As some of you may know, I am a comic creator myself. I've been wading through the Webcomics waters for over 12 years, to varying degrees of success, and in many roles. It was then that I fancied myself a critic for the purpose of doing stuff with my time, making my triumphant return to long-windedness here on The Escapist.

While I was a Webcomics Critic, I was reading something like 150 webcomics at the time, just to make sure I had enough material to write on. As I've spent more time in the creator camp, that list of comics I've followed dwindled down, down, down to a meager dozen at best. Through no fault of the wonderful comics or creators I follow, of course. My appetites changed over time. Now I mostly watch anime and play one of two procedurally generated indie games. But obviously, I still love Webcomics and the people who make them above all other formats. What can I say, I'm biased.

(Further bias to put on the table: Some of the comics I'm about to list are done by people I would consider personal friends. It is just unavoidable when you've been doing this crap as long as I have.)

So without further ado... here are the Top Five Webcomics That Are Currently Running That I Am Actively Reading In No Particular Order:

1. Whomp! - Ronnie Filyaw

Some might call this a spiritual successor to KC Green's Horribleville. Consistently hilarious and self deprecating, it hits the exact sweet spot that keeps an autobiographical comic entertaining: A mixture of material taken from Ronnie's real life experiences combined with Fuck It, This Is A Comic Strip, Let's Make With The Yuk-Yuks. The insecurities put on display echo my own so often, I feel a special bond and kinship with the creator, like he's holding up a funhouse mirror to my very soul.

This might be a weird sentence to read (and I assure you, it's a weird one to type), but Whomp is one of the most Webcomic-y Webcomics running today. It has so many of the qualities of the old-school Webcomic of my youth - self-insert protagonist, a jerk who exists only to be a jerk, fun with alt text, simple yet high impact jokes - but presents them in ways that still speak to the modern audience. That, or people like me and Ronnie us are just an eternal constant throughout the eons of time that will never go away as a viable audience.

Speaking of which, the embodiment of said audience is distilled into pure gold in Ronnie's sister series to Whomp!, Otaku Dad. It's a story-based comic about a young girl's weeaboo-as-fuck dad who just wants to make the world more kawaii and sugoi. A must-read for metaweebs.

RATING: The Webomic I Wish I Was Making Myself