The Essential Nerd Web Comics (Part I)
Article Concept, Construction and Crafting by Havelock
Penny Arcade:
Well, the best place to start is the beginning, Penny Arcade was the first webcomic I ever started reading. It is hard to imagine that its been around a decade, but this venerable strip about gaming was the source of many humorous memes and images amoungst my friends and myself. Whether it is following the (mis)adventures of Gabe and Tycho, the protagonists, wry observations on game mechanics/stories or commenting on industry news, it is nearly always worth the look. Some of my favourites can be seen here , here and here. (They were too big to insert directly to my post)
The reason I count it as a nerd web comic, is it isn’t just computer games they deal with, but all aspects of gaming; friendship, memories and humour . And as we all know, gaming, in its multitude of forms, is the smart way to have fun.
Each update is accompanied by a brief news story covering the topic of that day’s comic and what ever is on the mind of either creator, writer Jerry Holkins or illustrater Mike Krahulik, be it parenting, social commentary or just a healthy rant. I often find, as a pc gamer, that I need to check out what they are talking about regarding console games and their somewhat terrifying online communities. Its is also worth checking out their PA Presents section, which contains some work they have done for video games and their charity Child’s Play.
XKCD
This stunning stick man and science comic was created by the brilliant Randall Munroe. Apparently so named as to be phonetically unpronounceable (that is the comic, not its creator!). It advertises itself as:
“A webcomic of romance,sarcasm, math, and language.” 
Which, we can all admit are wonderful starting points for any endeavour in life. This weird, wacky and wonderful web comic has been the touch stone for founding many of my friendships. Original offerings ranging from programming and math jokes, to sentiments that come straight from the heart, to ideas that we usually should keep to ourselves, make every new comic a pleasure and surprise. If you are bored at work, doing a course that doesn’t challenge your mighty intellect or simply, like myself, have very little need for sleep, I recommend hitting up the archives. Be prepared though for some intensive and interesting research to get the joke in some of the more cerebral ones. And on that note, I’ll take a page out of the books of my fellow contributors, and leave this at below 500 words.
-Havelock “the Rad”
<3 Aww... That last one was geekishly delish. Reminds me of how romantic I find computer programming languages. I actually used to write awesome visual basic pick up lines in class way back in high school,
ie. Like an unconditional if statement, you keep running in my mind til i crash ;)
Good stuff though! Penny Arcades always a good one, and I like the sound of these other ones you listed.
Penny Arcade was my first web comic as well. I love those guys. And if you ever have hours to spend, check out their podcasts as well (which have recently been replaced with PATV…also good, but not as much content). They give insight into how various strips were made and are absolutely hilarious (My favourites being ‘Advertising in the Future’, ‘In The Love Nest Of Har’akki’ and ‘The Ungift, Part Two’) . Also the PA DnD podcasts – all gold.
Though…where the hell was I? I never saw that Rockband Nirvana strip. I lol’d.
And Child’s Play has to be the most amazing thing I’ve seen. I have never wanted to throw my money behind a charity so much.
Since you wrote Part One up there, I’m going to jump to the insane conclusion that there will be more posts to come…so I’m gonna wait to share some of my other favourite strips.
Penny Arcade is the only one from the old days that’s still any good