Unlike the rest of the comics on this list, 8-Bit Theater is entirely web based. Loosely based on the plot, if indeed there was one, to the original Final Fantasy game, Brian Clevinger's strip centers on Black Mage and Fighter and their adventure.
The early strips are by far the best, sagging a little later on. Things picked up with the addition of White Mage and Red Mage, and have only been getting better since then. Err... Except for just as of late, actually. Due to a hectic out-of-comic life, the author was forced to "turn over 8-Bit Theater to the Fighter" for a week. Fighter's comics, while... Umm... Interesting... Just weren't up to snuff. But that's over now, and it should be getting back on track.
8-Bit Theater joins an elite few, being one of three comics to have recieved the highest rating. (Note to the more pedantic readers: In case you haven't noticed, I'm not done with this page, so thus far only one of the three has been reviewed. Don't tell me. I know.)
Adam @ Home is a daily strip about a work at home father and his family. While it mainly focuses on him, it does take a look at the rest of his family every now and again. Apparently Adam's wife has gone missing, becaue I haven't seen her for several weeks. Whatever. Any time the computer is featured, you know you're going to get a classic. All things considered, this is one of those comics that gets cut out and pinned up on the bulletin board at work every now and again. It's consistently good, but it does slump occasionally.
Lenny Peterson is on the right track here. Cartooning is all well and good, but it's got to have a point. Nine times out of ten, Lenny's point is to promote his band and himself. Admit it, if you had a cartoon, you'd do it, too. When Orange County dropped his strip from their paper, he spent a week griping about it. Some folks don't like his tendency to go on and on about his life and his problems, and they aren't shy about telling him as much. Occasionally he'll sidetrack onto a serious topic (see the sample strip), and occasionally he'll go onto something totally random (such as the recent "The Big Pic Comic Hottie Contest"). All in all, it's very good, even if Lenny's art could use some work.
Bizzaro is... Well... Bizzare. When The Far Side left the pages, it created a vacuum for one panel clones. While some of them are very good, some of them are very, very bad... The problem is that there's a fine line between bizzare and stupid. Bizzaro walks that line perfectly. Sometimes you'll have to think a little while to get the joke, but nine times out of ten, it's worth it. Only a few times have I seen Pirraro draw a strip that was simply not funny. The Mercury News only runs Bizzaro on Sundays, so I'm not sure about the rest of the week, but even Pirraro's backgrounds are interesting to look at, with odds and ends strewn about seemingly at random. For a month straight I would sit down on Sunday and try to find the slice of pie hidden somewhere in the background. That would be cute if it wasn't for the fact that I was 17 at the time. *shrugs* Whatever.
The Boondocks centers on a black family in a rich neighborhood. It's a fairly new strip, or at least it's fairly new to the Mercury, but the first strip I saw of it seemed like it was the first ever. At any rate, it's a very well drawn comic. Top marks for art, to be sure. Unfortunately, it has three modes- Average, political and funny, and political and not funny. Granted all of McGruder's political gripes are plenty valid, but that doesn't mean they're funny. And there's the fine line... If you're going to be a comic, you shouldn't be too serious all the time. But when it's good, it's good. What can I say?
This is going to be contraversial, I can tell it already... But I don't like Cathy. Not only have I never laughed at it, but I can barely manage to get through it half the time. I can't help it, but it's just too long most of the time. I picked a short cartoon for the sample above. Then again, I'm a guy, so I'm probably not meant to understand it... Sorry. It's just not funny.
