The Classic: Not Quite Over

Trying to define a classic is difficult because it does vary between people.  For me, Errant Story is the Classic of webcomics, but that's because it changed how I viewed what webcomics were and what I was looking for in them.  Before, I was looking for more Sluggy Freelance, and it stuck for a long time afterwards.  Schlock Mercenary, GPF and College Roomies from Hell all fit that mold, but as Errant Story kept going, I found myself craving something similar.  Now my read list is full of comics like it, Gunnerkrigg Court, Derelict, Stand Still, Stay Silent, among so many others.

Errant Story took on the role of a Classic as it finished up.  During it's run, Lord of Rings made it's way to the theaters and show the classic version of the fantasy tropes, with it's clear divisions of good and evil and all that.  Errant Story, on the other hand, is the modern version of fantasy.  There is not strictly good or evil characters.  Hell, three of the comic's heroes, Sarine, Jon and Sara, are all basically assassins of one sort or another.  Ian himself isn't strictly evil, but someone whose motives are understandable, even if his actions aren't good in any sense.  Meji's goal is to gain the godlike powers so she can pass her class, possibly by beating her teachers in a magic fight.  It's a selfish group that becomes the heroes because, well, everyone else seems worse.

But they're not.  It's a political world that they live in, where there really isn't much of a line between good and evil.  They're all doing the best they can for their interests, which vary and conflict.  It's complex, and trying to navigate it is frustrating and difficult.  Even in the epilogue, the complexities don't go away even as Meji tries to use her godlike powers to help the world, things don't go as she intended.

And it didn't really end, nor was it intended to end.  Errant Tales was to continue the story, probably into the distant future.  The white room scene in Volume Seven was the first hints of this, giving the reader a glimpse as to what was to come.  It never happened though, the stress of readying Errant Story for a full publication as well as the many health and personal issues that plagued Poe and his wife ground the entire thing, both the commentary and Errant Tales itself, to a halt.  Will we see it in the future?  I don't know, I hope so.

The good news is that we have Errant Story as a whole, and complete.  It's a great read, wordy sometimes, especially early on, but it builds a wonderful world.  From there it creates a tragic story of vengeance, redemption and hope.  It's not perfect, nothing is, but it shows the way for other comics to follow, and that makes it a classic, THE Classic webcomic, and one everyone should read at least once.

And so after 7 MONTHS I'm finally done with this series, at least until Errant Tales begins, but for now I can move on to other things.  Assuming my work schedule isn't a complete terror.  Until then kiddies, and thanks for reading.

The Classic: Volume Seven

FINALLY I'm up to Volume Seven of Errant Story.  Sorry it took so long.  And of course, I may have screwed up anyway.

The last scene of Volume Six I talked about?  Yeah, it actually happened as part of the first chapter of Volume Seven.  Since there aren't any more volume breaks, or obvious ones anyway, it's kind of hard to tell.  I like my break better though, as it leads right into the real meat of Volume Seven, which is Meji finishes her school project.

Volume Seven also starts throwing random background information into the comic as side notes, and filler.  A lot of the really bad stuff to happen to Poe happened during this period, so the universe building filler helped pad the comic.  It's interesting, but not strictly necessary to the comic's story in the long run.  It does make a point though that the comic's universe was constantly being rewritten as the story went on, changing and modifying as the story required rather than being completely wedded to it.

I covered the final parts of the volume pretty well in my Retrospective on the comic after it ended, but the build up to there is quite interesting too.  The comic speeds along, most of the events taking place over the course of a few days at most.  Most of the cast spend their time in jail cells (where Sara juggles) while Meji is in bed.  Then a white room, where she encounters herself, from THE FUTURE!  Apparently the alt-text (which shows up early in the comic then disappears then reappears in the late comic) says people didn't like the scene, not sure why.  I guess I like it better because I've done scenes like that in my various stuff, so it didn't bother me.  There is a reason for it, and I'll get to the white room thing next time.

The final fights in this volume are, well, brief.  It's funny how little action there is in the comic, with most of the real heavy fighting off panel.  But the results are obvious.  The Elven city (whose name I can never bother to remember) is utterly destroyed, a disaster of epic proportions.  It's almost unnerving how quiet it is throughout the first few pages.  Then the explosions start.

Over on TVTropes there's a page dedicated to the headscratcher of the comic:  Why are they saving the elves?  They're complete jerks for the most part, awful across the board in fact.  They are horrible and terrible people from the long view.  Sarine gives her answer as to why in this Volume, because some of them ARE innocent, and if means saving the jerks to save them, then so be it.  The truth though, is that the elves don't matter.  This is all about Ian, and saving HIM is the point.  He admits, while he's beating up the one person he cares about that's still alive, that what he's doing is evil, but it's all he can think to do with his great power.  His naked form in the white room bitches about how he got the short end of the stick constantly, but really he didn't, he just didn't deal with the challenges in life in a meaningful way.  He almost forgot completely about those that cared for him, and in his blindness would have killed them all.

That said, I do still stick with my contention that this was more Sarine's story than either Meji or Ian's.  She really is the major mover of the plot from pretty much the get go, and she's the one who wraps up the whole thing at the end, finally healing, for the most part, a 1000 year old wound.  She also gets the child she always wanted, from Jon, which by this point should be no surprise.

The comic ends with the note that the world didn't END with the story.  Something a lot of people forget is that life goes on after the adventure, so Sarien and Jon's kid, Sara's wanderings and Meji's attempt to change the world aren't just an afterthought, but a full on story in and of themselves.  At the same time, Errant Story, the comic, does draw to a satisfying ending, and one I wish I could have been more timely about.

Next time, I wrap up The Classic.  Until then kiddies, and hope you had a happy Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate it anyway).

The Classic: Volume Six

Volume Six of Errant Story is the final chance to avert everything that will happen in Volume Seven, and of course doesn't avert it at all.  I know that makes no sense at all, but let me explain.

Throughout Volume Six, there are chances to make alternate decisions, easy decisions in fact.  And I don't mean ones from the various government agencies involved, as they are dead set to do what they will and while it wouldn't have been good, it certainly wouldn't have been what occurred.  No, the real decisions all came down to two people:  Sarine and Ian.

Ian's path is probably the most straight forward as he's been kind of deteriorating mentally for some time.  He's going nuts, and I think he knows it.  What control he has managed to lead him back to Leah and Riley (I think this is the last time they show up in the comic BTW) for a brief recovery.  For a moment he even wanted to go back to the healing thing, which nearly killed him last time but he's come around to the idea of not dying while doing it so that's good.

Then the bombshell comes that some of the people he healed the first time reverted, and at least one died.  I emphasis "some" because many, including Leah, are just fine.  Still, this is enough of a blow to Ian's already fragile mental state, so he decides if the only thing he's good for is killing, then he's going to kill people who deserve it, the Elves.  Once he decides on this path, betting that the's going to be killed in the process, he's off and that's all she wrote.  He could have not done this, of course, if someone, say Meji, had been there to slap some sense into him, but without a tether to keep him grounded (and now I'm mixing metaphors, I think), he might have been able to recover at this point.  He didn't, instead giving into his despair and rage.

The tragedy that forms the basis of Volume Seven is thus in motion, but the other half of the equation is Sarine, and for her the path was more desperation and atonement.  I wrote in the Retrospective that despite the title and every other indication, I think this comic is more about Sarine than anyone else, and this volume really gets to the point.  Meji, Jon and Sara likely would have walked away if Sarine hadn't been pushing them forward, even if not directly.  Sarine is desperate to prevent a massive tragedy, and despite the disdain she has for her own people, she doesn't want them to get all killed.  Yet every decision they make, to her, seems like they want to get themselves killed, or worse.

She has been constantly haunted by the events of the Errant Wars, and her role in it.  The fact that she preferred to leave her people and be a stranger in the world says a great deal about how she felt about it.  It's clear she tracked errants, but actually investigated them, tried to figure out if there was an issue then she killed them if necessary.  It's gotten to her, and she's trying to undo the damage in some small way.  She's the only one looking to talk to Ian, even knowing how he feels about elves in general.

To this end, she begins a process of trying to talk the rest of the Elves out of, um, raiding god's tomb, then finding ways to convince them not to raid god's tomb, to just trying to get there first to keep them from raiding god's tomb.  I should note that Sarine has a lot of plans, and rarely do they go well at all.  When the talking doesn't work, she starts sacrificing things, starting with her loyality to the Elves as a whole, asking for asylum and hoping her information will, again, stop this from even happening.  When that doesn't work, she gives up personal mementos as bribes to keep things moving along just so she has a SHOT at stopping all this before it happens.

In the end, she even has to kill one of her friends and fellow rangers, Sarna and why couldn't they have names that don't look so similar with the font they use?  Dear god that could be confusing at times.  In any case, she continues to aim towards a higher end, but her actions move the players in ways they might not have done so without her machinations, or attempt at them anyway.  This lines everything up in such a way that when Ian finally bursts through the ceiling with Anita and an army of the undead (yeah, he's building one), things are going to go from bad to worse very quickly.  Though they also have a chance now, where before, there would just be a lot of dead elves.

Jon follows Sarine because he's in love with her, Sara follows because Jon is going and Meji goes along because she wants to save Ian, somehow.

And of course, the final scene has an elf mage trying to absorb Senilis, and that guarantees Volume Seven as a whole.

The final push to this ending is a bit frantic, but methodical.  The steps are there all along, and they seem to move quickly, but really it's not so much.  I think, and I could be wrong, but while there are more chapters, I think there are less pages overall through Volume Six, which makes it seem to go by much faster than it would have otherwise.  It helps that most of the dialog is unnecessary.

My last note here is that this is where a lot of filler strips, mostly featuring Bani and Sara, start popping up.  Poe had a lot of issues come up during this period and pushing into the next volume:  first his father died, then he nearly died in a car accident, then his WIFE nearly just died in something that is the most dramatic thing I have ever seen (she survived) so the fact that not only was Errant Story still updating, but Does Not Play Well With Others was going at the same time is just damn amazing.  The filler strips don't take that much away from the story, though they do pop up at inopportune moments, but it's clear keeping the coming going was the main goal, even if it wasn't the main story as such.

Next time, the end of Errant Story, but not the end of The Classic.  Until then kiddies.

The Classic: Volume Five

Volume Five of Errant Story is, well, long.  In fact, I kept having to check back to see how far into the volume I was as there are no more volume covers, and there are a lot of chapters. It's not the most (Volume Seven is 9 chapters), but compared to Volume One and it's measly 5 it feels excessively large.  And there's a lot going on, a lot.  With every volume my notes get longer and longer.  Not just the number, but just the length of each entry.  There's so much to say, to touch on.

That said, there does seem to be a kind of theme running through this Volume.  I'm not sure if it was on purpose, I suspect not.  Still, it is there, and it has to do with family.

I use the term loosely when it comes to Sarine though.  She makes an off hand comment about one of her "relations" being in the audience of her attempt to bring this whole mess to light, only to comment about hoping to embarrass them.  That said, given the relatively few numbers of elves running around, the entire species could be considered her family, and she doesn't think much of it.  It's been on going since the beginning that she doesn't like other elves, and it's even more apparent here.  She avoids her own people as much as possible, hides as soon as she can, and then plans a raid to rescue Meji, right before they're surprised/captured just outside the elven city.  The fact that she finds better company with an assassin, his sister, and a flying/talking cat says a great deal about her.

Jon and Sara's relationship is more direct, of course, being brother and sister, but no less tumultuous, at least at the beginning.  I said last time that I wasn't sure if Sara intended to kill Jon or not, but that's probably not the right question.  The real question is was she going to do it because it was her task, or because she wanted to.  While she is clearly upset that Jon left her, she yells at him, the most animated she will be in the entire comic, the impression is she's angry because she wanted him to save her, not that she hated him for not doing so.  Jon's response is well reasoned, and apologetic.  His career did not offer him an easy way to care for his little sister, and by the time he found out his mother was dead and sister was orphanage, she had already been taken away by the monks.  Once they have their talk, though, they seem to find a mutual understanding, creating probably the most stable family unit of the main characters.

Meji certainly doesn't.  At least when it comes to her parents.  We won't learn outright until later, but her grandfather does care about her, which is why he's rather hard on her.  Her mother, on the other hand, is exactly as inattentive as she was initially presented.  She really doesn't care about her daughter, and only thinks about her in relation to getting back with Meji's father, something Sarine talks her out of because, well, her father is an elf.  Who are generally predisposed to killing half elves whenever they find them.  It's sheer luck that the whole thing with Ian happened, so instead he kidnaps his daughter and locks her in a cell in the elf city.  That wouldn't have happened, of course, if Meji didn't actually want to meet her father, despite knowing what he might try to do to her.

Then there's Ian, who's mother killed his sister by burning down their house.  You know, the sister he traveled the world and absorbed the powers of an elven god to simply heal.  Yeah he has issues.  Still, he knows he's kind of messed up, so when Anita offers to help him control his powers, if she helps him genocide the elves, he agrees to be her weapon without a thought.  As far as he's concerned, he should be dead already, and if it weren't for Meji, he would be.

And it's through Meji that a strange, new kind of family is formed.  Our heroes form a strange kind of family, which, despite the murderous rampages, assassinations, backstabbing and general dickery are probably more stable than any of the other groups.  Sarine and Jon have a rapidly developing relationship where they seem able to create "routines" between each other without any prior preparation, something that causes Sara to make a joke about it.  Meji is actually wants to help Sarine and Jon when Ian comes to her rescue (he is only concerned with Jon), and of course Ian did come to Meji's aid.  Sarine, despite knowing Ian's current rampage would likely target her as well, is more than willing to try to talk Ian down while Jon sees to Meji who was injured and Sara wants a weapon in case she needs to help protect them all.

Again, the theme is there, kind of.  It wasn't strictly intentional, as much as I can tell, and it isn't perfect, but at the same time, I prefer it that way.  Instead of trying to fit everything into a specific theme, the story just happens to involve it, while it moved along on it's own.  The reader gets a hint of it and has to dig down a bit to find it without it being thrust in their faces.  At the same time, they don't have to, the story doesn't NEED it to work.  I found myself enjoying this Volume far more than the earlier ones partially because of it.

Volume Five furthers the story, digs deeper into the characters and their various connections, and grows around a loose theme that manages to link everything together.  Also, Ian kills a god in this, but that's just a side note in the end.

Next time, Volume Six.  Until then kiddies.

The Classic: Volume Four

I had a good chunk of Volume Four of Errant Story written when I realized I was just reiterating events.  That's fine and all for the earlier volumes, as that is kind of the point.  There's a lot of backstory, setting up of initial motivations and the key event that sets everything off.  But that's not really explaining why YOU should read it.

Volume Four is when the movements really begin.  Characters stop introducing themselves and start acting as characters.  We get hints of their attitudes and motives before this, maybe some actions, but those are brief if anything.  Here, we see them in full action, and the consequences of each of these will echo throughout the comic.

Jon and Sarine part ways, not pleasantly at least from Jon's perspective.  Losing Meji echoes losing his sister earlier in life, and he goes off to do the one thing he's best at:  Killing people.  Sarine does ask him, practically begs him, to look for Meji and Ian, but he knows it's a fool's errand.  Like Sara, Meji has gone to who knows where and he likely won't ever find her, and he's probably more than a little scared to do so.  He's not really equipped to deal with magically overpowered, well, anything, and he knows it, so why bother?  Getting angry at Sarine, it's more a defense mechanism.  He's been alone for a long time, and any attachments, especially one that tends to wipe the memory of shared moments, is not something he really wants or needs.  The fact that he doesn't know or particularly like what's going on doesn't help either.

Sarine reveals quite a bit, mostly that she really doesn't like her own people.  Like at all.  The fact that they've been deliberately hiding things from, well, everyone, really ticks her off.  It's clear she really doesn't like the job she has, she's every bit the assassin Jon is, only her list of targets is whole groups of people, and she has to be judge, jury and executioner for each and every one of them.  And she really hates the arrogance of the Elf leadership, confronting them with what she knows, kind of knowing that things are going to get worse.  So she hides things, like that she knows Meji and that Jon was with them from the start.  Then once she knows things are going to hell in a handbasket, she leaves, making a beeline for the one person in all the world she thinks can help.

Sara has gotten the least amount of panel time of all the "main" characters.  It's mostly because she has almost no emotions, honestly.  We finally get a brief glimpse of her past, VERY brief especially compared to everyone else.  Still in it's brevity, it gives us a very good look at her as she grew up, what was instilled in her, and why she doesn't even blink when told to kill her own brother.  That fight is actually really well done, it feels like it takes forever, but the build up is well done, and when the final blows are struck it is quick and to the point.  It's funny how the arrogance that Sarine so dispises at home, almost gets her killed here, and how Jon's own belief that he can't really compete is proven completely wrong, all in the a few pages.  Both are completely surprised, and it will prove to be a valuable lesson in the future.

Meanwhile, Ian is drunk on power and Meji is along for the ride.  Watching Ian go from the highest moment of his life to the lowest in the course of a few pages could have been much more soul crushing, but he's constantly holding back.  It's not until afterwards the true depths of his depression become evident:  He's basically suicidal at this point of the story.  It's understandable, of course, and perfectly reasonable.  He tries, TRIES, to turn his new found power into something that benefits everyone he can, but it is hurting him, probably killing him.

And then there's Meji.  I think she shows something here that was basically absent from, well, the entire comic until now:  she does care about someone other than herself.  She's not scared of Ian throughout, she's scared FOR him.  She carries him along at one point when he's nearly out of power and kind of drunk like.  She makes him take breaks, to the point of actually punching him in the face and threating people to get away before he kills himself healing them.  Then, when he tries to raise the dead, while she says "you might kill me" it comes off less as she's desperate to save her life, and more that she's trying to convince him not to do something that could kill them both.  The fact that she stays AT ALL is played off as being "well I don't want to walk home" but really, she can't leave him again, especially not like this.  It's actually a character to her, especially outside of the whiny brat we've seen for much of the comic.  Scary Little Devil Girl or no, she  can and does care about someone other than herself.

The various characters actually get to show the traits we've only been given the briefest of hints at up until now, and there is some growth.  The comic is finally going strong and will only get better from here.  Next time Volume Five, until then kiddies.

The Classic: Volume Three

The first thing that stuck out for me with Volume Three of Errant Story is how awful the volume cover looks.  I don't know why, but Meji looks really, REALLY off model.  Flat, rough, and terrible.  I'm reasonably sure that most of the cover art, either for the volumes or chapters, are all sketches of one for or another, which is probably why Meji looks so bad, it's an early, quick version.  It's a jarring image, but it's only temporary.

Anyway, the reason Volume 3 had to be separated out is because this is when the story actually gets going.  One and Two are basically set up and backstory, both for the world and the characters, and while there is some more here, it's more about moving the story forward rather than stopping and talking way too damn much.

But it starts with Anita being a bitch.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention her in Volume Two where she's actually introduced, but that's more because there's really little about her there.  She's the leader of the Ensigerum Order, the time ninjas that Sara belongs to, and in Volume Two, as in Volume One, we really don't get much about her there.  It's in Volume Three that Anita starts playing a more major role, and one of being probably the main antagonist of the whole story.  Yes, even though Ian is the "villain" (for relative levels of villainy), Anita is the one that eventually pushes the whole thing over the top.  She is not a nice person, like at all, but backs it up by being a really good at what she does.

The most memorable moment for me, for some reason, is when Sarine and Jon have sex.  Yeah, okay, maybe it's the titillation factor, but it's actually a great character moment for both characters.  The setup is simple, Sarine crying over the thought of having to kill Meji, who is a stable half-elf (one with self esteem issues and a spoiled attitude, which is very prevalent throughout this volume).  Then Jon pulls his gun out with the idea of defending the girl.  There's more to it, of course (go read it already), but in the end, the act is one that is not really out of character for both.  The fact that Sarine tries to erase the event from Jon's mind the next morning is also in character (he noticed).  Then the Paedagogusi arrive.

The Paedagogusi are basically the Elven version of angels, but they're fairies that are, um, unconventional to say the least.  To say the most, they're right out of Exploitation Now!  See, I told you it was part of the root of the comic.  Meji and Ellis's sniping dies down a bit in time for them to arrive and introduce a whole new level of, um, annoyance.  To the characters, they're not that annoying to the readers.  They're basically a kind of comic relief that actually has a point to them, and in the end a pretty powerful role in the story.  Here, two of the five of them are guarding Anilis', um, resting place.  It's unclear what Anilis is or why she's there, dead, sleeping, lazy?  Doesn't matter, but Meji follows through on her plan to gain ultimate power to pass her class. . .

And finds out Ian beat her too hit.  We get a flashback sequence for him, starting from the decision to begin his journey, his fight with the Elves, and eventually his "accidental" absorption of Anilis.  It does appear to be an accident by the way, I don't think he meant to basically eat her, but after a bit, he adjusts.  When he officially reappears, he, um, opens the roof of the inn Meji and the others are staying at, and whisks Meji away.  With this, Volume Three ends.

After two volumes of sheer exposition with one fight and some flirting, this is the meat of Errant Story as a story, and it's only the beginning.  I really did think it would take longer to get to this point, but I guess that just means the last volume is just lots of action and violence, which it probably is.

Next time, Volume Four.  See you then kiddies.  And sorry again for the lateness, my job hours are mean and cruel in so many ways.

The Classic: Volume Two

I considered posting Volume Two and Three of Errant Story together, but in the end, they both deserve their own posts, so I guess we'll have a lot of pages for The Classic.  Ah well, more writing for me, and reading for you.

Volume Two is really more exposition for the comic.  And a fight.  But mostly exposition.  It's spaced out enough with the action that it doesn't feel overblown, but there is still a lot of talking in this volume.  Not as much in the first one of course, but enough.

The first major bit is a flashback for Meji, and it's what finally broke the commentary track version of the comic.  The art is very different from the rest of the comic, with these long, almost brush like strokes used for the shading and coloring.  It gives it a very nice look, but apparently made it a pain to actually prep for publication.  On top of all the other issues happening at the time, something had to give and the commentary track was one of them.  Several of them in fact.

Still, it's an interesting look at what Meji was like prior to events in the comic, and she's not exactly a happy kid throughout.  It was kind of obvious before hand, but made even clearer here.  Her slow physical development made her very self-conscious and withdrawn.  She was more than happy to live with the lie that she was just a human prodigy rather than a half-elf.  It also shows, once again, her mother is a non-entity in her life while her grandfather, while stern, at least is interested.

Then there's a fight with the elves.  We only see a bit (the last part is done in Volume 3), but it's enough to show that Ian is kind of a badass, taking on a cluster of elf soldiers basically alone.  Still, as the first major action scene it plays out pretty well, showing the sheer confusion and anarchy that should reign during such an event.  The fact that Sarine stays out of the fight (and instead heals one of the wounded elves) says more about her than even a few words could ever state.

In fact, most of this volume is about Sarine.  And we get to see quite a bit of her.  Um, meaning she's naked in a few scenes.  Actually, there's more than a little nudity in this volume for some reason.  I guess this is the point where Poe said "I need more readers," and while that is cynical of me, that might actually be the reason.  It's never full frontal or vulgar, but it's there.  Which ends up being an odd contrast to the fact that so many curse words are censored throughout.  I think this is actually very common throughout all of Poe's comics, but it just feels weird to me any more.  Not sure why, perhaps I'm just more used to the less dainty comics that are out there any more.

Back to Sarine and that bulk of the volume involves her in one way or another.  From interacting with Jon and Meji to, well, telling the story of the Errant Wars.  It's actually very tragic, terrible, and very plausible.  From just what was seen in this volume, it's abundantly clear that it happened, and it was horrible and terrible and left some really nasty scars, especially on Sarine's psyche.  Hell, it all but wiped out the elves as a whole (they went from occupying 2 continents, to having barely enough people to populate a single city).  And it really still hasn't handed.  Sarine is going around killing errants (ones who have gone crazy for the most part) despite not really wanting to.

That's really the core of Volume Two, the history of the Errant Wars, and how it set up the current state of the world.  There will be more backstory as the comic goes on for the other characters, but with the end of Volume Two, the basic world building is done, there's little more to add.  Then Anilis shows up and things get a little weird, but that's for Volume Three.

Until then kiddies.

The Classic: Volume One

Well, there are also a few people that think we were all put here by a group of super advanced alien life forms. . .

Errant Story began in November 2002, only a  few months after Poe's previous comic, Exploitation Now! ended.  Yeah, they're that close together, and I started reading it a few months after that (my review went up in January 2003, so yeah).  Talking about the first volume of Errant Story really can't be done without mentioning Exploitation Now! because it is the foundation of that introduction.

The humor from EN! is very evident in this volume, especially in the conversations between Ellis and Meji.  They remind me of toned down versions of Bimbo and Ralph.  They constant sniping and bickering is definitely right out of EN! and later jokes (there's a yaoi gag there, and if you don't know, don't look it up) are in the same vein.  This humor will be sprinkled throughout the comic until those fairies show up when they'll bring it full force once again, but we're a ways away from that.  Still, there's a lot of EN! humor in the first volume.

And a LOT of dialog.  My god there is so much on a few of the early pages.  I remember the commentary track mentioning they were breaking up some of the pages because they were solid dialog, but I had forgotten how bad it really was.  Meji's introduction is her talking and the page is more dialog balloons than art.  It does pull back after that, but expect a lot of talking early on.  Reminds me of when I reread Life of Riley and how much dialog was in that comic too.  Same time period, so I guess I really didn't notice.  EN! had the same issues near the end of it's short run, so again, more overflow.

I get why there's so much there, this is Meji's introduction and there wasn't any good way to relate it besides having her and Ellis snipe at each other over it.  All of the main characters (Ian, Sarine, Jon, Sara, Meji) are introduced through the length of the first volume.  Sure, Sara doesn't get much time (an alt-text even mentions she won't be significant for 400 pages), but the rest get some characterization.  It's not everything (Volume Two does more of that), but it's enough to give the readers an idea of who the characters are.  Sarine doesn't really like what's she's doing, but does it anyway.  Jon complains about wasting bullets to save Meji, but the next scene has him shooting leaves for practice, undermining his argument.  Ian's reaction to any comment regarding his sister hints at his reactions in the future, etc, etc.

If anything, Meji gets the least characterization, outside of Sara of course.  Mostly, she admits to being lazy, but there are less than subtle (aka Ellis) hints that she's insecure about her looks, is ignored by her mother, and reacts poorly to criticism (aka Ellis).  It's a little more limited, even though we follow her more than the others, but given the length of the comic is her coming of age, I guess it's fitting.

Finally, there is some world building early on, but much of it is limited to off handed comments.  The last full chapter features more about the ancient history of the world than the modern era than the rest of the comic, all done in a single conversation.  Oddly, much of what's said is true (including the quote at the top here) so the major storyline is pretty well established even this early on.  I'm sure the details were still kind of nebulous at this point, but the setup for a much longer story were well settled by now.

It's a good introduction to a longer story, one that is growing from very little.  The players are introduced, the world is built, the tone is settled, and the story is moved along.  Next time, Volume Two and maybe Three, depends on how much of is there.  Until then kiddies.

The Classic: Introduction

Before this universe there was another one. . . a happy universe filled with bunnies. But that one got destroyed in a great cataclysm brought about by a major plot point. Pay attentiion, there will be a test later.

I did my last Special Series, Best Overall, where I talked way too much about Schlock Mercenary, in an attempt to get me through a really crappy work month and it only kind of worked out.  And I only did that because The Standard, where I talked way too much about Sluggy Freelance, I felt was quite a success and I enjoyed doing it.  So with two in the bag, I started thinking about other comics that deserved this kind of treatment..  My first thought was to do Gunnerkrigg Court, as I had just given it a Quasi-award for Best Overall for 2015.  Then I thought about it more and there is a comic a bit more deserving of this treatment, especially as I apparently, and inadvertently, snubbed it in both sets of Quasi-awards.

It's not that I went out of my way to not award Errant Story anything, but I wanted to focus more newer comics because everyone's read Errant Story, right?

RIGHT?

I know that's not true, a lot of people haven't read it, but I feel they should have.  It's like those classic pieces of literature kids get stuck reading in school.  They are classics, excellent works of fiction and examples of the written word, and I feel that Errant Story fits in there.  Oh, it's not as good as Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird, but when it comes to webcomics, there really isn't any other comic that does what Errant Story has done.

Errant Story is my model for the High Fantasy epic, a cornerstone of my involvement in webcomics as a whole.  While Sluggy Freelance is my standards by which all comics are measured against, Errant Story is more a model of what I want a particular branch of comics to be.

I started reading Errant Story very shortly after it started, within a few months if that.  I read it all the way through, beginning to end.  I was there when Michael Poe's father died and derailed the comic for a while, and when his wife nearly died.  This remains, for now, the only comic I have ever given money to.  They sent me a button, which I still have.  It's a comic I have done a Not-So-Wild Review and a Retrospective, and now a Special Series all it's own.

I consider Errant Story to be The Classic of all the comics I read.  Some are older, some have better stories, some have better art, but none of them are the quintessential webcomic, the one everyone SHOULD read.

And it's going to take a while to describe why.  After all, the comic went on for a good 10 years, much of it 3 days a week (probably around 1500 pages total), and there's really only ONE story, not several.  The only easy way to handle this is the straightforward way, one volume at a time.  There are 7 volumes, of course, and that would make a long series, so I might combine a few, but I will reread the entire thing.

I will be bypassing the Commentary Track version of the comic, however.  Mostly because it's incomplete (stops halfway through Volume 2) but also because I want to re-experience the original comic, from the beginning.  Finally, I won't string this all together like I tried with The Standard and Best Overall, this one is going to take awhile to get all the way through and I'm sure there are other topics that will come up in the mean time.

So let's get to it.  This is The Classic, Michael Poe's Errant Story.  See you next time kiddies.