Web Comics

[Gravity Defier]

Three Panel Soul

In between periods of studying the other day, I went through this and read up to the latest one at that time (not sure if it's been updated since).

I liked the rants at the bottom better than most of the comics, though that can be blamed on some of them going completely over my head.

There were one or two that I really appreciated. All in all, not a waste of time.

[zeroguy]

At the risk of wasting even more of your time... looking at the recently-mentioned Mac Hall may yield less wooshing. Although there's still plenty of obscure gaming humor in there (especially at the beginning), there's a lot of more general college-y humor.

Edit: And since apparently they can't be bothered to put up a 'first comic' link that I can find... the first comic is here, although the first one I actually find funny would be the instant classic Pika Hate.

[Gravity Defier]

I went through the archives to find the first one.

I like it so far (April '01).

[Mich]

Every time I get bored and re-read the Mac Hall archives, I almost cry when I get to the last one.

Well, sometimes I actually do cry.

[zeroguy]

...and a couple hours later, and I've read through the whole archives yet again. And yes, it almost does make me cry; I'm sad that I don't think they'll ever make another book. I have the one... but seeing commentary on the rest of the strips would be cool.

[locke]

I remember refreshing mac hall twice a day for all four years of college waiting for each new comic to update. I was a little upset at the ending of Mac Hall, I wanted them to be able to stay in college in perpetuity (ala Calvin is always six years old) because I couldn't. :p

I feel today's sinfestexplains a lot about guys.

[zeroguy]

If anyone hasn't checked the Three Panel Soul frontpage recently, you should, just to see more evidence of Ian McConville's greatness. (Referring to his proposal, there.)

I also just found this little gem: Journey to the West. First comic I can remember that uses koans, and as we all know, koans are awesome. Only at 137 pages, won't waste much of your time, either.

[Wind Swept]

Every time I get bored and re-read the Mac Hall archives, I almost cry when I get to the last one.

Well, sometimes I actually do cry.

It really was quite sad. I think I teared up a bit when I read it.

[zeroguy]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... -Webcomics

This guy is great. Although he mostly seems to review games, the above link is about gaming webcomics. His site has a lot of fun other stuff, and he even hates CAD (I'd give a direct link where he talks about CAD, but his site seems to lack permalinks...).

[Mich]

I laughed for approximately half-an-hour after I first saw that. Yahtzee was already close to being my hero for loving Painkiller, and then Psychonauts, but then he not-so-subtly bashed CAD for points I have been saying for years.

And, yet, I continue to check CAD daily. There must be something broken in me.

[Caspian]

Kate Beaton's comic doesn't have a name, except, I suppose for her name. But if you don't read it you should. She is awesome. Perhaps a little Canadian-centric at times, but it's still worth it.

Go now.

[locke]

[zeroguy]

I remember wondering once if I just hated all gaming comics (I don't count MacHall/TPS or TGSA as "gaming comics"). I somehow forgot about one little comic that's been in my comics-I-occaisionally-check list: Awkward Zombie. Perhaps it's just that she does more older/Nintendo games (and thus, I have actually played more of them), but for whatever reason I like this one a lot more.

Edit: After reading a few more of these, I think it's the commentary. Tiedrich's commentary is great.

Edit: This weekend, I wasted a lot of time reading webcomics (as alluded to in Confessions); most of them bad. Inhuman, however, was a surprisingly good one. I've liked the style of the artist in other things, as well, but this actually seems to have good plot to go along with it. Girl and Triangle was also interesting, however strange (and short).

Edit:

So today I check on the website for Winter, which I occaisionally do even though the last update was several years ago. Imagine my surprise when it brought me to Blank It instead.

On the one hand, it's good to see more stuff by Lem. I like his style; nothing too special most of the time, but a good casual feel. And this new comic is funny. Well, sometimes.

On the other hand.... I wanna see Winter, dangit. That was such a damn good story, the sketchy style Lem drew it in was awesome and fit the tone of it very well, I thought. All of his newer stuff has a more Penny Arcade/old MacHall kinda style artwise, which isn't bad, but I miss Winter. And this "starting with a blank, empty area" premise thing feels a little similar to Tailsteak's 1/0, and so far, Tailsteak did it better, even with less-refined artistic skill.

But it's new; I'll certainly give it a chance. It has it's moments already, after all (the very first one I do rather like). And Lem mentioned there's apparently some kind of surprise or something in store for Winter fans, so I dunno, maybe it'll be good. The About Page is at the very least awesome.

[zeroguy]

Okay, enough with me editing my own posts; *double-post*

I normally hate when comics I like do current events/political content (*cough*d.c. simpson), but for some reason I've really liked Sinfest's ones over the past month or so (all from around here until the present). Three Panel Soul has also had one or two good ones, as well.

[Gravity Defier]

I just made it through to the current Vinci and Arty the other day (after seeing the link in the Christmas thread), I've loved it so far, and will hopefully keep following it.

Since the thread is a little overwhelming and I'm not guaranteed to pick a link at random that I'll like, recommendations?

[Jayelle]

Paul and his brother launched their webcomic today. Be kind. Tell your friends.

It`s not spam, it`s thpam.

[Caspian]

There are now three comics. Check them out. Look at mee! LOOOK AT MEEE!
[/desperate plea for attention]

[Bean_wannabe]

Love 'em - but no.2 flashes - I think the .swf is automatically set to loop and therefore flashes between loading and viewing constantly

Keep up the good work

[LilBee91]

*slight bump*

I've officially fallen in love with Questionable Content. I'm halfway through the archives and lovin every minute of it.

My current webcomics:
CAD (I don't really know why anymore--they haven't been good for months)
QC
xkcd
Unshelved

[locke]

hover text:

Also, after all the warnings about filling in the bubbles completely, I spent like 30 seconds on each one.

okay fellow nerds, fess up, who was also paranoid about correctly filling in the damn scantron bubbles correctly?

I always wanted to know where you could find a kind of pencil that wasn't number 2.

[Mich]

I would spend so long and then, neurotically, go back over the test and change my mind on any of the ones I was unsure of, which meant a completely ruined scantron. One of my teachers actually started handing me a second one before I took the test, just because she knew that my "rough draft" would never be good enough for the machine.

[LilBee91]

I always wanted to know where you could find a kind of pencil that wasn't number 2.

I actually have a #3 pencil that I got from an old English teacher. I think you can get them at art stores, but I don't know for sure.

I'm still a little paranoid about the scantron bubbles. They have to be perfectly filled in and dark. And on rare occasions (I always have to look up how to spell that word) I think the machine will read my erased answer and I panic a bit. Not fun. Luckily, I've taken so many bubble sheet tests that my tweaking has diminished somewhat.

[neo-dragon]

As far as I can tell, it doesn't actually matter what type of pencil you use on scantron cards. Or maybe non-number 2 pencils are just so uncommon that I've never actually seen anyone try to fill out a card with one. I'm not sure.

However, I have actually had a student use a pen.

[Mich]

However, I have actually had a student use a pen.

Gasp! But what if this student made a mistake and could not go back and fully erase their incorrect answer!?

[neo-dragon]

Well, erasing isn't exactly an option when working in pen, and even if scantron machines aren't as discriminating with pencils as most students are led to believe, they definitely do not read pen. I had to mark the card manually.

I've also had a student circle answers rather than fill them in.

[Eaquae Legit]

What is so baffling about scantrons? We did them when I was seven. It's not like kids today are faced with something unfamiliar - they have been told how to fill them out probably every year since they were in kindergarten!

[starlooker]

When I was proctoring the ACT a couple of months ago, a student was so invested in marking her answer sheet with the bubbles filled in darkly and completely that she tore a small hole in the answer sheet.

Poor kid. I mean, it turned out fine, it turns out they'll mark it manually when that happens, but I would've died. As if college entrance tests aren't stressful enough.

[neo-dragon]

Speaking of scantrons, something that most people don't realize is that the cards themselves are relatively expensive. Thus, at my previous school we had students reuse them, ie. use the front side for one test and the backside for the next. This of course occasionally leads to confusion when some kids can't grasp the notion of starting question #1 in bubble #26, for example.

At my current school scantron cards are so scarce that we pretty much only use them for final exams rather than using them for tests throughout the semester. However, once they become available at exam time every member of my department adds some to their own private stash. I attempted to do this as well, but I wasn't sneaky enough and my private stash ended up becoming quite public. They're all gone now. I'm just glad I had already taken out what I needed for my exams.

Actually, I'm quite glad that this discussion came up because now I will remember to remind my students how to use the cards properly. This may save me several minutes of annoyance.

[zeroguy]

What is so baffling about scantrons? We did them when I was seven. It's not like kids today are faced with something unfamiliar - they have been told how to fill them out probably every year since they were in kindergarten!

We never know what's "good enough". I've always just wanted to fill one out where I know all the answers are C or something, and fill in all the Cs with varying completeness, and see if any actually get counted incorrectly.

Since we're told at such an early age that you must fill in the circle COMPLETELY and have NO STRAY MARKS outside the circle, we try our best to fill in the circle as much as possible, and then when we accidentally make a stray mark and of course that must go.

I think I finally stopped worrying so much about it way way too late in high school.

[Gravity Defier]

I always wanted to know where you could find a kind of pencil that wasn't number 2.

I actually have a #3 pencil that I got from an old English teacher. I think you can get them at art stores, but I don't know for sure.

Yeah, art stores are good places to get non-#2 pencils. I have a Staedtler Mars Lumograph 4h pencil, which is great to have for drafting (or art, I suppose). It keeps a really sharp point and can make very light lines without you having to put too much thought into it.

As for scantrons, never got to use them as a teacher; the school couldn't afford the machine or the cards. As a student, I was terribly paranoid. I finished most tests early enough to go back and check that 1) I had put all answers on their corresponding question lines and 2) I hadn't gone out of the bubble. I'd have my pencil and eraser ready, the first to make sure I filled in any gaps and the second to carefully erase any slips. This did not stop in college. Or a few months ago when I was filling something out on a scantron card.

[Syphon the Sun]

even if scantron machines aren't as discriminating with pencils as most students are led to believe, they definitely do not read pen.

I think it depends on the type of pen and the age of the machine. When I was a TA, pretty much every test for one of the classes used scantron and I never had a problem with the machine reading pen.

The only problem I've had with the machine is that when some clever student fills in the little blocks to the left of the questions and it skips the answer (thus counting it right, when the answer is indeed wrong). The good part is that when the machine skips those answers, there is a very noticeable beep, so as long as you're watching them feed through (rather than simply starting the stack and leaving), you'll catch it.

[zeroguy]

Q: How could Tracy Butler (creator of "Lackadaisy"; mentioned in this thread) possibly be more awesome?

A: http://www.lackadaisycats.com/exhibit.php?exhibitid=214

[Mich]

Have I mentioned that I love you for having introduced us to Lackadaisy? I do. It's such a pretty comic and has awesome characters. When I recently reformatted and forgot to save my bookmarks, it survived the Great WebComic Purge '08.

This is the only way I clean out my bookmarks, by the way. I never have the heart to get rid of them manually. "But what if something exciting happens in Girly? What if I miss it?"

[locke]

I feel every pweb girl would say, "I like your puffy shirt" as well, it's just something I'd half expect. and then hear a discussion for several pages about the awesomeness of men in puffy shirts and period movies. and why don't guys dress in nice/interesting clothes anymore anyway?

[LilBee91]

I love today's QC and xkcd. Pintsize...Princess Bride...there's no going wrong with those elements.