It's difficult to define the now defunct Perry Bible Fellowship artistically; the hyper-talented Gurewitch jumped from one beautiful art style to another from week-to-week. But what remained constant was the great writing, an overarching theme of failure, and jokes that took more than one reading to completely suss out. While it's truly a shame that Gurewitch has stopped publishing, the archive of 147 gorgeous, three-panel comics should keep us all occupied for some time to come.

The Perry Bible Fellowship

Achewood is the Doonesbury of webcomics, albeit far more absurd and with far less politics. The similarities are more form based: Achewood is filled with long story and character arcs, erudite in-jokes and Pulitzer Prize worthy writing.

Achewood

xkcd bills itself as "a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language," which is a shockingly accurate description. Occasionally, Munroe will reveal his background as a NASA scientist with a degree in physics and write a comic such as this one that requires a bit of geeky knowledge to get. Most of the time, though, his jokes veer towards a more universal humor and wit which is guaranteed to elicit laughter from just about anyone.

xkcd

The forebearer in the "art doesn't matter" school of webcomics, Dinosaur Comics reuses the exact same six-panel image for every single comic, and North often pays the contents of each frame little-to-no regard. But this repetitive imagery is hardly the most notable thing about Dinosaur Comics; that would be the whip-smart writing.

Dinosaur Comics

Easily the strangest webcomic on this list, Perfect Stars chronicles the absurdities of modern life in a sublimely nonsensical (and very NSFW) fashion. Piantedosi's mixed media style (watercolor, pen and ink, markers, colored pencil and paper) results in some of the most beautiful and unique art to appear on the internet. Though the example included here is wonderful, most of Piantedosi's best work is extremely NSFW, such as this comic, which is probably the best comic she's ever done.

Perfect Stars

Pictures For Sad Children is another webcomic, like Achewood, that deserves to be read from the beginning forward. Although the character arcs and storylines are nowhere near as complex or layered as Achewood's, Campbell's exploration of modern life's futility from the perspective of a ghost is emotionally resonant, and quite funny.

Pictures For Sad Children

Krahulik's classic comic style artwork and Holkins' riotously smart writing would likely garner Penny Arcade a higher spot on The Top 13 if it weren't for the fact that its audience appeal is a bit limited. Where xkcd only dabbles in geeky topicality, Penny Arcade revels in it: Nearly every strip requires in depth knowledge of the gaming news du jour or the intricacies of a good D&D match. Even so, it’s almost worth subscribing to a gaming blog alongside Penny Arcade solely to fully appreciate Holkins' witty commentary.

Penny Arcade

Less a webcomic than a web phenomenon, Garfield Minus Garfield consists entirely of old strips from Jim Davis' much-maligned Garfield series from which Garfield and his animal compatriots have been removed (by way of Photoshop) to reveal the truth: A supremely lonely and delusional Jon Arbuckle.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Obstensibly a webcomic about Canadian history, Hark, A Vagrant! is really just about life. And if Beaton's depiction of life happens to include references to and depictions of obscure historical figures, so be it. Beaton's work has earned her many accolades, including the 2009 Doug Wright Award for Best Emerging Talent.

Hark, A Vagrant!

Nedroid Picture Diary alternates between random sketches/illustrations by Clark about a bear named Beartato (pronounced "bear-TAY-toe") and a bird named Reginald. Both halves of Clark's output are well worth your time.

Nedroid Picture Diary

Though often only tangentially related, Horne's beautiful, soft-focus photography and Comeau's disturbingly dark writing combine to create a truly remarkable whole at A Softer World. Be forewarned, though, Comeau's writing ranges from wittily dark (see below) to downright depressing (see here).

A Softer World

The heir apparent to Perry Bible Fellowship's dark humor throne is neither as well illustrated nor quite as well written, but it does deliver in the laughs. It would be best, though, to ignore Weiner's ill-advised venture into sketch-comedy known as "SMBC Theater."

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Far superior to Jaques' other, vastly overrated soap opera of a webcomic , indietits consists only of "little birds who talk about obscure bands and make stupid jokes." And it's absolutely hysterical. Unfortunately, indietits hasn't been updated since 2007; here's to hoping that Jaques' finds a little time for his little birds in the very near future.

indietits