Doctor Fun is a single-panel, gag webcomic by David Farley. It began in September 1993, making it one of the earliest webcomics, and ran until June 2006. Doctor Fun was part of United Media's website from 1995, but had parted ways by 2003. The comic was one of the longest-running webcomics before it concluded, having run for nearly thirteen years with over 2,600 strips. The webcomic has been compared to The Far Side.
History
Doctor Fun began on September 24, 1993, and has been called "first comic published on the Web". It was not the first comic series published through the Internet – Witches and Stitches was distributed through CompuServe in 1985, and Where the Buffalo Roam was distributed through Usenet in 1991 – but it published through the World Wide Web, meaning it appeared on its own webpage rather than being sent out just by mailing lists or other earlier Internet technology. Its creator, Dave Farley, started uploading Doctor Fun while working as a computer technician for the library system at the University of Chicago. By 2003, Farley's contract with United Media had "fallen through." A book collection was published by Plan Nine Publishing in 2004.
In 2003, Farley said to The News & Observer that Doctor Fun was the longest-running webcomic. On June 9, 2006, after posting the final page of his 520th week of strips, he announced that his series was concluded. According to a mirror archive, the comic ran every weekday with some weeks off through the years, for nearly thirteen years. Farley produced over 2,600 Doctor Fun strips during its run.
Content
Each Doctor Fun comic is a single-panel gag.
Farley said in 2003 that Doctor Fun received close to 50,000 hits per day.