Webcomics You Know Aren't Great But Keep Reading Anyway

Sometimes with a long running soap opera, anime, or anything else that you've been following for as long as you can remember, there's a point where you realise that they're not really that good. They're hackneyed and predictable, take forever to get anywhere, and sometimes it feels like you're just watching the same thing over and over.

But you keep watching. Maybe you've gotten attached to the characters, and want to see where their story takes them. Maybe you like the setting and premise enough to forgive the flaws. Maybe you've just read way too much of the comic to stop now. And usually these have something going for them; at least the author never made any particularly boneheaded changes, remains at a fairly steady level of quality (or even gets better), maybe the art is just that good and keeps getting better), or maybe you're simply happy with a webcomic that actually updates.

So let's share all the comics we usually don't admit to reading in public. I'll start with Castlevania RPG, probably better known for being by the brother of Amber, who occasionally does guest art. Yeah, it's a Sprite Comic that dates back to the days when people actually read those. And the archive is fucking huge, not even counting the side stories even I can't be bothered reading. But what it probably has going for it is a lot of good custom sprite work, a relatively non-clichéd cast (mostly Anti-Hero and self-admitted Designated Hero types, but the fun kind) and very regular updates.

There would also be Pokemon-X here but that stopped really updating. (trying to keep the dates as if there is nothing wrong only makes it more obvious when a comic posted in 2010 is dated 2008)

Given the length of my webcomics list, I have quite a bunch of them. Better Days+Original Life, Ctrl Alt Del, Yahtzee's Old Shame Yahtzee Takes On The World, Suicide For Hire, Megatokyo and much more...

For most of them, it's because I genuinely enjoy them. For others, it may be because I'm too lazy to takes them off my bookmarks...

El Goonish Shive, although, I'm fairly sure that's subjective in all forms. It has been getting quite better though, in terms of quality.

Kevin And Kell and Ctrl Alt Del, here. Maybe it's inertia, maybe it's the occasional gems to be found in the coal dust, maybe it's the subject material, but I can't bring myself to remove them from my regular webcomic reading schedule.

Yahtzee Takes On The World wasn't half bad for an Old Shame. Yeah it was an obvious self-insert comic but he knew even back them how to write a few jokes.

I would also put down the five-years-too-late sprite comics my friend keeps making, but I don't really read those. And whenever I do I complain about them directly to him. I'm a bastard.

Looking For Group.

. . . Look, I like Lar de Souza's art, okay?

Maybe Dresden Codak? I didn't really like the Hob arc and the newest arc doesn't seem very interesting, but considering I only need to check the site once a month or so it isn't that big a deal.

Yeah, Looking For Group keeps feeling like it's getting better but it never actually gets there. But it's only two per week.

I'm with R Labs on the Dresden Codak front. Hob was ambitious, but ended up just putting all of Aaron Diaz' weak points as a writer under the magnifying glass. And a lot of his stuff seems less whimsical and more self-indulgent these days, especially since he seems hell bent on running Kimiko as a mary sue and spending more time developing her (nonexistent) character.

Also (and I'll get lynched for this one ) Girl Genius. The art seriously got lazy after they changed from black and white to full colour, to the point where if you take a random page and put it in greyscale you'll have trouble figuring out which character is which any more. And they three page a week webcomic thing seems to have really shot their ability to handle pacing, with storylines just sprawling all over the place while every conceivable character makes his or her appearance and a startling new twist is added every half a dozen pages to artificially inject a bit of suspense for folks who read each new pages as soon as it's posted. And with these startling new twists tending to pop up without any real foreshadowing only to be resolved just in time for the next one, it's starting to feel like xanatos roulette meets the thirty xanatos pileup, with every vaguely villainous or machiavellian character in the cast suddenly unveiling a carefully staged master plan to keep things moving while the writers figure out where to go next.

And yet I still felt a "hell yeah" moment when the unflappably dapper Wooster swung in through a window this week and unveiled his own contribution to the thirty xanatos pileup. Even though the only thing in his favour at the moment is that he hasn't spent three years of real time boring me to death as part of the Castle Heterodyne storyline.

El Goonish Shive. Also, for a while, Fanboys Online and The Wotch.

Hazards Wake. It has horrible pacing problems, especially during the arc where the perspective switched between groups every three panels, which also made things horribly confusing. Thought it's gotten a bit better about that.

The art, while also steadily improving, is nothing great; just subpar generic animesque stuff. Until recently, the artist also couldn't seem to draw characters in any pose other than "standing upright", which makes action scenes look horrible, and even character sitting down look unnatural.

Still, it's got some good jokes, and isn't afraid to make fun of its own flaws. And the story, while (intentionally) cliched, is still interesting enough to keep reading it.

edited 27th Aug '10 5:30:23 PM by Everzwijn

Do I have to say it? I also occasionally take a look at The Unspeakable Vault Of Doom, which despite being a strip about the Cthulhu Mythos tends to be "funny" in the same way that The Family Circus is "funny."

Like some others have said already, Ctrl-Alt-Del. Mostly because it was the first comic I've ever Archive Binged. A few years ago I was seriously considering dropping it, during the long "lazy art" period. But recently, it has been slowly improving.

I really should drop MegaTokyo, because the update schedule pisses me off  ^*

The Wotch. I like the cutesy graphics but I keep on finding it offensive. I just want to see how it ends. I remember Anne Onymous saying that the prof stayed Ming Mei because he now had friends, and the four jocks got the only out of becoming female, and all I want to tell her is 'So WHAT? The Unfortunate Implications are still there. Create a character whose life is bettered when she becomes a guy and then we'll talk.'

^Wait, the First Law Of Genderbending is Unfortunate Implications now? I think you overthink it.

@Medinoc: Tropes are abstract concepts. Any one of them can be portrayed in the right way to have unfortunate implications. Any of them.

@ Medinoc: It is, especially because most of the time it sounds like an excuse for Fanservice (that one comic about a barbarian turning into a girl was the most blatant) or overdone comedy (Sailor Sun, which I like to think was all a dream of Brad's, who then woke up, received the offer to star in ''Sailor Sun'' and hung up after saying 'Find yourself another sucker!', especially because it ended with that cliffhanger). So far the only realistic portrayal was Misfile. Another reason it is, is because 99% of men who become girls are locked in, while girls who become guys are 'never so.

Tropes Are Not Bad by themselves, but their use can make them so. Plus, I SO want to see a story/webcomic about the feelings of a girl who's suddenly and irrevocably been turned into a guy. It'd be interesting as Hell.

edited 28th Aug '10 12:42:36 PM by Marc3K

This was my feeling towards Bob And George. Finished it because of nostalgia and the desire to see how the heck Dave was going to wrap everything up.

^^You sum up the problems I have with darn near every Gender Swap work I've seen.

El Goonish Shive is mine, too. The title is dumb, the dialogue often sounds unnatural, the whole thing moves at the pace of a glacier, and entire storylines seem to exist only for Author Appeal, but the characters are just endearing enough that I keep coming back.

I actually gave up on Mega Tokyo for a while, but somehow the darn thing sucked me in again. I guess I'm just attached to it because it was the very first webcomic I ever read.

edited 28th Aug '10 6:39:59 PM by ThePaintedMaypole

Go Fish. I hate the characters, I hate the plot, I hate the setting, I hate the art, but I can't look away. The plot is starting to grow on me actually.

El Goonish Shive is mine, too. The title is dumb, the dialogue often sounds unnatural

YES! SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME! I like using the term 'sterile' to define the way the dialogue and characterization works.

^ Reluctantly, I admit to reading that comic as well. The flaws are readily apparent, but somehow it earned a spot on my list of RSS feeds. I seem to have about three comics I follow, but are ashamed to let people know.

Jack. I've been reading it for years, despite it having all these flaws and more. The story is interesting enough to keep me coming back every few months or so. I still want to see how it ends.

edited 29th Aug '10 1:36:43 AM by New Cope

Fuzzy Things: The characters aren't all that likable, the art I once loved has long been outclassed by Lackadaisy and Tiny Kitten Teeth, and the author aborted an arc that I was fairly interested in. But it's still so damn cute, and even if the art's outclassed, it's still appealing to me. I just wish the writing were up to par.