Some of them were actually pretty good artists; occasionally you’d see them do other stuff and it’d be genuinely good on an artistic level.

Right, but some of them also blossomed beautifully!

I remember Dresden Codak being good art from the get-go, and it only got better over the years. Same with Perry Bible Fellowship, that guys got some fucking artistic chops.

The whole stick man, lumpy face, primitivist thing was just an “in” aesthetic (while also being conveniently really quick to produce).

I’d say this went for things like Cyanide and Happiness, which if I recall correctly, had a series of artists, it wasn’t all just one person.

Stuff like Sluggy Freelance? Yeah, the art and writing really never got that much better.

Then you have Dinosaur Comics, whose entire shtick was (and is) just re-using the exact same panels for every comic.

Once again… We don’t talk about SinFest.

There are a few webcomics out there that have some excellent artwork. Lackadaisy is the first to come to mind, though updates have always been verrrry sporadic—especially now that she’s working on an animated version—and there was one called The Abominable Charles Christopher that was fucking phenomenal, but it just sorta… stopped. I’m still subscribed to the RSS because I’m holding out hope, but I know it’s over.