Something unusual

I may or may not be good at the webcomic critic business, but one thing I do well is make up my mind about them. In a few minutes, I can usually determine 1. Whether the artwork is good 2. Whether the style is original 3. Whether I like the comic. When I stumble on Randal Milholland's Something Positive, the answer is: no, no and not really. Only one little detail stands out, the webcomic has been going strong since 2001. Maybe I should try to recognize the signs, like when when I asked my now ex-girlfriend if she wouldn't miss me for the three months we would be apart and she said "not really".
Anyhow, the first few pages are relatively classic humor, with a touch of black. As the pages flow, the touch of black become more persistent, quite the contrary of most "subversive" webcomics, which start with a dark, acid feel to it and quickly turn into a comic equivalent of "friends". I actually am occasionally shocked my own self of some of the things randy pulls; like the characters handing out tracts on the correct procedure for slitting one's wrists (sorry emo's I am not giving the link).
In stark contrast of this is the very serious treatment of some pretty serious issues. Speaking of which if the life of Davan, the main character is even loosely based on the life of Milholland, that dude must be a psychiatrist's treat! Davan is repeatedly cheated upon, loses his best friend, close family, has massive health problems, is exploited, attacked and broke during the 6 years of his sorry existence.
The one constant to this seems to be the acidic irony with which Davan faces all of his predicaments, usually slipping some profound morality deeply between the lines. Don't worry about it though, you can usually miss it if you aren't looking too hard.

Oao

Cody

a penny for their thoughts

The underground and discrete world of webcomics is just beginning to gain mainstream (internet) acceptance. Like blogs and 'funny pics' sites before them, readership is skyrocketing and the most famous of them gain quasi legendary status. And amongst the legendary, are the legendary of legendary. And amongst those, is Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik's penny arcade.
Jerry (alias Tycho Brahe) and Mike (alias Gabe) may very well be the world's currently most famous webcomic artists world wide, and have every right to claim that...right. The PA comic is dedicated almost exclusively to heavy gamers, which pretty much garenties a minimum readership. Okayyy, so nothing new... Except yes! PA was pretty much the first webcomic to come up with the subtle concept of "talk about what they're interested in". Basically every gaming online comic since then can be considered a (pale) imitation of Tycho and Gabe's foundational work.
OK so what's so special about it? Firstly, it's in colour. Quite a relief from your usual eye-strain black and white stuff. Also, absolutely no continuity. Also quite a relief to not have to plow through ten years (yes ten!) of archives to understand why the fuck this is funny. I did it anyways though. The characters cleverly combine child-like innocence and vicious torture, sometimes within a single strip. The creators, in a quite divinity like gesture, often mentor another struggling strip by linking to it, more often than not blowing the mentoree's server to smithereens. Almost as popular as the strip itself is the associated blog, hilarious in it's own right; if you are a professional gamer that is, and know everything about consoles, games, game creators, gaming conventions, anime conventions, current gaming news, current console news etc. Seems there are a lot out there...
Oh and last but not least: Gabe's alter ego in the strip is a cardboard tube wielding samurai. Now who wouldn't want to read a comic in witch cardboard tubes are indiscriminately used as swords?

oao

the cod

Questionable Comic

Just a week ago, we were pitying the foos' that couldn't take a good geek joke. Like all good things though, sometimes too much is too much. I am not saying this because Jeff Jaques' Questionable Content is about a really geeky indie rock nerd. Not in the least. Yes, the obscure yet common ideology by which the less a group or style is known, the better it is, has managed to create an entire subculture. The tenants of this urban religion distinguish themselves by the characteristic attempt to be indistinguishable. With unbounded contempt for goths, punks, emos, grunge nostalgics, hard rockers and straight edge rockers (ugh...), these proud young'ns loudly proclaim their independence by dressing, looking and behaving as normally as possible.
Freaky. Jeff Jaques immerses us into the life of this pathologically shy dude and his chance meetings of skinny but hot chicks, in what soon becomes a western European imitation of a Shojo manga. The comedy is mostly axed around the sassy comments and puns of the hero and his romantic-but-not-quite interest, Faye, as well as the wacky antics of his anthropomorphic psychopathic robot Pintsize, though this last aspect has been played down a bit. The graphics go from very good to absolutely fabulous, Jaques actually using photography as reference for his decor.
He also has managed to play on his indie rock readers' vestimentary insecurity and is currently selling T-shirts based on the clothing of his characters, thus setting the example for every webcomic overachiever out there by maintaining an excellent comic with virtually no adspace.
Recommended reading for all the frustrated electric guitar massacrers and frustrated waiters-around-for-girlsers!

oao

the cod

but what does xkcd stand for!?

I like good webcomics. I hate bad webcomics. I reeeealy hate badly drawn webcomics. You can imagine my dismay as I stumble upon Randal Munroe's xkcd; whose character art mainly consists of stick figures.
The highly professional webcomic chronicker that I am decides to look at one or two comics before banishing it to the endless internet oblivion...and and immediately bookmarks it in his (my) favorites. Why? Why? Why?
This has got to be one of the best single panel, no preparation, laugh out loud comics, and by laugh out loud I don't mean of the LOL variety but more of the actual-sound
-coming-out-of-your-mouth kind.
Also, this is one of the geekiest comics I have come across. Quite unlike the lame user friendly didactic geekyness, Munroe takes us places only the most arcane master of useless technical knowledge will feel comfortable in; I have to admit I almost came in the comic where he takes the Ackermann function on Graham's number just to freak out mathematicians.
I know what the crankiest of you are thinking: "I hate these goddamn comics where you have to have a freaking phd to understand a stupid joke!"
So what? This is the inter-tubes! You do whatever you fucking want. Or whatever I fucking want. Go read xkcd.

oao

Cody

thank god I'm not a pirate

Please pirates, read no further. Some have been known to loose their only eye when beholding the badassness of Chris Hasting's Doctor McNinja. The story revolves around a ninja, whose last name by absolute pure coincidence happens to be McNinja (from the famous Highland McNinjas). Some say he is even more powerful than Chuck Norris... (not me please don't roundhouse kick me in the head mr. Norris). Just one little nonconformity: Mc. Ninja's is a MD, much to his ninja parent's dismay.
The spirit of the Dr McNinja closely resembles that of ask a ninja: the humor revolves around the wildly exaggerated capacities and ruthlessness of the ninja, as well as the extreme seriousness with respect to hilariously ridiculous situations (like his ten year old assistant that grew a mustache by sheer force of will). An important component of the humor also comes with the rollover text commentary (rollover text is the small textboxes that pop up when you move the mouse over an image).
The artwork is realistic, inked black and white. Surprisingly, the lack of colour adds to the realism and quality of the art. The updates come in large panel tri-weekly installments.
What else is there to say? Go read Doctor McNinja, or suffer his wrath! (or as he likes to call it, ninja-star prescriptions)

oao

Cody

The sluggy style

The first. The last. The Alpha and Omega if you will. Sluggy Freelance, the webcomic to end all webcomics. This is the story of two geeky yet manly (not in a good way, girls...) men and two feminine yet crazy (again, not in a good way) women, accompanied by a hyperactive and innocent ferret and a taciturn psychopathic bunny as well as a variety of frequently recurrent characters.
The author, Peter Abrams, makes his characters cross a number of surrealist situations disturbingly reminiscent of pop culture icons such as Alien, Buffy the VS, horror/zombie survival movies, etc. while managing an intricate coherence of the universe and background. The artwork goes from minimalist talking heads at the comics start in 1997 to intricate space roaming pirate ships at the end of 2006. Seems that daily online comics are quite an art school.
So what makes this webcomic the pinnacle of all webbed art? Several things. Firstly, it's consistency. One thing that the webcomic lovers that we are hate above all is to log on to our favorite online and find something along the lines of: "sorry, no comic today (damn lazy artist!) but here, enjoy this drawing I did of my dog when I was 12..." Peter never does this. Ever. I can't even imagine what his life must have been like when he still had another job.
Secondly, what am I looking for in a comic? I want it to be funny. I love the subtle awkward romances commonly found in these things, I adore the wacky action and subtle political commentaries, but a three panel webcomic that isn't funny at the end isn't worth squat. (yes I'm talking to you, Fred). Sluggy Freelance has all three. The romance, the action, the funny; but the funny trumps it all. Most webcomics take a bit of time and archive reading to get into the spirit and the story, but you can take one random page of the Sluggy's HUGE archives and be hooked. As you may have understood, it is the one comic that binds them all. The template against witch all others shall be measured.
Soooo, enough with the brainless worship. The VERY few defects of the comic include: black and white comics during the week; rather crappy art at the beginning of the series (almost kept me from starting to read it!) and...well, nothing on saturdays (saturdays used to be covered by the excellent guys from Rob and Elliot, sadly on hiatus).
That's about it. Start reading the comics, start going late to work and leave early just to get more comic time in...See you next week for a commentary with hopefully less unabashed praise.

Oao

The Cod.

Now's the time to say something awesume

A few days ago, a friend who had expressed worries about my increasing addiction to the webbed comics suggested that I create an online web log depicting my precise and incisive analysis about these little three panel gems of modern art form.
Insert dreams of internet celebrity here... Just in case though, I run a rapid check on google. Oh well, I'll only be one of the 1,400,000 webcomic bloggers out there... I guess I'll have to rely on a really original idea, like taping myself doing something really stupid, for internet celebrity.
So here it is. The haphazard commentary of a LOT of webcomics, once a week, for what I hope will be your enjoyment.

oao

Cody