My Favourite Webcomics: 'Perils On Planet X', 'Delilah Dirk' & 'Lady Sabre'

I love reading comics. Can't go wrong with 30 odd pages of action, adventure and suspense every month (or in a collected trade paperback after six or so issues if you prefer to read in one go). But not the ones of the superheroes in spandex kind that you see from Marvel and DC (although I did grow up on those types, until my mind was blown away by the likes of 'The Sandman, 'Hellblazer, 'Swamp Thing' etc!), but more along the kind that's mainly published by Image Comics, Dark Horse, Dynamite and Oni Press amongst others these days. My favourite monthly ongoing titles at the moment are 'Saga', 'Fables', 'Warlord Of Mars' and 'The Sixth Gun', and I can't recommend them enough!

But there's also webcomics. These are usually published online once a week for free, usually with a page or a few panels at a time. And below, are three (in no particular order) of my favourite webcomics.

'Perils On Planet X', which started in February this year and sees a new page every Friday, is a swashbuckling interplanetary adventure in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars or Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon. It's written by Christopher Mills, drawn by Gene Gonzales and colored by Ian Sokoliwski.

I love the stories of the pulp sci-fi era, especially the Barsoom books of Edgar Rice Burroughs and Otis A Kline's Mars and Venus series. This series so far, definitely has an air of the John Carter, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers about it, a stranger in a strange land, a princess, swords and some good old gosh darn adventure. Well worth keeping up with.

In a different direction to 'Perils On Planet X' is Tony Cliff's webcomic, 'Delilah Dirk'. The first story, 'The Turkish Lieutenant', (Eisner and Shuster Award-Nominated too no-less) is set in 19th-century Turkey, an officer in the Janissary army must struggle to repay a brash adventuress for saving his life, even though she was the one who endangered it in the first place. It's a fun read and introduces the two main characters, Delilah Dirk - International Mistress of Swordsmanship - and Erdemoglu Selim, the Turkish Lieutenant, as they flee from the attentions of Zakul and his army.

There's only a prologue and four chapters of 'The Turkish Lieutenant' online (and soon to be graphic novel), but there is a second story that continues the adventures of Delilah and Selim - 'Delilah Dirk And The Seeds Of Good Fortune'. This is only available to buy as a 32 page physical comic book. Definitely worth getting as it's another fun read. You can check out the six page online preview here.

The third of my favourite webcomics is 'Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether'. Written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by Rick Burchett, and with new pages published on Mondays and Thursdays, Lady Sabre is a steampunk-adventure comic about Lady Seneca Sabre - 14th Marchioness of Cascadia, and captain of the good ship Pegasus - and her crew as they sail the Aether and travel the Sphere. Full of swords, pirates, cowboys, airships with lots of adventure, romance and excitement and lots more. What's not to love!

There was also a recent very successful Kickstarter campaign to get the first five chapters collected into a printed 192 page hardcover volume too.

So there you go, three webcomics, each very different, but still offering a very fun read. Hope you give these a go.