Wild Webcomic Review

Touching Base #9

2012-02-17T12:00:00.001-05:00

Time to touch base with a lot of comics and figure out what's coming.

First of all, a lot of updates are coming to my read list. Sea of Insanity is, once again, being dropped and sent to the dead pile. It's been over a year since the last update, and I have a feeling the artist really wasn't into it with it's return anyway. Sorry to see it go, again, but it's time to move on.

I'm also dropping, much to my regret, Count Your Sheep from the read list. I am really, REALLY sad about this, but the comic's updates have been few and far between, and if it were a more complicated comic, like Sea of Insanity, I could let it go, but it's a 3 panel, daily joke comic strip. A 3 month delay between strips is unacceptable. I still recommend the archives, but I won't be reading this as part of my run any more.

Exiern is going to be moved from weekly to T-Th. Not sure why I kept it in weekly for so long.

Gypsy! has vanished, not sure what's up with that. Hope it comes back.

Hark a Vagrant! artist Kate Beaton is considering doing what no webcomic artist has done before: retire from it. Oh, a lot of people have QUIT their webcomics, but none have retired. That's, um, something I didn't expect to see. Will it happen? Probably. She's making much more money off of print nowadays, and keeping her website going is actually an obstacle to making more. If she does I wish her the best. Until she does, I'll be checking the website.

Blip has slowed down updating due to injury. The same injury, I think, that sunk Metrophor and has sidelined Emergency Exit. Still, recovery is going slow, so hopefully Blip and Emergency Exit will start updating again on a regular basis.

Magic Girls (which I haven't reviewed yet) has changed artists as the original artist A) is already doing 2 other comics (Menage a 2 and Eerie Cuties) and B) got a job offer that couldn't be refused. I'm actually not surprised at the change, and kind of glad of it. It's already a spin off of Eerie Cuties, and crosses over with it still, but can lead to several confusing moments. The change will probably be for the best in the long run as it'll give more time for the other two comics, and hey, paid work is good.

Errant Story's final chapter is slated to start. I figure it'll still be a couple months before it's done, and I'll enjoy the ending while it comes. The last few months of the comic have been very rough on the artist as his wife has had major medical problems and is only just now recovering. The fact that he's managed to keep the comic going is a feat in and of itself. The spin off, Errant Tales, is currently on hold while this recovery goes on, but Does Not Play Well With Others is still updating, and I will be following it. It's funny.

This is more a selfish part, as I've been having problems with a few comics. Devil's Panties, Templar, Arizona, Bug and Waspi Square don't like loading for me. Not sure if it's my browser (Opera is funny sometimes) or something on the site itself. Anyone else having problems?

Well, that's it for this week. Not sure what's next week, but we'll see. Until next time kiddies.

Newspaper Comics #8

2012-02-10T12:00:00.001-05:00

Okay, so it's been over a year since the last time I dealt with newspaper comics, but I need an article and I haven't read enough comics for another batch of reviews.

Now I've covered a lot of old newspaper comics, like Blondie (82 years) and Peanuts (50+ not counting reruns), so let's cover a relative newcomer at a mere 12 years, Get Fuzzy.

Get Fuzzy appeared in the funny pages right as Garfield was hitting it's low point, and provided a nice breath of fresh air. In a sense, it's Garfield 2.0, with the same basic 3 characters, an owner, a cat and a dog. Bucky and Satchel are similar in personality to Garfield and Odie, but are also quite different. It also makes the owner role (Rob here) far less of an dope than Jon. It felt fresh and new, and I liked it.

The comic is far more political than one might think. Bucky is often portrayed as a right wingnut, with Rob being very left, and poor Satchel caught in between. This often leads to the comic being very, VERY wordy, typically when Bucky goes on some rather insane rant. These are not the best the comic has to offer, and often seem to drag out and make Bucky seem far more insane than he was ever intended to be.

Outside of the political slant, the comic has some genuinely funny moments, often built around Bucky trying and failing to do something that is, well, kind of crazy. From attempting to buy a monkey (so he can eat it) to his completely one sided war against the ferret neighbor (he lost, just hasn't admitted yet), the various jokes at his expense are quite funny. At the same time, he often gets the short end of the stick far too often for my taste and it does get a little old after a while.

When it isn't focusing on Bucky, it does dip into a massive cast of secondary and one note characters. Like Beetle Baily, most of these characters have little beyond their name and base personality, but are switched up often enough as to not get stale, at least for now. The fact that the main cast is strong enough without these extras around helps, and gives the comic less of a repetitive feel.

The average joke, though, is hard to pin down. Usually it's about Bucky saying something quite mad, but perfectly logical to him. This requires a LOT of reading to get the joke, and often enough the joke utterly falls flat and misses. I think Darby Conley (artist) invests too much in his jokes, not given them room to breath, and tries to fill the panels with far too many words for the joke. Of course, if it cuts down too much, it'll end up little better than the strips it's running against, so there's something to be said for wordiness.

Compared to a lot of comics, Get Fuzzy feels more like a webcomic than the older strips. Perhaps it's because it is so much younger, but it has a lot more edge to it than other comics. That edge, though, seems wasted on jokes that are quasi-poltical in nature and over wordy. I would say it represents a kind of middle ground between the funny pages and the internet, and I suspect that a comic like Sinfest might have ended up very similar if it had ended up in newspapers.

I do still read Get Fuzzy, but often find myself scanning through the longer diatribes to hopefully get to the joke. There are much worse comics out there, so I'll tolerate it once in a while.

Next time, probably a Touching Base as I do some cleaning up of links and such. Got a comic I have to pull from the read list and put in the "probably dead" one. Makes me sad. Later kiddies.

Not So Wild Review: Schlock Mercenary

2012-02-03T12:00:00.001-05:00

Time for yet another not so wild review, and this time I cover a comic I keep calling the best overall webcomic on the internet today:

SCHLOCK MERCENARY

I spoken before on why I think it's the best overall, but I'll say it again. "Overall" means it does every element of a comic more than well enough to compete with comics that are on the top of their field. Oh, it's art isn't as good as Dresden Codak, few comics are that good. It's humor isn't laugh out loud funny as Nobody Scores! can be. The story isn't nearly as well built as Gunnerkrigg Court or Errant Story. Yet these comics cannot easily be compared to each other without one looking vastly superior in their personal category. Schlock can run with all of them and, more importantly, Schlock updates everyday of the week, without fail. To my knowledge, Schlock has NEVER missed an update. There are maybe a handful of comics that can lay claim to that title, and to do it as well as Schlock has done is hard to find and pinpoint.

So what makes this comic run with the big boys? Let's find out.

CHARACTERS

Schlock Mercenary has perhaps one of the largest casts of any comic I read. And I don't mean just a lot of secondary characters, nearly every one of these characters is nearly a main character and the main characters, especially Schlock himself, are often regulated to secondary roles.

This creates an interesting dynamic as you know who the main characters are (Schlock, Tagon, Kev etc) but they aren't always the focus. They are usually involved, at least one of them is basically in every story, but the story isn't necessarily about them. If anything, the comic is more about the cast rather than any small group of main characters. "Secondary" characters get a lot of panel time, development and backstory, more than many comics even give main cast members.

Even more important though, is that characters die, a lot. The number of cast members who have shuffled off this mortal coil is difficult to keep track of, though the one that sticks out the most is Tagon himself (he got better after time travel shenanigans). Still, Tagon is one of the main characters so it's no surprise he came back, but most of the rest have not been so lucky.

ART

What helps keep investment in this rather massive cast of characters is the art. Each character is different in design, from augmented humans, to the giant elephant men, to Schlock's more unique design. And I don't just mean the different aliens look different, ALL the characters look different. They have different profiles which helps pick them out in a crowd. Being able to figure out who is who, not just from uniforms but from the total package, draws the reader in and allows them to be more invested in the characters.

The backgrounds and other art are just as good. The Sunday strips, in particular, are usually given far more attention and highlight the skill of the artist. The designs are also consistent. with ships showing off their "annie" plants almost regardless of type, this is something that a sci fi fan, like myself, notices. Yet while distinctive and often very good, it is relatively simple. I suppose this helps production times (again, it's never missed an update) but it isn't going to do more than surpass all by the most well crafted strips. It's not high art, is what I'm getting at, but it's more than serviceable, and actually very nice.

STORY

The stories in Schlock are all focused on Tagon's Toughs, the mercenary group Schlock belongs to and their adventures. These scale quite a bit from relatively small contract missions, to galaxy spanning and changing wars. The focus, though, is almost always on the Toughs, or events that relate directly to them. The shifting scale of the stories means that you never quite know what's coming next and even when it gets there, it might go somewhere else you didn't expect.

The comic does follow the rule of funny: If it's funny, absurd, goofy or just plain punny, it happens. The stories themselves may not necessarily be funny, but nearly every strip has a joke, and if it doesn't, it might just be a set up for one a couple comics later. From a character left crying in a hallway, unable to move, to awhile later, subverting a small warship to her charms and whims. It's fun to read, and it keeps you engrossed in what comes next as much as anything.

The comic manages to balance the humor off with more dramatic moments a bit better than, say, Sluggy Freelance has done as of late. Much of that comes because I don't think Schlock takes itself nearly as seriously, and when the main character is a sentient pile of poo, seriousness is already a distant dream. The rest comes from knowing when to shift the gear over. Sluggy is good at it, but I think Schlock is probably better.

OVERALL

Didn't I already say I think it's the best overall comic? I think I did. Whenever I think of a great comic, this is amongst the first ones I pick out. It hits a nice balance of all the things that make a webcomic, from very good art, to very good story telling, and very good characters. Nothing is excellent, except one thing: It ALWAYS updates. With my history of finding comics who die from hiatus or update once a month if not more, I find that a comic I can rely on to update not just when it's scheduled but every single day to be something of a rare and precious flower. Any short comings the comic has, and it has very few, are made up almost entirely by it's continuous production. I said early there are maybe a handful that pull it off, and that's just being cautious, I can't actually think of one. The closest I think is Bob the Angry Flower, and even then there will be double posts if a missed week happens or is planned, and it's history is beyond the recent is spotty at best. Schlock Mercenary may stand alone in this arena of being not only a very good comic, but one you know will be there the next day, even if you're not.

Well that's enough of that kiddies, next week, I think I'll get back to some newspaper comics. Until then.

Tightening Up the Story

2012-01-27T12:00:00.001-05:00

In the writing of the end of Return to Eden, I mentioned how the story didn't exactly bloom until near the end. Nothing wrong with this, of course, as I stated I somehow doubt the comic had this major story until near this point anyway. If there is a story, though, what is the best way to tell it? There are no hard or fast rules, and in fact if Return to Eden had been planned to develop the way it did from the beginning, I likely wouldn't find a fault in it. Still, I do have some guidelines writers and artists should keep in mind while telling a story.

1. Show don't tell. I've covered the topic of show vs tell before, but in a visual medium like webcomics, showing should always be a priority. It is harder than it looks, of course, or everyone would do it properly and it wouldn't be sung as a mantra. This may mean breaking away from the main characters, or doing a flash back. This is alright, don't be afraid of it. Just don't over do it. Which is the next guideline.

2. Every word and panel is precious, don't waste them. Make it count. Whatever is written and drawn must have a point, and must be important. Going off on a pointless tangent that has nothing to do with the main story is a waste of time and energy, not just of the artist, but of the reader. There's also the double threat of either the tangent driving people away from the comic, or even worse, being vastly superior to the main story line. Either would be a disaster for a comic. Keep it important to the main story, even if it's not obvious right away. And finally:

3. Brevity is your friend. In this era of the infinite canvas, there's a notion that there should be no limits at all to art. That's not what the infinite canvas is for, it's for exploring things that would be harder to explore in print form. Animations, multiple paths and the like are what the infinite canvas allows for, but that doesn't mean the pages should go on, and on, and on forever. Each page should be quick and too the point. No sense wasting extra time on things that mean little for the overall development of the story or a particular character.

This also helps keep the overall work load down. Less time spent on drawing pages of fluff or writing unnecessary dialog means more time working on the important stuff, like showing what happened rather than telling the reader.

Nothing super complicated here, hope it helps. Until next time kiddies.

Return to Eden Ends

2012-01-20T12:00:00.001-05:00

Another comic comes to an end, but a complete end this time. Return to Eden wraps up a rather long story that in the end I didn't expect to enjoy so much. I knew the ending was coming, but I really didn't expect it to be here so quickly.

There are so many things that kept me interested in the comic. The mythology of the comic proved to be, well, incredible. Partially based on Biblical mythology, it twisted it in just the right way to make it feel unique. As the comic got nearer the end, I got drawn further in, and found a world far more interesting, and far more human, than I might have expected before.

As I flip through the early chapters of the comic, I'm surprised at how improved the artwork got, while still retaining its style. The sketchiness of the strips is there throughout, but by the end it proved more controlled and deliberate than the early ones. There's also a certain level of "chibi" built into the comic's early strips, and that is all but missing in the later comics. I think it's related to how serious things got near the end, and I appreciate that.

I also noticed there were far more colored pages early on as opposed to later in the comic. In fact, one of the early key plot points was that the main character's eyes changed color. Later on though, the number of color pages decreased dramatically. Some of that is due to time constraints, I think, but also an increase in skill of the artist. It didn't NEED to be in color any more. That's a great evolution, though I do wonder what it would look like if it had gone full color instead.

In the end, the oddest thing about this comic is that there really wasn't a central villain until near the end. Oh, it was a GREAT villain, but the revelation of who it was and why didn't come until the comic was almost over. Makes me think that there wasn't much of a "plan" for the comic early on. There may have been some vague ideas, but nothing serious. At one point, there was even an apology for introducing a new, very important character in the last third of the comic. The creation of that character, the villain, and the final conflict and story was all late additions to the overall comic.

One of the few faults is the cast: They didn't have much to do at the end. A couple were hard to differentiate from the each other, causing a bit of confusion along the way. Still, the later characters are MUCH more memorable, and stood out in dress and design much better. Some had arcs, but not many. Even the main character really didn't have an "arc," she really just became a bit more mature as the comic went on, nothing more.

Even so, I enjoyed the comic for it's entire run. I'm glad to see a comic come to a natural end like this, completing the tale and showing a true evolution in artistic skill and story telling ability. There is a new comic in the works by this artist, and I will happily read it as well. I think it might be really good.

Well, another comic down, but not for bad reasons. Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 155 - 159

2012-01-13T12:00:00.001-05:00

Another old batch of reviews. Been busy this week, and we haven't had one in a while, so let's go.

March 21, 2008

155. Apophenia 357 - I don't think it's really a comic, more of an art concept. Take a bunch of spam, create a comic from them, then let the reader add the text. That's right, there's not a single word in the entire comic, which makes reading it a rather interesting experiance. It's on a kind of hiatus now, so I wouldn't expect anything new, but it is interesting, and trying to form a story, even if it's only in your mind, is kind of fun.

TODAY - I'm still not sure if this is actually a comic or not. It's an interesting idea, at least, kind of wish there were others like it.

156. Ashita and Yesterday - This comic hasn't been updated since December, and that's not a big loss. Seriously, there's really no reason to read it. It's not strictly bad, I suppose, but there's nothing especially good about it. There's a story, but it's nothing you haven't seen before in a dozen other comics and it doesn't do it all that well. The art doesn't stand out either. I will say the first few strips make it seem more interesting than it is, because it falls of after that. I mourn many comics that stop updating, but Ashita isn't not one of them.

TODAY - Still dead.

157. Footloose! - This is a comic that is silly, self aware, filled with history (from another comic) and actually not badly drawn. Though I did find myself comparing it to a couple other comics that LOOK JUST LIKE IT. See Return to Eden for the most obvious comparision. Now, that doesn't mean it isn't good, it is pretty decent. It's kind of comfortable in that way. It's also a very girl comic. I've read enough of them at this point to pick that out and again, that doesn't mean it's not good, it just means the story plays to a certian beat, and after reading enough of them, it does get old after a while. I'll probably follow it for a bit, mostly because it does have that silly, self-aware humor I do enjoy so much.

TODAY - Still reading it and enjoying it. It's gotten a little darker and resolved with a literal Deus Ex Machina. Good read, I recommend it.

158. Jetpacks and Time Machines - This should be in newspapers. It reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes, okay? Reminds me, doesn't mean it is, but if this was in the paper, it would be my favorite strip. And if the curse of hiatus hadn't taken it, I'd follow it even now. There's a lot of great things about it, the characters, the humor, the art, it's all there. Will it update again? God I hope so.

TODAY - Dead, which is a shame. Great ideas, lots of fun, but no staying power. Oh well.

159. Roza - Of this batch of comics, this is the best. Hell, the only comic that comes close in the last few reviews is Dresden Codak, and it's a pretty even fight there. There's no exposition, you're just thrown into the current story and it's done with one of the best balances of art telling the story and dialog doing so as well. I really can't praise this one enough folks, it is damn good, double damn good, so go read it, alright?

TODAY - There was a brief hiatus and it's going to change a little to make updates quicker. Which is good because it's a fun comic and I enjoy it.

Well that's kids, I'll see you guys later.

What's in a Name

2012-01-06T12:00:00.001-05:00

Due to the sheer number of comic names I'm going to drop in this article, I will NOT be linking every single one. Instead I refer you to The List for any comics you might want to check. It's as updated as this past November 2011. It should be noted that I started coming up with this article back in March of 2010. This isn't the only one I hope to resurrect and revive.

There are so many attractors to a comic. The art, a random strip, word of mouth, ads, links from other comics and the like all can pull different people into a strip. However, I think one of the biggest factors in drawing someone in is the title of the comic. There are a LOT of comics, and designing a title that will draw attention should be a high priority for any artist. So here are my ideas on what can make a good title, though not necessarily.

Naming the comic after the main character is a pretty common practice. Candi, Lizzy, Jeremy, Hector!, and Bruno are but a few examples. The problem, of course, is that simple names like this can be easily confused with another comic. Remember Jack? Well, there is another Jack. Different concepts, different comics, same name. No, I haven't read the second Jack yet.

So when using the name, change it up a bit. Sandra and Woo uses two names and The Adventures of Dr. McNinja and The Adventures of Wonderella both add the very generic "The Adventures of" to the name, but make it stand out (not that Wonderella or Dr. McNinja are very common, but still). Others like Edge the Devilhunter or Connie Van Helsing, Monster Hunter add jobs to the list.

Some titles simply demand that you read the comic. They're so over the top it's almost required. Kristy vs the Zombie Army, Cleopatra in SPAAAACE!, Sister Clair: Pregnant Nun, Holy Crap! and Anne Frank Conquers the Moon Nazis are but a few with these wild titles. Each one screams "READ ME" and often they deserve it.

Worst comes to worst, the title can tell the reader exactly what the comic is supposed to be about. The Best Band in the Universe, Worst of the Timelords, Here There be Robots, Shi Long Pang the Wandering Shaolin Monk, and The Teddy Bear Trauma all are pretty descriptive about what they are about, and rather creative too.

Sometimes, though, the title is too creative for it's own good. leveL is specifically written backwards like that, but tells you little about the comic, and means little to the comic. UnCONventional doesn't make sense unless you know what the CON part means. Mad About U requires connecting the U to university, and the mad part still doesn't make sense until you read the comic.

Locations are a good source of names as well. Wapsi Square, Templar, Arizona, Winters in Lavelle, and City of Reality are good examples of this. In some ways they can be just as descriptive of the work as any other title. Winters in Lavelle especially as the "Winters" part refers to the last name of the two main characters, but can also refer to the time of year they arrived in Lavelle.

There are some titles that are, um, too much for a comic. A Lesson is Learned but the Damage is Irreversible is probably the longest title of any comic I've ever read. It tells nothing about the comic and is just a pain to write. Supermassive Blackhole A* is a strange title and not one that I think stands out. More likely to confuse some poor physics undergrad student than attract a new readers.

The weirdest titles, though, are often reserved for the daily gag strips, or those that started as that. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, The Parking Lot is Full, Voices in My Hand, Cyanide & Happiness, Does Not Play Well With Others and even Sluggy Freelance all started as gag comics and all had some of the most interesting names.

And then there are the REALLY weird names. Dresden Codak, Exiern, ReVVVelations, and 5ideways just to name a few. Strange, but appealing on some weird level.

Of course, some titles go off the rails. Exploitation Now shifted gears near the end of it's life so the title meant little to it. Sluggy Freelance ceased being a gag strip long ago. String Theory started about a scientist, now it's on a prison break. Life of Riley got really strange near the end, and really wasn't the life of Riley any more.

A good title can, and will, be the driving force behind visiting a comic or not. A simple, but intriguing title should be the goal. Take Blip for example. So simple, so short, so interesting, you almost have to check it out to know what it is. The Adventures of Superhero Girl tell you everything you need to know about the comic, but still make you want to read it to see who Superhero Girl is, and what her adventures entail. Spinnerette stands out as a name very quickly, is easy to remember and oddly simple to spell (seriously, I keep checking that I spelled it right and I always have, go figure). Girl Genius, Gunnerkrigg Court, Punch 'n Pie, The Call of Whatever, Dreamland Chronicals, hell, even Penny Arcade has a simple, easy to remember name and it keeps people coming back, spreading it around and encouraging others to read it.

Oh there still need to be good art, good story, good humor, good drama or whatever, but a good title acts as the first attractor and I've put more links into my Future Read list simply based on the name than anything else. Something to consider.

Well that's enough for this week. See you next time kiddies.

Can't Live Without, 2012 Edition

2011-12-30T12:00:00.001-05:00

So I skipped doing this last year because I had other things to do, but the list has changed a bit from way back in 2010. Two comics on the original list ended/died utterly, one stalled out, one is nearing its end and I've discovered more comics, so the list needs to be updated. Again, these are in no particular order, so no one is better than the other, and this is not a "best" list at all, just comics I never want to not read.

1. Sluggy Freelance - Despite all the weird twists the comic took, I still enjoy Sluggy. I WANT to see where it goes everyday, whether it's the darkness of 4UCity or the silliness of the Hampsternom, I want to see the next strip.

2. Schlock Mercenary - Still probably the overall best comic on the net, I love how the story simply flows from one event to the other, ranging from local hotspots to galaxy spanning conflicts. The characters all have their strengths and weaknesses, and all manage to do it in the funniest way possible. A classic webcomic that deserves your attention.

3. Weapon Brown - There are few action comics that are as awe inspiring as Weapon Brown. The repurposing of classic comic characters into a post apocalyptic setting is amazing and well done. If you haven't read this comic, you're missing out, go do it.

4. Gunnerkrieg Court - This comic is great, and not reading it should almost be a crime. The art, the characters, the story, all of them come together to make one of the best comics there is on the net. There should be a franchise built around this, it would be awesome.

5. The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - Humor is McNinja. Weird, surrealist humor with a bit of action. Dr. McNinja is a comic that never forgets WHAT it is, no matter how weird or long the story goes and deserves to be read.

6. The Whiteboard - The silliness continues with this comic. On one end it's a fairly simple adventure/gag comic, on the other, it goes over the top in such a way that you can only laugh. The cast has gotten more rounded over the years and I really think this is getting better than most.

7. Spinnerette - I've been reading this from it's beginning, and it has only gotten better and better with each new chapter. It gives me hope that superhero comics can actually rise above the current garbage out there while still being fun. It's serious and fun, smart and hilarious. The art is spot on for such a work, and it deserves the movie they're now working on (an independent film). Go read it.

8. Dead Winter - The zombie fad is hard to do different and interesting. Dead Winter manages this, I think. It's less about fighting zombies than the people doing it, if anything the zombie fights are almost casual annoyances most of the time. The art is great too, getting better with each new strip and likely some of my favorite art in a comic I've read.

9. Heart Shaped Skull - Okay, technically the comic is called Serenity Rose, but that's the name of the site and I'm a stubborn soul. Despite the otherworldly nature of the comic (magic is big here), it is pretty well grounded. Serenity is pretty normal, relatively and that gives it an odd depth that I enjoy. The art is great, the message is well thought out and I just think this comic works.

10. Blip - Where Serenity is neck deep in the magic of her world, K is completely oblivious to it. I love that aspect of the comic, where she is utterly unaware that her three best friends are a vampire, a witch and a robot. It's an odd angle for a comic as most usually throw the main character in or have them wallowing in it already. I suspect that K will NEVER know what's going on around her, or if she finds out, the comic will end. It's a great angle for a great comic. Just wish the artist would fix the date system attached to the updates.

As always, I have some Honorable Mentions: City of Reality, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Errant Story, The Adventures of Superhero Girl and Sinfest. All of them could easily get on this list if the rest weren't there, though Errant Story isn't because, well, it's nearly over and at some point I will have to live without it.

Well, that's it. Happy New Year to you and yours and hopefully I'll have some new reviews instead of half baked articles this year. Later kiddies.

Webcomic Christmas Gifts I Want

2011-12-23T12:00:00.001-05:00

Well Christmas is coming this weekend, and I could give you a present of a new batch of reviews. But I didn't do any. So instead, I'll give you a list I would send Santa for the various webcomics I read. This isn't so much about things, but the comic itself.

1. I'd like so many comics to come back from the dead. Lizzy, Hanna is Not a Boy's Name, Shadowgirls, Hazard Pay, No Rest for the Wicked, etc, etc.

2. I don't want too many print copies of comics, but Gunnerkrigg Court, The Meek and Errant Story are a couple exceptions. They are spectacular comics, and WHY AREN'T YOU READING THEM!

3. A few comics I'd like to see start going again. They aren't "dead" yet, but getting close. Sea of Insanity has returned to life more than a few times, and I'd like to see that again. Hari-Sari and Punch n' Pie need to come back as well.

4. Some comics just need to end. Elsie Hooper needs to get back and finish up. It's so close to the end, so close. Not too many others, luckily, at least ones I'm still reading.

5. And some comics I just want to die horribly. Diesel Sweeties and Penny Arcade, please just curl up and die. I don't read either of you, but please die and make the internet a better place. Please?

I would like to say I DID get a webcomic gift after all. In the process of adding links, I found that Nobody Scores! updated! I know, I was shocked too. Miracles do happen kids.

And that's it for Christmas. I hope you have a Merry Christmas, or general Happy Holiday. I'll be back next week for my top 10 comics I Can't Live Without, 2012 edition. See you then kiddies.

Not So Wild Review: Sinfest

2011-12-16T12:00:00.001-05:00

Since I don't want to spend time recreating a post that blogger ate, I guess I'll do a Not So Wild Review.

SINFEST

I read a lot of comics, and as I've said before, I divide them into 4 categories: Novel, Epic, Adventure and Classic/Daily comics. Usually I have one or two ideas of what each entails, a prototype for the category. Sinfest is the prototype for the Classic one.

Once upon a time, Tatsuya Ishida, the comic's artist, wanted to get Sinfest into newspapers. I think he was rejected about 15 times or so, enough that he said screw it and dedicated himself to the webcomic. I think that was probably a good thing as the comic syndicates would likely have demanded it be neutered and all the humor of the comic would have been lost. Sinfest doesn't have an overarching story, but does have character development. There are no "adventures" but things happen over the course of the comic.

But let's get down to the review portion and start talking about it.

CHARACTERS

The two main characters are Slick and Monique, but even then, the secondary cast has taken a lot larger role in recent years. For a comic that is built on short story arcs and daily jokes, however, the various characters develop over the life of the comic. Slick once wanted to be a pimp, but is he really? Yes, he still has some of those traits, but he's a much better character than he once was. Monique has done much the same, questioning her own appeal and, very recently, going for a more androgynous look to try do define herself.

Calling the rest the "secondary cast" is hard, though, as they span quite a variety and get reasonable amounts of time. Li'l E currently is getting a chance to reexamine his life while the Devil seems to be tracking his movements. Fuchsia, a devil girl, walks out of her job with the Devil to pursue her love for Criminy, a boy who loves books. Even Squigley, the over eating, pot smoking pig, got a whole storyline where he wondered around as a hobo. None of these characters are quite what they used to be at the start of the strip (well, God is still a bit of a dick). At the same time, they are, fundamentally, the same people. Reading a strip from early on and then fast forwarding to the present isn't as much a jarring change as you would think, though it would leave more than a few questions.

STORY

There are no adventures in this comic really. There are stories, but they rarely go very far and wide. Squigley's adventures as a hobo are about as close to a full fledged adventure as the comic ever got, and even then it wasn't quite what would classify as an adventure in comics of the type. There are no great villains running around (the Devil doesn't count), or quests to undertake. These are people living relatively normal daily lives, well as normal as having a Reality zone next door, the Devil playing basketball with Jesus, books that attack people and 2010 pulling a Themal and Louise vs Death.

All that sounds exciting, but they are only loosely connected. The comic isn't about the adventures, it's about the characters and their common foibles. Sex, drugs, religion, pop culture, popularity and even love all appear in one form or another and the individual vignettes that pepper the strip help to explore them.

HUMOR

Sinfest is, at it's heart, a daily joke comic. Nearly every strip is punctuated by some kind of joke or twist. Slapstick is rare, but it happens, and almost never is there a pun involved. The jokes aren't more about setting up the moment and delivering in the next up. It's an interesting pacing for this kind of comic as the set up is often as funny as the punchline, if not funnier. Honestly, as time has gone on, the comic has felt less funny to me, and more insightful than it probably has any right to be. Laugh out loud moments in Sinfest are kind of rare, but there's almost always a bit of a chuckle to be had.

And when things get too intense, Tatsuya pulls out Percy and Pooch and runs a week worth of strips featuring them. In a way, they represent a more conventional kind of comic, jokes built around a dog and cat and their interactions with each other, their owner and their limited world. These moments provide a light moments that are almost always funny, especially from a pet owners perspective. Kind of like how Garfield USED to be in it's nature.

ART

Comparing the early strips to the later ones really isn't that huge of a leap. Oh, the earlier strips are cruder, but the basic characters are fairly well defined. The big difference is shading, as in there's a lot of it in the modern strip as opposed to the early days. The characters have gotten smoother and more streamlined, and the art has improved, but I wouldn't call the differences radical. More like a well practiced hand at work. The art is very good, and stands out even more with the color Sunday strips where Tatsuya gives himself more space to work with. There are details that aren't detailed, but you can see them well enough. Once in a while he'll do a calligraphy strip that shows line and form merging from a regular image into a written character (I assume it's Chinese, but I don't know for sure).

OVERALL

Sinfest is one of those comics I've come to expect to just BE there. And as the comic has evolved from a straight up daily joke comic into what it is now, I find myself enjoying it more and more. I haven't always felt that way, but even in writing this review I found that I really like this strip much more than even I thought I did. It's a good comic and one that deserves to be read, long term or short.

Until next time kiddies.

Starting Points

2011-12-09T12:00:00.001-05:00

Well my last article got eaten, so I'll have to recreate it sometime. Just not now, I'll do this one instead. Hopefully it doesn't get deleted randomly.

A few months ago now, DC, the big giant comic book company, "rebooted" their entire line up. The reason for this is two fold: They wanted to bring new readers in from the beginning of the universe's story without the mountain of backstory most comics come with, and they wanted to make money. I can't speak on how successful the later was, nor really the former, but let's talk about starting points anyway.

This is actually something webcomics have to deal with, especially the older ones. Comics like Sluggy Freelance, Schlock Mercenary and other long form comics have massive archives and that can be rather intimidating for new readers. Sluggy, for example, has well over 5000 strips over it's 14 some years. I started reading it about 8 years ago, and it was still a slog to go through the archives. My review process is in fact hampered by these massive archives as I insist on reading from the beginning. Probably the reason I have so many short/young comics in recent years as opposed to older ones.

This problem isn't even restricted to webcomics. As already stated, comic books have the same issue and have attempted multiple "reboots" to restart these comics. Even more so are the newspaper comics, many of whom are decades old. Blondie, one of the oldest at 81 years, has more than 30,000 strips to it's name. No one is going to read them all, and until recently, they really couldn't. Newspaper comics are far more disposable than other comics, and often weren't meant for being reread.

So how do they keep an audience in the first place? Aside from just simply being there for half a century in some cases. Well most newspaper comics do it the easy way: no story at all. Just single jokes. You don't have to know the names of the characters, their pasts, or anything really. The joke stands on it's own. It's the simplest way to solve the problem of starting points as there really isn't one. Many webcomics, like Cyanide and Happiness and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, follow this, you don't need to read the archives to know the comic.

Which doesn't work for those long form story comics. For them, we should look to the comic books, and how they do starting points, unless they're restarting everything. Ideally (which is to say, they don't do it much) each individual issue of the comic should stand alone. You don't need to know much, if anything, to get the story. This doesn't always work, but even a simple narration box at the beginning can get people up to speed rather easily, and for the big comics (Superman, Batman, Spiderman, ect) most people know enough not to need such a thing.

I rarely see this from webcomics. Spinnerette does it a little, but not as much as a good comic book would. More adventure style comics have "chapters" or even "books" to designate the division between different stories, but often the older comics, like Sluggy and Schlock, kind of run their stories together and link them. These deep connections mean that references are often made to past stories, and much like comic books of old, they put up links to the referenced events.

Okay, so what do webcomics have to help with starting a story? Well, there are cast pages and getting started pages that can be used easily enough, but they aren't perfect. Sluggy has one, but it's already out of date by quite a bit. Cast pages tell you little about the character typically, and are often out of date as well.

In the end, webcomics with long stories or adventure style comics will always have a problem bringing new people in. Comic books have the same problem and there is NO good solution. Even starting from scratch doesn't resolve the problem, it just holds it off a bit. The best option is to make whatever story is most recent GOOD. With access to archives, either through the net or trades from the comic book publishers, will keep people's attention and they can start anywhere that way.

So an article about starting points offers no solutions, because there aren't any that I can think of. Oh well, at least this hasn't been eaten by blogspot. I hope. Until next time kiddies.

Okay, I don't know what happened

2011-12-03T11:51:00.002-05:00

I had an article, I wrote it, scheduled it and published it to be put up YESTERDAY and it did NOT go up, and is now even gone from the back end stuff. The hell happened, I don't know. What the hell?

Damn Turkey Day

2011-11-25T12:00:00.000-05:00

I had a pair of articles started, but thanks to Thanksgiving, I couldn't get either of them finished.

So bleh, no article this week. I hate doing that. Next week I should have at least something. God damn it!

Not So Wild Review: Bob the Angry Flower

2011-11-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

Nice thing about finishing that list last week? It sorts out what the next comic in the Not So Wild Review is with one simple click. And that comic is:

BOB THE ANGRY FLOWER

My weekly dose of absurdest humor, Bob has kept me chuckling for nearly 9 years now, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon. That said, I can't quite review it like the last 3 Not So Wild Reviews. There is no story element, outside of a short stint known only as Rothgard, and that's fairly recent. And as for characters, well, there are only 3:

There is Bob, who is an angry flower. Then Stumpy, who is a bored stump. And finally Freddie, who is an innocent flying fetus. Stumpy and Freddie are there to react to whatever weird thing Bob is up to at the moment. All three do whatever happens to be funniest at the time.

HUMOR

And that's really the point of the comic, whatever happens to be funniest. Bob's humor is borderline surreal, involving talking punctuation marks, UN mandates and various space aliens. Why Bob does ANYTHING is the joke, and usually the answer is "because."

Which isn't to say it's always funny. Like Nobody Scores!, which is based on the same concept, the jokes either hit you in the face like a truck, or miss by a mile. Bob, however, does it constantly, once a week, every week. This provides a steady diet of humor that even the funniest comics can't quiet get right. This once a week scheduling also keeps the comic from going stale too fast. The final joke of every comic is pretty similar ("just because"), and if it ran daily, or even 3 times a week, I could see myself growing bored of it. With weekly dose, it keeps it from leaving a bad taste in my mouth for very long, if it ever does create one.

ART

Bob's art is actually really good, considering that the whole point is for a giant flower to do something crazy. Looking at early work, you can see the basic shapes of the characters easily coming together, but there's a sketchiness to it that indicates it is very early artwork. A steady progression of development into the current style is easy to see as each strip gets a little be cleaner than the previous one.

Honestly, I would expect nothing less from a comic that's nearly 20 years old at this point. It's like looking at early Peanuts strips and comparing them to what's being reprinted in papers now. There is an obvious difference, but it's not so different as to be unidentifiable.

OVERALL

Bob has been a staple of my comic list now for a long time and as long as he keeps making it, I will likely continue to read it. It's a small, fun dose of zany that keeps me coming back every week. In a way, it signals the beginning of my weekly updating comic read through, which I usually do Sunday, and in a sense is the front page of my internet funny pages. It doesn't always get a big laugh out of me, few comics do, but it always gives me a chuckle and prepares me for the rest of my day. I recommend Bob as a nice break from the massive epic comics and story driven dramas. And if we're lucky, Bob won't try to open any more cans. With a tank.

See you next week kiddies.

Update Week

2011-11-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

As in, I have updated the site, a bit.

The biggest addition is The List, which lists all 225 comics I have currently reviewed. I've included status and links for each. If one of the links doesn't work despite me saying it should, please tell me.

I have gone through and resorted my read lists as well. Many comics (Shadowgirls, Lizzy, etc) have been removed and newer comics have been added. I will make every effort to keep this list updated properly.

Suggestions on new look, colors or pictures are welcome and accepted.

And that's about it. Not sure yet what next week's article will be, but I'll think of something. Until then kiddies.

Nothing Again

2011-11-04T12:00:00.001-04:00

I am unemployed once again, with my gig at the amusement park, and it's Halloween event at an end. Which should mean I have more time for this.

But instead I spent the day cleaning my woefully neglected home. Yeah, it's kind of a mess. So nothing this week. Next week I hope to finally straighten out the blog a bit rather than a straight up article. So a couple weeks with nothing special. Sorry about that.

Anyway, see you next time kiddies.

Real Life Vs Webcomics

2011-11-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

Death by Hiatus was one of my first articles on this blog. The reason for it is that a lot of comics die because the artist "took a break" and never came back. Often the question left by a hiatus death is why? Why did the artist leave and never return. For the lucky ones it was just plain boredom. For the rest, however, it is Real Life, and it can be far, far worse.

The simplest, and probably most common Real Life issue is computer failure. Obviously a webcomic requires a computer to at least publish, but many artists use computers for cleaning, editing, and sometimes even drawing in the first place. Failed computers have stalled out a great many comics, including most recently Head Trip, and even Sluggy Freelance has suffered (though that was more due to massive power outages). These problems are usually temporary, but with artists making so little money on comics, if any, the incentive to get a new, functioning computer to continue updating is small at best.

Work and school is the second most common issue. The vast majority of webcomic artists do NOT make money on their comics, so they have to do something else. Most do some odd office jobs or if they're lucky, they'll actually have a job as an artist. Either way, work causes stresses that maintaining a regular update to a webcomic that make no money less appealing. Punch n' Pie is going through that now, as is (I hope) Sea of Insanity, neither of which has updated in months. Will they come back? Work isn't something that is simply going to go away, so if it's so stressful they can't come back now, will they ever?

And then, there's the big one/two shot: Personal and medical. Medical has killed a great many comics. It nearly did in Sea of Insanity once (thus the "I hope" previously), Metrophor was killed by a medical problem, the same problem that seems to be effecting Emergency Exit I'm afraid. Worse problems occur like those plaguing Michael Poe's wife which is about as bad as you can get short of dying. He also had the issue of his father dying and that estate issue which has stalled out both Errant Story and Does Not Play Well With Others. The comics still update, but then, these comics are his job. I'm surprised the man can still tell funny jokes at this point.

Frankly, the worst fate is one that's hard to fathom: The artist simply loses interest. At least with work or medical problems, there's usually some indication as to what happened, but other times, the artist simply doesn't want to do it any more. They walk away and never return, no comment, no reason, just gone. This is true Death by Hiatus, the worst kind of death a comic can have. I'll forgive Poe if he elects to stop both his comics for his wife. I'm fine if Punch 'n Pie disappears because the writer is buried in paperwork. Hell, if Sluggy Freelance vanishes because Abrams' computer explodes in a giant fireball, I'll let that go, but simply walking away with no reason ever given, that is unforgivable.

Well, enough of that. Until next week kiddies.

Horror By Other Means

2011-10-28T12:00:00.001-04:00

Last time I talked about horror. As I said last week, horror is a flexible genre, capable of taking on multiple personalities as needed. In many cases, the "horror" element of the story takes a back seat to the other elements of the genre. Horror then becomes less a genre and more a setting, which is what I'm going to talk about this time.

I have read a lot of comics that have horror elements, or a horror setting, but not actually what I would consider horror. I look at suspense and mystery as an essential part of horror, with gore and scares being the final results of those two elements. Most of the time, though, horror is less about those things, and more about, say, comedy.

Which brings me to the first comic I'd like to discuss, Eerie Cuties. This is most certainly not suspense or mystery, but almost entirely played for laughs. Yes, there are vampires, werewolves and even witches (until they moved to their own comic), but they are merely characters in the comedy that is Eerie Cuties. There are SOME horror elements even with these characters, but they really take a backseat to the comedy. I find that comedy and horror go very, very well together, but in this case it's more comedy than horror. Nothing wrong with that, of course, and as a comedy it works pretty well. The actual horror part of Eerie Cuties loses out in most cases to the comedy.

Further away from pure comedy is Conny Van Ehlsing, Monster Hunter, who leans more towards the horror angle, with actual monsters, but rarely goes into pure suspense. How Conny deals with the creatures is very thoughtful and practical, but often the motivations of the monsters is rather silly and are put down rather easily. Here we get more gore, less humor, but not strictly a lot of actual suspenseful horror. The action, however, is much more prevelent here.

Then we get to Kristy vs the Zombie Army. Comedy and horror go well together, as I said, so much so that some of the greatest horror movies are actually comedies. Specifically, I'm thinking of the Evil Dead series, and Army of Darkness, which is where Kristy gets it's inspiration. Like Army of Darkness, however, the comedy is merged more into action, and the fight with the zombie army takes up quite a bit of the early comic. Of course, the fact that a little girl is carrying a giant chainsaw is enough to put a grin on anyone's face. Though calling those zombies actual zombies is hard to do, they are kind of stylized.

Which finally brings us to the other end of the horror spectrum, action dramas, and Dead Winter. Like the majority of zombie based, well anything, it is about action and killing or running from zombies. Dead Winter is all about that, with the occasional bout with other humans. There are tense moments, yes, but calling them horror would be a disservice to horror as a whole. Doesn't mean Dead Winter isn't good, it is, but it's not strictly horror as I see it.

I've read other horror comics, of course, the direction of each being somewhere between comedy and action with only elements of horror in them. From Choppingblock to Contemplating Reiko, the variety is there to be had, but I wouldn't call any of them true horror.

One day I hope to find one, until then, I'll just have to make due reading more Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. Until next time kiddies, happy Halloween.

Horror and Webcomics

2011-10-21T12:00:00.001-04:00

Given the time of year, and the fact that I work in a haunted house (and am being paid to do it), I guess we should cover the topic of horror and how it relates to webcomics.

Horror is a weird genre, much like science fiction, it is more a mixture of other genres with a general theme to them. Horror is about fear, generally, the generation of fear and the final snap that makes fear that exciting jolt many seem to love.

Horror and comics go way, WAY back. Horror comics are even behind one of the greatest "corrupting our youth" over reactions of all time. It took nearly 50 years to shed the results of that scare and free the comic book industry from it once and for all.

So webcomics should be able to handle horror really well, right? Well, actually no, they can't. At least not the way the majority of webcomics are currently structured.

Let me try to explain. I used to set up a Halloween display every year until I moved to my current residence (I don't get trick or treaters here, sadly). Now I never had much, really, but I structured it so what little I had went a long way. The first thing people heard when they got on the street (within about 4 houses) was music. Halloween music, of course, a mix CD I made using classic horror music and a few tracks I felt fit quite well. As they got closer, they would begin to hear something else, sound effects. I have a great CD of Halloween sound effects and right about the time they could see the enclosure where the display was, the sound effects began to leak out.

At this point they saw the graveyard, and began to see the lights from inside the enclosure. As they got to the enclosure (I've used tarps and my porch alternatively), the music would fade back and be replaced almost entirely with the sound effects. The CD player for the sound effects is always in the enclosure. That's when the display came to full force. A giant spiderweb on the wall, a skull with glowing eyes and smoking pouring out, pumpkins glowing in the dark, eyes lining the walls, spiders dangling from the ceiling, and in one corner, right next to the candy bowl, was me.

Dressed all in black, with a faceless mask and large gloves and sitting still, oh so very still. Visitors had to know I was going to scare them, after all no one just lets people take candy. So they came in anyway, slowly, knowing at any moment I was going to leap up. I'd let them get closer, and closer until RAR! Then I give them their candy and they leave.

The point of that? All horror, all good horror, is built around a notion of suspense, the building of tension until the final scare. Winding people up is an art in and of itself, and maintaining that tension par for the course. Webcomics should be able to do this, but can't because of one thing that I have pounded on them for NOT doing:

They update regularly. As in, they update once a week, twice a week or even every day. One strip or page each update. This allows all that tension the artist has been trying to build to be eased up between strips.

The best example of this is Flatwood, a comic that is long sense dead. When I originally read the comic, I thought it was creepy and looking back on it, I think it was a really well done horror comic. The art direction was near perfect for this kind of horror, unsettling being the word I used. It also used gif images to give the appropriate "boo" factor. The problem came after I finished the archive. All the creepiness burned away when I had to wait a week between posts. All the tension, the suspense of the comic was gone by the time the next update came about. I doubt it would have worked even if it had updated daily, just too much time for the images to settle down.

The only other comic I would classify as horror that I've read is Nightmare World, and if memory served it still updated one page at a time, so it didn't quite pull off what horror comics need to do: Update in short chunks. Like City of Reality did for a time, whole chapter/story updates for horror comics seem to be a much better method than even the most generous update schedule.

That said, I'd love to be proven wrong. Of course, what I consider "horror" for this article is different than what many people would think of, so I think we'll cover some ideas for horror next time. Until then kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 150 -154

2011-10-14T12:00:00.001-04:00

Hey, some old reviews. It's been a while with these hasn't it? No matter, FORWARD!

February 03, 2008

150. Gingerdead and Friends - Gothic cookie people and the things they do. It's different, but not what I would call great. Nothing's really wrong with it, but only the art style really sticks out, and that isn't that impressive. It's kind of like a watered down Reiko, but not really. At least it isn't horrible.

TODAY - Damn, I didn't even REMEMBER this comic. That's how little impression it left on me. Still updating though, a bit, but wow did I not remember anything about it.

151. leveL - All I could think while reading this is that someone played WAY too much Final Fantasy (7 or later), or the equivilant at least. Main character with amnesia and latent, but unexplored, magical like powers? Check. Girl with lots of attitude? Check. Terrible secret that secret agency within the government is trying to hide? Check. I could go on, but it would take a while, so I'll stop there. I actually put off reading this one for a while because of the animish art style (which in the first chapter isn't that great), but the art does improve and the story is at least mildly interesting, except for the bulk of Chapter 4 which has a lot of characters just talking about the world. Boring. Anyway, it's not bad, but not really great.

TODAY - The website for this broke a while ago, and didn't have any updates for a while, so I kind of wandered away from it. The main page HAS been repaired, and redone. And was last updated August of last year. Yeah, I think this comic is definitely dead.

152. Luz: Girl of the Knowing - "The Knowing?" Yeah, that kind of threw me to, so I had to read it to find out. Turns out, it's one of those comics with a message, which basically comes down to "Globalization is bad, peak oil will destroy the modern world, learn to live without this stuff or YOU'LL DIE!" Okay, maybe I'm going a bit far with that, but it does seem to HAMMER its message into your skull in a way that is unpleasant. Now I'm a bit of a luddite myself, but this comic takes it all TOO seriously. Though it is funny when Luz realizes that chocolate might disappear and there isn't a damn thing she can do about it. I've got better things to read.

TODAY - Apparently there is now a book for this comic, as well as a stand alone graphic novel. As much as I don't care for the comic, good for the artist for getting published. Still not reading it, but that's me.

153. Teddy Bear Trauma - This is a comic about teddy bears doing HORRIBLE things to each other. Lots of violence and death, all done to stuffed animals. Seems the narrator of the comic didn't get that message, but you'll have to see that understand. Anyway, this is a fun comic, except for the interface. Flash, the whole thing. Not a fan of flash interfaces, give me html any day. It doesn't hurt the comic in the least, might even help it a bit, but makes navigating it a bit hard. It's worth the effort though.

TODAY - Yeah, still a bit of a waste of flash, but the comic has been slowly updating, apparently. No idea on when (flash interface prevents back dating things), but it's there. When I was reading Devilbear: The Grimoires of Bearalzebub for my last review, I thought back to this comic frequently, it's the whole teddy bears doing horrible things to each other idea. The flash interface, again, encouraged me to not bother with the comic.

154. Just Another Escape - Many comics do flashbacks, some do flashforwards, but few do what Just Another Escape does and jumble the whole thing up into a ball and run with it. It even defines what is the past, present and future via artwork, just to keep things straight as it bounces around between the different time periods and tries to tell the story of the people of Rain House, a fancy college dorm. I think the best part is you KNOW it isn't just being made up as it goes along, and so there is some sense of a destination, which is what many comics (like leveL) sometimes lack. Is the story any good though? Well, it's kind of scattered and trying to figure out where everyone sits, and why things are happening the way they are is difficult to say the least. Probably the result of the comic being relatively young (less than a couple years). I'll be keeping an eye on it.

TODAY - I just did a retrospective on this comic. Go read that to hear my final thoughts.

Wow, no comics in this one I still read, though the last one was by it's own hand. That's kind of depressing. Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Review: Late As Hell Edition

2011-10-07T12:00:00.001-04:00

No, it's impossible. This can't happen. It can't be!

IT'S THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Ten months and I'm ACTUALLY doing a new batch of reviews? Well, yes, I am, so it's not impossible, just improbable. Still, time for another batch of reviews, 5 for you, my lovely readers (both of you) to gawk at and wonder "why did it take you 10 months?" The answer is: I'm lazy. Off we go!

221. Leth Hate - Remember Lowroad? Yeah, about the same thing. It actually features the cute succubus character, Giselle, which was featured near the end of Lowroad's run, but the main character is Leth, who is the ultimate asshole that has been rejected by heaven and hell. There is also a zombie. The jokes are the same as Lowroad, lots of sexual innuendos that aren't very subtle at all, and things like that. If you liked Lowroad, you'll probably like Leth Hate, and I kind of do like Lowroad.

222. Devilbear: The grimoires of Bearalzebub - This comic has one joke, it involves teddy bears going to hell. And that's about it. The first "chapter" is very much about that, and it got old very quickly. Later chapters picked up a bit as they became less about bears going to hell. Which brings the only other focus of the comic: scantily clad devil women posing. They also have pillow fights, seriously. And it does get a bit deeper, but the core "joke" of the comic remains. It's weird, I feel like I should really like the comic's jokes, if I were 10 years younger, or more. I've MADE these jokes before, but something about it just doesn't quite work. I think there might be a good story developing out of it, what it means to be good or evil and such, but I'm not sure if it will come through that one joke that was old before the first chapter was over. Not sure if I'll follow it just because of that.

223. Marry Me - This comic could easily be a romantic comedy. It's structured like one, has the same jokes and the same wish fulfillment angles that any proper romantic comedy has. The story opens with one of the most beautiful and famous pop singers getting up on stage, pointing out a guy carrying a "MARRY ME" sign, and gets married, right there on the stage. Things get weird from there. It's fun to watch the wacky hijinks, but in the end, it feels like things were thrown at the wall, random events and encounters that get weirder and weirder. And all this goes back to pointing out that the two main characters, the pop star and her husband to be, are pretty much the most perfect people there are. It doesn't bother me too much in this case, the comic is very fantastic in structure anyway, but I can see that it could drive some people away. The main story is Marry Me itself, with a secondary story starting at the end of the original, and hasn't updated since February. Yeah, I know how to find them. Fun to read, but I doubt it has any steam to last longer than the original story.

224. Winters in Lavelle - The first vibe I get from this comic is Narnia. I've never read any of those books, but I know enough about it to get that Winters has the same basic concept behind it. It rather quickly becomes a bit more dangerous and complex than I think Narnia ever did, but then, I never read the books. It's still pretty early, but the seeds of the comic's stars being WAY over their heads has been planted (almost literally). I won't say the world is complex, but it has some interesting elements and I think I may follow it for a bit just to see where it goes.

225. Trying Human - I once got to visit Roswell, NM, where that alien space ship that was really a weather balloon crashed. This comic taps the myth of Roswell to bring a story that is actually about love, of all things. And love triangles and all the problems that come with them. I really found myself enjoying the story and how it was built. It integrates flashbacks throughout, and makes them feel relevant to events in the present story. A lot of comics might try to shove the flashback storyline in early and not make it relevant or forget about it later. This one draws it out, giving us the information we need to know as we need to know it. The art is pretty good, sometimes feels a bit more cartoony than it should, but it still works, especially the various alien designs. I will definitely be following this one for a while, and I would suggest others do the same.

Well, that's it for this review session. Will I actually manage to do another review before the end of the year? Um, probably not, but you never know. Still, I'll try to get one out before July. Until next time kiddies.

Retrospective: Shadowgirls

2011-09-30T12:00:00.003-04:00

So with so many comics dying, starting up a series of articles about them was inevitable. Here I will give a post-mordum on comics that have, one way or another, died. And this week we'll start with the most recent comic to join the club: Shadowgirls.

It actually came as a surprise that Shadowgirls outright ended. There had always been extended breaks throughout the comic, and even the current one didn't exactly phase me and was rather short. I figured at worst, their 'financial model' plan might lead to a subscription to read the rest of the comic, but the comic would still exist. Instead, the comic ends.

It's a sad fact that only a handful of lucky comics make any money at all, and even fewer make enough to completely support their creators. The need to eat is a driving force in many decisions, but in this case I think it was the wrong one. The artists needs a job, to get money, to eat, I know, I get that, but giving up the comic to do so? Not sure if that's the best course of action myself. Working on something, even a pet project or hobby (like this blog) keeps you going, gives you incentive to continue looking for a job. It also builds a nice portfolio for possible employers, especially for artists.

And this artist is damn good, and has only gotten better with time. Here, for example, is an early page from the book (yes, she's in her underwear). Now here's the same character in a similar (though more dressed) pose. I won't say that's a tremendous improvement, I've seen much greater leaps, but it is a steady improvement that shows the skill of the artist. The shapes are better, the coloring more subtle, it's less like a quick sketch and more of a well planned image. That kind of skill takes years of work, and I really appreciate that I got to see it for free. Why doesn't this man have a job? Who isn't hiring him? Those people probably should be flogged.

Still, it's a personal decision to stop, and I won't judge it beyond the fact that, damn it, I want this comic to continue. It's a good comic, and I enjoyed it for the length of the run, even if the last story didn't quite come together, you know, because it wasn't even half over. So I implore them to reconsider stopping the comic, for the most selfish reasons possible.

Of course, since no one reads this blog (except for the 3 of you), I guess I'll just have to write about what I thought of it. The tag line for the comic is "It's like H.P. Lovecraft meets the Gilmore Girls," how close it got to that, I can't say because I never watched Gilmore Girls, and what little I know of it comes from ads on TV. The gist though is the mother/daughter connection and how their relationship with each other makes them stronger, quite literally in this case of course. I actually like the relationship between the two, it feels, well, realistic to me. They argue, yes, but there's never any hatred there. The daughter knows the boundaries the mother put in place, and is rightful scared when she's been found out, but it's not "shit, she's going to beat me to death," but a proper fear of punishment. There's love, punishment for breaking the rules, but not hatred and violence. If Gilmore Girls is like that (and I don't know) then it succeeded at that.

The Lovecraft end, however, I do know about, and it worked DAMN well. It takes it's inspiration from "Shadow Over Innsmouth," and if you haven't read that or any of Lovecraft's work, go search for it online, it's in the public domain and free now. When I say inspiration, I mean it took the basic ideas while going in it's own direction. Still, it captured the spirit of Lovecraft very well, and managed to bring the ideas into the modern world, and the last story even manged to describe how that happened in the first place.

Shadowgirls, however, was never a horror comic however. A lot of what created the horror for Lovecraft is discovering humans weren't special or powerful, something that is taken more for granted now. Instead, as I said in my original review of the comic, it is built more like a superhero comic. It's built and works like one and I enjoy it like one. There's far more action in it than Lovecraft ever worked on, and almost nothing that we would call horror.

Even so, the comic manages some great character development, though not with the main characters. Yes, they do change, a little, but some characters, two in particular, change radically between the beginning of the first "season" and the end. I'll discuss the second season in a moment. These characters had interesting arcs, one even evolved from a simple, one note secondary character simply there to move the plot along to a key element of the story. The other was more well planned, I think, and evolved from a personal antagonist to a sympathetic character. This is brought even more to the point with the second season as we get a much better idea where the characters went following the events of the first season.

The first season of the comic was very well done, and while it might have felt a little meandering at times, it managed to tie it all up at the end. The second season, however, felt very scattered, like ideas thrown at a wall with no plan. That's not to say there wasn't one, of course, it was never finished, it just felt that way. I think it comes from the fact that the first season started with only a handful of characters and plots, while season two had many, MANY more. It became difficult to follow them all and see how they were all going to tie together. Again, it never finished, so it's hard to know how it would have all come together, or if it was going to, and of course now we'll never know.

Still, Shadowgirls was a good comic, and one I would recommend to others who want a superhero comic, but without superheroes, if you know what I mean. I will miss it, and I hope they change their mind before they're forgotten entirely. At least the last comic features the best way any comic can end: the image of a character walking off into the distance. I like that.

Well, that's enough of that kiddies. Next week, I might, MIGHT, have some new reviews for you. Isn't that exciting? Until then.

Culmination Events

2011-09-23T12:00:00.003-04:00

Adventure comics, as I've stated before, are a series of short adventures a cast of comic characters undertake throughout the life span of the comic. There's no path or goal for these adventures, they are more or less random, though they may be generated by previous adventure. Epic comics do have a final goal, a final confrontation to look forward to, and an end to the adventure.

But that's not to say there's a moment when things do get tied together in an adventure comic. These are culmination events, and they can be some of the most memorable stories in a comic. This comes up as Dr. McNinja is in the middle of one such event, but there are others. Sluggy Freelance is famous for them, with one of the best being "The Bug, the Witch and the Robot," amongst many others. These events can often make the smaller stories seem more epic than they really ever were, but also act as a bit of the old fan service. Giving the comic's fans more of what they enjoyed.

But what goes into making a good culmination event? There's no real set of rules for it, but here are some rough guidelines.

1. There should be a clear goal or objective. Adventure comics can have mysteries in their regular stories, but a culmination event shouldn't have much mystery. The mysteries of the last few stories are revealed in a culmination event and the characters should have a mission and goal set out before them. HOW they resolve it is another story entirely, but the goal should be clear.

2. Something important should be at stake. Meaning that if the characters don't do something, they will lose something important. It could be another character, it could be the end of the world as they know it, but it must be important and they don't want to lose it.

3. Bring in the resources. Over the course of an adventure comic, many items, powers and people are collected, discovered or befriended and a culmination event should feature as many as reasonable. Sluggy's repeated culmination events mean resources are usually generated in the intervening period between events and then brought to the current culmination. Dr. McNinja's current one is only using resources generated during the color phase of the comic.

4. Don't forget about it. Culmination events are NOT the end of an adventure comic, just the end of one chapter or book of it. The comic can, and often does, keep going, but culmination events are so big, they cannot be forgotten by the characters. It should effect them and their lives in a meaningful way and set up the next story arch.

And that's about it. Culmination events are more than just another story, they are the peak of the comic artists story telling ability at the moment of the event. It should stand out and be memorable. It also can backfire terribly, GPF's Surreptitious Machinations was a culmination event that eventually drove me away from the comic.

At the same time, not every adventure comic needs a culmination event, so artists of such comics should not feel required to do one. Still, they can be a lot of fun and give the fans something to keep their blood boiling for the strip.

Next time, I'm starting a new article category. See you then kiddies.

Second Year Anniversary

2011-09-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

Two years? TWO YEARS?! Seriously, it's been that long? How did that happen?

Yeah, I know, the last couple of weeks have been a bit rough, but at least I posted SOMETHING for them, which a lot of sites, comic, blog or otherwise, don't often do. Still, two years of posting something at least once a week? That's a feat I didn't think I'd pull off.

I started this blog as a birthday present to myself, I've wanted to do it for a long time and finally had the time to do it. Because I didn't have a job. I have a job, at the moment, but it's highly seasonal so soon I won't have a job at all. Again.

Yet I keep posting something, even if it's to say I'm posting nothing. This week is more like a nothing week, but it's a happy nothing week.

So when is the next new batch of reviews? Um, I don't know, I'll try to get some out before Christmas at least. Champions Online has eaten a lot of my spare time (it IS fun, go try it). More Not-So-Wild Reviews will be going up as I finally sit down and write them as well as more Newspaper ones. I'm thinking of starting a "Reflection" batch of articles that will review dead/ended comics (which means I may have to reread them, it has been a while), and the first of these will be for Shadowgirls.

Going beyond webcomics, I'll probably post another book review soon, and maybe get into a few other things. Don't know about the later, but I went to a book fair and got more books, so maybe some reviews of them are in order.

Anyway, thank you for reading my silly blog about webcomics. All 3 of you. Oh, okay, there are probably a few more than that. Like 5 or 6, but still, thanks. Until next time kiddies.

PS: BTW, today is my birthday. I am old.

Touching Base #8.5

2011-09-09T12:00:00.005-04:00

Another Touching Base? And so soon? And with a half point? Well, um, there is one big old reason for it, one of my aunts died. Not a super close one (just the way the family is) but the funeral is likely some time this week and I don't know if I'll have time to write something else. I WANT to write something else, just haven't had the time.

At the same time, there are some updates to make that I didn't cover last time, so I'll do it here now. This one is rather short.

I'll start with Punch an' Pie paused sometime last month due to technical issues, and the next month isn't looking too good either with the writer being buried in work and the artist on vacation (a month long vacation, lucky shit). Updates have been very sporadic, but I doubt the comic is coming to a complete halt, at least so far. When October comes, we'll see.

Return to Eden, a comic with a big warning at the beginning which goes pretty much nowhere after the first chapter, is finally starting to wind down. The last page of the story proper went up this week and all that's left is the epilogue. I will, of course, do my thing with comics that end with Return to Eden when it does end, which will probably be about the end of the year.

Though I will have to do that thing (I should come up with a name for it) for Shadowgirls, which officially declared itself dead this week. This actually took me by surprise as I thought they were planning to charge for it or go for paper publication, not, well, dropping it entirely. The problem comes strictly on the real life side of the equation, as in one of the artists is unemployed and needs time to finally get his house in order. I get it, and maybe, just maybe, they'll find time to restart it, but if not, well, what a damn shame.

Anyway, that was it. Hopefully I'll soon get the call on when the funeral is and we'll wrap that up. Next week is the two year anniversary of this blog. Will there be a new batch of comic reviews? Um, no, but I'll do something, at least.

I have determined

2011-09-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

That I won't be posting much today. Just not enough time this week. I am exhausted.

Not much this week

2011-08-26T12:00:00.003-04:00

The next couple are going to be packed with real life things, so no full scale updates this week.

I will post that Faith Erin Hick's graphic novel, "Friends with Boys" is being posted daily online through February. Of course, there's several hundred pages, so it won't be the whole thing, but a decent teaser for the print version of the comic. Her work is amongst my favorites, from Demonology 101, Ice and Superhero Girl. In other words: GO READ IT! Just don't expect a review, since the comic won't be completely online.

I'll post SOMETHING next week. What, I still haven't determined.

Touching Base #8

2011-08-19T12:00:00.001-04:00

Another edition of Touching Base because I haven't read a new comic in, um, nearly half a year I think. I know, for a comic review blog, I don't do much of it do I? I'll get back to it once I stop getting distracted by Champions Online.

As I stated last week, The Wotch is back to updating again, picking up where it left off with a new artist, Ian Samson from City of Reality. He's done a LOT of fan art for the comic, so much that he even has to remind himself that he's not making fan art, but actual art for the comic. The schedule will be weekly to start, but ramp up as Ian gets more time to draw.

City of Reality is doing a different, flash based system for presentation. Samson is a big fan of using flash for various things (past updates to CoR have featured it heavily) though this method seems, well, a bit of a waste at the moment. It's compact, I suppose, but it really doesn't offer anything that couldn't be had via straight up page updates. Not sure why he's doing it.

Dr. McNinja's current storyline features Paul Bunyon's (yes, that's plural) fighting dinosaurs. Why aren't you reading this comic? Are you opposed to all that is awesome in the world or something?

Emergency Exit's reboot has begun and I'm, well, not all that impressed. The lack of color I think really, REALLY hurts this comic. The line work is good, very good, but it feels hollow without proper shading or color. I'm sure the plan is to make it easier to update, but I think it loses something without the color angle. Even some better shading would help. Storywise, I don't know yet. Still too early to tell, but it's apparent the story has moved forward several months from where it left off. I'm fine with that, let's see where it goes.

Spinnerette's newest chapter is being done by a different pair of artists. It's a temporary measure, from what the news post about it says, and the art is pretty good. I think it helps they're sticking with the proper models for the characters. I do want the original artist to come back, I think it fits the comic better, but for a temporary departure, this is fine. I wonder if Krazy Krow will draw his own chapter at some point, or maybe do his own guest comic. That would be pretty neat.

Cogs, the new comic by the creator of Just Another Escape hasn't started QUITE yet, but there is the first sketch of a cast page up. I usually don't like reading info dumps like this, so I'll wait for the actual comic to start before doing much about it. You can read it though, not like I could stop you. Still no word on when something to 'complete' JAE's story will come out, however.

Alright, enough of this good news, let's get on to the comics that are dead. Lizzy hasn't updated in forever and it's forums are flooded with spam, I think it's dead. Hanna is Not a Boy's Name hasn't updated since Feburary and none of the artists sites (twitter and deviantart) have updated since then either. I was really liking that comic too. More of a surprise is Charliehorse, Krazy Krow's comic before starting Spinnerette. That is officially done according to a news post briefly during a pause between Spinnerette's chapters. I thought it was going alright, but if he wasn't seeing how to make it gel, I can understand giving up on it.

I'm finally going to stop checking Nobody Scores!, On the Edge, and, *sigh* Sea of Insanity. All three, while some of my favorites, are effectively dead at this point. On the Edge was announced as dead, of course, but I hung on hoping for a mind change, while the other two are just, well, dead. Again in Sea of Insanity's case. I suppose the positive thing here is I can skip the not-so-wild review of it now, as those are for comics I read. That said, all three will go into the Hiatus folder, never knows if one of them will suddenly come back to life after all.

Not much else to say on this front. Until next time kiddies.

Getting Stuck

2011-08-12T12:00:00.001-04:00

The Wotch is one of the comics I keep checking and hoping it'll update. The last actual story update was 2 years ago, almost exactly. There's been a couple of guest strips, but that's about it. At least until this week when it was announced the comic was coming out of it's unplanned hiatus. Which of course means I had an article idea all set up to feature the comic and it threw all those plans in the gutter and stomped on them.

I'm still going to do the article, of course, but now that there is a solution to the hole the Wotch got stuck in, I can at least cover that as well. I've been stuck before, not just writing this blog, but writing in general. Writing and artistic blocks are hard to overcome. The first step in doing it is to determine WHY you're stuck. The issues vary but can easily determine the best course of action to resolving the problem. Anne has made clear that the Wotch's problem had multiple layers so I'll cover each of them as best I can.

The simplest problem is simple writers block, unable to figure out where to go next with a story. It seems obvious that the most recent (the one that stalled 2 years ago) wasn't exactly going the way they wanted, and they couldn't quite figure out how to make it do so. Solutions here are many, and the Wotch actually has several options. The first is to simply abandon the story, snip it from the archive and start a new story. Given that this last story line was fairly young, this wouldn't have been too bad a solution.

The next is go with another story. The Wotch has quite a cast behind it, so simply switching over to a "meanwhile" type storyline until the other one gelled would have been a perfectly valid solution to the problem. Also simply resolving the stuck story "off panel" would have helped as well, adding some mystery and drama to a tale that may not have had it before. As of yet, there's no indication on what they're going to do to resolve the storyline, but I think a partial reboot may come into play, and likely simply remove the story the got everyone stuck in the first place. We'll see next week when the comic updates.

Artistic blocks are something I sadly can't relate to (I draw terrible stick figures). I think the best solution here is to simply draw. It doesn't have to be comic characters or anything, but draw. Flex your artistic muscles and try to get back into it. That still may not work, and I have no solutions to offer. It seems, though Anne has had a bit of an artistic block, but the real problem is more about time and stress.

Which are the two biggest and hardest problems to solve. The vast majority of webcomic artists are NOT professionals, they do other work and webcomics are a hobby. When it comes head to head with real life responsibilities and work, then webcomics lose, and lose badly. I think this is the majority of the problems for the Wotch, and I can provide no easy solution.

That said, the Wotch has found their solution to the problem: Letting others take up some of the load. Ian Samson, creator of City of Reality, is taking up the bulk of the artistic duties and probably will have quite a bit of input storywise. They've also cut back on updates to once a week. This SHOULD allow the comic to come back to full strength in a few months. But nothing is guaranteed.

I'm glad the Wotch is coming back to life. A 2 year hiatus is a LONG hiatus for any comic, though, so we'll see if it can recapture it's former magic (heh).

Until next time kiddies.

Real World Tragedy and Webcomics

2011-08-05T12:00:00.002-04:00

The recent tragedy in Norway, with all the shooting and such, got me to wondering how Scandinavia and the World reacted to it. The answer: It didn't. Instead there was a comic about why everyone spoke English and something related to the Thing.

That's not an unexpected reaction, honestly. Despite the fact that most artists live in the real world (I say most because some of them I wonder about), reflecting real events in their comics is often something that is simply not done. Oh there will be the occasional strip dedicated to the event, encouraging charities or putting thoughts and prayers with the victims, but overall, these events almost never effect the actual comic itself.

That's not to say they won't later reference it. Doing that in an effective way, however, is really, REALLY hard. Making it part of a story is even more difficult. So I'm not surprised that it doesn't happen often.

So if I'm going to talk about these kinds of tragedies, then I might as well go for the big one, September 11, 2001. I hate discussing it because A) It took place close to my birthday and B) I hate how it was used as an excuse to fuck up my country (the USA, to be clear). Neither of those is the topic of the day, of course, but when it comes to comics featuring references to it, there aren't many I can think of. It probably doesn't help that I wasn't reading many webcomics at the time, and my natural tendency to skip over comics featuring the subject when reading archives really doesn't help.

Still, there are two comics where the inclusion of references to that event are quite clear in my mind. And the first is Jack. Yes, Jack. Jack is the comic that when I think of awkward execution of reasonably interesting ideas, or comics featuring lots of furry porn. Not that I think of lots of furry porn, it's just full of it. It also features a September 11th reference more prominently than most other comics I've read, and one that sticks out in my mind.

Because it put the twin towers of the World Trade Center in Hell. Now before you over react, the point was that it was an epicenter of despair, and used to mentally torture people. It was more used as part of the setting, rather than some political or moral statement. It worked, in a comic where so many things didn't quite worked, it fit. It's still Jack, of course, and why I'm not linking to the strip itself. That and I haven't been searching through the archives for it.

The only other reference I remember is in The Pain. The Pain is mostly a political cartoon and the comic I have in mind was released a year after the fact. On one had, it's probably MORE offensive than Jack's take on it. On the other hand, I find it probably the funniest strip in the entire comic. It fits the sense of humor of the comic very well and I for one love it. Like most of the comics in The Pain, the comic comes with an artist's statement which makes clear the point: "A year seemed like long enough to wait, and the media coverage is likely to be relentless, maudlin, and tacky enough to make a single innocent snicker on The Solemn Day a welcome relief." I couldn't agree more.

Now, of course there are other comics that put up their dedications, I'm sure, but I don't recall them. These ones stand out because they AREN'T dedications, but actually part of the comic. It can work, yes, but it's also hard to do and will most assuredly rub some people the wrong way. It's the chance people take when covering a tragedy of some kind. I think it's why most artists don't do it.

Anyway, that's enough for this week. Until next time kiddies.

Jumping the Gun

2011-07-29T12:00:00.001-04:00

The party, by the way, went reasonably well. Ton of leftovers though. Especially beer for some reason (they're getting old and drinking more wine now).

Two weeks ago, I posted about Sluggy Freelance, and I probably wouldn't have said anything if it wasn't for a blog post from another webcomic reviewer. Tangents did a pair of posts regarding the end of 4U City, and didn't like it. That's fair, he can have his opinion on the story and the comic as a whole. My problem is that he didn't let the end of the story play out before deciding what the best path for the comic was and then bitching when it didn't happen that way.

I've seen this before. Not in webcomics, but television, specifically Battlestar Galactica. I really liked the whole series, but the internet seems to have had an odd effect on the fanbase. Every episode was dissected, examined and judged within hours of showing. People began speculating on things, throwing around theories and ideas of where the show was going and how it was going to get there.

And then when it gets there, they bitched that it didn't go the way THEY wanted.

Now for a bunch of chuckleheads on the net to do this is one thing, for a reviewer to jump the gun like this is another thing all together. It was VERY obvious the story was nearly over, and if Tangents had waited another week, he could have had a piece that was complete and wouldn't have had to speculate. It doesn't help that he didn't really like his own idea of where the story was going (I think, it's a little weird near the end), but obviously he hated the way it actually went even more.

I think a lot of fans do this as well. I like to guess where stories are going, and I'm often completely wrong. Perhaps the fact that I am wrong so often allows me to easily take the ego hit on being wrong. I think a lot of fans, typically the vocal ones, convince themselves that they are right about how the story should go and bitch and moan when it doesn't. And they get really MEAN about it.

This saddens me because I like to see where the author/artist is taking the story. If I'm right, I feel really smart, if I'm not, oh well, no biggy. As long as the story works out in a satisfying way, I'm happy with it. Then I read comments on forums or whatever and the screeching and bitching and wonder why do they even bother reading/watching it if they don't like it. I wonder if it's an attempt to sound critical without knowing how to be critical.

I guess the internet breeds this kind of idea, and normally Tangents is very good about his commentary and reviews. The Sluggy thing is an off thing, and maybe something more personal to him (much like my dislike of Penny Arcade), so I'll let it go. The fans, though, are something harder to deal with, and I don't think there's anyway to handle them without alienating them.

Anyway, that's enough on that. I don't want to be critical of other critics, but this one just seemed really off to me. Until next time kiddies.

Nothing this week

2011-07-22T12:00:00.001-04:00

Family party is set for this weekend and lots to do to set up for it. Conveniently it's at MY place, so I really need to do a lot of stuff. Next week, I'll have something.

I hope.

Sluggy's Dueling Stories

2011-07-15T12:00:00.001-04:00

The last couple of years of Sluggy Freelance has been dominated by two stories, the Minion Master saga and 4U City. It also featured breaking up the team, specifically sending Torg and Riff along separate paths and stories. These more or less wrapped up last week. Some will say this is a bad thing, that Torg, Riff and the rest of the Sluggy gang work best together.

I disagree.

Well, kind of. I mean, I disagree that it was a bad thing because there is one thing I've always noted about Sluggy: Riff and Torg don't grow when they're together. They're always those two goofballs they were when they started the comic. Even the few moments where they had differences of opinion or were temporarily separated, once they were back together, the fell into the old patterns. Hell, they did it in Monday's strip, the follow up to one of the longer stories Sluggy has had.

Torg and Riff together are like a single entity that has little development or control. Some of the best stories do NOT feature either of them, and the ones that do feature one do NOT feature the other. They are still the two guys from that first strip so long ago, when together. Separating them and letting them be the star of their own stories allowed them to grow and develop as characters.

I liked both Minion Master and 4U City. A little wordy with 4U City at times, but I understand that, and I get why people will compare either or both to Oceans Unmoving. Yet they did get the key lesson of Oceans Unmoving: Feature a Sluggy main cast member. Bun Bun was barely a side character in Oceans Unmoving, MM and 4UC were stories basically about Torg and Riff respectively. More importantly, it gave them some growth. Torg became more of a leader and organizer in MM while Riff showed he was fully capable of careful planning and execution of his lone wolf missions (note he never once had to check "his notes" during the entire story). We also got to see each of their failings and fears, something we only got glimpses of before (That Which Redeems being the sole exception, and really it fed into Torg more with MM).

I would also like to note that they were not really separated, but teamed up with people whose personalities would be much more in line with what they would face when they did meet up again. 4UC Torg is very much like Torg Prime after MM, though I will say 4UC Torg is a bit more extreme. Still, the similarities are pretty apparent. Similarly, Torg Prime had Sasha to deal with, who has often been compared to Riff in the past, but now seems more like the Riff we see coming out of 4UC.

What I see coming is a new dynamic between Riff and Torg as the comic moves forward. Will we still get the classic team up? Oh sure, you'll see some of it, but as the stories ramp back up, the difference in how they relate to each other will be more clear. The best part, though, is that it will feel natural, most readers probably won't even notice it happened. But it WILL be different.

I don't think that difference was possible as long as Torg and Riff were together. They would have kept falling back on old habits and deviating from it would feel forced or out of character. Now they can grow out of it and move on.

At least, I hope so. Anyway, that's enough for this week. Until next week kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 145 - 149

2011-07-08T12:00:00.001-04:00

Well, my busy couple of weeks are still busy, but no new pictures from Champions Online. Instead, some old reviews. Enjoy.

June 10, 2007

145. Dresden Codak - This got linked from Nobody Scores! so you know it's going to be odd, and it is. It's also completely awesome. Few comics manage to caputure surreal tangents and mix in a batch of superscience as well as this comic. The art is also well above superior, so it looks as wonderful as it's written. Go, read, do it now. Chop chop!

TODAY - The art of this comic is still amongst the best on the net, possibly of any comic period. It doesn't update frequently, probably once a month at best, but the pages are spectacular when it does. The storytelling is getting better, improving with each extended story. I highly recommend this comic, for the art if nothing else.

146. The Nineteenth-Century Industrialist - Yeah, we really need another one of those running around. It's funny in an odd way, mostly in the way of screwing workers, destroying the enviroment and general greed. The art sort of reminds me of Girly, only not as clean, which is fine. One of the earliest jokes features dropping an anvil on someone's head (It's funnier in real life, apparently). Crude, odd, evil, greedy. There you go, that's this comic in a nutshell. Is it worth the time to read it? Eh, not sure. Leaning towards not, but the premise is neat enough that it at least might be worth a look.

TODAY - I stopped reading it, so many other comics to read that I don't have the time or energy to keep up with this one.

147. What Birds Know - More a comic novel than a straight up web comic, the story follows three friends as they go in search of mushrooms. Well, that's how it starts and it only gets odd from there. The pacing is nice, there's a great mystery and a touch of the supernatural. I also love the way the comic is actually displayed: each page in it's own window with no ads to get in the way. Makes for easy and wonderful reading. It's currently on a short hiatus, but is certainly worth reading.

TODAY - The display issues were resolved some time ago, so that complaint is gone. The comic has gotten rather dark since I originally reviewed it and it's getting darker by the moment. It's still good, but at the same time. . .

148. Minus - Minus is about a little girl, named Minus, who can basically bend reality to her will. Literally. Trees grow out of no where, dogs become people (temporarily), sidewalk drawings come to life, etc, etc, etc. And it's sweet and nice and wonderful in every possible way. So why are you still sitting here reading this review: GO READ THE DAMN COMIC ALREADY! You'll thank me afterwards.

TODAY - Minus ended some time ago, but the same artist has two more comics going on his site, Kiwis By Beat. Great! is probably the longest lived comic so far, and is mostly about ramen. Yeah, you really have to read it to get that. Modern Fried Snake is, well, interesting to say the least. I like it, but I'm not sure where exactly it's going, or if it even has a direction to begin with. Either way, both are pretty good and I would recommend them, especially if you like Minus itself.

149. Bruno - Not Bruno the Bandit, just Bruno, a girl with issues (yes, HER name is Bruno). Funny, I just noticed that four of my five comics feature a female lead character. Odd. Anyway, this is a big comic, as in 11 YEARS of archives (the comic did end in Feb 07, so there is an end to it), and each strip averages a metric TON of text. Lots of reading, and its actually a bit of a depressing comic. 90% of the comic is watching Bruno take her life and smash it into a brick wall over and over again. It DOES get kind of old, but there's always this hope that she'll finally get it together. In any case, at least she gets to travel a lot, visit lots of places, angst, work dull jobs, strip at one point, and sleep with anything with two legs (I'm not using that word I want you to finish reading the review first kids). There is some nudity in the later half of the strip, so the youngins probably shouldn't read it, not that they would. Like I sad, a TON of text. In fact, that really makes it interesting as there's no action in the art, all the action is in the dialog (aside from a few rare occasions). So is it good? I enjoyed it, despite Bruno's life disasters getting a bit old after a while, but it did come to an end and so I'll accept it. Will you like it? If you don't mind reading a lot, maybe. Read through the end of the arc with the circus and you should be able to decide.

TODAY - Bruno is currently on a reissue spree, which commentary on each strip and each strip presented bigger and crisper than the original release. It's only about two years into the comic's 11 year run, so if you want to read a comic with commentary from early on, now's probably a good time to start. The original archives are still available, but even I may reread everything with the commentary this time.

Man, Bruno continues to surprise me. First it was a pretty good comic and now it's going through a reissue. Anyway, sorry I don't have anything more this week, I'm barely ALIVE after working the 4th, so take what little I have.

Lazy week

2011-07-01T12:00:00.005-04:00

I've got a summer job at an amusement park, which means the next couple of weeks are going to be very, VERY busy (4th of July weekend). That said, I don't want to leave you with no post this week.

So this is only tangentially related to webcomics because it has more to do with Champions Online, which is free and I've been playing recently. The best part about Champions Online is the character creator, and I figured maybe I could use it to create a few characters from webcomics. It's more for fun than anything else, but I thought you guys might like it.

To start with, we've got Super Hero Girl from Faith Evans Hick's comic of the same name.

I would have gone with a more traditional star, but it looked HORRIBLE on her for some reason, so I went with this one. No hoodie, so I went with a simple windbreaker.

The cape is a short one because I thought it looked better than a full length one. Most of the rest of the costume is kind of mix-mash of various looks SHG usually wears. She has no set costume, so I had to use my imagination.

Given that it's a back and white comic, the coloring I got from a deviantart image.

Next is Spinnerette.

Sadly, the game lacks an ability to add extra arms, so really it's just the base costume. The various yellow bands were the hardest part, honestly. They're more solid in the comic than here, but I think I got pretty close. Also missing a set under the breasts, but I couldn't find a good way to do that. I probably could have done the original costume (blue spider), but I like this look better.

Finally, Weapon Brown himself.

Sadly, there's no way to do the shirt properly. Also can't get the hair thing, no option for that sadly. The boots are bit off, but look good anyway. The arm looks REALLY good.

And that's the update for the week. Will I do more? Maybe, we'll see. In the meantime, go read those comics, they're good. Until later kiddies.

Future Reads

2011-06-24T12:00:00.001-04:00

So I know I've been slacking when it comes to new reviews and I'd like to say there's a good reason for it. I'd LIKE to, but mostly it's just laziness. That isn't to say I haven't been looking for comics to review, I just haven't actually done it. Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyway, today I'm going to post the full list of all these comics that I have tagged for future reading, but haven't actually read yet, with a couple exceptions. Do I recommend these comics? No, I haven't even read them, but if you want to see what's on this list, here it is:

There are two exceptions to this list. The first is Commander Kitty, which I originally reviewed way back here. Since then the comic has completely stalled out, then did what appears to be a reboot. To be fair to the strip, I'm going to re-review it from scratch in the future.

The second exception is Scandinavia and the World. I've actually read a good chunk of this comic, I just didn't finish it yet. The universe interfered with finishing it and I don't remember where I stopped now. I'll have to go back some time in the future, but not now.

So anyway, that's on my future read list. A lot to go through and I will be, as soon as I get the time. And I'm always looking for requests and suggestions, so just post them in the comments, I'll see them. Until next time kiddies.

Retelling Myths

2011-06-17T12:00:00.001-04:00

So I finally got Portal 2 a few weeks ago. Okay, I know, I'm a month behind everyone else, but considering I didn't play Portal 1 until Portal 2 was released, despite owning it for several years, I think I'm doing quite well on that curve. It's a good game, and while many will argue Portal 1 is better, I'm of the opposite opinion, I feel that storywise, Portal 2 is much stronger and more interesting.

But this is a blog about webcomics, not games, so why do I even bring it up? Well, this blog has become quite a bit about storytelling, in webcomics, so the topic applies here. Anyway, as I was playing, I noticed multiple allusions to the myth of Prometheus, with one direct reference from a rather different turret. As I kept playing though, a question started to bubble up:

Considering that there are, at best six (6) characters in ALL of Portal, who is Prometheus?

The myth of Prometheus is rather simple, he gives fire to man and is punished by a kind of bird. You can read a more detailed version of the story here, but that's the basics. It should be easy to pick which of six characters in Portal represents Prometheus. And yet, it's not.

At best you can outright eliminate one character, maybe, as we're not told much about that character, and no, I'm not talking about Chell, we know a LOT about Chell. Eliminating the other five characters, however, is really hard. Each one could be given the title as they all, in their own way gave a form of "fire" to "man" and were "punished" by "birds." All to relative degrees of course.

Which brings me to why I bring this up at all. Many authors and artists try to retell myths like Prometheus and others, but often it doesn't turn out very well, or worse. So how did Portal manage to come off so well? I think it's because of this ambiguity about who is who and what is what in the story verses the myth.

Most will make a simple, one to one, relationship with the myth and their story. THIS person is definitely Prometheus, THIS is definitely fire, THIS is definitely the punishment, THIS is definitely the bird. There is nothing straight up wrong about this, of course, but it is rather lazy, and easy. Portal doesn't take this route, instead leaving the definitions open to interpretation. Chell could be Prometheus in one sense, but in another, it could be GLaDOS. The portal gun could be fire in one interpretation, while Aperture as a whole could be it in another interpretation.

I've done the one to one relationship thing with myths before and I can tell you from experience, it wasn't very good. I think I could make it work still, but it would take time and effort better spent on more original ideas. If the myth simply must be tied into the story, there are other options than simply saying Character A is Prometheus. One option is to simply make Character A the literal Prometheus. This is best exemplified by Sea of Insanity and Gods and Undergrads where the mythological figures are actually running around doing things. In fact, I'd say Gods and Undergrads does it a bit better as the myths are directly referenced as part of the backstory, bring the tale to life in a new way. Sea of Insanity doesn't bother with this, but it still uses the characters of myth and builds new tales for them to walk around with.

But that's not the only way. The other way is what Toilet Genie does, which actually doesn't use a traditional myth, but one made specifically for the story. Using flash backs to tell the "myth" (I think it's supposed to be real in a sense) allows the reader to make connections to the current events in the story. The key here is that the myth was made to match the story, not the other way around.

As for comics that just hint at a mythological source like Portal, I can't think of any. Most of them are very blunt about it. This doesn't mean they can't do it well, it's just that there are better ways.

Anyway, that's enough for this week. See you next time kiddies.

Just Another Escape Ends

2011-06-10T12:00:00.001-04:00

Damn, another obituary for the pile. I had a nice article about using myths in stories ready for this week too, but instead, I'm going to spend my time on Just Another Escape.

I suppose there really shouldn't be much of a surprise that one of my weekly comics comes to an end, especially one as high concept as Just Another Escape, but I am still kind of surprised. I've come to accept that it was taking two or three weeks to generate a new comic as I was kept interested in the comic by it's concept. In the end, though, the delays were a sign that the end was neigh and I should have heeded them.

Just Another Escape had probably the most interesting premise in terms of format I've seen in quite a while. It's stated on the very first archive page and is a really neat idea. The comic is divided into 3 periods, the past, present and future, and each is defined by three different art styles. The past is in black and white, the present is in normal, flat color and the future is done in water colors.

This is a brilliant idea, allowing the reader, at a glance, to tell what time period a part o the story is in, and what it's significance is for the comic as a whole. This is a great idea and opens the comic to a wide range of storytelling options. It literally provides a mechanism to crank out flashbacks and flashforwards as needed to drive forward the main, present story.

But I don't think Just Another Escape used it well. There is no present story to speak of and the future story is where most of the action happens. The past stuff works really well, and I enjoyed that part, but the present and future stuff, for the most part, didn't go anywhere. At least through the run of the comic. What I'm trying to say is while the idea was really good, in the end Just Anther Escape didn't use the idea to the fullest. For the most part, I think that was simply because the story was being generated on a weekly basis for the most part.

Also I think that as originally planned, it might have been a touch to ambitious. The original cast page featured a cast picture, which must have had 20 people in it. It's different now or I would show it, but it was a hell of a cast. The cast page has been streamlined since then, and the cast is MUCH smaller, but even then, many characters have little to no development. Yes, he did manage to go back and give some back story to these characters, but without the context of a main, present time story, their point was completely lost.

I don't want to sound too down on this comic, I did enjoy it. The stuff with Solina and Abraxas was actually really good and fun, while some the stories around Erica and her past were probably the most tragic and probably the more important past stories in the line. The artwork improved GREATLY over the length of the comic and the story telling got better as it went along. Developing a much stronger main storyline to bounce the future and past stories off of and constricting the cast much earlier would have helped the comic a great deal, but sometimes one must reach for the sky and he did it. Things just didn't work out in the end.

In any case, it's a shame that yet another comic I like is shut down, but it's something one must get used too on the internet. He's moving on to work on his own graphic novel, Cogs, which while not up and going yet, will probably prove very interesting and I'll keep my eye on it.

Well, I guess next week I'll post my myth article (had to do some tweaks on it anyway), and then the following week, a special edition where I show you my "future read" pile. Oh, it's a doozy. Until then kiddies.

Blasphemy

2011-06-03T12:00:00.002-04:00

The idea pot is stirring again.

Last Friday Girls With Slingshots finished up a week long dedication to newspaper comics, with a strip featuring Hazel and McPedro reenacting, in their own way, the last strip of Calvin and Hobbes. It was cute and I thought little about it, until I happened to read the news post attached to the strip:

"I really debated putting GWS characters in the place (almost exactly) of Calvin and Hobbes in their final strip, because it seemed a little blasphemous."

The emphasis is mine because that what caught my eye. Blasphemous. This is the internet, nearly nothing should be considered blasphemous, they have Jesus dildos for pete's sake! But this gets a bit of worry over being blasphemous?

I think it stands out for me because it's about Calvin and Hobbes. My Newspaper line of articles may have stalled a bit, but I think if you read them, it's obvious I was hinting at this being probably the best newspaper comic of all time, it's certainly my favorite. I think a great many people doing webcomics today feel the same way, and there's this odd respect for the comic.

There are a lot of reasons, but I think the key one is that most people wanted to make a comic just like Calvin and Hobbes. Thus they want to pay it respect. In fact, I can only think of one instance where there was no respect given to it, a horrible comic that was immediately derided by just about everyone, and I'm not even going to bother hunting it down to link it. The other comics, Garfield, Peanuts, Blondie, and especially Family Circus get cut to ribbons and we all laugh along, but crossing Calvin and Hobbes is likely to earn the scorn of the entire internet.

So how does one pay tribute to such a revered comic without being blasphemous? Well, for one, I think GWS did fine with it, capturing the iconic moment of the original comic without actually making it into something vulgar or unpleasant. Sinfest showed it's rather obvious inspiration by taking the topic head on and in a way that fits the style of Sinfest. That seems important to me, that the very nature of the webcomic needs to be expressed in the dedication to Calvin and Hobbes, and I think that keeps things from going over the line.

Which is where a pair of strips from Pants Are Overrated, a comic I haven't read or reviewed (as of yet). He features a pair of comics that feature Hobbes and Bacon. It's basically created as a sequel to Calvin and Hobbes and I think strikes a cord with people who see it and loved the original. It countered that horrible comic I mentioned earlier almost perfectly, while also capturing what people loved about Watterson's work. The problem, of course, is that the webcomic artist set his bar high, and due to legal issues, odds of any more strips are unlikely at best. Still, it does make me want to read the main comic, just to see what else he can do.

In fact, the only comic that actually manages to take Calvin and Hobbes and run with it is Weapon Brown, for reasons so different than the others in this article that there's no way to actually compare them. It doesn't touch the essence that most people associate with Calvin and Hobbes, but takes the tropes associated with it and twists it over and around. Yet, I wouldn't call this comic blasphemous either, as it isn't about Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes, it's about the artist having fun with it.

In the end, what is blasphemous and what isn't depends on how much one feels about the work being parodied. Calvin and Hobbes, of course, triggers a great swell of emotion amongst most people who grew up with it, and are now the main force behind most webcomics and the internet as a whole. Other comics, aren't nearly as strong a pull and likely can be made more fun of, but I think as long as the spirit of the comic is kept, blasphemy doesn't really exist.

Okay, that's enough for this week, see you next time kiddies.

Touching Base #7

2011-05-27T12:00:00.001-04:00

I really need to sit down and do some comic reading/reviewing for this blog, I'm running out of topics. In the meantime, let's touch some bases.

Looks like the Wotch is finally ready to start updating normally again. Maybe, possibly. They're starting with cleaning up the archives a bit, moving the filler and guest comics out of the main stream. I personally have no problem with those being in the archives, but I can understand the desire to move it out. At least this is showing some activity, so hopefully the comic will be coming back soon.

Shadowgirls has switched to a short, side story while they prep the next few chapters of the main storyline. It looks like my fear of a pay site may not materialize, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

City of Reality updated as well, I guess he's going back to the chapter by chapter updates rather than the 3 times a week thing. I think I prefer this model, at least for this comic. Not sure it would work out too well for other strips, but for City of Reality, it just works.

Emergency Exit is undergoing another art/style facelift. I mentioned in my review how jarring it was when this comic changed styles, but I don't think the change will be as extreme this time. I think it'll be very noticeable though as he's pushing for a layout that more easily allows a print version of the comic. I think I'm reading the news right that the older archives will still be available, but then he talks about offering them for a pay download, which confuses me. We'll see how it goes.

Totally Crossover's domain name (totallycrossover.com) expired, and it took a bit of searching to find it again. The comic is essentially dead as the focus has shifted to Special Level, but not even a redirect page? That's annoying. At least the comic is still findable (even if smackjeeves is giving me fits loading it). Remember kids, keep your comic easy to find, don't just abandon domain names without a redirect or something.

I often complain about comics that just stop updating, and Road Waffles has, in the past, done that on more than one occasion. So I'm glad to say at least Eight's keeping us in the loop that yes, he does plan on returning, it's just that things are happening to prevent it.

Sea of Insanity, on the other hand, hasn't had an update since February. This is also the same comic that didn't update for over 2 years, so a few months is nothing, but I'd like some notes on what's going on, please?

Contemplating Reiko restarted after a short stint of being down. There were some issues with Google ads, I believe, and in the meantime, they redesigned the website. It looks much better than it did, and the archives are easy to browse now. Better yet, the comic is updating again, which I really am glad about.

Roza feels like it's repeating itself, but only because it is. Chapter 4 was done, originally, in rough draft form, and wrapped up a couple months ago. Now the finished draft of the chapter is being posted, this one in full color. It's an odd way to do it, even odder than City of Reality's method, and I don't think I like it. It was always an experiment, and while it didn't drive me away from the comic, I didn't feel as invested in it as I once did because of this odd trend. I'm hoping the completed Chapter 4 will bring me back.

Well, that's enough for today. Might hit this up again next week. Oh, and I know there are two Touching Base #5's. Not sure how I managed that, but this should put us back on track. Until next time kiddies.

Twists and Revelations

2011-05-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

Keeping a plotline fresh and exciting is hard to do. There is no "right" way to do it so authors and artists go looking for new ways to tell old stories. This often results in creating a "twist," a surprise change in the plot that shifts how everything ends. These are fun to do sometimes, and creates a new story out of an old plot.

That said, they've kind of been over done. In a sense, twists are now kind of cliche in their own right. The reason isn't because twists are bad, they aren't, but because they can be done poorly. It's so easy to poorly do them, I think I'll take some time to go over HOW to do it right, and how to play out the revelation angle.

The first thing to keep in mind when doing a twist is to plan for it. Simply tacking on a twist for the sake of having a twist is a big, BIG mistake. Twists need some amount of planning, how much will depend on goals of the twist. Just throwing a twist in without any forethought as to how it will effect the story will be obvious and apparent very quickly.

Once the plan is in place, a nice trick is to start leaving clues. The best twists usually have hints laying throughout the piece that indicated the twist is coming. This is a lot harder than it might sound at first. Planning to add a twist is one thing, planning out the hints and clues that lead to that twist is something else. They must be subtle, just under the point that most people would notice something off, but not quite grasp the significance. Too obvious and the twist is utterly spoiled. Too subtle, and it'll be missed entirely and the pay off won't work.

The nice thing about webcomics is that they are a visual medium where the artist can focus the reader's attention on a particular visual. This can come very handy when highlighting clues. That said, clues aren't strictly necessary, but it depends on the situation and the twist itself. Think carefully before trying to build them into the story.

Once the time for the twist arrives, the revelation of it takes center stage, and this is also how things can get broken. Revelations of this nature often fall back on words, lots and lots of words. Explaining how the twist came to be and what led to it can take a lot of time and words, which can break the action of a story, especially at that climactic moment. Breaking the action can hurt even a well crafted story, and wordy revelations can do it.

A good way to help alleviate that is to again, take advantage of the visual aspect of comics. Let the pictures tell the revelation, and with enough planning and set up can help a lot. Especially if clues are set into the story, flashing back to those moments can also do the trick.

Another option is the flashback. Again, break in the action, but there are ways around it. Spreading out the flashback throughout the story can act as both a set of twist clues and a set up for the revelation at the end very easily.

The big thing here is don't over explain things. Keep it short and sweet, odds are most people will get it quickly enough not to need panels of dialog to explain things. If there are extra things that must be explained, save them for after the climax and it should do alright.

Twists are fairly common, so don't be surprised if someone calls out the twist well before it shows up. This brings me to another important element: Leave room to change the twist. If it becomes TOO obvious what the twist is, change it, or even use it as bait to set up the real twist to the story. Leave just enough wiggle room that there is more than one answer to the puzzle and changing things to fit the new situation or simply to bluff the readers can keep even the most cliche of twists from becoming boring.

Well, that's enough for today. Next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 141 - 144

2011-05-15T11:06:00.000-04:00

God damn it, the wrong date got put in the scheduler, this should have been up Friday. Blah.

Ah, spring, time for doing things outside, and not writing something new for the blog. Heh. Anyway, today is a shorter batch than normal because I'm tired of putting the extra dates in. It'll switch back later as I get back to 200 and the start of this blog, but for this week, I've just got 4 comics.

May 21, 2007

141. REVVelations - Dystopias are always so dramatic and cliche. At least this one has lots of cars and a humpback. Starts with a car chase, a pirate television news program and something about meatloaf. Something HORRIBLE about meatloaf (apparently it's worse than being made from people). I can't really say I like it, the style just rubs me wrong for some reason. I don't hate it, now, it's not an abomination, it's just not my thing.

TODAY - Apparently it still updates. I don't follow it, so I can't tell you if it's any good or not, but it's still alive, so that's positive.

142. Hockey Zombie - What's more funny than a comic about zombies? How about one about a hockey playing zombie, who is sentient (sort of). This comic is sort of, kind of dead (but not really) but the archieves are certianly worth a laugh. The riffs on the Zombie Survival Guide are great fun.

TODAY - Dead and gone. The link leads no where. Kind of a shame as it was a fun little comic.

143. Hazard Pay - It reminds me of something I would write. Seriously, it reads like I wrote the damn thing, which just tickles me pink. I could like it for that reason alone, but it's also well drawn, has an interesting storyline that's really only just started going and is just well written. Like something I would write. It's good, trust me on this.

TODAY - The last news post promises they're coming back. It was written in February of 2010. I wish it had kept going, but it was not to be.

144. Bunny - The Bunny doesn't understand why you aren't already reading this comic. This makes the Orange Bunny very angry. You don't want to make the Orange Bunny angry. Just don't do it.

TODAY - It managed to keep up being odd for sometime, then it slowed to a crawl and at the end of February it froze solid. Is it dead forever? I have no idea. I keep checking and hoping it comes back, but I'm not crossing my fingers on it.

The most active comic in this batch is one I don't read. Weird. Maybe I'll have something for you next week, until then kiddies.

I still can't get this one to gel

2011-05-06T12:00:00.001-04:00

Seriously, I've been trying to write a thing about heroes and villains as part of the character series of articles and it just isn't coming together the way I want.

And I've been distracted by Civ 4, again.

I wanted to cover the idea of conflict between the two, as well as their opposites (the honorable villain and anti-hero) and how they function. It shouldn't be this hard, these are classic interactions, but finding my voice for it is proving hard. And distractions haven't helped either.

Perhaps the reason is that the idea of a hero and villain doesn't actually fit with everything I've talked about up to now. In a way, being labeled a hero or villain is one of the biggest sterotypes there is, restricting them to a kind of script that everyone expects them to follow. They aren't their own characters any more once they are given that title. Not to say it can't work if they simply take the title and run with it, even if it doesn't completely fit who they are.

Fact is, the hero/villain dynamic shouldn't be the main thing that defines a group of characters. Letting the characters define themselves is more important, and if some take to thinking of them as heroes or villains, well, at least the reader made that judgment, not the author/artist.

I could probably go on, but I don't think I can make it any more plain than that. Next time, probably an old review. Later kids.

DeviantArt Comics

2011-04-29T12:00:00.002-04:00

I was going to continue the discussion about characters, but I'm hitting a bit of a wall here, so let's talk about something else instead.

I read a lot of comics from a lot of different places. Comicsgenesis, Keenspot, webcomicsnation and more often independent websites, but one source I don't cover much is DeviantArt. In fact, I've only ever reviewed one comic on DeviantArt, The God Machine, and I don't read it anymore (due to various states of hiatus it's been on over the years). There are comics I do occasionally follow that are on DeviantArt, but I don't review. Why is that?

I suppose the hardest part is actually linking to the site. The God Machine is a bit easier, but many comics are buried in subdirectories of the art page. Not impossible to link, but difficult. In other cases, the comic is interspersed with the regular artwork, and reading JUST the comic becomes even more difficult. There are some tricks I've noticed that help this, mostly by including self added "Next" and "Last" buttons to the artist comment section of the individual post. Sometimes, though, these are broken, or pointing to the wrong place.

Another thing that keeps me from doing more is DeviantArt's "mature" settings, which will only people with accounts on DeviantArt can actually see. This means I can't generally recommend a comic because they may not have an account and thus can't view it. That can really hamper the enjoyment of a comic if you have to sign into an account to view it. I don't think any of the comics I've reviewed (God Machine excepted) has any kind of system that requires that, and in fact I outright avoid paid site because, well, I'm poor. At least DeviantArt is free and you can go search for all the naked lady pictures you want, because that's art!

Which brings up the final, and biggest problem with having a comic on DeviantArt: The mods. I can respect that the site is trying to cover it's legal ass. And while I don't like it, at least if a comic on another site goes down I can chalk it up to either the artist not paying the bills or getting a rod up their ass over something. DeviantArt, however, seems to have a rather arbitrary system for pulling art. They can, have and will, randomly pull artwork on the slightest of whims or the mildest of complaints. This means a comic, with hundreds of strips, could lose quite a few, deleting them outright, for relatively minor infractions (or none at all, depending). This third party could potentially ruin a comic with a casual thought, and that drives me bonkers.

They'll claim that it violates the TOS for the site, that they're doing it to protect everyone and all that and I get it, I do. The problem is that what that violation actually is can vary from person to person. I'm fine with seeing naked boobies in a comic, others aren't. I do agree that explicate sex might be a bit much, but others may disagree. Keep in mind there are dozens of mods on DeviantArt, and you can see where the problems can start.

So I don't review comics from DeviantArt, though I have read more than a few. I can't trust them to be there tomorrow, let alone long enough for a review of them, or even to finish reading them. I have one DeviantArt comic I'm following right now, and it's basically a fan comic based on the Legend of Zelda. It's an interesting take on the Ocarina of Time, and I do enjoy it, but I can't give a review because it may just get taken down with little warning or reason.

If you want to do a comic, put it on Comicsgenesis or something, stay well away from DeviantArt, unless you're posting character sketches and such. That's just fine, and probably where they should go anyway.

Next time, I hope to get back to the character thing. I just need to figure out how to word what I'm thinking. Later Kiddies.

The Don'ts of Character Creation

2011-04-22T12:00:00.001-04:00

So last time, I dealt with should be done when creating characters. Today, things that should be avoided. I'm also going to issues the Zeroth Rule of Character Creation.

0.) If you can get away with it, ignore all of this. It may sound odd in a list of things that shouldn't be done to say "ignore this," but there are times when creativity demands it. Sometimes it just fits and feels right, and other times it simply makes the statement the story demands. If it works, do it, but be warned that it doesn't always. Which brings us to the first don't.

1.) Don't ignore these rules simply because they can be ignored. Every choice in a character's design MUST be justified by more than "it's my character, I'll do what I want." Otherwise the character will come out as shallow as their creator. If the design simply violates these rules simply because, then the character is a joke by design and will be ridiculed as such.

2.) Avoid basing the character design on a single physical trait. Specifically things like race, gender and sexual orientation. Characters should always built as characters first, then given that major trait. It should never define the character, how they react or whatever. Starting with these traits often means building on a set of stereotypes, or even a distorted version of those stereotypes. Homosexuals will be flaming gay, women will act like little girls and black characters will be gangstas, few of which are true in real life and will make the characters seem shallow and uninteresting. Also, don't just put these traits on them to make a group of character politically correct. It won't help and will be very obvious.

3.) Don't settle for single ideas for a character. The funny one, the smart one, the stupid one, the pretty one, etc, etc. These are good STARTING points, but should never be the final definition of them. They are handy during initial creation, giving a general tone to each character, but go beyond them. Settling for these simple ideas is a sign of laziness.

4.) Don't reuse body/head types and just change the hair. Okay, there are exceptions here, like if the art style limits it, but given that webcomics are a visual medium, USE IT! Simply swapping out hair between characters that would all be the same otherwise is lazy. Make every effort to make the character designs unique.

5.) No unrealistic relationships. I'm not talking about romantic relationships, I'm talking generational relationships. Sometimes having the villain be the father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roomate just doesn't work. Relationships between family members is even more difficult to regulate than friendships, and need to be considered very, VERY carefully before implementing major changes. Don't just do it for the shock value, the results will be confusion and disappointment.

6.) Don't make the character perfect. Welcome to the Mary Sue section of this list. A Mary Sue is a character that is "perfect." They're never wrong, even when it seems they're wrong, they are loved by everyone, even their enemies. They are exceptionally humble, to the point of ridiculousness, and the universe bends over backward to make sure it goes they way they want. And the real scary part? EVERYONE has made one, often more than one. I know I have. It's hard to avoid. The old adage of everyone being the hero of their own story transfers easily into fiction, and everyone who creates fiction, creates themselves first. Removing perfection is very, VERY hard, and requires a great deal of sacrifice and thought. There are no right answers for doing it either. Hard choices must be made, but the story will often be better in the end.

7.) Don't make the character completely imperfect. This is the opposite problem from the Mary Sue, and often the over reaction to being called out for creating one. The result is a character who can't do anything right, is hated by everyone etc, etc. A character with SOME flaws is good, one with ALL flaws is bad. Redeeming qualities need to be natural though, so don't just tack them on.

8.) Don't make a cast of jerks. We all know what a jerk is, and a cast of them is a big no-no. The reader needs someone to cheer for, and a cast of jerks fails there. Yes, there can a couple of jerks, but a full cast of them is a bad move and will lead to a failed comic. It should be noted that often the best character can be a jerk, but it takes a lot of skill and practice to do it right, and the rest of the cast must be decidedly not jerks to pull it off.

There are more, of course, not that I can think of them all at once. It's better to stick with the do list more than the don't list, because there's more flexibility there. Next time, I'm going to try to cover a more interesting dynamic that characters have. Maybe. We'll see, next time kiddies.

The Do's of Character Creation

2011-04-15T12:00:00.001-04:00

There are a lot of elements that go into making a good comic, art, story, dialog and, if you can't tell by the title of this post, characters. Creating a good character is actually a pretty tricky proposition, and it's even harder to try to tell someone HOW to make a character without rattling off a long list of "don't do this" and "don't do that." I think the reason is that it's easier to make and pick out bad or boring characters than it is to make a good one.

So I tried to come up with a list of what to "do" when creating a character and it is VERY hard to do without saying "don't do this" in the same sentence. I probably failed at that anyway, but let's take a crack at it. And no, I didn't start everyone with "do." That would be silly.

1.) Characters should be distinctive. They need to be easy to identify in some way, and be able to separate them out from the rest of the cast. With comics, the artwork can do much of the work here, and if you want some more details, go read Indistinguishable from Magic, the blog from the artist of Dresden Codak for more. He's got pages of it. That's not the only way of doing it, the character's dialog and speech patterns can help as well. The important thing is to make it easy for the reader to pick out a character without knowing anything else about them, even their name in some cases (though knowing the name helps, a lot). There are some pitfalls here, but I'll cover them next time.

2.) Characters should have a motivation. Everyone has a goal or desire they wish to fulfill, and these should direct their choices and actions throughout their lives and the length of the comic. Sometimes these decisions and actions will seem out of place and that's fine, as long as the character has a reason to seek it out. The more rash the decision or action, the better the explanation for why the character did it should be. The best part: one character's motivation can power entire storylines, or even a whole comic.

3.) Characters should grow. Static characters aren't a bad thing, but they are boring. Just flip open your daily newspaper and read the comics and you'll see a massive cast of static characters, many who haven't changed in any significant way in decades. As the world in which they live changes, the characters should change with them. Some are going to react poorly, but that should be natural and to be expected. Growth also means letting characters go, whether by sending them away or by killing them, as long as it's done with purpose, it adds to growth.

4.) Characters should have flaws. Now that might sound like another way of saying "don't make the character perfect," but that's not the case. When one is told that phrase, they decide to simply pile on random flaws to the character, often without thinking how it works with their personality. Flaws, real flaws, have meaning for the character in some way. Let's go back to the motivation thing, what prevents the character from achieving their goals? It could be a personal flaw, and a goal to overcome with growth in some way. Good flaws can make a character memorable and possibly make a comic great.

Short list, and I'm sure I could think of more, but not without crossing the "don't" divide. So I guess I'll cross the line for next time, hopefully. See you then kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 136 - 140

2011-04-08T12:00:00.001-04:00

Here we are, another batch of old reviews for you to view. Mostly because I have an idea for another series of articles, but, um, I finally installed Fallout 3 and have been kind of distracted. . .

March 14, 2007

136. Nothing Nice to Say - Another resident of the "I don't know what's going on but it's good anyway." It's about punk, the music and culture, and I know next to nothing about it. Which means most of the jokes go completely past me. But, like the Whiteboard (a paintball comic), it doesn't focus all it's humor power on just punk references, and when it does it tries to present them in a way that it's still a real joke. Enjoyable for that, but it hasn't updated since January, so I don't know if it's dead or just on hiatus (seems to go through that if you look through the archives).

TODAY - It updated a bit after this review, then died. Probably won't update again (It's been almost 3 years at this point). I really don't remember much about it, so it didn't leave much of an impression.

137. The Broken Mirror - It's a novel they're turning into a comic. A rather lengthy novel at that. It's a bit wordy because of this (less action, more narration that probably necessary), but it also has barely begun (DON'T read the character section as some of the characters haven't even been introduced yet!). Might be worth reading for a bit, seeing where this all goes, then making a decision on whether to keep reading it to the end.

TODAY - Dead and gone. I've heard that the author of the comic (not the artist) got into a tiff with some people critical of their work and then the site just vanished. May be a coincidence, but who knows. It had some decent ideas and I think it could have gone somewhere, but it didn't and now is gone for good.

138. Punch an' Pie - Speaking of comics that have just started, here's one with only 5, count them, 5 strips. That's it. That's the whole comic (it's why I had to dig out another comic for this review). Is it good? Hell if I know, IT ONLY HAS 5 STRIPS! Looks like it could be though. Good idea to start this one early, you might be reading it for a long time.

TODAY - Five strips when I started reading it, and I never stopped. This is still one of the better relationship style comic I've read. It's had some twists and turns over the years but it feels like it's grown rather than just continued on. This is one of those comics I really need to do a full review on some day.

139. The Dreamland Chronicles - I've reviewed many comics (139 now), and most are hand drawn, a few are built with old sprites, and nearly all of them have some level of computer graphics work done to them before they're posted. That said, this is the only one that is completely, 100%, 3D rendered. It looks like those Pixar movies, so when they don't move, it's really creepy looking. I'm serious on this. Is the comic good? Well, it reminds me of something I wrote when I was 9 years old, only they're trying to make it a bit more mature. Not a lot, but a bit (the main character is in his 20s, which is important to the story actually). I don't think I'll be following it any more, but it's probably because I outgrew it a long time ago. You might like it better.

TODAY - Still updating, I'm still not reading it, but it looks like (from the two strips I checked) that it may be nearing it's natural end. Could be wrong on that, of course.

May 21, 2007

140. The Book of Biff - Biff learns a lot of lessons in this comic. A LOT of lessons. And what the hell is up with his eyebrows? It's got funny moments and certianly keeps me entertained. But still, eyebrows. . .

TODAY - It's a daily strip that keeps me coming back because of, well, weird stuff. It's not the best daily strip I read, but it's good enough to keep my attention. Those eyebrows are still weird.

Enough for this week. Hopefully next week I won't be as distracted. Hopefully. Until then kiddies.

A Splash of Color

2011-04-01T12:00:00.001-04:00

While writing my nominations post, an interesting point came up when I started to pick the Black and White Art nominees: Most of the best art wasn't strictly black and white.

Oh, they were MOSTLY black and white and that was enough to get them nominated, but two of them had a splash of color here and there. The reasons vary, of course, but they stood out well against the black and white that dominated the strip. So why the color? What purpose does it serve? Well, let's look at some examples.

The earliest one that I can recall reviewing was Krakow 2.0. The comic is almost completely in black and white, except for the main character. She had bright yellow eyes. Why? I suppose it was supposed to be a cool thing, but I think it was more to make her stand out. Honestly, Krow's characters pretty much look the same, having similar character designs and facial structures. With yellow eyes, Marlith stood out in a crowd and helped the reader pick her out when in disguise.

Serenity Rose does much the same thing with Serenity, but not quite. Yes, she has a shock of blue hair that helps her stand out, but that's not where the color is restricted. It often comes up when Serenity puts her magic to use, typically with bright green. In fact, Serenity's hair color is the result of her magic, and that leads me to wonder if perhaps that's part of the point of the color. To Serenity, whose perspective is the basis of the comic, her powers are more "real" than the rest of the world. This makes the color mean more in the comic than in Krakow 2.0 where it was just a marker. It visually highlights the important things to the reader, and sets a divide in the world of Serenity Rose.

Which brings me to Dead Winter and the way the color is used there. There are a few full color strips, but those are defined as dream sequences, so okay, that works for me. The main comic, however, has a splash of red. Two splashes specifically, on Black Monday Blues, resident bad ass assassin, and Liz, the heroine. Unlike Krakow 2.0, the color isn't necessary to differentiate the characters from the rest of the cast as the designs are unique enough, but given the nature of the strip, with lots of actions scenes, it does help pick them out in a quick pass. I don't think that's why it's there, but I'm still not completely sure WHY it is there at all. I suppose there are hints of a coming conflict between the two and the color might be part of that, but it's not definite, especially with the situation at hand. Perhaps it means something more, something we have yet to see.

That simple splash of color also makes the black and white art pop more. Straight black and white can be gorgeous, yes, but that simple highlight of color can also change the entire message and meaning of the strip. Serenity Rose would be a completely different strip without the color added to it, and possibly not as good looking in the long run. Dead Winter might be about the same, but I wonder on that and Krakow 2.0 would be almost unfollowable with out it's splash. A good dash of color can mean a lot.

Well, that's enough for now. See you next time kiddies.

Sorry, no post this week

2011-03-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

This one you can call on being lazy. Been distracted by a lot of Let's Plays. Should be something up next week.

Wild Webcomic Quasi-Award Winners

2011-03-18T12:00:00.013-04:00

So here we are, the "award" post of this series. Before I begin this, keep in mind these are ONLY comics I read or have read, nothing else. There are THOUSANDS of webcomics, and I would prefer to include them all, but I can't, so I go with the couple hundred I know about and have read.

Last week, you may have noticed I put brief descriptions after each nominee. One of the things missing from the Webcomiclist Awards was any indication WHY those comics were nominated and/or won. Now I don't strictly think it's necessary to say why the comic was nominated, and really I just did it because I thought it would be interesting, but it did allow me to think about which comics actually deserve to win the award, and why.

So for this, each comic will get a justification. It'll be brief and describe, as best as I can, why the comic I chose was granted the award. This doesn't happen in actual award shows, but then they also have the recipients yak on for way too long, and it certainly didn't happen in the Webcomiclist Awards as they had comics for the actual award ceremony for each category. As this is a purely text driven award here, I am including such statements, and I think they are essential to the award process. Yes, the winner gets the most votes, but why? Something like this would have reduced my confusion over the Webcomiclist Awards and I likely wouldn't have written that original post because of it.

Okay, enough of this, let's get on with the awards. For who was actually nominated, go back to the last post guys.

------------------------------------------------

BEST BLACK AND WHITE ART

Creating good black and white artwork is really hard. Shading becomes far more important and mastery of positive and negative space is essential in order to create great artwork. With this in mind, the award goes to Joe England's Zebra Girl. While the earliest strips aren't nearly as good, the current structure and design is top notch and likely some of the best work out there. Character designs are instantly obvious, and he manages to make a world that is in his chosen medium come to life in a way that the other nominees, and even majority of webcomics, simply can't match.

WINNER: Zebra Girl

------------------------------------------------

BEST COLOR ART

I suppose the winner of this category should be no surprise. I pretty much gave it away in the nominations. Aaron Diaz's Dresden Codak wins this award, and if I didn't place a wait period in these awards, probably would win every year. The art of this comic is amazing, has been from the very beginning, and continues to improve with every strip. The amount of time and attention he dedicates to his artwork is incredible, and reflected not only in his blog, but also the amount of time between strips. A month or more can occur between strips, and you know it will look amazing when you see it. No matter what you think of the stories in these comics, the art is simply superior and worthy of this award.

WINNER: Dresden Codak

------------------------------------------------

BEST NON-TRADITIONAL ART

I had to reach for this one, honestly. I don't read a lot of comics that don't use pen and paper to create the strips, so I had to dig well into my non-read and dead comic folders to find enough nominees. I did, but that said, the winner was pretty much never in doubt. Remco Ketting's Lizzy gets this award because no other comic I have ever read is quite like it in terms of presentation. I originally read this strip in it's non-flash format because I don't like flash operating on my browser, but upon reading the flash version, the entire nature of the comic changed. Animations created the missing sense of scale and movement, sounds punctuated key moments and the interactions drew you into the world. That said, I could easily have given it to Leisuretown, one of my favorite strips of all time, except for one thing: Leisuretown's been dead for 7 years or so. Lizzy, less than one. Sometimes the divide is just that small.

WINNER: Lizzy

------------------------------------------------

BEST GAG COMIC

Deciding who to actually nominate as a gag comic was one of the harder decisions I've had to make. Gag-a-day was the original name for the category, and kind of demanded, well, a gag a day. Going to just Gag Comic opened it up, but even if I hadn't done that, Tatsuya Ishida's Sinfest likely still would have won. Of all of them, this comic feels as close to what I expect in the newspapers as I can reasonably expect on the internet, while also holding on to it's own ideas of humor. There's an innocence in amongst the jokes about sex, drugs and hell that few other comics can even approach and it has earned this award, though it deserves so much more. VIVA LA RESISTANCE!

WINNER: Sinfest

------------------------------------------------

BEST SHORTFORM COMIC

This was one of the hardest choices on the list. Shortform means no long, overarching plots, but as it's not a Gag comic, I expect there to be stories, good ones. And the nominees all manage to do that, but in the end, Tom Siddell's Gunnerkrigg Court wins. While the others all have good, solid stories, EVERY chapter of GC is probably stronger than entire comic strip runs. Some questions are answered, while new ones are created with every successive chapter and story, and it's never quite what you think, sometimes it's even worse. The world is wonderful and the characters are well developed and, well, real to an extent. The other nominees are good, yes, but none really match Gunnerkrigg Court.

WINNER: Gunnerkrigg Court

------------------------------------------------

BEST LONGFORM COMIC

I'm going to get yelled at for this one, if someone actually read this blog. I'm giving this award to Brian Clevinger's 8-Bit Theater, and that should raise some eyebrows at least. A year ago, no way, in fact 8-Bit likely would have been in the Shortform category, but between now and then, the comic ended with one of the longest jokes ever. The setup and punchline were separated by almost 9 YEARS, meaning the comic had a planned storyline from nearly day one, which qualifies it here, and the audacity to actually do it deserves an award, and while comics like Errant Story and Girl Genius are probably superior and would win any other year, THIS year goes to last, great sprite comic of all time.

WINNER: 8-Bit Theater

------------------------------------------------

BEST CAST

The Cast and Character categories were actually the hardest to pick not only the nominees, but the winners as well. So many comics are built on their stories or jokes or setups that characters often get a back seat and are rarely touched on outside of a few stand out moments. Finding comics that require it's characters to prop it up, AND still be good is a tall order. For the best cast, the winner is R.C. Monroe's Out There. It is the definitive cast driven comic, defined for the first storyline being built around two people talking, and it really never stopped being that. The cast has expanded greatly, but it still comes down to two characters talking about stuff, and that's what earns it the best cast award.

WINNER: Out There

------------------------------------------------

BEST CHARACTER

In many ways, writing the nomination blurps helped establish the winners of each category. Best Cast was determined shortly after writing what Out There was about, and K from Sage Leave's Blip was determined the same way. Despite all the weird things that happen in the world of Blip, K remains perfectly grounded in reality, a reality that isn't strictly in her favor. She smokes and drinks too much, cusses like a sailor and when she falls into a depression, she FALLS into a depression. She also bounces back, finds life and energy and is, well, pretty normal. The fact that she forms such close friendships with people that they are willing to dive into the mind of a person who wronged her and do horrible things to him makes her compelling because she could never do it, and that's probably for the best in the end.

WINNER: K from Blip

------------------------------------------------

BEST NEW COMIC

Now it's time to dig into the meat of these awards, the best of the best. New comics come and go, often quickly. Staying power is hard to see early on, so to get this award, a new comic has to show some serious ability and talent and encourage the reader that, no, it isn't going anywhere, and it's going to be damn good in the process. My choice is Krazy Krow's Spinnerette. I'd call him by his real name, but I can't quite find it. Anyway, this comic manages to get all the cylinders firing properly, which is no surprise given that Krow has multiple comics already under his belt and has manged to come up with a creative idea and story direction. The art by Walter Gustavo Gomez is sharp and creative, Krow's writing is witty and fun, and the stories are just right for the tone of the strip. For a comic to come out this strong and seemingly ready to STAY this strong is something rare and special, and should be rewarded.

WINNER: Spinnerette

------------------------------------------------

BEST COMIC

And now, the final and highest award. Being the best means doing everything great. It's not just the art that's great, or the story, or the characters or the humor, or the drama as the case may be, but all these elements combined must be done very well indeed. To one extent or another every comic that has won an award here could have been considered for Best Comic (except Spinnerette, sorry, you got nominated for new comic, maybe next year), but they all excelled in different areas, and few of them did all of them at once. I also have already pretty much stated which comic I constantly think is the best, so if you've been reading this blog, you already know. The winner is. . .

Howard Taylor's Schlock Mercenary. This one comic has managed to do what few other comics even remotely do: Present excellent artwork, create wonderful stories, have a large, colorful, and memorable cast, have almost impeccable comic timing, and most of all, it updates every day. Every, SINGLE day. To my knowledge, it has NEVER missed an update, even when the comic's servers went down, somewhere it was actually updated, and that's practically unheard of in the webcomic community. To do all the other things would make this an impressive comic, but to do all of that AND update like clockwork every 24 hours mean this is practically a comic GOD. It is then the Wild Webcomic Quasi-Award's Best Comic.

WINNER: Schlock Mercenary

------------------------------------------------

Well, that's it, I'm finally done with this string of posts. I do have to say, it's actually pretty hard, especially with a limited library of strips to pick from. Perhaps I was a touch too hard on the Webcomiclist and their awards, but at the same time, I think mine are, over all, a bit better. The definition of each category and the explanation for why each comic won gives this that much extra punch and I hope you understand why I did what I did and chose what I chose.

So will there be another one? Probably not. I simply don't read enough comics to do this on anything like a regular basis. Perhaps someday it can be a more regular thing, but until then, I'll just do my normal thing.

Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Quasi-Awards Nominees

2011-03-11T12:00:00.003-05:00

No, I am not out of ideas for articles and stringing this award thing out as long as possible. Why would you even think that?

Okay, I kind of am. But hell, might as well just keep right on going if I started this mess. This week I'm going to put up my version of "nominees" for the webcomic award based on my ideas from last week. I'll only do 10 of my key 11 awards because, well Reader's Choice would be silly for me alone to do. I've also set the clock to start when this blog did, September of 2009. Mostly to allow for as many new comics as possible. Also, I will be looking at comics I read first, then getting into those I do not.

Got all that? Alright, let's begin.

Best Black and White Art Nominees - Nominees must express great use of line and shading in a predominantly monotone comic.

Deep Fried's Weapon Brown - Using characters from newspaper comics in a twisted post-apocalyptic setting, the Weapon Brown portion of Deep Fried is not only a good comic, but artistically well done, giving life and reality to the wide assortment of characters that inhabit the funny pages.
Zebra Girl - The story of a girl turned to a demon has gotten darker since it's initial inception, but has also gotten more beautiful as the artist explores the wonders of hash marks and other shading options in his black and white classic.
Spinnerette - Krazy Krow's superhero comic features sharp lines and unique poses as its 6 armed protagonist struggles with learning the ropes, and bumbling the entire way.
dead winter - With so many zombie comics out there, it's rare to find a really good one, especially one that relies on black and white shading and the occasional shot of red. The character design isn't realistic, but feels right and looks great.
Serenity Rose - The sketchbook style design of this comic sets it apart even from it's competitors. Like dead winter, it uses other colors only to enhance the black and white world of the comic, making it one of the best looking comics on the web.

Best Color Art Nominees - Nominees must express great use of color in a predominantly color comic.

Dresden Codak - Few comics look even remotely as good as this one. The colors are carefully chosen to match the scene and the character designs are scrutinized carefully. Just read the guy's blog, and you'll see how much work goes into it.
Marsh Rocket - Recently completed, this comic features pages done in one general color tone, giving it a unique look compared to even other color comics. The fact that it switches between colors as it shifts scenes shows a level of skill with color that most artists never manage to pull off.
Romantically Apocalyptic - When it comes to realistic artwork, no comic comes closer than this one. Using photorealistic techniques based on actual pictures, it's easy to forget it is drawn and painted. The parts that aren't actually based on photos show how skilled the artist actually is at their art.
Prophecy of the Circle - The watercolor look of this comic is the defining feature of the strip. The unique look makes this comic stand out even against the others.
Girl Genius - Vibrant colors help make this manic comic about mad science ruling the world pop like no other. Much of the excitement of the comic comes from the colors and it looks great.

Best Non-Traditional Art Nominees - Nominees must show innovation in the use of media beyond simple drawing.

Lizzy - Flash based comics rarely use flash to it's fullest, but this comic does. Using animation, sounds and interactivity to draw in the reader and make this strip great.
Terror Island - Though completed, this photo comic uses game pieces to tell the story, a story based strictly on going for groceries. Deceptively simple, but fun and interesting.
The Dreamland Chronicles - Using 3D rendering to create comics is relatively new, and this comic sets the standard for the format, conveying emotion and action quite well.
8-Bit Theater - The standard bearer and probably greatest sprite comic of all time, this completed comic manages to merge nostalgia, humor and the long joke all into one.
Leisuretown - Though long dead, this comic is probably one of the great photo comics of all time, using static figures to tell complex and engaging stories.

Best Gag Comic Nominees - Nominees must show excellent use of humor within a deceptively small amount of space.

Sinfest - Structured as a traditional newspaper comic, this is the kind of comic that should be in the papers, except that it is decidedly adult in content. Tackling everything from religion, to sex and drugs, it pulls no punches, and is probably why it won't end up in a paper near you.
The Whiteboard - Though based on paintball, this comic doesn't need knowledge about it to understand the jokes. The over the top humor and explosions make this a great gag strip and one that should be followed.
Chainsawsuit - Random humor is hard to do, but this comic manages it well. Using simple figures and running gags, it manages to have something for everyone.
Cyanide and Happiness - Shock humor is something that's even harder to do than random, and this comic excels at it. Not for the weak of stomach, it will keep the hardy in stitches.
Bob the Angry Flower - Bob is one angry flower, he's also quite mad and his comic highlights the madness quite well through a quasi-surrealistic scenarios that cap off a humorous comic.

Best Shortform Comic Nominees - Nominees must be able to tell coherent and independent stories based around a small cast or idea without any obvious overarching plan or story to the comic as a whole.

City of Reality - The idea of a utopia is almost comical to most writers and often it's used as the face for an evil group. Not in this comic, where Reality is exactly what it seems, and it takes a special breed of people to be part of it, and to defend it.
Sluggy Freelance - Is it not nifty? The continuing adventures of four friends, a hyperactive ferret and a homicidal rabbit trudges on with its increasingly complex universe and story.
Gunnerkrigg Court - At first it seems this is some Harry Potter rip off, until you actually read it and find a world where robots and gods exist side by side. Antimony and her friends explore the varied mysteries of the court as well as grow up within its confines.
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - He's a doctor. He's a ninja. He's Irish. His adventures are wild and bizarre ranging from fighting zombie ninjas to surfing a robotic version of Dracula through the atmosphere. And that's just a light day.
Blip - K is a blip, a mistake on the face of creation, so Heaven is on a quest to keep her down, and Hell wants to prop her up, all without her realizing it. Her friends, a vampire, a witch and Frankenstein's daughter, are working to keep her happy.

Best Longform Comic Nominees - Nominees must be able to tell a long, overarching story starting from the first strip that is done in an engaging and interesting way.

Errant Story - The epic tale of a girl looking to pass her final exam and the chaos it causes is moving towards it's conclusion and everyone who reads is along for the ride.
Serenity Rose - One of the few witches on earth deals with her amazing supernatural powers, her personal insecurities and those who would hurt her friends. All with blue hair and goggles.
Roza: The Cursed Mage - Her blood causes fire. She doesn't want that to happen any more, so off she goes looking for a cure. It feels more like a classic animated film than a comic, and is just as rewarding.
8-Bit Theater - Recently concluded, the four "light warriors" quest for, um, personal gain mostly. Their wild antics all come to ahead with the longest joke ever told. And the joke is on them.
Girl Genius - In a world where mad science runs rampant, Agatha looks to find her way in the world, and survive the multitude of enemies she and her ancestors have manged to make over the years.

Best Cast Nominees - Nominees must have a cohesive cast of characters who support and build each other in ways that make each essential to the other.

Sluggy Freelance - Torg, Zoe, Riff, Gwen, Kiki and Bun-Bun form the core of one of the longest lived comics on the internet. They work so well together that even as they are broken up on their own adventures, they still manage to influence each other.
Schlock Mercenary - The cast for this comic is massive and each one is memorable in one way or the other, but they are also generally vulnerable. Their skills still support each other and make an effective ensemble cast.
8-Bit Theater - While many may have their favorite (and most like Black Mage) it's hard to think of any single main character from this comic alone. They are basically one note, each and everyone of them, but the complexity comes from their interaction with each other. Without the others, no one of these characters could hold the comic up on their own.
City of Reality - Trying to explain a practical utopia is hard, and takes a cast of characters that can plunge the depths of it as much as possible. The cast of this comic manages to do this so well that you really need each of them to understand it. Even the mayor, who is a rabbit sock puppet.
Out There - Few comics are almost exclusively based on two characters talking to each other, and even fewer are actually good at it. This comic has it down to a science. What started with two people in a car has expanded to a flexible and strong cast whose even minor conversations can draw the reader in and keep them hooked.

Best Character Nominees - Nominees must be a single character that stands out from the rest of the cast with a strong personality, history or story.

{ … } from Hanna is Not a Boy's Name - Having a character that has no proper name is a daring move, and this comic manages it with ease. Despite not being the title character, he stands out as the narrator and prime mover of the comic. His design is distinctive and his story is the most mysterious and compelling of the entire comic.
Bob from Bob the Angry Flower - There are few characters in comics that are more mad than Bob. He's brilliant, and stupid, insane and the only sane man in the room. And he's a flower who opens canned food with a tank. While there are other characters, this comic isn't just named for him, but it is him, and nothing else really matters.
Roza from Roza: The Cursed Mage - Strong female characters that aren't jerks are hard to find, but Roza manages to pull it off. She's brave, strong willed, and intelligent, all without being violent, angry, or even, dare I say, bitchy. An excellent example of a positive female role model in any comic I have read.
Heather from Spinnerette - The bumbling heroine of her own comic, Heather is passionate about her new role as a superhero, and enthusiastic almost to a fault. Her clumsiness and lack of forethought shows someone who is moving faster than she thinks, something that is more than uncommon amongst most people.
K from Blip - Despite the strange world that dances around (and hides from) her, K lives a relatively normal life. She has ups and downs, smokes too much, cusses like a sailor and has a circle of close friends who are more than ready to stand up for her. She is probably the most realistic character here, despite the wild world in which she lives, not just in the fact that she has no "super power" but also because she is the most like normal people.

Best New Comic Nominees - Nominees must show general excellence in the creation and publication of a new webcomic.

Does Not Play Well With Others - Micheal Poe's (artist of Errant Story) return to comedy is marked by a daily gag strip that just got it's feet wet starting this year and is already showing the old muscles never quite forget their nature. Could easily be one of the great gag comics of the internet.
UnCONventional - A simple stick comic that follows the staff of a generic convention and the trials and pitfalls they run into manages to give surprising amounts of depth to the stick figure characters. It also opens an interesting window on the backroom work most conventions deal with, including an incident with a wild badger.
Road Waffles IV - Okay, it's not strictly a new comic, but give that each episode of Road Waffles is all but independent from the rest, it is unique and new enough to be here. The themes are similar, violence, death and explosions dominate this comic and keeps you wondering what will happen next to this cast, and who will live.
Spinnerette - Part of a resurgence of superhero comics, Spinnerette doesn't as much parody superhero comics as it does embrace those elements, just with a slight humorous twist. Initially it seemed it would go all out parody, but it is sincere about it, even if it does joke around with it. The lightheartedness of the strip is what makes it oh so good.
The Adventures of Superhero Girl - Faith Erin Hicks also dipped into the superhero genre with her take on it. Her friendly, almost innocent view of the genre is also lighthearted, but with less edge and direct humor aimed at the genre and instead rolls with it in a very Canadian way.

Best Comic Nominees - Nominees must show general excellence in the fields of art, writing and publication over the length of the comic's lifespan.

Schlock Mercenary - The long lived sci-fi comic continues its run as Tagon's Toughs seek out the all mighty dollar. The art is excellent, the writing tight and funny, and the updates, oh, the updates.
Gunnerkrigg Court - Every chapter reveals something new about the world of the Court, and every one of them leads to more questions. With excellent art and heartfelt interactions, this comic is definitely one of the great comics of the internet.
Errant Story - With it's end on the horizon, the story of a scary girl looking for ultimate power continues to show off the high art level and writing, all with a dash of humor to help it go down.
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - It was a crazy idea, a doctor who is also a ninja, but the wild combination has led to a string of wild stories that have few peers amongst the funniest comics of all time.
Hark, a Vagrant - The unique nature of this comic has earned it praise from multiple places. It's unique take on historical events, the free flowing but brilliant artwork and the clutch humor make this one of the standout comics on the internet.

Well, those are my nominees. There are some comics that I had to seriously debate putting on this list, but eventually eliminated them for various reasons. Next week, the winners. See you then kiddies.

Designing A Webcomic Award

2011-03-04T12:00:00.039-05:00

So last week, I reviewed the Webcomiclist's 2010 awards and found they were, well, less than spectacular. But I can't very well issue a broad criticism of their system without having some idea what I would do instead, so this week, I will.

Now, before I begin keep in mind that details here can be modified. Time for nominations, who exactly is involved and such can be changed over time, but the core elements presented here would be what I would insist upon.

Picking the winners is actually easy compared to picking out the nominees. There are tens of thousands of webcomics, and since I'm not affiliated with any particular group, I have to consider them all. To help here, there should be three ways to collect nominations, and there will be some time rules. The nomination rules are as follows:

1.) Comic can not have previously won in the given category within the last 2 - 5 years (varies depending on category).

2.) Comic nomination must be for the award year period. Things like "best new comic" have to be within a very specific time frame, other comics can cover longer periods.

3.) Comic must be active for the length of the award year period, meaning the comic updated regularly over that time frame. Only exception might be a "completed comic" award, or "short comic" award.

4.) Comic must qualify for the given category. A color comic cannot be entered in the black and white category, for example.

Initial nominations are elected by three methods:

Judge Picks - The judges of course will have their say in the final vote, but in collecting nominees, they instrumental. Each will be allowed up to 3 nominees for any given category. They will also narrow down the total initial nominations (except certain exceptions, which I'll also get to later). Most likely judges should be divided up by specialty (art, story, etc).

Artist Nominations - The actual artists/writers of the comics will also be allowed to nominate their own works. The restriction is they can ONLY nominate their own work, allowing smaller comics to get in on the awards that more popular comics would normally dominate.

Readers Choice - Speaking of popular comics, fans will have their say, being allowed to nominate their favorites. The top 20 picks for each category will be allowed into the first round of vetting. Probably will be forum based or something so it can easily be counted and tracked. They can pick ANY comic they want, of course.

Vetting is the next step. There will likely be, oh, 100 or so initial nominees for each, and that's way, way too many to ever properly list. So the judges will have to narrow the group down to no more than 5 overall nominees per category. The best initial nominees are to be chosen, and then those get a more thorough examination and the best is given the award.

Yeah, I know, it's a bit complicated, and the judges get a lot of say here, so there should be several of them. Even then, I doubt it'll actually work out in the end. Like many of my ideas, it's probably too complicated, but the main thing is to set up solid nomination rules and the basics of the process. So let's get into the different categories starting with the ones that definitely should be part of the awards, and then a few that I think are neat ideas, but don't think they'd actually work.

Best Comic - Obviously the last and most important award. The best comic should have excellent marks (though not necessarily perfect) in the categories of art, character, plot, writing and update regularity over the length of it's lifespan.
Best New Comic - Best comic started within the award period and having more than 3 months or 30 strips, whichever is greater. New comics cannot be nominated for the Best Comic category and are only eligible their first year of publication.
Best Character - The best single character in a comic. Typically the character should show development, growth and personality that makes them stand out from their peers. Only one character per comic may be nominated.
Best Cast - The best collection of main cast members in a comic. Winners should have an interesting and well developed dynamic with each other, strong personalities and presence that makes no one character stand out without the others. Only for main cast members.
Best Longform Comic - Longform comics are built around a single, overarching story, and while they may have shorter, sub-stories within their length, said sub-stories are there to enhance and define the greater story.
Best Shortform Comic - Shortform comics are built around multiple interconnected, but generally independent stories. There is no intention or design for a single, overarching plot for the comic even if one eventually does solidify out of the mass of tales and adventures.
Best Gag Comic - Gag comics focus on telling a joke, or gag, with every strip and typically have extremely short stories that typically have no, or very few, consequences outside of the original story in a form typical of traditional newspaper humor comic strips.
Best Non-Traditional Comic - The winner should be a comic that makes best use of non-traditional art, storytelling or joke telling formats. Strips using computer generated images, photo comics, strips based in flash and other comics that don't use the normal means of presenting art and story are all eligible for this award, but are NOT eligible for other art awards.
Best Color Art - Comics that feature superior color art in a mostly color strip. Good color art features excellent choices in color (duh), shading and contrasts that make the art stand out above and beyond other comics.
Best Black and White Art - Comics that feature superior black and white art in a mostly black and white strip. Good black and white art features good use of shading, contrast and line work above and beyond other comics.
Reader's Choice - Essentially a popularity contest, the winner is voted on by the readers.

Those eleven MUST be on a final award list. The rest of this list, however, is a bit less sure for me. They're good ideas, but I'm not sure if awards are really necessary for them.

Best Long Story - Single storyline that has ended within the award period.
Best Short Story - Single storyline that was started and completed within 3 months or 30 strips within the award period.
Best Single Strip - Single strip that represents the best webcomic artists can produce. This one is probably an artist nomination only category.
Best Guest Strip (single or series) - Single strip or series of strips from a single guest artist representing the regular comic's characters, personalities and style.
Best Completed Comic - Comic whose run lasted at least 2 full years and ended within the award period.
Best Short Comic - Comic whose run began and ended within the award period.
Best Supporting Cast - Award for supporting characters who provide excellent support to the main cast, either through plot design or simple characterization of the main cast members.

I'm sure I could come up with more as well.

So that's my webcomic awards concept. Hmm, I guess I should give some examples. Well, I'm the only judge, but I'll go ahead and do my own version of these awards next week. Well, the nominations anyway. Until then kiddies.

The Webcomic List Awards

2011-02-25T12:00:00.012-05:00

Handing out awards has become so common even the highest forms of them are kind of diminished, especially on the entertainment side. At one time, the Oscars actually MEANT something, now, not so much.

There have been many webcomic awards, several since I started this blog, but this is the first one I actually sat down and read, for a number of reasons, the main one being I found a link to it. The other is that several comics I read, or have read before, were up for awards. So let's see what they were doing and what I thought of the winners.

Best Writing: The winner here was xkcd, a comic I don't regularly read, but it was up against many I do, including Sinfest, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Bug. Which instantly makes me wonder what they defining as "writing." When I think writing, I think storytelling, dialog and plot, not clever use of math or over using the same old joke, which is what all four of these really do. The only other comic on the list, Oglaf, I've never read, so I won't make any judgments on that, but one has to wonder on this. That said, there is a catagory for "longform comic" so perhaps they wanted something for the gag strips to grab, so why not call it "best joke" or "most clever" or something?

Best Color Art: Dresden Codak won this, and if you've ever seen a strip from it, you know why. The Meek, Hanna is Not a Boy's Name and Oglaf were also nominated, but I can't argue with any of that.

Best Black and White Comic: There were only three nominees for this category, something that bugs me as there are a lot of black and white comics out there. The winner is a comic called The Abominable Charles Christopher, and it's competition was Lackadaisy Cats and Sandra and Woo. Now I've never heard of the winner, but I have heard of Lackadaisy, and I'm not sure Sandra and Woo should be put up against that strip. They aren't quite the same, and as we'll see, Abominable Charles Christopher probably wasn't fair competition either.

Best Non-Traditional - Romantically Apocalyptic won out here, but I'm not sure why. Oh, it's a great comic, but it is actually pretty traditional. It is drawn by hand, just using photorealistic techniques that have been around a while. Dreamland Chronicles uses computer generated figures, so that fits, and the other two nominees, Union of Heroes and Softer World, are photo based (like Terror Island from way back when). Romantically Apocalyptic is very good, yes, but I'm not sure it actually fits into this category.

Best Character: Why did Hanna is Not a Boy's Name get two nominees here? Hanna and his partner are interesting characters, no doubt, but pick one or the other guys, not both. The result is seven (!) nominees for this category, which was won by Cleo from Cleopatra in SPAAAACE! (which they misspelled in the award show, there are 4 A's). Which I also question since the comic is maybe two years old, if that, and one of the other nominees is Annie Carver from Gunnerkrigg Court. Sorry, Cleo doesn't even rank against Carver, who isn't even the best character in her own comic (I'd give Kat the nod myself). Axe Cop, AXE COP, got a nomination for this. Sorry, Axe Cop doesn't qualify here, his motives are based on a kid's imagination and randomness. The other two nominees are from the comics The Dreamer and Imy, neither of which I've heard of, but somehow I'm not sure if they knew what they were doing in this category anyway.

Best Longform: Here's one of the big categories, and I'll tell you the nominees and you tell me who won: The Meek, Gunnerkrigg Court, Girl Genius, Questionable Content and The Abominable Charles Christopher. If you said The Abominable Charles Christopher, I have to wonder what the hell I'm missing. The Meek is a great comic, Gunnerkrigg Court is probably one of the best webcomics of all time, Girl Genius is popular enough to win print comic awards and Questionable Content is oddly popular, but The Abominable Charles Christopher wins the award? Either this comic is the best damn comic in the history of comics, or something odd is going on here. I'll get to that in a bit.

Best Gag-a-Day: The first category was the "writing" one, and featured some very funny comics. So does this one. In fact, it features THE SAME COMICS. Exactly the same. xkcd, Sinfest, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, Bug and Oglaf. Bug won here, and while I think Sinfest or SMBC are probably better, I won't rage on this. What I will rage on is why this category and the best writing category have the same nominees, but different results. VASTLY different. xkcd is a very cerebral strip, yes, but funny, while Bug is much simpler and still funny. So why are they even sharing ANY category. If it weren't for the Best Writing category, this award wouldn't bother me at all, it's fine, but with the EXACT SAME NOMINEES in the other category, I really must question the vetting process for these categories and nominees. Someone didn't think this thing through.

Best New Comic: Aside from Axe Cop, I haven't heard of any of these comics. Red's Planet, Minor Acts of Heroism and the winner, Scenes from a Multiverse, are all unknown to me, so I cannot, and will not lay a judgement here. In fact, Red's Planet already looks good enough to read from one image, and I'll probably check out Scenes from a Multiverse as well. Good choices for nominees here and this category did exactly what it was supposed to do: Get you to read new comics.

Best Comic: Best comic is supposed to be the overall best comic, right? With nominees like Gunnerkrigg Court, Questionable Content and The Meek, none of which won, BTW, that comic has to be pretty damn good, right? So why did Red's Planet win? Yes, Red's Planet, the comic that was nominated for Best New Comic and DID NOT WIN, was given the Best Comic award, over some of the best comics on the web and another called Freak Angels, which I have not read, and may be very good as well. I would say this is because they didn't want to give two awards to the same comic or something, but they did that with the Abominable Charles Christopher. Red's Planet has to be about a year old, or else it shouldn't have been nominated for Best New Comic, and it somehow beats out comics that have half a decade of strips behind them? I don't get it. I'm not saying Red's Planet doesn't deserve it, it may very well, but I find it hard to believe given the competition and the fact that it didn't get Best New Comic for this year's awards!

For comparison sakes, I went and looked up 2009's awards. Here are my notes from that:

- Abominable Charles Christopher won the Black and White award last year, so they really must like this comic to award it again in the same category. In fact, the field was much denser that year, so I will respect that award much more than the 2010 award that featured THREE nominees.

- The Best Writing category actually meant what it should have in the first place. Gunnerkrigg Court won, BTW, bringing it's total to 3 awards in 2009, including Best Comic. It didn't get any in 2010.

- Non-Traditional was won by Dreamland Chronicles, which is fine. Why were they nominated again this year? And what happened to the other nominees from 2009? Did they die?

Now I don't know the details of their nomination process. It's a webcomic list site, so I would assume only comics on the list are eligible, but something doesn't resonate right when comics get repeated nominations for categories they won, and the other nominees vanished without a trace. Why was the writing category changed so much? Was it just to give xkcd an award? How can a comic win Best Comic but not Best New Comic in the same breath? How damn good is Abominable Charles Christopher that it earned three awards in two years, one of them against potent contenders? And why did Hanna is Not a Boy's Name get two nominees for the SAME CATEGORY?

The only other thing I have to complain about is the utter lack of a proper list of winners. The "presentation" was done via comics and I can respect that and enjoy it, but give me a link to the end that tells me who won each category please? Not just the links to the comics at the end of every comic.

I want to make clear that I am not disparaging the winners here. You won, be proud and show it off, but I have some issues with how these awards were given out and the nomination process, not with the winners. I have no doubt that simply being nominated means your comic is damn good and you deserved it.

Next time, I think I'll write out how I would organize my own webcomic award show thing. Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 131 - 135

2011-02-18T12:00:00.001-05:00

Sorry about the odd formatting last week. This blog thing is terrible sometimes. So another batch of old reviews for you to feast your eyes upon.

March 08, 2007

131. Ever After - Watch as Little Red Riding Hood kicks ass and takes names (as well as limbs). This is actually a fairly young comic (very few story line strips, it's stuck in a giant guest strip sequence now, which I could do without, thankyouverymuch) but it has a load of potential. The action is actiony, the art is fantastic, and the writing, well, we'll have to see on that. Like I said, it's young. Might become a classic at some point, you never know.

TODAY - Dead as a doornail. It died maybe a couple months after I reviewed it. Damn shame as the comic looked so damn interesting. I sure know how to pick them, don't I?

132. Starslip Crisis - A light sci-fi comic featuring a war ship turned museum and its crew and galactic TERROR. Doesn't that always follow? It's not as funny as, say, Schlock Mercenary, but it's a bit more deep than Station V3. It's something in the middle. That's not bad, mind you (I like both Schlock and V3), just in the middle. Enjoyable.

TODAY - The name and art style was changed a bit ago, so it's now Starslip, and features more 3 dimensional character designs. The comic hasn't changed that much from when I first read it and continues to entertain.

133. Questionable Content - This batch of comics comes to you thanks in part to this comic, but mostly to this review of the comic. If you are less than mature or a fan of Questionable Content, I suggest not clicking that link. Upon reading the review, I had to find out if what he says is true. So is he right? Well, yes and no. No, it is NOT the worse comic ever (EarthBeta is far worse, with Diesel Sweeties right behind it). In fact, I found parts of it quite funny. That said, everything he says about the nature of the comic ("a group of 20-somethings consisting of guys who are absolutely terrified of women and the girls who terrorize them sit around and discuss their feelings" among other things) is dead on. There are also probably 2000 comics out there that do the same damn thing, this one is just lucky enough to be popular. I think it takes the "whimsy" element (weird stuff that happens, including giant robots demanding apologies) a bit to far for a comic that is, generally, pretty grounded. All that said, this comic isn't going to stay in my read pile. It's okay, often funny, but it just doesn't interest me in a long term relationship. I'm sorry Questionable Content, it's not you, it's me.

TODAY - Still don't see what other people see in this comic. I just don't read it, but I don't hate it (like some other comics that are popular for some god damned reason). Just not sure why people like this one that much more than it really deserves.

134. Brat-halla - So what's it like to raise a god? This comic answers the question. About the only comic that focuses almost solely on Norse mythology (that I've found, I have a few that do Greek), and a rather funny one at that. The art style looks familiar (can't place it myself) but it is very well done and fairly high quality. It's just a fun comic.

TODAY - As I said last week, the comic is going on indefinite hiatus, and is likely dead. Damn dirty shame.

135. Flatwood - The FAQ for this comic suggest that you read it "with all the lights off and the optional oragan music playing." Adds to the "horror" effect of the comic. And it has a point, this can be a bit of an unnerving comic. The character style screams "FUNNY" while everything else says "BOO!" Odd combination and I still can't decide if I like it or not. It's not bad, I'm just not sure if I want to keep it in my weekly grind. Be warned that some of the comics are actually animated gifs, so don't go clicking through real fast, you might miss something.

TODAY - So dead it isn't even funny. The main site is long gone, so all that's left is the Comic Genesis site, and that's about it. I would say a shame, but at the same time, I don't think it was really that good. Weird, scary, but good? I don't know. Judge for yourself on that one.

Well, that's enough. Hopefully I can get the time to get to reviewing that award thing next week. Until then kiddies.

Touching Base #5

2011-02-11T12:00:00.001-05:00

Another edition of touching base to get you caught up on what's going on with the various comics.

Totally Kotor ended last week. The Star Wars based fan comic, with it's simple art style and generally unnecessary use of flash, finally finished up the Knights of the Old Republic (I and II) storylines. While I could give an indepth analysis on the comic, as I did for Girly and Parallel Dementia before it, I think I'll just settle for saying it's done. Considering the artist has two comics currently running (Totally Crossover and the new Special Level) I consider this less a good bye as an evolution beyond the simple constraints of the old comic. Of course, there's always the possibility of it returning in the future (Old Republic MMO is based in the same universe).

Brat-halla went into a hiatus a bit ago, and it has converted to indefinite recently. Artistic burnout and other projects have pretty much killed it, which is depressing, but unsurprising. They want to continue the last story, but when they do it is the question.

On the Edge is also going on indefinite hiatus for similar reasons. I am hoping she finishes Wonderland (an expansion on the basic comic) but that moves very slowly, so I'm not holding my breath on that one.

More hiatus news comes from Shadowgirls. I'm not quite clear as to why, except that they have some sort of book deal in the works and something about changing the "business model" of their comic. Considering it started as and was published as a free webcomic, that may mean they're looking to going to a pay model, possibly purely in print form. Good for them, bad for me as I have no money. We'll see what happens.

Speaking of money, Contemplating Rekio has suspended updates due to some financing conflicts with Google over advertisements. Will it return? I have no idea. I can hope so as I need a little bit of evil in my life.

Sadly, it looks as if Lizzy may be dead. A short comic that was filling in for the main comic ended months ago, and there are no updates, news posts or, well anything, from the artist since.

The Wotch is doing the same thing. There was supposed to be a guest comic arc starting in December, but it never came. The news posts are shockingly quiet. I suppose there might be activity in their forums (there is an active forum community), but I don't read most comic forums, so I don't know what's going on. God, all these dead or dying comics news is depressing me. Is there any good news out there?

Oh wait, Gypsy! started updating again! Yes, there was a bit of a stall in updating through the holidays and most of January, but it's back to updating again, so great. I love when comics come back to life.

I haven't talked about it, but Kiwis By Beat, where the comic Minus was born, continues to add comics. The current strips there are Great and Modern Fried Snake. While Great has been going on longer, I think I prefer Modern Fried Snake of the two. Minus, of course, blows both out of the water, but that's another story.

The Pain has updated, a bit, kind of. Sort of. Ever since the artist stopped getting paid to draw a weekly comic (they were published in a periodical), he's sort of slacked off on updates. Meaning there have been a handful in the last year or so. And not all of them are comics. Still, it does still occasionally update, so I'm fine with it, for now.

Finally the Webcomic List gave out their awards for 2010. Many of nominees are comics I read, but few actually won. I think I'll dedicate an article to breaking that down. In the meantime, you can read the "award show" here. Warning, it's in comic form, and there is no list on the site, which is annoying.

Well that's it for this edition of Touching Base. See you next time kiddies.

Not So Wild Review: Sea of Insanity

2011-02-04T12:00:00.001-05:00

For about 3 years of my young life, I lived in Greece, on the island of Crete specifically. While I regret my lack of exploration (I was only 11 at the time) of the culture and land today, I did get a healthy appreciation of Greek history and mythology. So when a comic shows up claiming to have roots in Greek mythology, I sit up and take notice. That's probably how I found comic 15, Sea of Insanity.

SEA OF INSANITY

So what happened to the Greek gods after they fell out of favor? They're still around apparently, living and working amongst us, and occasionally causing problems. Though in general hiding, a few people are let into this world, including Finn, who simply needs a place to live. There have been other comics that have done this, of course, including Gods and Undergrads, but Sea of Insanity seems to do it better by not going too big.

CHARACTERS

The main human characters are Finn and Gil, our fish out of water characters. Or fish in the water in Gil's case. He turns into a fish randomly. Anyway a fish out of water character is supposed to ask questions and let us get a feel for a story's universe, and they work well here. Gil works even better as he a psychologist and actually brings a different sort of analysis to the gods and goddess than they normally would get in such a story. Finn is the main character of the comic, though not the driving force of it. That said, he is the most grounded of the group, ignoring high minded ideas and treating everyone, even the gods, as just normal people.

On the mythological end of the scale sits Isle and Calliope. Many of the events in the story center on Isle and all three live in her apartment. Isle is probably most important and her relationship with Finn is appears to be the main arc of the story. Calliope acts more as the information board than anything else, but she's been slowly developing a decent character.

There is a hefty list of supporting characters including The Sibyl (an oracle of sorts and her partner, as well as the gods Apollo and Artemis, and more besides. Apollo plays the roll of antagonist in the comic, but makes few appearances. The supporting cast enter and exit cleanly, but few get much screen time and thus little development.

ART

The art of Sea of Insanity has always been one of the odd ducks in the bunch. It's clean pencil, meaning it's been cleaned up, but not inked. The characters are realistic in design and stature, and the environments rather detailed, but it all feels a bit incomplete. Like the inking would finish it and it would be a regular black and white strip, or it should be rougher and be more like Megatokyo or something. It's in a weird area that likely would turn off some people. I'm used to it at this point, and the penciling is so clean it could almost be mistaken for light inks, but it's not the best in the world. It's also not terrible.

STORY

As I said, the story revolves around Isle, her work, her mind, and her rather strained relationship with Apollo. And at the same time, there really isn't a main story. There's no epic tale being told here, just a series of personal relationships that seem to be a story. Similar in structure to Out There, it runs based on individual events but with no obvious direction. There are some hints at a larger picture thing going on, but it's hard to pick it out directly.

The personal relationships, though, bring me back and keep me involved. I want to see what happens to them as the story goes on, and I care about them, but the plot isn't necessary. If it was more like Out There, where you just have interacting characters, I would still be hooked on it, perhaps more so. The individual events that drive the comic are rather well done and brief (well, brief for a comic that updates weekly). They typically focus on a couple of the main characters (or a supporting character if necessary) and try to dig deeper into them as a result.

OVERALL

The comic died for about 2 years at one point, the result of the artist going through some medical hell and became one of the reasons why I insist webcomic artists tell their fans what's going on. I was surprised when he started updating again, and pleased. That said, the comic isn't great. It's pretty good, but nothing exceptional. I think much of my enjoyment comes from my personal relationship with the mythology it's based on. It's probably not worth reading for most people, but I do enjoy it and will continue to read it, as long as he doesn't have someone hit his house with a car again (yeah, that happened).

Well, enough of that. Until next time kiddies.

First Reviews of 2011

2011-01-28T12:00:00.001-05:00

Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an overused cliche because I'm out of ideas!

IT'S THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Yes, the first reviews of 2011 are here, only a mere, uh, 3 months since the last one. Actually, I've had the first couple read for a while now, just haven't gotten three others to add to the stack. And it turns out I have zombies, nudity and new comics from a couple of my favorite artists. So let's start with a comic that is none of those things.

216. Prophecy of the Circle - First glance at this comic and many will write it off as a "furry" comic of some sort. It's not, it simply doesn't have any human characters, but it feeds no fetish. It's hard to find what to call this as it isn't a traditional fantasy world or even a sci fi one. The world is based around two sentient species that co-exist by killing each other every once in a while. Seriously. There's some technology, there are tribal peoples and the other species from the main cast are giant reptiles of some sort. The story is actually interesting, but I can kind of see where it's going, even at this early stage. The art is really good, but with one major flaw: It's hard to tell the cast members apart. With human characters, you can usually pick out features that differentiate them from each other (clothing, glasses, hairdo, etc), but with non-human ones our natural abilities kind of fall flat. Yes, the different characters are different colors and have some different shapes about them, but associating them with names is a bit harder than it normally would be. It especially gets hard when the lighting effects of the comic wash out the colors and make it all but impossible to tell. I suppose that's to the comic's credit that it doesn't rely on stereotypes or other gimmicks to separate the characters, but it also means the comic has problems standing on it's own without a deep about page (called an encyclopedia here). You can understand the story and some of the character motivations easily enough without it, but if you want to know more, you have to dig, which is my only problem with it. I don't know if I'll follow it for long, but we'll see.

217. The Adventures of Superhero Girl - Faith Erin Hicks has done two of my favorite strips, Ice and Demonology 101 and is definitely one of my favorite comic artists. If I had a job, I'd have even bought her printed comic books which have nothing to do with Ice or Demonology 101. So a new comic from her is a treat. Superhero Girl doesn't go the route of parody like the Non-Adventures of Wonderella or over-the-top comic hero antics of Spinnerette, but instead settles for a realistic, slightly humorous, and pretty light hearted view of the superhero genre (and given how actually rare it seems to be on the net, that's nice). In one of the first strips, she rescues a kitty from a tree, with no sarcasm at all. The comic is apparently being printed in a paper of some kind, so don't expect any epic stories and given the tone, truly dark plots will likely never exist. It's a good comic and I intend to follow it for quite a while.

218. Go Get a Roomie - Warning: Nudity. I'll wait for you to get back. For those not going, there are also lesbians. Now to wait for them to get back. Okay, now that you're back, the comic focuses on "Roomie" (I don't think it's her real name) who apparently has no home, so she goes home with any girl she comes across. Then they have sex, because she's a lesbian and they have powers or something. Then one day she runs into the one person her powers don't work on immediately (aka: They both aren't naked in the morning). And that's the comic. It's basically a slightly raunchy sit-com plot. To that end, it's alright, but it's not great. It doesn't go over the top with sex angle like Menage a 3, but it also doesn't do anything special in the joke/story department. Mildly amusing, but there's really nothing here to stay attached too.

219. dead winter - I know I've read a few zombie comics in my time, but few that are, well, this damn good. Given that zombies are almost overdone to the point of ridiculousness at this point, this one manages to do everything well. Well, I guess the main characters are a bit too badass in their own ways, but it keeps the action fast and fun. The focus is typically on survival, personal demons and finding oneself rather than the zombies themselves. In fact, the most dangerous encounters have little to do with the zombies at all (especially since those can be kept out of reach with a mop), but often feature other humans. The art is a touch cartoony, but is sharp and beautiful black and white, conveying the action and emotion of a scene very well, with the only hint of color being a bit of red on a couple of the characters. It is certainly one of the most enjoyable reads I've come across recently (and likely the best of this batch of reviews) and I recommend it.

220. Does Not Play Well With Others - The other comic from past artists is this one, the newest creation of Micheal Poe, the creator and artist of Exploitation Now! and Errant Story. With Errant Story nearing it's climax, he's trying to get back to his humor roots with this comic. How's it going? Well, it's getting there. Exploitation Now! is chock full of over the top, cutthroat comedy material (until the last bit of that one) and Errant Story had humor, but that wasn't the driving force (it was much more dry there), so getting back to it takes time. This comic has really only just started and getting back to Exploitation Now! levels of humor will take a bit. But this is Poe, and I think it'll get there, probably sooner than later. If you're looking for instant humor, don't bother yet, but in 6 months, it'll probably be right up there again. I'll be watching that's for sure.

And that's it for this batch of reviews. Remember, I always accept recommendations (despite having a way too long a list of comics I should read). Until next time kiddies.

Artist Blogs

2011-01-21T12:00:00.001-05:00

A great many webcomic artists run blogs. That probably isn't a surprise, nearly every comic has some sort of news page underneath them. These newsblogs, though, rarely have anything thrilling in them. Often it is just news for the comic, like apologies for late strips or the occasional begging for votes. That's fine, but it takes a bit of extra effort to do a stand alone blog that covers something other than the comic.

That said, there are a few comics with separate blogs out there, but I don't read most of them. I generally believe a comic should be able to stand on it's own, and the artist should be able to communicate their thoughts through it without a separate medium. Heart Shaped Skull did this for the better part of a year with the "Vicious Whispers" series of strips. Those are, by the way, really fun reads (the whole comic is, of course) but they also tell a lot about how the artist wants to see life, the universe and everything. The character (Vicious) is designed to think that way, of course, but I think Aaron (the artist) WANTS to think this way and that tells me a lot about him.

But that's not what this post is about, this is about blogs artists DO operate. Like I said, I don't read many, and really I only read two. The first is by Faith Erin Hicks, of Ice and Demonology 101. Mostly I read it for Ice updates, but I still enjoy reading it when there aren't any. Typically she ends up posting random bits of art, news about her current projects (comics that aren't web based) and random things she finds interesting. Often she does post fan art for other comics, there's even one for Heart Shaped Skull in there. Honestly though, it's just a regular livejournal type blog, and I really do read it mostly for Ice updates.

Which makes the last one I even bother checking significant. It is Indistinguishable from Magic, the blog from the artist of Dresden Codak. This is the reason I decided to do this article, because this blog is actually something spectacular. While I know there are some differing opinions on the story of Dresden Codak, no one will argue against it's art. It is possibly the most beautiful comic on the internet, easily topping even the most popular strips. The fact that it takes him a month to do a strip is understandable given the sheer quality of the strip.

Indistinguishable from Magic makes a concerted effort to explain his craft. He breaks down the secrets behind the art that he does, pointing out such things as color choice, posture and simple layout. Primarily he uses Dresden Codak as an example, but he also goes further afield, touching on other webcomics and even some published books to illustrate his point. Sadly, like his comic it updates once in a blue moon, but there's so much information here, mostly visual, that one could simply read the blog itself over and over again. My art skills are crap, but even I think I'm learning something from it, and I bet those who do a lot of art and comics would do well to read it as well.

Of course, I'm sure those blogs get more hits than my humble effort, but you should still go read them. Lots of fun and information to be had.

Until next time kiddies.

You know the best part?

2011-01-14T12:00:00.001-05:00

I have read a lot of webcomics over the years, and in that time I have learned one thing:

Eventually, webcomics die.

No matter how good or bad a webcomic is, there does come a point when it dies. These are not like newspaper comics that continue to exist perpetually. Newspaper comics are supported by large comic syndicates that feed money into them constantly, feeding a workforce of artists, writers and colorists. It's why Blondie can last 80 years.

Webcomics don't have that. Artists make money alone, from ad and swag sales. Some run the convention circuit, while others are simply overwhelmingly popular and make money that way. I don't think more than a handful are over 10 years old, and they really don't make the kind of money needed to last until the artist is dead and certainly not enough to last past that.

When a webcomic dies, whether it be by the choice of the artist, death by hiatus or simply because the story is over and there's nothing more to tell, it's a sad thing. But it also signals a worse fate is in the cards: The archives may soon go down. Sure, the Comic Genesis and Keenspot type sites might stay up, but those independent sites are under threat of going down the moment the updates stop coming. The internet is not forever, especially if someone isn't paying the bills.

Reposting my old reviews gives me a chance to see if I can find a comic I read, and often the comic is gone, entirely. The website has vanished and the archives gone for good.

That's when the best part happens. When a comic that I thought was gone for good resurfaces. Jeremy did that, showing back up after year or so of being missing (though now it's just in book form, but hey, it's still out there). I was thrilled at that. Life of Riley disappeared long ago, but someone managed to salvage the archives.

The day I write this is Wednesday, January 12th. Today I am excited because I discovered another of these lost comics. Road Waffles is one of my all time favorite comics, but it's been dead for more than 4 years, until now. Thanks to a random ad on Out There, a comic that's very similar to it in many ways (aside from the zaniness), I discovered it had relaunched last November. I'm so excited about this discovery, I haven't even read the new strips yet, but I intend to. Hell, I may even reread the archives again because this comic deserves it.

That's the best part about reading webcomics, watching your favorites come back to life.

You know the hardest part?

2011-01-07T12:00:00.001-05:00

The hardest part about maintaining this blog is coming up with a weekly topic. Oh, I have the old standby of posting old reviews, but I'm running out of those, so eventually, I have to write something else. So here are the general topics and what makes them so hard writing:

1.) Webcomic Articles - Before I started this blog, I figured I had a lot to say about webcomics. How they were structured, what to and not to do, the entire Hiatus article was a big part of that as well. The problem: I've basically done nearly all of my ideas. There are a handful that sit, barely started in the post editing thing, but often it's because I didn't really have a good idea of what I was doing with them. Now I kind of struggle to come up with new ideas, ones that I can tie to comics I have read. That's harder than you would think.

2.) Newspaper Comics - With needing something to fill space, I figured "why not funny pages?" It is where a large majority of webcomic artists get their inspiration and many of them kind of want to be in the paper, though that's becoming less and less appealing. I set out with 4 comics I definitely wanted to do (I did 3 of them so far), but the others are kind of random. And also I have to do research, into all these comics. Unlike webcomics, there's no easy way to read the entire archives of these comics, and in some cases (Blondie) it's probably impossible to do in a reasonable amount of time. So research it is, but that takes time and I need an opinion on the comic before I even start. It really isn't as easy as throwing open the newspaper and pointing. Wish it was.

3.) Touching Base - The entire concept is to keep you guys updated on things going on in comics, like a comic shutting down or starting up. Which doesn't happen very often. I don't like doing story summaries, updating you on what's going on IN the comic, I want to talk what's going on WITH the comic, and that's more rare. The last edition was me bitching about comics that don't update any more, and that is SO depressing. Luckily, most of the comics I read do update pretty regularly, so that's good.

4.) Not So Wild Review - This is MUCH harder than any of those others. I don't write a lot of detailed reviews (the whole concept of the Wild Webcomic Review is quick and dirty), so when I try to go into details, I have to really think long and hard about it. Currently I have Sea of Insanity sitting here waiting to be finished, but finding a way to describe it for a review is tough, thanks in no small part to the 2 year gap in production it had. I hope to continue to do these, and finish the next one especially, as it will definitely fill time on the blog.

5.) Other Reviews - I've only done one, the book review for Silver, and I'm not sure I want to do any more. This is the Wild WEBCOMIC Review, not the Wild Book Review (and it wasn't that wild). It sits more as an exercise in reviewing more than anything else. I've got a few other reviews of various things (including one game) that if I'm pressed, I could post, but I'd rather avoid it.

6.) Finish updating the site - BUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Wait, yeah, I should do that. I really need to get that list page done at some point here, maybe change the color scheme, add some images or something.

Or I could do 7.) Post about why I'm not posting anything this week. Yeah, that seems like less work to me. How about to you?

Until next time kiddies.

New Year Reflection

2010-12-31T12:00:00.001-05:00

Ah, the new year. Take a good, deep breath. Let that "new year smell" fill your nose. Then puke on your toes because you drank too damn much. Sucker.

To help ease your pounding headache, I figured I'd reflect on the reviews of the past year. I've done 25 Wild Webcomic Reviews this year, which is probably a record at this point. A lot of good ones, several bad ones and at least one that isn't actually a webcomic. But which ones were the best? Well, that's a hard question to answer, but I'll try anyway. Here are my top five "new to me" webcomics of the last year.

5.) Lizzy - No other comic I have ever read, or even heard of, combines traditional art with flash animation in such a perfect way as Lizzy. The story, while fanciful, is also grounded in a way that makes it feel real; dirty and rundown. The fact that it's stuck in a kind of hiatus status depresses me a bit and probably pushes it down the list of best comics of the year. Still, this comic is completely worth reading, especially the flash version. That is worth the bandwidth alone.

4. Romantically Apocalyptic - Though there are only about 30 strips to this comic, it is by far one of the most beautiful and mad comics I have ever read. The art is nearly peerless, capable of giving life to the few people and creatures that run around while at the same time making the world look dead in a way that feels real and terrible. And it's pretty damn funny too.

3. The Non-Adventures of Wonderella - There is only one joke in this comic: Wonderella is a terrible superhero. Yet one joke can go a long way, and the comic takes full advantage of it. The comic is funny as hell, and pokes fun at every superhero cliche there ever has been or ever will be. Don't forget to look for the alt-text under the comic images when you read, there's always a bonus joke.

2. Marsh Rocket - Though it appears to be done as a comic (apparently it went on longer than intended anyway), Marsh Rocket is one of those fun comics that I have to recommend people read. It has a rather unique coloring technique, and the story is usually built around violence, typically involving a hedge trimmer. The characters are interesting, fun and the action is done well. The original story is great, and the bonus tales (the last one just wrapping up) are shorter and just as good. Truly one of the best comics I've read all year.

1. Hark, a Vagrant - There is a reason this comic gets so much attention and praise, it is VERY good. The art and humor style are so unique you can identify the artist's work almost instantly, and in a world where everyone does anime/manga style artwork, that is truly awesome. Though each update might have some sort of theme, there is rarely the same joke told more than once, and there's a grounding in reality (due to her historical background) that gives the comic that something most other comics can only pretend to have. All this makes Hark, a Vagrant more than worthy of being the best comic I've read this year.

Funny how all of these are weekly updated strips. I don't think that's a coincidence, typically more work goes into a weekly strip than a daily one, and thus the quality is much higher. Also the archives tend to be a LOT shorter so it's easier to read through.

So what does the new year have in store for the Wild Webcomic Review? Probably more reviews (I've already got a couple set for the next batch), certainly more Not-So-Wild reviews, and maybe I'll finally finish the newspaper reviews. Maybe. Hell, I might even do some self promotion and get more than no one to read this thing. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Anyway, have a Happy New Year, you drunk bastards. Until next time kiddies.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T12:00:00.002-05:00

As I said last week, no new post this week. Enjoy the holiday and I promise something for next week. Until then kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Reviews 126-130

2010-12-17T12:00:00.002-05:00

Another round of old reviews because I couldn't come up with a Christmas themed post for this week.

February 25, 2007

126. Perchance to Dream - No comic has ever made me want to sit down and rewrite it more than this one. The concept for this comic is absolutely wonderful. The ideas, the characters, everything is about as interesting as you can get, right from the first line on. The execution, while decent, though, doesn't go far enough. I'd like to see more depth, more exploration of the topic, try to get into the character's heads, especially Katherine's. I am so tempted to rewrite it, using the comic as an outline, that it actually hurts. I enjoyed it, but it starts to fall apart during the build up to the ending (though not the ending, oddly enough). Worth the read for this dead comic.

TODAY - Still occasionally I think about doing a rewrite. I hold back because I have other projects I want to do, but it's still there.

127. Mixed Myth - Reading comic archives gives you a chance to watch the evolution of the artist as an artist and a writer. Mixed Myth gives me a chance to see a proto version of the artist of Metrophor and is a real treat in that sense. It's also pretty entertaining without being too big on itself. Unlike, say, Wapsi Square, it doesn't let the story's mythology take over, and actually makes fun of it in the process. I got some great giggles out of it, and it does have some interesting takes on characters and plot development (from Cynamatiks to the realtionship between rabbits and elves). It's light hearted fun and it's dead so you can read it at your leisure without missing anything new.

TODAY - The archives are still there and active. Yeah, I know, you wouldn't think so. I have fond memories of this comic, but nothing spectacular. Still miss Metrophor though.

128. Nobody Scores! - 8-Bit Theater is the most consistently funny comic there is. Nobody Scores, however, will remove your internal organs as you're laughing so damn hard. These are not short strips, I should say now, but they are extremely funny as you read through the bulk of them (there are always a few duds). The situations and charcters are just hilarious and tearing up from laughing while reading them is to be expected. Go read it already, it may take a while, but you'll thank me later.

TODAY - It's kind of stalled out. No, it's still funny, it just doesn't update regularly any more. I'm not sure why, actually, aside from artistic burn out. Eventually I may be forced to shuffle it off to hiatus land (unofficial at that) but I'll reread the archives before I do.

March 08, 2007

129. Avalon - Another addition to the dead comic party. Avalon is a high school relationship comic. There, that's about all you really need to know about it, I mean when you've seen one, you've seen them all. And no far out sci-fi/fantasy element to gum up the works. The only downside is that it doesn't end as a comic. Guess the guy just didn't want to do the comic any more and simply posted a summary of how the thing ends. At least he ends it, I appreciate that.

TODAY - I still remember it for giving an ending, even if it wasn't in comic form. Other comics simply stop (especially the long story ones) but few actually make an effort to give closure. Thanks for that.

130. A Miracle of Science - Make that two dead comics. This is actually a pretty damn good comic. It's got its share of the angst bug, but the universe is wonderfully detailed and well thought out. It's paced well, even the final climax. That said, I picked out pretty much how it would end while I was still in the second chapter. Predictability isn't a bad thing, and doesn't really hurt this comic at all.

TODAY - Still a pretty damn good strip and I recommend it highly.

Wow, that's a lot of dead comics on that list, and only one that is kind of alive. Next week I'm taking off, but I'll try to have something for New Years. Until then kiddies.

Newspaper #7

2010-12-10T12:00:00.001-05:00

Open up the Sunday comics page of nearly every newspaper and you'll likely be greeted by two comics on the front page: Peanuts and Garfield. Well, there is a third comic, that varies, but usually those two are there, and have been for every paper I've read, except one, Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper. Last time I saw it (and it's been a while now) the first comic on it's page is Beetle Bailey.

Ah, Beetle Bailey, I've read a lot of it. It's one of the few major newspaper comics that covers the military (I'm sure there are others, there has to be), but it didn't start out that way. When it premiered in 1950, it was actually about college, but less than a year later the star, Beetle Bailey himself, dropped out and joined the army. And he's been there ever sense, never promoted nor retired. Poor guy.

Even compared to Blondie, Beetle Bailey is the quintessential gag a day strip. There are never any long running stories (in it's current form at least), just one joke after another. This also means the comic is frozen in time. Originally it was based on Mort Walker's (the artist) experience in the military, particularly a basic training camp, it just never got past that point. Today, despite Beetle being a private, he's at the same camp he was when he joined the military, with the same superiors and friends.

There has been some changes. General Halftrack had to undergo a series of sensitivity training as he constantly ogled the only single blond female on the came (who also happened to be his secretary). There have been characters who were retired and a few new ones added, but the changes are mostly superficial and do nothing to grow the comic in anyway.

And here in lies the comic's biggest problem: The characters are the definition of one note/one dimensional. They are literally defined by their one characteristic. Beetle is lazy, Zero is dumb, Sarge is hungry and angry, etc etc. For a gag a day strip that's not a bad thing, but it also makes the comic extremely predictable and also ensures that the character will only come up if the joke calls for them. Wikipedia lists 26 active characters, and but I think only half a dozen show up with any regularity.

For webcomics it is the example of what to try to avoid, even in a gag a day strip. One note characters should always be avoided as they often create an endless cast list, most of which will never appear in the comic more than once or twice in a year. A more compressed cast provides more opportunity to develop a joke or even short joke story and maintain the humor over the long term. Beetle Bailey suffers so desperately from the lack of joke material at this point that they created a new character a few years ago (Gizmo) to try to introduce more gadget based jokes and I can't remember the last time I saw the character at all.

I'd say most of the young gag a day strips on the net suffer from this problem initially and those that survive often evolve beyond it. Beetle Bailey is not a great comic, I wouldn't even call it a good comic. The jokes are flat, repetitive, predictable and worst of all dated. It is a comic even worse off than other legacy/zombie comics because the original artist is STILL working on the comic and there's little chance it will develop beyond what it is ever.

Well, enough about newspaper comics. I've got to go do more snowblowing/shoveling. I'm looking so forward to that. Until next week kiddies.

Not So Wild Review: Errant Story

2010-12-03T12:00:00.001-05:00

Back with another Not So Wild Review and this is comic #13. Which is actually kind of odd, considering Sluggy Freelance was #2. That means that of the first 13 comics I reviewed, I no longer read 12 of them, for various reasons. So let's get going.

ERRANT STORY

My first encounter with the work of Micheal Poe came from his previous work, Exploitation Now! I don't even remember how I came across that comic, but I do know that it's run had more or less ended by the time I started reading the archives. Upon completing it, the ad came up directing people to follow his new comic, Errant Story. The comic was, at the time, about 2 months old, and I never stopped reading it. In fact, it remains the ONLY comic I have ever donated money to, not even Sluggy earns that honor. So what's so great about it? Let's break it down.

CHARACTERS

Whenever I read Errant Story, the main cast kind of reminds me of an RPG party, and that's probably on purpose. Each has a specialty and knowledge the others don't and when they get into a fight (which doesn't happen that often) they know their roles and set goals on the fly. They're also completely independent in thoughts and actions from each other. I think often when characters are built for a story, eventually they all come to share the same personality, but not this cast. Yes, they have the same goals, but they voice their concerns and act as one would expect them to despite all this time.

I guess the important thing is that they act in character without being stupid about it. When it's smart not to say something smart assed, they usually don't. But when it's time to, they aren't afraid to do so, at all. The downside is that we really don't seem to get a lot of time with them. It's weird, but there is so much going on that seeing the main characters interact with each other is a little rare, they're more often playing off the situation rather than each other. When they do interact, it's great and tells us a lot about them, but it's usually cut short by the most recent disaster.

Here's my thing, after 7 years of reading this comic, I can't remember all the main characters names. I know who they are, give me a picture and I would know what they've done, but I don't know their names, little of their backstory and what they're doing at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that I read so damn many comics and I just simply don't have the memory space for it, or maybe it's how frequently it updates, but the names escape me. Weird, isn't it?

ART

The art of Errant Story is some of the most detailed black and white artwork you will find on the internet, especially for a comic that updates twice a week (at one point it was THREE times a week, which is even more potent). Character designs are wonderful, detailed, and it's usually very easy to tell characters apart. Usually. The detail of the world is incredible and likely unmatched by anything I've ever read.

It is better than when it started, of course, you don't draw a comic for this long and not improve, but most of it seems to come more in the form of shading and realism than anything else. The line work has been universally excellent and while there have been improvements it's not such a completely different comic as some others.

STORY

This is an epic fantasy tale, a grand one involving gods, people with the best of intentions and whole governments going nuts. It has a deep backstory, with a world history running the entire time, but only recently has this really come to light through the off day updates. I think this is a good thing as dumping this kind of filler description on a young comic would have drowned it pretty quickly, but as the story is nearing it's close, it's nice to finally fit the pieces of the tale into it's historical perspective. Kind of a nice touch.

The story's basis is that Meji, a half elf with poor grades, has decided for a final project to obtain ultimate power and enslave the world! So she sets off and runs into various characters including profession assassin Jon, elf ranger Sarine, fellow half elf Ian and Jon's time ninja sister Sara. They then go play with gods and things go to hell in a handbasket, to say the least.

It's a well told story spanning a good chunk of the world and history. There's a LOT going on, but it's focused enough to be centered on the few important characters to not let it go spinning out of the control. There are some areas where what's going on is hard to follow, but those are mostly early on and eventually get ironed out.

I do want to compare it to the end of Exploitation Now! which was a bit of a mess at the end. It went wild and over the top to the point that it was utter madness. Errant Story doesn't suffer from this as it was actually planned out to begin with, and while I'm sure there have been changes since the comic began, it isn't utterly random and chaotic. Well, chaotic in terms story lines.

OVERALL

Errant Story is a great comic, and while it has a few flaws, one would be hard pressed to find one that's better that updates as frequently and with such quality. It's one of the first comics I recommend when asked, and if you're not reading it, you must not like fantasy comics or something.

I've basically been reading this comic since nearly the beginning, and I know I'll read it through the end and possibly into it's eventual and possible sequel. So go read it already!

No post this week

2010-11-26T12:00:00.004-05:00

With Thanksgiving this week, I really don't have the time for a post. Next week I should be back, hopefully with another Not So Wild Review. See you then kiddies and happy Thanksgiving.

Wild Webcomic Review 121 - 125

2010-11-19T12:00:00.001-05:00

Time for another old batch of reviews, mostly because I don't have time to come up with an article (aka: I'm lazy).

February 12, 2007

121. Daniella Dark - It's cliche to the max. I don't mind cliches, never have, as long as they're done well. This comic fails at that. On top of that, it DUMPS the entire exposition on you like a freaking weight. I don't think the actual comic starts for a dozen strips, and there's only 25 of the damn things. Maybe I could over look this, but the art isn't that great either. It's just and overall bad comic. Don't even bother, not worth it.

TODAY - It still updates, so that's good, but I just don't read it. First impressions are important, and this comic failed there for me.

122. Diesel Sweeties - I hear this comic got into newspapers. I see syndicates are holding up there very, very, very low standards as usual. This comic is actually pretty bad. Not gouge-your-own-eyeballs-out bad, but when that's all it has going for it you know it isn't worth it. The jokes are wooden, the delivery is often terrible, there's this pretentious sense about the whole thing that just irritates me. Worse yet, it has fart jokes. And they're not even funny. Wordy as all hell too. It wasn't so bad when they were doing 4 panels, but at some point it was decided they could do as many damn panels as they liked and you're going to like it. Few comics, very few, have been bad enough that I skimmed through a signficant portion of them. Diesel Sweeties managed to do it, I don't think I read more than a half dozen comics worth in the last 500 strips. Pathetic comic, I'm glad I never have to look at the website again.

TODAY - The more I think about this comic, the more I hate it. It even surpasses my dislike for Penny Arcade and I really don't like Penny Arcade. I hate that I had to put the link up there, but I did review it.

123. On The Edge - Well, that's better, a comic that can actually be funny once in a while is a breath of fresh air. It's not a great comic, few are, but its a decent enough little strip to help wipe a bad taste out of your mouth with a bit of sarcasm and humor. I like the characters too, for some reason. There's nothing special about them, there's no overarching super storyline that makes them stand out, they just seem comfortable. Maybe I needed that after Diesel Sweeties, I don't know. Worth a look at least.

TODAY - I still read this comic, and it remains fun, light and interesting. It even has a graphic novel style comic running at the same time that is going very slow but is just as interesting. Go read it, it's worth it.

February 25, 2007

124. Wapsi Square - No, I don't know how to pronounce it either. It's a comic about a short woman with big boobs and the weird things that happen to her. It starts off as a simple, fairly generic comic, but near the end it starts getting wrapped up in it's own mythology. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it is interesting, but it kind of bumps along. Revelations suddenly occur without any explination as to why, the beat of the comic is off when they start tackling the mythology (and you'll know what I mean when you read it), and a lot of the characters get lost. There are a TON of characters in this comic, and luckily they all look different enough from each other to keep track, but the comic DOESN'T keep track of them, or at least it doesn't seem to. Which is a shame, they are all great in their own way. Not as great as other comics, but a good enough read.

TODAY - The original story line FINALLY wrapped up a few months ago and the comic has started to really open up. I still wish there was more exploration of the characters that don't get much screen time, but I think the increase in simple scale of the images has made the comic so much better than when I first read it.

125. Seraphic Blue - This is not a bad comic. I say that now because I'm about to make it sound like I dislike it. I don't. Alright, that out of the way, this comic is like every anime cliche strapped together. Earth mostly destroyed by cataclysm? Check. Few, select people can defend surviving people? Check. They all happen to be young, sexy women? Check. One has a mysterious past? Check. Etc, etc, etc. It's probably BETTER than the schlock that comes out of Japan, but it's the same damn thing, it really is. It's not bad, not bad at all, but it's completely uninteresting to me. You might like it, but I don't have the tolerance for this kind of thing any more.

TODAY - Dead, about a year after the review. I don't know if it got any better, but I imagine not really. Oh well.

That's it for this week kiddies, see you next time.

Letting Go Part 2: Achewood

2010-11-12T12:00:00.001-05:00

Last October (2009 October), one of the first articles I wrote was on Letting Go, pulling comics that once held a high place on reading lists from those lists. It's a difficult process, comics are habit forming (which explains the zombies that dominate the newspapers). At the time, two comics dominated that idea for me, College Roomies from Hell and General Protection Fault. Today I add a new one to the list, however reluctantly:

Achewood.

I don't do this lightly, Achewood has been a great comic. The Great Outdoor Fight is probably one of the greatest stories ever told in webcomic form. I can think of few other storylines that even remotely come close to matching it, and I very much doubt any ever will. It held the internet by the balls, and everyone who read it loved it for that.

Now? Not so much. The comic has been in a steady decline for some time, occasionally reaching for those great moments and damn near catching them. But it never did.

The GOF storyline was so great, perhaps it should have been expected that it would never again hit that high note, and to be fair, I never expected it to do so again. Still it was enjoyable, for a time, and I kept reading. As of late though, the updates have become increasingly erratic. At one time I could expect two or three comics a week, though never sure on exactly what days, but now getting one a week is unlikely at best. Monthly would better describe it in many cases.

Achewood as a comic doesn't need or require this amount of time to build, not when the pace was much, much faster before. Maybe this is the result of the artist's family taking off, or perhaps the steady updates are being dedicated to paid subscribers, but for those of us who are fans and have no money (or a steady job), it feels as if the comic has come to a near standstill.

The humor, once a touch twisted, has started to fall flat. Oh, there are still moments, but for the most part, the comic has lost that spark that kept me enraptured. The characters feel tired and uninspired when once they were fresh and raw. Maybe I'm growing too old, maybe they are still the same as they always were, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm right.

The last few weeks have strangled the last bit of my enjoyment from the strip. It has lost me in a fundamental way, a way I'm afraid can't be recovered from. Onstead, the artist, once said he finds the joke of each strip to be funny, and if he still is, good for him. I don't, not any more at least.

And so my run of Achewood is being brought to a close. I'll probably go back and reread the Great Outdoor Fight again before I close the book on it forever, but after that, I doubt I'll return to the comic again. Letting go of a comic that held me tight for so long is hard, but it's time.

See you next time kiddies.

Politics and Webcomics

2010-11-05T12:00:00.001-04:00

Since we just got done with an election here in the States, I guess I should talk about politics in webcomics. Which is another way of saying I just randomly came up with this topic.

I have no problem with other people's politics (as long as you don't want to burn books, those people can die, in a fire, for irony). But I really don't like comics based on them. Which is odd since one of my favorite comics is The Pain, which is mostly a political comic. Maybe I just don't like them based on politics I disagree with, but then I didn't much care for the political comics of Deep Fried.

So what's wrong with politics in a comic? Well, it mostly restricts your audience. Some people simply refuse to read comics that hold different political views then themselves. I admit I have a similar bias, there's at least one newspaper comic (Mallard Fillmore) that I just can't stand to read. At the same time, I do try to read various conservative websites and news because I don't want to blindly hate them, but I don't do that for fun.

The real problem, though, is how comics do it. Even The Pain and Deep Fried, which are funny comics normally, have this annoying habit of bashing their message into the heads of their readers. But if I think those comics beat the message in, and I line with them politically to a point, those on the other side of the political spectrum probably have it worse. This comes from the first political webcomic I read, Small World.

Reading that comic was a chore near the end because it became VERY political, and running along lines opposite of what I normally support. The pounding suddenly became concussive and it became hard to read or even enjoy, and in the end I didn't. Now putting the politics into the background is something so hard I can't even think of a comic that has ever done it.

Basing your comic on politics is probably not a good idea because it is VERY hard, and even if you do it well, you'll have to be really into politics to pull it off. Covering multiple angles might help, but I can't see anyone really giving each side a fair shake. It's too hard.

So don't do politics, it's not worth the effort. Until next time kiddies.

Strange Week

2010-10-29T12:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry, nothing this week as it has been rather, um, strange. I'd go into details, but it oddly has nothing to do with Halloween, so it's not very exciting. I'll be back next week, I promise, but this week is just strange.

Scary Comics

2010-10-22T00:00:00.001-04:00

I could save this for next week, but I don't have any ideas for topics at the moment.

It's also a topic I really can't cover because I've almost never read a truly scary comic. The one that comes closest is Flatwood, which is dead. And it really wasn't scary, as much as atmospheric. Even the few comics I've read with lots of gore or monsters or what not never scared me.

I think horror comics, those that update on a regular basis specifically, are generally doomed to failure. Scary stories, movies and even TV shows have a way of getting your attention, holding it and then snapping the fear element closed around you at just the right moments. Comics can't do that because they update every day, or 3 times a week or whatever. You read a strip and then you're on to something else. The tension a good scary story builds just isn't there.

This could apply to all forms of drama, the long waits between strips should lessen the impact, but a good writer can get around this usually. Horror and other scary stories rely so much on the atmosphere and build up, though, that no writer, no matter how good, can really compensate for it. Flatwood, as I mentioned, was the closest to doing that with the atmosphere of the comic, but it fell flat (heh) because once I finished the archives I fell out of that universe and it ceased to have it's hold on me.

The only solution for those who want to do a scary comic is to go episodic. Tell ONE story in a large chunk and be done with it. Which brings me to a comic I didn't review but did mention once (not in this blog) called Nightmare World (it's in flash kids, sorry ahead of time). These are more in the style of a comic book, and tell a series of stories that have a scary bent to them and are really quite good. Well drawn, well told, and a lot of fun. And when they were updating (now a long time ago) they updated it one full episode at a time. Here the comic held your attention, strummed the nerves a bit, and worked, well, like a good horror comic would.

But I still wouldn't call it scary. I guess I just don't get scared easily when I'm sitting at my computer with the cool glow of the monitor staring back at me. I might be just weird too.

Until next time kiddies.

Touching Base #5

2010-10-15T12:00:00.001-04:00

Another edition of Touching Base because I'm resorting a lot of my links.

No Rest for the Wicked officially went over a year of no updates this month. Since the forums are filled to the brim with spam, I don't think it'll be updating again anytime soon. I am depressed by this because it was pretty good and active for a while.

Our Time in Eden has gone on indefinite hiatus due to the artist getting a well paying job. It might come back in a few months, but it's hard to say for certain. All these long story comics dying makes me sad like this. Moreso because I keep reading them.

The Wotch is still not regularly updating, even after a fairly lengthy guest comic spot. Come on guys, post some reason why your comic isn't updating ON THE COMIC PAGE! Would be nice, you know?

Lowroad75 has vanished, probably some server error that has yet to be corrected. The artist was going on an extended hiatus, so they may just not have noticed yet. One can hope they'll get back to it.

Hanna is Not a Boy's Name is getting a sporadic with it's updates. I'm worried it might stop, and am hoping it doesn't.

Brat-halla is also on hiatus (Touching Base #5: Revenge of Hiatus, apparently). Some personal problems of some sort are slowing production up.

City of Reality is also also on hiatus, but I know he's active. I guess doing the MWF thing didn't work well for him so he's going back to building an archive of stories to post in large chapter shots. I for one am all for it.

Apparently I missed that Edge the Devilhunter was going on extended hiatus a while ago. Makes sense as the site hasn't updated in forever. A couple more months and I'll be giving it up for dead. These updates are getting tiring.

Return to Eden is apparently in the final stretch, so I expect this story to wrap up probably at the beginning of next year. That's actually positive news as the strip has continued updating for it's entire story length.

And that's about it. I've rearranged the list (-->) a bit, not much, just to keep things straight. I think I'll add a new section over there: Webcomic Stuff, where I keep the review sites and blogs I follow. Not much there right now (like 4 sites) but might be worth your time.

Anyway, until next week kiddies.

Fall Wild Webcomic Review

2010-10-08T00:00:00.001-04:00

Summer dies, the trees turn red and orange, and then the leaves fall from the trees. A chill wind blows and the sun grows cold. It's that time of year again.

TIME FOR ANOTHER WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Yes, back again for another batch of comics for you to read or not, depending. So what's on the docket today?

211. Toilet Genie - Yeah, that name attracted me too. It's the story of a dog who ends up discovering a genie in a toilet and gets some wishes. The story is, at least right now, a bit confusing. I think they're doing some mythical parallel to the dog story, but it's hard to say for sure. The art is looks great though, and I think I'll follow it a bit to see where it goes from here as what story I've been able to follow has been interesting. I'm not sure it has serious staying power, however.

212. White Noise - The story on this one is probably one of the best paced things I've ever read. It doesn't waste time and gets you into the action, introducing the characters quickly then filling in the back story rather than doing an exposition dump. And it's got an interesting back story that's light on details, but the broad swaths are enough to give you a good idea what's going on. Oh, and it looks damn good too. The downside: It's a slow updater from the looks. Monthly might be generous on this one. This might hurt it in the long run, but for the moment I'm reading it.

213. UnCONventional - I don't often do stick figure comics, not because I don't like them, but simply because I just haven't. Usually they're gag-a-day strips or they mutate into something like the World Explodes. UnCONventional is a gag a day strip, but with the over arching story of a group of people running a convention. I know little about such a scene (never been to one, honestly), but I can tell this comic is really a comic for people in the know more than anything else. And yet I still laugh and chuckle at it. Much the same way the Whiteboard doesn't require knowledge of paint ball to enjoy, neither does UnCONventional. Simple and fun.

214. Shi Long Pang, The Wandering Shaolin Monk - Where UnCONventional is simple, Shi Long Pang is complex. This is a historical fiction, taking place in the past but not about the past (make sense?). What makes it interesting is the vast amounts of history every comic is infused with. Perhaps over infused, actually. The early strips especially have massive amounts of footnotes clarifying the terminology, language and historical personalities mentioned in the comic and initially it felt a bit dry and heavy. Once the story really starts, however, this calms down (but never fully goes away) and you get an interesting, fun, tragic and action filled tale. I was quite pleased, in fact, when I had finished and am glad I did read it, but I'm not sure if I'll continue for very long. Oh, it's good, but I'm not sure if it really captures me well enough to keep me reading.

215. Marsh Rocket - Hope you like senseless violence, because Marsh Rocket has it in spades (well, hedge trimmers at least). The story of a group of corporate mercenaries that get the job done, even if it means severing a few arms, blowing up a building or two and shooting lots of people. At the same time, it's fun, action packed, and actually has some decent story twists along the way. And at least one exploding head. So far at least. Definitely a comic I'm going to be reading for a while, and I think you should too, if you can stand the violence.

Well, that's enough for this round kiddies, until next time.

Girly Ends

2010-10-01T12:00:00.001-04:00

And another comic comes to an end. Third one in the last year.

Girly ended a couple weeks ago. Not much fanfair for it, and honestly it took me by surprise. I really didn't expect it to end, though the signs were most definitely there.

I've liked Girly since I first read it, but at the same time, I wasn't completely obsessed with it. Oh, I kept reading it, but I was never really that into it. Seeing it end doesn't really bother me. That's not to say it's bad, it isn't, it's just not great.

As an adventure comic, Girly was everything you could want or need. From the lovable stars to the wild collection of wacky characters, and all of them had some batshit insane adventure they would participate in.

The adventures are fun, and the focus along with the relationship between Winter and Orta. Which brings me to Slipshine. Oh, what's Slipshine and why is there no link? It's a pay porn site created by the creator of Girly. Yeah, if you've been reading Girly, that should explain the ads and why it looks the way it does.

Never bothered me, honestly, but as the comic wound down, these roots came out much more, especially in the climactic final battle. Again, didn't bother me (Portal of Evil has steeled me from such things), but I could see where some people might be turned, off. Luckily, they probably don't read Girly anyway.

I wish I had more to say on it, but I really don't. I enjoyed it and will miss it to a point, but it's not going to take a chunk out of my daily webcomic run like 8-Bit Theater did.

Next week, a set of new reviews. No, I'm not kidding. Until then kiddies.

A Not-So-Wild Review: Sluggy Freelance

2010-09-24T12:00:00.000-04:00

Not so wild? What is this about? Well, since eventually I will run out of my old wild reviews, I think it's time to got a bit more in depth with some of these comics. You know, actually REVIEW them for a change. Yeah, yeah, I know. Anyway, I'm only going to do the ones I actively read, so this list will be much shorter. And I'm going in order so the first comic is:

SLUGGY FREELANCE

Sluggy was the first true webcomic I started reading, and I never stopped. I like this comic, I like it a lot. I like it so much that it is the last comic I read every day, and has been since I finished my 2 week archive dive (2 weeks because of a 56k modem). So what makes it so good to me? Well, let me try to relate it.

CHARACTERS

I suppose it's cliche to say that a good comic has good characters, but I'm not afraid of cliches. Sluggy has some very well done characters. The core characters of Torg and Riff play off well each other and grew from their more archetypal origins into reasonably complex yet still fun characters. Perhaps only secondary comes the female stars of the comic, Zoey and Gwynn who have stories at least as complex as the guys. And all this from a basic premise that simply threw them together for giggles.

Past them come the various secondary characters from Bun Bun the far to violent rabbit to Oasis the undying. The cast is so large, in fact, that it's almost impossible to keep track of them all, their comings and going and their own stories. While they are not, of course, as followed or detailed as the main cast, they are at least recognizable and can add a great deal to the story.

But don't think they started this way. Sluggy is a 13 YEAR old comic, and much of this development came over these long years. Many characters have fallen by the wayside in that time, and many more were resurrected in much more potent forms as the years went by. Such is the long development of the comic. Despite this, the characters always seem to maintain more than a hint of Sluggy's origins as a gag a day strip.

STORY

This is a funny comic. It was born as one and continues to be one, despite the more serious dramatic moments. Pete Abrams is one of the few artists I've seen that can so perfectly balance the hilarious and dramatic within the confines of a single storyline, or even a single strip in many cases. Even as the comic explores the depths of personal depression, the destruction of entire worlds, or just the death of a single character, there's always a joke lurking nearby.

The stories aren't super wonderful, but just pretty damn good, and have gotten better as time has gone on. The early ones were just set ups for a string of jokes (or worse, puns!) to fill out strips. Later they did get deeper and more meaningful, delving into the characters. Generally, they've been well done and actually damn good. The issues start building up as the comic generates more and more backstory, and again, keeping track of past characters and plots can be nearly overwhelming.

Which isn't to say their haven't been slip ups. Oceans Unmoving is a storyline that failed as a Sluggy story. Not because it was a bad story, it was actually pretty good, but it wasn't Sluggy Freelance. It was a failure because it didn't include any of the regular cast (outside of Bun Bun and Bun Bun, which you'll have to read to understand) and contained a more fantastic premise than had been attempted before, but mostly it relied on building a new group of characters and readers felt lost without Torg or Riff running around.

To his credit, Abrams picked up and this and ended the story as soon as possible and drew the readers back with the old cast in new clothes and new adventures. I think had Oceans Unmoving been established as a separate comic from Sluggy Freelance itself, it would still be going on today, but as a part of Sluggy Freelance, it just didn't work.

ART

A lot of comics start with crappy are and get better as time goes on, and Sluggy is no exception. That said, even the early strips aren't that bad, especially for a web comic. The characters were identifiable and well proportioned, which is odd praise but considering other comics at similar stages, it's actually high praise.

Yet the art didn't really come into it's own until probably the story Fire and Rain, which also happened to be around the time the comic broke away from the old newspaper comic conventions when it came to layout and schedule. Today the art is still comic art, but much more detailed and full. Strips no longer stick to a 3 or 4 panels, but get as large as they need to be to convey the story, show the art, or tell the joke.

I really rather enjoy the art, but it's not the best art I've seen for a comic. It is more than serviceable though, adding that extra layer of realism most comics need to feel great.

OVERALL

Have I mentioned I really like Sluggy Freelance? Because I do, and it stands out to me as one of the better comics on the net today. Which isn't to say it's the best. There are more than frequent moments when the comic falls to the filler gods or updates are delayed for random reasons (not that they aren't good reasons, they're just all over the map). The stories sometimes don't quite hit their marks and again, the sheer size of the backstory is bound to bury even the die hard fans.

But when Sluggy gets it right, it gets it VERY right. Other comics might have better art and stories, but Sluggy is a force of greatness at that moment that is hard to beat. It would be nicer if the updates were a bit more steady though. I say go read it, but get ready for a long read.

Well, that's the first long review. Like it? I hope so, because I'll be doing more in the future. Until next week kiddies.

First Anniversary!

2010-09-17T12:00:00.001-04:00

Well, it's been a full year, and one day, since I started this blog.

It really did start as a birthday gift for myself, to see if I could do it and keep it up, and I'm glad to say I did. If I hadn't gotten a steady job, I think I could have maintained the twice a week thing, maybe, but at the same time, I think I prefer doing this once a week. Easier on me that way.

I want to thank everyone (which is about 3 people, I think) who read it, and even those few of you who actually left comments. Hell, I even got one of the artists to comment, that makes me feel pretty good (of course, his comic was ending at the time, sigh).

So what's the future of this? Well, I don't know. I'm looking at changing up the color scheme a bit, maybe I'll even start, you know, advertising it or something. Maybe. I do intend to have a new batch of reviews before the end of the year. Maybe before Halloween even, wouldn't that be neat? Yeah.

Of course, once I run out of old reviews to post, I'll have to get even more creative with recycling old updates. Or maybe I'll go in a different direction and expand out the scope of the blog. I've thought about it at least. We'll see. In the mean time, there will be more reviews, more articles and more whatever. Thanks for reading this thing, and I hope I can keep it going for another year.

Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Review 116 - 120

2010-09-10T12:00:00.001-04:00

Another batch of old reviews for you to read. Which means I have no new ideas for articles. Heh.

January 22, 2007

116. No 4th Wall to Break - And we end this session with a dead comic. If you hadn't noticed, I do review those, and this is one that probably shouldn't have died. It's not as bad as Jeremy in that respect (died, again, so young), but still sad to see it go. Oh, and it's the third stick figure comic. Not as obscure in it's humor as Cynide and Happiness, and actually a little higher on the art scale (it even has *gasp* characters!). It's almost not a stick figure comic at all. And there's no 4th wall either, they are all very aware of the fact they're in a comic, and they don't care. Enjoyable at the very least.

TODAY - Gone, this time thanks to a computer glitch. Better than just being forgotten or something.

February 12, 2007

117. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - It wants to be the next PLiF. It wants to be it DESPERATELY. And it actually comes pretty damn close. A lot closer than Edible Dirt, that's for damn sure. It doesn't quite get there though. Yeah, it's that funny, weird humor we've all come to expect from these kinds of comics, but it just never seems to go far enough. And you get to see the back of many, many people's heads.

TODAY - And you still see a lot of back of people's heads, but the strip has changed up the formula a bit and now does a lot more stuff. It's better than when I initially reviewed it and I still read it.

118. No Rest for the Wicked - A lot of comics try to play up some fairy tale element in them at some point. Few do it from day one and only this one does it in half as much detail. I can tell the artist loves fairy tales and is very well read about them. It makes the comic a wonderful treat if you know the stories behind them, and it all seems to, well, work. The updates seem a bit sporatic, but I'm willing to wait if it can maintain this quality.

TODAY - Hasn't updated since October of last year. Yes, the comic has really lengthy gaps between updates, but this one is huge. I somehow doubt it will be coming back, but I'll check it through October, then it goes in the dead bin.

119. Kawaii Not - It's formulatic, silly, cute, and insults Japophiles everywhere. I like it. It's not anything fancy, don't expect that, and some of the jokes fall flat, but for a quick diversion, it does the job well. Not much else to say about it.

TODAY - Still doesn't stray from the formula, and I still read it for the simple humor. Again, not much esle to say.

120. Edwitch - There's a witch, living in a house on the edge of a cliff overlooking a city. Sounds like a weird fairy tale story setup, yes? It's not. It's more down to Earth than that. Really, it seems to be more about the main character working against her own nature. Its kind of interesting that way, and it's odd too. Worth watching, for sure.

TODAY - Dead and gone. It died (and was announced dead) some time ago, but I'm surprised it vanished. Kind of a bummer, the story was just starting to heat up, but at least the artist was nice enough to tell people the comic had come to an end. I like that.

Well, that's it for this week. You know, I keep thinking there's something special about next week, but I can't put my finger on it. Oh well, I'll remember eventually, until next time kiddies.

Great Names

2010-09-03T12:00:00.002-04:00

I would have to say that the first thing that gets me interested in reading a comic is the title. That's because it's often the first thing I see, and so do many others. A simple forum post with the poster saying I have to read this comic, and then giving me the name and link can spell the difference between me actually reading it, and skipping it.

Now I could go into what makes a good name for a comic, but, um, I've been trying to figure that out since March. Not much luck. So instead, I'll talk about my favorite comic titles, numbered but in no particular order.

1. Kristy Versus the Zombie Army - Whenever I think of a great title for a comic, I always come back to Kristy. Maybe it's the Army of Darkness lover in me, but the very idea of this title thrills me to no end. One person verses an entire army is awesome, but one against an army of zombies? That is EPIC. Sadly, the comic is on extended (and likely permanent) hiatus, but the title still rules.

2. Cleopatra in SPAAAACE! - I'm a bit of a history buff, so "Cleopatra" automatically makes me interested in this comic. The fact that she is in space makes it even more exciting. But the fact that there are FOUR A's in "space" make this title absolutely epic. You just know this is going to be awesome, so much so they needed extra letters to express it. It also reveals that this comic won't ever take itself too seriously, and that can be a big plus.

4. The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - He's a doctor. He's a ninja. He's Irish. These are his adventures. The fact that the comic is at least as awesome as the title makes it even better. I don't think anyone could ever have come up with it outside of the forum where it was created in a sea of names with numbers in it. That takes a level of creativity you don't see very often, and of course, the comic shows it constantly.

5. Nobody Scores! - The entire premise of this comic is summed up in these two words and a bit of punctuation. Seeing such a title compels one to see what exactly it means, and the realization that it means exactly what it says. So few comics can so concisely define themselves, and even fewer can do it in the title. Damn funny comic too.

6. Here There Be Robots - On old maps they used to write "here there be dragons" for regions of the world where no one had gone before. Robots would have been odd to see on those old maps, but they still fit. The play on the old phrase here draws you to it, but it's abhorrently long update periods ruin the fun.

7. Blip - One word, and that word is something that shows up and goes away again. Or sticks around and cannot be easily accounted for. Either way, that word makes me go "damn, wish I thought of that title." Simple, elegant, and attractive. Plus it's easy to write and thus needs no abbreviation.

8. Anne Frank Conquers the Moon Nazis - Yeah, you read that right. Nazi's, the moon and Anne Frank. If the comic wasn't dead, I'd be checking it constantly to see if it was updated JUST for the title. The comic itself (what there is of it) is great, but lacks the moon Nazis of the title. Disappointing, I know, but at least you get the title.

9. Teddy Bear Trauma - Not the teddy bear! Cute things being tortured in horrible ways always attracts, especially from people who love cute things (no one knows why. . ). Teddy Bear Trauma does not disappoint on this end, and the title is what really drew me to it.

10. Jet Packs and Time Machines - Mixing the two is like mixing peanut butter and chocolate: Only good things can happen. At least until they try making other styles besides regular Resses (white chocolate? Seriously?). The combo is great here, but sadly it updates once every 6 months or so, but the title sounds great and what there is of the comic is equally awesome.

So that's just a few of my favorite titles. One day I'll try to define why they're so damn good, but right now, let's just go with these are them. Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Review 111 - 115

2010-08-27T12:00:00.000-04:00

Back for another batch of old reviews. Hope you don't mind.

January 22, 2007

111. The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - Holy crap is this a funny comic. The concept is ridiculous, but the execution is so spot on that you can't help but crack up into fits of laughter. Everything is well done, and it is about as damn perfect as you can get. Why have I not read this comic sooner? WHAT IN GOD'S NAME IS WRONG WITH ME? Or you for that matter? HAVEN'T YOU CLICKED THE LINK BY NOW?!

TODAY - Still one of the most awesome comics on the net today. NOW IN COLOR! Go read this comic. GO READ IT NOW!

112. Return to Eden - Sometimes you just have to take a chance on a comic, and this one needs it, especially give the massive warning set right at the beginning of the the archive. I imagine if you don't think you'll enjoy it because of that, you'll be wrong. Yeah, it's a little mangany (sometimes a little too much) but it does have an interesting perspective on Heaven and Hell and love and all that crap. Oh, and a bit of action, but not much, so far. If you're willing to go with the flow despite the warning, maybe. If not, well then you probably won't even bother to try. Mores the pitty.

TODAY - The story is on it's last chapter, and it's actually pretty exciting. Oh, it's not action exciting, but "oh shit, the world is ending" exciting. The warning at the beginning of the comic was, in the end, probably unnecessary. Aside from some of the earliest stuff, almost nothing happened later on that required such a warning.

113. Hector! - I like where this comic is going, but figuring out how it got to where it is right now has been an issue. The backstory is, well, limited. That's not a bad thing (and I think it finally explained it, I just didn't get it all). The art style is pretty damn neat, (even when they switch artists and character sets after the first book), the humor is okay, and it might have a more interesting story as the thing goes along (not that it's not interesting, mind you, just I think it'll get deeper). I'll be watching this one for a bit, I think.

TODAY - Died shortly after this review, and I don't think it'll be coming back. I heard somewhere that maybe it moved from the site I found it on, but I see no sign of it. In retrospect, I don't think I'm as impressed with it as I had been, but that may be because it doesn't update.

114. Mango in Dreamland - This comic is probably too young to strictly judge, but it is strange and very, well, Japanese cutesy, if you get the meaning. Bad? Good? Hard to say. Odd, I think would be a good start, considering the main character has magical Kirby powers (the game Kirby), but hasn't even begun to explain why or how this came to be. I'll give you a better judgement after I read it for a bit longer.

TODAY - Died, and a shame too because it was pretty good in the end. Real life, though is always more important than a comic.

115. Gone with the Blastwave - It's like Red vs Blue, only far more violent. They drop a tank on someone for pete's sake! And it was very funny. Oh so very damn funny. Welcome to the end of the world, now go read it.

TODAY - I would love this comic more if it updated more than once every 5 months (okay, it's on a monthly schedule now, apparently). Long periods between updates make it almost intolerable. At least it still updates.

Well, that's enough for this week, see you next time kiddies.

They Call it Filler, Filler. . .

2010-08-20T12:00:00.001-04:00

Wow, an article, must be something in the water.

Filler is a concept that I think really took root in the anime crowd. Anime is often based on manga but since anime tends to move faster than it's source material, the studios have to do something until they can go back to the manga's main storyline. This is filler, stuff used until the main story can come back into play. It can be used in other places, including this blog (see last week), but is actually pretty rare outside of anime.

And webcomics. It's actually funny that webcomics use filler because two of their common sources, comic books and newspaper comics, really don't. Comic books either have such a convoluted story that "filler" doesn't actually exist or they just delay publishing until the comic books is finished. Newspaper comics have something similar, called Sunday Comics, but it's less filler and more a second story line in many cases, and if an artist misses a deadline (VERY RARE) they simply run an older strip.

Webcomics, however, are different. There are no set schedules, few webcomic artists actually make a living on their comics, and if they do have a schedule, they usually are running right along the deadline. Thus comes the filler strips, comics that are usually noted as such and do something that is not artist like.

Filler comes in various forms, and I apologize now that I won't be including specific examples. I'd have to dig through a lot of comics to do that, and I really don't have the time or energy to do so. I'll at least point you toward some of the comics I've seen such filler in, if I can remember them.

The most common filler is the art post. Sometimes it's just a sketch, sometimes something more, but always a random image taken from the artist's files. Typically they aren't planned, though Sluggy Freelance has done it more or less consistently on weekends since moving to a five day a week schedule. I actually think this is the best filler of the batch as the artist still gets to put art up, even if it isn't a comic, and it doesn't interrupt or derail an ongoing story.

Sketched pages of the comic are also a form filler, but less common than outright art. A lot of reasons for this, mostly because many artists are perfectionists that would rather post nothing than something incomplete. At the same time, there are those who don't mind, such as the artist for The Meek. After each of his chapters, he posts (very quickly) the rough draft for it. The situations are often very different and worth reading if you get the chance to see them.

At some point, the artist will take more than a day or so off, and instead replace the comic with a sub-comic. Typically this will be in a simpler style (stickman) or just simply be different characters. Getting away from the main story, even in the middle of one, probably acts as a relief valve for the artist, giving them time to organize their thoughts and notes on the next big plot development. And probably helps the readers wind down a bit too. I again point to Sluggy Freelance because he does it most often, though he does make an effort to have the breaks come between storylines, rather than within one.

Guest strips or guest art are the next phase of filler. I often wonder if artists like guest art less for the fact that they don't have to draw anything, and more because of the ego boost it gives them. It's scary though when the guest art is actually better than the original comic, and I wonder if that hurts the ego thing. Still, that's rare enough that it doesn't come up much. The Wotch is running another string of guest strips, though the reason why still evades me.

Question and answer strips fall in around here. I suppose for the artist, Q&A gives them a chance to resolve story problems that the readers may have been having with the comic, but it is still filler as these answers could, and should, come in the main comic itself. Other times, it's not actually Q&A, but more information dump, an attempt on the artist's part to explain things that they know instinctively at this point, but the reader doesn't. Alpha Luna did this, and I consider it the worst part of the comic. I know WHY it was done (there is no room for explination in the action scene that was taking place) but it could have been done in so many other ways. Then, of course, there is Heart Shaped Skull's "Vicious Whispers" segments that are probably the most fun and creative Q&A sessions I've ever seen. I think it helps that the questions cover just about everything, and at the same time resolve certain points of the universe for the main comic without it being so direct.

Filler is something that webcomics have to deal with because they often don't have a team of artists, extremely deep archives or even the ability to branch into alternate storylines. At the same time, filler is NOT all that common in the rest of the world, so webcomic artists would be wise to try to avoid it as much as possible. Build up deep buffers of comcis, and if you must do fillers, at least get creative.

That's my thoughts anyway. See you next time kiddies.

I Review a Book - Silver

2010-08-13T12:00:00.001-04:00

What? Book review on a webcomic review site? Well honestly, I've been trying to work on an article about comic names since, um, March, and I can't get it to work. So I need something else. Plus, I like this book and I want to expose it to you. So here you go:

Book Review: Silver by Edward Chupack

I've never read Treasure Island. Hell, the most I know about it comes from, of all things, Muppet Treasure Island. So it didn't occur to me that the book named "Silver" was related to it immediately. What attracted me was the black cover with the skull and crossbones. Then I read the tag line:

"My Own Tale, As Written by Me with a Goodly Amount of Murder."

Oh I had to buy this.

This is the purported autobiography of the quintessential pirate, Long John Silver, but if you think this is merely a retelling of the Stevenson's classic, you are very wrong.

The book starts by instantly dropping you into "Talk Like a Pirate Day: The Book." It's not as BAD as you might think, but you instantly know this is a pirate writing about pirate things. To read a book like that is so, different that it instantly hooked me.

The story is just what it says on the cover, the life of Long John Silver, how he got his name, and how he became a pirate to start, a story that began when he was like 12 or so. So yeah, Treasure Island is not going to show up for a LONG while.

What really stands out is the sheer realism of the piece. It's historical, rooting itself in history and setting of the period. While I'm not as versed in pirate matters as I could be, it does feel very real, and the impossible never seems to occur. I think the author took pains to make sure that what he wrote didn't seem to be pulled out of his ass, and set up each encounter and event as much as possible.

That said, he takes a great many liberties with the source material. The Treasure Island part of the book is most certainly NOT Stevenson's story, not by a long shot. Oh, they share characters and rough situations, but for the most part it is a completely different story, one that rolls better with the rest of Silver's story. At the same time, it is still the climax of the tale, and maintains it's importance in the grand scheme of things.

But if this were just a simple "autobiography" and retelling of Treasure Ilsand, it likely would only be just decent as a book. What makes it wonderful is that it's actually a mystery book, all built around the search for treasure. The mystery is presented as a series of clues and ciphers Silver sprinkles throughout his telling of his life.

In the end, the mystery is not WHERE the treasure is, but WHAT the treasure is. History buffs will likely catch on quick, but those like myself, likely won't. That doesn't really matter in the end, as Silver walks the reader through the clues step by step, like he's teaching it, and it turns out he is, after a fashion.

And the tag doesn't lie either, Silver kills a ton of people in this book, and speaks on murder and it's commission frequently and with loving detail. Still, none of this ever comes across as superhuman. He's smart as all hell, that's for sure, but often he doesn't seize on certain clues or acts until it's nearly too late. Once he knows, though, he plans quickly and executes just as well. The fact that he is captured at all is a mystery never really detailed beyond a certain point. He's not perfect, that's for sure, and it keeps him very human, and very interesting.

I happened across this book in the bargain section of Barnes and Noble, so if you happen to come across it, I recommend it. I suspect those who have read Treasure Island will be thrilled at the references that can be found, but fans of the original will be disappointed in the reworking of the original piece. For those of us who haven't read it, though, Silver is still damn good and enjoyable.

Next time, something to do with webcomics, I hope.

Newspaper #6

2010-08-06T12:00:00.004-04:00

When I started this string of articles, there were four comics that stood out as being most influential on webcomics. The first two are Peanuts and Garfield, and I have already covered those. The next two are probably more influential in the long run, even if their lifespans were far less than the first two.

Which brings us to today's comic. This comic was so influential that it spawned many imitators in newspapers, let alone the innumerable attempts to replicate it in webcomic form. In my paper alone there are at least 3 comics that can be called imitators, though each isn't nearly up to task for one reason or another. Amongst the webcomics, I have continued to hunt for a replacement for this comic, but only one has ever truly come close, and it has been dead for a long, long time now. What comic could do this? The Far Side.

Gary Larson's The Far Side is not unique in terms of it's format, the single panel strip, but it's content is so different from what was found in strips before or after it that it remains a cultural milestone and practically unforgettable. The uniqueness of the Far Side starts with the sheer lack of any regular characters. Oh there are animals, especially cows, that all look the same, even the people often look the same, but none are given a name and are adjusted, as needed to fit the joke.

And the jokes were the reason for this lack of a regular cast. While I don't have a picture perfect memory, I can't remember a single joke outright replicated only by changing a few words or lines (maybe a trouble brewing comic or two). There are no running gags, aside from the afore mentioned cows I suppose, so each strip is different. The result is what many call 'surrealistic' humor, but I just call funny as hell. The unexpected became the norm with Far Side, and in the process it became memorable.

The Far Side was only published for a mere 15 years, starting in 1980, and yet is deep in the memories of many of the current crop of webcomic artists (the younger ones discover it early on anyway). This creates a long standing influence as people try to replicate the experience with their own work. The problem, of course, is that the Far Side had no set rhythm or beat, each strip was often very different from the previous one and with no characters to speak of, finding that element that made the Far Side great is, well, damn near impossible. What it was, of course, is that Gary Larson has one hell of a twisted sense of humor and could spin almost anything into a joke, a talent most people do not have.

In newspapers, as I said, there are many imitators that try to latch on to some element of the Far Side thinking it will replicate it. Of the three in my paper, one latches on to puns, another goes for the "weird" angle and the third kind of goes it's own path, but you can still see the influence. The latter of the three is the best because it doesn't try to stick to whatever formula the Far Side is supposed to have, but still goes for the surrealist bent that Larson used. At other times it replicates the last of my four most influential strips, but that's a subject for another time.

In the webcomic world, only one comic has ever managed to match the Far Side in my eyes: The Parking Lot is Full. It does the same thing the Far Side does, but never actually replicating the same joke twice (well, except for the last string of strips, but there was a joke of a different color). It is still the first webcomic I ever read (and reviewed) and I still hold it as the standard that all comics must meet. At the same time, it's still not quite as good as the Far Side. I think it's the edginess that fails it in the end and the forced messages, something the Far Side never really got into.

Aside from PLiF, comics like Cyanide and Happiness and Edible Dirt come closest to the Far Side, but each never quite gets there, each going more for shock and edginess than even PLiF, and that was already beyond the Far Side. Still, that doesn't mean others haven't tried to replicate the Far Side, and likely will continue to do so. It is truly one of the great comics of all time, and it's influence will be felt for years to come.

I'm not sure what comic I'll do next time, but it certainly won't be my most influential comic because, well, I like holding on to those. Of course if you haven't figured out which one it is, you need to smash your head against a wall for a while, because at this point it should be obvious. Until next time kiddies.

Nothing this week

2010-07-30T12:00:00.001-04:00

Been scarily busy with other things. I'll have something next week, I promise.

In the mean time, Alpha Luna has started updating again. I like comics that come back from the dead.

Wild Webcomic Review 106 - 110

2010-07-23T12:00:00.002-04:00

Something good is another set of old reviews. Yeah, I've been lazy this week.

January 11, 2007

106. Sorcery 101 - Thanks to caerbrigit for pointing this one out. It's a modern day meets the creatures of the night (vampires, werewolves, etc) type strip, and it does it pretty well. It's not deadly serious most of the time, but tries to make it clear that certian things are serious (even if they aren't taken that way at the time). What I find most refreshing is that it is an alternate Earth, so she (the artist) doesn't have to shoe horn our world into it. Give it a whirl at least, I'm still reading it.

TODAY - It's not bad, but I'm not sure if I'm really enjoying it as much as I was earlier. I don't know what exactly changed, but I almost think of it as an obligation rather than something I enjoy. That means it's this close to being removed form the read list, but not yet. Not yet.

107. Haru-Sari - Thanks to kodein for this one. I've had this one sitting in my bookmarks for the longest time, and in fact it was only the other day that I actually sat down and read it. Why? I'm turned off by most manga style comics. Aside from a few (Errant Story among them), they generally don't attract me at all. I'm kind of sorry I feel that way because I almost missed out completely on this one. It's less straight up Japanese style than most, and it's actually, well, good. I found myself drawn in, which is rare. I'll be reading this one for a while.

TODAY - The on going mystery of what the hell is going on keeps me coming back. Eventually it should end, eventually, but until then, what an strange trip. Not going anywhere.

January 22, 2007

108. The World Explodes - There are three stick figure type comics in this batch to review, and, well, this is the worse of the lot. Worse than that even. It tries to be funny, in an extremely crude way (NSFW, BTW), but it fails, repeatedly. It's the kind of things preteen boys come up with while trying to figure out if they're gay or not. It's not funny, it's not entertaining, and it's not worth your time. I know I swore I would read more bad comics, but damn.

October 11, 2008 - What a change. This comic is still very NSFW, but the difference between when I first read it and what it is now is amazing. And it comes in the form of two words: Story arc. That's right, he turned this mess of a comic and gave it a story, starting with a play on a fairy tale, and things went up from there. I don't think I've ever had a comic go from the bottom of the list bad comics and get right into my regular rotation, but this one did it. The latest story isn't that great, tried to include too many characters I think, made it too epic, but even so, it is still worth reading now. Sick, isn't it?

TODAY - It's dead, even BEFORE the re-review went up, it was dead. Didn't know it at the time. It's a bummer, actually, even the last story was fun and interesting, but I think perhaps the artist had the same thought I did: It was too epic, there was no way to match it again. Still, I'm glad I went back to this one, still worth it.

109. Cyanide and Happiness - Everything The World Explodes attempts to do, Cyanide and Happiness manages to do in a spectacular fashion. It's funny, primarily, and that alone makes this comic worth the energy. Yeah, sometimes the jokes fall flat, but when they hit, they're great. It's simple, fun, and generally mindless. Go, read, enjoy. Be happy.

TODAY - They've done some videos, animations, and those are JUST as funny as the actual comic. I've even seen this comic IN book stores, in book form of course. It deserves it, this comic is one of those great, silly, stupid comics that you simply must read.

110. A Divine Dramedy - Within the first 10 or so strips, the three main characters get their heads chopped off. Two of them have it done twice. It's alright, they're dead already. Maybe it's because I just got done reading it, but I really enjoyed this comic, probably more than I should have. The art is wonderful in my eyes, the humor is spot on, and the whole thing is just, I don't know, great would be a good term. Perhaps it'll wear off, but I'm thinking it won't.

TODAY - This one is the one I am most embarrassed about. Don't get me wrong, the comic was pretty good, but not as good as I seem to be saying in the review, and I'm embarrassed by that. Which doesn't matter because it's MIA. The artist still has a site (linked) but the comic itself is gone. No idea where it went. Perhaps I should be happy about that, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, enough of this. Let us move on. See you next week kiddies.

Touching Base # 4

2010-07-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

Ah, another Touching Base, because I don't want to post an old review but I don't have the energy to do a full update. I love my laziness!

I'm removing Chugworth Academy from the read list. It hasn't updated since September, and shows no signs of doing so again. I'm holding out hope that No Rest for the Wicked will updated before October (12 months after it's last update) and then that will be shuffled off too. I'm also FINALLY removing 8-Bit Theater from the read list. The comic is done, so it's time to go. Back to Earth hasn't updated in several months, and I'm tired of waiting for it. Unlike Chugworth or NRftW, I'm not that invested in it, so saying goodbye doesn't bother me as much.

I'm also moving Elsie Hooper to the Hiatus category. I think it's dead, but I'll give it a bit longer before it goes away forever.

Moving day for a lot of comics, actually. Errant Story switched to a twice a week schedule, so I'm moving it to T-Th-S. City of Reality finished up it's first 3-day a week chapter, and it actually worked pretty well in the end, though the time reset thing could have been done better I think. No matter, I'm moving that to M-W-F. Templar, Arizona, The Meek and U.F.O. are also going over to the Weekly branch, they update too rarely to justify being in the more frequently checked categories.

The Wotch finally updated again, with another guest artist. Why now? No idea, the news posts haven't been updated since December. Zebra Girl is moving off Keenspot, and is building a new site to boot. The Pain (which hasn't had a proper update in months) is apparently going to have a new website as well. Get rid of the frames!

I mentioned possibly revamping the blog here a few weeks ago. The idea is to expand the scope from just webcomics to cover other things, like movies, TV series and such. I haven't decided to do that yet, mostly because it would entail more work. We'll see though. Hell, I can't even get the time to finish filling in the current blog stuff.

Well, that's about it. Nothing earth shattering, but hopefully I'll have something good for next week. Until then kiddies.

Summer Wild Webcomic Review

2010-07-09T12:00:00.001-04:00

IT'S A NEW REVIEW! HORRAY!

Yes, that's right, I got a new batch of reviews for you guys. It's only been, um, five months. That's actually a bit ahead of my normal curve, actually. So, let's get started, shall we?

206. Romantically Apocalyptic - Welcome to the end of the world! Hope you don't go mad, though if you do, at least have fun with it. This is a bizarrely beautiful, funny, and twisted comic that should be read just because. That said, there are only 24 strips as of this writing, so it's kind of short, but each strip feels positively epic in scale. Apparently they're trying to do a live action movie/short thing based on this, I don't know how to feel about that, but I do know the comic is something that cannot and should not be missed. Go, read it!

207. Spinnerette - I mentioned this comic in my article, Wither the Superhero but have held off reviewing it until it had more than a few strips under it's belt. It's part of the Krakow family of comics that includes Krakow, Krakow 2.0, Marilith and Charliehorse, and if you've read any of those, you kind of know what to expect, but not quite. It's better than any of them, I think, except maybe Krakow 2.0 at it's peak, and 2.0 did not have the best writing. Spinnerette is well written, funny, lighthearted and almost perfectly satirical of the entire superhero genre and idea. Now will it maintain that, we'll have to wait and see, but as long as he can hold on to ONE artist, I think it's got a good chance.

208. Totally Crossover - From the creator of Totally Kotor comes another comic about video games. This one covers a lot more territory, picking on every game of the current year, from Mass Effect to Iron Man, the comic throws the various characters and locations around giving them a touch of TK's madness and letting them fly. There's also a complete branch that is basically like every other geek or videogame comic on the web today. At least it's funny, unlike some comics I can think of (still not linking). It's light, goofy fun, and if you like Totally Kotor, then you'll like this one. And better yet, NO FLASH! Woo!

209. Gypsy! - The main character of this comic, it's namesake and possibly richest character on the planet, is currently non-responsive and sits there like a lump of nothingness. Thus the comic is all about everything happening around her as she's dragged form one location to another by her reluctant doctor. I enjoy this comic, a lot. It's fun, creative, a bit manic, but not completely mad at the same time. Just go read it already, I think you'll thank me later.

210. Bug - And we're back to comic roots. Here's your basic, daily webcomic strip. It's full of silly jokes, some geeky references, and just a bit of fun. It really doesn't stand out in any particular way compared to, well, every other comic I read, and that probably makes it unique in this regard. It's mindless fun that would be just at home in the newspaper as it is on the internet, and I think I'll be following it for a while.

Well folks, that's it. Now to enjoy summer.

Until next week. Yeah, I'll have something next week. See you then.

Re-reading Webcomics

2010-07-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

I read way too many comics. I mean regularly, not just total. That list to the side there is huge. It kind of makes you lose a bit of perspective on them when the numbers get that big. So to sit down and re-read a comic, from the beginning, it gives me a chance to remember why I liked the comic, and to re-examine it from a non-fresh perspective.

A bit ago I visited Heart Shaped Skull and was surprised to discover that the two chapters that had been missing in my original pass through has finally been posted for all to see. Great, I can read them now, except, well, the archives aren't exactly friendly, and the only way to get to the stuff I hadn't read before was to start at the beginning.

Did I mention these two chapters are in the middle of the two that were live the first time through? No? Well, they are, and yet back then, I didn't feel I was missing much. The summaries provided gave me more than enough information to continue reading, and the last completed chapter was more or less a stand alone story.

And yet, as I read through these new chapters (which really didn't offer much of anything I didn't already know) I got hooked and finished the entire archives from start to finish. I can't remember the last time I did that with a comic I had already read. I think maybe parts of Leisure Town, but only parts of it. Damn, I should go back and reread that.

Good comics are like that I guess, that while they're new and fresh, you enjoy them, sure, but you don't really understand your obsession with them until you go back and start rereading your favorite parts, only to find yourself up at 3 am 2 days after starting and having not slept in between. I'm actually almost afraid to try reading parts of Sluggy Freelance, you might need a prybar to get me out of my chair after that.

I read a lot of webcomics on a daily and weekly basis, but the good ones will always stand out. Sure, I enjoy reading things like Eerie Cuties, Sandra and Woo and Out There, but would I really ever go back and read them from scratch? Would it be worth the time and energy? Probably not. But there are plenty that would be.

So I'm glad I spent two or three hours on Heart Shaped Skull, catching up and remembering why I liked it. I'll have to do it some more in the future.

Next week, SOMETHING! Yeah, I don't have much left at the moment.