The Last? Wild Webcomic Review

One last time, with feeling, it's

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Wild Webcomic Review?

Wait, I took time off how can there be another

WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Funny, backing off the weekly updates has given me a chance to, you know, read comics for this site again.  Go figure!  Seriously, I randomly spotted an ad on another comic, and it started me off on another round of comics, and so, review time.

276.  PopChromatic - I shouldn't like this comic.  It has elements that alone and often together just don't attract me.  Pop music, teen girls, rebels without a clue, a character named Justice (again, really?) and a competition show (still proud to never have watched a single episode of American Idol).  And yet, this comic is actually pretty good.  I think it's because it is NOT about winning that pop music competition, but about what a family member is willing to do for another (in this case, it's become a pop music star, despite not really wanting it, like at all).  I've got some issues with the characters acting a bit older than they should (They're 16?  Are you sure?), but it's not overpowering and I enjoy the cynical, and realistic take on pop music and that competition show idea.  I'm worried that it's a weekly updater, so that might effect the flow of the story, but we'll see how it goes.

277.  Pants Are Overrated - I mentioned this strip back in my review of Calvin and Hobbes, so I figured I might as well read the rest of the comic.  Of course it's been dead for like 5 years (completed, technically) so I wasn't in that much of a rush.  That said, it's a silly comic.  Nothing super amazing, just a silly, brief comic that takes it's cue from other comics, like Penny Arcade, but doesn't go completely over to the dark side.  It is very wordy at times, too wordy, but I think that was the joke, honestly.  Fun, quick read, but nothing that makes it "I MUST READ THIS FOREVER."  Mostly because you can't.

278.  No Pink Ponies - I think I've had this in my Future Reads folder for a long time, and it's been around a long time, kind of, get to that.  It's okay as a slice of life style comic.  It has some of that wish fulfillment stuff going on (comic nerd girl is hot and has the money to open her own store, really?), but it doesn't strictly hurt it.  The fact that said nerd girl attracts lesbians like moths to a flame is a bit weird, but we'll leave it as quirky.  The downside?  LONG gaps in updates.  The last new comic was posted on New Years Eve 2015 (8 months ago by the time this goes up) and the last news update was in April 2016.  There are also massive gaps while reading the comic (the annual comic convention in the comic seems to come very frequently because the gaps so it's kind of obvious).  I don't have a problem reading the comic, but I think it'll have to go into Hiatus until it actually updates.

279.  Cosmic Dash - I really enjoyed this comic.  It's a space adventure comic, and a fun one too.  It's definitely a positive comic, where the good guys are actually good and the bad guys aren't horrible terrible monsters, at least so far.  Even when things are looking bleakest, they really aren't.  Not sure if that's the artstyle talking, or if it's just the general attitude of the comic that keeps it from going into the morose where it could easily do so.  It's a good comic and I think I'll be reading it for a while.

280.  Dark White - Wow, what a contrast to Cosmic Dash.  Not only is this a high fantasy comic, but it is DARK as hell.  Not only does it open with some poor creature being tortured, but it eventually brings up child sacrifice, zombies and the apocalypse.  Yeah, it's dark, so dark I might have to do an article comparing these two comics against each other.  It's well done dark, even if it is pretty early on, but there's a sense of world here that really keeps me invested in it, and the story plays out pretty well.  I think I'll be reading it for a while, at least as long ad Dash, and it's a nice contrast.

Well, that was a nice surprise.  Don't expect anything more any time soon.  Still, expanding the amount of time between updates has given me time to work on stuff like this, so I'm happy about it.  Wish my job wasn't so overbearing, but that's what happens when you're good at what you do, I guess.  Until next time kiddies.

Where is Spring Wild Webcomic Review

Seriously where is. . .

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

No, spring, where is spring?  Why is there snow on the ground?  WHY IS IT STILL SNOWING!?

Eh, fine, I guess instead of getting answers I'll finally crank out another batch of reviews.  Yes, more comics to add to the great list, and fill in the gaps for a few comics that have ended.  So let's see what I've got.


271. Black and White Comic - Another entry in the "blog" comic category, but it seems lacking.  I suspect it's partly because it is a weekly gag strip, but doesn't have the punch to pull it off.  There are good weekly gag comics but this one isn't hitting in that weight class.  The jokes probably wouldn't be too bad in a daily or even 3 day a week format, but weekly there seems to be a lack of effort for both the jokes and the art.  I guess it's not really bad, but it isn't really all that good either and I probably won't be following due to that lack of density.

272. It Hurts! - My first impression of this comic was that it looked kind of stupid.  Then I started reading it and realized that was on purpose.  Then it began to remind me of The World Explodes (can't read it any more, but trust me on this) as it took a series of stupid ideas and actually built, well, a story with them, and not a bad one really.  Well, it's still kind of stupid, but the fun kind of stupid and the story, while not a masterpiece or anything, at least is entertaining.  I was surprised by this and likely will be following this comic for some time.

273. Legends of Whoelterran - The first thing that stood out was the art for this comic.  While the more recent strips are better, it still looks like it has been done in MS Paint.  I think if you gave the artist a Wacom and Photoshop, the comic would look quite good as there is a lot of movement and animation in the characters and designs, but at the same time tools I think are holding it back.  As for the comic as a whole, it's a High Fantasy comic, with swords and sorcery and computers?  Yeah, it's kind of odd.  Then it starts throwing out random Bible quotes.  Yeah, it's a Christian comic, but it doesn't bash it over the reader's head, at least for now.  It's not bad, just slightly below average, especially as getting exposition across seems a bit difficult at this stage.  Still, the last half of the chapter 3 (current chapter) is actually not bad and has some pretty good pacing.  I'll follow it for a bit, kind of want to see how the current chapter ends, but I'm not sure how long I'll keep it on the list.  The art will likely be a big turn off for most.

274. Namesake - Originally this was going to be part of the last review batch as it kind of fit the theme, then I remembered Bloodstain existed, so it comes in this batch instead.  It's good, it's very good.  Reminds me of several other comics and stories I'll have to spend some time go over in the future.  In any case, it taps into fairy tales, action adventure, and what it means to be human, and I really enjoy it.  I would write more about it but it is completely worth reading and I highly recommend it.  I'll be reading it too, probably for the foreseeable future.

275. Paranatural - This comic is also quite good.  It reminds me of something as well (I think it's FLCL) but stands quite well on it's own.  It's a fun Urban Fantasy comic focused on a school age kids fighting ghosts.  I don't think it takes itself too seriously, but is smart enough to squeeze some depth into every story without beating the reader upside the head with them.  I like this comic quite a bit, the fact that it feels like it combines It Hurts! with Namesake makes it a great comic to top off this batch.

Yeah, brief reviews for the last couple, but they're good so it's all good.  Next time, I'm going to go into more detail about what I meant in that Namesake review.  Until then kiddies.

Christmas Wild Webcomic Review

We wish you a merry. . .

WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

I wanted to get at least one more review batch out this year, and right near the end, here it comes.  This time I'm actually going to be taking up some alt-comics by many of the same artists I already read comics from.  Well, mostly, you'll see.  In the meantime, let's get started with my Christmas present to you, my readers.

266.  Subhuman Sanctum - Corridor Realms is the home to at least 4 comics, this one, Vine, Blood Professors, and the main comic, Twilight Lady.  While the artists for them vary, the writer is the same guy, so the comics tend to be very similar.  Except Subhuman Sanctum is different.  The other comics are far more serious and it's. . . not.  It's not not serious, if that makes sense, but it's definitely lighter than the other comics, especially versus Twilight Lady.  It still tries to delve into higher ideas, but it's not as dark.  Frankly I find the entire comic to be, actually quite good.  It's a refreshing perspective and I find myself enjoying it quite a bit.  Worth reading.

267.  Cherry - Footloose is the quasi-fantasy comic I've had on the read list for a long time now, but haven't said all that much about because, well I'm not sure, just hasn't come up.  Magical Transvestite Cherry (full title, kind of a mouthful) is a bonus/prequel comic to Footloose itself focusing around the only male magical girl in the dojo of at the center of the comic.  Which means that it really doesn't stand up that well on it's own.  Oh, it works, but it really needs Footloose itself to understand what's going on.  In a sense, Cherry needs Footloose to work, but Footloose doesn't need Cherry.  If you're a fan of Footloose, or even just a casual reader, it's worth the time, but otherwise don't bother.

268.  In Here - Some time ago, the R.C. Monroe decided to change formats for his comic, Out There, shifting from daily to weekly to make time for two new comics, Cliche Flambe and In Here.  All three feature the same characters, which is weird, but fun too.  In Here is kind of a side story, alternate story to Out There as it plays right from some events in Out There, but does something odd.  It's a mystery type story, with the question being "where the hell are they and why?"  While it's only through the first part (it hasn't updated since April due to life issues), I am completely sucked in and wondering what is going on, but with few clues it's hard to know.  Still, it is worth reading even without knowing Out There, but there's a thing on the last page that does need Out There to understand.

269.  Broodhollow - Kris Straub is the creator of Chainsawsuit and Starslip, which he ended probably to do this comic.  And it's amazing.  I complained back in my Genre Savvy article about not having many examples of actual Horror to reference, well now I have.  Broodhollow looks great, even if it is just using Starslip's character design, but then come the monsters and ghosts which all look incredible.  The story and mystery around the comic hook the reader and refuse to let go.  Though I do a rather rapid archive dive, I can see the cliffhanger moments and they grabbed me just as hard.  This is a great comic and one that will likely sit on my read list for some time to come.

270.  Bloodstain - Stjepan Sejic is amazing and prolific artist.  As well as being the man behind Sunstone (NSFW), he's got at least 3 print comics out there, dose cover art for other comics, and the occasional guest strip.  But did you know his wife draws too?  Yeah, this only kind of fits the theme, but Bloodstain is Linda Sejic's comic, and it's actually quite good.  The story is probably the most mundane of them all, a young woman simply trying to hold down a job, but it's well done and fun.  The art is also incredible, being JUST shy of Stjepan's art, so much so that it's often hard to tell the difference.  It's on Deviant Art, which I've complained about before, but there's no need for a mature filter here.  The strips are long, just like in Sunstone, but horizontally rather than vertically, which makes it rather longer than it's 69 pages it might indicate.  While updates are more sporadic than other comics, it is worth keeping an eye on.

Well there you go guys, Merrry Christmas and all that.  Next week, I'll be doing a kind of year in review and set up for next year.  Until then kiddies.

Short Wild Webcomic Review

It's

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

Everyone of these comics is fairly short, so let's get going.


261.  The Princess and the Giant - This is an older work by the creator of Supermassive Blackhole A*, a comic I RE-reviewed a bit ago.  The basic art style is that same black and white shadow effect that makes up most of the main comic (it appears to be in color now), which makes some strips hard to follow what's going on, but there's a lot going on.  Each strip is only one panel, but there's a lot of story in these brief moments, made all the more necessary by the complete lack of dialog.  It's not impossible to follow along, thankfully, aside from the very end which I think is supposed to be a dream sequence anyway.  It's short, and actually kind of fun, but nothing really memorable.  Worth flipping through (not really reading it, no text after all), but that's about it.

262.  Pole Dancing Adventures - No, not THAT kind of pole dancing.  More the sport/exercise/dance type angle.  This is a blog comic, similar to The Fifth Circle's Bloomix, but less frequent and more up to date.  It's informational and promotional, and it does those roles quite well.  There's not really a story, and it's very much a hobbyists comic as a result.  There have been a couple short storylines that seem based on real life experiences, so it is possible the comic might do more, so it's probably worth keeping tabs on (aka, I will), but I'm not sure there's any real draw beyond that.

263.  Rice Boy - This comic has been on my Future Read list for a while, and it is totally worth the read.  This is a great comic.  It taps the surreal without being surreal, and has a story that's more than strong enough to support it.  I would say more, but it's good enough you should read it.  It's complete, so no waiting around for the story to finish, so do yourself a favor and go read it.  I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

264.  Stand Still, Stay Silent - My first thought as the comic started was "oh, another zombie comic," but that all gets thrown out once the comic proper gets started.  Still, I'm kind of disappointed that the comic introduces all these groups of characters early on, and then there's a time skip and the real comic begins.  I guess setting up the end of the world is important, but it felt almost kind of useless.  That said, once the comic finally gets underway, it's actually quite interesting.  I like the art, the characterizations are quite good, and the world building is some of the best I've seen in a while.  I suspect I'll be following this for a while, and hoping we get back to some of those characters that got left behind early on.

265.  Blindsprings - I've seen ads for this comic for a long while, and it's quite good, and strangely similar in many aspects to Stand Still, Stay Silent.  Completely different stories, mind you, different settings and all that, but the art is quite good in both, there's LOTS of world building in both, and both have enduring mysteries to be solved.  Blindsprings is a bit quicker paced, and it's far more fanciful, but it's just as good.  Given that it is fairly short (about 100 strips), it's certainly worth a look at even such a young comic, and I'll probably follow it for the long haul.

I think Rice Boy might be the longest comic here at 439 strips, but all of them are fairly quick reads and more or less all worth spending the time with them.  In short, go read them.  Not sure if I'll have a post up next week (Thanksgiving and all) but I'll see if I can.  I'll also try to get one more batch of reviews out before the end of the year.  Until next time kiddies.

Wild Webcomic ReviewSPLOSION! Part 2

Previously on the:

WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

"I got 10 comics via the blog's email account and have decided to do them all in two potent batches."

Now the conclusion.

Okay, that was silly, even for me.  Anyway, this time I must face the problem of taking email reviews: ones I don't like.  This is not as much fun as you would think.  Let's get these two out of the way first.  Yeah, two of them.

256.  Ruin-Nation - The first thing is the art, then the writing, then the story.  All of it says "bad comic" and yet I can't really declare it such because, well, it feels like someone's first comic.  The art isn't good, but it's more like a junior high student's sketches than art work that's just plain bad (I actually checked, and no, I don't think the artist is in junior high).  In fact there are a few moments where it gets a bit better, and sometimes simple arrangements and layouts are there, just not the art itself.  The writing has some amazingly awful moments of grammatical errors, but there's also a bit of elegance in some of it (especially the first page).  The story is, well, all over the place (time travel, government conspiracies, evil corporations and nuclear war), but they are kind of all tied together, though how exactly isn't really in the comic yet.  This is a young comic, a FIRST comic, so it gets a bit of slack.  Oh, it's not good, but I think the artist might have a comic worth reading in a few years, though that comic might not be Ruin-Nation.  Oh, and the archive is one of the most annoying things I've ever run into, but that's a minor nitpick in the end.

257.  Tales of the Winterborn - I can't give as much leeway to this comic as I did Ruin-Nation.  The art is better (anime style), but it really doesn't improve much over the course of the comic.  The writing is better, and by god there is a lot of it (whole pages of transcripts, which work), and the story is, well, less focused than Ruin-Nation surprisingly enough.  The problem is two fold.  One, the comic doesn't explain ANYTHING for a long time, making it hard to understand what is going on, the nature of the world or, well, anything.  Second, the comic switches scenes constantly.  Every two or three pages, the comic changes to a different set of characters doing something completely different.  It's confusing at first, but even later in the comic it's just as bad.  Action scenes are divided up, important plot events are divided up, the climax of the first half of the story is divided up for the most part.  It really disengages the mind and made me crawl through this archive dive in a way I haven't done in a long time.  The comic is currently on an extended hiatus, and I'm half thinking it might stay that way.

258.  Short Stories - Well, they are short, but there's only two of them right now.  Of about 7 pages each.  Normally, I wouldn't give it a review because, well, it's so short.  Shortest comic I've done, possibly ever.  Still, from these two I can tell there is a quest for quality even in a small package.  They are well drawn, and tell short, concise stories.  They're good, quite good.  But short, very short.  It's easily worth reading, but I'll likely have to come back and do a re-review when they have a few more stories under their belts.  Looks like it'll have quite variety as one story is a noir style gangster story and the other is about a ninja.  Yeah, it's going to cover a lot of ground.  Go ahead and read it.

259.  Demon Archives - For a comic with that title, expecting it to be about say, hell beasts, magic, swords and sorcery would be pretty common.  Nope, sci-fi action comic.  Yeah, it's post-apocalyptic, kind of (rather pointless post-apocalypse, honestly, but don't sweat it), but that had nothing to do with monsters, unless you count men with nukes as monsters.  Still, for not meeting the name expectations, it is very well done.  High level presentation between art, story and writing making it a damn good comic and one that I would recommend and read myself.  I would read it regularly, except for some reason it doesn't work in my browser of choice, Opera 12.  No, I'm not changing browsers for one comic, and opening another browser might be a pain just for one comic.  I'll have to play with it because it is quite good and worth reading.

260.  The Fifth Circle - This comic is a bit different than most I read.  It's actually a blog comic, created daily about the artist's life.  And I do mean daily as there's something like 1500 strips making it by far the largest comic archive I've read in a long time.  The sad part?  It's a year behind where it should be, mostly because the artists spend 2 years in Africa as part of the Peace Corps.  This guy is also the definition of the artist.  Comic artist, yes, but also painter, poetry writer, I think he's done some short stories, and he plays music (often in a band, mostly covers from what I can see, but damn).  It's a hell of a life he has and I am glad to have taken the time to read the archive.  I would recommend reading it all, but only if you have the time to do it (and can get around the few times he draws himself nekid).  Good comic, and I'll be keeping an eye on it for as long as I can and as long as he intends to draw it.

And that's it kiddies.  10 more comics to add to the list (which I'll be doing next week, I think).  Until next time.

Wild Webcomic ReviewSPLOSION! Part 1

We interrupt the lack of reviews on this review blog for:

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Yeah, I got the first batch done and am well on my way through the next.  If you missed it, I got 10 comics via the blog's email account and have decided to do them all in two potent batches.  And I managed to get the first batch done early, so yay for that.  So let's see what's in the first, shall we?

251.  [IMG] Insert Image - Right from the get go, here's a comic I likely wouldn't have read if it hadn't been sent to me.  And right after it was, the comic ended, so now I feel really bad about not reviewing it sooner.  Anyway, this is not a comic for me, because it's a Christan comic.  It is NOT, as I initially feared when I realized what it was, a comic that beats you about the head with a Bible until you believe, and I appreciate that.  No, it's more telling jokes that the Christan community would understand and relate to, and does so while being generally approachable.  I mean, it's a fine enough comic, and the jokes I got were funny enough (including the $6.66 stuff), but most of it is beyond my understanding.  I am sad that it is ending (because he wants to eat and the comic doesn't pay for that), and hope he changes his mind, but I'm not sad I read it.

252.  Blue Blaster - I'm glad to see the increase in the number of superhero comics out there, and Blue Blaster is a fine addition.  I like that it doesn't do the straight-to-heroing angle, allowing the main character to explore the other side of the fence for a bit.  This leads to actually a great direction for the overall story and I really want to keep reading it to see how things turn out.  I will file one serious and one not so serious complaint.  Not so serious is the lack of color.  The line work is fine, and conveys the story quite well, but for a comic called "BLUE Blaster" the only time we know it's blue is from the covers.  I suspect this was done with an eye toward publication, but a touch of color (like Dead Winter does) might help improve the art quite a bit.  The more serious issue is that while the story claims it's set in a college, it's high school.  High school is not college in my experience, and it grates me when college is shown like high school.  I may have to write an article on that.  Once I decided that the story is actually about a high school student (senior year is fine), the story flowed much better for me.  I'll still be reading it of course, it's quite good.

253.  Bohemian Nights - It's easy to sum up this comic:  A group of friends whose lives didn't quite turn out like they wished it had, spend their weekends drinking, dancing and partying to forget it for a while.  Oh, it's not all about the drinking thing, it covers their lives when not doing that and I enjoy it.  It's rather young (less than 100 strips) so it's hard to judge how good it'll be in the long run, but so far, so good.  The only thing that might turn a reader off is the art.  Loose would be the best way to describe it.  It's not bad, far from it, the art is distinctive and easy to follow and identify, but the loose structure might come off as "bad" for people who judge quickly.  I like it well enough and I will continue to read it.

254.  Licensed Heroes - This comic has one joke:  Bureaucracy sucks.  Comics can work with just one joke, and this one does it quite well.  That said, it does get old after a bit, though I suspect that's more the way I read the comic during an archive dive than any fault of the comic.  After a bit, I just want SOMETHING positive to happen this band of adventurers without a proper adventure to go on.  I suspect that if I got it in smaller doses, like a standard update, it wouldn't be so bad.  It's a fun look at swords and sorcery settings, something Dungeon Crawl Inc. messed up terribly.  Worth reading, at least I hope it isn't as depressing.

255.  Rudek and the Bear - I don't know if I would have found this comic normally, mostly because the site isn't really about Rudek and the Bear, it's about another comic, but I'll get to that in a moment.  This is a kind of historic comic, set in 1929 along the Polish/Soviet border.  Which is told in the introduction page at the beginning of the comic.  I would complain more about it, but in this case, some kind of set up is necessary (though I don't much like this set up).  The comic after that is, well, kind of generic.  It reminds me of early Beetle Baily strips (after he joined the military) or some of the silly 50's shows that involved the military in some way.  Nothing wrong with this, the jokes are simple and rather funny, but I've seen enough of it to know it's nothing special.  The most interesting thing is the setting and, well, the art.  It looks old, and I know it's the shading because there's a later strip that has no shading and it looks much more modern than the rest of the strip.  It's weird, but interesting.  That said, this is not the main comic, and it's currently on a kind of hiatus while the main comic, Zuzel and The Fox, is being worked on as a graphic novel, covering  a lot of the same territory.  I'll probably follow the comic for a bit to see if it starts updating again.  Nothing special, but nothing terrible either.

That's it for this week.  I should be reading the next batch of comics by the time you read this, so next week, reviewSPLOSION part 2, until then kiddies.

The Name of The Wild Webcomic Review

What's in a name?  A rose by any other name would smell. . .

LIKE A WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

Yes, I managed to power through and get a new batch of reviews done before the end of year.  Exciting, isn't it?  I even managed to clear out a few comics from my Future Read folder, which is painfully large.  Anyway, on with the show.

246.  Little Guardians - This is a comic about nature vs nurture as the two main characters are switched at birth, because one is a girl.  How delightful!  Still, the comic does it's best to prove that it doesn't matter as both children show amazing powers and it's really about their journey to finding the heroes in themselves.  At least that's the eventual goal as the comic so far feels, um, light I guess.  There are 4 chapters (in two published books, which I don't get, comic is too young for that) and maybe 2 full stories, but even then, the stories feel empty, like they aren't doing everything they can.  Maybe it's just because it IS a young comic, or that they seem hell bent on pushing the publishing angle or something, I don't know, but it feels like it should be denser.  I'll keep reading it (whenever it updates, it's going straight to the Monthly folder at the current rate), but I'll be waiting for it to finally fill out.

247.  Lackadaisy - This comic has been on my Future Read list for a LONG time, mostly because I thought it was a lot longer than it really is.  It's not, maybe 60 strips, but if Little Guardians is light, this is made of solid diamond.  Every page of this comic has more story in it than most comics manage in a week, or a month in some cases.  And each is gorgeous.  There are very few comics I've read that are at this level.  Better yet, it's a period piece set in prohibition era St. Louis, so it ends up being historically accurate as well as looking damn good.  Okay, so all the characters are cats, but the comic doesn't make anything of it, they just happen to be cats.  To be blunt, it works, despite the apparent long lag time between strips (which again, are gorgeous, so that's not unexpected).  This comic deserves to be read and I should have started a lot sooner.

248. Cerintha - It's pronounced See-reen-tha apparently.  I like this comic, but it did confuse me to start.  The early strips made it kind of hard to tell the difference between men and women in the comic, and the first story is set during the fall of the Roman Empire, which really confused me since there were women in places they shouldn't be historically.  That all resolved itself when I realized that 95% of the cast are all women.  This is an enjoyable comic and the first story, while a little loose, moved well enough and was very entertaining.  The second story feels much stronger, but less humorous than the first (at least so far, second story is in progress).  Then I flipped through the extras for the comic which are probably some of the most entertaining extras I've seen for a comic.  This is a fun comic that I think I'll be reading for a while.

249.  August Loves May - I don't think I originally added this comic to my Future Reads, but the bookmark I had redirected to it, and confused, I went hunting for the first strip, which I eventually found (stupid tablet layouts).  By that point I was invested enough to finish reading it, but it's really not what I look for in a comic.  Oh it's funny enough, I guess, gag-a-day humor about a young married couple (no kids) and the silly things that happen to them, just not what I want to read on a regular basis.  The art is fine, the jokes are okay, the website is difficult to navigate and will get worse as the comic gets bigger, but otherwise, it's just nothing special, and nothing I really want to continue to follow.

250.  Strong Female Protagonist - I have an issue with this comic, which I'll get into in a moment.  For all practical purposes this is a bit of a deconstruction (and excuse me if I miss use the term, I got a degree in physics not English) of the superhero genre.  I like that, I'm just not sure the comic does a good job of it.  I mean, it's there, it works and points out the ultimate flaw of the genre (are they really making a difference?), but I feel it lacks something and I'm not sure exactly what.  That's not even my main issue with the comic, it's just something I felt as I read it, that it was missing something, something important, that would properly drive the whole thing forward.  No, my issue is with the title.  I get it, by the way, it's a play on "superhero girl," using strong for super, female for girl and protagonist instead of hero.  It fits the comic's plot pretty well as the main character is no longer a superhero (she basically retired) just as she headed off to college (and ceased being a girl).  My issue is the implication that this is THE strong female protagonist.  Considering that of the four other comics of this batch, 3 have female protagonists, and hell Cerintha has a cast that's practically all women, I don't see how that claim is valid.  Perhaps that's not what they meant by it, but that's the impression I get out of it, likely from all list sites I happened to find it on.  It colors the comic, perhaps unfairly, for me.  I'll probably continue to read it for a while, see if they find that thing they missed, but the title will continue to bug me.  I've read better comics, but I've also read much worse ones which like to smack you around with their message, this one at least doesn't do that.

Well that's 250.  I thought about celebrating it a bit, but at this point only hundreds should be treated as such.  Hopefully I can get there sometime in the next decade.  Until next time kiddies.

Brief Break Wild Webcomic Review

We interrupt the current program, The Standard, for a special:

WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

When I finished the last part of the Standard series (which you'll see in three weeks), I realized that it was really, REALLY long, so I figured if I have the time, why not crank out another batch of reviews?  So I have, and here we go.

241.  God Mode - I don't usually read gaming comics because while I was a gamer once, I don't know if I could be considered any more (at least not on consoles).  That and the jokes are pretty much tied to whatever is popular at the time of the strip's writing.  Which means this comic, which started back in 2005 is more than a little dated.  The idea is that God Mode is a game review website and the comic is about the people who work there.  And their deranged, possibly insane, boss.  This comic went through several artists/writers.  The first two really were the best, managing to balance the game end with the cast end quite well and being freaking insane (including where the boss killed her own father, and then he got better).  After that, when Adrian Ramos from Count Your Sheep takes over, it kind of goes down hill.  First there aren't as many strips per artist (low production is why I stopped reading Count Your Sheep), and it loses the edge after Adrian hands the comic off to another artist.  And it hasn't updated since April of 2012.  Stay for the first two artists, then move on.  You'll probably enjoy it more if you remember the games they're talking about, but otherwise, you're not missing out on much.

242.  Dumbing of Age - If I were forced to sum up this comic, I would say it is a college comic staring high school characters.  Which makes sense as most of the major characters are freshmen in college.  The title pretty much gives away the concept of the comic, it's a coming of age strip, where the cast learns what it means to grow up into adults (something I seemed to have skipped, I guess).  It's a good, solid comic.  The art  is well done and characters are distinctive.  Personalities aren't too stereotypical, though occasionally they do get pretty close, but the motivations and reactions of the characters are natural and well done.  It's also hard to say how well this will play out since in the 2 and half or so years since it's been updating, it's only about 3 weeks into the school year, so the actual arcs of the characters have only really gotten started.  I'll probably follow it for a bit, though how long will depend on where things go from here.  Solid comic, worth reading even for a bit.

243.  Derelict - Wow.  Ben Fleuter is the artist behind Parallel Dementia, which ended a while back, and this is the project he started to replace it.  I am completely blown away.  I think a great many artists forget that comics are a visual medium and just dump loads of text to try to describe what we can see on the page.  No such thing in Derelict, where the text is so sparse, I don't think I actually ever learned the main character's name until I visited the TVTropes page for the comic.  And I didn't need to, everything I needed to know about her was in the comic.  Within the first few pages I was hooked and it only got better from there.  Maybe I won't feel the same way later (archive tunnel vision and all), but at the moment, this is everything I look for in a comic, and it's left me virtually speechless.  Wow.

244.  Twokinds - At first look, my thoughts instantly went "oh, it's one of those kinds of comics."  Those being a very general term, of course, but it featured a cat girl, blue hair, and, as I quickly learned, amnesia.  Lots of cliches to start with, so I went looking to see what was done with it.  I found a comic that isn't bad, not great, or even very good, but not bad.  I also found a comic that has come a long way.  This comic is 10 years old, and was started by a high school student (he celebrated his 17th birthday during the comic at one point).  To keep up a comic for that long, from that young an age is actually commendable.  The fact that the comic has taken the cliches it started with and managed to make something with it is remarkable.  It's come a long, long way, both in art and story telling, from the first few chapters, slowly building up a world and collection of characters that is pretty good.  There's mystery and intrigue there, but it feels as if it's been developing rather than outright planned, which is good since any plan made a decade ago probably isn't as sustainable anymore.  I don't know how long I'll read it (there are a few plot lines I want to see resolved), but it's good enough for me to read it.

245.  Bob and George - So I messed up a bit here.  While reading through it, I thought I burned through a 2500+ archive too fast, but I didn't worry about it until I started writing this review.  Turns out, thanks to a "random" button being right next to the "next" button, I managed to skip about 1500 strips worth of the comic.  Whoops.  I did go back and read them, didn't bother me to do it, but I really didn't miss much.  This is a very light comic, kind of like Station V3.  The fact that I didn't even realize I had skipped about two thirds of the comic and didn't feel like I missed anything should tell you a lot.  This is a sprite comic based on Mega Man, and probably the core inspiration for a great many of the sprite comics that flooded out into the world for a while.  I like Mega Man, despite the insanity it devolved into, and this comic takes those ideas and runs with them, and right over an even more insane cliff.  There are laughs to be had here, to a point, and for something to burn some time on it's worth the effort.  That said, the conclusion is pretty damn convoluted for a comic that is based on being convoluted, and I'm not sure I exactly like how it ended.  Oh and keep flash on, there's quite a few flash strips in this comic (with very little actually being done with it, I'm afraid).

And that's it for this.  Back to Sluggy next week.

Palate Cleansing Wild Webcomic Review

Last week I did a full Not-So-Wild review of Blade Kitten.  I didn't intend for that, in fact, I wanted to make it just another part of the:

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW

It hurt.  I think it's because I don't really read a LOT of bad comics.  Maybe 10 or so I would rate as outright bad, and out of 240 comics, that's pretty good.  Still, I had meant to do a review batch, and with Blade Kitten on my mind, I needed something to cleanse my palate.  And I came up with 4 good comics, and one REALLY good one.  So let's get started.

236.  Gaia - Gaia is a high fantasy comic from the creator of Sandra and Woo, and it's very, VERY good.  Despite it's short life (little over a year at this point) it shows all signs of being an already very mature piece of fantasy.  The closest comparison I can make is to Errant Story, but with all the lessons it took Errant Story many years to learn already learned.  After maybe only 120 strips, this comic is already set to be one of my go to comics and I suspect I'll be following it for a long time.

237.  Between Failures - When I first started reading it, I was full of dread.  1000+ strips, and the main character came off as a bit of jerk.  Yet I kept going, and with a single moment, a kiss, I went from dreading it to loving this comic.  The art is good, and distinctive.  No issues telling one character from another.  The characters are great, taking a seed of a basic identity point, and growing them with each strip.  Each gets their moments to speak, and grow, and the dynamic between them is wonderful.  And that's all within the first 300 strips, which covers a SINGLE in story day.  This is the antithesis of Blade Kitten in almost every way, to the point I may do a side by side comparison of the two in the near future.  I highly recommend it.

238.  Alex Ze Pirate - This is a much older comic than it first appears, as revealed by the VERY first strip, which you have to find manually.  That would be my biggest complaint, the archive is a touch annoying to deal with, especially with no "first" button.  Not that the comic really NEEDS it, as this is more a daily humor type comic up until the halfway point of the comic where stories start coming out, but even these feel like early forays into the larger story telling world.  I'm hoping this expands more as while the random humor strips are funny enough, I think these same characters would do better with slightly longer story arcs.

239.  The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo - Way back when, I reviewed a comic called Perchance to Dream, which has the distinction of being the only comic I've ever wanted to go back and rewrite myself.  The frustration was that it took classic fantasy elements (Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, the Jungle Book) and didn't quite go as far, or as well, as it should have with them.  Edgar Allan Poo does the same with characters from myth and legend, but does it RIGHT.  This is an amazing comic, not just in the strange art style, but in the fantastic story telling.  It's really hard to describe it without reading it, but while the title says "surreal" I find it much more dreamlike, and that makes it feel the way I wanted to feel from Perchance to Dream.  Very good, worth a read, except, well, it hasn't updated since July 2012.  I have a dread feeling it may not be back anytime soon.

240.  The Fancy Adventures of Jack Cannon - My initial reaction was that this was just another high school comedy comic.  Then the bully pulled out a keyboard and start causing the earth to punch the hero.  Then things got weird.  It's an action comic, with a focus on punching people.  A lot of people.  Of course when one of the character's last name is "Facepuncher" you get this is pretty silly comic, but it's up front with it's silliness, allowing the reader to just enjoy it.  There's a plot, of course, and it's reasonably serious, for a very silly comic.  It's a good read, and after Edgar Allan Poo's very serious take, it was nice to get to something less than serious and quite humorous.  As the "villain" was defeated recently, I'm curious what direction a continuance of this story will go.  I'll be watching to see.

And that's it kiddies, 5 very good comics, but Between Failures is my favorite of the batch.  With Christmas coming up, and a few other things, updates will be a little sporadic.  I'll post at least something next time.  Until then kiddies.

Forbidden Wild Webcomic Review: Part 2

Previously, on the Wild Webcomic Review:

These comics are a bit, fetishy.  DON'T JUDGE ME!

Now, the continuation.

Okay, it's review time.  Of the 5, two of them are NSFW (Not Safe For Work), and will be marked as such.  Four of them are on deviant art, and if I can link to the comic itself, I will.  If I can't, it'll be the artist page.  Ready?  Too bad.

231.  Vampire Cheerleaders - It's a comic about high school cheerleaders.  Who are vampires.  Hilarity ensues.  This is a manga style comic (read right to left) that isn't nearly as fetish heavy as the other comics on this list.  Oh, there's implied sex, and some self censored nudity, but nothing too risqué.  In fact, if the vampire part of the comic was pulled, no one would likely notice.  This is actually my issue with it:  nothing is really done with the vampire part of comic.  Oh, it's there, it plays a role, but there's no consequences to it.  No conflict over their nature.  Even the last major storyline, while it had a bit of the vampire as part of the storyline, most of it was focused on a cheerleading competition.  The art is manga style, very clean and very good.  They're doing a crossover with one of the other comics in the "group" so the art is very different right now, and whether it goes back or not, I do not know.  Anyway, it's a light, fun comic, but nothing serious, heavy or important.  Hell, I often forget to check it regularly.  It's probably the worst of this batch of comics, but that doesn't mean it's bad.  Maybe worth the time.

232.  The Legend of Zelda:  El Rey - I'm not much of a fan of fan fiction, and it doesn't come up a lot in comics.  The only two I can think of off hand is the part of the old Earthbeta (I still have nightmares), and 8-Bit Theater.  Still, this is an AMAZING comic.  I am not joking, fan of Zelda series or not (I am a fan) this is a great comic.  It has direction, a point, really good art, well written, and turns the classic Zelda characters on their head, but without sacrificing what makes them classic characters.  I think I know where the story might be going, but I want to see it get there, and if it's really what I think.  Completely worth fighting with deviant art to read, and as a fan of the series, it's the best I could imagine.  Go, read it.

233.  Material Girl - This comic is about crossdressing.  The basic plot is one day a boy gets attacked by his sisters neglected clothing, and they for him to wear them.  Hilarity ensues.  Then it gets a bit dark at the end.  Yes, this comic is complete, so there is an ending to it.  The crossdressing is the center of the comic, which makes sense as the artist, I believe, is a crossdresser himself.  I don't think this comic is meant to be, in any way, autobiographical, but I suspect there are elements there.  The comic is simple (4 panel, penciled strips) and focused more on individual jokes per strip than anything else.  It's light, fun, and probably worth a read through.

234.  Demon Candy:  Parallel (NSFW) - Tagging this with NSFW is only because, well it isn't safe for work, but not because there's lots of sex or nudity.  One would be forgiven thinking that, as it does take place in the mansion of the Succubus Queen, in Hell, and everyone is in leather, latex and other bondage gear basically all the time.  There is no nudity in the comic.  No sex either.  Can't even think of a moment where it's even implied that there is sex.  For a comic about various forms of BDSM play, it's very clean.  Artwise, it's very good looking and some of the best ink and paper work I've seen.  Characters are interesting, far deeper than simple demons for the most part, and that seems more the focus of the comic than even the fetishes.  How they relate to each other drives the story, which is pretty good, but I'm not sure on the direction.  The basic plot is outlined on the page I've linked, but where it's going and how it's getting there is, well, undefined.  Most of the chapters are standalone stories around some form of BDSM play.  I think it's still building up to that point, but by the rules of the comic, it's at LEAST halfway done, so I hope the build up starts showing a bit more direction.  It's interesting and well done.

235.  Shiniez (Sunstone) (NSFW) - Where Demon Candy barely even implies that sex occurs, Sunstone (the probable name of the comic) makes no bones about what it is and what is going on.  It also has some of the best, realistic artwork I have ever seen.  Perhaps TOO realistic in some regards.  Considering it started as simple fetish based pinups, I suppose that's not that surprising, and definitely one of the reasons many would consider this more useful for that reason rather than for the comic's content.  The content is actually pretty good.  The artist states that it's actually educational about the true nature of bondage, and safe practices and such.  I like it more as a character piece, where we learn about the characters and while not WHY they like what they do in the bedroom, it at least goes into how it effects their life.  Great art, good writing (if filled with typos, don't mention it, the artist knows), and an interesting story make it one of the more interesting and well done comics I've read in the while.  I will warn right now that these strips are HUGE.  One strip is easily 4 or 5 regular pages for most large comics, so be aware it could take a bit to load.

And that's it kiddies.  With that, I finish the third year of this blog.  So what's in store for the fourth year?  No idea!  I suspect I'll be finishing up the old reviews (didn't think they'd last THIS long), but beyond that, no idea.  Should be interesting to say the least, hope you kids stick around for the ride.  Until then kiddies.

Forbidden Wild Webcomic Review: Part 1

Who knows the darkness that lurks in the hearts of men?  The

WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW KNOWS!

Hey kiddies, finally doing another review set, but this one is a little different.  It's a two parter, for one, and for another, this doesn't have any of the comics in it.  Or any of the actual reviews.  That's saved for the second part.  The reason for this is many fold, but it comes down to this:  These are comics I've been reluctant to review.

It's not that they're bad comics, far from it in a couple cases.  There are a couple problems with them, however.  One is that 4 out of the 5 are on deviant art.  I've spoken before on how annoying deviant art is for a comic, specifically in sorting the archive.  This makes it difficult to even READ these comics, let alone share them with others.  It's doable, but annoying.

Deviant art also has it's mature content wall.  I have no problem reading a comic that features mature content (sex, nudity, violence), but deviant art does, so in order to see mature content, one must have a deviant art account.  This can seriously limit accessibility to a comic, and I don't like that at all.  I understand why deviant art does it, but it is still quite annoying.

Which brings me to the real issue, actually.  The deviant art stuff is annoying, but I have reviewed deviant art comics before.  The real issue is the content itself and how it might reflect on me.  Three of these comics feature what could easily be called fetish material, one of which is VERY fetish heavy.  The other two can be as well, to a point, and one is actually a glorified fanfic.

The point is, many of these comics are viewed for reasons other than their comic nature.  And if you can't figure out what that reason is, you probably shouldn't be reading any of these comics.  That said, I did not look for these comics for that reason.  Many were stumbled across via the favorites of artists or even comics I already follow.  Once found, the idea of using any of them for that reason is completely foreign to me.  Even the last one.  You'll see.  Anyway, I want to clear that up before I actually get to the reviews, so there's as little confusion as possible as to why I read them and why I've been reluctant to review them until now.

So next week I'll post the ACTUAL reviews of these comics, and celebrate the 3rd anniversary of this blog, so look out kiddies.  Until then.

Post Hangover Wild Webcomic Review

Oh, it is the greatest mix up that you have ever seen, my father he was orange and my mother she was. . .

A WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Yes, that's right, a new batch of reviews. Have you been missing them?  I know I have.  So what do I have for you?  Well, let's take a look.

226.  Skullkickers - With a title like that, you would expect a comic full of action and violence.  And you'd be right.  Skullkickers isn't really much more than that either, but it does it very, VERY well.  Most of the comics I review are side projects, either by students or actual artists trying to stretch their muscles.  This comic is a professional comic up and down.  It updates on time (since the beginning of the year) has multiple people working on it (an artist, a line artist, a colorer, a letterer!) and is just a very slick creation.  It's good, very good.  It's completely worth reading at this point and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future.  I highly recommend this and will be following it for a while.

227.  Makeshift Miracle - I didn't notice this at first, but now looking at it, Makeshift Miracle and Skullkickers share something in common:  The same creator, Jim Zub.  AKA:  Same level of quality, though not the same artwork or story.  If I didn't see the name on the comic, I wouldn't have noticed they were so similar.  Makeshift Miracle actually feels like a manga, which I don't read so that should say something.  It's quiet though, more internal than the visceral Skullkickers.  There's also a genuine mystery here and one I'm actually interested in seeing resolved.

228.  Anhedonia Blue - I debated with myself whether I should even bother reviewing this comic, as it's been dead since last year, and even then there wasn't much to it.  There is another comic by the same artist (I think) out there, and I may do that one later, but I'm pull comics from my future read lists, and this was one.  Alright, for what little is there, is it good?  Well, it's not bad, but it could be better. It's the classic "supernatural powers suddenly manifest" type stories, and it starts off well enough, but then slips down a bit.  Then the zombies show up, but they're not standard zombies. About that time, it starts getting interesting, and then stops.  I think the problem is direction, as in there really wasn't much to it start with, and it seemed kind of aimless.  Maybe there was a plan, but once it got to a point where the plan should come out, it stopped, so I don't know for sure.  Probably not worth the very small amount of effort to read, but if you want to see a comic aborted at an early stage, this would be a good example.

229.  Twilight Lady - Where Anhedonia Blue tried to do the secret supernatural power thing but stalled out, Twilight Lady pulls it off well.  Of course, it also has gone out of it's way to annoy me, for the button that says "first" does NOT take you to the first page of the comic, just of the current story.  Imagine my annoyance when I sat to write this review and discovered I had missed 90% of the comic.  The worst part?  The rest of the comic actually lowered my appreciation for the strip as well.  Not because I had to read it all, but because, well, it's not as good as the most current story (The Indwellers).  I think I'll need a whole article to go into detail why, but I suspect if I had read this comic from the very beginning, I wouldn't have liked it as much.  I will recommend the most current chapter, but only read the rest of the comic if you REALLY want to know what the backstory.

230.  Out at Home - And now for a comic that has nothing to do, at all, with the other comics.  This is a pure daily gag strip.  It would be just as much at home in the newspapers as on the web, though it would likely lose a bit of it's edge if it did.  It features a goofy, but well intentioned dad (who is also a filthy rich former baseball player), his two kids, their friends and a variety of wild hijinks.  It could almost be like a wacky animated sitcom on Fox (who would cancel it after a season, because that's what Fox does).  After the rather dark Twilight Lady, it was nice and refreshing, and I think will sit on my read list for some time to come.

Well, that's enough for this week.  If you missed it, Errant Story ended this week, so next week, retrospective time!  Until then kiddies.

Wild Webcomic Review: Late As Hell Edition

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. 

First Reviews of 2011

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.

Fall Wild Webcomic Review

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.

Summer Wild Webcomic Review

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.

Wild Webcomic Review IN SPAAAACE!!

Space, the final frontier.  These are the voyages of. . .

THE WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Yes, that's right, another batch of five NEW reviews.  You ready?  Good.

201.  Supermassive Black Hole A* - This is not a webcomic.  Then what is it doing here?  Well, it presents itself (and advertises itself) as a webcomic, but it isn't, it's an animation series.  Yes, it has a "webcomic" version, which is just stills from the animation, but like Lizzy, at best it can only give you an overview of the story.  Without watching the videos, much of the action is flat and uninteresting.  The fact that the art is heavy black and white, getting any sense of action from the stills is difficult at best.  It does get better (the still version) but it's still just not quite right.  So is it any good?  Well, I think the story isn't too bad, but again, half the action is in the animations, and due to issues on my end, I didn't get to watch more than a few minutes of the first one, so I can't say for sure.  Due to this nature, though, I'm not going to be following it.

202.  Chainsawsuit - While reading this, I couldn't escape the fact that it seemed familiar.  Then I read that it's made by the same guy who does Starslip Crisis, and it made perfect sense.  Oh, it's not exactly the same art wise, far more towards the stickman side of things, but it's close enough that it seems familiar.  Otherwise, Chainsawsuit is like any number of joke-a-day daily strips, typically with a satirical bent, often just being non-sequitur.  Nothing wrong with it, and it is often funny.  It does seem to update more often than Gunshow, which is the closest comic I can come up with to it's nature, so I'll probably keep it on the list for a bit, but really, nothing I haven't seen before.

203.  The Princess Planet - It's comic built on puns, so you know it's going to be full of groaners.  Often it's a play on words that builds up to the inevitable groan.  Funny?  Sometimes, as all puns sometimes are not grounds for execution.  It plays against the old princess stereotypes that have floated around and tortured brothers via their younger sisters (thankfully mine was more into My Little Pony than this princess stuff, of course that brings its own scars).  While it's not bad in any way, it really isn't a comic I intend to keep reading, mostly because I've got enough to read on a daily basis.  Still, if you can stand the puns, it's not bad.

204.  Exiern - I've had this on the to be reviewed list for a while, and finally got around to it.  It's one of an entire sub-genre of webcomics featuring "gender swap."  Other notable strips include The Wotch (though that covers for more ground than that), El Goonish Shive and Misfile (those two I haven't read yet).  Now while the latter two apparently take the entire gender swap thing rather seriously, Exiern does it strictly for jokes.  And they're pretty funny sometimes too.  On top of that you have a typical competent humorous fantasy story that is rather enjoyable.  Still, this comic is about drawing sexy women and having their clothing torn off, and then having at least one bitch about it since she's actually a he.  Entertaining?  Yeah, but not anything super special.

205.  Cleopatra in SPAAACE! - I do frequently review very young comics, and this one is less than 20 pages long so far.  Still, LOOK AT THE TITLE!  Like Kristy vs. The Zombie Army, it's simply amazing and instantly draws you to it.  From what little has been posted so far, there's plenty of action, the characters have some basic traits laid down without going overboard with it and the art is actually pretty damn good.  I'm certainly going to follow it for a bit based on the title alone.

Well, that's it for this week.  Next time, I'll get back to the old reviews.  Until then kiddies.

200th Wild Webcomic Review

Hey guess what?

IT'S THE 200TH WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

Yes, that's right, I got to 200 before the end of January.  Amazing isn't it?  Well we're here now, some, uh, 8 years after I started this mess.  Okay, so it doesn't sound like I do a lot of these, but think of it this way:  I have a life.  Anyway, let's get going.

196.  Gunshow - It starts a bit slow, but by the end it reminds me of Hark, A Vagrant mixed with Ren and Stimpy.  A LOT of Ren and Stimpy.  There's a fun charm to the comic, and while it isn't super witty like a lot of comics, it is funny.  Some of the humor is a bit off center though, and if you're not a touch into it (like me) then you might not much care for it.

197.  So Damn Bright - Another of those post-college life comics that seem to be growing in number.  It's not bad, if rather young.  The humor is presented as that kind of dry wit you find in the less zany comics and it has a few moments.  I think the only down side is that it's updated only once a week and the style of comic might not get along with that schedule, but since it isn't seriously story dependent, it might not hurt it too much.  I'll be keeping an eye on this for a while.

198.  Back On Earth - And ANOTHER post-college life comic.  No, I don't go actively seeking these things, though this comic has been on my read list for a little while.  The comic actually revolves around the strangest creature I've ever encountered:  A seminary graduate geek.  Unique, I'd say, as I can't recall ever seeing one before (well, not in comics anyway).  The result of this combo is someone who is religious without being an absolute jerk about it.  Of course, after that point, there's the zany that comes with these kinds of comics and that pretty much supports the comic.  It's actually rather enjoyable and very funny at times.  Worth reading.

199.  Finder's Keepers - After all the complaining I did in the last new review set about Alpha Luna and Abandon:  First Vampire, it's rather a shock to find a comic that does all that stuff right.  Finder's Keepers manages to 1)  Give the backstory, 2)  setup the initial characterizations, 3) set up their relationships with each other 4)  keep the action going and 5)  contribute to the overall story all within the first 10 pages.  Damn impressive I'd say.  It's good too, fun and interesting, keeping you in the story without smacking you around with heavy, overblown exposition or explanation.  I do enjoy it and recommend it to just about anyone.

Okay, time for comic 200.  So what comic gets this honor?  How about one that's been on my Future Read list for a long, long time.

200.  Lizzy - And by "a long time" I mean a few years.  I found it through a ad link but decided to hold off reading it because it's done in flash.  I mean, in ALL flash, and as I said in my Flashing article, I typically keep flash turned off on my browser.  So I put it aside to read later.  Later is here and after reading the "non-flash" version of the strip (it's available) I decided I was missing something in the greater comic, so I actually went back and reread the entire strip in flash.  Totally worth it.  Where the other comics in the Flashing article use flash a little bit, Lizzy goes all out.  It's all built on a static comic base, but each strip is interactive on some level, there are animations, sound effects and visual effects that are only possible using flash.  All of this actually helps moves the story forward and keep everything together.  The story is a bit of a trip to follow, but once you get into it, it all makes sense, and the interactive elements actually give you more hints about what's going on.  The art is a bit strange, but almost fitting and natural, and there are homages galore throughout the strip to, well, lots of pop-culture stuff from the A-Team to Hellraiser.  I'm actually ashamed I put the strip off this long, but I'm into it now and I don't plan on going anywhere for a while.

And that's it, the 200th review.  Even better, all 5 strips will get a spot on the read list, which is something that I like to happen because reading bad webcomics sucks.  So how long until 300?  Well, I think the world will end before then, but you never know.  Until next time kiddies.

New Year Wild Webcomic Review

Hey everyone:

HAPPY NEW WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW YEAR!

Okay, that sounded odder than it probably should.  Anyway, new year, new batch of five webcomics ready for review.  I read them over Christmas and after letting them stew for a week, let's see what I really thought of them.

191.  Hark, a Vagrant - This is a silly comic.  Yet it's a silly comic that involves history which makes it a very interesting silly comic.  The art style looks like it could have come from an old copy of MAD magazine, but the humor is decidedly modern.  It's fun, and I would recommend reading the news blurbs under the strips as they contain some further details about the historical events in the comics.  Though that's not all it covers, it also has that "slice of life" segments that are just as entertaining as the regular history strips.  Enjoyable and will likely stay on the read list for a while.

192.  Emergency Exit - This is the comic that was featured in a pair of crossovers with Parallel Dementia.  At it's core it's a basic college student adventure comic in the vein of College Roomies from Hell, Too Late to Run and Just Another Escape.  This doesn't make it a bad comic at all, in fact it's fun and entertaining, though I have a couple issues with it.  The first is that the various characters in the cast don't get much individual screen time.  A lot of that is the result of the rather large cast.  Where most comics of this ilk provide one "set" of characters (typically the heroes), this one provides at least two sets (one being the self proclaimed villains) and giving each character their moment in the sun is rough and some of the characters seem to fade into the background for quite a while.  The second issue is the artwork.  No, it's not bad, far from it, the problem is that in reading through the achieves, the artwork changes rather abruptly not once, but twice.  Most comic artists evolve their style, here it radically changes and then you have to get re-used to the art and re-identify the characters.  Doing it once is annoying, twice is irritating.  On a personal note, I kind of prefer the second phase of the art, but I understand why the current version is here, it's more flexible.  Anyway, it's a good, fun comic and I think I'll be reading it for a while.

193.  Alpha Luna AND  194.  Abandon:  First Vampire - What's this?  Two reviews at once?  Why yes, for a couple of reasons.  First, they provide an excellent contrasts in styles and writing that it feels natural to review them together.  And secondly, one is about werewolves and the other about vampires, and for some reason there's a trend that they should fight.  So who wins?  Well, let's take a look.  There's a lot to cover here, so this might be the longest review I've ever done.  My apologies ahead of time.

First art.  Both are in black and white, but Alpha Luna is far more detailed, especially in characters.  Abandon is rather plain, giving characters and locations few details with which to differentiate them from each other.  It's not nearly as bad as some comics, you can identify characters, but there's nothing that stands out about any of them.  On top of that, positioning, framing and other elements of the art are all in Alpha's favor as Abandon feels less experienced in this field.

When it comes to getting into the story and getting going, Abandon is much faster and crisper.  The story gets active very early on and mysteries are presented that can get the reader excited.  Meanwhile Alpha Luna bogs everything down with an unnecessary flashback, and some overloaded and lengthy dialog.

But after that start, things in Abandon bog down.  The story covers a great deal of time and space but the comic actually has FEWER strips than Alpha Luna, so this grand, epic nature is compressed down and it ends up feeling as if there are several missing pages that might contain some information that isn't provided in any direct way.  Alpha Luna is much more compact and "tight" in this respect, limiting the scope of the story but really exploring this scope.

Of course, Alpha Luna also dumps information on you, not at the start but later on.  There's a lot of detailed text and while I can understand the timing, it does take a moment to really read through it.  Abandon has no such problem, mostly because it doesn't tell you anything.  There are moments, yes, but for the most part the reader is left in the almost complete dark about much of what's going on, even with vague promises of explaining things that are interesting.

So who wins?  The lycans win this round.  Yes, Alpha Luna has it's problems, but its tighter story and overall look will allow it to fix those problems faster than Abandon will be able to.  The biggest obstacle right now is that Alpha Luna hasn't updated since October.  Yeah.  Not that either comic is really worth the eff0rt to continue following.  Perhaps when they're older I'll give them another look.  And damn, that was long.

195.  The Non-Adventures of Wonderella - The alt-text for one of the strips says:  "For every creator who makes great strides towards webcomics as a viable literary and artistic medium, there is another one drawing pee monsters."  That sums up Wonderella pretty well.  It's a superhero comic about a super heroine who would rather watch Friends reruns than save the world from horrible space monsters, and often does.  It might look dense, but the jokes are obvious and funny as all hell.  It's very enjoyable and I wager it'll be on my read list for some time to come.

Well, that's it for this addition to the Wild Webcomic Review.  Maybe, possibly, I'll get to 200 sometime this year.  That would be nice, wouldn't it?  Until next time kiddies.