Something Completely Different/Web Comics

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Gunnerkrigg Court: Chapter 10 - "Dr. Disaster Versus the Creepy Space Aliens from Outer Space". The main Urban Fantasy plot took a break for a comedic Raygun Gothic interlude--though not without some character development.
    • There are also some unusual interludes following the end of each print volume. The first was followed by Guest Strips and letters between the characters; the second was followed by City Face, a short and bizarre story about talking pigeons, which was so popular it got a sequel in the next volume. Though not part of the comic proper, Tom has said that most of these materials are Canon. Somehow.
    • There's also the "Annie watches Kat play GTA" comic, the "Kat melodramatically plays MGS" episode, and the similar one where they all watch Princess Mononoke.
  • The delightfully campy Fans has featured, among other things: A musical arc (with pictures of characters singing and links to the sound files underneath), a story told from the perspective of an FIB agent experimenting with mind control techniques told via his blog, and a story done entirely in chat logs.
  • Sluggy Freelance did its fifth-year anniversary in flash animation (no, no voices, just animation).
  • Explicitly used in this strip of VG Cats.
  • Most stories in The Wotch, put the focus on the title character and here two friends, usually including a B story that either focuses on one of the main characters, or, less frequently, a minor side character (like "Moon Over Tandy"). However, "A Girl and her Blob" took a different approach. There is a side story about Anne and her friends battling Were-creatures and a Mad Wizard, but the central story is on minor character Ming and Myrrh, a blob-like woman Ming discovers and bonds with.
  • The Intermission between the third and fourth acts of Homestuck drops the main storyline completely and shows a storyline involving alternate universe counterparts of some of our characters, who have (in this new story) formed a gang called the Midnight Crew. Their ...behavior becomes a plot point later on.
  • The FAN has the Sheyleron Saga side story, that is not only completely unrelated the main storyline, it takes place in a completely different universe, yet the author insists on sticking an installment to the end of every single episode, and sometimes, right in the middle of one.
  • An intermission comic in The Order of the Stick was done as a parody of the old "Let's Go Out to the Lobby" advertisements seen at movie theaters. One group of concession stand snacks is challenged by another, and an epic D&D style battle ensues.
  • After three lengthy story-arcs, Nature of Nature's Art went on to... a gag-a-day-style strip called Wild Style. It's an "intermission arc", so to speak.
  • John Kossler of The Word Weary does this with his non-canon comics... most especially in the Guest Strip he wrote himself and his off-the-wall 100th comic celebration.