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Kind comics

By Ari | Aug 9, 08 02:51 PM

I love web comics and have been reading them religiously as long as I've had an internet connection. In the past year I discovered that a few I'd known and loved and read every day for a very long time were driving me crazy - little oppressive things here and there stopped being funny, then stopped being things I could ignore. So I cut them out and am now reading a different set of comics that are smarter and more progressive. Yay! Read on for links to my favorites and to some particularly good strips.

My favorites right now are Kate Beaton's History Comics and Ryan North's Dinosaur Comics, and I'm growing more and more fond of Meredith Gran's Octopus Pie. And I'll admit I adore John Allison's Scary-Go-Round, though the girls in it have gotten skinnier and less clothed over the years. (Not that I have a problem with girls in underpants - but we live in a society where I think boys should get equal underpants time, lest folks read said lady nekkidness as sexism.)

Here are some particularly good strips that even have social messages:

• Dinosaur Comics on language evolution
  
• Dinosaur Comics on suicide
  
• A very animal rightsy Scary Go Round

And though only highlights of his comic are available online, I have to give a shout out to the amazing Ron Regé, Jr. of Lavender Diamond. (Previously: New and wonderful things from Lavender Diamond.) Check out his stuff at The Plight of the Cartoon Utopian. Read the text in his complicated and beautiful images to get inspired - he's got a lot to say about female leadership, sustainability, and peace.

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