Wild Webcomic Review Read List Roundup Part 2

Of course last week's update would get mucked up.  Anyway, here's this week's Read List Round up.

M-W-F

Between Failures - I still enjoy this comic.  It hits that sweet area of personal experience, real life and fun that I don't think I've seen from other comics in this style.  I still recommend it highly and likely will for a long time.

Bohemian Nights - Speaking of realism, a twenty-somethings comic like this sometimes crosses past that real part for a few weird moments, yet at the same time stays true to itself.  I'm not really in the target demographic for this, but I get it and enjoy it.

Bug Martini - I still call this just plain Bug, and it's just a silly comic that I don't understand why it went 3 days a week when daily is a much better fit.  Ah well, I guess if this isn't the main job I understand.  Worth reading.

Corridor Realms (Twilight Lady, Subhuman Sanctum) - While Twilight Lady hasn't gotten a proper update in quite a while, Subhuman Sanctum is still running and still pretty damn good.  I love the characters and underlining mystery of the whole thing.

Demon Archives - Nothing to do with demons, and everything to do with robots, computers, politics, post-apocalypse and humanity.  It really needs a better name though.

Gaia - There really isn't much mystery left here, except for how the it'll be resolved at this point.  I used to think it was REALLY good, now I know it's not so much, but I think the issue is that it moves counter to normal conventions.  It's good, yes, but in a different way than you would expect.  Worth reading, yes, but I can understand if it doesn't stay active forever.

Girl Genius - I MIGHT have tried a Long Series on this in the future, but there is SO much there, I'm not even sure I could.  It's good, very good, and worth reading.  And yes, if you missed it, they did get out of the castle.

Gunnerkrigg Court - I talked a lot about this comic here.  Yes, it's one of the best comics out there, and yes you should be reading it.  Go already.

Metacarpolis - See my review.

Sister Claire - This comic has come from such a different place from where it is now I'm not even sure this is the same comic it was when I first read it.  It's not bad, but don't read my old review to have any idea what it is NOW, because it doesn't even relate to it anymore.


T-Th-S

Blindsprings - I still think there's more to the spirit thing than the comic has let on so far, but I also suspect that it's not going to be revealed for a long time now.  Still worth reading, that's for sure.

Blue Blaster - I think it's almost done, though I could be wrong.  It could keep going, but if it ends, I'll see if I can add it to my pile of promises to keep.  I still find it one of the better superhero comics out there.  And considering further down in this category is 2 more, that should say a great deal.  EDIT:  It did end, this week.  SURPRISE!

Devilbear - It's such a silly comic I just enjoy reading it for that.  That said, not terribly interested in the Teddy Bear Picnic parody going on now.  Minor speed bump, of course.

Menage a 3 - I don't think I was ever too into this wishfullfilment comic, and honestly it's gotten less interesting over time.  I mean, the characters are doing more, I just don't really don't much care for the rest of it.  Probably drop it at some point in the near future.

Namesake - Won't be dropping this any time soon.  It's still just as when it started and I find myself looking forward to reading it pretty much every week.  Hard to do that sometimes.

Not a Villian - See my review.

Paranatural - I get the humor, and understand the story, but it feels really slow right now, I'm not sure why.  Maybe it'll get better once it's out of this phase of the story.  We'll see.

Sandra and Woo - I have used the words "silly" and "enjoy" constantly in this thing, and I'll use it again, especially for Sandra and Woo.

Spinnerette - While I usually love this comic, the current storyline hasn't really grabbed me as well as some of the earlier ones.  Not sure why exactly.  Which isn't to say I won't still be reading it, because it is that good.

Strong Female Protagonist - Sometimes it's too preachy for it's own good, sometimes it's heart aching, and sometimes it hit's it's notes JUST right.  The last couple story lines have managed that perfectly and it's why I enjoy it

UnCONventional - I've read a lot of stick figure-esqe comics and this is the most detailed and well drawn of all of them.  It's another of those "I don't know much about this but am fascinated anyway" comics I have more than a few of on here, and worth reading for the strange twisting tale it tells.  It's funny too.

Daily

Cyanide and Happiness - I don't follow the video shorts much, sticking with the excessively crude, cruel and often hilarious comic instead.  Stick figure-esqe again, and done on purpose to make the jokes that much more dark, funny and mean.

Devil's Panties - Funny, this is probably the only "slice of life" comic I read out of the lot.  I enjoy it, no doubt, and but strange how it became the only one out of the hundreds that existed once.  Odd.

Dumbing of Age - Sometimes it needs to dial back the drama a bit, and I suspect that it can get on people's nerves who have been reading Willis' stuff for a while, but I still enjoy it.  The funnier parts especially, but when it gets a good drama beat going, I can dig it then too.

Girls with Slingshots - Still in rerun mode and I find I'm enjoying it more this second pass than the first one.  Is it the color or is it the pacing, I'm not sure.  Go ahead and read it, not like it'll hurt.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - On one hand, it sometimes hits that right spot of intellectual humor that can get a chuckle from me, and on the other it misses completely and hits a wall of "I know nothing of that."  Hit or miss on the jokes, but a good hit will make me chuckle but good.  That said, it's really, really wordy.

Schlock Mercenary - I think I've talked at length about this comic to the point that anything extra would be silly.  Why aren't you reading this?

Wapsi Square - (Wait, this doesn't come after. . .)  I still have the same problem with Wapsi I mostly outlined here.  I still read it despite that but it doesn't stick as hard if it's not focused and it's rarely focused.  Hell, I'm just barely paying attention to the current storyline, while the previous one I was.  Just settle down already Taylor.

The Whiteboard - It's supposed to be about paintball.  Kind of still is aside from the main character doing MORE than that on a regular basis.  Still, you don't need to know anything about paintball or anything else they're covering because the jokes are funny enough as is.

Stand Still, Stay Silent - This is one of the best comics out there.  Gunnerkrigg Court has a rival here and while I doubt SSSS will ever quite match GC, it's up there and should be read.  4 days a week updates, look at that thing and wonder how she manages to do it.  LOOK AT IT!

Sluggy Freelance - Since I started having a long list of comics to read, Sluggy has always been last, which often means skipping it, moving to the end and reading from the bottom up in the book marks (which are alphabetical).  It is and forever will be my Standard by which all comics are measured.  While I am not surprised it didn't end this year (disappointed I supposed, but not surprised), I find myself still reading it after all these years.  It is the second comic I reviewed and will likely be the last one I say anything about.  After all, I have promises to keep.

And that's it kiddies.  My run down of every active comic (though Blue Blaster surprised me by ending NOW of times, damn it).  Next week, I finish up my Can't Live Without series and then one last general post.  See you next time.

Wild Webcomic Review Read List Roundup Part 1

Today is a VERY special day.  When I started this blog, I had a lot of old reviews that needed to be covered and with each one I updated what I thought about the comic.  These were quick and often just a double check if the comic was still around.

Today, I go back to that kind of thing, but only for the comics on the read list.  Links will be updated and functional, and I'll try to say something interesting.

That said, there's a lot here and I've decided to split it into two different updates.  Makes life a bit easier for me.  So let's start with the first group.

Hiatus

Broodhollow - I keep hoping Kris Straub will get back to probably the only decent horror comic I've ever read.  It does so many things well the fact that he just stopped is disappointing on so many levels.  So it sits here, in Hiatus, hoping.

Commander Kitty - I'm not surprised this comic stopped updating, Scotty Arsenault, like all people, has to eat, and he makes more doing animation work than creating his comic.  It's been over a year so you'd think I'd ship it to dead, again, but I can't do it yet.  Yet.

Hark, A Vagrant! - Speaking of paying work, Kate Beaton always has something, and that means her webcomic suffers as a result.  So keeping it here until she's ready to come back is a good idea.

Little Guardians - Little Guardian's annoys me.  Not the comic itself, it's fine, but the way it's being handled.  It's seems that it was created JUST to sell books.  Nothing wrong with that, but they aren't making more comic pages in the interim.  The comic stops dead everytime they spin up to print a book and hasn't had a proper update in, well, forever it seems.  I leave it here, hoping there will actually BE a comic in the future, but I don't hold much hope.

Monthly

Dresden Codak - This used to be the comic with the best art I ever read.  Now, not so much.  Not that it's bad, hardly, but there is much better.  Still, it's artistically a very beautiful comic.  Milage on the story, however, will vary.  It's often obtuse, overly pretentious and kind of silly all at the same time.  It's followable, but still very strange.  It also doesn't update quickly but at least each strip is packed enough to warrant it.

Eerie Cuties - Right now this and Magick Chicks have this Archie comics style going and I don't know if I like it or not.  It's not bad, the stories are short and it's kind of funny, I just don't know if I LIKE it or not, especially compared to the previous versions of the comics.  Could be worse.

Gone with the Blastwave - I swear this comic updates once every 6 months!  It doesn't, really, it has a pateron where most strips go up first, then get released to the world.  It is a fun comic, but it updates so slow and there's so little going on, I'm not sure why I bother following it.

Head Trip - Updates for this have been, infrequent at best.  Still it does update, sometimes, though I wish it would do more, it was quite fun when it was going full speed.  Ah well.

Lackadaisy - I love the look of this comic, the atmosphere, the characters, the story, the art, all of it, except the update schedule, which is reasonable given the high levels of art, but then I look at some of the other comics on this list and wonder why they can't come out faster.  Great comic regardless.

Magick Chicks - See my comments about Eerie Cuties

Marry Me - Sporatic updates, probably beats every other comic on this list for that kind of thing.  I think it's becuase it's part of a larger site that has 3 other comics, so I guess when they update, Marry Me doesn't.  The comic remains one of the goofiest comics I read, bouncing through it's story line with the attention span of a kid with ADD.  And still manages to be quite funny between all the weirdness.  The update schedule really holds it back though, so it's hard to remember what was going on last time it updated.

Our Time in Eden - Hey, do you want to read probably one of the most depressing comics I have ever found?  Here you go!  Wow does it get dark (most recent page is REALLY dark), and yet I can't stop reading it.  There HAS to be a light somewhere, and I guess I keep reading it for that.  I like happy endings, or even heartaching endings, so I keep going with this one.  The art is pretty damn good too.

Weekly

Ava's Demon - See my review.

Bloodstain - This one has stalled out a bit but at least there's still bits of art going up.  I liked the comic as it was running though and am waiting for the rest.  Those art updates is why it's still in the weekly category.  I do love how it connects to Sunstone in a weird way.

Bob the Angry Flower - Bob is still my go to for weekly humor.  It usually manages to hit a nice nerve and give me a good chuckle, and is probably the most "political" cartoon I read any more.  Still one of my favorites.

Brainslug - When I did my site maintenance, I was surprised how long I've been reading this comic.  It still doesn't update as often as I would like, though.  It's a fun comic that doesn't take itself too seriously and for that, it stays in Weekly, despite it updating less than so.

Cat and Girl - This comic hasn't changed, like at all.  And I love it for being what it is.  Honestly, I've been reading it so long I can't imagine not reading it regularly.  Well, I mean I CAN, I have a whole series of posts that says that, but that's only if I seriously limit myself.  Otherwise, Cat and Girl will always be there.

Cerintha - I really enjoy this comic, the story is fun, the characters are interesting, and there's more than just enough humor to make the whole thing completely enjoyable.  Updates are a little slow, but each strip is just strong enough to hold it up.

Chainsawsuit - Kris Straub's active comic is only KIND of active right now, which is why it's in Weekly now.  I wish it updated more often as he's got enough of an absurd sense of humor that he pulls it off pretty well.  Ah well, at least it updates occasionally.

Cosmic Dash - So this comic has an entire branch of itself that is a series of short written stories, not comic stories.  This is annoying as it keeps the comic from updating with any regularity.  When it moves, it's not bad, and my archive dive proved much more interesting than the actual regular updates.  Hopefully they'll update a bit more, but I don't think it will.

Dead Winter - I do still like this comic, just wish it updated a bit more frequently, and I think this hurts the overall production.  It has backed off the zombie thing, for now, but the deeper story that was being hinted at has kind of been put on a very back burner.  It's fine, for now, but again, update a bit quicker please.

Dark White - Still just as dark as the original review.  It has the same issue as Dead Winter and Cosmic Dash, it just doesn't update fast enough.  Consistent weekly updates would help, really.

Deep Fried - Since Weapon Brown wrapped up, Deep Fried has been trying to find another hook.  The parody Star Trek storyline looks interesting, but is still early, while the main Deep Fried comic is as it always was, and right now is getting a bit of the focus.  Still worth reading.

Demon Candy - Updates have slowed down to a crawl, to the point that even the art stuff doesn't go up as frequently as it used to.  Not sure if there's another site hosting, or if something else is going on, and that lack of updates have lessened my interest as a whole.  Ah well.

Derelict - It's pretty much on hiatus.  I mean, I SHOULD by all rights put it on hiatus, but truthfully I so enjoy this comic I don't want to forget it, which is what frequently happens with the monthly and hiatus strips.  So it remains here until it returns.  If it returns.  I hope it returns.

Does Not Play Well with Others - Hasn't really changed much, and I like it for that.  It's reliable in that way, even if it doesn't update with any regularity.

Exiern - I don't even know how many artists and comic runners this thing has had since I started reading it.  It's like it gets passed around to whoever wants to take a crack at it this week.  Hell, the current storyline doesn't even seem related to the original, or maybe it is and I just have forgotten a plot point.  Either way, it's one of those edge case comics, not sure I really should keep reading it.

Footloose! (Cherry, Blackmarket Magic) - Footloose is currently on hiatus, Cherry updates as it always did, once in a while, and the main focus is Blackmarket magic, which I haven't reviewed because, well bad timing honestly.  Still, I like all three comics, and I want to keep reading all of them.


Legend of Zelda:  El Rey - It's almost over, and while it isn't going the way I kind of wanted, I like where it is going.  Can't wait to see how it ends.

Licensed Heroes - It's still a fun little comic, and I enjoy it for what it is.  Wish I could say more but it really doesn't need much more, it's still enjoyable.

Pole Dancing Adventures - Still the only blog comic I follow, and it's still something I'm following despite no interest in the subject.  Says a great deal about how the comic manages to keep my attention despite that.

PopChormatic -  It's still on pause while they deal with life issues, but I hope it'll return soonish.  Early next year maybe?  I hope.

Romantically Apocalyptic - Recently I've become convinced that I've been missing something here and I probably should go back and reread it.  Still, it's one of the weirdest comics I read, and maybe I wasn't really missing anything, it just feels that way.  Still worth reading for sure.

Ruderk and the Bear -This is a bit ahead of Exiern on the edge of dropping readership.  It's okay, but just that, and doesn't update often enough to keep me really hooked.  I wish I could like it better but I really am not.

String Theory - It's gone places I was not expecting, and I'm still not sure what to really make of it as it goes along.  Some of my issues are the slow movement of the comic and forgetting who is who and what they did, aside from the main character for the most part.  Not that it's bad, but I basically should just re-read the comic if I want to catch up.

Sunstone - For once, I'll drop the NSFW flag because, seriously, if you've been reading this blog, you should know this by now.  The next volume (book?) of the comic has just started and thanks to the full run of the first storyline, it feels less like building and more refining the characters and story.  Worth reading, go.

The Meek - Long wait for it to come back, and still be pretty interesting.  It's still WAY too early in the plot to settle down completely and I'm waiting for the two paths to more seriously intersect.  There's a lot of elements there, and I still enjoy it.  There is another comic, but I haven't read it yet, likely worth it.

The Non-Adventures of Wonderella - Technically it doesn't get updated weekly, it's whenever the artist finds a funny joke to tell, which boosts the quality, and thanks to the nature of it, there's not much of a plot to follow so it works for it.  Still worth reading.

Three Panel Soul - It has multiple storylines that run around, none deal with the others, and it's still quite enjoyable.  It's simple, well drawn and fun.  I can't say much more than that because it is good.

Trying Human - I like the main plot.  I'm not super interested in some of the subplots.  Right now it's in one of those subplots.  Yeah.  Still, when it's on the main one, I find it interesting and want to see more.  Hope it comes back around soon.

Twokinds - It's an adventure comic.  There's an adventure, there are adventures and they do adventure things.  Half the cast are anthropomorphic animals, but they're just characters just as everyone else.  I like it enough to keep reading, if not a bit more.  Now things are coming back together and getting ready to push toward the grand confrontation (which may or may not be a climax).  Should be fun.

Zebra Girl - This one is finally winding down and will be wrapping up sometime next year.  It's completely worth going back and re-reading it, which I'll be doing soon. . .

Okay, next week, I finish this up.  Until then kiddies.

Retrospective: It Hurts!

Yeah, I forgot about the Retrospective on this one.  To be fair, I was in the middle of a massive posting arc and contemplating the end of the blog at the same time.  So missing the end of It Hurts! isn't that big of a surprise.

Not that I really have much to say on it really.  I mean, I did like it enough.  My original review had the same issues, I don't know HOW to talk about it besides "it's okay."

It's vulgar, it's stupid, it does odd things, goes odd places.  It tells jokes that you need to read a second time to catch, while others are so obvious you don't eve need to read them.

The story was a weird thing.  It flowed pretty logically, which is weird since it went from middle school, to the apocalypse, to space, to hell, to heaven, to space and then back to the beginning.  Yeah, it did ALL that while making the main characters a cyborg, a zombie, a part of some supreme spirit and a demon.  Weird things, and the ending was, well, trying to say something.

The comic loved to drum up hope for the future, then squash it like a bug on a windshield.  The ending looks to do the same thing, except that DOES give that hope.  After pointing out how shit of a thing it really was that the only way to do it was to UNDO everything (um, kind of, more like remake).

I liked the comic, but I can see where someone else might not put up with it.  It's TOO vulgar sometimes, and TOO stupid other times.  There's an unevenness there that carries all the way to the end.  I guess if you can stand it through the beginning of the apocalypse arc, you'll probably enjoy it, but if you can't, don't bother, it doesn't change much.

Next time, my great round up.  Long enough I had to put it off a week.  Until then kiddies.

Cleaning Up a Bit / Touching Base #27

Funny how before we finished a move, we always cleaned the now empty house.  Except the last time, but that had other reasons.

In this case, it's time to clean up the read list one last time in preparation for next week's big post.  So let's get started.

From Hiatus, I'm pulling everything and swapping in some new blood, namely Broodhollow, Commander Kitty, Hark, a Vagrant! and Little Guardians.  All the old stuff is either dead, or dead and gone.  Yes, even Perry Bible Fellowship, which gets reruns on Go Comics, but that's about it.

Monthly sees the departure of The Wotch to Non-Read (I don't know what's going on with any more) and Out There to dead.  I've added Head Trip, but that's about the only addition there.

Weekly sees the addition of Chainsawsuit, Exiern and Ava's Demon (it's new and all).  I probably COULD move Derelict to Hiatus, but not yet.

Legends of Wholeterra had a website failure and is gone, so it gets pulled from T-Th-S, while Not a Villain gets added.

Bug Martini was daily but now is 3 times a week, so it went to M-W-F along with Metacarpolis.  It Hurts! ended (forgot to do a retrospective on it, whoops) so it's gone from the list as well.

Daily's biggest departure is Station V3 which never did answer the question what happened to it.  The other removals I've already commented on.

There are some comics that will likely be ending in the next few months.  Zebra Girl is nearly done but won't be finished until the start of next year.  Blue Blaster looks to be wrapping up it's storyline, so that's nice.  Marry Me, um, could be ending or it could just be taking a 2 year break, hard to say.

Eeire Cuties and Magick Chicks HAVE updated, but it's sporadic and looks like Archie comics.  I don't know if this is long term or not.

Cosmic Dash actually started putting up strips again.  I really don't understand how or why it updates the way it does, as in it doesn't.  Annoyed.

Sunstone (NSFW) has it's second, book?  Volume.   That sounds good.  Second Volume called Mercy finally getting back up to speed.

PopChromatic stopped updating in July due to life reasons.  They're hopping to get it up and running again in the new year.

Not much else to talk about honestly.  I do want to get back and do an It Hurt's retrospective, so I might do that as part of next year's final wind down (I definitely want to write about Zebra Girl ending).  It'll depend on if I get time.

Next week I'll see about doing that It Hurt's! retrospective.  See you then kiddies.

The Last? Wild Webcomic Review

One last time, with feeling, it's

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

I say last, but is it really?  Maybe, probably, likely even.  As much as I would like to get to 300, well, I just don't have the time.  Still, let this not detour me from my duty today, and so I present, once again, 5 comics that I read and a shortish thing about each.  Let's begin.

281.  Not a Villain - My first thought on seeing this ad (and I got it from an ad, so they do work) is that this was some kind of superhero story.  It's not.  It's a post apocalyptic comic set in virtual worlds being the primary way of people interacting with each other.  There is a lot of character development throughout and I do enjoy the way it really highlights why the main character is doing what she's doing without directly telling every little thing, and that information is being slowly meted out through the length of the comic.  My favorite part is that this comic is actually developing over time.  The earlier strips are early artwork and while there is a reason for some of it, even as the comic goes on the art and story telling are developing.  Better yet, the alt-text for most of the comics is a self criticism by the artists, usually about how things could be done better.  I really like this comic and will be reading it for a while.

282.  Ava's Demon - Linked from a forum, I found this comic to be rather beautiful and the story is tight and well written.  I like that the about page points out the story IS done, it's just a matter of drawing it.  It is presented mostly as a single panels, which are posted in groups at a time every week.  Oddly, not every panel is "vital" despite the format, many are just  slight variations of previous panels.  And then sometimes it goes "beyond" the panel, presenting larger pictures, alternate minor images and videos.  Oh those videos are amazing to look at.  Yeah, they're just this side of a moving comic but the addition of sound and extra movement has made them really stand out and I'm quite happy with the comic.  That said I really am kind of annoyed by the archive navigation.  Oh sure, it works on a standard dive, but getting back to particular strips or videos is, well, a pain.  Other than that, a great comic, hopefully it keeps going.

283.  Broken Telephone - I don't remember where I got this, and the same applies to the rest of the comics on this list.  In any case, this was a group project while multiple artists (front page says 18 art teams, which is possible), all taking a single story and presented from different points of view for each artist group.  It's a fun experiment and I did enjoy how it all played out and connected together in the end.  The characters, even as the artstyle changed, were identifiable and I got what was going on.  Ultimately it was a fun, if short, romp of a comic that's at least worth spending a few minutes on, as it is complete.

284.  Metacarpolis - This is a silly comic.  The artists hints that the entire reason for the comic is to make hand puns and the fact that one of the past characters is wearing something Manos: The Hands of Fate should be more than evidence that this is not to be taken seriously, like at all.  I like the silliness though, as the characters seem to know it's kind of silly, and even comment on it but just accept it and move on with their lives.  The characters are fun, easily identifiable, and their motivations are pretty straight forward except when they're not and then it's silly.  It also has a robot with a brain of an advanced cockroach.  Yeah, it's silly and fun to read.

285.  Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life - It's JUST short of my 100 strip guideline, 99 in fact, but it's complete, so it counts.  It's a sci-fi comic that is about philosophy, purpose, friendship, and silly robots.  Lots of silly robots.  It does this weird thing where every other comic, almost, is flipped 90 degrees from the previous, so some are long vertical while others are long horizontal.  It varies depending on the topic of the strip.  The art is rather simple, but not stick figures, there's enough there to tell each character from the others while still being kind of the same (because robots).  It's nothing too verbose, though it could try to be, and I enjoyed it.  The last strip is actually quite fitting, not just for the comic, but these reviews as a whole.  Worth reading.

And that's it.  Like I said, it would have been nice to hit 300, but considering the 10,000+ comics out there, it's still pretty much nothing, and 15 strips more or less isn't going to change thing.  Add in all the comics I've read and not reviewed for one or the other, I'm still probably short, but that's fine.  I won't say this is for sure the last, never know after all, but I suspect it will be.  Thank you for reading and experiencing these reviews with me.

Next time, I've got some cleaning up to do on the blog.  Until then kiddies.