Recommended Comics

Print Comics

1. Peanuts (Charles Schultz)
   
   
2. Pogo (Walt Kelly)
   
   
3. Calvin & Hobbes (Bill Watterson)
   
   
4. Bloom County (Berke Breathed)

WebComics

1. Sluggy Freelance (daily)
   The gold standard of online comics, Sluggy Freelance has been mixing dumb puns and sight-gags with sophisticated plot and character-development for nearly a decade of ultra-long story arcs.
   
   
2. Diesel Sweeties (daily)
   An absurdist reconstructivist haiku of a strip detailing the love triangles and misadventures of a mixed lot of robots, humans, and pop culture icons.
   
   
3. 1/0 (archives only)
   Another reconstructivist strip, notable for mixing gag-a-day humor with true philosophical and theological depth, and for exploring hard questions on the nature of God and existence.
   
   
4. A Lesson Is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible (on hiatus)
   Gorgeous, surrealist visuals and absurdist plots.
   
   
5. Slow Wave (weekly)
   A communal dream journal
   
   
6. The Right Number
   A surreal melodrama with a novel combination of imagery and technology by comics guru Scott McCloud.
   
   
7. Dr. McNinja (semi-weekly)
   The name tells everything there is to know about this strip.
   
   
8. Pirate Cove (daily)
   Dumb jokes and random, complex adventures (reminiscent of early Sluggy).
   
   
9. The New Adventures of Bobbin (irregular)
   WARNING: Mild Adult Themes
   The demented adventures of a school girl from Singapore.
   
   
10. Something Positive Archives (archives/daily)
    WARNING, ADULT THEMES and LANGUAGE
    Note: I can really only recommend the archives on these, which are bitter and twisted, but extremely funny. The more recent strips have the same sensibility, but are more of a soap opera and less of an entertainment.

Shameless Plugs

• Guest Artist Week - I'm part of the group that produces this comic.
  
  
• Herbert the Walrus - This is my sister's comic strip

Comic Books/Graphic Novels

1. Maus - Art Spiegelman
   
   
2. Beanworld - Larry Marder
   
   
3. "War Council" (in Rumic World Trilogy Vol. 3) - Rumiko Takahashi
   
   
4. "Dreamtoons" - Jesse Reklaw
   
   
5. "Understanding Comics" - Scott McCloud
   Valuable insights for any artist, not just those working in comics.