A few posts back I mentioned a desire to get my proverbial hands on a wider array of webcomics. All of your suggestions were highly appreciated and I am enjoying the results—by which I mean I got nothing from anyone and I am uniquely disappointed in each of you and all of you. Good show.
However, said lack of recommendations does not excuse laziness on my part (no matter how lazy I actually am; and really this was more a case of impulse so I'm still supremely lazy hang on there's a coin in my shoe . . . okay we're good), and so I took myself a-wassaling for some new material to dig through.
By which I mean that I was looking at one particular page and noticed links to about twelve other comics and thought "you know what, screw it".
Didn't add them all, naturally. Some were just kind of bleh, others were just kind of bleh. But what I did find I shall now spread around.
First, though, quick shout for one of Kei's personal favorites, Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire. Fun little four/eight-panel strip, lots of light humor and puns, magic and knights and all manner of fell beasties, and the occasional death-destruction-and-mayhem of which Indi is so fond. Fair warning, though, the archive is deep. Took me a total of about . . . oh five days to get almost caught up (almost as long as it took me with 8bit Theater), and I'll probably take some time later to catch all the way up to it.
According to Kei, DD updates daily.
Also, I stumbled across Lackadaisy's site, so now I don't have to follow it on dA anymore. =D
Right, then. Let's go . . . tell you what. Let's go in order of sanity. Actually let's not. Let's just go in any order and say we went in a logical manner somehow. I think that would be best.
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Item number one: Boxer Hockey (Tyson Hesse). Not really sure how to explain the concept for this one except by going into complete and specific detail, and their first strip took care of that well enough for me. Currently Hesse just finished up a quick set of random Sonic comics, so that'll explain the really bizarre style you'll see upon visiting the main page.
Updates every Sunday, as you can from the site description at the top of Firefox saying "Updates EVERY SUNDAY MORNING".
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Shifting to a more-overt-but-no-less-fantastical direction, we have Flaky Pastry (Félix Lavallée; from Montreal, SomeGoo! =O ), which isn't about pastries at all, flaky or otherwise. It does, however, have Croissant, who infrequently shows up and talks on about explanatory-type stuff, and more to the point chronicles the maladventures of roommates Nitrine, Marelle, and Zintiel (woo name mouthfuls), and occasionally Neighbor. Seriously. This comic started in '05, and he still don't got a name. (Fairly certain Tom will fall deeply in love with Zintiel simply because her awesome hair.) Also lots of magic and sheer ridiculousness, most of it not serious at all.
After diving the entire archive yesterday, I am singularly amused that no one character, with the exceptions of Neighbor and Kurt and quite possibly Griplin, has a definite and classifiable sexual orientation. And Gabriel is just a dick, so who cares.
According to Lavallée, Flaky Pastry updates "each and every week, usually on Friday evening, and a few times Saturday. A few times I had an extra update in the middle of the week, often Tuesday evenings. And you know? I pride myself on this regularity!" So yeah. Do what you will with that.
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Skin Deep (Kory Bing) is a tad more serious and mythologically complex. However, I do not want to ruin any more of the story concept than is necessary so I'll only say that it revolves (so far as I've gotten) around a very quiet girl from a small town who goes to a 20,000-headcount college and actually makes a few friends rather fast. Beyond that, I'd much rather you find out for yourself.
Bing also has one of the best FAQ pages I've seen. I especially like her attitude on fan comics and characters. And also she links to Gunnerkrigg Court, which I have plugged before and probably will again, so she can't be all bad.
Skin Deep updates Tuesdays.
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Next comic up is an interesting grey-hued endeavor called The Abominable Charles Christopher (Karl Kerschl), featuring a silent and possibly very simple protagonist, among various other members of the forest in which the comic is set, including Vivol, the forest's semi-guardian. I am not certain where the comic is going at present, but I have already been dispirited once and subsequently made extremely happy, so I shall keep on with it. And though it is not immune to frequent bursts of lightheartedness, overall the strip seems to have a very somber tone, one which I am so far enjoying. I suppose it seems to affect me in much the same way the choral work Salvation Is Created (Pavel Tchesnekoff) pulls at me.
The Abominable updates Wednesdays.
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Minus (Ryan Armand) is a very special little girl who embodies everything good and wonderful about our imaginations before they were stunted by important things like Bills and Educations and Being A Responsible Citizen. Seems to be done in watercolor, which adds a lovely effect; says the author, "Each [M]inus strip is painted on a 15x20" piece of Illustration board."
Very very clever so far as I've seen. Also I have gone HOORAY on more than one occasion, but then again I am obviously predisposed towards rampant imaginations.
According to Armand, updates "every [T]hursday until I suddenly stop! Making comics on giant paper is pretty neat though. Yeah."
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Not really sure what to say about The Meek (Der-shing Helmer) except that eighteen pages into the archive a character finally asks the question that bugged me the entire time I was diving. The About section tells things a bit better than I can at present, since the archive isn't particularly deep as of just now. But it seems interesting, so I believe I shall stick with it for a while, nekkid Angora notwithstanding.
And at least she has some pants by now. If that's really much better. > >
Says Helmer: "The comic updates at least once a week, and often twice! It depends on my schedule."
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Moving quickly away from be-nudied forest girlies and what have you, we have The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (E.K. Weaver). And I'll let Weaver explain it himself. He has a pretty good synopsis.
May 16, 2008 - In the span of a single day, Amal calls off his arranged marriage, comes out to his conservative parents, promptly gets disowned, goes on a bender . . . and wakes up the next morning to find TJ, a lanky, dreadlocked vagrant, frying eggs and singing Paul Simon in his kitchen.
TJ claims that the two have made a drunken pact to drive all the way from Berkeley to Providence. As it happens, Amal promised his sister he'd be there for her graduation from Brown University. And TJ, well . . . TJ has his own reasons.
The agreement is simple: Amal does the driving; TJ pays the way - but a 3500 mile journey leaves plenty of time for things to get complicated.
Also not a really deep archive as of this particular moment, but I rather like the art style, and TJ reminds me of someone but I can't remember who.
TJ and Amal updates Tuesdays.
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Speaking of art styles, the next one on the list got my attention from page one. Goodbye Chains (Alice Hunt) is done entirely in lineart, a format I have long loved for its simplicity and singular ability to render staggeringly intricate detail. That alone had me reading the archive for the better part of an hour. (What can I say? I am a huge fan of lineart.)
The comic itself is a Western, featuring Colin Lord, an outcast and probably crazy Communist, and Banquo White, a slightly misanthropic hedonist, as they pursue careers as outlaws. Incidentally, the two also have a sort of mutual deep-rooted distaste for each other which . . . well, you'll see.
According to Hunt, updates Tuesdays and Thursdays for the summer of Oh-Ten.
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And finally, in what might seem like a completely out of character move on my part, we have Marry Me (Bobby Crosby, Remy "Eisu" Mohktar). This graphic novel also sort of snared me with the art style, but more because I like the Marvel/DC-type formats. Don't ask me why. I won't be able to give a non-circular reason.
Marry Me concerns a huge pop-star, her sister and her entourage, a high school guidance counselor and his best friend, and Denny the bodyguard, who is bigger than Michael Clark Duncan and has the single best method I've ever seen for dealing with paparazzi.
No, seriously. It is awesome. And when you get there you will agree with me. And you will cheer. Duncan is the man.
But yeah. And when you start to get into the storyline you will wonder why I of all people decided to stick with it. And the only thing I can tell you is that in spite of myself I am just as big a sucker for a good story as I am for lineart. So yeah.
Marry Me updates Fridays.
