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Webcomics Long Runners

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    /wiki/Webcomics Long Runnerswork

    Long Runners as applied to web comics. Since only a few web comics have a lifetime measurable in decades (due in part to the relative recency of the World Wide Web itself) and therefore qualify conventionally as Long Runners, this category will cover any web comic that has exceeded 1,000 strips. However, starting date, date of the most recent update, and periodicity are mentioned to give an idea of how the quantity compares to the temporal aspect too.

    "There are people who are good at stuff and then there are the people who just stick around long enough."
    —Cat, Cat and Girl

    Can lead to an Archive Panic.

    When adding to this list, please start the entry with a link to the comic's Work page here, even if that page doesn't exist yet. Only if that link is a redlink should an external link to the comic be added, and it should not replace the redlink.

    A word about third-party counts: The OhNoRobot site said it was archiving 3002 comics of General Protection Fault as of 17 October 2009, and 3333 comics of that series as of August 3, 2021. That comic tends to update three times a week, not three times a year. Use third-party numbers as a rough guide, not as gospel.

    It's over 10,000

    Current Web Comics

    • Kevin & Kell - Started on September 3, 1995, making it one of the oldest web comics in existence. As of June 2023, Kevin and Kell has never missed a daily update, making it the longest-running daily web comic still being published (as far as anyone knows; the site has been asking since mid-2018 for evidence of any older still-running daily web comics). K&K ran its 10,000th strip on January 18, 2023. 10,149 strips as of June 16, 2023.

    It's over 9,000!

    Empty section as of mid-June 2023... but we expect Superosity to get here in late-October 2023.

    It's over 8,000

    Current Web Comics

    • Superosity (website) began March 1, 1999, and updates daily. There were 8,874 comics as of June 16, 2023.
    • Bonequest began Aug 17, 1998; reached 4000 on October 19, 2009; has 8,855 strips as of June 16, 2023.
    • Sinfest began Jan 17, 2000; hasn't missed a day since July 10, 2006; reached 4000 on August 19, 2011 and had 8,552 strips as of June 16, 2023. It's passed Schlock Mercenary and is catching up to Sluggy Freelance, but will always trail Kevin and Kell as long as both strips remain on one-per-day updates.
    • Alex first appeared on the internet in June 1999, but has been a newspaper comic since 1987. Hit 3000 web strips in June 2007. The most recent strips are only available via The Telegraph; there were 8,359 strips on the strip's website on June 16, 2023.

    Completed Web Comics

    • Homestuck: The MS Paint Adventures Wiki says "Homestuck is the fourth and largest story of MS Paint Adventures, with 8,123 pages (out of 10,030 MSPA pages). It started on the 13th of April 2009 (4/13/09), [sic] 413 becoming a recurring number in-universe. The story contains foul language, violence, gore, and other adult themes. The comic ended on April 13, 2016, 7 years after the stable release was first published. The Credits were posted on October 25 of the same year."

    Counts and status need to be verified as of June 16, 2023:

    • Sluggy Freelance - daily with occasional brief reversions to MWF since August 25, 1997, followed by a "whenever Pete wants" schedule after a switch to per-episode patronage funding strategy after the 20th anniversary site makeover in 2017. Because all strips are transcribed by fans at http://sluggy.info/transcribe, an up-to-date count of strips is maintained there;[please verify] as of December 5, 2021, there were 8,869 strips.

    It's over 7,000

    Completed Web Comics

    • Schlock Mercenary began June 12, 2000, ended July 24, 2020, and never missed a day: 7,348 strips total. The only time an update was even late was one time when the comic's webhost's server exploded. Literally. Here's the creator's message when it hit the ten year mark (June 12, 2010).
     

    "As of today, June 12th, 2010, Schlock Mercenary has been on the web at some location or another for ten years. Every day, even. It is older than half of my children. It is older than my car. Depending on how you count, it’s the longest I’ve ever held the same job. I’ve spent almost a quarter of my life on this. I’ve spent more than half my married life on this. I’ve drawn 3653 strips, for a total of around 15,000 panels. There are another 20 strips you still haven’t seen (plus a kajillion or so I still haven’t drawn.) I’ve used enough kneaded eraser that the “waste lump” of stuff that is too dirty to erase with is twice the size of my fist, and I’ve thrown away at least twice that much. I’ve gone through about 10,000 sheets of legal sized paper. I’ve gone through about 500 pens. Each of those set me back around $2.50. In all that time I’ve only used five different mechanical pencils. I still have the first one, the second one, and the fifth one."

     

    It's over 6,000

    Current Web Comics

    • Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal began September 5, 2002; reached 2000 on September 14, 2010; reached 6000 on July 21, 2021; and has 6013 strips as of August 3, 2021.

    It's over 5,000

    Current Web Comics

    It's over 4,000

    Current Web Comics

    • Irregular Webcomic began Dec 31, 2002; last missed a day on March 29, 2004; and hit 4000 on May 24, 2019. When the 2,000 mark was hit on July 18, 2008, the news post explained how long you would have to make the comic for 3, 5, and 7 strips a week, and then listed the other webcomics that have gone on that long. The strip hit 3000 strips on April 14, 2011. Entries 3198 through 3380 are "annotations", essentially once-weekly essays (with a very few "filler" sketches) on whatever caught David Morgan-Mar's fancy at the time. There are 5,000 instalments - 182 annotations and 4,818 comic strips - as of June 16, 2023.
    • Dinosaur Comics began February 01, 2003; reached 1000 on May 22, 2007, hit 2000 on July 12, 2011, and ran strip 4000 on January 18, 2023. There were 4,060 comics as of June 16, 2023.

    Counts and status need to be verified as of August 2, 2021:

    • User Friendly - daily since November 17, 1997, and has never missed a day, but has been in reruns for over a decade; reached 4000 on 2008 Oct 29. (A few times in 2009, there have been sets of rerun strips for a few months at a time, and The Other Wiki tells us that the strip went to reruns-only in 2010.)
    • Factoring in Genoworks Saga, No Angel, Campus Safari, Sink or Swim, Gralen Cragg Hall, Puppet Strings as part of The Cyantian Chronicles, and including Alien Dice, Pure, Abby's Agency, Shivae! (Kaiden & Coel, Vas and Cler storylines), Sivine Blades, Black Rose and more, Tiffany Ross deserves credit for creating MULTIPLE universes and creating several long runners. MOD: Follow the example set by the mezzacotta strips and break this up into its component strips as well, giving each one a separate entry.
    • The four comics that make up the Walkyverse may or may not count, depending on whether you count them all as one work. (MOD: Follow the example set by the mezzacotta strips and break this up into its component strips as well, giving each one a separate entry.) They all occur in the same universe, have connected storylines, and have been written and drawn by the same author since September 1997.

    It's over 3,000

    Current Web Comics

    • Freefall began March 30, 1998; reached 2000 on February 24, 2011; has 3,919 strips as of June 16, 2023.
    • Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic began May 29, 2006; reached 2000 on November 18, 2011; has 3,544 strips as of June 16, 2023.

    Completed Web Comics

    • Arthur, King of Time and Space began on May 21, 2004 and ended on January 6, 2014, with 3,518 strips.
    • Lunar Hill reached 3000 comics (and ended) on August 8, 2010. If you count the spinoff Luka comics, the full total is 3,150.

    Counts and status need to be verified as of August 2, 2021:

    It's over 2,000

    Current Web Comics

    Completed Web Comics

    • Bob and George began April 01, 2000; reached 2000 on October 8, 2005; and ended with #2,658 on July 28, 2007.
    • Doctor Fun (Wayback Machine link) - 2,603 comics. It ended in 2006. It began in 1993!
    • Triangle and Robert ended with 2,513 strips uploaded from 1999 to 2007.
    • Count Your Sheep ran for 2,396 strips before going on an apparently-permanent hiatus in March 2015.
    • Ozy and Millie ran (intermittently) from April 28, 1998 to December 23, 2008, for a total of 2,231 strips.
    • Fans! began in 2000, ran until 2005, then was revived in 2008 and ran until 2012, running for 2,147 strips in all.
    • Piled Higher and Deeper Ran from October 27, 1997 to December 24, 2018, for a total of 2,040 strips. Most comics started in The Nineties are higher on this list, but one suspects that the writer procrastinated once in a while. Also started as a print comic in a school newspaper and only became a web comic after some time had passed.

    Counts and status need to be verified as of August 2, 2021:

    • And Shine Heaven Now began in 2003 and concluded the main strip in 2011. When the (already-drawn) spinoff finishes running in mid-2012, the final count (including guest strips) will be 2,902. So close to leveling up, and yet so far.
    • Bruno the Bandit abruptly ended on October 23, 2009, at strip "39 of I'll get back to you on it!" of the story "Ambrose 2.0, Part 2". Somebody will have to go through the archive and count every single strip.
    • CRFH
    • Cyanide & Happiness began Jan 26, 2005; This strip from Jan 19, 2008 is strip 1000, despite being labeled 1149. It reached 2000 on March 30, 2010.
    • The Devil's Panties
    • Diesel Sweeties
    • Dominic Deegan began May 21, 2002; reached 1000 on Apr 04, 2006 and 2000 on Apr 14, 2009. Celebrated its 2500th comic on May 19, 2011.
    • Dragon Tails ran daily for 2000 comics, before the creator ended it on the 2000th comic. A few years later the creator started making comics again, though far less regularly.
    • El Goonish Shive began Jan 21, 2002; reached 1000 on Aug 17, 2005 and 2000 on May 28, 2011 (including filler, guest and side comics).
    • Goats began 1997 Apr 01; reached 2000 on 2006 Nov 27.
    • Least I Could Do began on Feb 10, 2000 reached 2000 on July 31, 2009.
    • Legostar Galactica, the first webcomic to use LEGO elements, began Aug 25, 2002 and reached 2000 on April 24, 2010. Completed web comic as of August 2022, but somebody needs to go in and count the strips.
    • Melonpool
    • MS Paint Adventures (MOD: Follow the example set by the mezzacotta strips and break this up into its component strips as well, giving each one a separate entry. Homestuck is already separated out.) had its first update on June 3, 2007,[2] and its 6000th page was posted November 13, 2011. There are 6831 comic pages on the site as of May 20, 2012, not including the 40 fan-requested comics, the 42 Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff comics, Ryan Quest, The Vigil Prince, or Dave and Terezi's comic/picture exchanges.[3] The comic is much, much, much younger than the other comics listed in this section (the site started in 2007, and didn't become regular until March 2008), due to how insanely prolific Andrew Hussie is; since the beginning of Problem Sleuth, the comic has averaged nearly 5 pages per day.
      • The MS Paint Adventures Wiki says "Homestuck is the fourth and largest story of MS Paint Adventures, with 8,123 pages (out of 10,030 MSPA pages)." Thus, the rest of MS Paint Adventures combined is in the "It's over 2,000" section.
      • Problem Sleuth itself has about 1621 pages (started March 10, 2008, 1000th page on October 22, 2008, finished March 10, 2009.)
        • MOD: Doing the math, nothing else at MS Paint Adventures qualifies for this list. Justifying Edits to argue the entire site should be treated as a single strip and listed higher in the counts have been snipped.
    • Narbonic - daily from July 2001 to New Years' Eve 2006.
    • PvP
    • Real Life Comics began Nov 15, 1999; reached 2000 on Jan 03, 2008.
    • Sheldon
    • Something*Positive
    • S.S.D.D. began September 25, 1998, usually manages three or four strips a week. Still running as of June 16, 2023. Somebody needs to go through the archives and count the strips... and the archive only shows one month of links at a time.
    • Unshelved - completed (and went into reruns) in 2016, but there's no easy way to get a count of the strips. somebody's going to have to count them one-by-one.
    • The Tao of Geek (Wayback Machine link) has been updating daily since June 2002.
    • TRU-Life Adventures - Started March 12, 2001. 2,109 strips—and 10 years!--as of March 12, 2011.
    • Wapsi Square began in 2001 and reached 2000 in mid 2010.
    • You Say It First - 2000 as of January 18, 2011...not counting about 500 comics of Unlike Minerva, to which it is a sequel.

    It's over (or at) 1,000

    Current Web Comics

    Completed and Defunct Web Comics

    • Two Evil Scientists went on "extended hiatus" with 1,994 strips in the archive.
    • Ubersoft (Wayback Machine link) started in 1996 and ended in 2011, with 1,956 strips to its credit. And the art was still basically the same at the beginning and the end.
    • The Book of Biff began January 2, 2006 as a three times a week comic, and went to a Monday-Friday schedule beginning on the first of 2007. It reached its 1000th comic on April 12, 2010. The last strip, #1902, was posted in December 2014.
    • Scary Go Round began July 4, 2002; reached 1000 on August 10, 2006; ended with 1,785 on September 11, 2009.
    • Achewood began on October 10, 2001 and completed on December 25, 2016, with a total of 1,762 strips listed in the archive.
    • 8-Bit Theater began March 2, 2001; reached 1000 strips on June 3, 2008; ended with 1,224 strips on March 20, 2010; a fully illustrated epilogue was posted on June 1, 2010.
    • Blip had 1,029 strips before the comic went defunct in 2011.
    • 1/0 began Aug 27, 2000; ended May 26, 2003 with exactly 1000 strips, if the three April Fools strips are excluded from the total.
    • StickManStickMan (Wayback Machine link) ran from February 2002 to October 2004. It took a cue from 1/0 and ended with exactly 1000 comics.

    Counts and status need to be verified as of August 2, 2021:

    • Adventurers!! has somewhere around this; it reached #999 and then stopped counting; it went on for another two years after that.
    • Akaelae, part of the The Cyantian Chronicles has over 1100 as of May 2009.
    • Apple Geeks started in 2003 and added a B Side Comic called Applegeeks Lite, updating faithfully three times a week, in April 2006. Due to the main comic's Schedule Slip, the 1000th comic between the two was AG Lite 476, on 24 Jun 2009.
    • Avatar Battle Royale has over 1700 comics in the archives (which are over 6 months out of date), and uncounted filler comics.
    • Bunny (Wayback Machine link) began Aug 22, 2004; reached 1000 on Sep 20, 2007.
    • Cat and Girl began June 14, 1999, reached 1,000 on January 31, 2011.
    • Chopping Block began April 25, 2000, and has updated on every schedule from "five times a week" to "once a month" over the years. It finally reached 1,000 strips on March 4, 2009.
    • Ctrl+Alt+Del began Oct 23, 2002; reached 1000 on Jul 16, 2007.
    • CVRPG: As of Feb, 2011, sits at over 1400. The 1000th strip party took up 16 updates.
    • Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures (1,100+ comics including a simultaneous prequel arc)
    • Doc Rat: Created in the 1990s, organized as a web comic June 26, 2006. As of March 30th, 2012 has 1505 strips.
    • The Dreamland Chronicles began January 5, 2006 and reached 1000 pages on November 17, 2009.
    • Drowtales
    • Emergency Exit - 1002 comics as of 13 October 2008 (although a couple were guest comics).
    • Errant Story started on 4 November 2002, and a quick tally puts it at around 1150 pages as of 11 February 2011, including some fillers and chapter pages (48 archive pages at 24 pages each).
    • Evil Inc.. began in 2005 and is about to hit 1600.
    • Get Medieval (finished)
    • Girl Genius had around 1214 pages as of October 22, 2010 (around, because volumes are catagorized independently from one another, with many side stories and fillers in between, making it difficult to get an accurate count.). The site does not have an "archive" page as of August 2, 2021; the strips will have to be counted by hand, going through the strips one-by-one.
    • Girls with Slingshots is 1215 strips long as of August 12, 2011, not including guest strips.
    • Jack is over 1650 strips long as of January, 2012.
    • Juathuur is over 1100, if you count both the original and the sequel.
    • The KA Mics reached 1000 July 17, 2009.
    • Lakewood (Wayback Machine link reached 1000 with this strip.
    • Megatokyo began Aug 14, 2000; reached 1000 (including filler) on May 17, 2008.
    • The Middle Ground (Wayback Machine link) has three. AkumaTh's Comics, Double-U Tea F and Mixed Bag Comics all have at least 1000 strips.
    • Misfile began Mar 21, 2004; celebrated 1000 strips (not including filler and chapter title pages) on the 18th of July 2008. If Chris continues on schedule, the 2000th strip should be reached in mid-June 2012. Still running as of August 2021, but the site's "archive" page is incomplete so the strips will have to be counted by hand, going through the strips one-by-one.
    • Nukees - Although it updates sporadically enough that it's unlikely to have reached 2000, it's one of the few web comics actually to qualify as a traditional Long Runner, having been updating 1-3 times a week since 1997.
    • Out There has updated six days a week without fail since it started on June 12, 2006, and reached 1000 on August 20, 2009.
    • Paonia Pawns began on January 29, 2005 and reach the 1000 mark on October 7, 2009.
    • Penny and Aggie has been updating three times a week since 2004 and has approximately 1125 pages as of December 31, 2010 (allowing for the occasional numbering skip in the PHP database).
    • Planet Zebeth, a Metroid based Sprite Comic, started on March 16, 2002 and had its 1000th strip on May 30, 2008.
    • Pokémon-X, on January 12, 2011 (although it's listed as December 30, 2009 due to Schedule Slip)
    • Precocious hit a thousand on December 12, 2011.
    • Public Humiliation (Wayback Machine link) reached it November 9, 2009.
    • Red String began May 1, 2003 and has 1,353 pages as of December 7, 2011. This count does not include the sketch/filler art.
    • Rhapsodies passed 1500 on June 16, 2011.
    • Sacred Pie has 1180 pages as of August 10, 2008.
    • Sam and Fuzzy began May 27, 2002; reached 1000 on October 10, 2008.
    • Vexxarr hit 1000 on Monday, June 6, 2011.
    • The Whiteboard passed 1,000 strips on the October 31, 2008, not including guests or filler.
    • Wigu Adventures has well over 1,000 strips so far.
    • The now-defunct web comic hosting site Smack Jeeves had at least one comic that has broken the 7000 page mark, one that broke the 3000 page mark, four with over 2000, and 24 more that broke the 1000 page mark. Some of them are already on this list.

    And finally...

    It's over 3.652×1015

    Completed Web Comics

    • Mezzacotta - A daily comic that's approximately 730 times older than the Universe; as of October 11, 2008 there are a total of 3,652,425,000,732,961 strips. Good luck on that Archive Binge.[4]
      • That Archive Binge isn't bad at all! Assuming the relatively slow speed of one second to load a page and read it, it would take you less than 116 million years to read every comic! If you could load a page and read it within one Planck time, you could do it in less than a second!
      • It appears that the strip has not updated since November 16, 2019, when something broke.


    1. ↑ The page for comic 404 is the error message "404 Not Found".
    2. ↑ though technically Jail Break is a little less than a year older, having started in September 2006; this was when it was still just a forum game and MSPA wasn't a thing though
    3. ↑ For those who wish to keep the tally up-to-date, from the numbering scheme in MSPA urls, numbers 7, 137-170, 217, 218, 992, 4299, 4938, and 4988 do not have comics. On the other hand, 11 pages (the two pony chorales, a joke panel for an MC adventure, and the eight linked comics on pages like #2418) are not associated with numbers. This means that, currently, url numbers overshoot comic numbers by 30.
    4. ↑ Given that the content is actually generated by a special random number generator, this is actually a doubly special case.
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