Recommendations

I am a fan of various webcomics, so here are some of my favorites. Just please don't forget about Com'c under the streams of their awesomeness!

TOP THREE

Homestuck by Andrew Hussie

Is Homestuck a webcomic? A series of animations? A game? A series of games? A mass of musical masterpieces? A wonderfully complex and high-quality story in an entirely new medium? Something extremely postmodern, addictive and funny?

Yes. All of those.

Many have tried and failed to describe Homestuck properly. I'm not even going to try. I'll just tell you this: Homestuck is a thing that must be experienced firsthand to understand. You won't regret it.

(Note: The first few acts were made with fan input, so it's a bit slow early on. That does not mean things are irrelevant early on. DO NOT SKIP ANYTHING.)

El Goonish Shive by Dan Shive

El Goonish Shive is described on the site as "a comic about a group of teenagers who face both real life and bizarre, supernatural situations. It is a comedy mixed with drama and is recommended for audiences thirteen and older." The way I see it, that's like Iris describing eyes as "just these round balls we see with". EGS is one of the best webcomics out there, well worth a look. The art and writing gets a lot better over time, so don't let the style of the early comics bother you.

There are two additional sections to EGS: Sketchbook and NewsPaper. The Sketchbook contains random and not-so-random drawings Dan felt like posting (and, early on, filler comics). NewsPaper consists of comics in a newspaper format, which are not canon unless referred to in the main storyline. EGS:NP is currently on an indefinite hiatus. EGS:NP has returned as Patreon-funded updates, as of August 2014, after a four-year hiatus. I would recommend going through both Sketchbook and NP after catching up with the main story, as they can contain spoilers.

I personally run the at the moment mostly dead (due to an unfortunate member deficiency), unofficial group [el goonish shive] on the Palringo platform (where you can also find a [com'c] group).

xkcd by Randall Munroe

xkcd is a webcomic that according to itself is about "romance, sarcasm, math and language". It is really funny, although the jokes often require a basic understanding of math or programming. Each comic has an "alt-text" (which is a misnomer) that shows up if you hover over the image with your mouse pointer. On a mobile device, it's worth it to use the mobile version of the site if only to read the alt-text.

xkcd was one of the inspirations for the non-storyline-based style of Com'c.

OTHER GOOD ONES

Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew

Order of the Stick is a comic that satirizes table-top RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons by following a party (the Order of the Stick) through their adventures in a world where rules similar to those in table-top RPGs apply, and the fourth wall is probably crying in a ditch somewhere. You don't have to have played any of those games to enjoy the comic - I haven't, and I still consider OOTS one of my favorite webcomics!

The one downside to the comic is that it has no standard update schedule. There's usually at least a couple of pages a week from my experience, but to my knowledge there's no way of predicting when.

Control+Alt+Delete by Tim Buckley

Control+Alt+Delete (CAD) is a good webcomic centered around Lucas and his odd roommate Ethan. The comic focuses a lot on video games, but is fantastic even for someone who isn't really much of a video gamer (like for example me). Ethan is part of the inspiration for Com'c's John, and when I first came up with Victor and John's traits I was inspired by the duo of Lucas and Ethan. Granted, they quickly became very different, but it was still an inspiration.

There is also the section known as the Sillies, which played an even bigger role in the inspiration for Com'c. I recommend reading them after the main CAD comics.

Mr. Lovenstein by J. L. Westover

A delightfully random comic with hidden panels in almost every strip (at least after a certain point), Mr. Lovenstein is another inspiration to Com'c (no, I'm not going to start adding hidden panels). The only way I can really describe this comic is "random and funny".