Reader's Advisory List: Webcomics for Teens

A by-no-means-complete, but awesome list of webcomics for teens, (and people who like webcomics) compiled by me, with help from the YALSA blogger army. All of these are free from their creators to you, the reader. How cool is that?

Gunnerkrigg Court
A boarding school fantasy with robots and faeries, magic and science. The art has evolved from simple to really beautiful. Neil Gaiman has called it his favorite webcomic an endorsement that should tell you just what kind of comic this is- dark, lovely and magical.

Digger
"A wombat. A dead god. A very peculiar epic." is how author Ursula Vernon describes it. I couldn't put it any better.

Kukuburi
Delivery girl Nadia stumbles into an alternate reality, but when things start to look terribly familiar, she wonders if this new place is made from her own dreams and nightmares.

The Red String
This manga romance focuses on a bunch of high school friends and acquaintances. It has a bit of mature content, but a good balance of drama and sweetness.

Order of the Stick
Follow the escapades of a comical fantasy role playing party. A must for fans of tabletop gaming.

Girl Genius
This steampunk fantasy promises "adventure, romance, Mad Science!"

Garfield Minus Garfield
The newspaper comic strip minus the main character casts Jon Arbuckle as a strange and seemingly depressed character. It is funny in an absurd way.

The Phoenix Requiem
A ghost story wrapped inside a Victorian romance.

PVP (Player Vs. Player)
A long-running, geek-minded strip about a guy who writes for a video game magazine. Lots of references and jokes about video games, music, movies, TV, etc

In His Likeness

A more traditional 4-panel set up a joke and get to the punchline kind of comic, illustrated mostly with modified clip-art. It pits characters like God, the Devil, the spirit of the Internet, etc. against each other. Especially recommended for fans of Terry Pratchett or Kurt Vonnegut.

Bayou
This creepy southern fantasy, is not for the faint of heart. Racial violence figures largely in a story of a young girl trying to clear her father's name of murder charges and save her friend from the clutches of strange and terrible beings. The Zuda Comics reader that you view this title in is different from just reading a web page. It full-screens nicely and has a good one click page turn and not a lot of loading time- like refreshing a whole page. Recommended for older teens.

EarthSong Saga
A manga style fantasy where the children of living planets are brought for safe-keeping to the childless planet EarthSong. Recommended to me by a ninth grader.

That's twelve comics for you to enjoy. They are mostly fantasy or in some way gaming related. Perhaps that just goes to show you the kinds of topics that are prevalent on the Internet. Leave suggestions for others in the comments!