Action Daxton by Clay Yount (Fall 2000-Spring 2002)
The first comic to really grasp and master the use of computer shading, Action Daxton is drawn in anime style and has an unpredictable and offbeat plot. Clay is also a Graphics Editor for the Cavalier Daily. For a while he also drew a second comic called The Next Level for an online video game site. Clay decided to change gears and switch to a new comic, Ghost Cat, for his senior year.
::read an "action daxton" comic
::visit the action daxton webpage

The Adventures of Johnny Fu (Fall 1999) by Patrick Richards and Kevin Sheehan
Although it only ran for one semester, The Adventures of Johnny Fu was a kung-fu parody strip drawn by two graduate students. Every strip had a "moral" at the end to give it a little added punch (many Cav Daily comic strips use the space under the last panel to write in something witty). After getting into a mini comic war with Iced Ink, Johnny Fu had only a few weeks to develop itself. Unfortunately the story never climaxed or soundly ended.
::read an "adventures of johnny fu" comic

Blank Slate (Spring 2001-Winter 2001, Fall 2002-?) by Chris Hickman and Sean Thomason
Blank Slate was right up there with Pac Man Fever in terms of random humor. The four main characters of Gus, Eschan, Beau and Lou went through everything from a search for prop-comic Carrot Top to Lou's evil twin with a dent in his hair. The creators decided to move to something different after a year, renaming their strip The Low Road and using an entirely new drawing style and characters. Then, in an unprecedented move for Cav Daily comics, they returned to draw Blank Slate for their final year.
::read a "blank slate" comic

Bullet-Proof Weasel by Jim Tavenner (Fall 1998-Spring 1999)
Itchy-and-Scratchy-type cartoon violence mixed with gratuitous profanity and Simpsons-esque humor to bring one of the strangest comics the Cav Daily has ever seen. Another enemy of the rival publication The Declaration, Bullet-Proof Weasel often fought back relentlessly. Trademark aspects included the many written-in sound effects and definitive arrows, as well as a few law school comics.
::read a "bulletproof weasel" comic

Captain Justice and the Bear by Rob Iracane and Keith Moores (Spring 1999-Spring 2000)
Truly one of the funniest strips the Cav Daily has ever seen. Characters like "Other Guy Dave" and "Ortega The Gentleman Horse" rounded out a cast of simply-drawn characters with side-splitting dialogue. Typical comics included Bear threating to maul people or references to The Golden Girls. Keith was IT Director for the Cavalier Daily for the 1999-2000 year. It's also worth noting that this was the first Cav Daily comic to put up a decent website archive, which Rob just recently put back online!
::read a "captain justice and the bear" comic
::visit the captain justice and the bear website

Cesium Boat by Nicky Khaki and Andy Marrone (Fall 1997-Spring 1999)
One of the few University comic strips created by female artists. Cesium Boat struck a chord with readers by having its female characters defend themselves in battles of lame pick-up lines, dating, and general University woes.
::read a "cesium boat" comic

Coach Random (Fall 2001-Spring 2004) by Alexander Ruhl
Coach Random is drawn true to its name and centers around a diverse cast of dog characters. Other comics have learned not to mess with its gun-toting, toaster-wielding, beer-guzzling crew. The expressions that Ruhl gets across through these dogs' faces are impressive. His website is also worth a look.
::read a "coach random" comic
::visit the coach random website

Comic Strip by Ben Oderwald and Austin Wallace (?-Spring 1996)
One thing (among many) that the oh-so-thought-provokingly-named Comic Strip brought to UVA was a very distinct drawing style. Distinct characters with huge eyebrows added to the well-thought-out dialogue and made for a sure-fire daily laugh.
::read a "comic strip" comic

Crazy Eskimo by Matt Oliver (Fall 1999-Spring 2002)
Matt Oliver was a two-year Cavalier Daily graphics editor in addition to drawing Crazy Eskimo, the story of an eskimo who lost his way and ended up stuck at UVA. Wacky hijinx ensued, of course. The strip was best known for its portrayals of University life, as seen in the frat party and short course storylines. "Nyar" is Mo the Eskimo's catch phrase of choice (Mo being Matt's initials). Matt now runs a new online comic strip, Nothing Special.
::read a "crazy eskimo" comic
::visit the crazy eskimo website

Dangerzone (Fall 2001-Spring 2002) by Dana Grant
This was not your ordinary female-drawn comic in the vein of Cathy or Six Chix...Dangerzone has an edge to it that these syndicated comics wish they had. A welcome addition that, like many comics, fell into repeat-mode during its second semester and closed up shop.
::read a "dangerzone" comic

Drool (Fall 2001-?) by Kyle Gabler
Drool started off emulating a site called Exploding Dog where readers would submit quotes and Gabler would draw his interpretation of it. Later, though, Drool came up with its own mix of quotes and storylines, often making some sort of social commentary, which are outstanding and very creative. Something always dies in a Drool comic as well. This was the first single-panel Cav Daily comic.
::read a "drool" comic

Eye of the Monkey by Dan Stern and Jeff Dershewitz (Fall 1997-Spring 1999)
Often poked fun at by the rival publication The Declaration, Eye of the Monkey had a drawing style similar to The Simpsons and usually single-panel gags similar to The Far Side. The humor was extremely offbeat and introduced readers to strange characters like Dr. Botchko "the alchoholic surgeon."
::read an "eye of the monkey" comic
::visit the "eye of the monkey" website

Ghost Cat by Clay Yount (Fall 2002-?)
The former Action Daxton author decided to start an entirely new comic for his final year of college. Ghost Cat is extremely well-drawn (and usually colored), has great characters and a great website.
::read a "ghost cat" comic
::visit the ghost cat webpage

Harmful if Swallowed by Adam Moyer (Fall 2002-?)
Continuing the Cav Daily tradition of "random" comics, Harmful if Swallowed picks up the proverbial torch and runs with it. It will be interesting to see where the comic goes from here.
::read a "harmful if swallowed" comic

Howard Dallis, PHD by Pyung Kim(Fall 2002-?)
A soap-opera comic drawing style mixed with the obscene and strange makes for an interesting read. The main character, Howard, has said some completely unexpected one-liners.
::read a "howard dallis, phd" comic

Iced Ink by Dan Wong (Fall 1999-Spring 2000)
Dan Wong's well-drawn comic Iced Ink had a very interesting run in the pages of the Cav Daily. After starting out with an offbeat and random style with characters like "Fluffy Fur the Rabbit Pimp" and "Harry The Jerk," Iced Ink focused primarily on two characters, Lenny and Karl, towards the end of its run. Dan's attitude about his strip was very similar to Bill Cable's The Peanut Gallery, although he also brought some entirely new and fresh approaches to what a comic strip should be.
::read an "iced ink" comic
::visit the iced ink website

Inklings by Jen Kim (Spring 2002-?)
Following the adventures of an angel and a devil watching the world from a cloud, Inklings has a distinct style and scores an 11 on the syrupy/cuteness scale. Another great addition to the line of Cav Daily female comic artists.
::read an "inklings" comic

Lane Zero by Bruce Hariguchi (Fall 1996-Spring 1997)
Beautifully drawn and lettered, Hariguchi's Lane Zero read like mini-editorial cartoons. President Clinton and Univeristy policies are among the many issues that got attacked in a creative way. Lane Zero also ran a rating of the other comics in the paper once, stirring up a little controversy.
::read a "lane zero" comic

The Low Road by Sean Thomason and Chris Hickman (Spring 2002)
After drawing the strip Blank Slate for a year, Sean and Chris decided to go in an entirely new direction with an entirely new strip. One of the most bizzare casts ever assembled ranks this as one of the most original comics that UVA has ever seen. Later on, the authors went back to Blank Slate and explained Low Road as one big hallucination.
::read a "the low road" comic

Metro Center by Greg Scanlon and Jonathan Soma (Fall 2002-?)
Good characters (including a robot) and great dialogue show promise for this relatively young strip.
::read a "metro center" comic
::visit the metro center webpage

Natural Rejection by Leonard Finkelman (Fall 2002-?)
Six years after Natural Selection ran in the Cav Daily, Natural Rejection hit the UVA comics scene (the two are apparently unrelated). Once again, random humor seems to be the weapon of choice here. One character has been the target of several comic war strips: a turtle/dinosaur character.
::read a "natural rejection" comic

Natural Selection by Kevin Wright (Fall 1996-Fall 1998)
Natural Selection's two-year run unfortunately ended in almost a full semester of repeated strips. That's too bad, because it was well-drawn and had some interesting characters that were just starting to develop really well. True to its name, Natural Selection dealt foremost with relationships revolving around its main character, Byron.
::read a "natural selection" comic

On Sacred Grounds by Dennis Logue (?-Spring 1996)
The title pokes fun at UVA's facination with tradition (instead of a "campus", we have "grounds"). Yet another comic about University life, On Sacred Grounds stood out with hilarious dialogue and lots of Virginia Tech bashing (UVA's rival school).
::read an "on sacred grounds" comic

Pac-Man Fever by Phil Worthington and Matt Skernolis (Fall 1998-Spring 1999)
The most random student comic I've ever read, period. The Pac Man Fever artists forgot to resubmit their cartoon and therefore had a short-lived year of strips, but they were always unpredictable, fresh and hilarious. The simple style consisted of two heads basically shooting dialogue back and forth to each other, day in and day out. Characters like Commissioner Sunshine and Mr. Doughnut added to the weird mix. I remember this one comic with seagulls eating syrup-covered pancakes off of the guys' heads...to me, that speaks volumes about this comic.
::read a "pac man fever" cartoon

Paradigm Shift by Kevin Bostic (Fall 1999-Spring 2002)
No comic received more Letters To The Editor than Kevin Bostic's Paradigm Shift. Sick of poiliticos and others taking issues like race, religion and diversity too seriously, this comic made light of the situations. Kevin made "girl logic" and "hyper-minimalism" into household terms around UVA, as well as creating the kid with the flaming head, Ch'von. It ended, unfortunately, with about a semester of repeated comics.
::read a "paradigm shift" comic

The Peanut Gallery by Bill Cable (?-Spring 1997)
One of the longest-running comics ever in the Cavalier Daily, The Peanut Gallery followed the life of a long-haired character named Jake. An intricate storyline dealt with friendship, relationships, and daily college life. Cable was known for his well-drawn characters and thoughtful sentimentality, and had a "don't mess with the best" attitude similar to Dan Wong's Iced Ink. The P.U.M.P.K.I.N society delivered Cable a pumpkin (a pretty big honor here at UVA) for his dedication to his strip, although he then spent the next two days quoting the letter word-for-word in his comic. His final comic strip still hangs framed in the Cav Daily offices.
::read a "peanut gallery" comic
::read bill cable's final column
::visit the peanut gallery website

Permanent Tanooki by Cason Moore and Conor Lastowka (Fall 2000-?)
Leave it to a Cav Daily comic strip to dare to poke fun at issues like grave-robbing and cancer. Conor writes them, Cason draws them. Permanent Tanooki (named after a special power in the video game Super Mario Brothers 3) has developed its characters of Corbin, JFK, Lindsay and the Siamese Twins well...look for lots of objectionable mayhem during the remainder of this one.
::read a "permanent tanooki" comic

RJ5D by Rich Janowski (?-Spring 1997)
Using his UVA e-mail address as his comic strip's name, Rich Janowski's RJ5D was simply drawn but ridiculously funny. His strip was often the enemy of The Peanut Gallery in several comic war battles. Janowski himself was a common character in his strips. Often poking fun at Univeristy life, other comics and even Cav Daily readers, RJ5D secured its place as one of the most offbeat comics the paper has ever seen.
::read an "rj5d" comic

Roommates by Carrie Kruger (?-Spring 1996)
Female-drawn strips are a rarity, and Roommates showed that there was no reason for that. The cute drawings and warm stories made for a distinctively funny strip; the kind you could see people hanging on their dorm room doors. Sort of like a college version of Cathy.
::read a "roommates" comic

Second Nature by Dave Werner (Spring 1999-Spring 2002)
This is the comic that I drew for the Cavalier Daily.
::visit the second nature website

Sedarous by Jake Layman (Fall 1996-Spring 1998)
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Layman's Sedarous was the best-drawn Cav Daily comic strip ever. Sedarous was a masterpiece, but unfortunately had quite a few repeated comics (as evident in The Dec's Best and Worst List of 1997). This comic seemed to be one huge hallucination, with imaginative characters such as a talking dog and its marquee character, the giant cockroach.
::read a "sedarous" comic

Shallow Grave by Sean Polyn (Fall 1997-Fall 1998)
What can I say about Shallow Grave that hasn't been said already? Shallow Grave had probably the best writing out of any Cav Daily comic ever. Polyn even published a collection of some of his favorite comics which you can still buy at the UVA Bookstore. You will never see more original characters than Dancin' Wookie, Knight and Dragon, or the God-machine with plague cannons. In addition, Polyn's art graced many other local publications, including the Yellow Journal and Grip (as well as doing graphics for the Cav Daily). Polyn, now at Princeton, continues to draw occasional Shallow Grave strips.
::read a "shallow grave" comic
::visit the shallow grave website

Sketchy by James Zehmer (Fall 2000-Spring 2002)
James Zehmer's Sketchy poked fun at University life from the perspective of a frat brother. Drinking songs and making fun of first-year students were trademarks of this comic. Zehmer was actually president of his fraternity during his fourth year.
::read a "sketchy" comic

The Third Rail by Peter Saji and Debbie Camana (Spring 2000)
The authors of this comic admitted that they were heavily inspired by the professional strip The Boondocks, and hip-hop culture references were commonplace during the sole semester that The Third Rail ran. It was interesting to see a couple write a comic strip together; often Saji and Debbie were the main characters and their comic actions seemed to capture the voice of their real-life relationship. Not the comic to be messed with, Third Rail attacked any comic that dared provoke it.
::read a "third rail" comic

Velvet Funk by Ivan Valin and Rob Berry (Fall 1996-Spring 1997)
What a great name. A typical Velvet Funk cartoon involved the authors in cartoon form talking about something-or-other dealing with beer; therefore this was a popular comic among the Greek system especially. Very funny stuff.
::read a "velvet funk" comic

We Are Scientists! by Nathan Altice (Fall 2000)
A former writer for The Declaration, Nathan Altice's We Are Scientists! seemed to be drawn in a basic computer paint program and follows the adventures of two robots named Smallbot and Squarebot. It turned heads with its "drawn in the style of" week where the comic took on other Cav Daily comic styles. Unfortunately it only ran for one semester and repeated strips often.
::read a "we are scientists!" comic