Best of the Best: Gaming Web Comics

Making fun of other people/things/animals/concepts is what separates human beings from everything else (including aliens). If you don’t partake in reading your fair share of comics, or at least Penny Arcade, then shame one you.

I thought you called yourself gamer!

Now that you are finished bowing your head down in despair, let me show you the light that is making fun of everything via the art of comics. All are gaming related in nature, and all you should read religiously.

Press on!
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Penny Arcade: This behemoth should almost go unmentioned considering that it is one of the most read web comics on the nets. Assuming that you don’t already read Penny Arcade, this is a creation Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik that began in 1998 and since has become an empire (evil perhaps?).

This comic has spawned its own gaming expo, Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), has countless merchandising including a hilarious episodic game. If you live in a cave, be sure to pick up all the past comics in lovely bound editions and reminisce on gaming’s past in all its satirical glory.

CTRL+ALT+DELETE: This is pretty much #3 to PA and PvP. Another comical comic (heh, see what cleverness I did there) that has become the creator Tim Buckley’s full-time job.

Created in 2002, this comic also has its own line of merchandising, as well as it’s own animated series. Check out the trailer for CTRL+ALT+DELETE below and start reading about Ethan, Lucas, Lilah, and Zeke a few times a week.

Extralife: This triweekly web comic’s art style has come a long, long way from its debut in 2001. Extralife sometimes has regular characters but generally the comics are stand-alone satirazations.

The creator, Scott Johnson also began Extralife Radio in 2003 that became even easier to do when podcasting hit the scene. Scott now helps create 5 podcasts, one of which is a videocast.

What growth over 8 years. Oh and Scott has three kids, go figure.

Player vs Player: Another kraken along the lines of Penny Arcade this comic started the same year in 1998. The creation of Scott Kurtz, this comic has spawned print copies from Dork Storm Press and Image comics.

PvP generally receives updates on the weekdays, has plenty of merch that surrounds it, has it’s own animated series, and Kurtz plays D&D with the Penny Arcade dudes. Oh, and the comic is pretty funny, too.

VG Cats: This comic is a little more Canadian and comes from a Scott of a different mother. VG Cats was created by Scott Ramsoomair in 2001 and features actual cats that he owns as the main characters of the strip. In comic form of course.

Ramsoomair also created a Pokémon comic called Super-Effective and an official Final Fantasy XI comic entitled Adventure Log. All three comics are worth reads that poke fun at all things in the game industry.
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These are only five of the countless games-related web comics out there for viewers to read (for free!) Sure, sure, reading is no fun and you’d rather be gaming instead but I implore that you enlighten yourself by reading these works of art.

Seems like there are a lot of Scotts in the industry.

What are some of your favorite comics?