frequency:	Weekdays

Main Cast

• Ethan
• Amber
• Robin
• Mike
• Leslie

Slow Wave

Sluggy Freelance

Creator:	Pete Abrams
Years:	1997–present
Tags:	adventure, aliens, comedy, deaths, demons, dimension travel, drunks, explosions, fantasy, fighting, mad science, parodies, science fiction, silly, soap opera, talking animals, time travel, vampires, zombies
Frequency:	Monday, Wednesday, Friday. (Was formerly daily plus filler sketches on weekends for years.)
Links:	Latest comic; Wikipedia entry

Summary:

The wacky misadventures of Torg, his friends, and their pets as they encounter various threats from mad scientists, vampires, zombies, aliens, demons, assassins, holiday personifications, alternate dimensions, alternate timelines, etc. etc. etc. ... and each other.

Main Cast

• Torg
• Bun-bun
• Riff
• Zoë

Other important characters

• Kiki
• Gwynn
• Aylee
• Schlock
• Oasis
• Sam
• Sasha

Storylines of interest

Torg loves Zoë.

K'Z'K.

Dimension of Pain.

Holiday Wars.

Torg Potter.

Who is Oasis?

Oceans Unmoving.

4U City.

R&D Wars.

Guest artists.

Soup

Sticky Dilly Buns

The Suburban Jungle

Templar, Arizona

Terminals

Writer:	Ryan Ferrier
Artist:	"Rove"
Colorist:	Ed Ryzowski
Publisher:	Penny Farthing Press
Years:	–2012
Tags:	deaths, grim, science fiction, superheroes, talking animals
Frequency:	Series is complete. Was updated on Mondays and Wednesdays, I think.
Links:	Latest comic

Think Before You Think

TJ and Amal (The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal)

Too Much Information

Author:	Andy Odendhal
Links:	Latest comic

Triangle and Robert

Turncoat

Two Kinds

Author:	Tom Fischbach
Frequency:	Wednesdays
Links:	Latest comic

Weebl & Bob

Woohooligan!

xkcd

The Young Protectors: Engaging the Enemy

Summary:

A young male superhero, naïve, just beginning his superhero career, barely beginning to accept his own homosexuality, begins a romantic relationship with a somewhat older male supervillain. Is it getting HOT in here?

Main characters

• The Young Protectors is a team of super-powered youth who, for legal reasons, are normally only permitted to act in search and rescue missions. They have six team members:
  • Kyle, code name "Red Hot", is the main character. He's a 16 year-old redhead with the superpower to generate and absorb fire. He's also gay and is in the process of leaving the closet.
  • Spooky Jones, his original name unknown even to him, is a magician. On his 13th birthday, he was abducted to Hell but somehow managed to fight his way back to Earth.
  • ____, code name "Commander", is the leader of the Young Protectors. Her superpower is telepathy, and thanks to her mother, she also has army training in manual combat.
  • Mitch, code name "Flyboy" is the youngest member of the Young Protectors. He can fly, can lift anything while flying, and has eagle-like vision. He's also the computer expert on the team. But he has a few secrets, such that he's gay, and that he also fights crime alone late at night.
  • ____, code name "Tsunami", is a black man with several tattoos and elemental control of water. For example, he can pull the water out of a nearby river and use that water as a fist-shaped battering ram. His tattoos glow blue when he's using his power. He and Commander are the legal guardians of the junior members of the team.
  • Paul, code name "Fluke", is a black man with luck-based powers. Basically, he can experience unusual good luck if he's experienced bad luck first.
• Duncan is the muscular and silver-haired supervillian known as the "Annihilator". His superpowers include superstrength, fast reflexes, agility, and rapid self-healing. He augments his abilities with assorted weaponry and cunning. We also learn that he's gay, and he and Kyle actually start dating!
• Sircea, also known as the "Platinum Priestess", is a 6000-year old sorceress and supervillian. She and Duncan have a working relationship.
• Laampros is a demon lord of Hell. He's a few stories tall, dark red, has horns, wings, and a tail, but no clothes. To everyone's surprise, he is also Kyle's father.