Most unusual online comics?

December 19, 2012 3:44 PM

What are the most unusual, non-traditional, online comics? I am especially interested in learning about comics that are visually different. For example, I would love to learn about comics that blend photographs with drawing, are interlinked in a non-linear way, or are all one continuous strip rather than divided up.
posted by mortaddams to media & arts (17 answers total)

DM of the Rings

Dresden Codak
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:50 PM on December 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Hobo Lobo of Hamelin
posted by sawdustbear at 3:52 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's not new, but I love A Softer World.

If you go to Dinosaur Comics (another good example, though visually it is always the same, only the words change), and scroll down to their recommended comic links, there are always good choices as well.
posted by Mchelly at 3:54 PM on December 19, 2012

There's also "Concerned, the Half-life and Death of Gordon Frohman". All the frames in it were created using the game "Half-Life".
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:03 PM on December 19, 2012

My Cardboard Life uses collage and photography, down to the word bubbles all being hand-written on little pieces of paper. It's also really funny and cute.

Forming is just freakin' weird and fantastic, and luckily the person who makes it also helps to make Adventure Time, which sort of explains a lot of things about Adventure Time.
posted by Mizu at 4:07 PM on December 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Subnormality stands out for me as a great use of the infinite canvas, especially the strips like this one that are just massive, deranged maps that can be explored in any order.

The xkcd strip "Click and Drag" also pushes at what the medium can do.
posted by thesmallmachine at 4:26 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Wondermark uses 19th century woodcuts and engravings and adds ... odd ... dialogue in via speech balloons.
posted by graymouser at 4:34 PM on December 19, 2012 [2 favorites]

Homestuck and PREQUEL. Homestuck is more of an ecosystem than a comic by now, and PREQUEL is doing some amazing stuff with javascript.
posted by xiw at 4:36 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Good news! A Lesson is Learned but the Damage is Irreversible has just started creating new comics! A lot of their strips take on a non-traditional structure, and as an added bonus they are some of the best-looking comics on the web.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 4:38 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

This is not an 'online' comic except in the sense that it's a comic and you'll be reading it online, but it does tell its story in the most visually interesting way I've ever seen:

Shintaro Kago - Abstraction

It is TOTALLY NSFW, by the way. NSFBrains mostly.
posted by carsonb at 4:43 PM on December 19, 2012

I've seen quite a few animated comics pop up recently, e.g., Thunderpaw: In the Ashes of Fire Mountain and Anthony Holden's one-off strips.

And of course there's Emily Carroll's fantastic comics (seen previously, previously, previously on the Blue).
posted by brieche at 5:17 PM on December 19, 2012

Quacked Panes is entirely photographs of the author's collection of rubber ducks.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:40 PM on December 19, 2012 [1 favorite]

Argon Zark is another very strange one. Most pages are animated. It doesn't get updated very often, like once or twice a year, I'm sad to say.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 6:41 PM on December 19, 2012

Anything by Megan Rosalarian Gedris, but her Yu Me Dream comic definitely ventures into the surreal and mixed media.
posted by emjaybee at 7:13 PM on December 19, 2012

Bongcheon-Dong Ghost

Read by scrolling down. Warning: not for the faint of heart.
posted by dephlogisticated at 7:32 PM on December 19, 2012

Romantically Apocalyptic has what you need-- for the first 90 pages or so, anyway. After that it gets kind of seriously weird.

Emily Carroll does fantastic, creepy, beautiful comics which stretch the potentialities of the medium. For a very non-traditional layout, try MARGOT'S ROOM.
posted by Pallas Athena at 7:48 PM on December 19, 2012

When I Am King is hilarious, involves no dialogue, and is read by scrolling endlessly in different directions to follow the story.
posted by Pwoink at 7:05 AM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]