Listicle: The 6 Webcomics You Need To Follow Right Now

By Audrey Garrett

Webcomic platforms give artists all over the world the ability to make careers out of their comedic illustrations and creative cartoons. While print Sunday cartoons rarely feature Black, female, or non-white male perspectives, the internet and the visual platform of Instagram has allowed artists of all identities to gain attention and small cult followings. Readers who crave witty social commentary and diverse perspectives now have access to thousands of artists at their fingertips and Instagram and personal websites. The following list provides a beginner's guide of six cartoonists to follow on Instagram to instantly improve your algorithm. Enjoy the benefits of seeing daily doses of social and political commentary from diverse and effective visual humorists. 

Bianca Xunise

Bianca Xunise creates softly curved and lightly shaded cartoons on mental health, racial justice, and goth culture. Her comics ranging from slices of life doodles to American political commentaries enlightens her 38k+ followers on Instagram. The Chicago-born artist has made comics for more than 11 years since her graduation from the University of Illinois Chicago and her work has been featured in Vogue, Vox, and The Chicago Tribune. Xunise is the second Black female cartoonist to be nationally syndicated in American print newspapers. You can follow Xunise on her Instagram and The Nib website for her long format comic zines. ​

Keith Knight- The K Chronicles 

Bringing satire and racial justice to the forefront of his cartoons, Keith Knight has made intellectually stimulating comic strips for more than 20 years. His strips Knight Life and The K-Chronicles are nationally syndicated and have been since the late 1990s. In print, he is often one of the few Black perspectives on the often four paged Sunday comics section. His strip Knight Life illustrates his daily life as a father, husband, and cartoonist and his unavoidable interactions with racism and prejudice. The K Chronicles, in contrast, zooms out of Knight's personal life and uses nameless characters to present political and societal hypocrisies. Both strips are viewable on Knight's website and Instagram. If reading's not your thing, you can watch Knight's journey of becoming a renowned cartoonist in his Hulu original series “Woke” where he tells the story of his battle with artistic responsibility after being racially profiled by police in San Fransisco.

Miranda Tecchia 

Hilarious and relatable Miranda Tecchia draws nude female cartoon characters in their most comfortable moments of drinking, texting, or talking to their cats. In vibrant shades of orange, blue, and purple, Tecchia brings her viewers into the intimate moments of female sexuality and stubbornness with soft lines and pleasing color pallets. Quoted as “working on kids' cartoons by day, and drawing titties at night,” Tecchia breaks glass-ceilings as her characters embrace the complexities of female sexual pleasure often in rarely illustrated 'unladylike' positions. Tecchia's cartoons, graphics, and merchandise can be found on her Instagram.

Gemma Correll 

Gemma Correll creates cartoons validating overthinking, depression, and anxiety with pug pictures and striped sweaters. Her cartoons are filled with relatable struggles of having period cramps, being shy at parties and feeling unprepared to be a functioning adult. Corell's main character, who famously wears Waldo-like red stripes, reveals her anxious thoughts to her readers creating comradery around uncertainty. Corell's empathetic drawings on mental health and period pain are often paired with goofy comics of her pugs Mr. Pickles and Zander (follow their separate Instagram here). The dog duo adds even more comfort and cuteness to her page. You can follow Gemma Corell's drawings and on her Instagram and her long format comics on The Nib. ​

Sofia Warren

Witty and absurd, Sofia Warren's cartoons bring light and comedy to the everyday chores of grocery store runs, doctors appointments and airport traffic jams. Churning out multiply New Yorker-worthy comics a week, and sometimes a day, her characters discuss politics and psychology with banter that one commenter on Instagram wished he, "could get in edible form." Consistently published in The New Yorker since 2017, Warren creates animations, cartoons and books that tickle your funny and intellectual bones. You can find her cartoons and more of her creations on her personal Instagram page and her cartoon strip, "Proust and Panda" here.

Liz Montague - Liz at Large

With hilarious and smart comics on race, politics, and environmental justice, Liz Montague has become one of the shining cartoonists of The New Yorker. Montague began seriously cartooning in 2019 after direct messaging The New Yorker cartoon editor, Emma Allen, on Instagram to inform her that the magazine's acclaimed cartoons excluded Black voices. Offering her own work, Montague quickly gained attention after publishing her insightful comic "Per my last e-mail," perfectly encapsulating the phenomenon of Black women being silenced and ignored in the workplace. She graduated from the University of Richmond in 2018 and currently resides in New Jersey where she is working on a graphic novel for teens. She publishes all her comics on her Instagram and personal website, Liz at Large.