It ain't Garfield

Where are funniest funnies? Not in the morning paper anymore. We deliver the goods on some hilarious comics blogs out there, and by “out there,” we mean not past your computer screen!

By Tessa Brunton
Published: November 6th, 2008 | 10:45am

Lucky for all of us cheapskates who like to read our comics for free, the blogosphere is full of funny, no-frills comic blogs made by cartoonists who like to post their goods regularly. While there are oodles of professional webcomics out there, these blogs are often the unpolished chronicles of cartoonists’ lives that have been slapped together using Livejournal or Blogger. Because they are so lo-fi, they tend to be raw, weird, honest, and mostly autobiographical. Here are a few that are definitely worth checking out.

John Isaacson
What could be cooler then someone reviewing last night’s rock show in comics, then posting those comics on a blog for us all to peruse? After-school teacher Isaacson posts his cheeky four-panel show reviews of gigs like Ted Leo or Japanther at Feedback, where drunkenness and aging hardcore kids are common themes.

Eleanor Davis
You may have seen Davis’ work without knowing it — she’s the artist behind the cover of the newest edition of the Best American Comics series. While her blog is not updated very frequently, what she does post artfully swings between the surreal and the ordinary. Check out the particularly eerie and beautiful “Hobo Bones” strip.

Julia Wertz
Technically Wertz’s comics are on a website, not a blog, but Fart Party fits the comic blog mold — she posts weekly autobiographical comics about her cheese-loving, mischief-making life in Brooklyn. Topics include useless products peddled by SkyMall catalog and the “little pleasures of poverty.” Note: Her excessive love of cheese is not directly related to the title.

Liz Prince
Prince posts her delightful autobiographical comics on her Livejournal page, titled “there is no liz, only zuul.” Her hilarious three-panel strips deal with all-important matters like the smell of Gatorade Grape Fierce.

Jesse Reklaw
During cartoonist Jesse Reklaw’s book tour for his new collection of comics about other people’s dreams (dubbed Slow Wave, after his website), he set himself the awesome and daunting task of keeping a funny comic diary.

Craig Thompson and Jeremy Tinder
Two blogs by two different Portland gents are both a hodgepodge of comic tidbits, but still worth a gander. While Craig Thompson (yes, of Blankets fame) works on his next book, he posts sketches on his blog. It’s a great opportunity to see spectacular art that may never make it into a book. Jeremy Tinder’s blog is a romp through his colorful and bizarre art.

—

Tessa Brunton lives in Oakland where she draws autobiographical comics about sex dreams, Ira Glass, and watching people vomit on public transportation, which she posts to her comic blog at tessasbraces.blogspot.com.