n3rd.org

Just as expected from any online media, web comics have several big advantages over their traditional (in this case printed) counterparts. The two big ones for me are longevity (the ability to browse through the entire archive of published strips, which can be important when you missed a few episodes of an ongoing storyline) and connectedness (being able to follow links from the annotations and to cross-reference sources mentioned in the comic, very convenient when the strip is touching on current events).
This is of course old news, but I was painfully reminded of it during the last couple of days. While I was in Munich I decided to read one of those fancy newspapers that, once opened up, can only be folded back together by those few who hold at least a 3rd degree black belt in Origami-Do. There were plenty of articles where I thought yes, I would like to know more, but paper turns out to be quite unclickable.

I do not recall when I first started reading Penny Arcade but circumstantial evidence suggests that it must have been in early 1999, along with PvP, and I’ve been an avid reader ever since. Several other comics have joined them my bookmark folder in the years that followed. Among them are, roughly ordered by personal preference:

• Penny Arcade
• xkcd
• Men In Hats (discontinued in 2005)
• Dilbert
• 8-bit Theatre
• Irregular Webcomic!
• Ctrl-Alt-Del
• EXTRALIFE
• Dueling Analogs
• Little Gamers
• PvP Online
• Red Meat
• UserFriendly

This list also happens to be the reason why I practically never get anything done before lunch. Just in case you were wondering.

Happy 10th anniversary, Penny Arcade.