Books webcomics Getting Lost in the Archives: Five Long-Running SFF Webcomics These stories have been going for at least 15 years or more… By James Davis Nicoll | Published on September 4, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share There are many things USENET and other rudimentary forms of the internet did better than its current incarnation—threading, for example—but there is one thing that a mature medium can provide that a new one cannot: enough time for vast amounts of material to accumulate. Even the old USENET megathreads, as impressive as they were, would be hard-pressed to match the amount material a hard-working person can create given only a decade or two in which to work1. Case in point, webcomics. These combine visual art with written narrative. They are necessarily labor intensive. Therefore, unless the creators are mainlining caffeine, adrenalin, or other stimulants2, a webcomic will have to run for years to accumulate huge archives. Such long-running webcomics exist—here are five SFFnal examples. Dork Tower by John Kovalic (1997 onward) Dork Tower documents the lives of Mud Bay’s roleplaying community, particularly Matt McLimore and the other eccentrics3 who frequent game shop Pegasaurus Games. Technically speaking, the strip is mundane, the fantastic elements being restricted to the characters’ imaginations4 …except for the minor detail that Carson is, for some reason, a talking muskrat. Dork Tower is so venerable that it dates from an era when webcomics were printed on thin sheets of processed wood, forming what were then known, in the primitive argot of the time, as magazines. Dork Tower made it online in 2000. Twenty-eight years of Dork Tower’s slice of life TTRPG will keep you entertained for weeks. Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew (2003 onward) Order of the Stick follows the adventures of Belkar Bitterleaf, Vaarsuvius, Elan, Haley Starshine, Durkon Thundershield, and Roy Greenhilt as they make their way in a world subject to Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition rules (more or less). Even death itself cannot prevent them from adventuring… although the end of the world might. What was originally a comedic strip about the foibles of D&D characters has grown into an epic tale about the fate of their universe, one whose conclusion is in sight. Impressively, Burlew manages to make his grand narrative enthralling despite embracing stick figure art. Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques (2006 onward) At first glance, Questionable Content might appear to be a perfectly mundane slice of life comic about a group of twenty-somethings whose lives intersected5 at a particular coffeeshop and a specific apartment building. As quickly becomes obvious, Questionable Content takes place in a post-singularity universe. Advanced AIs—robots and other manifestations—rub shoulders with conventional humans. One of the fascinating aspects of long-running webcomics is the opportunity to watch the artist develop over the years (or in this case, decades). QC was interesting enough to catch my attention back in 2006, but as the 5630+ strips document, Jacques has significantly upped his game since 2006… as well as vastly expanding the scope of the webcomic. A Girl and Her Fed by K.B. Spangler, with art by Alexandra Presser (2007 onward) A Girl and Her Fed began mundanely enough, with a journalist who learns from the ghost of Benjamin Franklin that she is subject to hostile attention from the American federal government. Pulling at this loose thread reveals a bizarre reality underlying the mundane world, a reality of which the Girl was previously comfortably unaware. Readers will no doubt easily accept ghosts, cyborgs, and talking koalas, but they may want a heads-up that not every government official in AGAHF is entirely on the up and up. A Girl and Her Fed would be another example of a strip whose art style evolved considerably over the years… and one whose vast archive should keep you busy reading for weeks. Oglaf by Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne (2008 onward) At first glance, Oglaf might seem to be a phenomenally pornographic fantasy webcomic, what with all the lavishly depicted nudity and sex. That’s because it is. Oglaf is also very funny, and even, from time to time, insightful, explaining (1) how to effectively motivate artists, and (2) why the Hobbits didn’t just use the Eagles to fly to Mordor. I’d link to both these strips if the site were easier to search. There are occasional (carefully flagged) SFW (safe for work) panels. One could also argue that Oglaf’s comedic elements are socially redeeming… so potentially not pornographic at all? But don’t try that argument with HR, and don’t read this comic at work. The above are only a small sample of the long-running webcomics into whose archives readers can lose themselves for months…even years! Did I overlook your favourite? Please mention it in comments below.[end-mark] At my current pace, my 10,000th professional review should go live sometime in 2033. It will be of the final book in the Discworld series… unless I change my mind. ︎Which would probably affect the quality of their work. ︎Like all game-store owners, current or former, Pegasaurus Games owner/manager Bill Blyden is a paragon of intelligence and morality, unblemished by flaw or eccentricity. ︎Some would claim that in a realistic world Igor’s appalling judgment would have killed him years ago. I fail to see their point. It’s perfectly easy to survive astonishing amounts of imprudence without picking up more than the odd amusing scar or life-altering injury. Even if you should happen to perish, what is so hard about simply standing back up, dusting oneself off, and carrying on as usual? ︎In the early strips. On occasion, the scale of the strip has extended up into low Earth orbit. ︎The post Getting Lost in the Archives: Five Long-Running SFF Webcomics appeared first on Reactor.