Web Comic Spotlight: 4/17/12: Ctrl + Alt + Del

Welcome back to the Web Comic Spotlight where we take a look at a piece of the comic book world that keeps us entertained on a daily basis. Last week, we featured a great web comics called Garfield Minus Garfield. This week we take a look at a comic that is incredibly topical about something most of us love, the world of video games. Check out Ctrl + Alt + Del.

Ctrl + Alt + Del is a web comic by Tim Buckley that explores the lives of a couple of gamers: Lucas and Ethan. Both Lucas and Ethan are room mates and gamers, and they live next door to Lilah, who is a gamer as well. The main comics focuses on current things happening in the gaming and nerd culture, and many times, like the strip above, it gives a different perspective to event that most people on the net are pretty angry about.

There are also some other strips on the site that deal with other aspects of the gaming world, such as buying skins for your character in a video game, only to realize that no one but you notices the difference.

The site covers a lot, and you can even go back to the beginning of the strip and relive the old times, like when Star Wars Galaxies ruled the MMO world or when random arrows would just shoot people in the chest.

The strip has been around since 2002, and aside from being incredibly funny, it's very topical and fresh. It takes idea much of the mainstream wouldn't understand, but nerds love, and puts them into a lovable format for nerdom to gobble up.

Not only is it funny, but it has a good sense of humor about the culture it caters to. On top of that, it's split into storylines, so each comic strip isn't a one shot. Usually a few of these together make a coherent story, but even on their own, they're incredibly funny.

There's also a section called "Sillies." Don't let these bare-bone strips fool you. They're very well done and good for a quick laugh. They consist of three panel and they're all black and white with no shading. It's a section of the site that's just as good as the original.

The site also has a store where you can pick up collections of the comic, shirts, plush toys, and a lot more. In addition, there's also an app for your phone to check out all the awesomeness. Thus far, this is probably my favorite web comic because it's funny but it isn't a one trick pony, and it's updated pretty regular. In fact, it's been 10 years of updating. That's dedication.

Make sure to check out the website, and you can check out artist Tim Buckley on twitter, and you can download the app for your phone. I'll leave you with one more awesome comic.

Do you have or know a webcomic you think should be featured? E-mail us at comicvinespotlight@gmail.com

Mat "Inferiorego" Elfring is a comedian, writer, and host of the internet show no one watches, Barely Watchable. Follow him on Twitter: @inferiorego

cad is terrible

it's very very tempting to go off on how much of a terrible person tim buckley is and how bad his comics are, but i won't

i know there's going to be a storm of negative comments about this though

B^U

I'm sorry, I had to.

Glad you guys are highlighting more indy work!

That strip jumped the shark years ago with the whole "miscarriage" storyline.

Hahahah it's funny because it's terrible.

Hmmm. Where are those d@mn keys? =P

I love this webcomic.

I actually really enjoy this web, i like it because sure its usually funny but every now and agian they hit a real topic and thats something I can get behind. Next you guys should do one on Penny Arcade or Least I could Do.

@BritishMonkey said:

it's very very tempting to go off on how much of a terrible person tim buckley is and how bad his comics are, but i won't

i know there's going to be a storm of negative comments about this though

Can you explain me why is he so bad?

@RedOwl_1:

well from what i've heard and what i've seen been proven is he set up a charity once and used that charity money to buy an expensive drawing tablet, if you say something bad about his comics on his forums you're banned, he can't take criticism at all, he's stolen or infringed other artists work but to be fair he did apologise later on, and he's sent indecent pictures of himself to a minor

CAD is pretty much the worst web comic on the net, and that's saying something. So good work on spotlighting it.

I used to love CAD, I tapered off web comics around the end of the miscarriage arc.

I'd never even heard of this site, but based off the comments (however factual), I'm not sure I want to :/

I'm not terribly familiar with "CAD". It seems very similar to Penny Arcade or PvP. I'll probably give it a look. As far as the quality of the comic, I'm not sure "terrible" is fair but to each their own. @BritishMonkey Did Tim Buckley do something horrific? He's obviously raised your ire.

B^U

seems like another great pick this week!

CAD...yeah how about no.

Im spolighting a web comic, not a creator's personal life. If you would like to see a web comic you like, email the address above.

I never could understand why people hate so hard on CAD. I figure that having PA and PVP hate it gives it a big handicap either way.

been reading it for years. it has its ups and downs, and i used to think of it as super great. but now it's just ok. wintereenmas has lost it's steam since now everyone in that world has accepted it. occasionally it has good storylines, but otherwise it's just ok. still read it every time it comes out though

@KingSolomon:

Oh god, no. If there's one webcomic worse than CAD it's LICD.

Oh this is great! :) And thanks for the warning to stay away from the Old Republic game with that shot! Heh.

Hate CAD.

I've got to agree with the majority on this one; CAD is an incredibly average web comic and has only lasted as long as it has due to Tim Buckley constantly courting controversy. Still, to each their own.

@BritishMonkey said:

@RedOwl_1:

well from what i've heard and what i've seen been proven is he set up a charity once and used that charity money to buy an expensive drawing tablet, if you say something bad about his comics on his forums you're banned, he can't take criticism at all, he's stolen or infringed other artists work but to be fair he did apologise later on, and he's sent indecent pictures of himself to a minor

Sums it up pretty well.

Also, y'know...it's...really not funny.

Mind you, that last bit is an opinion but it's REALLY worth noting you gotta step lightly when it comes to web comics. A nice chunk of them are popular because we liked them in high school as opposed to actually being any good and a nice chunk of them didn't really improve or age very well over the years and then you have your vocal minorities ready to tear into ANYTHING for whatever reason (like the Goblins vs Gunnerkrigg Court thing. Good lord)

@Mokey: This is pretty weird, i mean im not saying that CAD is the "MOST"S AWSOMENESS THING EVA" but i really think the hate for this web is weird. Also Least I Can DO, is hilarious and one of the few webs that update daily. Plus the qaulity of art went way up with they're most recent artist. If ya dont like that how about Gutters? That actually has to do with comics and some of that stuff can be really freaken hilarious. There is also Looking For Group, they are all done by the same guy but all have complete different vibes....

The Old Republic one made me laugh.

Where Decoy at?

If you're going to post a terrible webcomic then you might as well include Tim's magnum opus

Not shown: the male character barely giving a shit and the girl later apologizing for being a mopey bitch after her miscarriage

CAD just isn't very good.

wow, lots of negativity down here... well to be fair my reading of CAD is far and inbetween, so a long time could pass without me reading it. my overall rating of it is "meh"... and i pretty much forgot the misscariage story untill reading the comments here (thankls for reminding me guys/gals >:( )As for the controversy on Buckly, well i never graced his forums, so really i knew nada about it.

CAD was funny for like the first 2 years, then he started filling his comics with boring walls of text and somehow his art started getting worse instead of better. I emailed him years ago letting him know that I liked his older stuff better and focusing on relationship on the comic was not funny, he replied to me that same day telling me to stop emailing him and he called me a towel head as well. Note, I have an Arab name and it shows up when I send an email to someone.

Turtle miscarriage.

As a reminder of just how stupid and lazy CAD actually is, recently, the creator decided to have a story arc involving "The Great Games Bowl" but it was too much work to draw it all out, so he released a 48-page PDF which he didn't even proofread.

In his first draft, two characters were named "A and B", but his search and replace failed so there's still a sentence where "A and B" looked over their shoulders for something. If you're going to release a short story, at least read it over once before posting.

Aside from anything else, Lilah doesn't "live next door" to Ethan and Lucas and hasn't for years; they all live together and she's been married (ie: been surrogate mother to) Ethan for at least two years.

I am the CAD fan. :(

its funny in its own way

@Fauwf said:

If you're going to post a terrible webcomic then you might as well include Tim's magnum opus

Not shown: the male character barely giving a shit and the girl later apologizing for being a mopey bitch after her miscarriage

+1

I was a regular reader of CAD up until a few years ago.  I just found myself asking why I read it in the first place.  The whole format of the charming-but-dumb character who constantly has to have completely normal matters explained to him by his surprisingly tolerant friends is unbelievably overdone in webcomics.