I’ve been asked a lot of webcomic-y questions since Jump Leads launched back in ‘07, and with Deadlong having launched this month I’ve been asked more or less all of those questions again. One of those questions is, invariably, “What’s your favourite webcomic?”
Previously, I’ve abstained from answering this question. There are, truthfully, dozens of webcomics that I read every single week, and I’ve never really sat down and thought about which webcomic was at the top of my totem pole.
It’s one thing for a webcomic to keep me hooked. It’s another thing entirely for me to want to go back and re-read a webcomic I’ve already read from the beginning to the most recent strip. I’ve done this with Penny Arcade and Starslip a number of times, the former because videogames are in my blood, and the latter because I devour well-written scifi-comedy like monkeys eat bananas.
But I can count on one hand the number of other webcomics I’ve actually read from start to finish multiple times. In fact I can count it on one finger - Shortpacked!.
I first read Shortpacked! in, I think, 2006. Friend and soon to be fellow Jump Leads writer Euan Mumford sent me the link for Shortpacked!. He read it because he was a fan of previous webcomics by the same cartoonist, David Willis. I read it because it spoke to me on a number of levels. First, it was clever. Secondly, it was funny as Hell. Thirdly, it spoke to a part of my brain that had only recently been switched on - the collector.
Doctor Who had relaunched the previous year, and the first wave of Character Options’ Doctor Who action figures had been released. I didn’t have as much disposable income as I would have liked, but I craved those figures above all things. I was able to buy a few, including the first-wave coat variant of the Tenth Doctor and the Regeneration pack featuring the Ninth Doctor in a very, very stiff pose and the Tenth Doctor in the Ninth’s outfit. I wanted to own as many figures from the range as possible.
Even beyond the collector stuff, though, Shortpacked! entertains. The characters have distinct voices, the scenarios walk the line between grounded in reality and skirting on the manic, and it’s quite wonderfully funny - funnier than most narrative-driven webcomics out there, I’d say.
Perhaps the most astounding thing is that while the quality of many webcomics has dipped and wobbled over the years, Shortpacked! remains consistently brilliant. Willis’ art has evolved over the years, and so has his comic timing, not to mention his flare for drama.
I don’t feel like there are many other webcomics I can really compare it to. It’s best compared with television sitcoms like Scrubs, or Community. I can’t help but feel that Willis is deliberately aiming for a similar tone - he’s referenced both shows a few times throughout the comic - but whether intentional or not it comes across as effortless.
So, yeah, whenever anybody asks me “What your favourite webcomic?” these days, my answer is always the same: Shortpacked!. There’s nothing else quite like it.
rosalarian