They Are All Nifty

Last Samurai reference, Sluggified.

I just spent probably the last week doing an archive binge of Sluggy Freelance, which is probably the best webcomic ever. It's consistently funny, yet manages to also be very dramatic, without giving either quality short-shrift. It's got some genuinely interesting ideas, like the fate-spider, the Ocean Unmoving, and the zombies that can only regenerate tissue-types they eat (i.e., if one of those zombies wants to keep from becoming mindless, it has to eat brains).

And it has Bun-bun, who is pretty much the best use of the "psychopath hero" ever, or at least in the top three with Lina Inverse and Lobo (his later characterization even talks like Lina, e.g. here, except macho). His fights are often genuinely excellent action sequences, with some of the best fight dialogue in fiction—and they're also all automatically hilarious, because he's a tiny little rabbit. With a switchblade.

The writing and art are consistently good. The fights, especially Oasis', are genuinely interesting comic art on par with any achievement in the field that you care to name; the girls are cute without being too fan-servicey. The writing manages to have characterization without losing comedy, and the plots resolve satisfyingly while leaving enough loose ends for later. Also, the conclusion of the 4U City arc reveals an important principle in writing: you can have any Deus Ex Machina you want, if you pull it off cool enough.

I am, however, really glad I saw Rise of the Guardians before I read the Holiday Wars arc; I wouldn't have been able to watch that movie without making Black Ops Elves jokes.