Flipside is an old favorite of mine, and one that definitely deserves to be read. I started back several years ago, when the story was about Maytag (a female Jester who is much more daring and assertive when in costume) and her friend/partner, Bernadette (who was a very talented swordswoman, who only fought defensively and never to intentionally slay her opponent). It was an interesting mixture of fantasy and modern-world atmosphere (it was… contemporary, I suppose. Not 20th Century technology or the like. Just… the feel of the world).

Half a year ago, Brion Foulke ended the first Flipside storyline and started over. We’ve not seen a sign of Bernadette yet, though I’m sure she’ll appear soon enough. For a while, the previous Flipside comics weren’t easily found, but Brion did restore them as “Book 0″… and like Faith Erin Hicks, does not like his earlier work (he considers it a bit “rough”). I half-expected him to redraw elements of “Book 0″ like Faith did for Demonology 101.

(The interesting thing is… I found Demonology 101 thanks to Flipside. I suppose that’s part of the reason I find similarities between the two.)

The pacing of Flipside is fairly slow. While it updates on a MWF schedule (with full-page strips), Brion takes time to build the story and will often allow just the artwork to tell the story, rather than the dialog. Also, as a long-time fan of Flipside, I was not exactly happy to be focusing so much on Crest (the focal-point of the current Flipside storyline). I was curious as to what Maytag or Bern were up to. Fortunately, Maytag at least has a tendency to appear where you least expect her to. Now if only Bern would show up….

Anyway, you can start at the beginning of the current storyline without much trouble, or head to the beginning of “Book 0″ and catch Maytag and Bern as their adventures begin.