Webcomics Weekly Special — Hourly Comic Day 2025
by Richard Bruton
1 February was Hourly Comic Day, where comic makers spend the day doing exactly what it says … here some of the best I saw this year…
The thing is, every single year, even though I know it’s happening on the 1st February, Hourly Comics Day still manages to sneak up on me. But here we are, another great crop of (you might say insane) comic makers committing to doing comics every hour of their day.
Started in 2006 by John Campbell, and it’s a simple thing — brave (foolhardy/insane) cartoonists and comic makers do a comic panel or page every hour for 24 hours. That’s it. No topics to follow, no prompts, just whatever they want to draw for one day, something every hour. Although it’s often more a case of doing it till you can’t do it anymore. And although it’s meant to be every hour of 24 hours, there’s no shame for those who don’t make the whole day.
Most of it starts early in the morning as folks wake up, although some, like this from Raina Telgemeier, start late the previous night. Doesn’t matter one bit.
Invariably, a lot of what you’ll see has a slice-of-life/autobiographical bent. Indeed, over the years, it’s been fun seeing some of the best artists growing up and getting families and kids and having family life dominate what they do, making the whole hourly comics day even more tricky.
But although a lot of what you’ll see is snippets of an artist’s day, it sure can go into some strange places —
So, only a couple of days late, here’s a special Webcomic Weekly pointing out some of the best Hourly Comics that I saw this year. It’s a hell of a lot of fun. If you want to see all of this year’s crop, just search “hourly comic day” or #hourlycomicday across social media (the previous link’s to Bluesky because, well, it’s not Meta or X). There’s no way I can show you them all but here’s just a few.
Let’s start with Lucy Knisley, always the star of the day, seemingly managing to create such incredible things that have other creators gasping. You can read all her HCD pieces here at her site. Here’s a little of this year…
