Category Archives: Webcomic review

Webcomic Reviews

Order of the Stick

Posted on May 22, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Of all the characters in Rich Burlew’s epic fantasy stick-figure comic Order of the Stick, the least useful character has, up ‘til now, been the bard Elan. While he has had occasional moments of awesomeness (such as his training in a prestige class and rescuing Haley from his evil twin brother Nale), for the most part Elan has been the fifth wheel of the Order of the Stick and hasn’t showed any real effectiveness, especially when Roy has been around.

Part of this might be because Roy thinks of Elan as useless; seeing that he’s the nominal leader of the group, his constant dismissal of Elan as an effective member of the group may have ended up subconsciously sabotaging Elan’s own self-esteem and usefulness. But even when Roy’s not around to dismiss Elan’s often-inane suggestions, Elan often plays the idiot who bumbles through life relying on his good looks and luck to prevail against whatever he faces. In short, Elan’s his own worst enemy, and often makes things worse than they should be.

Thus I must admit I was absolutely shocked by the latest OotS when it was Elan of all people who saw through the illusionary trap they were trapped in. Ironically enough, it was his own immaturity and idiocy that broke the illusion for him… and allowed him to drag the others out of the trap and back into reality. As Elan himself admitted to Roy, his own desires and dreams were foolish and childish whims. The big buildup leading to this was not his marriage to Haley (which says something about his and Haley’s relationship) but rather his parents getting back together. Just because.

In short, the village idiot looked in the mirror and realized the King of Fools was wearing no clothes. In a way it makes sense for Elan to see through the illusion, seeing he’s grown increasingly adept at using illusions with his bardic magic. Sadly, I suspect it would be too much to ask for Elan to show sustained growth from this; much like Belkar, Elan is trapped by reader expectations to truly see any lasting character growth. Oh, there’ll be hints here and there, but both characters at their heart are two-dimensional caricatures who rarely show true growth.

Then again, Belkar’s shown some signs of growth, if only with the cat Mr. Scruffy (and I must admit some vague curiosity as to if Belkar’s illusionary world is one of hedonism, or if it’ll show a glimpse of character growth and the lesson that Durkon’s death may have taught him). Perhaps now that Roy has no choice but to rely on him, Elan may start to emerge from the tangle of idiocy and comic relief that have long prevented him from being what he’s long wanted to be: a hero.

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League of Super Redundant Heroes

Posted on May 1, 2013 by | 1 Comment

I first started reading comic books in the early 90s, nearly a decade before my descent into the world of webcomics. As with many people, my gateway comics were the varied Marvel titles, though I did branch out into DC and then the independent titles along the way. But finally, a lack of money and the declining quality of the stories put out by DC and Marvel left me uninterested in the superhero genre. Given the relative lack of the genre on the Internet, I suspect I’m not the only one to feel this way; I do know that the Internet has given rise to a wide variety of genres… with superhero comics in the distinct minority despite their continued dominance of the American print comic world.

To be honest, the parody comic League of Super Redundant Heroes reminds me more of the multiplayer superhero game City of Heroes (and its varied brethren) than of the print comics. Part of this lies with the general premise: we’re not following the great heroes of the land who regularly fight forces that threaten reality, nor are these the secondary heroes who help fill in while the Big Bad Heroes fight the good fight. No, these are the Z-rated heroes. The losers, who are only heroes because they’ve got powers and thus feel an obligation to wear the costume and fight the good fight… even though they’re honestly not needed.

Needless to say, LoSRH isn’t a grand epic tale in which the heroes are striving to overcome great odds. Instead, the heroes are mundane and fairly pathetic. For the most part the comic focuses on the “redundant” heroes, including Lazer Pony, who has the ability to fire lasers from behind his eyes. Mind you, his eyes are not immune to his lasers, so the first time he used his power he went blind. Oh, and he’s also such an idiot that Forrest Gump looks like a genius in comparison. His compatriots (and flatmates) include Good Girl, whose backstory is she was a good girl who was mistakenly exorcised by a priest… and thus became too good. At least, until her halo comes off. And there’s Gyrognome, their landlord, and Buckaress, whose only abilities are the Most Common Super Power and being the group’s straight woman.

If LoSHR has a flaw, it’s that it has suffered character-creep. The comic periodically gives us glimpses at some of the other heroes (such as A-lister Asstronomicus, whose chin has so deep a cleft he should wear underpants on his face), or Flying Fox-Man (whose secret cave apparently is located underneath Lazer Pony’s rental home)… or for that matter the Z-rate villains who Lazer Pony has befriended. In addition, the female heroes tend to be someone two-dimensional (ironic, seeing they all possess the MCSP); admittedly, with Mary Sue (Lazer Pony’s girlfriend who only flaws are clumsiness and the inability to remain in a long-term relationship) this may be more a design feature than flaw.

The comic tends to switch between gag-a-day strips and short storylines that don’t seem to have any significant impact. The primary cast is unable to do anything effective, while the secondary cast has grown so great that there’s insufficient plot to go around. That said, the comic seems to enjoy poking fun at the superhero genre as a whole. Fortunately, the superhero genre has more than enough material that if all the comic did was ridicule the genre, it could update daily for years without repeating itself. And for that alone it’s worth reading.

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Precocious

Posted on April 17, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Given the hard work that goes into webcomics, I often feel bad when I end up pointing out the flaws of a comic. While I try to provide constructive criticism in these instances, I’ve often found the Emperor doesn’t want to know he’s wearing no clothes; seeing that authors and artists are often their own worse critics, the last thing they think they need is for someone else to point out the flaws in their works (especially as the tendency lies in ignoring the constructive element of the criticism and just take to heart the criticism aspect). Thus I must admit I’ve been dragging my feet in reviewing the anthropomorphic childhood comic Precocious, by Christopher J. Paulsen.

The start of Precocious lived up to its title: a group of children getting into mischief over various silly things. Eventually, once the hazy days of summer fell behind them we learned that these kids were in fact geniuses and in a school for gifted youngsters. We also learn that these children are spawn of the Devil. Okay, all children are evil. Even the nicest child is secretly an evil imp just waiting for the right moment to come out and play. But in the first storyline, Autumn and Bud get into a water-balloon war over who would make the better supervillain. It only gets nuttier from there.

At first, this works. The first few stories are absolutely fantastic. They are a breath of fresh air that will have you laughing and needing to take a break in order to catch your breath. And while the parents get their day in the sun from time to time, Precocious is primarily about the children… and the antics they get up to both in class and outside. Unfortunately… after the first year the comic starts to evolve in a fashion that left me laughing less and less often. That’s not to say the comic was becoming serious or anything… but rather that the humor was falling flat for me.

Perhaps part of the problem lies with the fact that Paulsen has locked the kids in the same age and year in a perpetual Groundhog’s Day cycle. Oh, I can understand the reasoning behind this: who wants to see their characters grow up? Except it seems more that these children are kept at this age not to retain that sense of childlike wonder and mystery that children often seem to have prior to high school (though trust me, elementary school is no bed of roses and those “young dears” can be far more horrific than teenagers in their abuse of others) and instead provides them with an excuse for nonstop criminal behavior.

And no, I’m not exaggerating this. These kids have lit the lake on fire. Their parents have specific rules including “no dynamite” and “no dying.” The youngest girl has an irrational need to steal her parents’ car (or any other automobile she can find keys for) and go for a joyride that inevitably results in the destruction of the car – to the point that I honestly can’t see why the police haven’t called in the Department of Child Services to remove her from her parents’ home. Or for that matter Bud, whose parents are often not home leaving him to live on his own.

These elements are played for laughs. I’m not laughing. Perhaps it’s my history as a substitute teacher and having studied to become an elementary school teacher getting in the way of my enjoying this… but once the “silly childhood games” aspect was abandoned in lieu of “let’s cause as much destruction as possible and get away with it because we’re kids” came into the fore, the comic lost its charm. Neither are the parents (or teachers and school administration) any better. They deserve one another… and my one regret is that the secondary cast goes on ignored when they could very well be the means of restoring balance to the comic by returning it to the roots of what made it so enjoyable initially: children being children and having fun, be it learning, or just at play.

In short, the comic is stuck in a loop. The stories seem to be repeating themselves in tone: malicious mischief and wanton destruction. What’s worse, they’re not even repeating when the comic was fun and enjoyable but instead the more recent strips. And while the art is good, it hasn’t changed or improved much in the last year. At some point, it just stopped being fun for me. This isn’t to say that you will feel the same; the comic has a strong and vibrant (and protective) fanbase, so many readers seem to be fine with the path the comic has taken. So my final verdict is: read. The first couple of years are quite enjoyable, and you may be fine with its current evolution. As for myself, I just hope that the comic can recapture the feel of those early strips… or at the very least move on from where it has been mired.

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A Redtail’s Dream

Posted on April 12, 2013 by | Leave a comment

When I read my first regular webcomic, Clan of the Cats, I was quickly dragged into it and found myself devouring over a year’s worth of archives in one sitting (which was quickly followed by CRfH due to the Halloween crossover happening between the comics). Since then, every once in a while I’ll find a comic that just grabs me by the scruff of the neck and insists “read me. Now.” And while this urge comes upon me less and less often these days, today I found one such comic with the mythic comic A Redtail’s Dream.

The amusing thing is, I’ve had this comic on my reading list for a couple of weeks now. I was drawn in by an advertisement and never got off the first couple of pages (in which some spirit-foxes were discussing business in the spirit-world while eating snacks). While it seemed interesting enough, the spark just wasn’t hitting. It wasn’t until a dozen or so pages in that I found dry kindling igniting and the flames starting to spread quickly. Before I knew it, I was busy reading and had thrown away my planned commentary article to finish this comic and review it promptly.

While the comic utilizes some elements of Finnish mythology (and to be honest has a mythic feel to it that made me think of American Indian mythology), this is the delightfully mad invention of Minna Sundberg, and focuses on Hannu Viitanen and his dog Ville as they travel the spirit world trying to reclaim the souls of people from his village after a fox-spirit had an “oops” and trapped the souls of his village by mistake. Well, there’s more to it than that, but in each chapter our hero and his dog (who can speak in the spirit world, and who in each new world is a different form – including a seal, a snake, and a bear) have to fulfill some task before the people there can go home.

What’s even more interesting is that our protagonist is not the nicest of people. He doesn’t like people and wants to avoid talking to others if possible (while Ville finds no problem with talking to others and drags Hannu along – physically, sometimes). He used to shoot small animals with a crossbow just for fun (rats, mostly) and doesn’t like physical work. Nor is he “learning” a lesson along the ways. He’s doing what he has to because if he doesn’t, people may die. He may die. But he grumbles along the way and if there were anyone else who could do this, he would. In short, he’s human, and delightfully so.

As a brief aside, I need to mention that Sundberg’s work ethic is enough that Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary would be impressed. Each comic takes about eight hours a day on average to make. She crafted enough comics to have a sizeable buffer and updates six days a week. And what’s more? This is just a practice comic. This comic, which has run for nearly 400 pages (and has another couple hundred pages to go) is meant to improve her skills before she starts work on her real project (and which she’ll be jumping right into as soon as she’s finished drawing A Redtail’s Dream). I am truly impressed by the amount of work she’s putting into what is in effect a trial run.

The truly scary thing is that A Redtail’s Dream is a damn fine comic. The early artwork is good, and it does not show any massive shifts in design even as Sundberg refines her craft. Nor did I detect any problems with her storytelling. In short, she has created as a trial run a comic that easily would be worth publishing. I don’t know what she has planned for her masterpiece work, but when it begins I will definitely read it. In the meantime, I strongly recommend this comic… but only if you have a couple hours to spare. Because otherwise you’ll be up unto the wee hours of the morning reading it… and won’t regret that choice one bit.

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Fanboys

Posted on April 9, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Normally humor strips like Fanboys tends to pass under my radar undetected. It’s not exactly that I dislike humor. It’s just that I enjoy stories and plots more than random frivolity. And to be honest, today’s update in which Lemmy received several text messages while shaving from his facial hair begging him not to shave them would have just been shrugged off without notice. No, what makes this comic worth was the bonus panel included under the comic… in which Lemmy’s friend (and resident jerk) Paul is stifling laughter as he sends a text message. It’s something Paul would do and would find funny. Further, by separating the panel from the rest of the comic, there’s an effective beat that intensifies the humor.

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El Goonish Shive

Posted on April 5, 2013 by | Leave a comment

There are times when I really feel guilty about my reviews of Dan Shive’s long-running contemporary fantasy comic El Goonish Shive. It seems like I can’t turn around without finding something contrary to snark about concerning Shive’s comic. Of course, most of my criticisms of late seem geared toward his love affair with magical hijinks and “empowering” every character with magical abilities (which I consider to be a waste of time and character development), but if you look back through most of the EGS reviews I’d be willing to bet I’m deriding some aspect of whatever comic I’m looking at.

Undoubtedly this will continue to be the case in the future, but for today I’m sitting back and giving Shive the slow-clap applause. Today he eyed the pitcher on the mount, anticipated the pitch, and nailed that ball. It’s gone deep into center field and while it might not have gone out of the park, Shive is definitely rounding second and heading for third with this comic. Naturally it’s a character-comic that has drawn this praise… but what’s interesting about it is that it focuses on the breakup of one of his core characters, Elliot, with secondary character Sarah (and let’s face it; Sarah isn’t part of the main cast by any stretch of the imagination).

Oddly enough, both characters are approaching this from opposite directions. Sarah has realized her relationship with Elliot is going nowhere. She just doesn’t know when to break up with him because of the holiday season. But it’s Elliot and his reasoning that has so amused me today as he finally (in talking to Tedd) figured out just what it is he feels for Sarah. She’s like a sister to him. Yes, this is a bit of a no-brainer for anyone who’s been reading the comic for a while, and it’s not why I’m applauding Shive. No. It’s Elliot’s expression after those words come out of his mouth.

Seriously, I can so envision this expression on Luke Skywalker’s face in his X-Wing fighter as he was leaving Dagobah after Yoda’s death and he realized he’d been kissed by his sister. I mean, while Elliot hasn’t had sex with Sarah, I can’t help but remember the time they were getting frisky on Tedd’s couch during Grace’s bizarre transgender birthday party. And don’t forget, Elliot has a “sister” of sorts, so no doubt he’s thinking “it’s like kissing Ellen.”

Addendum: As I was finishing this up, Friday’s comic had loaded. And while I normally can’t abide by a strip of someone in the same pose over and over again… it’s the facial expression. Well, that and calling up his “sister” on the phone to confirm an earlier discussion and then resuming the facial expression. Well done, Dan Shive. Well done.

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xkcd

Posted on March 26, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Several years back, cartoonist Scott McCloud waxed elegant on the concept of “Infinite Canvas,” urging webcartoonists to cast off the shackles of the print world and utilize the endless boundaries available within websites. To be honest, some cartoonists did flirt with Infinite Canvas, such as Damonk’s classic series Framed!!!, but one of the kings of IC would have to be Randall Munroe of the stick figure comic xkcd. Munroe has long indulged in comics that shift outside the venues of print, but his latest work has taken the cake. Labeled merely ”Time” it uses an animated .png that gradually showed two people building a sandcastle. But unlike most animated .gifs, ”Time” moved at a glacial pace; indeed, initially I was unsure if it was an animated comic or a trolling by Munroe. The strip’s story took two days to fully emerge, though fans did craft a more rapidly moving version. As of my writing this, however, a giant wave has not appeared to wash the sandcastle away, though I’d not be surprised at this last-moment twist.

Addendum: Still no tidal wave. However, as of Friday, 5:25 p.m. EST, the two figures have wheeled out a tiny catapult and are now bombarding their (now massive) sand fortress.

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