The one advantage to having such a huge review backlog is that you get at least one update a week. The downside: I have to convert the damn thing. Moving on.
July 7, 2003
26. File 49 - Psychic powers, government conspiracies, and square eyes. This slightly less than dramatic tale follows a trio as they try not to get killed. What webcomic doesn't nowadays? There's a touch of humor in this piece that helps bring you in, but the in-depth story is there hold you tight. My only complaint is that most of the characters look the same! I'm not sure if this is by design or accident, but whichever the case, at least the artist was smart enough to work it into the story. Even then, though, it's often hard to tell who is who, or worst, what sex they are. No matter, it's not a bad strip at all and something worth a weekly update.
October 11, 2006 - Completed. The artist moved on to other things, but actually managed to finish a major part of the storyline, which included redrawing half the comic. It ended with plenty of mystery left, but unlike Timescapes, I wasn't depressed to see it go. It served its time and the world is a bit better for it.
October 11, 2008 - File 49: Book II - Okay, it's not REALLY a re-review, but as I checked my pile of dead comics to confirm that the comic was still dead, and existant, I stumbled across this. It is the same thing, basically. The humor aspect is kind of gone now, but that's alright, it's probably for the best now. The characters do still look similar, but I think that's because a good chunk of them come from the same genetic stock (serious about this). I think the restart of this is a little jerky and not strictly thought out, but I think it'll get through it and there is some logic to the whole thing. I'll be reading it for a while, that's for sure.
TODAY - File 49: Book II was the first of a re-review batch I did (which I will post more of as we go along). It also hasn't updated pretty much since I reviewed it. I'm not sure it ever will. Ah well, at least the first one was decent enough to make up for it.
27. Small World - All comics evolve. Some do it slowly, over a great deal of time. Others you can point to the exact moment when the change occurred. Small World falls into the second category. It's primarily a blog comic, a comic for the guy's weblog, and it starts off kind of fun. Short little strips about duels with computers, the mall, the girlfriend and life itself. Then the strips doubled up. After that, it was no longer a cute, fun little comic, and instead became a highly editorial piece where the artist tries to inject common sense into the world. I don't mind the political style comics, I even agree with what he said, but it feels like he wants to beat his ideals into my head with a large hammer. This might be a result of the archive tunnel vision, or simply the fact that he apparently publishes in real newspapers, but I don't like that feeling. If you don't mind the editorial style strips, go for it, otherwise, avoid.
TODAY - I took a quick look at when I was writing my article about Bad Comics, and immediately realized why I stopped reading it, and haven't gone back since.
28. Commander Kitty - After the headache of Small World, I needed something funny. And Commander Kitty was there! This is a funny strip, there are no buts about it. Every page has at least one joke, if not more, and the bulk of them will drop you to the floor in laughter. The only strip I know of that beats it consistently is 8-Bit Theater, and that's only because 8-Bit has been around longer. If you read any of this batch, read this one, you won't be disappointed.
October 11, 2006 - This is a cursed comic, I think. The archives are effectively gone, it hadn't been updated in years even when the archives are up and the story was slowly treading water toward, um, nothingness I'm sorry to say. Dead and buried, and that's probably for the best.
TODAY - And it's back from the grave, very much alive, it even updated recently (like within the last week). I'm shocked, and I might actually have to take some time to reread it and post a proper rereview for it. It's been a LONG time since I read it and I'm kind of glad it is, but also fearful that it may not be what I remember.
August 1, 2003
29. Under Power - Violence, sex, game based characters, humor, stereotypical heroes and an elf with the personality of a blender. A shame I didn't find this one earlier, it's got everything I love about webcomics. The cat girl throws me a bit (in fact, the whole concept is just plain confusing, could anyone explain it to me?), but not enough that I can't enjoy it. The only other problem is the update schedule, which is anything but stable. But when it does update, that's when the magic happens.
October 11, 2006 - Comic? What comic? It's mostly art pages any more. Yeah, he keeps saying he's working on it, but he never delivers. And yet I keep checking it every MWF hoping the story will start moving again. That's how much fun I had with it.
TODAY - "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" says the image now up on the page. That image was put up over a year ago. Says a lot about where Under Power went. This comic, more than any other, created the concept of Death by Hiatus, and it still pains me to know that it faded away in such a terrible, terrible way.
30. Earthbeta - A bit ago, someone said they read through Anime Moments and declared it the worst comic ever. My response was that it does require a certain sense of humor to enjoy, and it does. However, no sense of humor will help with Earthbeta, it. . .
What the hell am I kidding?! It's the worst comic ever made. Awful, terrible, bad, horrible. Folks, when they make jokes about the comic not being funny, and those jokes aren't funny, you've got serious problems. And worse yet, if you were brave enough to read today's strip, that strip is actually an IMPROVEMENT! I don't want to go into the Mario strips; I might just have another bout with suicide. Avoid this strip at all costs.
October 11, 2006 - The art improved, slightly, so now instead of my eyes bursting into flames I'm compelled to stab them with pointy sticks to make the pain go away.
TODAY - When I did the rereview of File 49, I tried, hard, to give Earthbeta a second chance. I couldn't do it. This comic tramatized me so much I can't even look at it for more than half a second without hiding under the bed with canned food and a shotgun. I would dare you to try, but that's not something I would even wish on my worst enemy. And my worst enemy is Earthbeta.
This is a depressing update. NONE of these comics are on my current read list, of course Commander Kitty is there because it was DEAD for so damn long, the rest, ugh. Will there be better ones next week? YES! Much, much better ones. Until then kiddies.
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