Re-reading Webcomics

I read way too many comics.  I mean regularly, not just total.  That list to the side there is huge.  It kind of makes you lose a bit of perspective on them when the numbers get that big.  So to sit down and re-read a comic, from the beginning, it gives me a chance to remember why I liked the comic, and to re-examine it from a non-fresh perspective.

A bit ago I visited Heart Shaped Skull and was surprised to discover that the two chapters that had been missing in my original pass through has finally been posted for all to see.  Great, I can read them now, except, well, the archives aren't exactly friendly, and the only way to get to the stuff I hadn't read before was to start at the beginning.

Did I mention these two chapters are in the middle of the two that were live the first time through?  No?  Well, they are, and yet back then, I didn't feel I was missing much. The summaries provided gave me more than enough information to continue reading, and the last completed chapter was more or less a stand alone story.

And yet, as I read through these new chapters (which really didn't offer much of anything I didn't already know) I got hooked and finished the entire archives from start to finish.  I can't remember the last time I did that with a comic I had already read.  I think maybe parts of Leisure Town, but only parts of it. Damn, I should go back and reread that.

Good comics are like that I guess, that while they're new and fresh, you enjoy them, sure, but you don't really understand your obsession with them until you go back and start rereading your favorite parts, only to find yourself up at 3 am 2 days after starting and having not slept in between.  I'm actually almost afraid to try reading parts of Sluggy Freelance, you might need a prybar to get me out of my chair after that.

I read a lot of webcomics on a daily and weekly basis, but the good ones will always stand out.  Sure, I enjoy reading things like Eerie Cuties, Sandra and Woo and Out There, but would I really ever go back and read them from scratch?  Would it be worth the time and energy?  Probably not.  But there are plenty that would be.

So I'm glad I spent two or three hours on Heart Shaped Skull, catching up and remembering why I liked it.  I'll have to do it some more in the future.

Next week, SOMETHING!  Yeah, I don't have much left at the moment.