Dresden Codak is a webcomic written and illustrated by A. Senna Diaz.[1] Described by Diaz as a "celebration of science, death and human folly",[2] the comic presents stories that deal with elements of philosophy, science and technology, and/or psychology. The comic was recognized in 2008 at the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards for Outstanding Use of Color and Outstanding Use of The Medium.[3]
On October 22, 2008, Dresden Codak concluded a long-running sequence called "Hob", which focused on the character Kimiko's discovery of a post-Singularity robot and its attempted recovery by people from a future in which Earth was destroyed in a war with the artificial intelligence that once tended the planet.[4]
On February 25, 2013, Senna Diaz launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a hard cover book edition of the webcomic. Dubbed The Tomorrow Girl: Dresden Codak Volume 1, it collected the first 5 years of the webcomic plus additional art and reformatted everything to fit printed media.[5] The campaign reached its original goal of $30,000 in less than 24 hours and ended with a total of $534,994.
Dresden Codak's second longest-running story arc, HOB, focused primarily on the results of a technological singularity[6] and the consequences of time travel.[7] Accordingly, much of Dresden Codak falls into the cyberpunk and science fiction genres.
The current and longest-running major story arc is Dark Science.[8] The arc centers on Kimiko Ross, while introducing a few new characters. The arc also utilises to great effect the artistic style of decopunk, which, though notably present in the HOB arc, defines the city of Nephilopolis.[9]
The Perry Bible Fellowship creator Nicholas Gurewitch wrote that he enjoyed reading Dresden Codak.[16] The comic's highbrow patter is distinctive yet not based in realistic physical medium: internet pundit Lore Sjöberg described it as "Little Nemo in Higher Education Land",[17] while the pseudo-Victorian pseudoscience of "Traversing the Luminiferous Aether with Rupert and Hubert" was featured in the "Daily Zeitgeist" section of science magazine Seed.[18]
