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Unknown Webcomic Calvalcade: Shuck

Rick Smith and Tania Menesee's Shuck was one of the under-appreciated gems of the original Modern Tales lineup. The strip moved over to Serializer a little more than a year ago, in hopes that it would be more likely to find its audience there ... just in time for the server crash that disabled that site for way too long (mea culpa). But, well, now it's back -- and Halloween is the perfect time to rediscover Shuck, who, after all, used to be the guardian of the gates of Hades (but now lives a more genial exurban life). Rick and Tania have brought a new energy to the revived version: it's daily now, for one thing, and full color.

I'm also noticing a distinct lack of the unusual dialect-like-but-not-quite spelling tricks from the old strip. Those added an idiosyncratic flair to the writing, but they also, um, made it a little more difficult to read than it might have been. I'm not sure what I think about this development yet. If you're looking for something quirky and sweet (but tinged with darkness and death, too, like everything else within this mortal coil) to add to your daily trawl -- and who isn't? -- you could do far worse.

I miss the old language too.

I miss the old language too. On the gaining side, the new full colour looks good. It's good to see the old devil moving again anyway. The Sulfurstar site still has the two Shuck comicbook series online.