Webcomics, Yeah!

Noelle Stevenson: "Adventures of Doctor Flagellus Hurt"

2013-03-06T13:41:00.000-05:00

For the past several months I have been following the life and times of Noelle Stevenson, possibly better known as Gingerhaze on tumblr. This illustration student from Baltimore, Maryland has captured the hearts of many with her often humorous comics and illustrations. She is also the author and illustrator of the webcomic Nimona, which I will probably cover in the future as well. Today I'll talk about her one shot “Adventuresof Doctor Flagellus Hurt.”

What I love about Noelle's work is that her style perfectly expresses human emotions and conveys her jokes with ease. Its simplicity brings a sort of childlike wonder to the reading experience, though her's are mostly not children's comics, such as “Adventures” which is very much a more mature experience. But the childlike delight is definitely there. In many ways, her comics remind me of Kate Beaton, only less history-oriented and more focused on popular culture.

The “Adventures of Doctor Flagellus Hurt” is the story of a little doctor aboard a pirate ship captained by a strong and fearsome woman, which whom he is in love. In the midst of a fierce battle, a conventionally manly man comes to Flagellus Hurt asking for some quick stitches before he can head back up to battle. When the man insults the captain, Flagellus has his little revenge, which perfectly describes the manly man.

I think one of the cool things about this comic, and Noelle's work in general, is that there is nothing that is superfluous. All of the panels are necessary to further the story, which results in a succinct comic. The strictly limited color palette really helps the pirate-y theme to shine.

If you enjoyed the “Adventures of Doctor Flagellus Hurt,” definitely check out more of Noelle's work, including her webcomic, Nimona.

Image copyright of Noelle Stevenson.

Finally Finals

2012-12-14T10:23:00.001-05:00

It's the last day before finals week commences here in the world of my Real Life, which means that I will be super busy studying for my multitudes of exams for the next week and a half. This means that I really shouldn't be reading comics right now, but rather, my textbooks! So that's what I'm going to do. So I apologize for the slow updating schedule, but school takes priority.

My last final is next Thursday so expect my next comic related update to come shortly after! I will be reviewing a one shot by Noelle Stevenson, more famously known as Gingerhaze on tumblr. Be excited!

Hark! A Vagrant

2012-12-05T10:50:00.002-05:00

First off, I'd like to say that I apologize for disappearing for over a month with nary a sentence as to my absence. In the future, I will try to be better both at posting on time and informing you of any absences that might arise as a result of my life out in the big and scary real world.

Now, I've been hearing about Hark! A Vagrant pretty much since my first foray into the webcomics world, but I've never really gotten around to actually reading it until very recently. As you may have also noticed, based on the comics that I have already reviewed/recommended, I tend to stick with the story driven comics, not the one shot strips. If you've never heard of Hark! A Vagrant, then you can probably guess that all of this means that it is a strip comic. And it is quite possibly THE BEST THING EVER.

I don't think that I'm prone to exaggeration when talking about webcomics. There are a lot of great comics out there, but they all have some flaw or another, so when I say something in all caps, I usually mean it.

Hark! A Vagrant, by Kate Beaton, mostly consists of comic strips based on historical anecdotes. Sure, they can be exaggerated for comedic effect, but it is, after all, a comic. Beaton majored in history in college and has worked at several museums, so she knows her history! Her comics range from famous episodes to obscure stories and most of the time she includes a tidbit about the history behind the comic in her comments, which is always helpful.

Some of the comics can be a little inside joke-y if you don't know to which moment in history Beaton is referring to (and if her comments aren't any more revealing), but in most cases the comics are funny anyway, even without previous knowledge of events. This happens a lot for me with her Canada centered comics (she is Canadian) because I live in the States, so my historical knowledge tends to center on the US and mostly Europe (with only a dash of Asia). Beaton is aware that this might be the case for many people, hence the previously mentioned comments. No matter the subject though, the comics never fail to amuse and entertain.

History is not the only thing that Beaton comics about. She has many strips that include her in the present interacting with her younger self, hourly comics about her life, a three part comic about a sailor and the mermaid that loved him, and one of my absolute favorite series, “Mystery Solving Teens,” a more realistic take on the Scooby gang.

I am a big fan of comedy (who isn't?) and sure, I've read a lot of funny comics before, many that have even made me smile, instead of just making me think “oh, that's clever!,” but Hark! A Vagrant has actually made me laugh out loud, which can be a problem sometimes, like in lecture, when I should be paying attention to my professor.

Now on to the visuals! The style of the comic is rather simplified, and therein lies the genius! By making the art style minimalistic and line-focused, there are no bright colors that distract from the expressions and body language that add such a punch, or, rather, make the humor of any particular strip. The simple style also suits the strip format of the comic well.

The hand written dialogue also adds lots of charm to the comics, though there are a few places where it's difficult to read what the characters are saying, but these problematic spots are few and far between.

Another praise-worthy thing about this comic is the design of the site, which is based on the style of the comic strips themselves.

I've come to really appreciate the comic strip as a medium. I read a lot of comics and other stuff on the internet (not to mention doing my actual course work), so it can be hard sometimes to keep up with some comics that require me to remember what happened earlier in the story. But with comic strips, there's really no need to follow it weekly, I can just pick up at any point without feeling like I always need to catch up, which is very helpful for people with busy schedules.

I can not recommend Hark! A Vagrant highly enough. If you like history, pop culture, and laughing your ass off (often in public and embarrassing ways), then this is the comic for you!

Images copyright of Kate Beaton.

Happy Halloween!

2012-10-31T15:41:00.002-04:00

In honor of this wondrous occasion, I am taking a short break from my super intense studies to suggest to you, my dear readers, a wonderful little comic by the name of "His Face All Red", an awesomely creepy little one shot by Emily Carroll!

I simply adore Emily's art work and on her site she has several of her one shots, of which I've only read a couple. From what I gather though, some of them are wonderfully spooky and just the right stuff to get you in the Halloween mood.

Updates and Stuff

2012-10-26T12:56:00.000-04:00

Hey guys! How is life? Great? Good! Well, it's about to get a little worse, so I apologize for that. Unfortunately due to this major thing in my life called COLLEGE I will be unable to post today. If all goes well, I will have a post up tomorrow, and if not, then I will definitely be back next week. Thanks for sticking with me!

MangaMagazine.Net

2012-10-19T11:11:00.000-04:00

I've already written about several comics and mangas that are hosted on MangaMagazine.Net, so I've wanted to write about this site for some time now. Some of my favorite comics include Todd Allison and the Petunia Violet, Badirfilay, Land of Lions, Sin, and one that I have yet to write about (but probably will in the next couple of weeks) Two Keys.

Every time that I visit the site I always discover more new comics to explore with some kick ass art and a quality story. I think that sites like this are great for many reasons. For one thing, looking for a quality webcomic can be quite a challenge. You have to make your way through a lot of muck to get to something really good. It can be a long, arduous process.

With a sponsorship site like MangaMagazine, there is a greater percentage of quality concentrated in one place. Due to the screening process and their system of promotion to “featured” and “premium” author status, the best comics receive a lot of attention and ensure easy access. It makes finding something new to read that is almost guaranteed to be really good that much easier.

There is some concern though, that such a selective process could be bad for webcomics, because the whole point is that webcomics creators are free to do their own thing, but I would argue that this site isn't as restrictive as it seems. It's not like all other comics are going to go away. Another concern might be an affected diversity, as in, there won't be as much. I have thus far not run into this problem with the site. They host a variety of different comics and mangas to cater to pretty much anyone's taste. I've found a lot that I have liked and others that I might not have liked as much. There's a lot of room for differing tastes.

Previously, MangaMagazine was a free subscription site where you could go and read any of the comics for free. This can still be the case, however with the implementation of their paid subscription service, those that opt to go for the free version will no longer get the premium content as soon as it comes out. The paid subscription is actually pretty cheap (around $3 a month on a monthly basis and a little bit cheaper if you pay for a six month subscription), which is nice, but even if you can't afford it, or just don't want to pay, you still have access to content, which is awesome!

As a side note, I will mention that having free access to webcomics is one of the biggest appeals of the online publishing medium. Finding out that a webcomic has a paid subscription serves as a good way to make sure that a large portion of readers just won't want to commit to the comic, no matter how good the art or the story.

The subscription for MangaMagazine is a better alternative, I think, than every single comic having a subscription, because you pay one low price for access to numerous comics and mangas. Another positive is the fact that the money mostly goes to the artists that create the content. Imagine that! Artists! Getting paid to do their creative work! This is quite an awesome thing that should continue to be encouraged.

MangaMagazine.net really is the home of top quality original manga and comics. I have had some good luck finding interesting comics on the site and I encourage you to check it out as well!

Interview with the Creator: Stephanie Stober of Final Arcanum: Part II

2012-10-12T11:42:00.000-04:00

FinalArcanum is the story of swashbuckling adventure, magic, islands floating in the sky, and pirates! It follows Acacitli, a young sky pirate out to prove himself to his crew and inadvertently walking into a high-stakes struggle with a tyrannical empire.

In part one the following interview I did with Stephanie Stober, the creator of Final Arcanum, she describes how she got into comics and how she went about creating her tale of adventure. In this second installment, she talks about her favorite part of the creation process and the lessons that she has learned throughout the project.

Q8. What's your favorite part of the process?

Probably the actual art making (as opposed to script writing, publishing, marketing, etc.), and there's certainly parts of it that fall in and out of favor with me all the time. This is mostly due just to the content on the page. Sometimes I'm really excited to draw an interesting pose or coloring a certain scene with special lighting. It really tends to vary!

Q9. How has your art style changed over the course of the comic?

It's changed a lot, that's for sure. The way I render figures, the materials I ink with, and how I color have all changed several times throughout the course of the project. Some of them I know are really noticeable, but I think there are quite a few that get past the reader's eye. I'd love to challenge anyone to find the point in the story I switched from inking with microns to ballpoint pen, haha.

Q10. What are some things that you have learned along the way?

There have been a whole lot of things I've discovered along the way! A lot are simple and simply related to being a better artist - how to better draw dynamic poses, how to be more consistent, improving at perspective, etc. But more importantly, I learned a lot about how to write just through the experience. That means, yes, there are certainly parts of the story right now where the pacing might be strange or the narrative isn't as strong, but overall I've learned so much about storytelling from doing Final Arcanum. Some of these things include pacing in comics (an example being how to use paneling effectively), writing for serial readers vs. archive readers, what sort of scenes and characters readers enjoy, and the list goes on for awhile! I've had a lot of people mention how they want to start a webcomic, or any sort of similar project, but are too afraid to do it because they don't know enough or don't think they'd do the project justice. My advice has always been to just go for it. I learned so much while doing Final Arcanum, and I learned it far faster by pushing myself to update every week than I would've otherwise.

Q11. Creating a comic and updating regularly can be quite a daunting task. What inspires you to keep going?

Ahahah it's something I wrestle with every week, especially when I was in school and now with a full-time job! It helps that I do find the work really fun. I do creative work during the day, but just because it's creative doesn't mean it's personal. Final Arcanum is my special project I put time aside because I look forward to working on it. It also helps to know though that there are people out there interested in knowing what happens next! I always feel like I let readers down if I miss an update, so I make sure to only skip weeks if its absolutely necessary and impossible to have a quality update!

Q12. You go to a lot of conventions. Which ones do you frequent and what is your favorite thing about going to such events?

I do! Comic and anime conventions are fantastic events and I recommend them to any and all comic enthusiasts (if you don't already go). I definitely say I would go for the people too. You're around so many others that are like-minded and have similar interestes, and the atmosphere is so open that I often have a lot of long conversations with strangers about anything from webcomics to cosplay to bunnies. Conventions I attend regularly are Katsucon, Otakon, San Diego Comic Con, and New York Comic Con, even if I'm not always selling books at these cons.

Q13. Do you have plans for webcomic projects after you have finished Final Arcanum?

Sure do! They won't be announced for quite a while still, but keep an eye out for when they do!

Q14. What do you want people to take away from reading your comic?

Above all I want people to enjoy the comic. I'd love people to really get into the story and to laugh and cry with the characters the same way I do! If I know my readers are having fun reading the story, then I consider Final Arcanum a complete success.

You can read my review/recommendation of Final Arcanum here.

Interview with the Creator: Stephanie Stober of Final Arcanum: Part I

2012-10-07T16:06:00.001-04:00

Final Arcanum is the story of swashbuckling adventure, magic, islands floating in the sky, and pirates! It follows Acacitli, a young sky pirate out to prove himself to his crew and inadvertently walking into a high-stakes struggle with a tyrannical empire.

In the following interview I did with Stephanie Stober, the creator of Final Arcanum, she describes how she got into comics and how she went about creating her tale of adventure.

Q1. So what got you interested in webcomics in the first place?

Strange as it may sound, my dad actually got me into them way back when I was 13-14 years old, and it was my first introduction to comics! I remember spending a whole lot of time going through the Sluggy Freelance archives and at some point deciding "I gotta do this" haha.

Q2. Why sky pirates?

Why NOT sky pirates? Okay wait I do have a legimate answer for this-- around the time I was getting into storytelling and comics, Disney was really pushing their Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and that's where I first got really interested in pirate-based fiction. I was always really captivated by the works that were about pirates, especially the non-traditional kind-- Treasure Planet is always going to be my favorite animated movie (not to knock the original Treasure Island!), and Airborne and Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel are always going to be some of my favorite books. I guess I just discovered that pirates with the tech to could FLY was a concept I couldn't pass up. Soon after, Final Arcanum started!

Q3. If I'm not mistaken, your fantastical land floats in the air, so what's down below?

Yup! From a practical storytelling point of view, I had to find a reason the people of this world traveled by air and not water, so this simply meant that there were no oceans to travel on. But according to the world's mythology, the continents didn't always float and originally sat on the earth and amongst oceans.

Q4. How does everything stay afloat?

The legend is that the gods lifted the land into the sky in order to save the world from a giant flood. There is actually a lot of world building like this that won't be said in the story. I would like to share it though, which is why I'm currently ooking for a good medium to share it in!

Q5. Now, I realize that asking this is like asking to choose a favorite child, but which character of Final Arcanum is your favorite? Or at least, which one is the most fun to write/draw?

Oh geeze, yeah, that's a tough question! I do really legimately enjoy the entire cast and each character for different reasons. I guess I don't really see the point writing characters you don't like? There are definitely some that are easier to write though! Acacitli is by far the easiest since he's a whole lot like me as well a funny character. I'd also say Mirna, Kite, and Mael are sort of the same way! But in reverse, Zero. Falk, and Iver are all actually really hard for me to write, meaning their behavior, speech, and reactions just take a lot more consideration because they're so serious and have this tendency to angst. Every story needs it's own bit of tragedy, but that needs to be balanced with lightheartedness. Otherwise, the story becomes heavy, depressing, and just hard to get through, so it tends to be a theme I wrestle with a whole lot.

Q6. How long is the story that you're planning?

I keep telling myself Final Arcanum will be as long as it has to in order to tell the best story. I have certain plot points I want to hit, and certain scenes I'm just really excited about writing, but since it's constantly being revised and edited, the length tends to change. A really vague estimate would be around 300 pages, and it's currently just a little over 100. We're definitely not even halfway yet, how crazy is that?

Q7. How did you go about creating your webcomic?

I guess the whole process started with a lot of research. I read a lot of books on writing for comics and read a lot of established webcomic creator's blogs on their own process to get an idea of where to start. What I learned from almost every one is to just start by making a comic and the business side will come later. (It's been 3 years and only now am I considering opening things like a store and moving to official hosting.) When I first started Final Arcanum, I focused on conceptualizing the story, creating outlines and scripts to follow, and then the actual creation of the comic began. I also researched various free webcomic cms options and hosting, and ended up choosing Smackjeeves since it was so easy to use. It was great start, but I'm really excited to see that Final Arcanum is finally growing into more than just a comic every week!

In Part II of this interview, which will be up next week, Stephanie talks about her process and some things she has learned along the way.

Hey, Hey!

2012-10-03T09:07:00.001-04:00

The next update will be Friday at the earliest and Saturday at the latest due to the fact that I have FOUR EXAMS this week. Thanks for being patient and sticking with me! Also, it seems that because of school I can't really manage to update in the middle of the week so it seems that I will have to officially move updates to Fridays. See you then!

Doomsday, My Dear

2012-09-29T13:36:00.000-04:00

I make a promise and I deliver! Ha ha! So let's get on with it, shall we?

I'll admit, I was a little unsure about this one at first, but it has grown on me. I think that I've seen links to this around on that fabulous little invention that recently came out called the internets, but what really made me interested was a particular page set that was floating around tumblr showing off the wonderful pacing of one of the scenes, which I will get to soon enough.

So: Doomsday, My Dear, a webcomic by Cami Woodruff. I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories. I think most of the appeal lies in the utter shake up of the current system, and because I'm a rebellious young punk, I tend to like such things. I'm not quite sure if Doomsday, My Dear exactly qualifies as post-apocalyptic, but there are a lot of similar elements with the genre that the story touches upon to kind of qualify.

Doomsday, My Dear is the story of the people of England (and more specifically London), in a sort of alternate present (a lot of the major events happen in 1999), living in a world where a “blood plague” terrorizes the populace. The disease is fatal for the infants that are born with it, but some survive because they are “Carriers” of the disease. These Carriers are easily identified by their different colored eyes, though otherwise they are just like anyone else. Sounds relatively harmless, right? Well yeah, that's part of the point. A mysterious plot is afoot.

The story follows several characters, but it mostly centers on Abner, a nineteen year old Carrier. You see, one day in 1999, a woman by the name of Gillingham got elected as Prime Minister in shady circumstances. She always had radical views on Carriers and the blood plague, so pretty much everyone assumes that the election was somehow rigged. As soon as she is elected, shit hits the fan and Carriers are hunted down based on the Carrier registry (when the Carrier trait manifests itself, the Carrier had to register with the government, resulting in a handy list) and shot in the streets.

But it gets worse. Gillingham has a not-so-secret secret laboratory/holding facility called Paradiso, where tests are being run on Carriers. And by tests, I mostly mean torture. So torturous tests (boy does that remind me of college).

The nature of the disease seems to be difficult to pin down. As of yet it doesn't really seem like that much of a problem. And one of the main characters points this out. AIDS is more of a problem than this blood plague, and yet this is the disease that everyone is freaking out about. So what's really going on? Because it seems like Gillingham has an agenda that only uses the disease as a way to cover up her true motives.

One of the cool parts of the story is that a lot of the characters lives intersect in an almost Dickensian fashion. The characters have friends on either “side” (the Carriers and the “purging” army, for instance) and relatives just kind of pop up everywhere, sometimes in unexpected places. You'd think that in a place as big as London these people wouldn't be rubbing elbows as much as they do. Not to mention everyone's tragic pasts that lead them to where they are today. But I don't mean any of this as a BAD THING. I think it's quite fun actually, to see how all of these characters' stories fit together. And of course the mysteries are intriguing.

And the art. So, Doomsday, My Dear is one of those comics that I like because of the improvement that such a long spanning project will obviously showcase. This is where most of my hesitation came before I began to read. But the artwork has definitely improved, though I think that the color palette could use a bit of an adjustment and the lettering should be somewhat altered to better complement the pages.

As I mentioned in the very beginning, I was mostly interested in reading this comic after I read a scene from it with magnificent pacing. It is a scene where one of the main characters is escaping from Paradiso and pretending to be another guard on the radio, playing “20 Questions” on duty. It comes closer to the end of where the comic is currently at (as of this writing, page 228) but the story is intriguing enough that I definitely encourage you to read straight from the beginning.

As is almost always the case, I look forward to discovering more of the plot's secrets and seeing the continuous improvement of the art work!

All images copyright of Cami Woodruff.

Official Updates!

2012-09-28T23:15:00.001-04:00

Hey there guys! Fancy meeting you here, eh? Well! Fear not, the next update shall be tomorrow, Saturday, September 28, 2012, and it will be filled with all of the webcomics goodness and quality writing that you have come to expect from me. That said, I am also moving updates officially to Fridays, because Friday is the magical day of the week when the illusion of free time seems to be more powerful than on any other day of the week. So check back tomorrow! Toodles!

Fan Comics: Sassy Gay Hawke

2012-09-21T10:14:00.002-04:00

I'm a big fan of Bioware games, as I have probably made clear way back when in June when I talked about afan comic for Mass Effect. Well, surprise, surprise, I'm also a fan of the Dragon Age series. I found this little gem by Jakface a while back. It's entitled “Sassy Gay Hawke- Fenris Edition- Part 1.”

What I love about this comic is that it not only takes the Dragon Age series and pokes fun at it, but it combines it with the concept behind some funny youtube videos, which you should really watch before you read the comic, because that would just make the reference that much better. And although in the title it clearly states that this is Part 1, I have as of yet been unable to locate Part 2.

As always, it seems that most of the entertainment value in such a comic comes from recognizing the references. I would argue that the most important reference is Dragon Age 2. Understanding what the characters, and especially Fenris, are going through in this scene in the video game will establish a better understanding and familiarity than the introduction of the comic. The greater understanding allows for a deeper emotional connection with the characters and the game itself, so when you see the comic, it's funnier to you than it would be for someone who is not as familiar with the game it was based on.

The Sassy Gay Friend videos are also clearly an important part of appreciating the humor. It's really the combination of the game and video concepts that bring the humor to its peak.

And now I'll stop analyzing the references, because I'm sure that I've killed the joke by now, though I will say that the art is quite excellent and fits very nicely with the tone of the message.

But really, I do agree with Sassy Gay Hawke. Every time that I get to this point in the game I try to talk Fenris out of making such questionable decisions, even though he always disapproves of my actions.

If you come across any cool fan comics, or if you locate Part 2 of this Sassy saga, send it my way! Next week I will be reviewing and discussing Doomsday, My Dear. See you then!

Comic copyright of Jakface.

Ok, I Lied...

2012-09-19T21:03:00.003-04:00

Next update is Friday, I promise.

Today's a Day

2012-09-19T14:59:00.001-04:00

So, I was going to write about another webcomic today, by the name of Doomsday, My Dear, but due to college and time constraints, I will have to hold off, either until next week, or (if you're lucky and reaaaally nice to me) this Friday. But fear not! I will update today! It's just that what I will update with shall be a surprise. So stick with me and check back in a few hours. See ya around!

Death Mask: Act I: The Research, part 1

2012-09-12T09:53:00.000-04:00

I think that I've now sufficiently covered the concept for my graphic novel. After I spent a lot of time thinking about the story and the characters and the kind of world that they lived in, some two years had passed. In that time I also did some concept art and some illustrations for Death Mask, among other things. But it wasn't until this summer that I really set a goal for myself and began some of the hardest work for the project.

So, before I could sit down to work on the script, I had to do some research. Research is a very important step, especially when writing and portraying a world that I do not live in, and thus do not know intimately. To make it easier on myself I could have picked the US as the setting. True, it still would have been in the future, but such projections are easier to make when you are familiar with the present culture. But no, I went with a culture that was considerably different from what I know.

So the task because to get acquainted with modern day India so that I could more accurately portray it in the future. Knowing this, I began to compose a list of the various things that I would need to research, continually adding to the list as I thought of something new for the story or thought of an aspect that I had previously disregarded.

Aside from the culture, a large part of my researching quest was to find out about the police, and especially SWAT and its Indian analogues. American television, while engaging and fun, probably isn't the best source of real-life information. I need to know about how things work in the real world so that I can make my own storytelling decisions about what to change and what to keep.

Research is really important to me because I want to create a world that is grounded in reality, even if it takes place years into the future on a continent far away (from me, at least). While a big part of the story certainly is the world that the characters inhabit, I wanted it to be a believable and seamless aspect so that there weren't any jarring errors or completely off the mark aspects of the world that would steer the audience's attention away from the characters' plight.

Aside from illustrating the actual pages, I think that this is one of the most labor intensive parts of the project. Granted, I'm still at this stage and haven't yet gotten to the others, so perhaps I will be proven wrong in the near future. This is a daunting task for me, for many reasons. For one thing, I am not as patient as I would like to be. I'm excited about the project, so I just want to start writing the script now. But that would be problematic later when I have to edit the script and fix any glaring world errors.

So perhaps this stage of the webcomic creation process isn't all that exciting to read about. At least not now, when I'm not dragging out fun facts! This, I will be sure to do next time. Tune in next time when I talk about my researching methods, some obvious things that I didn't even know that I should research, and possibly some fun facts. Next week will be another comic recommendation, but the following week will be Death Mask: Act I: The Research, part 2! I KNOW YOU'RE EXCITED.

Making of Death Mask: Extraction, thebeginning.

Escape from Planet Nowhere

2012-09-05T11:04:00.003-04:00

I think that I read more fantasy comics than any other genre. Certainly I've read some pretty good science fiction comics, but I haven't yet found that one comic that I can yet proclaim, yes, definitely, this is my absolute favorite. So the search continues!

That said, I have found another sci-fi comic that I really enjoyed, Escape from Planet Nowhere. Created by Otis Frampton, Escape from Planet Nowhere follows a badass soldier in his attempts to get off of New Toledo, an ocean-less missionary colony (as in, another planet. In spaaaaaace!) that has come under attack by giant robots.

The art is really exceptionally done. A cartoony style that doesn't take itself too seriously and yet communicates the gritty and dire situation that the main character finds himself in, it is deceptively simple and a wonderful read. The action scenes are some of the best that I have seen in comics and the narration goes a long way to establishing a rhythm that supports that action rather than impedes it.

One of my favorite scenes though, is not one of the ones where the main character is running and fighting the robots (though those are certainly really cool) but the silhouetted exposition scenes that explain how this soldier got to be in the situation he is currently in.

I'm intrigued by the story, as well. On page one, the soldier (still unnamed as far as I could tell) runs from a giant robot, proclaiming that this was supposed to be his day off. So what happened in that one day that everything went so wrong? How far has humanity expanded into the reaches of space if they have set up a colony like New Toledo? Who are these robots, or who built them? And why is our hero alone amidst all this destruction?

But here comes the problem. All of these ideas were introduced in the first thirty or so pages of the comic. But the updates stopped in June of this year, with no reason that I could spot. Using my handy-dandy detective skills I found out that the artist has been active online since, but I wasn't able to find even any mention of a hiatus on Escape from Planet Nowhere. My guess is that he is busy with his other comic called Oddly Normal.

It's unclear whether or not Otis Frampton will continue Escape from Planet Nowhere, but I think that even if he doesn't, it's still something worth reading. The story is interesting and already shaping up quite nicely after only thirty pages and the art is really fun to look at.

As for me, I will keep an eye on this one, in hopes that updates will resume shortly. And of course, I will continue my hunt for an absolutely kick ass sci-fi comic, so if you have any recommendations, send them my way!

All images copyright of Otis Frampton.

News!

2012-09-02T15:30:00.002-04:00

If anyone ever said that going to college for engineering was a grand ol' time with very little work and lots of free time, then they were lying! So, because I currently find myself in this position, I will be posting only once a week, on Wednesdays.

I know, I know, it's disappointing, but I've gotsta get my edumacation. I will alternate weeks with posts of some superb webcomics that I have found on my journeys throughout the interwebs and posts about my own comicking adventures.

So see you this Wednesday as I discuss yet another excellent comic worth reading.

Death Mask: Act I: The Idea, part 3

2012-08-28T20:20:00.000-04:00

So, last time I left off talking about Graft, the Extractor that specializes in near psychological torture in order to combat the rampant crime in the gritty future Mumbai. As a virtue of his occupation, Graft will be wearing a mask at all times. He is a mystery and the fact that you don't know who he is, is the very point of the story. But I felt that a character whose true face and identity you couldn't see would be difficult to connect to and stories are about connection. Enter some more characters.

Enter Andaria Kahje. She is a police officer and something of a tragic figure. Well, as you may have noticed, everyone here is really a tragic figure, but I'm sure that it will all work out or all of them in the end, right? Right?! Who knows.

Andaria is part of a special squad on the Mumbai police force that deals with terrorism. Her squad investigates terrorism in Mumbai and deals with threats. They are one part detective, one part SWAT.

And much to Andaria's dismay, they have to work with Graft to stop a terrorist threat.

Andaria is not alone in her dislike of the Extractors- many police officers don't like them- she's just a little more vocal about her opinions and a little more hostile. The officers call the Extractors, Death Masks because of their expressionless helmets. The police don't like them very much because Extractors operate as independent agents and they all answer to one man. They also pretty much torture people, which doesn't really endear them to the authorities.

As I mentioned before, this is not a happy story. Andaria is not the easiest person to be around but she is dedicated and a loyal friend. She also lost her left arm in a terrorist attack that took place a year previous. And if that wasn't enough, the love of her life disappeared during the same terrorist attack. For all anyone knows, he is just one of the thousands of nameless bodies.

It might seem like Andaria has a lot of personal investment in rooting out terrorism, but for her it's not about revenge, it's about doing the right thing and protecting people. It's been a year and her prosthetic arm just serves as a physical reminder of all that she has lost.

Secondary plot time!

Andaria's partner, Harjeet, encourages her to look for her lost love, and it works out well considering that they are still investigating what happened during the terrorist attack a year ago, looking for clues as to the terrorists plans.

So these are the two stories that intertwine in Death Mask: Extraction. A story of love and loss and morality. Well, I'm excited!

Here is where a lot of research comes in. I would hate for this webcomic to be blatantly unrealistic and inaccurate. At this point I have pretty much caught up to where I currently am in the webcomic creation process. Research, research, and more research. So it should be fun! If any of you readers out there have any interesting information, article links, or whatever, just send them my way! Stay tuned next week as I discuss where my research has taken me so far and what I have yet to learn about.

Part I: the beginning of my journey.

Updates and Such

2012-08-24T12:41:00.001-04:00

So! I'm gearing up to head back to college and as such posting has been nonexistent for a couple of weeks. But! Once everything is settled at school and I actually have some semblance of stability once more, updates shall resume!

Expect this to happen sometime around this coming Tuesday, at which point I shall discuss some more characters and plot lines from my own comic. See you then!

Trying Human

2012-08-11T12:07:00.001-04:00

Our portrayal of aliens in popular media has evolved from the little green men and “the gray ones” that were so prevalent in the 50's, but in Trying Human, a webcomic by Emy Bitner, all kinds of aliens appear, including the classic gray ones. Tall, pale, thing, and with large eyes, these are the aliens that have the most focus in this story, though there are other species populating the story as well, including other aliens and, of course, humans.

Trying Human is named after the trying human circuit, a small device that allows aliens to appear human (or at least mostly human). The story centers on several characters, both human and alien. First there's Rose, a young woman who works as a secretary in a New York City police station. She keeps experiencing periods of blackouts, sleepwalking, and nose bleeds, all clearly evidence of her regular abduction by aliens.

Then there's Hue, a Grey who experiences human emotions and is particularly interested in Rose (possibly in a romantic way?). Hue is an outsider among other Greys who don't experience emotions, and he even befriended one of the Terran Raptoids, an uncommon occurrence.

Throw into the mix Roger, Rose's boyfriend who has just gotten a job as the newest agent of a secret government organization tasked with keeping knowledge of the presence of aliens away from the general population.

This story is a complex dance, not only through space (har har!) but also through time. At the beginning of each chapter we see a flashback to 1947 when the commander of the Greys (who is still commander in the present) crashed to Earth and was held in a secret government facility, with only one woman, Phillis, as a friendly face.

Mysteries abound. What are the aliens doing abducting humans? Why is the government allowing them to carry out such experiments? What happened in 1947 that was so traumatic for all the people involved? Not only this, but there are also several of characters that show up both in the flashbacks and in the present, and not all of them are aliens. How have they lasted this long. What is going on?!

The story does a good job of keeping interest and introducing plot twists and new mysteries for the most part, though the narrative does get somewhat confusing in places, especially because the reader has to keep track of a lot of different story lines involving many different characters, some of which are aliens (the fact that they are aliens adds yet another layer of mystery; what motivates them? Etc.). On the whole, the story moves at a good pace.

I've mentioned this several times now, but one of my absolute favorite things is watching the art progress throughout the comic. Trying Human is one such example. The slight difficultly in this case, however, is that the artist is currently redrawing some of the earlier pages for an upcoming published volume, but the order in which she is redrawing doesn't quite seem to be numerical so some pages are newer-looking and others are not. Basically the progression isn't as smooth as it is in most cases. Regardless! It is always refreshing to be able to see where the art has gotten to. Also, some of the pages are missing, and it's unclear whether that is a coding issue, or whether those are the pages currently being redrawn.

Roger's progress. Looking handsome there, Roger (at least later on).

The art style itself is bright and cartoony, lending itself well to the light tone of the story but still allowing for the more sinister and dramatic turns. I look forward to unraveling all of the mysteries that are Trying Human.

Images copyright of Emy Bitner.

Comin' Right Up!

2012-08-09T20:31:00.000-04:00

This week I'm going in a more science fiction direction with Trying Human, a webcomic about aliens and alien-like things. Keep an eye out for my recommendation/review tomorrow-ish.

Death Mask: Act I: The Idea, part 2

2012-08-08T12:37:00.002-04:00

Death Mask was born on June 26, 2010. I can pinpoint this with accuracy because that is the day that I first did a sketch of Graft, the main character of this graphic novel/webcomic adventure and it just so happens that at the time I was doing a “sketch-a-day” thing and so I happened to put the date on that sketch. Super handy now, isn't it?

Now, the sketch isn't all that wonderful, but it was incredibly useful in that I was able to pretty much nail down what Graft's uniform was going to look like. As of this moment I haven't done much more concept art of Graft so his uniform pretty much still looks like this first sketch.

So, the idea. I was already thinking about doing a practice project, as I mentioned in part 1. For reasons unknown to me, I started to think about torture, how it works, and its effects on the mind. Furthermore, I thought about how the psychological effects might be even greater if the torturer had no emotions to read. The victim of the torture would have no sense of humanity to grab onto.

And thus, the concept of the Death Mask. As you can see in the sketch, Graft is wearing a helmet. It is called the Death Mask and has no expression. The idea is that the victim of the torture (more specifically, this is about torture with the specific purpose of getting information, not just torture for its own sake) would not be able to identify their torturer, nor would they be able to tell how their torturer is feeling. It is almost a complete removal of humanity.

The basic concept of the story is this:

In 2086 in Mumbai, India, things are looking pretty grim and crime rates have spiraled out of control. As a result, a new squad was created: the Extractors. They extract information from criminals for the purposes of solving and preventing crime. The Extractors function as independent agents under the leadership of one man, and the techniques they use are at their own discretion. They don't torture, at least most of them don't, but they come near it. The main character is Graft, one such Extractor, who prefers using psychological interrogation, not torture.

This is some dark stuff. Ultimately, I didn't want this comic to be about torture, and in no way is it advocating torture. Indeed, the whole point of this story was to raise questions about morality and torture. What defines torture? Where is that line between interrogation and torture? And the classic: do the ends justify the means?

I remember reading an article a couple of years ago that mentioned a moral quandary that was presented to law students. It was a theoretical situation where a terrorist hid a bomb in the city of New York. The authorities captured the terrorist (or a terrorist from the same cell; I'm a little fuzzy on the details) and now they faced a choice. If the bomb goes off, millions of people would die. But if they tortured the terrorist, they could get the location of the bomb and save all of those people.

The article had some interesting information about which choice most law students made. What I found really interesting was that there was a difference in how the students responded after the 9/11 attacks. Unfortunately, I don't remember which article this is, where I got it, etc. Nor do I remember the exact information on these statistics and I wouldn't want to guess at it. If any of you readers out there find it, please send me a link.

The point of this theoretical exercise was to question the morality and ethics of torture and any justification that might be had for it. This is, if I dare use that t word, one of the themes that I'm exploring in Death Mask: Extraction.

But that's not all that the story is about. I personally believe that a story, especially ones whose themes are so heavy, require balance. First, as may be evidenced by my webcomic recommendations, while I like webcomics with darker story lines, I also appreciate humor. That's not to say that just because I like humor that I'm going to force it into my super dark sci-fi webcomic.

Second, there needs to be emotional payout for all of the dark and tragic (it's actually one of the reasons I don't really like Game of Thrones [the show; I haven't read the books so I'm not really qualified to discuss them], but don't get me started on that...). The light seems so bright because there is darkness and the opposite is true as well.

A story where only bad things happen to EVERYONE would just be exhausting, both to read and to create.

What does all of this mean? It means that there is more to this story! Not to mention the fact that I haven't even gotten into the plot of the story. So these are the things that you can expect next week as I discuss The Idea, part 3.

Image copyright of Vera Abaimova.

Simon Sues: Occult Lawyer for Hire

2012-08-05T13:03:00.000-04:00

The paranormal tour continues with Simon Sues, a webcomic by Myung Hee Kim, who works as an animator in the game industry. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this manga. So often a comic has a cool premise but something about the delivery feels just... off to me. But here, finally, is a comic with a cool premise and it's actually enjoyable to read! Not that I would ever recommend comics that aren't good reads.

The story centers on Simon, a brilliant former law student at Haversford (University? College? Either the manga isn't clear on that point or I missed something) who has become an occult lawyer for hire. He spends his days with his “friend”/sidekick/demon?-ish guy named Isaac, and together they protect Haversford students from Fiends, demon-like creatures with an affinity for precise contracts and evil.

As if that wasn't enough fun, mysteries abound! For one thing, why would a good student with a bright future like Simon simply drop out of a prestigious university? How did he get into his current paranormal-centered career? And what's this sinister tie to Isaac that keeps being hinted at? Who is Isaac, really?

Isaac makes his first appearance.

These are all good questions that are sure to be answered in the story. Now, I've got some other questions as well, and I'm not sure whether these will be addressed. For one thing (and this is probably more of a silly question), but how does a law school dropout become a lawyer. Granted, Simon is an “occult lawyer” and there probably isn't a bar association to enforce standards, but still.

Simon, all brooding and pensive-like.

And this antique shop Simon is running, would that qualify as his “real world” job? I mean so far, it doesn't seem like his student clients are paying him anything. I understand that in many comics this issue of money and livelihood isn't all that important, but with this story, the plot centers around the man's career, so job related issues are kind of important.

Simon enters his shop in a dramatic fashion.

I haven't read through enough of the story yet (the archive is extensive, which is nice but makes for slow progress), but I'm also wondering whether the story is episodic, or if there is an overarching plot. There are of course, hints to the latter, but so far the structure of the story has very much been a case by case basis.

As far as the art is concerned, the black, white, and gray manga style really suits the story and its supernatural elements. I think the gray is really important here, as it creates a moodier and softer atmosphere. So many comics and mangas apply a black and white only style which, if not done well or not properly applied to the situation, can be unpleasantly jarring. It is clear from the illustrations that the artist has considerable skill, which always makes the webcomic that much more enjoyable to read.

Simon Sues is not only a cleverly titled webcomic, but also has numerous other merits, such as a creative premise, an interesting, mostly well-told story, and an appealing art style. The comic updates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on its site, as well as at MangaMagazine.

The artist also applies a warning: The main comic contains horror and some graphic violence while the side bonus comics (which are interspersed between chapters) contain some sexual content and yaoi (male homosexual relations). So far none of the bonus content that I have encountered has been too explicit, but if such things make you uncomfortable, the archival system allows for easy navigation to the main comic.

All images copyright of Myung Hee Kim.

Late, Once More

2012-07-28T09:09:00.000-04:00

As you may have noticed, I have not exactly delivered on my promises to start posting on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I promise that there is a good reason! I'm getting down to the final weeks of my summer session classes and as such, am completely swamped.

But have no fear! Next week is my last week and so my next webcomic recommendation, which just so happens to be Simon Sues, will be up next Friday! And the following week I will resume the Tuesday/Thursday update schedule.

Wish me luck on my exams and finals and I will see you all Friday!

Death Mask: Act I: The Idea, part 1

2012-07-24T17:22:00.000-04:00

If any of you have ever read my little bio way far away in that remote left hand corner, then you already know that I am an aspiring webcomics artist. I have been drawing for most of my life and I've been writing stories for a good long time as well. When I first stumbled upon webcomics, I saw in them a perfect blend of the two things that I love most: art and story.

Eventually I got the idea to do my own webcomic. I began to think of characters, their super complex back stories and the various shenanigans that they would get into. But this first idea that I had was going to be IT, the most beautiful and wonderful thing that would ever exist. It will be my EPIC GRAPHIC NOVEL. But not yet.

You see, then I thought about my artistic skills and how they don't match up with this grand vision I have, which is somewhat problematic. Well, out of this fear grew the notion that I should do a practice comic first.

Another idea struck me, one for this “practice” comic that I wanted to do. But eventually the ideas just flowed so well that this short project that was going to precede my EPIC GRAPHIC NOVEL became a sprawling epic of its own. New characters began appearing with tragic and complicated pasts of their own and suddenly it was no longer a “practice” project.

Naturally, the ideas didn't stop there. I currently have something like five graphic novels planned out (in this case, I use the term “graphic novel” to indicate a comic that has a cohesive story, not a comic strip). Or at least I have an idea for five graphic novels, not that all of these are all fleshed out.

As you can imagine, I had a hard time to figure out which story I wanted to pursue first. Each story was going to take a long time to tell. After much agonizing and lots of concept art and sketches for all these various projects I made some much needed decisions.

Firstly, I decided to save my EPIC GRAPHIC NOVEL for last. After I complete these first four graphic novels, no matter how long it will take me, only then will I start with this epic tale. Granted, if at any point I feel that I can proceed with my EPIC GRAPHIC NOVEL, I will do so after I finish up whichever of my many ideas I happen to be working on at that point.

And secondly, I decided that my first major work would indeed be that first “practice project” that I thought of. I call it Death Mask: Extraction.

I have already begun working on it, which is really exciting! Though I don't want to rush with anything, and I will take my time to tell all of these stories properly, I also don't want to be super old before I get a chance to finish all of these webcomics, so no more delay!

As this site is about webcomics, I will be writing each week about my own webcomic-making experiences and hope that you all can join me in the joys and the pains of this long, but ultimately rewarding process. I will discuss how I'm approaching this whole webcomicking thing, show you various concept sketches and art that I have done/will do along the way, and tell you what the story is generally about. But because I'm a stickler for avoiding spoilers, there shall be none! Or as close to none as I can manage.

And don't worry, I will still post webcomic recommendations. Not only that, but I will start posting them more frequently! So really, this just adds to the Webcomics, Yeah! goodness that you get to experience each week.

See you next week for Death Mask: ActI: The Idea, part 2.