I’ve loved comics ever since I was a child, and I’m sure it holds true for most of us. With the passage of time, we’ve grown up, and so have comics. They’re no longer restricted to a single audience, and have found their way where we spend most of our time – the internet.

In fact, comics have evolved in such a way that they seem more at home on the internet instead of being printed on paper, and hence they’re now called ‘webcomics’. So let’s put traditional comics aside for a moment, and glance through some of the best webcomics that are guaranteed to make you go ‘LOL’.

1. XKCD – www.xkcd.com

When you think of the word ‘webcomic’, the first image that comes to mind is a stick figure from xkcd. Back in 2005, xkcd was created by a former NASA employee who had a knack for drawing comics. It wasn’t long before it became the preferred source for webcomics. xkcd is best defined by its own tagline, “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language”. It features stick figures as the main characters, and the storyline is usually based on humour pertaining to science, technology and daily life.

Xkcd is entertaining, but what lies beneath is even better. There’s a hidden caption in every comic, which can be revealed by hovering the mouse over it. A new xkcd comic is posted every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Let’s be honest, the humour might be a bit too complex or geeky at times, but xkcd has often made me laugh uncontrollably on numerous occasions!

2. Cyanide and Happiness – www.explosm.net/comics

As simple and straightforward as xkcd, Cyanide & Happiness is yet another popular webcomic. Although not everyone would enjoy some genres of humour addressed by this webcomic (black comedy, for instance), it manages to remain among one of the top webcomics. Cyanide & Happiness is created by four authors, each of them having their own style of mostly mature humour. Everyday a new comic is posted on the site by one of the authors. As mentioned earlier, webcomics have their own audience, and doesn’t necessarily have to be kids in this case!

3. The Oatmeal – www.theoatmeal.com

The Oatmeal is a bit different from most webcomics, but is certainly amongst the most popular ones on the web. That’s due to the nature of content it holds. There are different articles, which are informative, humorous, and have a somewhat sarcastic nature, presented in an illustrated form. They’re unlike other comic strips, and are sometimes really useful (such as the one which tells you the 10 words you need to stop misspelling!).

4. Garfield minus Garfield – www.garfieldminusgarfield.net

This is one comic strip we all know and love. The idea is simple: the author takes an existing Garfield comic, eliminates Garfield (and other characters) out of it, leaving Jon Arbuckle alone. The idea clicked, and this webcomic became really popular. If you’ve been a reader of Garfield, you’ll definitely find it amusing and hilarious at times, while sometimes it won’t make sense at all. If you’ve been unfortunate enough not to get acquainted with Garfield, I’d suggest you to get an idea of how the original comic strip works, and then come back to this one for fun.

5. Fredo & Pid’jin – www.pidjin.net

A webcomic that stands up to its tagline - world’s funniest webcomic. Featuring two penguins; a chubby one named Fredo, and a relatively leaner one named Pid’jin. The comics are short, simple, and hilarious. At times the comics feature little or no dialogues, and yet manage to amuse the reader. The type of humour ranges from sarcastic to “I see what you did there” puns. The comic is updated on random intervals once a week or sometimes once a couple of weeks. But given the quality of this comic, I wouldn’t mind the wait.

6. The Joy of Tech – www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech

Here’s one for the geeks out there. The Joy of Tech webcomic is based on tech events in the real world, and presents them in a way that’s humorous and informative. Most common subjects (or shall I say, suspects) of the comic are Apple, Microsoft, and Google, and you’ll most likely be able to see comic versions of Steve Ballmer, Tim Cook, and several others in this webcomic. The two authors of this comic are keen on providing the readers with tech humour three times a week. The comics however, might be a bit too long at times.

7. Cat versus Human – www.catversushuman.com

We all love cats, well, most of us. This adorable webcomic depicts the life of a cat and its owners, and the things they have to go through. Unlike Garfield, this comic features playful cats, which don’t talk or speak; they ‘purr’ instead, surprised, eh? The author updates it three times per month, usually at the beginning, middle, and end of each month. Meow!

8. Dilbert – www.dilbert.com

Dilbert was originally an award-winning comic strip, which has now made its way to the web as well. It doesn’t need much of an introduction if you’re a comic fan. It features ‘Dilbert’, an engineer working at an office. The comic is based on office humour, so get ready for some ‘corporate level puns’. A new comic is available on the official site daily.

9. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal (SMBC) – www.smbc-comics.com

Here’s a webcomic that has gained immense popularity online, and the interesting bit that sets it apart is the fact that it has no set format or recurring characters. There’s not even a fixed comic length. The most commonly addressed themes can range from superheroes to science and other random topics. And that’s probably the reason for its fame.

Honourable mentions!

It was getting difficult to select one out of the so many awesome and popular webcomics for the final contenders, so here are some other ones worth checking out: Buttersafe, Three Word Phrase, Dinosaur Comics, PvP and Amazing Super Powers.