You're reading Hark! A Vagrant, right? It's in your RSS feed or your Atom feed or maybe you just sit there refreshing the page obsessively, day after day, with a calendrical reminder in case you forget, right?
OK, maybe that's just me.
My first semester of grad school is over and NaNo is over and that means back to reading and thinking about comics, online and off. It's also time to spend money as a demonstration of affection and that means the return of Stocking Stuffers at Pink Kryptonite! Behold as I combine them all by recommending Kate Beaton's most recent collection of new and previous work: Hark! A Vagrant.
Beaton's work is "cartoony" in the very best sense: evocative and expressive and deceptively simple. It's also incredibly sharp and literate, a bit like Bugs Bunny with an advanced humanities degree. I cannot get enough of it - some favorites are here, here, here, here and here, though this one is also pretty freaking great and more than a little delightfully queer - and this book features work we've seen before and work that is totally new! I am especially pleased when some brilliant corner of the Internet colonizes fleshspace. Give it, now, to the person on your shopping list who wryly smiles when you allude to Nancy Drew.
Robot 6 covered the recent Webcomic List Awards, but I'd like to bring attention to some of subscribed titles that I've been reading up on.
First up, Sin Titulo, by Cameron Stewart, gets my undying love. It's a shame the artist is working on as many major published comics as he's been, since it turns out the guy can write a pretty involving plot when left to his own devices. Then again, his work on the recent Assassin's Creed: The Fall mini has proven to be the most solid game-derivative title I've ever read.
Also in the breed of "sadly not updated as often as it should" is The Guns of Shadow Valley, which produced three volumes of back material in its weekly published days, though it now maintains a monthly schedule. It's a superpowered Western, though it tackles magical realism more enjoyably, for me, than say, Jonah Hex and The Sixth Gun have.
For quick, one panel laughs, there's Hello With Cheese, updated several times a week. It's a world of silly mashups, puns, and recently, a classic monster lexicon.
Karl Kerschl, Cameron's collaborator on the aforementioned Assassin's Creed comic, runs his own nature based romp in The Abominable Charles Chrsitopher. Still catching up on this one, but I enjoy its quietness.
Needless to say, there's tons of other pickings out there, but among the big names, Kate Beaton's Hark, A Vagrant has been nothing short of sexy. If you've got a webcomic you'd like to promote, make sure to drop a link in the comments.
Deconstructive Comics were so eighties. Repurposed Comics are what's in right now. As Grant Morrison's been proving, the best recent comics have been the ones that don't get bogged down by continuity and precedence but use it as a momentous weight to keep things moving (Morrison mentioned here because his work on Batman is the most prominent example, though he's certainly not the exclusive user of this methodology). Reimagining heroes without the need for some hamfisted retcon or alternate universe classification helps keeps comics fun. With that in mind, here's a few links that look to revive comics from nearly every creative aspect of the medium, sites that beg me to get on my knees and draw the night away, that can compel someone to simply, purely, create.
Shortpacked! creator David Willis is at it again, having put out a new webcomic to add to his extensive resume. This new one's called Dumbing of Age, and it places his Joyce and Walky characters in a new college setting, which Willis assures is free from the years-long continuity of his other titles. He's also confirmed that, like Shortpacked!, the strip will be gay-friendly. Dumbing of Age updates weekdaily beginning today, but will also run throughout this weekend, as a method of commencement, I'd assume. Great choice of opening poop joke David, we wish you the best of luck!
I have a confession to make: until this weekend I had never been to a comics convention. On Friday I mentioned to my boyfriend that I wished I could be in Charlotte, NC - the Queen City, no joke - for Heroes Con because a bunch of my favorite web comics creators were going to be there and there was a group discussion scheduled with Fables creator & author Bill Willingham. Willingham's conservative personal views aside - and there's no pretending they don't show up in Fables - I have really enjoyed that book and I would have loved to hear him speak about it.
Friday was a fairly lousy day in silly, pedestrian ways and by that night I was throwing myself a pity party complete with full catering and a sad clown. Rattling off all the things I could be doing if I went to Charlotte was a central feature but my boyfriend very patiently reminded me that a day trip to Charlotte was an entirely attainable goal. By Saturday morning my mood had drastically improved and I was up early and on the highway.
For the undereducated, female same-sex relationships can be confusing. They buy dildos, so they have to secretly like men. And then there's gender identity. That's a rigid and unmoving definition, right? Fortunately, the folks over at the often lewd but always appropriate scans_daily board can point you over to the work of Erika Moen, creator behind some charming LGBT-themed comics.
The answers to all your burning lesbo-centric questions can be found in the naughty Girl Fuck, "a quick'n'dirty introduction to some of the most popularly misunderstood concepts regarding girl-on-girl sexin'". And when you're ready for something a little more touching, I suggest reading "When We Hold Hands" or the frank and relatable "I Like Girls". The Portland artist and creator of the webcomic DAR has a lot of her work available through her website for those looking for an afternoon well-spent.
Webcomics have proven themselves to be a platform where questionable content or material that couldn't risk the cost of publication can thrive, unfiltered. Perhaps no other comic has better captured this freedom than the much-acclaimed Axe Cop. In case you haven't heard it from Comics Alliance, Wired, or EW, Axe Cop is an internet success story.
The comic's charm relies on its creative staff, as it's written by five year-old Malachai Nicolle, and, like any good five year-old's imagination, contains a fair amount of dinosaurs with guns, decapitation, and unicorn wishes. Axe Cop is the craft of absurdist PG humor captured by Malachai's older brother Ethan, and the site continues to expand with its fanbase. Check out the best piece of hatchet-related literature out there (I'm looking at you, Gary Paulsen!) on axecop.com
It's been a long time since my last couple of posts; And while I'll spare you from all the fun stories that come from getting your corneas scraped, I will tell you that temporary blindness leaves you with a whole lotta thinking time. But surely I'm not the only one with silly, nerdy stories bouncing around in my brains. What's that? You've got a masterpiece in mind and no outlet for the world to experience it? Well, torture your souls no more, because The Escapist is looking to publish all your little musings.
This gaming magsite, home to the There Will Be Brawl videos and Stolen Pixels webcomic is running the contest through February. They're looking for original, videogame related content, specifically:
* Subject - Is the subject matter interesting to readers of The Escapist? The Escapist aims to capture and celebrate the contemporary video gaming lifestyle and the diverse global video game culture, so please plan accordingly.
* Creativity - Is it fresh and unique? No copycats please.
* Longevity - Will this remain funny/interesting/relevant over time?
* Polish - Give us your best, it may put you above your competition.
Winners get a paid contract with The Escapist, So if you've got the creativity for the job, check out the contest info here
Oh, I've also taken to updating PK's twitter, an effort to read again at 140 character increments. Follow us if you're into that kind of thing, and if you're not, an occasional glance at that sidebar to the right would be appreciated.
It's got to be rough for an independent artist to make a name for himself in this market. Especially if this up and comer also happens to be an alcoholic, promiscuous gay rabbit. Fortunately, Rick Worley's semi-autobiographical webcomic A Waste of Time takes these problems and turns them into filthy, filthy comedic gold. Worley's lovable lagomorph is the raunchy whore I can only pretend to be in my worst moments of inebriation, and it makes for some of the funniest original content I've read in a while. He's got some solid art to back his writing, his inks come off like a crosshatching Jhonen Vasquez or a cartoony R. Crumb. Though the panel you see here is one of the more tame pieces in the archives, so tread carefully, youngins'.
So show some support, check out the artwork, and maybe fulfill this bunny's sadomasochistic prayers (oh Rick...if only you weren't 3,000 miles away...) through
Neill Cameron, of Bulldog Empire fame, has set himself up to an arduous but often funny task of a putting up a daily webcomic. Well, daily in the 'every weekday' sense of the word. But the twist? It relies on the internet titan Twitter, using one of the day's trending topics as its source material. Hence the title, Hashtag Funnies. Cameron often deviates from the context of the tweets but this allows for some creative flexibility that the exercise is probably meant to develop.
In another program intended to inspire you to get up and write (but sadly not hugely comics-related), let's not forget that November is National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNo WriMo. Though the graphic novel creation process might be too grueling for an amateur to complete within 30 days, Mr. Cameron's daily upload is a great example of how the internet, when applied correctly, can be a great productivity tool. Perhaps as we become increasingly interconnected, the dream of a NaGraNo WriMo as a writer/artist collaboration won't be too far fetched. Just sayin'.
If you guys need me to tell you what PVP is then chances are you don't read webcomics at all, as they are the original gaming comic. However I wanted to spotlight them because of todays comic, seen above. It would seem that on top of one of the comics biggest rivalries being completely misguided, we've just seen a major character come out. (That's what it looks like anyway). Kudos to Scott Kurtz for continuing to make an interesting and culturally relevant comic!
When you read Justin Pierce's The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, you'll get the sensation that you're falling. Falling out of your seat from laughter! Zing! But seriously folks, this comic is utterly hilarious at the worst of times, and borderline offensive at the best. A superhero satire about Earth's mightiest protector; with a once-a-week schedule, saturday mornings will make you feel like a kid all over again.
Review: Stormwatch #1
Stormwatch #1, the first of DC's new 52 to feature LGBT characters (before the reboot, at least) is out to add a new cosmic dimension to the post-Flashpoint universe. There isn't much to be said for our beloved broship yet (though the last page shows a handshake between Apollo and Midnighter and promises a "Big Bang"), but the issue is a great gauge for whether or not you'll want to stick with the series to see the romance purportedly unfold....
