Laugh
Webcomics
Long-running strips with archives measured in thousands. Start at the beginning; you will not, but the option is there.
16 sites
Crude four-panel strips with a mean streak, running since 2005 and still finding fresh ways to end badly.
The same six panels of clip-art dinosaurs every day since 2003, with entirely different words in them each time.
Philosophers dropped into absurd situations, with an explanatory footnote in case you skipped that seminar.
Accurately drawn birds swearing at each other about territory, mating and the general indignity of being a bird.
A boarding-school story with robots, forest gods and a plot that has been quietly paying things off since 2005.
Allie Brosh's illustrated essays, including the two on depression that remain the best thing written about it.
The longest-running games comic on the web, three strips a week since 1998, plus the posts that built an industry.
Deadpan absurdism starring bears, birds and mildly disappointed men, published three times a week since 2008.
Five thousand strips of indie-rock relationship comedy with sarcastic robots, updating every weekday since 2003.
Daily gag strips about science, philosophy and human awfulness, each hiding an extra panel behind the red button.
Long-form comics about grammar, cats, running and grief, from the man who also invented Exploding Kittens.
A stick-figure Dungeons and Dragons party in a story that turned genuinely epic somewhere around strip four hundred.
Beautifully drawn strips that set up a sweet premise and then take it somewhere very dark in the final panel.
Four-panel strips whose punchline usually involves death, drawn by two Germans with impeccable comic timing.
Victorian engravings cut apart and given modern dialogue, producing jokes no other format could quite deliver.
Stick figures on romance, sarcasm, maths and language, with a second joke in the alt text of every single strip.
How we picked these
Every entry in Detour is hand-sorted rather than scraped: filed under one category, given one to three moods, and placed in a time band for how quickly it pays off. The practical facts — cost, sign-up, sound, device and whether it is safe at a desk — are recorded per site and shown on every card, so you can rule things out before you click.
Webcomics: questions
How many sites are in Webcomics?
16 sites, each hand-sorted by category, mood and how long it takes to pay off.
Which of these sites are free with no sign-up?
16 of the 16 are free and need no account. None of them are paid.
Do these sites work on a phone, and are they safe for work?
16 of 16 work on a phone; the rest are desktop only. 15 are safe for work and 16 work with the sound off.