Daily Archives: February 6, 2006

There has been a Kitten Collective sighting over at Casual Notice, apparently in honor of my upcoming birthday (on February 10th). Other potential Kitten sightings may be over at the KAMics and maybe Glych’s Experiment. Further sightings will be reported here.

I must admit I’m rather touched by the recent storyline conclusion in Red String. Several chapters back, Fuuko (the third of the trilogy of friends that started this comic) revealed that she was in love with an older girl, Maya. The story was handled tastefully and realistically, with Fuuko and Maya being ostracized by students and teachers alike. Further, Maya didn’t just fall into Fuuko’s arms, and it wasn’t until Fuuko’s family was moving that Maya came to see Fuuko, and accepting a goodbye kiss from the younger girl. This story was most tastefully done, and deserves a full tangent at some point

Turn Signals On A Land Raider is doing a Guest Comic week as it’s the cartoonist’s birthday (another Aquarius). As per tradition, there will be updates every day this week. Some of the guest strips in the past have been truly inspired, so definitely go take a look!

Anywhere But Here continues its hard-hitting parody of Hollywood celebs. I don’t know… maybe Tom Cruise is a bit too easy to pick on, but I rather enjoy this take on him being shorter than most of the Munchkins in Wizard of Oz. It… suits him, somehow. (And Mr. Cruise, if you are reading this or the comic… do remember it’s just a comic. But do feel free to rant about it on television and the like.)

Speaking of comedic gold… Darken continues to lighten my day. I don’t know what it is about this band of evil misfits. Perhaps it’s that they remind me of Eve Forward’s classic “Villains by Necessity” or the droll sense of humor. Or even the fact that we’ve a bad guy who knows the best way to get to his foe… is to destroy his weapon. Good form, old chap! Good form.

Robert A. Howard

Stiff as a board?

(From leveL. Click on image to see it full-sized.)

An often-used theme in science fiction is “what if the world you lived in was a lie.” This is true in the Twilight Zone, the Matrix, even in classic movies like They Live or Logan’s Run. Heck, you can even apply this theme to some of the classic Star Wars trilogy in the 70s and 80s.

It’s natural that this theme would find its way into web comics, and even more natural that it would appear in science fiction, which often has been used as a means for sociopolitical commentary on the world at large. And indeed, leveL starts out with an idyllic dream that fades to a cruel cyberpunkish world where terrorism and acts of warfare are heard on the news daily, and our hero needs to take medication to suppress the dreams and keep from slipping into a coma.

Naturally, the terrorists aren’t evil, the cops are bloodthirsty killers (and not able to defeat the “terrorists”), the government is behind most of the attacks, and Cael? He’s not an ordinary kid.

And what’s more, a girl from his nightmarish dreams is very real indeed, and in the city of leveL.

Our band of protagonists has grown, numbering now Cael, his cousin Reagan, Jun (a professional jock), and the terrorists Rain and Emory. Of the latter two, Rain seems to actually care for people and wants to avoid unnecessary deaths. Emory on the other hand is a ruthless killer who is responsible for the vast majority of the deaths among the law enforcement officials sent to stop them (interestingly enough she did this by parrying their attacks and sending their bullets and grenades back into them, rather than direct physical attacks).

And of the two… Emory is the one with the most secrets. She knows the Muses (humanform weapons) by name and believes she can fight them (she’s wrong, but she did believe she could.)

Most disturbingly of all is the fact that there are monsters in the deep dark places under Level. And they know of Emory and even after defeating her in combat… they flee upon realizing who they fought.

The deeper into Level we go… the more we learn things are not as they appear. The world we see here is a lie… as are the people within it. Who… or what is Cael? What are the Muses? What are the Kagumi? And why does a young lady have the letters CQ (at least… I believe it’s a CQ) carved across her cheek and eye… and why does the sight of that send true monsters fleeing back into the dark?

How many layers will we ultimately find in leveL? And is anyone truly who they appear to be?

Robert A. Howard

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