Website Review: Least I Could Do

[NOTE: Several of the comic strips presents in Least I Could Do contain suggestive dialogue and occasional course language.  Please read at your own discretion.]

Webcomics normally contain several elements:  tech humor, poorly drawn animation, infrequent updates, and ad-riddled layouts.  To top it off, many of these sites contain poor code and shoddy design (which is ironic considering that the very same comics mock bad tech users).  Thankfully, none of these elements are present in Least I Could Do (LICD), a web comic that proves the diligence of formal newspaper comics can translate to the world of the Internet.

The humor webcomic, written by Ryan Sohmer and illustrated by Lar deSouza, was started on February 10, 2003.  Since that time, the animation and quality of the writing has gradually improved, fleshing out the storylines with three-dimensional characters and often thought-provoking plots.  In addition, the comic recently made the decision to ‘age' the characters, busting yet another webcomic stereotype by allowing the characters to learn, grow, and change.

[The principal cast of LICD]

More importantly to most web surfers, the site has a lot of well done features, including several new ones announced just as recently as yesterday in a blog post cleverly titled "Web 7.0".  The site includes forums, many many (many) ways to link through social networks, Twitter widgets so that you can see the frequently updated Twitter profiles of the creators, and much more.

One thing that the site does well is that it updates frequently, the opposite of which is usually a source of discontent among readers of webcomics.  Both Sohmer and deSouza update the blogs and Twitter accounts daily, including interacting in the forums on occasion.  Not only do they provide information about updates to the site, but they also provide insight into their opinions on products, politics, and their personal lives.  For example, Sohmer posted an image from his recent wedding.

The site also provides a great degree of flexibility in the ways to enjoy the strips.  Recently added features allow users to save the comics as image files, email the comics, and even snatch the code to embed the strip into another web location.  The action has already been praised for other comics such as Cyanide and Happiness, but still, it's a rarity to see a webcomic give the readers so much freedom to save the strips.  Personally, I think this shows how much the creators value their readers.

Finally, the site succeeds in one major way that other webcomics do not: LICD is updated every day.  And I don't mean every weekday; the comic is updated all seven days of the week.  Even if you don't particularly love the style of the strip, you have to admit that's impressive.  The sheer quality of the site shows us what webcomics SHOULD be as opposed to what many of them actually are.