Reviews

Both Schindler’s List and The Shawshank Redemption are considered great films, but nearly anyone will tell you that Schindler’s List was more powerful, because it actually happened. The same thought process can hold true for webcomics. A journal webcomic is unlike any other breed of webcomic because it’s real. It’s not merely a realistic comic; it chronicles events that have really occured in the author’s life. This gives it a power and an intimacy other webcomics don’t have. Continue Reading →

If there’s any doubt whether art and humor are global concepts, Vicho Freidl’s webcomic is a topical solution that gets to the root of the dilemma. But perhaps we’re getting a-head of ourselves…

Cabezas Que Brillian (literally "Heads That Shine" in English) features Chilean roommates Cesar and Oscar, whose adventures are the centerpiece of the comic. The vertically, follically-challenged boys are nearly identical, except Cesar has thicker eyebrows and facial hair. They star in two types of comics: one is a gag strip format, and the other, newer addition is an ongoing storyline.

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Story-telling is cyclic. The good guys are up, the bad guys are down. The bad guys are up, the good guys are down. It’s a distillation of the rhythmic nature of the human experience. But this pattern becomes a problem when it’s circular and repetitive, instead of progressive. Like people, some characters do the same thing over and over, repeat the same shtick or fail to grow despite the wealth of experience heaped upon them by the authors of their webcomic plotlines. Continue Reading →

A cat and a girl. It’s really that simple.

But for something that simple, there sure is a lot more to it than that. Dorothy Gambrell’s Cat and Girl is a webcomic that knocks you on the floor with witty repartee and smart humor, random name-dropping and off-beat themes — a voracious webcomic wolf sneaking around the flock under the sly sheep’s skin guise of a simple children’s strip about two friends and the things they do. Full of random name dropping and off-beat themes, Cat and Girl is a strip that takes many chances and makes no apologies.

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Feeling a little blue? If so, you’re in luck, because Vera Brosgol’s Return to Sender makes a little blue go a long way.

Return to Sender is essentially a realistic webcomic with one small, yet deliberate plot twist that sends it into many fantastical tangents – a bit like the old television show Early Edition, but with the fantasy knob cranked up a few notches.

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New Testament APOCAMON: The Final Judgement, a Flash-based webcomic written and drawn by Patrick Farley of e-sheep fame, is kind of tough to describe.

So let's start with the basics.

I have stolen more quotes and thoughts and purely elegant little starbursts of writing from the Book of Revelation than anything else in the English language — and it is not because I am a biblical scholar, or because of any religious faith, but because I love the wild power of the language and the purity of the madness that governs it and makes it music.

– Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine

There are two episodes, "EPISODE 1: THE SEVEN SEALS" and "EPISODE 2: THE SEVEN TRUMPETS" released back in May of 2001.

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As the use of Flash becomes more widespread on and off the Web, the webcomics world is sitting up and taking notice. Previously only used to make a comic or file fit a browser window thanks to its automatic resizing feature, webcomics creators are now playing with Flash to add to the action factor through the use of motion and sound. But can sound and motion carry a webcomic to greatness? Matt Johnson certainly seems to think so.

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I found Dicebox by way of Christopher Baldwin's Bruno and had no idea what to expect. Created by Jenn Manley Lee, the webcomic is described only as a "story to be told in four books for a total of 36 chapters that plays out an eventful year in the lives of Griffen and Molly." The rest of Lee's note on the Dicebox "About" page is just as vague, yet intriguing, which will likely leave the reader pleasantly puzzled and curious to learn more.

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Despite its name, Small Stories, created by Derek Kirk, is filled with big ideas. The site has two sections, one containing short, single-episode stories (hence the site’s name), and another containing two sets of longer stories.

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Reading Bueno the Bear is like being let in on a really good inside joke — you can be laughing all the way through, if you’re in the right frame of mind. Created by Pendleton Ward, Bueno the Bear exposes us to a bear and a handful of his friends as they do everything from pounce on bugs to stare at the sky.

Bueno is a happy-go-lucky fellow, despite having his melancholy moments. Penelope the Piddlebug is shy, and Giovanni the Giraffe is the pluckiest one of the trio. One could even draw comparisons to the Hundred Acre Wood, with Penelope and Giovanni serving as the respective “Piglet” and “Tigger” to Bueno’s “Pooh”.

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