Wild Webcomic Review Read List Roundup Part 2

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

M-W-F

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Metacarpolis - See my review.

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


T-Th-S

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

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

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

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

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

Not a Villian - See my review.

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

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

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

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

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

Daily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wild Webcomic Review Read List Roundup Part 1

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

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

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

Hiatus

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

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

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

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

Monthly

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

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

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

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

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

Magick Chicks - See my comments about Eerie Cuties

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

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

Weekly

Ava's Demon - See my review.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Triggered!

So a couple weeks ago, in between trips out to the middle of nowhere, Dumbing of Age updated with a very special comic.

Trigger warnings have only come up in one other comic, Sister Claire, and usually it's pretty mundane stuff, typically blood.  And not much blood mind you, nose bleed levels.  I've considered talking about it, but when there's only one example, it would probably just come off as rather ranty, not that this one won't mind you, but still.

The thing is, Dumbing of Age doesn't usually do things like this, and in fact it's the first time a warning like this was outright posted.  So why?

After all, this is a comic that has featured as a storyline, attempted date rape, severe beatings, stabbings, and a man carrying a gun around a college campus.  And these are just the ones I can think of off hand.  A single panel that implies attempted (and a later strip just about confirms that it was successful) suicide isn't that much stronger of an issue really.

And yet, here's the trigger warning, that almost seems, um, reluctant.  Like he didn't really want to post a warning, but did because of other factors.  My thought is that he got a lot of complaints from the gun toting dad storyline, that the readers weren't warned that he might actually fire off a gun or something, and decided that rather than have them complain, again, he'd slap the warning on.  I could be wrong on that, but it seems to fit the fact that he basically tells those who don't want or need trigger warnings to just skip to the comic and actually read it.

It appears that this did start up some sort of conflict down in the comments as they were disabled at some point (I don't have the time or energy to read through to find out why), so he's got a good read on his various readers, so that's good, I suppose.  And his own commentary on the comic featured something about the National Suicide Hotline, so positive stuff there.

That said, I really don't think trigger warnings are necessary, and that those who claim to "need" them are mostly people who want attention in some way.  People who actually suffer from various disorders that can be grouped under Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder typically won't get "triggered" from the sight of blood, or implied suicide.  They'll be set off by a sound, a smell, or, like Becky, simply looking into a room.  Of course, I'm not a therapist, and I don't do much actual research, but that seems far more likely than something as silly as a drawing implying there might be a suicide, maybe (she might have just dropped the pill bottle, it happens).

I get why he put it up, though.  His comics are very popular, and tap into a wide variety of readers, including those convinced that even saying the word "rape" will set them off.  Cover the bases so the money comes in, David, like everyone else, likes to eat.  Me, I don't find any reason for it, and while this might have a better reason than the random nose bleeds in Sister Claire, I find them unnecessary, and possibly a little dangerous.

It's almost a form of self censorship, being careful not to "offend" someone when, honestly, this comic is about hitting that offend button, constantly, and frequently.  While I suppose more of these will show up in Dumbing of Age, I hope they are few and far between, just to keep the story rolling.

And for those who believe they are easily "triggered," go see a therapist, a real one, not some guy on Tumbler or with a Youtube account.  Odds are good, you probably don't really need these warnings.

Next time, um, I think I may have to make some changes around here.  I'll talk about it then.  Later kiddies.

Are Webcomics Dead?

So over on Talking Time Forums (which I still don't have an account with because I'm lazy, sorry guys) there was a thread that asked the question:  Are Webcomics Dead?

Seems a silly question since, well, they aren't.  But that wasn't the question, the questions was did webcomics fail to live up to their promise, and the answer to that is oddly simple.

The point is that back around the turn of the century, when the first great wave of comics appeared, there was this promise of greatness.  It was a new media, a new future and a new way to do things.  The phrase "infinite canvas" got tossed around, and everyone was ready to jump on the wagon to a new future.

What happened to it though?  Where did it go?  The pioneers of that age, Penny Arcade, Sluggy Freelance, Megatoyko and so many others didn't quite go anywhere, they didn't turn into the future.  So why?

Two things worked against it and amazingly it's the same thing:  Money.  I say two because money drove the webcomic community in two different directions.

Penny Arcade, Sluggy and others were the forefront of the webcomic revolution, and they became very, VERY popular.  In those days, making money off the internet came down to ads, lots of ads, and being very popular meant that the ads made a lot of money.

This resulted in some odd confluences of events.  Penny Arcade began to sell their comics as ads themselves (something they supposedly stopped doing, but whose to say for sure), and as a result the comic didn't innovate any more because, well, that wasn't an ad.  And when they did try, the result was similar to what happened with Sluggy and Oceans Unmoving:  backlash.

Being very popular meant the readers wanted one particular thing and woe to those who went against it.  I mentioned that the doldrums of Sluggy were because Pete Abrams liked to eat and I am not kidding, he backed off quickly and tried to hold on to his audience after they rebelled.  This meant stagnation for many comics, and the promise that they held back in 2000 looked weaker by the moment.

The other direction was still money, and the fact that the vast majority of comics, well, are NOT popular, at all, and in an ad based economy, they simply couldn't support the artist directly.  They like to eat too, but that meant they had to do actual work to support themselves.  The comic became less and less of a priority.  A great many comics curled up and died as the artists, who were mostly high school or college students, had to go out to earn a living.  They took short cuts to get the comic out quicker, or just stopped updating all together.  Those that bought their own domains with visions of glory in their future ended up vanishing into the ether that is the internet.

That's not to say none of what was promised with webcomics never happened, it did.  Comics like Sunstone (NSFW) and Bloodstain take full advantage of the infinite canvas to stretch their comics out to amazing sizes and directions.  City of Reality and Lizzy (sadly gone) take full advantage of flash as a medium and explored how comics could be more than just a static image on the page, often adding sound and interaction to the subject.  It's just hard to make money on ads, and the only other options, the con circuit (which the Devil's Panties does successfully) and books don't really work well with those amazing formats.  The innovation is there, it just doesn't translate to the world where money is to be made, not without a lot of work.

So from those two directions it appears webcomics failed, and instead just became another branch of the comic medium.  That's not a bad thing, and it has happened before and will likely happen again.  I mentioned about "internet reviewers" back in my Going Critical article, and they've been in a rapid decline for the last few years, especially as Blip.tv closed.  Facebook and mobile gaming have experienced the same decline, if not faster.  The "new media" that the interent was set to introduce failed because, well, there just wasn't money in it.

Then came Pateron.  The problem of money is now becoming less of an issue.  Pateron does still over feds the popular comics (see Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal's Pateron), but it means that even smaller comics can make something more than the pennies on the ad that is available today.  In the meantime, comics are backing away from the models Penny Arcade and Sluggy Freelance set up, becoming a branch of independent comics.

In my opinion, the Golden Age of webcomics is now long past, and while we still see their legacy, the current age is far more interesting.  Even now, the Pateron Age of comics is growing to the point that I'd almost have to list the comics that DON'T have a Pateron verses all the ones that do.  Through this the creativity promised back in the day might actually come to the forefront and great things are destined to follow.

Webcomics aren't dead, nor did they fail, it just took a bit longer to get there and those that sought to lead are just dragging the rest down.

Until next time kiddies, still in a trailer in Texas.  House soon, I hope.  Later.

Gunning of Age part 2 and Dumberkrigg Court

I couldn't help the title.

Despite the last few weeks being an absolute mess, I am making an effort to stay up on things.

Dumbing of Age more or less finished it's story about a father, his daughter and the gun he brought to drag her ass home.  It ended with Joyce punching him out.  I haven't read any of Willis' other works, but I do remember a panel I saw from Get Walky, I think, where Joyce was powered up like a Super Saien, so I suppose this is likely in character for her from that.  From DoA itself, it is more a sign that while she tries to be the nice girl, when push comes to shove, she will break you in half if you tick her off.

While I'm still not sure about whether it was meant to be a commentary on the shootings that happened right before it started, I think it was very well done.  No one got shot, though someone did nearly get crushed by a car, twice.  Fun.  The ending, though, was probably the most important, when Joyce say's she misses home, but every time it comes to visit her, she begins to hate it.  I have heard that Willis had a similar, general experience (Joyce is him working out those demons apparently), so this is probably very much what he felt during such a transition.  I really should read some of the other comics in group, just to see if that stuff comes to the surface there.

Gunnerkrigg Court, meanwhile, had Annie finally reunited with her inner flame and filled with determination, and fire, to retrieve Reynard from her father.  She banged on the door, demanded him back, and Tony gave him to her.  Chapter end.  Yeah, that was it, that was the whole chapter.  A title page and a single page.

I think it's partly a response to all the fan noise around the current storyline, and party an attempt to add some levity that has been sorely missing as of late.  I love the timing of it, the set up and all.  He even carried right on through with post chapter page.  And of course Coyote could be blamed for it all.

So while I'm still stupid busy (oddly this is the SLOW season), I hope to be back to do the last Volume of Errant Story and I hope to have it all finished by the end of November.  No promises, there's some job I may have to do which involves Walmart and Black Friday.  If I die, I'll have someone say something.  Until then kiddies.

Gunning of Age

So as I was finishing last week's edition of The Classic, I was reading my comics and I came to Dumbing of Age.

David Willis' comic is a quasi reboot of his many other comics, none of which I've read (I've seen maybe 3 strips of Shortpacked, maybe).  I say quasi reboot because he turned back the clock on all of them and sent them to college.  There they deal with the common tropes of college and a lot of LGBT stuff because. . . I guess because it's topical, but that's hard to say because again, I've never read any of the other comics.

Then someone pulled out a gun.

Backing up.  Becky is Joyce's is best friend from home.  Becky randomly arrived at the school to visit Joyce, but mostly she was running away after being kicked out of the all Christian school she was sent to because, well, she's gay.  Her father came looking for her and it looked, initially, like it would be a hijinks thing where he would nearly catch his daughter, but something would get in the way.  Pretty standard stuff, and if well done could be a pretty funny running gag.

Then he randomly spots her and pulls out a shotgun.  Considering this was just after a series of actual shootings on college campuses, I have to wonder at the timing of this.  I know most comic artists don't keep extensive buffers (Howard Talyor is an exception rather than the rule), so it's possible that Willis decided to change this route right after the real world events happened, it could also just be a coincidence.

It's kind of ballsy to take on such an event directly, even if the opening move was a Jurassic Park joke.  The point is that such tragedies are hard to joke about, at least right away, and given the more realistic nature of Dumbing of Age, odds are good this will not have a good ending, something even pointed out within the comic itself.

The storyline isn't over yet, but it's likely not going to have a happy ending.  I suspect that someone will be shot (not killed, shot, there is a difference), and originally I thought it might be Joyce, but that's probably a bridge too far at the moment.  Still, when it ends, I'll try to follow up on it.

Until next time kiddies.

Sympathy for the Devil

Talking about Errant Story reminds me of an article I did about villains last year.  While I will go into more detail at the end of The Classic, Ian is never portrayed as an irredeemable villain, a monster or otherwise.  The reader gets to know him early on and comes to sympathize with him and his decisions, to the point that some are just fine with the genocide he attempts.  Maybe that went a little too far.

Still, presenting the "villain" (and I use quotes for a reason you'll soon see) in a sympathetic light is a good idea.  Almost no one is purely good or evil, not even the Austrian corporal we all know and loath.  This creates a complete character, one that is more than just a cardboard cutout of a villain.

Gunnerkrigg Court does this pretty much across the board.  Many characters do not-nice-things, but I doubt many, if any of them, can be called outright evil.  While many fans were suspecious of various characters, none would say so and so is a villain, evil, or the devil.

Then came Chapter 51:  The Tree, and everything went nuts.

Anthony Carver is Antimony's father and has been basically absent from the entire proceedings since the comic began.  The only times we saw him was in flash backs to his childhood, and then there was a phone call in Chapter 37 which seems to have lead to Annie being placed in a coma in Chapter 38.  Zimmy says outright it was Annie's father, but why?  What was he trying to do?  Was it on purpose or an accident?  As I suggested sometime after the event, maybe he wasn't responsible at all.  Like many of the characters in the Court, he was met with suspicion, but nothing more.

Then he shows up as a biology teacher and careens through the comic, and the fandom, like a mad bulldozer.  I won't get into specifics, but in the span of one chapter, Tony went from being a background character of some minor importance and interest, to being the Devil himself, someone irredeemable in every way shape and form.  Watching this develop amongst the various fan groups (not even the official forums, where I hear it was far, far worse) was amazing and terrifying.  The sheer hatred some expressed for him was unbelievable.

The following chapter, 52, made things even worse.  Annie seemed to regress in a way that angered many, at least one declared they weren't following the comic any more because of it, and they all blamed Tony for ruining her character.  We saw a bit more of what was going on, but it only from outside of Tony's perspective, and that just made things worse.  The rage over this one character was amazing, remarkable, and unbelievable.

Chapter 53:  Annie and the Fire clarified a few of the issues.  Annie cut her own hair in order to remain in control of her emotions, that wasn't dictated by her father as many suspected, and the loose fire spirit that resulted is, um, well independent, but incorporeal.

The real gem though was that we finally got to hear Tony's side of the story.  The incdent with Annie's illness was explained (it wasn't meant to hurt Annie, and he was glad Zimmy sucker punched him before it finished).  Why he was coming down so hard on her was also partially explained, and I will admit I guessed it, as he was protecting her from the Court itself.  The real meat was his reaction to Surma (that's Annie's mom) dying, and the fact that he couldn't save her.  It ripped him up and, as Coyote says in the next chapter, he's a Broken Man because of it.

Donald, Kat's dad and the one who got Tony to open up to him and secretly Annie, made a point about the whole exchange.  It explains why he did it, but doesn't excuse it.  Yes, he did some horrible things, and will never win father of the year, but he did so because he felt it was the best, perhaps the only, way to protect his daughter.

Eventually, Annie and her father will have to confront each other on all of this.  It will either be very messy, or very heart breaking.  Possibly both.  When that happens, though, I think this entire sequence will be justified and I look forward to it.  Still, there is a lot of rage at Anthony, and it won't be going away any time soon.

I think Tom Siddell knows this, and tried to show a mirror up to his fans with the opening of Chapter 53, showing a raging fire spirit, impotent to destroy her environment, attempt to use sheer rage to burn a picture of young Tony she happened to see.  And when the chapter was all over, Annie calmly says "see, he had his reasons" and the spirit went into yet another rage, just like the fans themselves.

Next time, um, maybe a Touching Base.  Nasty busy week coming.  Until then kiddies.

Spending a little money

Actually, a lot of money because damn was that trip expensive.  1300 in car repairs (don't ask), 300 in gas, 200 for the room, 170 for my "ticket" plus all that I spent on food, my trip last week was a drain both financially and physically.  Still worth it.  More worth it was upon returning home I got where another 20 dollars went just before I left.

In the midst of talking way too much about Errant Story, I opened with a reminder that Errant Story remains the only comic I have ever given money to.  It was five dollars, and I don't remember exactly when.  Poe made an extra appeal one day and I had some cash in my paypal account, so I shot it over.  A bit later, because paypal has my address attached, I received a little pin with Ellis on it.

It's not that I don't like spending money, my random collection of junk and shit ton of books says otherwise.  The issue is that for a long time, I didn't have any extra money to spend.  Good timing led to my donation, nothing more.  There have been a LOT of comics I've considered donating, buying, or even joining in a Pateron for, I just don't because, well, I didn't have the money once, and it's made me very frugal ever since.

I take a lot of time and thinking before I spend money on something I'm not sure of.  Sure, I'll buy a couple books or some chips at random, but I'll think for a good 30 minutes on a computer chair, even when my current one is crap.  And I don't mean looking for it, I mean finding it and debating if it's still worth it.  Impulse buys are not my thing, and of course the internet is built on impulse buying.

Still, with my current income and my love for webcomics, I suppose I should spend more on them.  There are a LOT of great comics out there, and a little bit of financial support is all they need to keep going.  It's why I point out Pateron campaigns every once in a while.  Donations aren't as common as they used to be, but tip jars are still out there.  There's always the convention circuit, selling nick nacks, art, and of course books.

Every comic that manages to get some traction going gets a book at some point.  It's not just to make money, books are usually a drain rather than a money maker, but it is a right of passage.  An announcement that the artist and the comic are here to stay.  It's the culmination of the dream of every artist, whether it's a comic, a story, or, well, anything, to say "I'm Published" and have it be real.

So back to the story, which is I don't spend money.  Except when I saw that Ben Fleuter, artist of Derelict needed some cash to get over a hump (and freaking jury duty).  His deal:  The first volume of Derelict, Deligue, he signs it and pays the shipping.  I got the package over my vacation.

I've only just flipped through it, work schedules and lack of sleep preventing me from doing much more.  Some more background stuff I could probably find on the wiki or TV Tropes, some special art, a short little story, and a signature on the title page.  Technically my statement that Errant Story is the only comic I have ever given money to is correct, I did it with no expectations of recieving anything.  This time, I bought a book of one of the best comics I currently read.

Worth every penny.

Next week, we should be back to The Classic.  Until then.

The Other Projects

So I was reading Blindsprings a few weeks ago, and in one of the blog sections for a particular page, I miss read a comment from the artist.  It said she was trying to make the comic "more like" a movie.  I took it to her thinking she wanted to make a Blindsprings movie, which I felt was a little too ambitious at this stage.

Still, it got me to thinking about all the other projects comic artists tend to work on, and the fact that it often derails the part that I tend to follow, namely the comic.  It's not as bad as a stretch of hiatus, as these projects are usually at least talked about, and there's some good reasons why the comic might be sidelined for a bit while they're worked on.  Sunstone (NSFW) has been on a regular cycle of this as Stjepan Sejic is often working on a variety of art projects and of all his projects, Sunstone makes the least money (directly anyway).  But there are others.

The first one I thought of beyond Sunstone was Elsie Hooper because at creation it was meant to be a story board for a movie.  One that at one point was being worked on.  I don't know if it was ever finished, I do know that long, LONG stretches of time went by without an update due to it and the various other projects the artist was working on.  The fact that it has been more or less regularly updated (every 3 weeks it seems sometimes) is actually a step up from where it was only a couple of years ago.  It does make it annoying, however, when one considers that the comic does have a scripted ending and even after 10 years it hasn't yet finished.

Dead Winter is having the same issues.  The game project they're working on seems to be sapping all the energy to make the comic.  I do want to play this game, I love side scrolling beat'em ups, I love the comic, so putting them together can only make me happy.  BUT, it does cut deeply into the comic, especially the patreon which, surprise, is mostly for backing the comic, not the game.  Hopefully it'll start updating more regularly soon.

That's not to say other projects can't still be done.  Sandra and Woo, for example, have a game in the works, but it isn't interfering in the production of the comic.  I guess that makes sense as they're already juggling two projects, Sandra and Woo and Gaia, so throwing another one into the mix isn't that big of a deal.  It's also not a self created thing, as it's being made by an actual game developer rather than a couple of comic artists in their spare time.

Cyanide and Happiness' other project is their shorts, short videos that are basically just more of the same.  I don't watch too many of them (checking comics takes long enough, even a 2 minute video can hurt at 2 am when I'm getting ready for work), but the few I have watched have been quite good and often are offshoots of regular strips.  More of the same, and while it replaces the occasional strip, it's not that big of a distraction from the main comic.

And then there's, well, EVERYTHING Howard Taylor does outside of Schlock Mercenary.  Games, conventions, books, movie reviews, etc, etc.  I couldn't even hope to list all that he's up to.  Guess he gets bored having that big fat buffer keeping his comic up every day.

I do like other projects by the artist, even if they aren't comics, I just kind of hope they don't interfere with the comic.  As for Blindsprings as a movie, not yet, give it a couple more years.

Next week, hopefully, another Retrospective that oddly enough is an other project.  Until next time kiddies.

Cast Pages

My rule with every review is that I read the comic, the whole comic and nothing but the comic.  Cast pages, about pages and the like are something I actively avoid during my first read through of a comic.  I do this on the grounds that if it's not in the comic, it's not in the comic.

After the inital read through is done, though, I might flip through the cast and about pages.  For larger, more involved comics it's more refresher, for smaller ones it's just to see if it matched up with what I found in the comic.  At the same time, I don't always go the page, as I have better things to do.  It's a resource to me, nothing more.  Which is why when I was writing the Not-So-Wild Review of Wapsi Square, I went to it right away.  Wapsi is a fairly large comic and complex and remembering everything was going to be hard, so I loaded up the cast page as my first resource.  And found a monster.

Most cast pages are pretty simple affairs.  Girls with Slingshots represents what I think of as a cast page.  A single picture, a name, a brief description that may or may not actually say anything, and that's it.  It's nothing glamorous or flashy, there's no large amounts of information, and nothing more detailed.

Stand Still, Stay Silent has a bit more information on the cast page itself, but not much more.  To add to it are a series of supplemental pages.  These are actually in the comic, typically near the end of a chapter and share world information that can't be easily presented otherwise.  This turns the cast and about pages into resources for the comic and almost essential to the comic's future.

Of course, these comics are both not super story intensive or very old, both of which do define Wapsi Square.  But there are other, much larger, older comics, that have to deal with similar issues.  Sluggy Freelance and Schlock Mercenary have at least as many characters as Wapsi, if not more, and they're both at least as long, if not longer.  Their solution was simple:  Wikipedia.  Sluggy has it's Niftypedia and Schlock has the Ovalkwiki.  Both are expansive, but well organized, and are what I used when writing The Standard and Best Overall for much of my outside of the comic research.

That monster that lurks on Wapsi Square, however, is something else entirely.  81 pdf pages, and most of it is packed from end to end.  The first three pages are basically empty, the rest is written like an encyclopedia.  Densely packed, bullet points being the only division between characters in the list, and only a handful of pictures.  The character section of the pdf is about 9 pages long, and includes incidental characters (Volleyball guy?  Really?) and Wapsi Square itself, which is a suburb.  I love the idea of locations having "character" but in this comic, where the background really doesn't get much love, it really doesn't have one.

The next 4 pages are "locals" which isn't a bad thing and the text is quite large (compared to the rest of the file).  Still, few pictures, and those that are there are small cast shots, and basically don't relate to the content at all.  As pointless as the locals section is, there isn't any easier way to describe these things, so I don't mind.  What I do mind is the sheer amount of text for each entry.  Saying "this shop is co-owned by Monica and Georgette" should be enough, maybe what it sells, but it just keeps going.  The same can be said for each character description which relates far more information than strictly necessary.

The remaining pages, 17 - 81, are ALL storylines.  Initially the descriptions are very brief, but by the end one story line has more text than this entire article.  It's mind boggling, and almost impossible to follow.  Wapsi is already difficult to follow and being presented with a literal wall of text makes it all the more difficult.

So why does this exist at all?  Not sure, I suspect though it was put together by a fan and only made official after the fact.  Now the wikis for Sluggy and Schlock are fan maintained, but organizationally they're so much better and easier to navigate.  Wapsi just has a block of text crammed into a pdf file.

The good news?  There's a wikia and TVtropes pages for Wapsi Square that are a decent enough filter that information can be found, but it's sad that the only official link through the comic is, well, unusable.  It doesn't provide any information, or even a brief overview, it's a block of text that's has no art for character descriptions and the storyline area makes an already confusing comic even worse.  It's by far the worst cast page I've ever seen.

Next time, um, we'll see.  Until then kiddies.

What's in a Namesake

In last week's reviews I made a lot of references to past comics, and in fact each of them reminded me of at least one other piece of fiction I've seen, read or, well I'll get to this last one.  This isn't uncommon really, especially as I've been reading a lot of comics and consciously or not, I tend to make comparisons.

Namesake, however, activated multiple comparisons.  Not just one or two, but a four of them, all at the same time.  I won't claim it's a record, but I couldn't help but make the comparisons quickly and early.  I should note none of these are BAD comparisons, in fact they made me like the comic all the more.

The first comic I started comparing it too was based solely on the art, and that was an odd reminder of Demonology 101, and the rest of Faith Erin Hicks' work.  Oh, it's different, and cleaner than some of those older strips (Demonology 101 started in 1999, 16 years old at this point), but I think it was the noses that led the comparison.  I don't know why, but those roundish noses were amongst the first things I noticed artistically.  I wonder if it's a Canadian thing as both artists are from there.  That's just a surface comparison though, so don't read much into it.

Do read a bit more into No Rest for the Wicked though as it's a damn good comic.  Namesake reminded me of this by doing much the same thing, bringing out the actual stories of the works being referenced.  Often the "Disneyfied" versions of fairy tales and stories gets remembered because it's easy but they aren't exactly accurate.  Both comics go out of their way to remind the reader that those fairy tales are, in fact, far meaner, crueler and bloodier than anything Disney has ever presented.  Namesake directly reminds readers of this by comparing the ACTUAL Wizard of Oz vs the movie we all know too damn well.

Which brings me to the next leg of my comparisons, and that is to Perchance to Dream, a comic I haven't talked about in a long, LONG time.  The reason is the forward direction.  While Oz and Wonderland are both talked about at length in Namesake, the original stories are spoke of in the past tense.  Yes they happened, but they happened in the past.  Oz and Wonderland have moved on from there.  The worlds aren't static.  Perchance to Dream had the same thing, though this was a world where things were static and only became free after the start of the comic.  Then things went to hell, but that's for another day.  I like moving the fantasy world forward, it makes it less just a story and more a world, and Namesake does this in spades.

But the biggest comparison I can make, especially with the archive dive complete, is not to a comic at all but to a game:  The Longest Journey (Let's Play linked).  The comparisons are actually pretty deep here.  A young girl (Emma isn't quite as young as April, but they're close) discovers she has the ability to visit another, fantastic world, only to be embroiled in a conflict between two opposing factions, with a role in the conflict greater than she ever initially imagined or is told.  It's not a point for point comparison of course, but they are amazingly similar, and I wouldn't be surprised if the writer was partially inspired by the game.

Being inspired is not the same as ripping off, because Namesake is it's own story.  The twists and turns are very different, the overall plot is different, but the journey, well, that's really similar.  I suppose that's more the standard heroes journey type thing, so it can't be faulted there.  Still, I love the Longest Journey and being able to find a comic that does something very similar, without being the same, is a wonderful thrill and probably increased my enjoyment of the comic far more than it otherwise would have been.  This is why I don't find any of these comparisons to be bad, because I enjoyed each of the other works and this is more of what I like.  Honestly all this means is that I'll be reading Namesake for as long as it updates.

Next week kiddies, I think I need to do another retrospective.  Until then.

BTW, spring did come last Friday, then it snowed Saturday and Sunday.  Freaking weather.

Genre Savvy: Broodhollow

A couple years ago (yeah, it's been that long) I was in the middle of my Genre Savvy series covering the topic of Horror.  I lamented, sort of, that I really didn't have a good example of Horror within my lists.  Flatwood worked for some of the ideas I wrote about, but not all of them, and Twilight Lady didn't exactly fit the bill either.  Neither was a good webcomic example of the genre.

Then I read Broodhollow.

I don't go out of my way to read Horror of any kind, and Broodhollow was something that I just didn't look at immediately, especially as I had already a good idea what kind of work Kris Straub produces via Starslip and Chainsawsuit.  Which doesn't mean I didn't hear good things, I did, and when I read the comic, I was quite pleased.

And I immediately thought about that Genre Savvy article because it fits it so well.

The first is the atmosphere that Broodhollow creates.  Being a small town creates a kind of safety, but then the weird things happen, the first being that it is the town of "1000 holidays," which is strange to start.  Then the Fray starts getting involved by making everyone but Zane forget about being attacked by giant bats.  With "secret" societies and monsters running about, the town takes on a mysterious feel.  It's not as dark and foreboding as, say, Silent Hill, but the oddness makes it clear that something strange is going on.

That said, the real focal point is Zane, who is described on the cast page as "phobic."  Not specific, he just seems scared of everything.  I think that's more the joke as he obviously isn't, but he is constantly on edge, his nerves being strained repeatedly.  He's the first to note the oddness of the town, and one of the few people that seems, well, not immune, but at least resistant to the Fray.  The story thus revolves around his unwilling unraveling of the town's mysteries and secrets.

It's hard to relate horror through a static medium, but having someone experience the fear for the reader helps and Zane does all that and more.  His idiosyncrasies, his obcession with patterns and even a bit of OCD makes every scene with him seem that much more on edge than it would otherwise be.  Few of the other characters even remotely come close to that same impression, but they all seem more effected by the Fray than Zane, so while they all see the monsters, he REMEMBERS them.

Oh yes, the monster designs are pretty good too.  There aren't many really, but they're so distinct from the more cartoony designs of the rest of the comic that they stand out and are far more terrifying.  They are abnormal compared to this world, more realistic and just plain scary looking.  It's amazing that no one does remember them.

Back to Zane though.  Despite being scared almost all the time, Zane actually represents both emotions that come in good Horror.  Yes, he's scared, he's seen horrific, terrible things, he's haunted by his own fears and worries, and yet, he's a door to door salesman.   A person who goes up to strangers homes and knocks on the door.  There's a courage in that action, and he shows the same thing in other situations as well.  When the local rich bully, Planchett, calls him a fraud to his face, insults him and declares his desire to boot him out of town, Zane goes to him with the possibility of selling the antique shop.  Yes, Zane is phobic, but he has this ability to face off against these fears.

At the end of the last book, as he prepares to dive into the watery lair of the most recent monster, he's told his is very brave and he responds with "I'm scared to death."  That fear is, spoiler, the defense against the fray, but it also is what good Horror should do.  Yes he's scared, yes the monsters are terrible, but he does it anyway, bracing himself as best as his terrified mind can.

Broodhollow is by far the best example of Horror in comics I've found so far and I look forward to exploring this strange universe, the town and it's characters in the future.  As soon as Kris gets to publishing the next book.  Come on man, it's March already, let's go.

Next time, um, probably nothing honestly.  I've got 7 straight work days coming and I doubt I'll have time for much of anything.  We'll see of course, but I make no promises.  Until next time kiddies.

More Patreon

I figure I should update the Pateron campaign listings.  Last time, I had 19 comics but several more have been added since.  After last week's article, I really should highlight the current best option for making money.  It is a popularity contest, don't forget that, so if the comic isn't well known, well, it doesn't make any money even with a great Pateron campaign.  That said, I hope my little blog and highlighting their campaigns help them along.

These are ONLY comics I currently read, as I'm sure many of the Non-Reads have their own campaigns.  Go forth and keep these comics updating.

Bug Martini - http://www.patreon.com/user?u=152275
Chainsawsuit - http://patreon.com/chainsawsuit
Devil's Panties - https://www.patreon.com/jenniebreeden
Dumbing of Age - http://www.patreon.com/dumbingofage
Girls with Slingshots - http://www.patreon.com/girlswithslingshots
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - http://www.patreon.com/ZachWeinersmith
Schlock Mercenary - https://www.patreon.com/SchlockMercenary
Wapsi Square - https://www.patreon.com/pablowapsi
Between Failures - http://www.patreon.com/Jackie_Wohlenhaus
Bohemian Nights - https://www.patreon.com/BohemianNights
Broodhollow - http://www.patreon.com/chainsawsuit
Corridor Realms (Twilight Lady, Subhuman Sanctum) - http://patreon.com/jkcorridor
Gaia - https://www.patreon.com/gaia
Gunnerkrigg Court - http://www.patreon.com/gunnerkrigg
The Adventures of Dr. McNinja - http://www.patreon.com/mcninja
The Demon Archives - http://www.patreon.com/TheDemonArchives
Blind Springs - https://www.patreon.com/blindsprings
Exiern - http://www.patreon.com/exiern
Sandra and Woo - https://www.patreon.com/sandraandwoo
Commander Kitty - http://www.patreon.com/ferretface
Dead Winter - http://patreon.com/deadwinter
Derelict - http://www.patreon.com/derelict
Does Not Play Well with Others - http://www.patreon.com/MichaelPoe
Little Guardians - http://patreon.com/LittleGuardians
Romantically Apocalyptic - http://www.patreon.com/captain
Sorcery 101 - https://www.patreon.com/kelmcdonald
Trying Human - http://www.patreon.com/introducingemy
Zebra Girl - http://www.patreon.com/JoeEngland
Dresden Codak - http://www.patreon.com/dresdencodak

Just a reminder if you are starting a Patreon, make it obvious.  Exiern's was kind of hidden away and I almost missed it.  Also, I haven't gone through these campaigns yet, but Patreon is a monthly thing, so make sure rewards are monthly, not one time or whenever you feel like it.

Next time, um, something.  Until then kiddies.

Web to Print and Print to Web

If you remember the Quasi-Awards return post from the beginning of the year, you may remember seeing me mention Shadowgirls, but not actually link it.  I do make a point of linking comics whenever they are named in an article, unless I'm really rushed (it happens once in a while).  The reason for this incident was that I went to the old link and the comic was gone.

So I did some searching using the holy power of Google, as I usually do, and I found two things.  The first was a string of reviews for a novel named The Shadow Girls, which has nothing to do with the comic.  The second was links to the comic, to be bought, in print form.

This has happened before.  Jeremy is one of my favorite comics, and one of the first to go pure print.  Marsh Rocket (another dead and gone link) did the same.  There is nothing wrong with this, let me be clear.  There is no reason for freeloaders like me to expect a comic archive to remain up forever, especially when the artist is paying for the website to display them.  Still, I think they're missing something important here.

What's missing is that a lot of people don't like to buy something sight unseen.  I imagine they're banking on fans of the comic during it's run to pick it up, but there are only so many of us for many of these comics.  Giving new readers a chance to get their feet wet before paying for the experience seems a much better idea to me.  Faith Erin Hicks did something similar with Friends with Boys, a print comic that was free for a time and I took the opportunity to even review it.

Serenity Rose did something similar when I first read it.  The middle chapters of the story were behind a paywall, but thanks to some clever introductory writing, I barely noticed and it didn't reduce my appreciation of the comic.  Later this restriction was removed and I get to read the rest and was very happy.

Stjepan Sejic, the artist of Sunstone (NSFW) went even further.  One of his print comics, Ravine, failed financially, so he's decided to convert it over to a full blown webcomic.  Yes, eventually I'll review it.  He's even provided copies of Death Vigil, his other series, on his main deviant art page, for free.  I imagine that combined with Sunstone's growing popularity has guided him to this decision, and while he won't make gobs of money on any of those comics, he'll at least make something and people will love it.  And he'll get a lot more commission work, which is growing by the day I swear.

Still, there is another reason for me to be bothered by webcomics going print only.  Back when I started his blog, I did so because I had just lost my very well paying job and I wanted something to do.  But it also made it that I couldn't exactly spend a lot of money on things that weren't necessary to live (the internet survived because of the kindness of others).  So to see these comics, as wonderful as they are, be entirely unreadable without a down payment of some kind is bothersome to me.  How many others out there would love to read Shadowgirls but can't afford the price tag?  I don't know, but I was in that place once and I know I would never had read it if it had been that way from the beginning.  I still probably won't do it due to some frugal streak I was raised with.

I won't deny these artists their desire to make some money off their work, but with things like Patreon and Kickstarter, I would think this kind of thing wouldn't be necessary any more.

Next week, I hope to have something.  Bit of a stretch getting this up between snow storms and work schedules.  Until then kiddies.

Building Mysteries

I'm not much of a mystery writer.  My stories contain mysteries, but they're not classic "whodunits" or something similar.  That said, mysteries are appealing to me, and I do enjoy a good one once in a while.  I often try to guess the next move of many comics, some rather successfully, others, not so much.  Still, there is a right way to do a mystery and a wrong way, so today I'll go over a few guidelines to help make more good mysteries in the world.

1.)  There must be a solution.  An answer to the mystery, a final solution to the puzzle, one that the entire story is working toward.  Without a solution, there's no way to effectively build the mystery, and you're left with The X-Files Problem.  The answer can be just about anything, but as long as there is one, that will help control the direction of the story.

2.)  The clues must make sense.  I'll talk about red herrings in a moment, but the actual clues, the true ones, should make sense.  Logic should connect each clue together and make everything work together.  If logic fails between any two clues, then the entire thing falls apart and it wasn't worth the effort.

3.)  Don't be afraid of red herrings.  The idea is to distract or misdirect the characters in the story and the reader from the truth.  Don't leave them out simply to satisfy number 2, but decide early on which ones are red herrings and leave them that way.  Don't decide they're suddenly relevant after being false for so long.

4.)  Don't add revelations that can't be concluded from the piece.  Long way to say, don't pull something out your ass.  Any revelation, fact or clue MUST be concludable from the story itself, not suddenly revealed with no set up.  This is very annoying and likely will cause the entire mystery to fall apart.

5.)  Don't assume your readers are dumb.  The characters should come to conclusions at about the same time as the reader, so keep up.  If the characters are behind, there should be a reason, like a red herring or some misread clue, one that the reader can figure out.  That said, don't let the character stay behind, once it's obvious, let the character catch on.

6.)  Read more mysteries.  The best way to get better at them is to read them.  If you don't, how else will you create your own?

How mysterious that I would have such an article.  I wonder what's next week (HINT:  no clues have been left, sorry).  Until then kiddies.






Seriously, I didn't leave you any clues, I'm not a mystery writer.

World Building

The last batch of reviews featured 3 comics that are not only quite good, but also have one thing in common:  World building.

Construction of the world/universe that the comic takes place in is a difficult task, which is why most comics set themselves in the modern day.  I went over the rules for building universes a while back, but that's only the starting point.  Actual execution requires a bit more work.  Which is where those three comics come in because they all choose slightly different angles to present the rules of their worlds while not bogging it down with pages of text and dialog.

Stand Still, Stay Silent sets things up using the real world as a basis.  Specifically it uses modern day Scandinavia as the initial set up.  The various nationalities are represented throughout the story, including the fact that their languages don't always line up.  Then comes the maps.  Including maps within the comic itself helps to orient the reader, but it's not presented as "this is a map, the characters are here."  Instead it's presented as a historical document, a map showing the familiar coastlines but with odd markings and shadings that normally wouldn't appear.  Even without directly seeing the chaotic fall of civilization, the map makes all the point that's needed.

Along with the map, SSSS (which is a weird abbreviation when you think about it) presents a series of documents, like what would come out of a school report.  Blindsprings does much the same, though from a different starting point.  Blindsprings is a created fantasy world, so it doesn't have the benefit of the real world to build up from, instead it uses a historical event as a basis for the a story event, namely the Russian Revolution.  While the circumstances are different, the events are shockingly similar to the fall of the Romanovs.  The result are those documents, which take a very anti-royal perspective, and it tries to make the revolution look far more justified than it might actually have been.  Not long after, this is followed up by the opposing viewpoint of the nature of the revolution, but still seems like not the whole truth.

I suppose I should be expected to be annoyed by documents and maps like this, but I don't have problems with things like this for world building, I have issues with it being about characters.  Character description dumps annoy me because these are things we can learn about the characters through their actions in the story.  Background information like the kind provided in SSSS and Blindsprings is necessary because the characters KNOW all these, or a great deal of it, while the reader does NOT.

Which brings me to Rice Boy.  The universe here has no analog in the real world, so instead it must deliver the world via a character, Rice Boy himself.  Rice Boy is much like the reader, unfamiliar with the world as a whole, and it is through his journey that he, and the reader, learn about the world.  He's told stories, show documents, and sees the world itself, taking the reader on the same journey.  This is highly effective as it shows the world directly, allowing the reader to easily become invested.

That's not to say SSSS and Blindsprings don't do this, they do to an extent, but Rice Boy has to use this as the only truly viable means to communicate it's world.  Likewise, Blindsprings has a map, but it's not nearly as effective as the one in SSSS.  All three must work to get you involved, but different circumstances mean each must use a different path to make their respective worlds come to life.

I became very invested in all three because of this, and I feel it is the strongest element of all three comics, making them completely worth reading.

Next time, I'm building up to something.  Until then kiddies.

Going Critical: Difference of Opinion

So back on the 23rd of August Doctor Who started up a new season (or series, Brits are weird with that).  I liked it.  Howard Taylor, the artist of Schlock Mercenary, did not.

I'm not going to highlight my disagreements or discuss the episode in particular, but more the point that differences of opinion exist.  Respecting them depends on the reasons they give.

I say that last part because there are a LOT of opinions out there about a LOT of different things, and not all of them are all that well thought out.  I'm not just talking about "that sucks" and "that rules" crowd, but people who don't put any real effort into their opinions.  You could say that about my opinion that I liked the new Doctor Who, and then promptly didn't qualify it.  I don't intend to either since that's not the point.

The point is that many people will simply parrot opinions given by others as their own.  It does take some amount of effort to state why something didn't work for you, as Howard did with that Doctor Who episode.  People are lazy, though, especially on the internet (please no comments about two weeks of lack of site updates), and often are more than happy just to take the previous person's opinion as gospel.  It's often hard to say that something is good or bad based on one review without knowing their history of reviews or seeing it yourself.

Knowing how a person reviews things does help.  Howard has a rather long list of movies he's reviewed (less TV, but some), and of course he's got all of Schlock as his background, so I think I see where he's coming from in his review.  It underwhelmed him, he saw that there were angles that could have been done better, but there were also distractions from the plot, and somethings that were a bit too heavy handed.

On my end, I tend to allow more leeway in design, let things develop over time and look more long term than the immediate plot.  I'm also more willing to overlook distractions and generally don't set my expectations too high right away.  Much of that likely comes from how I review comics, from the beginning, where weaker art, stories and characters are bound to exist and SHOULD get stronger over time.

So while Howard gets turned off by the episode (and the teaser), I'm more curious how they're going to take the ground work I'm seeing and use it in the future.

Never take any review as final, only as a guide.  Even mine are about "did I like, do I think you will" rather than "this is bad, don't touch."  Listen to multiple opinions when possible, and if there's still interest, go see it or read it yourself.

Next time, not sure.  We'll see.  Until then kiddies.

Of Faces and Heels

This article has been taking forever to write.

Anyway, the dynamic between hero and villain has become almost a cliche at this point, and anything to change it up is often sought, though how successful it is varies.  The most interesting idea is when the character switches sides.

In wrestling, of all things, "good" characters are known as "faces" and "bad" ones are "heels," thus the creation of the phrases Heel-Face and Face-Heel Turns, where the bad guy becomes good and the good guy becomes bad.  Watching a hero become a villain, or vice versa, makes for an interesting study on what makes each and how they interact.

Aaron from Blue Blaster, for example, started his career, as it were, playing as a heel, a villain, though it wasn't really about being evil.  For him, it was a form of justice, though more like vengeance.  He spent a great amount of time beating up his bullies and stealing their money.  His last major act was a bit of property damage against his school that he blames many of his problems on.  Then is partner in this act started killing people and Aaron decided the whole thing had gone too far.  Yes, he has been acting as a heel, but he really did have morals, so once someone crossed it, he decided it wasn't what he wanted.  That said, the WORLD still views him as a villain, which is making his attempts not to be all the more challenging and interesting.

On the flip side is Moonshadow (Mary), from Strong Female Protagonist, who I'm pretty sure murdered 4 people in the course of the current story.  It's out of pace with the rest of the story, the murders I mean, they just suddenly happen, throats slit on a group of accused (and acquitted) rapists, and the possible wife beating judge who let them off, but no visible person responsible.  Later, when Sonar (Brad) and Allison talk about her, we are only given hints at what she can do, and the stress she now experienced.  From the undoing of the entire villain/hero system that had dominated the world until then, to Allison leaving behind her role as Mega Girl, it seems Mary got the worst of it.  The last image is of her disappearing into the night, an angry, but determined look on her face, and a big freaking knife in her hand.  While the comic hasn't outright said it, I think it's likely she's killed those people, a form of vigilante justice that crossed the line.  It's a believable fall, Mary is trying to still be a hero, even now, but her methods have gotten harder, more lethal.  When the confrontation between her and Allison occurs, and I suspect it will come sooner rather than later, it'll be quite the sight to behold.

The fine line between hero and villain can be crossed many times by the same person, such as Sandra, or is it Zandra now, from Zebra Girl.  Her role as hero was cemented when she slipped into Sam's world and fought the soulless mad scientist that ruled it.  She spent a LOT of time acting as a hero until hero/villain Professor Broadshoulders decided that Sandra WAS evil, and tried to send her to Hell.  She turned the tables on him, but got a taste of what evil was and became a villain herself, generating and feeding off fear in the town of Miscellaneous (yes that's the name of the town).  Only when she was flushed away to a kind of limbo dimension was she forced to confront what she had done and had become, and decide to act as a hero again.  Unlike both Moonsshadow and Blue Blaster, Sandra has a much more pressing issue:  she has become a literal demon from Hell, and that makes it all the easier to slip in to a much more evil role, but she still has her human soul, so she can work against her nature just as easily.  It's less a choice for her and more an active battle to decide her fate, and one that I suspect isn't over yet either.

And that's really just the a few examples, as switching sides is something so common that I really wanted to just tap some of my more recent comics (and one I just did a Not-So-Wild review on, you know, like 3 weeks ago, damn work).  I could easily tap Sluggy Freelance for this one (Dr. Schlock), and numerous others if I really put my mind to it.  It really does give a much better view of who the character is and why they are that way when they switch sides as it were, or in Sandra's case, when they switch back.

Okay, next time, I don't know, something, hopefully.  Damn work.  Until then kiddies.

Letting Go Part 3: Sinfest

I've been reading Sinfest for over a decade now.  Been a fan for just as long.  Letting Go, that's something I NEVER thought I'd do.  And yet, I find myself doing so.

It's not something I do lightly, of course.  There are now 3 articles with the phrase "Letting Go" and the one about Achewood was more about lack of updates than anything else.

Sinfest, though, this has been something I have been contemplating for a bit now.  Reading my original article has given me a framework for the decision, and I will play to that now.

I think what initially attracted me to the comic was how closely it resembled newspaper comics, but with an R rating.  The comic originally did try to get into newspapers, but was rejected repeatedly, likely because it was rather crude.  Sex and drugs were topics of discussion, though never really all that explicit.  You never saw nudity in the comic, for example, but toking was there.  It looked good too, and definitely reminded me of Calvin and Hobbes, something Tatsuya Ishida, the artist, made of point of commenting on in a strip.  It was a homage to one of the greats, and it really fit what he was going after.

What that was is hard to really put into words, but I think the idea was to comment on the concept of morality, good and evil, life, sex and sexuality, everything related.  The word "fest" in the title is "festival," a celebration of sin, sex, drugs and rock and roll.  It asked the question:  why is this stuff evil?  Then it took the symbols of good and evil, God and the Devil, and put them into a depowered light.  God is a goofball hand in the sky, only able to really communicate via hand puppets.  The Devil runs a booth out of Peanuts, offering to take you soul for "anything you want."  Never seemed that anyone was selling, oddly, even Slick, who frequented the booth, never really signed on the dotted line.

Then there was the Dragon and Budda, who offered a more balanced counterpoint to the good vs evil battle, bringing harmony and peace.  Through them and the rest of the cast, the world was full of sin, but it wasn't a bad thing, it was just the way the world is, and as long as you are happy and not harming others, is there anything wrong with that?  That and the jokes were pretty funny.  A few fell flat, but for a comic that updates almost as regularly as Schlock Mercenary, a missed joke or two is to be expected.

Re-reading my Not-So-Wild Review of the comic points out that this comic was still this way a mere 3 years ago.  Sometime after this, the comic changed course, and became something else.  I suspect it's part of the greater internet "social justice movement" (the timing is actually quite close to the emergence of the blogs/tumblers for it).  The ideas are fine, generally trying to get equal rights for all persons regardless of gender, race, sexual preference, religion and whatnot, the same ground Sinfest was already exploring.  However, many of these "social justice warriors" often are misinformed about what they're arguing about, parrot ideas that are merely popular rather than true.  And of course, this being the internet, they want the change now, now, NOW!  When usually such change can take years, if not generations.

Sinfest delved in with the Sisterhood, a group of young women who were fighting the patriarchy, the male domination of the world, as led by the Devil, who moved from goofy neighbor type character, to actual villain.  They brought change with them, Monique went from being "It Girl" to being androgynous, Fuchsia left the employ of the Devil to pursue her love of the geeky book worm, and Lil'E drank from the Leth, and forgot who he was.  These are great changes, really, as they explored different aspects of their characters and what has been explored with them has been quite entertaining in and of themselves.  However, the Sisterhood itself has left a bad taste in the mouths of many, including me.

I reviewed a comic called Luz:  Girl of the Knowing, a comic about shifting to sustainable production in the face of peak oil, and I didn't like it because it beat it's message over the reader's head.  The Sisterhood within Sinfest did the same thing, and that annoys me even more.  I didn't care about Luz's message, but I had nearly a decade invested in Sinfest, and I KNOW Tatsuya can do better, but instead he chose a hammer.  Literally beating the ideas out, and I do mean literally as one of the Sisterhood bashes on a test dummy with a stick declaring "what else do you do to oppressors?"

The point that he can do better is why I kept reading, hoping to see the real message.  I remember back in the day, he did a storyline in which, in an alternative universe, the male characters fought against the Matriarchy, battling to drink beer, watch porn and eat fatty food.  Yes, these were real bits, and they were fun to read, which is why I didn't immediately think things were going to go this way, and even afterwards, I thought maybe there was something else being planned.

When the Dragon and Budda made a reappearance (including Budda turning that stick into flowers), I thought that FINALLY they were going to turn things around.  That was almost a year ago, and I think the one comment I got on that article is probably right.

I'm not sure it's going to right itself either.  Oh, I can think of ways, including the bit I wrote in that old article about the leader of the Sisterhood, Xanthe, turning out to be an androgynous man.  I can see the divide that would cause within the Sisterhood being, well, amazing, and break the hold it has on the comic.  I'm just not sure Tatsuya is going to try something like that.  The more I read, the less I want to read.

So it is with a heavy heart that I let this comic go.  Perhaps it will get better after I stop reading, but I think I may have given it far more time than I should have in the first place.  I once had this comic as an honorable mention for Can't Live Without and even gave it a Quasi-Award.  I've had Slick's favicon head in my bookmark file for so long I'm not sure what it would look like without it.  I want to follow it to see the side characters I love, but I just don't enjoy the rest of it enough to continue.

Until next time kiddies.  Hopefully I'll be less depressed then.