Strange Week

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

Scary Comics

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

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time kiddies.

Touching Base #5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, until next week kiddies.

Fall Wild Webcomic Review

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

TIME FOR ANOTHER WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Girly Ends

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Not-So-Wild Review: Sluggy Freelance

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

SLUGGY FREELANCE

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

CHARACTERS

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

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

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

STORY

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

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

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

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

ART

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

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

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

OVERALL


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

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

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

First Anniversary!

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

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

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

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

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

Until next time kiddies.