My 10 Favorite and Relatable Web Dev Comics of All Time

You may have experienced at least a couple of these in your life.

Varun Joshi
Level Up Coding

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Ah, the world of tech comics. Almost every tech comic I have seen is relatable on some level. It’s almost as if someone was watching me work every day and getting ideas to doodle.

Whenever I stumble upon a good comic, I tend to spend the next hour going through the author’s other comics and smiling (sometimes even crying inside!) at the sheer relatability of the comic and how absolutely not funny a regular person might find them.

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

But today, I’m going to share some of my most favorite webcomics with you and would love to share some joy around. You may already know some of the authors here, but an article about web dev comics cannot start without an XKCD (Randall Munroe is an absolute genius!), so here goes:

#0: Exploits of a Mom

Poor school admins, well at least they learned something from this.

Source: XKCD

This brings me to an excellent resource that helps ensure that you are never caught lacking by a neutrally evil Mom. Check this website out!

#1: Focus

This is one of the most relatable comics I’ve ever seen. This happens way too many times every day at work and even though most of us are working from home, Slack & Email notifications tend to ensure you are distracted just before gaining enlightenment (Darn you, bugs! 🐛).

Source: MonkeyUser.com

#2: The Most Essential Tool for a Programmer: GIT

Git is underrated, and I tend to ensure every newbie that joins our team knows their git commands. Knowing how exactly Git works is the knowledge that only a few can achieve, and if you find them and ask them about Git, make sure you wait for a few minutes of “It’s really simple, just think of branches as…” and you’ll eventually learn Git commands that fix everything.

Source: XKCD

#3: A successful code review

Yep, this is an important one. Writing perfect code is never easy and it is painful when you spend hours writing code and then you get a hundred suggestions on how to do things right. CommitStrip has shared an excellent tip that will ensure your next code review doesn’t cause you to pull your hair out.

Source: CommitStrip

#4: The Big Day

This day is not only a big day, for some, it can also turn out to be a long day. I remember the first time I was part of a project launch. Oh my god, the stress, the pressure, and the ultimate fear that the system might just shut down when the client opens the page. It’s a feeling I could never forget.

Source: MonkeyUser.com

#5: Halloween

This is one of the comics that makes me chuckle every time I see it. The sheer effort to imagining CSS as a Costume is mind-blowing.

Personally, I’d be in a bug costume and label myself a feature! 😆 😆

Source: Pablo Stanley

#6: Sudo

Ah, another one of my favorites. I realized xkcd plays a huge part when it comes to decent and actually funny webcomics. I wish we could do this in real life. 🙁

Source: XKCD

#7: 10x Developers

I’ve seen a lot of companies looking for rockstar developers, or 10x developers, and I think the concept is extremely flawed. You can’t expect everyone to be a champion, because then, no one is a champion.

This is the reality of most 10x developers. If companies keep focussing on letting one person do the job of 10, that person is going to burn out sooner rather than later.

Source: Dilbert

#8: Every Project Ever

Every project starts out wonderfully, with a promise to follow the system and deliver the client the product they need and within their budget. But does it ever pan out that way? Things change rapidly once you have taken the oath to stay true to your rules, and the finished product looks completely different than what was initially discussed/required.

Source: Unknown

#9: Compiling!

This is by far the most relatable and absolutely true webcomic. We, programmers, tend to work really hard, sometimes skipping food and entertainment to get things up and running. But when we hit compile, we are suddenly given the gift of time, a gift we sometimes take too far.

Source: XKCD

Phew, I had a great time writing this one. It gave me the chance to look at webcomics all day and laugh out loud while curating the top 10 favorites! I hope you got a good laugh out of them as well!

Cheers!

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A Software Engineer turned writer. Udacity Full-stack Nanodegree Grad. Contributor to Level Up Coding, The Startup & Codeburst.io.