Jim Unger, the guy who wrote the Herman comics, has died. Focus: Who/what are your favourite comics? Better yet, link some of your best/funniest images. Personally, I've always been a Far Side girl. Such a weird sense of humour.
The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes are my favorites. The PreHistory of the Far Side stays on the coffee table at home. This particular Calvin and Hobbes strip is taped to my computer at work. I can relate to it.
I have to admit that I have never - not even once - heard of this 'Herman' comic. I'm not sure why that is. Focus: As far as I'm concerned, Calvin & Hobbes is the king of comics, with The Far Side coming in a close second. Honorable mentions go to Close To Home, Dilbert, and Foxtrot. This is my all-time favorite Dilbert strip, and I've had it taped to my wall ever since it was first printed in October 2008. Dogbert stole the show in every strip he appeared in:
I almost don't want to respond because I'm not going to be the first or second to say The Far Side and Calvin and Hobbes. Anyway, here are my favorites from both: Spoiler Spoiler
Im off to work at the moment but last time I tried to rain on Calvin and Hobbes parade it was in a thread dedicated to the comic and Nettdata shut me down. Farside is far and away the absolute best comic strip ever done. Calvin and Hobbes just never felt anything but meh to me and absolutely no amount of childhood nostalgia has ever been enough to make me even crack a smile at that comic. I have all of the Farside collections and want to get that huge collection of everything he ever did. Gary Larson, a wild talent.
All of this can be yours for the modest price of $94.50: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Far-Side-1980-1994/dp/0740721135" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Far- ... 0740721135</a> There's a similar one for all of you C&H fans: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Calvin-Hobbes-v/dp/0740748475" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Calv ... 0740748475</a>
I still have all the original print Calvin & Hobbes books, I still read them because it's the best comic the has ever been, and ever will be written. Far Side is number two. Gary Larson is some sort of ingenious mad scientist or something, his mad world of irony, stupid fat people and talking animals is an all-out assault on the senses. Herman, number three. Herman is bone-dry humour and hippie Jim Unger obviously has some real issues with women, but none the less it's hysterical at times.
This is an good list of three, although I would put Far Side first. I don't see it much anymore, and it's not consistently funny like FS and C&H, but The Fusco Brothers used to crack me up.
I partially agree; Calvin and Hobbes is a nice comic, but it has been mythologized and deified to an absolutely ridiculous extent by now. It's no Farside, which remains the most consistently funny print comic I have ever read, from child to adulthood. (exceptionally difficult to accomplish) When it comes to Internet comics, the only one I have ever found really funny was Sexy Losers; Spoiler
Gorbachev sings tractor! Turnip! Buttocks! If you recognize that, then kudos. It comes from Bloom County which was a great strip back in the '80s and then really fell off after a while. I can't find any strips online probably because I haven't looked very hard, but my favorite bit comes when the character Steve Dallas is testifying in front of Congess (a very thinly veiled Tipper Gore) about the heavy metal band he managed and they have this exchange: Congresswoman: Well, Mr. Dallas... we've heard your smut masquerading as songs... and we've heard how teen prostitution, pregnancy, drug use, cults, runaways, suicide and poor hygiene are sweeping this nation. We thought you might like to share with the committee any particular causes you might see for those latter problems... Steve Dallas: I dunno. Maybe the proliferation of narrow, suffocating zealotry masquerading as parenting in this country. As true now as it was in Reagan's America.
I'm a huge fan of xkcd (<a class="postlink" href="http://xkcd.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://xkcd.com/</a>).
Obviously Far Side and C&H are favourites. Really enjoy the internet comics Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and PBF Comics. Some examples: Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler
There's a whole comics thread, so some of these are definitely repeats, but what the hell: I liked the Boondocks strip way more than the show, which always gave me a few different bad vibes. I'll eighth Calvin and Hobbes. When it comes to absurdist, almost nihilist humor, though, nobody does it better than Perry Bible Fellowship: `
Continued on a second post! I think maybe my favorite strip of all time, though, is A Softer World. It blends wry humor with bittersweet observation brilliantly, and is the only comic I've ever sent a fan letter to. My feelings for Joey Comeau can only be described as "girlcrush." Alt-text: These marshmallow ghosties don't have time for your ennui.
I had the C&H boxed set almost immediately after it came out; it doesn't get touched though, although of my prior copies still get read. Additionally, I wish I had been around in the heyday Bloom County. I didn't understand half of those jokes at the time (and some of them I still don't) because they were so reliant on current events - but they were still hilarious. My favorite webcomic is Questionable Content, mainly because of how accurately this update described my last relationship: Spoiler Honorable Mention: Oglaf
Questionable content and oglaf, PBF, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Complete Far side which I had to buy for my dad for christmas and then myself as well. Gary Larson was a brilliantly twisted person.. These have all been enjoyable ready for me over the years. I've also enjoyed Something positive though it seems to be lacking lately to me. http://oglaf.com/intermission/1/
Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, Cyanide and Happiness is great, though they seem to be largely the same joke, over and over (kinda the same as Saturday Morning and Dilbert): Spoiler I also like Pearls Before Swine: Spoiler And here's the Pearls Before Swine guy giving an interview about how he quit law to draw a stick figure rat and pig: Spoiler Well, since you asked: Spoiler Spoiler Spoiler
While it's a little different than the focus, I'm a huge fan and regular reader of the Comics Curmudgeon. The idea is simple; a guy posts shitty legacy comics that have been around for way too long like Mary Worth, Family Circus, Dennis the Menace, Marmaduke, etc. and makes fun of them. I dare anyone to read his awesome interpretation of Marmaduke comics and not laugh.