So, the standard disclaimer applies: This is not specifically a list of the best webcomics in existence, it’s just my own personal top ten list. I love these comics, and, odds are, you probably like at least a couple of them yourself. If any of your favorites don’t appear here, and I’m sure that some won’t, please feel free to add a comment telling me what they are so I can check them out. I’m always on the lookout for a good comic. So, off to the races…

First, an honorable mention: Evil Inc. by Brad Guigar
I feel bad about leaving Brad out of my Top Ten, because he’s possibly the most knowledgeable, talented cartoonist alive, and this time, I mean it. I mean, he’s authored or co-authored at least two books on comics that I know of. He knows his stuff. The only reason Evil Inc. didn’t make it into my top ten is that I’m just not a big superhero/supervillain kind of guy. I’ve never been a comic book nerd, only a comic strip nerd, so I still love this comic strip, just not as much as I would if I were also a comic book nerd. Does that make sense? It is late, and I am tired.

10. Joy of Tech by Nitrozac & Snaggy
I just started reading Joy of Tech recently, but it appeals so much to my inner geek that I had to put it on the list. If you’re not a technology nerd, and you’ve never wanted an iPhone, or you’ve never had to buy six feet of CAT-5 cable in your life, you might not like this one. But if you are all those things? I’d urge you to bookmark this comic now. I will gladly accept your thanks later.

9. Sheldon by Dave Kellett
I think that if there’s one webcomic out there that I’d like George to be like, it would be Sheldon. It’s family-friendly without being sappy, trite, or boring; anybody can just start reading and enjoying it; and it has all the workings of a strip that can continue indefinitely without growing tiresome. Dave Kellett knows his audience better than perhaps any webcomic creator today, and he caters to them, giving them the best possible comic experience. A great strip drawn by a great guy who will almost certainly answer your emails cheerfully when you write him. This is probably the only comic in this list you can forward to your ten-year-old cousin or your eighty-year-old grandmother, and there’s an equal chance either one will like it. Plus? THERE’S THE CUTEST TALKING DUCK, SERIOUSLY.

8. Penny Arcade by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins
You probably already know everything about Penny Arcade. If you don’t, I mean, that’s cool, too, really. Suffice to say it is the Shaq of webcomics. It was the dominant face of webcomics for many years, and while it can still rake in tons of cash and display flashes of its former brilliance, it’s not really aging in such a spectacular manner. Penny Arcade is the webcomic that made me realize there were webcomics out there, and still, one of my favorite pastimes is going through the archives and reliving its glory. These days, I dunno, it’s just not the same. Mike is one of the most awesome, talented comic artists working today and I have nothing but respect for him, but the artwork is getting so weird and almost experimental that I long for 2005 when it was simpler and yet somehow more effective. The writing has definitely lost its zing, too, and rare is the day when I laugh as hard as I used to. But, I suppose I’m just one of those crotchety old men, yearning for days past, when times were more pleasant and dogs never wore sweaters.

7. The Non-Adventures of Wonderella by Justin Pierce
My biggest beef with The Non-Adventures of Wonderella is that it only updates once a friggin’ week. I guess that’s my only beef with it, really, and that’s good, because apparently eating too much beef leads to cancer and heart disease, so, you know…nice work, Justin Pierce. The comic is consistently hilarious and I dig the way it looks like it was made with really top-quality construction paper. If you’ve ever thought that female superheroes are under-represented, well…I’m not sure if you’d be happy or sad to hear about Wonderella, a sarcastic, apathetic superhero who would rather be kicking back with a mai tai than saving the world. But she does it anyway. So that makes her pretty good, right?

6. Overcompensating by Jeffrey Rowland
The quasi-autobiographical webcomic of Jeffrey Rowland is just…I dunno, enjoyable. Is that enough? I really can’t place the exact reason that I like it so much, but it makes me laugh. What’s it to ya?!

5. Player vs. Player by Scott Kurtz
Ah, PVP. Look, the strip has been around for nearly 11 years, and if you follow webcomics at all, you know all about it, and you probably either love it or hate it. Scott Kurtz is arguably the most famous webcomic creator after the guys from Penny Arcade, and frankly, I think he’s catching up. I was one of the few who initially didn’t like Scott’s more “artistic” turn a little over a year ago, but I came to accept and actually love the change in his artwork. Now, I’m astounded it’s drawn by the same artist who was drawing it just a few short years ago. It’s a contemporary of Penny Arcade that has pretty much aged like…well, you’d expect me to say “a fine wine” right here, so I’ll be different and say “limburger cheese.”

4. Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida
It took a while for me to get in the groove of Sinfest, but Tatsuya Ishida’s smooth-as-silk line work kept me coming back for more. Sinfest is somehow serious yet whimsical; blasphemous yet reverent. Though several religious figures make regular appearances–we’re talking about God, Jesus, Buddha, the Devil, etc.–Sinfest manages not to alienate anyone while still poking fun at everyone. Not every strip is exactly family-friendly, but by and large I think anyone over the age of 13 can appreciate it. Did I mention Tatsuya’s artwork? If I had a thimble full of his talent, I’d have a really freaking wacky thimble I could show people.

3. Ugly Hill by Paul Southworth
Ugly Hill is no longer updating (sadly), but it still cracks my top three. I love Paul Southworth and often I stare vacuously into his Twitter feed hoping to glean some of his skill. I have absolutely no doubt that whatever new comic he starts up will be tremendous and probably even better than Ugly Hill, but right now, we’re talking about Ugly Hill. It is about a hill full of ugly. Ugly monsters. And…the hill is more like a city. Everyone in Ugly Hill is some sort of hideous–yet somehow charming–malady, which makes it really enjoyable to take in all the characters and their eccentricity. Both the art and the writing are top-notch. It’s one of those strips you could probably read from start to finish in one sitting, if you’re okay with not going to the bathroom for several hours.

2. Starslip by Kris Straub
Kris Straub is a man I envy with a venomous passion bordering on the obscene. You know anybody in your personal life who’s always funny without even trying to be? Kris Straub is always ridiculously funny, all the time, without trying to be, and he wears aviators. Although the futuristic sci-fi Starslip is not exactly easy for first-time readers to jump into, once you’ve become familiar with the characters and the setting, it’s a strip that proves almost impossible to live without. The recent “reboot” of the strip only made it better, delivering an insane plot twist, dynamic artwork, and shading. You heard me.

1. The Adventures of Dr. McNinja by Chris Hastings
From DrMcNinja.com: “Dr. McNinja is a doctor who is also a ninja.” I could say more, but really, that about wraps it up. Just for good measure, I’ll go on to say that there is nothing I do not love about this comic. If it were feasible for Chris to do fourteen updates a week, I would not tire of it. I’m normally not even a fan of long-form comics, and yet Dr. McNinja, a long-form webcomic, sits atop my mountainous list like a puma that has somehow managed to scale a mountain.

There you have it. I hope I have managed to not disappoint. I admit that these comics are all pretty mainstream in the webcomic community, so if you came here hoping to see that “The Fantastical Magical Tragical Boy” had topped my list, my apologies. Next week I hope to deliver a list of top ten lesser-known webcomics I think you should check out. And, by all means, if you know of any excellent webcomics out there that you think deserve more public attention, leave a comment here. For now, though, I’ll leave you with a simple one-word preview of that upcoming entry: Superfogeys.