Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

Loved them all but I have a Web tip:
http://web.me.com/aaronandpatty/What_the_Duck/Comic_Strips/Comic_Strips.html
What the Duck is awesome!!!

This post is missing a bit of Berserk in the japanese section.

I’d like to add NC Winters view one of his comics . I love his style !

Nik sucks. He started his career copying Daniel Paz & Rudy (another argentinian cartoonists), and every argentinian cartoonist hates him. Wouldn’t make the list (if I wrote it).
Instead of him, you could say something about Liniers (http://autoliniers.blogspot.com/ , I like his drawing style even when I found his strips too “emo”) and El Niño Rodríguez (http://www.criticadigital.com/nino/ ) whose style is awesome and his humor is really caustic.

You are missing the peanuts

It’s easy to pick holes in any list like this, as there will always be some favourite missing, but really!! – no mention of Robert Crumb – almost certainly the greatest comic book artist of his generation.

amazing showcase :-)

What about bilo y nano in webcomics in spanish?

I wish the article went a little deeper to explain WHY these are great examples…it seems to only list a name and strip. Some of them did explain the basis of the strip, but even then it was only a sentence long or so.

Why is Atashi no Sentaku on the list at all? It looks amateur at best, and there are many, many other amateur and professional attempts that trump it. Plus, the art style itself is almost a carbon copy of the mangaka, Arina Tanemura and definitely not original.

Also: “the Japenese work for comics and print cartoons” & “cheezy“?

You are really walking down the plank in this post…

In before serious shitstorm from people who see Fred Gallagher included in the Japanese comic section.

Can this site get back to web design? Please? I like seeing related media, but this is a stretch, and kind of pointless/uninformed. For example: you included Xmen. Dozens of writers have drawn the same characters a few thousand times to varying degrees of quality, some of which are utterly horrendous. To include the entire series seems like a gigantic generalization. There are other comics in this post that have no business being in a “celebration of comic strip art”.This is a gigantic post with the feeling of “Here are a ton of drawings I like!” This post has no right being so longwinded, and is completely without focus or relevance to web design. Can we please bring Smashing back to the days where it focused on what it was good at instead of just showing us a few .jpegs the post’s author liked?

coollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Hi smashing magazine,

please consider this as a humble request. When you publish a “Top 50″ or “Top 100″ listing of something please break it into multiple parts so that I can go though the list without abandoning the process midway. Some how I find it very difficult to maintain my enthusiasm before even reaching the twentieth entry.

regards
– aneeskA

Nice collection. I specially liked the ‘Chinese Hero’ comic art.. All are nice

Impressive Collection!
A smashing comic is Gaston Lagaffe aka. Guust Flater.
It’s by an orgininally belgian author but has been translated into many languages. The official site is only in french, sorry.

official site
english wikipedia site

I can sympathize with Echo’s remarks with regards requesting more web design articles. It has been a stretch indeed. I think (and this is not meant as an insult nor to disrespect Smashing), but it seems like sites such as sitepoint offer more webdev discussions while Smashing is straying more into collections of art and freebies. Nothing necessarily wrong with this per-say, but if the site positions itself as an useful resource for the web, it seems to be gearing itself more and more towards those apects mentioned above.

On the other side of the coin, I suppose I can also sympathize with Smashing in that it is probably hard to please everyone. And not to mention it is easier to discuss collections of art, movies and such than it is researching and writting about web development (again, not meant as an insult or such). I would be curious to see the results from the polls about which direction Smashing should head into in ‘09 (unless I missed something).

But for what it’s worth, one of my favorite comics (France based if I am not mistaken) is Black Sad (sadly, the volumes are not plentiful nor frequent. But excellent animal characters and story lines that touch base on racism, adultry and corruption).

Cheers

NRG

I like this one too wulffmorgenthaler.com

Oversights can be condoned, the list is quite good. Of course everyone would change some bits to his or her preferences.
This one makes up for the lousy previous article “Showcase Of Brilliant (????)Comic Book Cover Art”.

You should check out Martin Kellerman also. Mostly about the story but it’s really well painted and well “directed” .. http://www.pastan.nu/sharedmedia/pastan/blog/27/18/78/102/20081204/roc_20081207_big.jpg

He is huge in Sweden and Norway.

Those listings are far from the best articles of Smashing. Seems like padding to fill a lack of inspiration.

Moreover, those listings are often far from being reference ones. There always are some useless debates on what is in the list and doesn’t deserve it, what is not in the list despite its worth. There are also often “Anglo-Saxon centric” (less in this one with some good European and Asiatic choices).

What would be more interesting would be some illustrations of what comics tricks could bring to design, and specifically web design. Comic layout, typography, colors, etc. are great subjects of study and a parallel with web design would be great.

Nice collection Andrew, You can also add freelanceswitch’s comic strip in your collection.

Don’t forget glitchtown ;)
http://www.glitchtown.com/

I would mention Enki Bilal too!

I also would like to suggest What the Duck comic and FrelanceSwitch comic in this collection
http://www.whattheduck.net/

I love those from Japan. MANGA!!!!!!

What about http://www.wulffmorgenthaler.com/ ? :)

I think Dominic Deegan could be added to the Web Comics list easily. One of the best storys ever.

Under European comics you forgot a lot of good Italian comics which were very popular in Italy but in Austria and former Yugoslavian states too.
exp.
Alan Ford is definitely one of the best comics ever and I’m very sorry it is not translated in to English language

Alan Ford – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_(comics)
Zagor – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Ford_(comics)
Dylan Dog – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Dog
Tex Willer – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tex_Willer
Commandant Mark – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commandant_Mark
Mister No – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_No
Martin Mystère – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Myst%C3%A8re

No ‘Tankgirl’ by Jamie Hewitt in the UK comics section? and no ‘Peanuts’ either? As nice as some of the comics listed are, they’re hardly as influential as many you missed.

One of the best authors from the argentinian comic books, was Hector Oesterheld, and artist Solano Lopez, that created one of the greatest comics, El Eternauta

what about Alan Ford and Lucky Luke?

I think you’re missing Don Rosa’s cartoon art on the list… His stuff is damn good!
I even made a video of one of his stories: http://www.vimeo.com/2602307

Jack Kirby?

Sandman series by Neil Gaiman.

whoa, nice list, i really love asterix, my fave book!

i like the old Superman cartoons. check out some of the best ones here for free. amazing artwork…. way before computers were around, those humans do rock.

http://tesla.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/tuner.php?channel=589&format=tv&theme=guide

What, no RANXEROX!?! Only the best thing to come out of the european scene in the 80’s, period! Also, am I missing something or is there a distinct lack of Moebus on this supposed “list”?

While expansive at first blush, anything with out these two just aint complete.

Nice List… but since it is “limited”, I would like to add some of my personal favourites, which, unfortunately, do not appear in this list:

CORTO MALTESE: http://www.cortomaltese.com
… and of course, his inventor, Hugo Pratt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Pratt

Belgian Comicartist FRANQUIN – http://www.franquin.com

Oups, an error in my comment….
Dark Warrior its Les Cercles d’Akamoth and Milky Girl it’s Sky Doll…
Sorry, but i can’t edit my comment….

What about Condorito for Latin American Comic Strip Art? It’s the most popular comic strip in Chile, and well known across South America.
Condorito [Wikipedia Entry]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condorito
Condorito [Offical Web Site - Spainish]: http://www.condorito.cl

Hmm, I don’t want to whine too much but ommiting Corto Maltese or anything from Frank Miller is quite “weird” :)

Uh, Megatokyo really shouldn’t be on the Japanese list. Since, you know, the creators are Caucasian americans.

Pity the British section doesn’t mention Striker, which is definitely the best serial newspaper strip in the UK today. It’s nominally a soccer story, but it contains enough drama and humour off the pitch to keep even a non-sports fan like me enthralled.

And no mention of The Perishers either, which in its day was the quirkiest and best-drawn humour strip possibly in the world. How quickly they forget.

A few I expected to see on the list were MAD Magazine, The Maxx and my online favourite Little Gamers.

Great list, thanks! :)

Asterix & Obelix, Titin and Les Tuniques Bleues My Favourites!

Rob and Elliot, Hell yeah!

Cute + funny comic strips as well:

http://www.wantoon.com

Currently there are about 38 comic strips, please check it out under Comic Strips section

Great list, though I really missed Corto Maltese (http://www.cortomaltese.com/). Hugo Pratt’s work is absolutely stunningly beautiful.

I nominate the increasingly popular soccer comic Studs Up

http://www.studs-up.com/

if u want great web comics u should check out stuff by kris wilson at
http://kris-wilson.deviantart.com/

Hey!
You should’ve included Nerdson!!!
http://nerdson.com/blog/

It’s a GREAT comic strip from a brazilian artist!

Maybe you could have done a little research. Given that Japan has one of the biggest comics industries, your selection of Japanese comics can hardly be called a “celebration” of it.

Of course we all have a lot a titles and authors to mention, but the most important missing one is (as said before) the Peanuts.
C’mon, Snoopy is one of the oldest, best selling, world famous… and smartest comics in the world.

Personally, i love “Donjon” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_(comics)

and Code geass ?! (for the Japanese Comic)

I love your cartoons most of them are made the old way the way cartoons have been made for the last two hundred years by drawing .