So we've heard about how people found Goats ... now, how did you find out about webcomics in the first place? Specifically, what was the first comic you ever read online? And what was good about it?

I'll go first: Joe the Circle [joe-the-circle.com]*. When I came across this, I had no idea there were such things as webcomics. But this crudely-drawn, clumsily plotted, needlessly violent behemoth grabbed me, shook me by the neck and injected its venom into my metaphorical bloodstream ... it was all downhill from there.

*From the looks of it, this site hasn't been updated in two years. I'm sorry to see it go, in a nostalgic way ... man, for a musician, Mike Shapiro made a really crappy cartoonist.

I'm fairly certain I got started with webcomics through Dilbert.

Once I got the notion of "comics" + "internet", I started looking around.

But cripes it was a long time ago - sometime around 1997 (longer than I've been married). I simply didn't understand the impact at the time, to have it make enough of an impression.

Fleen may have led me to Goats. Or the other way around.

On the list of comics I'm sorry to see go is www.ashfieldonline.com. I'll be horribly pleased to see Aric get something new up - which I'm sure will happen some day.

I typed www.goats.com and, lo and behold, found this comic. And that was how I discovered webcomics. This story is remarkably similar to the story of how I found goats.

Funny, I know Mike via another friend of mine. Small world. I didn't know he did a web comic before. I'll have to check it out.

My experience is similar to Zamphir. I started reading Dilbert online when I was in college. I didn't really think about dilbert being a comic online, as more a lazy person's way of reading dilbert, since I almost never bought a paper.

Later when I started working, someone showed me Goats and I was hooked. I think the same friend also showed me Penny Arcade, and so I would read both of those. Back then I was also reading Old Man Murray all the time, though that was not a comic.

I never bothered to go and look for any new ones to read until livejournal, then the syndication made it too easy to find new ones. Now I read several comics online, although not as many as it sounds like some people around here do.

Yeah...
I don't remember that far back. I was reading Sinfest [sinfest.net] way back in 2000, albeit irregularly due to lack internet access on the ship. I was becoming very bored with it, actually, which is when I think I saw a link to Goats on ISCA [uiowa.edu] and subsequently stopped wasting my time there and started wasting it reading the Goats archive and discovered Dumbrella, and all the comics those guys liked and all the comics THOSE guys like, etc.

How? Fleen. [fleen.com]

Actually, this was the first webcomic I discovered sometime around early '98. My roomate was messing around on the net, typed goats into a search engine, and viola! I've been hooked ever since.

in 01 my good friend posted a strip from deisel sweeties on his dorm room door. I liked it a lot, so I eventually checked out the strip when I was bored. he then sent me a list of comics he liked, and I went crazy from there.

A couple years ago, i started looking at some mainstream stuff online, like Foxtrot, Doonesbury, Way Lay [waylay.com], and some American political cartoonists. I always try to be more paperless, and this was the solution for satisfying my addiction to those strips.

Then i discovered web-based comics, Goats, Something Positive, 8-bit Theater [nuklearpower.com], Penny Arcade, and the Mostly Unfabulous Social Life [planetout.com] of Ethan Greene [ethangreen.com], all somewhat simultaneously. I believe i also found Space Moose [drunkanddisorderly.net] during the months just before that.

More recently, i found Ted Rall [rall.com], whose writing i greatly admire; and Adam and Andy [adamandandy.com]-- but i haven't yet decided how much i like it yet. I'm willing to give things a chance for a long time before i give up, or admit that i'm hooked.

The original gateway drugs for me came decades before all of this, when i first fell in love with Bloom County, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Far Side.

Webcomics don't interest me. Goats just happened to have a pissyapants-funny strip on a day that I was feeling particularly e-venturous.

In Response to Teledildonix (#17998):

Funny thing, Ted Rall bought two Goats t-shirts today: a Surly and an Overclocked Lemon.

Moby bought a Republicans for Voldemort shirt. No joke.

In Response to jon (#18013):

So, the name on his account is just "Moby" then?
I wonder if he reads the forums?
Hi, Moby!

In Response to banzai (#18021):

So, the name on his account is just "Moby" then?
nope [goats.com].

At least, not on his Goats account, if he has one.

In Response to jon (#18013):

Pretty soon, we're going to have to change the "Six Degrees of Separation" notion to five or fewer.

In Response to zamphir (#18023):

I'm not sure if I should be amused or insulted. I challenge you to a duel! Our weapons shall be nylons whisks. Whoever passes out from pointlessness first, wins!

In Response to Teledildonix (#18030):

I'm on the internet! I'm famous!

 

In Response to banzai (#18021):

No, he came by the Dumbrella table at MoCCA. I'll put up a post soon with all the dirt.

In Response to themysticalone (#18033):

Why do you think that link is specific to you?

It's h t t p : / / w w w . g o a t s . c o m / u s e r s / M o b y

It's just that if the user doesn't exist, the code takes you to your own page.

In Response to jon (#18039):

he came by the Dumbrella table at MoCCA

That's awesome. I was planning on going Saturday, but never made it. I was to attend a 6yr old's B-day fest in the morning in Queens, and head over from there. It got changed to 2 in the afternoon; screwing the whole day.

Every time I try to make it to a con something always comes up...

In Response to jettaboy20 (#18041):

Why do I picture 'ledildo desperately holding back one of his trademark responses?

In Response to unFalln (#18054):

Two possible reasons:

1) Because all the humorous elements should already be self-evident, and you need only arrange them logically: "awesome", "Queens", "head", "screwing", "comes up".

2) Because you probably enjoy picturing 'ledildo in your spare time (?)

In Response to Teledildonix (#18055):

To be honest, it's not my spare time. I've been working for the last couple of hours. I don't really know what that means about my working habits...

But really, I did try to come up with another shortening, but I was limited to 8 chars. Maybe I should've tried some unicode.

In Response to unFalln (#18003):

Which strip? Inquiring minds want to know!

In Response to zamphir (#18040):

Because I'm the center of my universe. What did you expect? Like I'd bother paying attention to what the link actually says. Pah!

Hold on, Galileo seems to be calling me.

In Response to unFalln (#18058):

I don't really know what that means about my working habits...

It means you have impeccable taste.

I did try to come up with another shortening

Good idea. Crisco really isn't the best, once you've noticed its obvious distinction versus generics: most brand-x shortening doesn't have any added artificial fragrances. I don't care for the lingering smell of Crisco, it's harder to wash out of the sheets and towels, and is an all-round inferior yet over-priced product.

Maybe I should've tried some unicode.

Do you have any nifty unicode representations of Pi, Pie, or Pai? I'm referring to the Greek letter representing the mathematical constant of circularity; the crusted dessert which conveniently charts portions; and the Chinese symbol of a blank, white, empty spot, tile, card, or piece of paper. Pai-Hu, the White Tiger constellation of the West-Northwest, is a symbol of the double metal Iron Dog for those of us born during the hours of 2am until 4am on the mid-July days of 1970.

In Response to mcgrue (#18061):

Those days are quite a bit of a blur, but I'm pretty sure it's the one that I've requested in return for my donation: ie, the "I get to be a pirate, arrr!" one. It's funny now, so I guess it must've been a cack at the time.

I feel I've talked about this before, but where?