In the same way you can read a newspaper on the Web, you can also read comic strips right on your computer. And while many of your favorite daily newspaper strips also appear on the Internet, we've dug up 20 truly funny webcomics available exclusively online.
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
Dr. McNinja
Though reliant on a continuing story and laid out more like a comic book than a comic strip, The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a free webcomic that remains an essential read for its action, writing, art and, most importantly, its humor. Chris Hastings' six-year-old comic stars the titular character, Dr. McNinja, a ninja who is also a doctor and follows him on adventures that are equal parts exciting and hilarious.
Buttersafe
Buttersafe
Raynato Castro and Alex Culang find a happy medium between the cleverness of xkcd and the off-kilter twist of Perry Bible Fellowship in their own twice-weekly strip, Buttersafe. A must-read for fans of The Family Guy and The Simpsons.
Creased Comics
Creased Comics
Brad Neely, who shot to Internet fame with his animated rap video “George Washington,” is the creator of the incredibly random and at times very twisted Creased Comics. As with other webcomics, Creased Comics combines pop culture references, clever humor and an off-kilter world view to produce crazy strips that you'd never, ever find in your local newspaper.
Cyanide and Happiness
Cyanide and Happiness
British cartoonist Kris Wilson (along with friends Rob DenBleyker, Matt Melvin, Dave McElfatrick and other guest cartoonists) are responsible for this sharp, slightly offensive but cutely-drawn daily webcomic. The strip is made up of stick figures, much like xkcd. But instead of riffs on math and language, Cyanide and Happiness finds its funny along the border where offensive and clever meet. Expect a little violence, a touch of shock and a whole lot of laughter.
Daisy Owl
photo courtesy of Daisy Owl
Ben Driscoll's regularly updated webcomic Daisy Owl is a narrative strip about a bear named Steve, his good friend Mr. Owl and Mr. Owl's two kids, the adopted humans Cooper and Daisy. Driscoll's comic is a rare entity in the webcomic pantheon -- it's smart, well plotted, very funny and popular online and yet, unlike, say, Penny Arcade or xkcd, you don't need a deep knowledge of video games or computer programming to get the jokes.
Dinosaur Comics
Dinosaur Comics
The foibles of a T-Rex and his dinosaur pals are played out in traditional strip form. Except each strip's artwork and layout is exactly the same, with brand new writing each day. The repetitive nature of the strip forces its writer/creator, Ryan North, to come up with outlandish and hilarious dialogue for each and every strip. Be sure to read through the comic's archives.
Garfield Minus Garfield
Garfield Minus Garfield
This webcomic is EXACTLY what it sounds like. Dan Walsh, with the blessing of Garfield creator Jim Davis, removes the character Garfield from Garfield comic strips, leaving Garfield's owner, Jon Arbuckle, talking to himself like a schizophrenic. One of the oddest and funniest things on the Web, period.
Lucid TV
Lucid TV is the brainchild of cartoonists John Keogh, David Rothlein and Ross Hutchinson Armstrong. It is a dark trip into the nether regions of the fields of humor and medicine. Though there isn't a specific story-line stretching throughout the entire series, the strip follows the doctors who work at the Jim Belushi Memorial Hospital as they see patients, socialize and do really, really awful stuff. It's gallows humor set in a hospital instead of a morgue.
Murray The Nut
photo courtesy of Murray The Nut
Remember back in grade school when you would doodle in the margins of your notebooks? Now, what if those doodles had accompanying word bubbles that were sometimes crude, sometimes off the wall but always hilarious? Welcome to Murray The Nut
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Nedroid
photo courtesy of Nedrioid
Nedroid is a daily-updated webcomic by cartoonist Anthony Clark (who goes by the pseudonym Nedroid... go figure!) The comic is somewhat serialized, in that it follows the adventures of Bearato (a bear) and his friend Reginald (a bluebird). But the humor of the strips, while enriched by the familiarity of the characters, doesn't rely on any prior knowledge of plots or narratives; it's just really funny stuff.
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