Caught In A Web: Starslip Crisis

Kristofer Straub's "Starslip Crisis" makes for an interesting parallel to Brad Guigar's "Evil Inc." in that, while they share certain generic, thematic and format-related aspects, Straub's series has that one critical component that "Evil Inc." lacks: variety.

There are certainly enough similarities to sustain a comparison: both strips poke fun at a specific genre (superheroes in "Evil Inc.", sci-fi in "Starslip Crisis"), both are littered with simple yet tremendously funny characters, both are well-written, and both use the daily punchline technique within a larger structure of ongoing storylines.

The main point of divergence, I think, is the way each series runs those storylines. For the most part, "Evil Inc." has a singular focus; all storylines are tethered to the company and its employees. The arcs aren't necessarily contingent, but Guigar typically has one narrative unfolding at a time while everything else is on hold.

"Starslip Crisis", by contrast, bounces back and forth between a number of plotlines all running simultaneously - earlier in the year, one of the series' protagonists went off to military school, and Strauber started alternating the focus between the school and the rest of the characters. Going further back, a war that had been discussed in the periphery suddenly took center stage as the cast blundered right into the battle. Events are constantly occuring outside our field of vision, and that has the added effect of broadening the scope of the story. It also allows Straub to stray from the A-plot from time to time, and that helps break up any tedium that might set in over an extended period of time.

The fact that Straub is able to milk the science-fiction genre for every drop of parodical comedy will probably come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his work; truly, the best thing about "Starslip Crisis" is that it manages to take the most basic aspects of science fiction and make them funny. You don't even need to be familiar with the genre to "get" the jokes; there's no direct appropriation of, say, "Star Wars", that would require insider knowledge. The humor is for everyone. :)

Anyone who samples Straub and finds him to their liking would also be advised to read "Checkerboard Nightmare", Straub's previous series which chose, as its subject matter, the very medium of webcomics itself, and managed to be every bit as amusing.

Caught In A Web: Evil Inc.

I'm not quite sure why I'm still reading this; lack of a proper jumping-off point, I suppose, coupled with the fact that I'm more bored with it than genuinely displeased or irritated. It's not that "Evil Inc." has changed for the worse, far from it; if anything, Brad Guigar has remained remarkably consistent since spinning this series off from "Greystone Inn" two years ago.

And that's really my beef with it; it's too consistent. The humor just feels less effective to me these days, and I find I've lost interest in the storylines and characters. Inertia's keeping me going at the moment, but I doubt that'll last much longer.

Still, it's worth reiterating those traits that drew me to "Evil Inc." in the first place; a lighthearted parody of the superhero genre, executing the gag-a-day format very nicely. If it rocked the boat a bit more often, I'd still be aboard.

Caught In A Web: Order of the Stick

"The Order of the Stick" started out as a hilarious D&D parody that spoofed the conventions of the genre (ie: six diverse adventurers enter a dungeon in search of treasure and monsters). Over time, it evolved into a more ambitious story, and yet despite the larger scale - the current storyline featuring a war that would put Peter Jackson to shame - the strip has never lost sight of its humorous nature. Rich Burlew has a knack for creating characters we either instantly love (Elan, Haley, even Xykon) or instantly hate (Miko!), and he has a strong sense of pacing, always aware of exactly how long a subplot can run before it wears itself thin.

Some readers might be turned off by the stick-figure artwork, but to be honest, I feel it adds an extra layer to the series: the simplicity of the visual imagery makes for a great contrast to the complexity of the storylines.

"The Order of the Stick" is pure fun, one of the best fantasy/adventure webcomics around. Definitely worth a look.

Caught In A Web: Dominic Deegan, Oracle For Hire

Another old favorite of mine, though unlike "Something Positive", the shine's starting to come off a bit. The issue I have with "Dominic Deegan" is its manga-esque tendency to swerve from emotional extreme to emotional extreme; things are either bizarrely optimstic or morosely depressing, and the author has never really found middle ground, so to speak. A relatively light-hearted story about a crime wave being foiled ended with slit throats and lots of blood before curving back to optimism again (good guys win, best friends part amicably, blah blah blah). Jacob Deegan's past appearance involved the attempted murder of his younger brothers, and when he turned up a few weeks ago it was all puns and giggles. Very abrupt, very jarring.

Of course, I can't discount my own experience when evaluating this series: when I first discovered "Dominic Deegan", it was building up to "The Storm of Souls", a very intense and kinetic storyline centered around a climactic confrontation between good and evil. The storyline before that had Nurse Pam being assaulted by a bunch of jocks; prior to that, Dominic and Luna were caught up in a treacherous scheme involving demonic possession, orgies, serial killings and a psychotic Infernomancer. In other words, my initial expectations of the series were founded on the belief that it was transitioning from comedy to drama, from light to dark, and that the series was "growing up" in a sense. Now, several storylines later, it's starting to look like that transition wasn't as complete as I thought; indeed, it's altogether possible there was never any deliberate shift in the first place, that I mistook coincidental arc placement for deliberate progression.

That realization stems primarily from Mookie's (the author's) aversion to taking risks with his cast - if you run a whole storyline about a cataclysmic war in Hell, and the only casualty is an obnoxious third-stringer who was designed to be hated, you might be holding on a bit too tightly. Even the villains keep coming back again and again. Fake-outs (where you think a character's been killed, only to discover they miraculously survived the next day) have been used so often at this point that it's hard to be genuinely invested in any storyline that suggests a real threat to the protagonists and their relationship; this just isn't the kind of comic where such threats could even come close to fulfillment.

That said, "Dominic Deegan" has a lot going for it: the art is cute without being cloying, the puns are always fun to groan at, and Mookie never finds himself at a loss for a new angle. And if it's not as mature as it could be, and if the shifting tone can get a bit erratic at times, it's still worth reading in the long run.

Caught In A Web

After being stuck in a bit of a holding pattern, I've decided to dive back into the wonderful world of webcomics. I'd like to start this (tentative) series off with some strips I'd found before and am still following:

R.K. Milholland's Something Positive is a perfect example of how imperceptible change can be until you step back and take in the big picture. Looking at the series as a whole, it seems that "Something Positive" has drastically changed its tone over the last year or so, but if you've been reading it regularly, you probably haven't noticed - it's been a very slow and gradual shift.

What originally drew me to "Something Positive" was Milholland's fantastic use of black humor, but that's been tapering off lately; these days, storylines tend to alternate between drama and comedy rather than conflate the two. The easiest point of comparison is the recent "Last Hours" storyline, a morbid depiction of Scotty Harris' suicide, and "This Is How We Say Goodbye", the original iteration of that storyline.

See the difference? S*P used to have a punchline for any event, no matter how inappropriate. But I don't think there's any funny to be found in Scotty's demise or Kharisma's nadir.

Which isn't to say that the strip's worse off, really. It's just adopted a different tone, and the narrative structure's changed now that the main characters have split up; in earlier years, most storylines linked back to at least one member of the core group (ie: each stage of Mike's development intersects with either Davan or Peejee), and these days the ongoing storylines lose a bit of cohesion because we're constantly moving back and forth between Boston and Bedford.

But the humor's still there in some form, and every now and then Milholland proves that he's as twisted as ever, so at the end of the day, it's all good.

On the subject of Narbonic

The pool was refilled...

"Alice in Wonderland" set Dave off...

That beautiful "dream gallery" at the end, and Dave's childbearing predictions actually coming true...

Shaenon Garrity, I salute you. I am in awe of you. I am so very, very glad to have read "Narbonic".

Webcomic A Go Go - UPDATED MAY 29

Or: "The Journey of a Thousand Strips Begins With Bloody Eyes"

(New thread: the old one got a bit messed-up during a recent edit.)

My progress report thus far:

* NeverNever
* Kara, Kali and the Wind
* Return To Green Hollow
* A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible
* Irrational Fears
* Evil Inc.
* Bad Blood
* The Jaded
* Alpha Shade
* The Green Avenger
* Nahast: Lands of Strife
* RPG World
* Something Positive
* VG Cats
* Queen of Wands
* The Order of the Stick
* Road Waffles
* Sinfest
* Nukees
* Diesel Sweeties
* PVP
* Mnemesis (My Paypal paranoia triumphs!)
* 8-Bit Theatre
* Gunnerkrigg Court
* Nausea
* Boy Meets Boy
* Basil Flint, P.I.
* Friendly Hostility
* No Rest For The Wicked
* 8/12 By Eleven
* Jack
* The Spiders
* Angst Technology
* Bob and George
* Questionable Content
* Demonology 101
* Kid Radd
* Unicorn Jelly
* Cutewendy
* Girly
* The Starship Destiny
* File 49
* 1/0
* Paper Eleven
* Exploitation Now
* Captain Spectre and the Lightning Legion
* Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire
* The Coffee Achievers
* Fallen Angels Used Books
* Mozhaets
* PHD Comics
* Least I Could Do
* Nana's Everyday Life
* Greystone Inn
* A Modest Destiny
* 319 Dark Street
* Bobbins
* Scary Go Round
* Arthur, King of Time and Space
* The Dreamland Chronicles
* Hellbound
* Starslip Crisis
* Wish3
* Lifelike
* Antihero For Hire
* Flatwood
* Captain SNES
* The Wandering Ones
* Strange Attractors
* Atland
* Dubious Tales
* Awesome Marcus Ninja
* Alien Loves Predator
* Everything Jake
* Checkerboard Nightmare
* Supernatural Law
* Femme Noir
* Kalmer Unwritten
* The Class Menagerie
* Roomies
* Coming Full Circe
* Boy Meets Hero
* Tom Sparks, Atomic Detective
* Home on the Strange
* Inverloch
* Nannah Laveaux
* Scandal Sheet
* Butterfly
* Weirdlings
* Mindmistress
* Achewood
* You'll Have That
* The Architect (when completed)
* The Hook (when completed)
* 5ideways (when completed)
* Avalon (if it's ever completed)
* RPGWorld (if it's ever completed)

Some reviews - though I won't be covering everything I've read:

UPDATED:

"Boy Meets Hero" (http://www.boymeetshero.com/): This could have worked. The most popular superhero in Golden Bay City is living a triple life - he's Blue Comet, defender of the people; he's Derek Maxwell, unassuming civilian; and he's Derek Maxwell, homosexual. But his closeted status is threatened when he falls in love with Justin Summers, an ordinary guy with a bit of a hero worship complex. So far so good, but the dialogue is simply atrocious. It reads like an especially corny romance comic from the '50s - "I can't believe I'm dating a superhero! He's so strong and muscular! I'm so lucky! I wuv you! No, I wuv you!" Gag me with a red-hot spoon.

"Home on the Strange" (http://www.homeonthestrange.com/): You know, the first thing that came to mind while reading this was Aerie's "Queen of Wands". It has a very similar style of humor, with the pop culture references and the gentle satire of geek culture, and the characters are entertaining both on their own and in their group dynamics. It's relatively new, so there's still plenty of room to see where it's going, but so far I like it a lot.

"Tom Sparks, Atomic Detective" (http://www.atomicdetective.com/): This is a perfect example of one thing I simply adore about webcomics - the willingness to experiment with genres and forms. "Tom Sparks", for example, combines noir murder mystery, superheroics and B-movie sci-fi to create an intriguing story that smoothly merges its various inspirations into a cohesive whole.


"Checkerboard Nightmare" (http://www.checkerboardnightmare.com/): An absolutely hilarious strip by Kristofer Straub, poking fun at webcomics, celebrities, pop culture and more. Chex is a glory-hungry (and slightly reality-challenged) webcomics creator who wants to make it big, no matter what it takes. Unfortunately, his crazy schemes tend to cause more problems than solutions. This series is pretty impressive on a technical level, as Straub really manages to work every angle of the parody, from breaking the fourth wall to satirizing the very cornerstones of the medium - it's also a lot of fun to read.

"Supernatural Law" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/supernaturallaw/): The high concept works - sort of an "Ally McBeal meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer" scenario where the lawyers represent "unusual" clients - but the writing falls flat, with the actual court cases being far too short and not taking enough advantage of the premise.

"Femme Noir": (http://www.supernaturalcrime.com/comics.html): According to the author, "Femme Noir" is a sort of female answer to Will Eisner's "The Spirit". This is true, but it works both ways: on the one hand, yes, there is a competent appropriation of the quasi-noir environment and tropes, and the unnamed protagonist is every bit the '40s femme fatale... on the other hand, the series lacks any particular depth in either plot or characterization - in line with the Eisner tradition, certainly, but perhaps geared more towards fans of that classic style than other readers.

"Awesome Marcus Ninja" (http://www.marcusninja.com/): "Meh" about sums it up. Some nice gags with the ninja stereotype, but nothing particularly remarkable, and it felt pretty inconsistent while reading it through.

"Dubious Tales" (http://www.dubious-tales.com/): Now this one is just plain fun. It's a bizarre soap opera, focusing on the lives of six quirky university students all living in the same house. The characters seem pretty weird at first, but it quickly becomes clear that you can identify with them all: they're very sympathetic and compelling despite of (or perhaps because of) their quirks. There's a bit of fantasy here, a bit of humor, a bit of romance... and it's all quite well-written.

"Captain SNES" (http://www.captainsnes.com/index.php): A massive disappointment. The hook for this series is that it's an indirect parody sequel to the '80s cartoon "Captain N: The Game Master" - decades after that champion brought peace to Videoland, a new threat arises, and a new hero is recruited to fight it. The time gap is represented by the use of Super Nintendo games such as "Chrono Trigger" and "Super Mario World", as opposed to the Captain N adventures which took place in settings such as "Castlevania" or "Kid Icarus". The only problem is that Captain SNES, also known as Alexander Williams, is a foul-mouthed, washed-up college student who's a far cry from the squeaky-clean hero of yesterdecade. It's a good premise, and the first few storylines are actually quite amusing (especially the "Weakest Link" parody), but it goes off the rails quite dismally after that. The plot loses all cohesion, bouncing back and forth, and the author's repertoire of humor turns out to be rather limited. It's a shame, because the ideas behind the execution had a lot of potential.

"Antihero For Hire" (http://www.antiheroforhire.com): Hmm. This one's on the borderline, really. On the one hand, it's interesting enough that I'm sticking around to see what happens next; on the other hand, aside from a few clever tricks there's not a lot here that isn't being done elsewhere. It's a superhero story, except the characters are largely aware of the conventions - you have the stereotypical mystery man who leaks bits of information, but here he acknowledges that yeah, he's doing it to be annoying and to drive the hero crazy. And the protagonist is in a rather amusing situation where he has one major nemesis completely out of his grasp, while every other villain he fights is comically incompetent. It's nice, I suppose, but not much more than that for now.

"Starslip Crisis" (http://www.starslipcrisis.com): An excellent sci-fi comedy by Kristofer Straub, about the crew of the first starship museum in the 35th century. Straub does a really good job poking fun at the conventions of science fiction and satirizing 21st-century pop culture, and his quirky characters are quite endearing.

"Arthur, King of Time and Space" (http://www.arthurkingoftimeandspace.com/): Hands-down, one of the best high concepts I've ever seen. King Arthur, having pulled Excalibur from the stone, finds the sword's power to be so great that his destiny is spread across various time periods. The author uses this premise to create a multi-genre retelling of the Arthurian legends: contemporary teen drama, space opera, fairy tale, western, hospital drama... each with parallels and differences, each telling the myth of Arthur in its own way. It's a magnificiently ambitious project, one that makes apt use of the enormous creative potential and even manages to squeeze in a daily gag.

"The Dreamland Chronicles" (http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/) is relatively new, but so far I really like what I see: when he was a child, Alexander Carter dreamed of adventures in a magical land of fairies and golems. Then one day the dreams stopped... until eight years later, when a token from his youth suddenly propels him back into the fantasy. Is it just wistful nostalgia for lost innocence? Or is Alex really moving between worlds?

"A Modest Destiny" (http://www.enderak.com/squidi/archive/zipfiles/archive_amd1.zip to archive_amd3.zip): Another "mixed feelings" webcomic. The first book, "Maxim Saves The World", is actually very good; cohesive adventure plot, strong humor, and a cast of very interesting characters. The rest is more problematic because the series makes a rather abrupt change in tone from comedy to dark fantasy midway through, and the shift hinges on a series of plot twists that come off a bit awkwardly. The third book is also incomplete, due to a lengthy hiatus on the author's part; however, production has recently resumed, so apparently it's going to be concluded at some point. I'm not too clear on whether we'll actually get closure to the entire series, though, so I recommend sticking with the first book - it stands nicely on its own.

"Greystone Inn" (http://www.greystoneinn.net/d/20000214.html) is the predecessor of "Evil Inc.", exhibiting much of the same style of humor, albeit modified to suit the different setting and characters. In fact, the two series are very similar indeed - they both work in a lot of allusions to pop culture, webcomics, movies and so on, they both use running gags to great success, and they both read very easily, whether they're mid-storyline or presenting standalong gags. Quite entertaining.

"Nana's Everyday Life" (http://manga.clone-army.org/nana.php): Easily the most disturbing webcomic I've ever read (pages 10-11 are particularly sickening). I'd love to be able to dismiss this as another excess of the anime/manga fandom... and yet... There's an almost naturalistic, Zola-esque flair to Nana's misfortunes - she sinks lower and lower and lower, and there's no real reason; people are ugly and depraved, but there's no psychology to explain it. You can't help being simultaneously revulsed and morbidly curious to see how bad things are going to get. It's not much of a tragedy because Nana isn't a very complex character - it's almost impossible to identify with her on an individual level. But as an icy, heartless story of a fall? Upsettingly compelling.

"The Coffee Achievers" (http://www.coffeeachievers.net/): Very frustrating, because while the story itself is good, the abrupt and unfulfilling conclusion pretty much blows the whole thing to pieces. When writing an ongoing series, it's no big deal to misfire on an arc or two; finite stories, on the other hand, carry a lot of weight towards the end, and this one dropped the ball in no uncertain terms.

"Dominic Deegan: Oracle For Hire" (http://www.dominic-deegan.com): A fantasy epic by Michael Terracciano that hits all the right marks and makes a few new ones of its own. Deliberately bad puns, demons, sex, magic... it's all here.

"1/0" (http://www.undefined.net/1/0/): There's a very nice idea at the core of this strip, but I found myself losing patience with the story, which seemed to just drag on without ever really taking off - by the 150th strip I just tuned out. It just didn't click for me.

"Kid Radd" (http://www.kidradd.com/): Excellence in a delightful little package. This original sprite-style comic dealing with video games, cyberspace and the quest for free will is, in my eyes, perfectly representative of the great strength of webcomics: the capacity to do so much with so few resources. Imagination is the only limitation, and Dan Miller certainly demonstrates how far you can go by providing such a funny, action-packed, well-constructed saga.

"Demonology 101" (http://faith.rydia.net/101.html): This webcomic borrows heavily from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in terms of character dynamics, philosophical debate, the mix of action and banter, and tight, cohesive plotting with a strong emphasis on foreshadowing future developments. The protagonist, Raven, is a 16-year-old demon girl trying to find herself in the human world. At the same time, she's at the center of a complex plot designed to tip the scale in the ongoing conflict between humanity and demonkind. Author Faith Erin Hicks does a remarkable job of appropriating Joss Whedon's strengths: recurring characters intrigue us and excite us when they reappear, Raven herself is very sympathetic, her human best friends provide much-needed comic relief, and while the mythology of the series is a bit less coherent than the Lovecraft-oriented Buffyverse, it nevertheless stands well on its own. Hicks manages to improve upon the formula by having her villains stick around for more than a single storyline - one of the very few flaws in Whedon's early seasons was the tendency to allocate one archvillain per season, severely limiting our exploration of these figures. Conversely, "Demonology 101" falters when it comes to depicting Raven's school life; aside from the evil principle and her two best friends, it often seems as though there isn't another human soul attending high school. Taking it all into consideration, though, I recommend this series for a highly enjoyable read.

"Questionable Content" (http://www.questionablecontent.net/): http://dianakingston.livejournal.com/23200.html

"Bob and George" (http://www.bobandgeorge.com/): Lunacy. Utter, total, glorious insanity. And I loved every minute of it. Who knew time travel and alternate dimensions could be so funny? :)

"No Rest For The Wicked" (http://www.forthewicked.net/) is a lovely "remix" of popular folklore - a bit like Vertigo's "Fables", but much darker and with a much more concentrated scope: small cast, one primary plot rather than several competing for page space... it reads very easily, and I find myself intrigued by characters who, by all rights, should annoy me terribly.

"Friendly Hostility" (http://friendlyhostility.com/) is K. Sandra Fuhr's follow-up to her previous webcomic, "Boy Meets Boy". The series stars BMB veterans Fox Maharassa and his borderline-sociopathic boyfriend Collin Sri'vastra, along with a host of secondary characters including Nyarlathotep the Crawling Chaos, underage slave Bootsie and Fox's "uncle" Rafi, a con artist who moonlights as a Satanist priest. Fuhr's skills have developed nicely over time; "Friendly Hostility" retains its predecessor's range of humor, but it moves out of the romantic comedy genre BMB was so deeply embedded within. Granted that the latter was a great success, but as Fuhr herself discovered, you can only take the story of two people so far. Conversely, the first storyline of "Friendly Hostility" (titled "Problematic") begins years before either Fox or Collin are born. That's Fuhr's mission statement: this series isn't about Fox and Collin, the way "Boy Meets Boy" was about Mikhael and Harley. Here the emphasis is on a collection of quirky, funny characters; it's about the Maharassa family, and Collin's oppressive parents, and the demon living in their fridge and the slave they won at poker, and nobody really cares that Fox and Collin are lovers - least of all Fox and Collin themselves.

"Queen of Wands" (http://www.queenofwands.net/): I have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, Kestrel is a very engaging protagonist, the humor is almost always dead-on, and author Aeire successfully tells a big, complete story in a relatively small amount of time (the strip runs from July 2002 to February 2005 on a tri-weekly basis, about 450-ish strips in total). On the other hand, I did sometimes run into credibility problems, as characters occasionally got entangled in some pretty unbelievable situations (ie: the revelation about Felix and Marie, which really came out of nowhere and ultimately wasn't necessary). As the series progressed, a heavy dependence on "DRAMA!" came about; I honestly lost count of the number of times Shannon was hospitalized, and Kestrel's joy de vivre gradually dies out, which hurt the overall atmosphere IMO. Granted that people grow and change - that's probably the most important theme of the work, and the crossovers with "Something Positive" accentuated it brilliantly by juxtaposing Kestrel and Davan, the man who will never change - but I think where Aeire went wrong was having almost everyone change in the same way, for largely the same reasons. It's a bit reminiscient of the sixth season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", in which Marti Noxious interpreted the idea of "growing up" as "making everyone miserable", an umbrella that has to be bent rather out of shape to affect diverse characters in the same way. Angela is almost unrecognizable by the time the story ends, even though (by her own admission) nothing's actually happened to her that hasn't happened before. All in all, though, it's a rather enjoyable story, and the ending is particularly strong.

"Boy Meets Boy" (http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/) is another one that needs its own post, both because it's really good and because I have a lot to say about it. http://dianakingston.livejournal.com/18729.html

"PVP" (http://www.pvponline.com): I understand why so many people like this. I see how it works. But I don't think I'm the kind of reader Scott Kurtz is targeting.

"Something Positive" (http://www.somethingpositive.net/index.html) has its own post here: http://dianakingston.livejournal.com/18314.html

"Nausea" (http://www.jacobmercy.com): Okay, I can't be objective about this, since it's written by a friend of mine. It's minty-new (only three strips so far), but it's got the zing the best humor strips are made of.

"8-Bit Theater" (http://www.nuklearpower.com/) is another parody of RPGs, this time using actual game sprites from "Final Fantasy". It's pretty funny, and the author does some very inventive things with a handful of pixels, but the gag storylines have a tendency to run too long and wear the jokes thin.

"Gunnerkrigg Court" (http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php): Eric Burns describes this webcomic as "Harry Potter as written by Lemony Snicket and set in an Industrial Complex designed by Lewis Carroll." That about sums it up, really: a surreal, steampunk-esque series that tells its stories in a very, very low-key fashion, which suits it perfectly.

"Sinfest" (http://sinfest.net/strips_page.htm) is a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, it's certainly got a streak of irreverent humor that makes it fun reading... but if you read a month's worth of strips, you pretty much get everything and anything "Sinfest" offers. It's very, very repetitive in terms of the gags used - more or less the same five or six jokes told in a cycle, with mild alterations. Which makes it not exactly the kind of series you want to follow in perpetuity. I recommend reading the first month or two, but don't go further if you're looking for anything more... well, more.

"The Order of the Stick" (http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript) is a thing of utter brilliance. It's based on the "Dungeons and Dragons" paradigm, with which I'm not very familiar, but the humor works for non-gamers as well. The premise concerns a band of adventurers living in this RPG world of fantasy - but they're aware of the "rules" of D&D. It works far, far better than it has any right to, and while the structure may be a bit confusing (the strips aren't clearly divided in terms of chapters or storylines, even though there is a clear chain of successive plot arcs), it's one of the best webcomics I've come across so far. EDIT: This is so good I actually went to my LCS and asked them to order the two OotS trade collections currently available. I paid for an otherwise-free webcomic. That's how good it is. :)

"Kara, Kali and the Wind" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/mcohen/kara/series.php?view=archive&chapter=363&mpe=1&step=1) is a short but evocative fairy tale that ends exactly at the right place.

"NeverNever" (http://www.mopsy.com/archives.html) is a bit problematic because of what was going on behind the scenes. Basically, it's a comedy story where the Faeries have declared war on humanity, but because of the size difference, no one's actually noticed. It's very lighthearted, and makes rather interesting use of Arthurian iconography. The problems started when the creators lost interest, bringing it in and out of publication several times until finally ending it mid-story. Fortunately, the second-to-last strip still allows for some kind of conclusion, and it's still a fun read.

"Return To Green Hollow" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/gc/greenhollow/series.php?view=archive&chapter=1047) is another short story modeled after fairy tales, but in a much more symbolic way: a young girl is enacting a bedtime story her late grandmother told her, while trying to move past her grief. It falters a bit because of the boy's presence - he's not really necessary to the plot because it comes down to the confrontation between the girl and the Forest Queen, and the emotional/mental subtext involved. Not a fatal flaw, though.

"A Lesson Is Learned But The Damage Is Irreversible" (http://www.alessonislearned.com/lesson001.html) is too fucking weird for my tastes.

"Irrational Fears" (http://www.webcomicsnation.com/uvernon/irrationalfears/series.php?view=archive&chapter=787&mpe=1&step=1): WOW. This was absolutely amazing. Ursula Vernon, writing herself as a female chupacabra with a beret, embarks on a delightfully surreal quest to learn about the monsters she's afraid of. What lies in the shadows under her bed? Excellent story.

"Bad Blood" (http://badbloodcomic.com/) starts off well enough, but falters in the second act when additional players are brought in. There's also a slight disconnect between the various subplots, in that the main character does some pretty terrible things one moment but seems to completely forget about them the next.

"Evil Inc." (http://www.evil-comic.com/) is a comedy series about corporate supervillains. It's highly intertextual (the secretary keeps getting calls from Kang demanding a refund on a time machine, Dr. Druid complaining about the typo in his "Summon Two Huge Beasts" spell, etc.), but even if you don't get the references, it's still quite funny. A few gags don't work, but most of them do, to great effect.

"The Jaded" (http://www.graphicsmash.com/series.php?name=thejaded) didn't really work for me; a bit too pedestrian, and featuring characters that weren't very distinct or easy to tell apart.

"Alpha Shade" (http://www.alpha-shade.com/www/index2.htm) also didn't click with me, though I'm having a hard time pinning down why. It's certainly highly stylized, but it failed to speak to me.

"VG Cats" (http://www.vgcats.com) can be very, very funny... provided you're familiar with the various video games they're spoofing. If you're not, don't bother - the jokes don't work otherwise. Fortunately, the archives list the games the strips are based on, and there's no sequential narrative, so you can pick and choose.

Comics vs. Webcomics: Genre

It's one of the first things a new reader will discover about comics: All Their Base Are Belong To Superhero.

Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with the superhero genre - quite the contrary, it's as valid a storytelling vehicle as any other. It's given birth to its fair share of masterpieces, from Morrison's "Zenith" to Moore's "Watchmen" to Robinson's "Starman" and more.

The problem, insofar as the Big Two are concerned, isn't with the genre but with the companies' near-total commitment to said genre. For over four decades, superhero stories have dominated the genre in a rather vicious cycle: they sell, so Marvel and DC make more superheroes and hype them as being even bigger, everyone makes more money, repeat ad nauseum. These days, the superhero genre has become so bloated that it dominates the market, squeezing out anything that steps outside the box, that challenges generic limitations. I suppose that, from a marketing perspective, it's a fact of business: there are only so many spotlights, and you're not going to hype "Sentinel" over "Civil War". Consequently, books that deviate too much from the superhero formula don't sell, get cancelled, and everyone clucks their tongues wishing the market was more hospitable.

DC is slightly better at this - they have the resources to establish imprints like "Vertigo", which has produced more than its fair share of excellent non-superhero stories. However, this also means that the DCU proper is even more congested with superheroes than the Marvel universe, by virtue of having somewhere to shunt those non-spandex concepts. Of course, this hardly bodes well for books that are neither DCU nor Vertigo, such as Gerber's "Hard Time" or Pfeifer's "H-E-R-O".

It's a very frustrating situation, because generic conformity is rarely an indication of actual quality. On the creative spectrum, it's simply inconceivable that "New Avengers" does better than "Runaways", or that "Superman/Batman" outsells "Fables". But the market - and the greater readership, I suppose - seem to regard quality as secondary to fulfilling very, very specific roles and traits.

Incidentally, this is precisely why I stay away from printed indie comics, or even companies like Image - for all that they allow themselves greater freedom in trying new things, they're still subject to commercial considerations, and I feel they're untrustworthy for this reason: writers like Jason Rand will have the fortitude to try something different with "Small Gods", and it will work on every level save the one that keeps it on the shelves.

With webcomics, I see a symbiotic effect reminiscient of fanfiction, or rather the rationale behind fanfiction: namely, the idea of an alternative which addresses a lack. Just as fanfic allows writers and readers to explore concepts that can't or won't play out in the canon, webcomics seem to hold up a mirror to its printed sibling, exploring all the areas neglected by the latter. From what I've seen, superhero webcomics are rather rare - if they're there at all, there's usually some postmodern or parodic spin (ie: "Evil Inc.").

The most common webcomic genre seems to be the down-to-earth "slice of life" - in many ways the antithesis of the flashy, high-action world of the superhero. Series like "Something Positive" and "Boy Meets Boy" are largely about ordinary people in ordinary situations, and it would be mundane if not for the fact that they're interesting people. This, I think, points to a glaring flaw in the traditional superhero scheme: if you take away the powers and the adventures, the heroes themselves aren't very engaging characters. There's a monotony to Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker, a static aspect to their depictions where they go through the motions of aging and changing and progressing and learning, but it never sticks and it's never particularly profound. After all, the story requires the hero to save the day, and that's what makes the story - as Bendis' run on "Daredevil" proved, many people simply aren't interested in reading a series about Matt Murdock, rather than the red-clad Man Without Fear.

Of course, it's important to note that genres can be broken up into sub-genres: you've got superhero comedies, superhero detective stories, superhero tragedies and superhero dramas in comics. But while the same division can be found in slice-of-life webcomics, webcomics in general seem to allow a range of generic experimentation miles beyond the Big Two. Epic fantasies, fairy tales, surreal horror... and that's without looking at the sprite sub-genre, which is a whole other box of matza. They're not all slice-of-life in the way the majority of comic sub-genres are still superhero stories. Personally, I attribute this to the fact that webcomic authors have no mandate and no higher authority than themselves - no matter how fresh the blood on a Superman book, it will still be a Superman book at the end of the day. So, at least on the level of genre representation, webcomics certainly have an advantage.

This dovetails nicely into next time's post, where I'll be discussing the commercial/creative schism and how it affects the playing fields. Is it really all about the money? How might the different sets of priorities affect the creators?

Comics vs. Webcomics: Introduction

Well... where do I begin? This is an introduction to a series of commentary posts I'll be making regarding a dilemma I'm facing: namely, which is the better medium to follow, the printed comics of Marvel and DC or webcomics? I'll be looking at the question from several perspectives: limitations of the medium, common genres, creative potential and so on.

It's no secret that I've been very disappointed in the directions taken by the Big Two of comics in recent years: DC with its impenetrable crossovers and incessant preoccupation with times and stories past, Marvel with its shallow stunts and creatively bankrupt endeavors. Before anyone asks, yes, I'm aware of indie comics, or even secondary companies like Image and Dark Horse, but they don't interest me for reasons I'll get into later.

While my interest in comics has been waning, I've been exploring the field of webcomics, and it's been a very different and very interesting experience. Not all good, of course, but I can't deny that webcomics have emerged as a very strong rival for my entertainment to comics.

I should emphasize here that I'm focusing on writing and story, as I've never been one to evaluate art - it's also not really relevant to the discussion, since webcomic creators obviously don't have the resources available to comic companies to polish their artwork.

The question is: since I'm not happy with the status of the comics industry as it stands, and there's no indication anything is going to change in the coming months, should I just abandon comics altogether? Should I move onto what may be greener pastures? It's a tempting prospect, since there's finally a viable alternative in sight. I've been thinking about this for some time, and I haven't come to any concrete conclusions: these posts will basically be me throwing things out and trying to put my thoughts in order.

Webcomic Review: Questionable Content

(http://www.questionablecontent.net)

The problem with "Questionable Content" is that it is, by definition, a "will they/won't they" story - the focus is almost entirely on Faye and Marten and their ambiguous feelings towards each other. Sure, there are secondary characters like Steve and Dora around, but they don't have any independent existence outside their connections to the protagonists.

Now, on a purely technical level there's nothing wrong with the "will they/won't they" model, aside from the limited scope: the automatic assumption is that "they will" sooner or later, because that's the only way the story can move forward. The denial of romance is only meant to create obstacles for the characters that will inevitably be overcome. Of course, once the lovers get together, the story's over because the question has been answered: try to stretch it any further and you end up with something like "Dawson's Creek".

What Jeph Jacques does is... to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. He's either saying "They won't" and building his entire series around sexual tension that won't come to fruition (which is a nice, if pointless, way of deflecting expectations), or he's saying "They will, eventually" and decompressing on a beyond-Bendisian scale. Because there's no sense of progress, however minimal. We know there's a reason Faye can't let herself love Marten, but that reason only becomes clear during a storyline that kicks off in the series' 500th strip.

That bears reiterating. Jacques spends 499 strips making fun of the tension, acknowledging its existence, but refusing to do anything with it. Faye gets drunk, makes an ambiguous pass at Marten, blacks out, wakes up and punches him, repeat ad nausem. And on the 500th strip he finally gets around to establishing the primary obstacle to the relationship. Not resolving it, not even beginning to deal with it. He simply tells the readers that it's there.

There is such a thing as waiting too long, IMO.

It wouldn't be so bad if there was something else going on, if the Faye/Marten story was simmering in the background while other subplots took the lead. But we don't have any real reason to care about Steve's dating problems or Dora's identity crisis, because they're not complete characters in their own right. Their stories are completely entangled in those of the protagonists'.

The end result is that "Questionable Content" is a mortifyingly slow read - the humorous aspects work well enough, specifically anything to do with Pintsize, but they're not as dominant in the story as they should be. Everything else is given over to Faye and Marten, who develop so minimally (if at all) that I just completely lost interest.

Webcomics: "Boy Meets Boy"

http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/d/20000926.html
Archive here: http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/calendar.html

This one really impressed me. As the title suggests, it's predominantly based on a love story between two guys - in case of homophobia, the exit is in the upper-right corner of your browser.

There's a lot to say about this strip in terms of what it delivers, but I want to look at the process of its creation. As I understand it, it started with K. Sandra Fuhr's first series, "Utopia", a sci-fi comedy that featured a vampire threesome: Mikhael, Harley and Tybalt. While developing these secondary characters, Fuhr decided to spin them off into their own series, "This Is Home", making them the protagonists of the story. "Utopia", as far as I know, was removed and is currently undergoing a drastic revision.

"This Is Home", described by the author herself as the product of teenage high school angst, was a bit typical of "fangirl excess a la Anne Rice" - a lot of blood, rape, brutality, pain and horror, not necessarily done for purely artistic reasons. Ultimately, Fuhr felt (rightly so) that it didn't really work, and abandoned "This Is Home" (going so far as to remove it from the Internet altogether), transplanting Mikhael and Harley (eventually followed by other supporting cast members from both prior series) into a realistic setting, and a different genre altogether. This was the birth of "Boy Meets Boy", and it's not hard to see why it became so popular during its run - having removed the unnecessary trappings, Fuhr let the characters make the story; they became accessible and believable as people.

This process of development is interesting because, while BMB stands on its own, it's intriguing to see where and how Fuhr reconfigures her own mythos and characters when making the cross-genre transition. You can't get away with a legitimate threesome in a romantic comedy, the way you might if you were writing a pseudo-Gothic fantasy, so the relationships have to be recontextualized.

BMB itself can also be seen as an ongoing development, in that it's clear Fuhr didn't have every detail planned out when she launched the series (ie: Abby was introduced as a major player, only to summarily vanish when Aurora came in). But where this would trip up the overall narrative of lesser writers, Fuhr takes advantage of the unpredictable angles by working them into the series on a thematic level. Mik and Harley aside, no one in this series ends up where you think they will - it's both the result of changed plans and a comment on the unpredictability of life, circumstance and growth.

So what is "Boy Meets Boy"? It's a very sweet, simple love story laced with humor that ranges from wacky (Tabitha's supernatural hijinks) to irreverent (the "Whee! I'm naked!" running gag) to just plain funny (the "Girl Meets Girl" parody). The series initially centers around the romance of Mikhael and Harley, but once the secondary characters are established it becomes a wider tapestry of interpersonal relationships. There's a very manga-esque sensibility about it: big eyes, a bit of androgyny, odd hairstyles and a general optimism that never allows the story to sink too far into melodrama or tragedy. Sex plays a major role, but it's barely risque - if you can watch "Brokeback Mountain" without flinching, you'll have no problem here.

Most of the characters are gay or at least bisexual - even Cyanide, the token heterosexual guy, has "impure thoughts" about his best friend. It would be a bit monotonous in a "Queer as Folk" way if being gay was an issue, but it isn't. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see characters who don't succumb to stereotypes - or if they do, there's more to them than just the stereotypes. Orientation isn't a selling point here, the way it was for characters like Northstar or Midnighter and Apollo. Fuhr's characters are who they are, and there's never any qualification or justification given to Mikhael and Harley: they're in love, and they're no different from anyone else. I can only think of one or two storylines where the fact that they're gay is actually brought up as an explicit plot point, but even then, it's a long, long way from the kind of self-hating tripe you'd get in a Kevin Williamson story or a Marvel/DC "OMG GAY!!!" type of thing.

There are moments of saccharine fangirlishness, of the type that made me wince and would probably go over much worse with male readers... but those moments are few and far between, and easily forgiven. Mikhael in particular starts off as this ridiculously overblown romantic archetype (his pickup line is "We are now as one"), but it becomes clear as the story proceeds that this is the whole point of his character: he's so socially inept that he looks to Pablo Neruda as a guide to flirtation. It's also a bit of an in-joke, because while characters in the realistic mode wouldn't talk like this, Master Vampire Mikhael of "This Is Home" probably would.

One of the things I love most about this strip is, as I mentioned before, its unpredictability. Protagonists nonwithstanding, almost every other character's journey takes a 90-degree turn sooner or later. You really get the sense that these people are changing and evolving as time goes by - some (Skids) more than others (Tabitha). I also like that some things aren't resolved: Fuhr never gave Cyanide closure, even though she could have in the name of fanservice. But she stuck to her guns for the story's sake, and wrapped the series up with a string of new beginnings. Friends drift apart, babies are conceived, new relationships start... and we'll never know what happens next. It's the lesson Neil Gaiman taught us in "Sandman": endings always lead to new beginnings, but the story has to stop somewhere.

In point of fact, when Fuhr launched "Friendly Hostility" (a spin-off from BMB focusing on Fox and Collin, introduced midway through the series but originating in "Utopia" - see what I mean about the development process?), she made it very clear that we'd never see other BMB characters in this new series. Not as guest-stars, not in cameos, not even in the background. Because that story is over.

It's almost a mirror image of "Something Positive" in a way. Fuhr tells the story of a group of friends who eventually split apart and find their own paths, whereas Milholland starts his story after the break, focusing on a handful of people who were once part of a larger group. And we never see that group. There was one storyline when PeeJee flashes back to those old friends, but nobody shares her nostalgia; even Davan, who spends most of his life stuck in the past, tells her it's a waste of time to think about the people who were part of their lives once and aren't anymore.

I recommend this webcomic with one reservation only: it may appeal more to women than men. I'd be very interested to hear the straight male perspective on this series, to see if the author's gender influences the way the story is told and if that, in turn, influences the opinions of women vs. men as readers.

Webcomic Review: Something Positive

Randy K. Milholland's "Something Positive" (http://www.somethingpositive.net) is the jewel in the crown of webcomics.

I don't profess to be an expert in webcomics. I doubt I've covered a tenth of what's going on out there. But I very much doubt I'll find anything as funny, as poignant, as real as this masterpiece. It's so easy to see Davan, PeeJee, Aubrey and their friends as people; so easy to miss cast members who walk away; so easy to care, despite the girls' propensity for mindless violence and Davan's endless supply of snark. It's unconventional. It's unpredictable. It's fun. It's fucking brilliant. And while it favors comedy over drama, there are moments that hurt, and Milholland always knows when to pull away, and exactly how much we need to see without going overboard.

I can't recommend this webcomic strongly enough.