There are a few I've been reading lately and thoroughly enjoying, such as Razorcake, Maximumrocknroll, and Saga.
More zines and e-based media would be wonderful, especially if it has a punk/DIY/coming of age feel to it. But regardless, what are your favorites?
I will always throw in a plug for Gunnerkrigg Court. Incredibly intricate story. Probably one of the only ones I have stuck with for years through my teenage angst, with no end in sight.
Webcomics: Questionable Content is usually a winner Subnormality is always good. the other two are trans related: Validation is okay. A little stilted sometimes. Transchizophrenic is very good, but very sporadically updated. Web Serial: Worm is great. I find it very engaging, and the writing (while it could sometimes use editing) pulls me in. I've been chain reading this for two weeks now, and I'm almost done it. apparently the same guy wrote another serial, and is in the process of a third. for some reason I feel like you're the person who recommended it to someone else, and I saw it. Zines: Does She Shreds Magazine count? it might be too high production to be a zine.
She Shreds is great! I recently started reading Worm after flagamuffin made a comment about it. Questionable Content sounds familiar for some reason, I'll have to check the rest of those out.
Subnormality is my highest recommendation of all of them!
I always recommend Bad Machinery. Barely anyone has heard of it but I do think last time I mentioned it someone chimed in. It's the best depiction of attitudinal English children ever. Guys and girls; John Allison writes preteen girls hilariously, so I suppose he must own one, although I can't imagine him as a parent.
I'm pretty much done with webcomics. Not that I'm unhappy with them, I just feel like it's too much work to try to keep up with stuff on a daily basis. That said, Sam & Fuzzy will probably be my favorite, hands down. As for comics/graphic novels . . . I have a few. Usagi Yojimbo - This is and always will be the first on my list for recommendations. It has so much going for it. Stan Sakai has been writing and drawing this series for over 30 years. His art style, sense of pacing, and writing are all to notch. While the stories themselves are often plain and straightforward, they have a charm that just draws you in. Black Science and Fear Agent - Two pulp sci-fi stories by Rick Remender. They both very different books both in themes and styles, but they're very well written and have absolutely fantastic art that just pulls you right in. Witch Doctor - Take "House," "Hellblazer," and "Lovecraft" and throw them all in a blender and you have Witch Doctor. There are others, but if I were to list everything we'd be here all night.
my favorite webcomics: smbc xkcd Buttersafe Oglaf(NSFW) Stand Still, Stay Silent which is possibly the best webcomic ever Perry Bible Fellowship which updates very sporadically Leftover Soup Gone With the Blastwave which is more or less dead Doctor McNinja One Over Zero which exists only in archived form, but is good nonetheless The lainzine is pretty good, it gets put together every once in awhile by lainchan.org and distributed around the chans. Very cyberpunk with some helpful DIY stuff(mostly related to computers).
All the zines I liked are dead, but I'm looking forward to the BLT Omnibus Comics, on the other hand, I can do. Pretty much anything Brian Wood has ever done would probably be up your alley, but check out Channel Zero and Local in particular. I was not a big fan of DMZ, but a lot of people were. I don't know that I would recommend Punk Rock Jesus in general, but I'll go ahead and recommend Punk Rock Jesus to you. Jesus gets cloned from the Shroud of Turin, decides he doesn't like the whole religion thing and starts a band instead. Stray Bullets recently got started again after a 10-year hiatus. It is mostly a crime comic, but there is a coming of age story mixed in. I once had a friend refuse to talk to me for two weeks because she found it so depressing and was angry I talked her into reading a couple of the trades, so, you know, there's that. I find it more funny than bleak, but it is pretty bleak. Kieron Gillen annoys me, but despite it being the most Kieron Gillen of Kieron Gillen comics, I like Phonogram. The later series weren't so great, but the first was about looking back on a scene that had been vitally important to you and coming to terms with its time having passed. It's kind of the opposite end of what you're looking for, but read it anyway. The Invisibles. Like everything Grant Morrison did at his height it's really hard to describe succinctly, but it has anarchist mages fighting the lovecraftian horrors of the establishment and manages to be ridiculously awesome rather than just ridiculous doing it. Does the Joseph Campbell Hero's Journey thing, but quickly and then moves on so it can be forgiven. If the cool kids aren't still reading Hakim Bey and Robert Anton Wilson then it'll be somewhere between dated an impenetrable. The Filth was a sort of spiritual successor, but fell far short. tacocat knows his comics.
I've read way too many stupid superhero comics that I wouldn't recommend. Except New X-men by Grant Morrison. I'm a huge Brian K. Vaughan fanboy. My favorite by him is Ex Machina. Y the Last Man is good but the ending didn't work so well for me. His work on Runaways is superhero stuff worth recommending. As far as indies, I never got too into that. Black Hole by Charles Burns is amazing in spite of the less than stellar ending. I've got some Eightball comics and I thought I could find all of Art School Confidential online but I can't. It's probably only really funny if you went to art school anyway. I also read Supergods by Grant Morrison which is part memoir and part history of comics. And Comics Book Nation by Branford Wright is good and goes in depth on the Senate committee on comics in the 50s
Ex Machina has been on my reading list for a while now, it's good to see a recommendation of it! I'll have to check out Black Hole, never heard of Charles Burns. bfv I've read the first three volumes of The Wicked + The Divine and generally enjoyed it, Phonogram has been on my radar and seems right in line with what I would enjoy. Thanks for the recommendations both of you, they seem like exactly what I'm looking for. Going to save this thread for future reference.
