05/06: Phoning It In
One of the creepier comics I've ever read is No Rest For the Wicked. November is our heroin princess, out on a quest to find the Moon - since she hasn't been able to get any sleep since it disappeared. What follows is story that twists and turns through old fairy tales, with just enough twist on them to either make you laugh or make you shudder. I would love to say more on the comic, as it deserves one of the longer posts I normally give to comic of it's polish, but it's rather late, and there aren't any flaws in the comic for me to point out. It's also too original to easily compare it to.
05/03: Whipping It Out
Cheap Thrills is the other furry webcomic I started talking about last week but didn't get around to - half because it was already a long post, and half because I don't like using up all my material in one sitting. Cheap thrills has many many parallels to Lackadaisy Cats - both comics would function exactly the same were all of the characters humans rather than animals. Both authors have collections of each of their characters as humans, in fact. The choice of animals for characters is a wholly aethetic choice, either because the author was not confident in their ability to draw human faces, they felt animal faces were more expressive, or some combination of both. Another parallel is that both comics are visually gorgeous, have rich characters, and also manage to be endlessly amusing.
While Lackadaisy cats follows Rocky as he works his way into the bootlegging trade of the 1920's, Cheap Thrills is about a few teenagers growing up in High School. We follow our protagonist Jeordie, shouting along with him on his accomplishments and cringing at his terrible mistakes. It's got a nice backlog built up, so if you don't have anything to do right now (or at least nothing that can't be put off until later) go check it out.
04/29: Browbeating
I have this large number of Furry comics in my bookmarks from when I was suggested a handful of comics by someone who liked their slice of life, fantasy, or action comics starring anthropomorphic animals. I must say, the last handful is really starting to make me change my opinion about Furry comics being indicative of a bad comic.
Beyond the Veil is short - it hasn't had alot of time to build up an archive since it just began this year. Of course, even that soon, it's well past the number of comics I've made in The Revenant Seal. Surpassing my own motivation, skill and wit is hardly a difficult task, however. The comic starts with an emperor being reborn after a long period of non-rule. Well empress, since the machine brought him back to life as a her. After a bit of eposition we're cut to a wholly fantasy setting instead. We're given little time to get to know the characters or the world, but it has potential.
Bogleech is... something. The current archive is misleading, as it is displaying fanart based on a previous comic. The rest of the archive proves to have polished, clean artwork. This actually seems to detract from it's theme, which is eldretch horror. Having an abomination explode in gore and projected bones just has less effect with clean lines and flat color. The 'humor' revolves around being non sequiter and disgusting (which fails because of the prior reasons mentioned). The two main characters, Brain and Guts, are flat and uninteresting. It's very possible that this comic simply isn't meant for me, so it's possible other people will think it's the best comic ever. If you go in and aren't immediately spellbound, don't expect it to grow on you.
04/26: Organizational Issues
Went back through some of my webcomic bookmarks and came across Purgatory Tower. Aisha is one of many of a large prison population who have been chosen to fight their way up Purgatory Tower - with the ultimate goal of pardon for their crimes if they succeed. As with any similar storyline, the people in charge of this game don't expect there to be many 'winners.' I don't dislike 'Furry' comics on priciple - but when comics tend to needlessly cast all of the main characters as different types of animals, it's usually an indicator of a poor comic. The webcomic ur-example of this is of course Sabrina Online. Exceptions can be listed among my favorite webcomics, and perhaps when Purgatory Tower adds a more expansive archive, it will enter it. Purgatory Tower is set in a fantasy world where children coming of age go through a ceremony to bind them to their spirit animal. The thing that separates Purgatory Tower from other furry comics is that this is not the characters' only trait.
I kept getting linked Nedroid by various webcomics but hadn't really in-depth checked it out until recently. I'm glad I did - rare are the gag comics that can be consistently hilarious every comic.
04/22: Paranoia
Blank It manages to be pretty indescribable - that's a good thing. The fact that it starts as a blank slate and continues to define the physics of a new world reminds me of One Over Zero, although the art is by leaps and bounds better. While each of the two main characters have significantly divergent personalities, they are only predictable to a degree - there are layers there which are absent in many similar webcomics, and they start that way from the beginning. Frankly, this level of polish from the very start of a webcomic is an oddity.
04/19: Customer Unfriendly
I'm sure I dont' have to elaborate on the subject of today's comic if you've ever wrangled with Mail-In rebates. It's not enough that they have to trouble you do mail them in in the first place - they also have to make multiple inconvenient steps to ensure that you don't follow through.
Short blog post because I'm headed to the gym with friends.
04/15: Freudian Issues
A good deal of the afternoon was spent playign Minecraft, as you may have ventured. In particular, we've been playing on a server dedicated to a community I've been apart of for a few years. Normally I would be hesitant to link it, or at least warn not to vandalize, but I think that along with my penchant for placing garish pink blocks and book stacks intermittently in other people's long crafted works that I lose that right.
I have actually added another comic to my growing knowledge base. It is here that I would try to give you some numeric descriptor to compare it to others, but I find that any system I develop is either too simplistic to show the nuances, or so complex that it defeats the point. There is little point in trying to score a comic from 0-10, or something similar, since I simply do not waste time reading comics that do not merit it. The system I am then leaning on is on a scale of 3 - we'll call it 'passable,' 'exceptional,' and 'brilliant.' Of course, subjectivity comes into play - some of my favorite comics (Dresden Codak, XKCD) may be viewed as steaming piles by others. But the only thing I can give you is my opinion.
On that note, The Doghouse Diaries is a solid 'passable.' It tries to be XKCD but flounders with repetitive, cliché anecdotes about how men and women are different. The comic is occasionally adventurous, and is a particular joy near the beginning of the archives. It's certainly worth a read-through.
04/12: Theological Discussion
Something I realized today was that I just do not think in vivid, rich analogies. I wouldn't be able to look at a glass of spilled soda and compare it to the cascading washes of Niagra Falls. It makes me wonder if other bloggers that use these so often do - when Tycho speaks of something having enraged him with the Passion of 1000 Red Suns, is this a metaphor that occurred to him to represent his anger? Or did he have to puzzle it out when he sat down to bang out the blog post accompanying the thrice weekly comic?
I tend to write straight prose, with little fanfare - this may contribute to my mediocrity.
04/09: Culture Shock
Did you know it's extremely common in cultures outside of the US and Europe for significant amounts of post-partum care for new mothers? http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_article.asp?tid=408218
"Western" counties (used loosely since Mexico tends to follow similar practices to the ones in most of China/Tailand/Korea/etc.) tend to put the emphasis on the baby after a new birth instead of focusing on the emotional and physical support of the mother - this may go far to explain why Post Partum Depression is so prevalent here but virtually unheard of in China.
Of course there are a host of superstitions that go along with these practices that have little to know support in modern medical science - like the idea that women shouldn't leave their home at all for a month after giving birth to protect themselves from bad wind (Mayans), to prevent bone rheumatism when the mother gets older (China), or any number of superstitions that come hand in hand with the belief that giving birth leaves a woman 'cold,' so they should avoid cold drinks, keep windows closed and bundle up in blankets, regardless of the weather.
I found a webcomic gem through the author of The Abomidable Charles Christopher. He directed me to Cameron Stewart's Sin Titulo, which has recently been nominated (along with the forementioned comic) for an Eisner in the Best Digital Comic category. The story does an amazing job telling a disjointing, confusing story while not losing the audience. We follow Alex as he tries to uncover the mystery surrounding his grandfathers death - a mystery that everyone but Alex doesn't think really exists. Everything about the comic, from it's art, to it's coloring to it's characters and pacing is polished and beatiful. The archive isn't long thus far, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of it.
04/01: Prank
The april fools was you spent all day trying to find the prank but it wasn't there till the day was over. Clever, wasn't it? Yes, I know that I have no history of doing April Fools jokes, and that no one visits the sites expecting them, but just give me this, okay?
I'm going to try to enter Script Frenzy. The several hours I spent earlier today ruminating on how all of my story ideas suck has slightly discouraged me, but I'll pull something out - even if I have to half ass it. I get lots of practice doing this comic!
03/25: Stare
A more detailed description, if you like [link].
I've been catching up on Misfile, one of my favorite comics. Calling it a 'gender-bender' comic is so simplistic as to be insulting. It manages to very effectively juggle multiple storylines and complex characters (along with a few less complex, but very quirky ones) including the main character's, Ash's, identity issues resulting from a dramatic change to reality that leaves him of the female persuasion, his new friend Emily who finds herself missing two years of her life, and the irresponsible angel who's bungle caused it all. Despite my love of the comic, it's art leaves a few things to be desired, such as more contrast, and perhaps a few less ridiculously awkward action poses (I'm not sure if it's even possible to stand like that).
03/25: Now You Can't See Me
The actual shirt has a comment on it, but I felt that putting the quote on would make the intent of the comic confusing.
I thought that I would have more comics read by today, but I've been sidetracked with watching Invader Zim and The Stragerers with a friend and reading House of Chains.
03/22: Spilled Milk
I actually meant to link Red Letter Media last time, but the blog was getting a bit long. It's a series of movie reviews about Star Trek and Star Wars spelling out (in great detail) just how the movies fail, both within their own canon and as films. They will also make you laugh, or creep you out, or both.
I managed to get through Head Trip - a task that was not guaranteed, I assure you. I think the only thing that kept me reading this webcomic carbon copy clone of so many others is that it stars and is written by women. The large amounts of consequence-free cartoon violence, pinups, and video game references give a nice block of evidence to show just how men and women are often the same, given the same culture. The strip focuses on two sisters, Malory and Kat, most often just throwing banter back and forth with no context. Malory mentions some ignorant, famous or irritating person (sometimes all of the above), Kat tells her not to go kill them, then Malory goes and kills them anyway. This happens pretty consistently through the entire strip. As the strip progresses, particularly after a long hiatus, there's a sudden burst of Cerebus Syndrome, in this case a welcome change to the monotony.
Head Trip also fits in a second story, Chemokid and Emokid, a ridiculous Superhero spoof comic that worked extremely well as a single off-story. Rather than leave it at that, or at least keep it's silly roots, it progresses along a more and more dramatic serious track. This is not a welcome change. It's one thing to have a cancer patient and a goth poet fight their childhood friend MemoMan, and quite another to have them joining up with a girl in a wheelchair to fight corporate corruption and actual thugs with guns. It's executed poorly, and the concept is too ridiculous to take seriously.
In a totally different genre, Clockworks is a Fantasy comic with steampunk elements. It follows a batch of Private Constables (PC's) who find themselves getting tangled up with an organization possessing unusal technology who are trying to collect ancient artifacts for the unbreakable ore they're made of. It's narrative suffers in the way most Pen and Paper RPG translations suffer from - there are too many characters. It fairs better than most by splitting the characters up in order to accomplish various Detective Story objectives, and it does a nice job of pacing the backstories of each character as the story progresses. In terms of art, it's fairly clear and not usually too busy - a failing of many action based comics. I'm also a fan of it's textured art.
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