Hello again, from a more wakeful hour! I'm Peter Metzger, and I'll be your guest host for this week's installment of "This Week in Webcomics"

I get the feeling that I'm not quite of the same caliber as Jackson when it comes to webcomic connoisseurship, storyline assessment, or variety of webcomics read. I will, however, give my opinion on the webcomics I do read, and hopefully this is good enough for you.

At this point, I'm putting the post on SPOILER WATCH (which I think should really be a general warning covering the blog as a whole...)

So, enough with random jibber-jabber, let's dive in.

Monday's Penny Arcade comic was a little disappointing for me, being a bit funny in a disturbing kind of way, but not so much satisfying. Wednesday's and Friday's PA comics, however, were compelling and beautifully illustrated. Even though I didn't notice the "opening crawl" until today's comic, I still picked up on the basic idea of the storyline with the help of the regular PA blog post - albeit with some mystery sprinkled on top. For me, though, this only made the new development more exciting and interesting. The backstory provided by the opening crawl definitely sets things up a bit more clearly, but I'm not convinced that's an entirely good thing. I look forward very much to reading the rest of the story - even if the plot and dialogue turns out to be a bust (though I think it will be wonderful), the artwork is sure to be a treat.

Toothpaste For Dinner is a comic my brother turned me on to nearly two years ago, maybe longer, and I usually check up on it every day. It definitely brings its own brand of funny, though lately it seems that the typically mixed results are of atypically lower quality. I did enjoy several of them from this past week, however - particularly "dogosphere" (though mostly for the clever title) and "sat scores." I'm hoping that we'll see a return to the sorts of gems that got me hooked.

Random: I saw that today's xkcd comic was on digg, and given the copious amounts of Discovery Channel programming I've been absorbing in the past month, I particularly enjoyed it. In the event that you don't get it, here is the advertisement the comic is referencing.

Oftentimes, when I find a webcomic I like, I will go back to the very beginning and read every strip, so as to be all caught up. I have done this with Penny Arcade, Real Life Comics, Pungirls, Borderline Boy, and I'm in the process of doing this with Dinosaur Comics. I've already brought you up to date on Penny Arcade, Borderline Boy is taking a Borderline Break, and Pungirls has sadly been shut down for the most part. (Am I allowed to bug Jackson about bringing back Pungirls in his own blog!? ooh....)

Anyway, let's have a look at the week in Real Life Comics. I feel that the quality of Real Life has gone up dramatically since Greg Dean decided to go full time with it, and I particularly enjoyed this week's run of comics. Now, I'm not claiming these to be the best five comics Greg has ever written/illustrated, but as a whole, they're definitely a solid set of work. I appreciated in Tuesday's comic the fact that once again, Greg has managed to make some facet of World of Warcraft not only accessible also humorous to someone such as myself who has never played the game. Wednesday through Friday's comics made me happy for Liz, reported on what's happening in the Dean household, and were funny, all at once! I believe this constitutes the essential Real Life Comics experience. I also enjoyed a good chuckle at Greg's apparent enthusiasm regarding private (i.e. not public) nudity - a position I may or may not share.

END SPOILER WATCH

Enough said there, let's move on to Dinosaur Comics. As I said before, I've been reading through since the first comic. I am up into the early-800s at the moment, so I'm about two-thirds of the way to catching up. I don't typically read the current comics until I catch up to them but given that I had to write about the series here, I took a look at the latest few comics. I must say, I am very impressed at the level of quality Ryan North has been able to maintain throughout the series, and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the way through the comics I've not gotten to yet.

I'm not quite sure if Homestar Runner counts as a webcomic or if it's more of a web-based cartoon, but I would like to mention that I've been disappointed lately with the lack of 1) updates, and 2) funny. I realize they're working on a game, but it's the dry times like these that make me stop checking up on the site so often. If other people are like me in this regard, it can't be all too healthy for their site. Just saying...

Alright, I guess that about does it for this post in "This Week in Webcomics," I hope you enjoyed your stay and please come back next week when I believe Jackson Ferrell will be back with us to deliver his insights into the world of webcomics.

Please exit quickly and carefully to the right side of the train, collect any and all personal items from bin number two and bin number two only, and enjoy the rest of your day here at Jackson's Point, the internet's comic coast.