Comics are a happy constant in my life. I apply them liberally to heartache, rereading the collections I own over and over again whenever I need a quick pick-me-up. I don't get the newspaper (largely because of the reading habits stated above), so mostly I catch up on my comics online. My parents, bless their souls, set aside the Sunday funnies for me every week, so there's always a huge stack waiting for me when I visit home.

Because I'm an avid listmaker, this page will be in that format. I find it easier to read, and you can skip the uninteresting bits (like this intro).

Oldies but Goodies: Favorite Strips No Longer Around

• Bloom County: This one's a bit dated, but the characters are so classic that it doesn't matter. Certain strips still make me laugh out loud.
• Calvin & Hobbes: Hail to the king. That's all I can say.
• The Far Side: I've been reading this strip since I was a kid, and I've found that as I get older I understand more of the jokes. Every time I pick up a collection I find something new.

• Zits: More often than not, I at least smile at this strip, if not laugh out loud.
• Fox Trot: Jason is my favorite character, though I often feel embarrassed when I understand the more technical jokes.
• For Better or For Worse: This one is actually very rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but I find the characters charming and well drawn.
• 9 Chickweed Lane: The humor in this is a little bit more subtle, which is probably why I like it so much.
• F-Minus: Funny in a Far Side kind of way.
• Frazz: Sometimes I wonder if Bill Watterson is doing this one under a different name.

• Spamusement: "Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!" Hilarious more often than not.
• xkcd: Absurdity + philosophy + math + introspection + humor = brilliance.
• Pibgorn: I had a bit of trouble following this one at first, but the artwork is gorgeous and the characters are likeable, and I'm glad I gave it a chance.
• Home on the Strange: Geeky humor all the way.
• The Holy Bibble: A somewhat disturbing (and sometimes disturbingly accurate) comic version of the Old Testament.
• Unshelved: Library/literary humor. It's cute.

• Non Sequitur: Political jokes I finally understand (I was pretty oblivious until a few years ago), plus I get a real charge out of Danae.
• Pearls Before Swine: Funny, but has a tendency to repeat jokes a bit much.
• Rose is Rose: Another rarely-funny one, but the art is gorgeous.
• The Boondocks: It's been going through a bit of a dry spell lately, humor-wise, but it's been really funny in the past and I have high hopes for the future.
• Get Fuzzy: Has some good gags, but isn't consistently funny enough for me to stick with.
• Sherman's Lagoon: Often funny, but I am for some reason too lazy to follow it regularly.
• Dilbert: When it's funny, it's really really funny, but when it's ehh, it's really really ehh. Now that I work in an office, sometimes Dilbert infuriates me because it's just so true.

• Garfield
• Blondie
• Beetle Bailey
• Hi and Lois
• Hagar the Horrible
• Family Circus