SJB, the Social Justice Bard
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It’s time to give it away. The Mythdirection Anniversary Box contains the following
- 1 mystery gift valued at $20 (at least according the the interwebs).
Twitter Chosen Items (all fair and square…mostly).
- “Pew Pew”
- An “Original” Item
- A “Demotivational” item
And some extra surprises. You’ve got a week to get entered. Don’t let Trevor win again!
I wanted to do another Top Five comics. I already did the ones you liked and the ones I liked so today I thought I’d do the one’s I read.
To be fair there are two points I need to make first. I don’t read that many webcomics/comics. I just don’t have time. For example, I love Girl Genius, but it’s not on this list. I can’t keep up with it and I haven’t read it in more than a year. Most of what I read is short-arc or one-off comics. Second, I do read more than five webcomics. In keeping with the theme of Top 5 I’ll list out the top ones and then put some additional ones at the bottom.
So, in no particular order…
The Devil’s Panties – Jennie Breeden
I’m am so crushed over Jennie Breeden these days (please don’t tell her). This is a wonderful daily that you can drop in at almost any point. There are occasional arcs but they don’t last for very long so they’re easy to find the beginning of and jump in. I have a hard time describing it but it’s worth the look.
Yin + Yangster – Laura Yang
This is one the best single panel strips around. I often find myself with clenches fists, held skyward decrying, “Why didn’t I think of that?” The Tooth Ferry had me cursing under my breath.
Stand Still Stay Silent – Minna Sundberg
Damn this is a beautiful webcomic. The artist, who lives in Finland, has created a great story with some of the most beautiful art I’ve ever seen in a comic. Hang on in the beginning, as she has a bit of house cleaning to do as she destroys the world. The main story is 90 years after that, so be patient. It’s worth the wait.
Wumo – Wulff & Morgenthaler
The creators of Wumo have a camera hooked up in my work area, or in my brain. I’m not sure which. Maybe the latter. I am often heard on Sundays crying out loudly “Wumo!” when I see another strip that I had a similar idea for. It’s my favorite syndicated single panel gag strip right now.
FoxTrot – Bill Amend
So It’s not #1 or #5 on my list. It is however really important to me. It was the first strip I read where you could laugh at pop culture and geek references. The link only gives you Sundays but I’m ok with that because I’ve got a hefty collection of the books.
So I didn’t mention your webcomic did I? Sorry. I’m old and my sense of humor is weird. You can head over to the links page to see more comics but here are a few that fell just outside of the Top 5.
Conspiracy of Birds, Rhymes with Orange, Pearls Before Swine, Zen Pencils, The King of Slackers, and Flatt Bear. There are frankly too many to reasonably list.
I’m counting down to the end of June when the comic turns 1 year old.
Last week I showed of the top five comics that people out there in the real world liked. Today I’d like to share my top five. Like last time, click on the comic to go to the full-sized original.
#5 I had a Little Trouble With the Scissors
This is still, if you think too much about it, one of the darkest ones I had done. It was for a theme week for Halloween. I wasn’t sure it was okay to use Charlie Brown in his ghost costume or not but it looks like fair use to me. Add to that him being dead, still a kid, and complaining about mental health makes it really dark. Seriously, don’t think about this one too hard.
#4 Howl at the Moon
I wrote two of these. The first was “Why is Mommy So Bitey? – A Child’s Guide to Vampirism” but the werewolf book won out in the end. I also like the way the book turned out. I try to keep adapting and updating style on the strip. I think if you go back to the very beginning it’s all readily apparent.
#3 Psychic Surprise
Damn, I love this one. I still makes me laugh. The imagery of the classic crystal-ball-reading psychic being surprised by the boxing glove in a box just works for me. I wish I could write more like this one.
#2 Use Only As Directed
Fresh out of ideas for the new year, this comic was what gave me the kick to drive on into 2016. I actually had to stop writing it because the file size was getting out of hand. I would have listed more warnings and more comics to read. I do recommend reading the big version all the way through.
#1 Steamed
This is the dumbest damn comic. I get the giggles picturing someone tacking all these steampunk items to produce (that’s why the cucumber has no second eye). Mostly I made this for my friends who do steampunk stuff. This version is much funnier that the original, which was two vegetables mad at some vegan sign. Trust me this is funnier.
Well that’s it. I’ll have a little announcement for next week so keep your eyes peeled. No wait, that’s gross. Please don’t peel your eyes.
The one year anniversary of the comic is rapidly approaching. In order to celebrate all the wonderful support I’ve received over the last year, I’m making a box. Inside the box is an item worth $20 (retail). There is also art going in the box. The rest of what is going in the box is up to you.
Throughout June I’ll post polls on my Twitter account (@Mythdirection) and you’ll get to help decide what goes in the box. Once the box is full, I’ll seal it up and one lucky reader will walk away with it when the comic turns 1 year old.
Again thanks for all the support and good luck.
In one month this comic will be a year old. So I thought I would take a quick look back at one aspect of it.
I like to watch the little numbers add up when it comes to views, and see which comics are the most popular. I won’t bore you with the algorithm I but but here are top five comics so far, based solely on places I intentionally placed the comic (more on that in a second). Click on any comic to see the embiggened original.
#5 – Dick Pics – This one rattled around on my list of comics to do for a while. It was really intended to be a multi-panel comic but I try to avoid those if at all possible
#4 The Littlest Iceberg – This started off as an offhand comment about the littlest ice pack in our house. So it grew from there and was Pixar-Disney-Dreamworks-ified.
#3 Into Space – I had this joke in my notes for a long time. In the original it was an astronaut looking out the window and someone yelling at him to stop starting off into space. I think this one works better.
#2 Dark and Edgy – I have no idea why this one was as popular as it was. It was a slow day and nothing seemed funny. I figured the comic needed to be darker and edgier to get more viewers. I guess it worked.
#1 Canary Problems – I watched this one keep growing in views and I still can’t explain it. It’s another one from the notes and the original was really complicated as it involved miners and a busload of canaries coming in as scabs during a strike. I just guess it goes to show you that simpler is better.
Now if we took all sites into account the real #1 is this comic.
It was cross-posted by someone to ICanHazCheezburger and 9Gag, and it’s the only viral hit I’ve had. A couple of others went to those sites, but never had the tenacity to hang on to real numbers. It’s actually tied for #6 with Artisanal Gravel so it was pretty good on its on.
(NOTE: If you want to see my favorites, I posted those a week later).