Master Recs: Webcomics (Vol. 1)
I enjoy webcomics. I like being exposed to accessible art, to witness the evolution of artists and storytellers who bring their individual viewpoints to the table, expressing themselves through the medium of free comic books! I spend an inordinate amount of leisure time perusing the old sequential literature. As a result, I follow a ton of people that would give it to me. Now, I wish to recommend a few of these works from my constantly expanding list. I shall begin with a small taster of five, currently ongoing projects to wet your appetite. Let us go.
Preeny Has to Repeat 6th Grade by Jasmine Coté
Preeny is a brush-tailed kitty, fluffy both in appearance and personality, and she might just be the Chosen One to save the world from Darkness – as it is often the case. This comic vaunts a peculiar shtick: the setting is populated by adoptable furry OCs the artist has bought from DeviantArt kids, effectively creating a Kingdom Hearts style fictional universe for the Mid-2000's Sparkledog subculture. This works both as a unique selling point and as a clever metatextual conceit that informs the themes of the story, which is an earnest celebration of creativity, childhood and self-expression, untainted by the cynicism of "You Posted Cringe." It's funny, cute, sincere and it hits you right in the feelings.
HELLO FROM HALO HEAD by Batshaped
The author describes it as "An exploration of the multitudes a person experiences as a response to trauma. Also cartoon animal adventures. I promise it's mostly funny. it's a trauma comedy! a TRAUMEDY!!!!" Indeed, I would say it's an apt summary.
The strip began life as a series of Animal Crossing fan comics which would eventually spin into a darkly humorous, twisted yet oddly wholesome deconstruction of kinks and emotional repression.
Soon enough, it was rebooted and morphed into the understated, original masterpiece that it is today. Every page oozes with ethereal colours, a delicate yet decisive trait and subtle foreshadowing as a yet unclear narrative starts taking shape behind the surface of "cartoon animal adventures." A rewarding read for those who enjoy to obsess over every detail and pick apart allegories. It's the Thinking Man's TRAUMEDY, if you will.
Haus of Decline: Gay Comics by Haus of Decline
Sometimes, all you need to create a widely appealing classic is a good set-up, a punchline and impeccable comedic timing, all of which encapsulated into the confines of a traditional 4-panel strip. Actually, now that I have typed it, that is one of the most difficult crafts to master. Haus of Decline is a ubiquitous work that has managed to achieve the coveted "Meme Status", swimming in the immediate periphery of your Internet experience. You might be aware of it thanks to that one Steven Universe joke that stands tall as the most succinct and accurate parody of that show. As of right now, I am yet to encounter a single strip that isn't a comedic slam dunk or at least chuckle worthy. If you enjoy a spoonful of irreverent, queer, scatological, sometimes personal humour in your breakfast bowl than this is the cereal box for you!
Molly's Future Mishaps by Peyton Partyhorn
It's the year 2000, the Earth has blown up. Right before that, humans managed to send a rocket full of sea slugs to Europa, one of Jupiter's satellites. It is now the year 3000 on Europa. Molly the slug meets Jo, a sea bunny time traveller from the year 4000. After a soda-related debacle, they both wind up at the end of Time itself. The titular mishaps ensue.
Molly's Future Mishaps presents an overly complex amalgamation of premises, each more outlandish than the last, that lays the foundation for what is, in essence, a straightforward character-driven piece. It explores a group of people attempting to finagle their way across Life, their feelings, anxieties, societal pressure, self-worth, many "What If's" and "What Could Have Been's", with timey wimey shenanigans serving as the backdrop for their reasonably scoped adventures. Their personal and interpersonal journeys keep the bizarre, somewhat nonsensical nature of the Universe grounded in a familiar space - in a manner not too dissimilar to that of a Douglas Adams' novel. In truth, the initial run of the comic mostly focuses on comedic high jinks, which tend to be hit or miss, but the writing improves dramatically when it starts exploring the characters' psychology and emotional hang ups. For me, personally, the turning point was the (inevitable) Time Loop arc, which I enjoyed for reasons that will become obvious if you know about my feelings for In Stars and Time. In short: this comic has a high-stakes Absurdist/Existential Sci-Fi premise that belies a refreshingly "Down-to-Europa" story about a bunch of 20-something cartoon slugs. It's relatable!
Dolmistaska by AngusBurgers
In many ways, this one defies description. You should just go read it. Seriously, go read it! It's great! Exceptionally well-drawn too! It looks like an underground Punk comic from thirty years ago. It lures you in with the understated intrigue of its unclear premise, its oppressing atmosphere, environmental storytelling, savvy use of lighting and shading, before dropping everything on you all at once. The protagonist is a non-binary cat person with gremlin energy and a knack for vehicle-related heists. Read it. You'll thank me later.
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That would be all for now. There might be more webcomic recommendations in the future, whenever inspiration shall strike - or I get in a writing mood. Thanks for reading... and happy further reading!
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[VOLUME 2]
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Me reading hello from halo head wanting every character in that comic to kiss every other character and knowing it wouldn't work like that but god damn I can dream.
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y’know something that goes hand in hand with the coldification of bruce in regards to his relationship with young dick is this idea that alfred is the one to always intercede and basically shame bruce into doing something nice for the boy. it makes it so that if alfred wasn’t there to reprimand him for being cold, bruce wouldn’t show dick any warmth. and i don’t like that. i think that it’s important that bruce, while not super communicative and someone who is notoriously difficult to get along with, treats young dick with an appropriate amount of warmth and understanding and kindness. he doesn’t have to be scolded by alfred into making dick happy, he should be wanting to make dick happy irrespective of anything else.
the only exception is when bruce is doing something he thinks is good for dick and needs some perspective from an outside party (usually alfred) who is able to see things more objectively.
idk, it just seems like so often bruce is written like taking dick in is kind of a burden, and then alfred has to nag him about taking care of dick, when originally these two characters did not need any outside persuasion to be attached at the hip, sleeping in the same room, cooking for each other, spending every waking moment together, etc.
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Batshape Poll
in that I have some Batman screenshots where they make him just a blob of a shape and so like @pup-pee wanted me to make this a poll so here we go a poll!! Examples are gonna be under the cut cause it's long!! also ignore that it's all The Batman Strikes because uhhhhhhh those are the only ones I have access to right now-
The Batman Strikes #1
The Batman Strikes #2
The Batman strikes #3
The Batman Strikes #3: Electric Boogaloo
The Batman Strikes #4
The Batman Strikes #5
The Batman Strikes #5: Electric Boogaloo
The Batman Strikes #5: The Reckoning
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so sorry but ive GOT to know what you think of the brothers karamazov so far. favorite/least hated brother? - @batshape
ooh hm i'm only about 120 pages in and i just got to a very funny conversation of Ivan There Is Definitely No God vs. Alyosha There Is Definitely a God, so i'm rotating them... Dmitri i'm not quite sure about yet but admittedly i thought his confession/monologue with poetry included was extremely dramatic and kind of great, mostly bc i do like a character who's like wow i'm a terrible person but i'm so good at it. "when I do leap into the abyss, I go headlong with my heels up, and am pleased to be falling in that degrading attitude, and consider it something beautiful" - gives me a little fëanorian vibes sdfghj
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ATTENTION EFNW GOERS
a few months ago my buddy @mellodillo rounded up a gang of pony artists to put together a lil comics zine featuring those famous cartoon horsies, and they’ll be selling it at Everfree Northwest!! there’s a lot of good stuff in this book, so if you’re going be sure to check it out!!
psst also in the meantime check out all the cool people who contributed to this thing they are all big-brain geniuses and they make Good Stuff @astroeden @balileart @batshaped @kyssimmee @manicpanda-art @mellodillo @punkitt-is-here
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i discovered hello from halo head by @batshaped and immediately binged the whole thing so far and i love it and i felt compelled to do that meme thats been going around
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