42 Web Comics You Need To Read

Update your reading list! These comics range from short funnies to novellas, from old standbys to mind-blowingly inventive GIF-scapes. They all deserve to be on your radar.

1. "Nedroid Fun Times" by Anthony Clark

Format: stand-alones

Genre: humor, mostly

2. "(@Dril)bert" by ???

drilbert.tumblr.com

Format: parody

Genre: twitterature

Dilbert comics laid over with @dril's tweets.

3. "Hark! A Vagrant" by Kate Beaton

Format: 3-10 panel stand-alones

Genre: dang

Literary fan fic, medieval slapstick, fierce Wonder Woman and most recently the most astute ethnographer of Canadians. She's a wonder and you probably already know her.

4. Misc. Comics by Zac Gorman

Format: short stand-alones

Genre: gif diary / video game comics

Zac Gorman's personal and fan art projects are equally delightful. Most of them make use of gif animation in nifty ways.

5. "Crawdads Welcome" by Ezra Butt

Format: short stand-alones

Genre: hilarious

Sassy David Attenborough. Animals talking smack.

6. "Bongcheon-Dong Ghost" by Horang

Format: spooky short story (takes a minute to read)

Genre: HORROR HORROR HORROR

If you show this comic to anyone with a heart condition, you belong in jail. Otherwise, this is a very surprising use of the web medium.

7. "Moonbeard" by James Squires

moonbeard.com

Format: 4-6 panel shorts

Genre: sadfunnies

8. "Dinosaur Comics" by Ryan North

Format: short sketches

Genre: paleo-Weird Twitter

9. "Romantically Apocalyptic" by Vitaly S. Alexius and various contributing artists

Format: short stand-alones

Genre: morbid cyberpunk humor

Two dudes trying to make light of a post-apocalyptic situation.

10. "Gunshow Comics" by KC Green

gunshowcomic.com

Format: short stand-alones.

Genre: "hugs own" -the artist

Check out this dog arguing with the mirror on a crashing plane.

11. Editorial Cartoons by Matt Bors

Format: 2-8 panel stand-alones

Genre: political cartoons

Matt Bors is published by The Los Angeles Times, The Village Voice, and The Nation. The above links to his Tumblr, where he posts most of his shorter cartoons.

12. "Eat More Bikes" by Nathan Bulmer

Format: four panel (updates daily)

Genre: absurdist

13. Misc. Shorts by Nick Sumida

Format: short stand-alones

Genre: Brooklyn schadenfreude

You aint seen dating woes.

14. "Terminal Lance" by Maximilian Uriarte

Format: 3-4 panels

Genre: military diary

Satirical diary on life for a grunt in the U.S. Marine Corps. A hugely popular strip among servicemen.

15. "Looking For America's Dog" by Steven Weissman

whatthingsdo.com

Format: short sketches, some of them continuous

Genre: invented news/history dispatches

16. "Three Word Phrase" by Ryan Pequin

threewordphrase.com

Format: 3-4 panel

Genre: humor

17. "Sticks Angelica" by Michael DeForge

flickr.com

Format: alien diary? (updates every Sunday)

Genre: alien

If you want a longer story from DeForge, Ant Comic is probably one of the weirder things you'll read. It's up for an Eisner Award nomination this year, and Adventure Time is lucky to have him onboard as an artist.

18. "A Softer World" by e horne & j comeau

Format: short aphoristic photo diaries

Genre: observational

19. "Supermutant Magic Academy" by Jillian Tamaki

Format: short sketches

Genre: schoolyard comedy / drama

Schoolyard drama among supermutants.

20. "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal" by Zach Weiner

smbc-comics.com

Format: 2-10 panel shorts

Genre: comedy/observational

An old favorite of the internet nerditariat.

21. "Achewood" by Chris Onstad

Format: start updating already

Genre: Achewood

22. "Black Is The Color" by Julia Gfrörer

Format: short story (completed)

Genre: gothic?

Two sailors are walked off the plank of a Victorian ship. On a small raft, sassy mermaids arrive to throw shade on their entire lives. Entirely worth the 10 minutes it takes to read. NSFW.

23. "Thunderpaw" by Jen Lee

Format: serial narrative

Genre: post-apocalyptic buddy adventure

Homesick pups stranded in post-apocalypse. The animated gif layouts make inventive use of its web format in a way few other comics do.

24. "Haunter" by Sam Alden

Format: serial narrative (updates every Saturday)

Genre: action/horror

A rare action comic that creeps under your skin without using any words. Sam Alden's one of the best dialogue writers out there (see below for "Eighth Grade"; also the bitter sweet family drama of Farmer's Dilemma), but here he forgoes words entirely.

25. "Depression, Part II" by Hyperbole And A Half

Format: comics essay

Genre: observational

Probably the most accurate description of what depression is like. "Hyperbole" is consistently amazing.

26. "His Face All Red" by Emily Carroll

Format: short story (takes about 5 minutes to read)

Genre: horror

Probably the most inventively claustrophobic comic you'll read online.

27. "Girl Mountain" by Simon Hanselmann

Format: mid-length short stories

Genre: super dark comedy

One big room, full of bad witches. Meg the teen witch and her stoner monster friends stumble into sordid altercations in their Los Angle-ish neighborhood. Start with this strip and see if this is your jam. NSFW.

28. "Hobo Lobo of Hamelin" by Stevan Živadinović

Format: side-scrolling pop-up picturebook (updates bi-monthly)

Genre: fable/lore

Holy lord of the dangs. Go to the website. This is some black magic.

29. "I Think I'm In Friend Love With You" by Yumi Sakugawa

yumisakugawa.com

Format: short stories/comics essays

Genre: observational

Yumi does great heartfelt short comic confessionals in general, but this one is a standout.

30. "Some People" by Luke Pearson

mumblingidiot.deviantart.com

Below is an entire short story. Read other Luke Pearson comics here.

31. "Tiny Kitten Teeth" by Becky & Frank

Format: serial narrative

Genre: cute as hell

Dapper cat finds trouble in a pretentious preppy college where he clearly doesn't belong.

32. "Octopus Pie" by Meredith Gran

Format: serial narrative

Genre: Brooklyn roommate drama

Grumpy organic grocer and ekes out her frustrations in Brooklyn. Her upbeat hippie-ish roommate has none of it. They're good friends, really.

33. "Destructor" by Sean T. Collins and Matt Wiegle

Format: serial narrative

Genre: fantasy/sci-fi

The comic unfolds briskly and grittily. It never stumbled over itself to explain its futuristic feuds, warlords, and prison systems to you, but you'll absorb its rules along the way.

34. "Girls With Slingshots" by Danielle Corsetto

sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net

Format: serial narrative

Genre: drama

Now on its #1641st strip and updating five time a week, Danielle Corsetto's comic is not only an acclaimed full-time enterprise, but one of few prominent web comics to honor the experience of queer women.

35. "Nimona" by Noelle Stevenson

Format: serial narrative (updates Tuesdays and Thursdays)

Genre: fantasy comedy

Punk girl shapeshifter runs amok as an outlaw's intern. Her boss, a former lord betrayed by his best friend, is out to expose the kingdom's hypocrisies. It does not always work out.

36. "The Super-Gay Adventures of Ross Boston" by Drew Green

webcomicsweekly.tumblr.com

Format: serial narrative

Genre: adventure/fantasy/comedy

Adventure Time meets Power Puff Girls meets old school Saturday morning cartoons. A pizza delivery boy with a douchey boyfriend gets enlisted into some superwizard's league. Unfailingly cheerful.

37. "Blue" by Pat Grant

Format: serial narrative

Genre: beach bum youth memoir, Aussie gentrification horror

A career beach bum remembers his gross schoolboy days in New Zealand, before Aussie developers came in and poshed up his beachside town. You will speak heaps Kiwi after reading this, ay.

38. "Go Ye Dogs!" by Michael Arthur

Format: serial narrative (sporadic updates)

Genre: adventure

This is how you'd want your backpacking trip in Miyazakiland to go down.

39. "Modern Fried Snake" by Ryan Armand

Format: serial narrative (updates 1st of every month)

Genre: drama (very quick read)

A warm, sparsely-worded comic about a street food hawker living on the edge of an (Edo Era Japanese?) town. Reminiscent of a quieter Tezuka.

40. "The Fox Sister" by Christina Strain and Jayd Aït-Kaci

thefoxsister.com

Format: serial narrative

Genre: supernatural thriller

Supernatural detective story, Korean folklore, wartime drama, history of Christianity's spread in Seoul -- all of that packed into tale as briskly paces as a blockbuster.

41. "Spera" by Josh Tierny and an A-list roster of comic artists

Via http://Afu%20Chan

Format: collection of stand-alone short stories

Genre: fantasy

Two princesses team up with their fire-breathing dog to cause trouble. Many of the most active current comic artists contributed chapters to this massive project.

42. "Eighth Grade" by Sam Alden

Format: serial novella (still updating)

Genre: golden age television drama

Probably one of the best narrative comics you'll read this year. The story's less about the cruelty of middle school children (though there's a ton of that) than the grudges, jealousies and heartbreaks of the families around them. Like the best TV shows, it's sympethetic towards even its worst characters. Takes an hour or so to read. Start here.