Ready, Aye, Ready

Link: http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1636.html

One of my favourite places to visit online is "Irregular Webcomic". The strip runs several independent plotlines which sometimes overlap, including Shakespeare as a modern technical writer, an incompetent fantasy-world adventuring party, an entirely amoral spacefaring group, aliens invading Earth in groups of three, Mythbusters parodies, Terry Pratchett-like incarnations of Death, and many more. In many respects, it's a fairly standard jokey comic with a strong fondness for puns and the absurd but with a couple of signficant differences.

First, it's built in Lego and then photographed. Every character, every set is Lego. In other words, this is a lot of work beyond the usual drawing or photoshopping typical to the medium.

Second, the creator annotates his strip extensively. As he's a physicist (although I think he's actually an astronomer by training,) the throwaway jokes typically have a extensive amount of background. Think of it as "Penny Arcade" for scientists and where lay readers actually have a hope of understanding what it's about, and perhaps even why it's funny. The current episode, a James Bond spoof, has managed to bring in an annotation talking about radiation, wave theory and the speed of light, including a couple of formulae. This all stems from an explanation of a glowing blue pool in the villain's lair.

It's extremely well done and highly recommended.