Webcomics: David Recommends (Part II)
Back with a second part to the last article, David’s exploration of the wonderful world of webcomics continues!
Kate Beaton’s comic deals mainly with history and literature, and is so well written and illustrated as to be funny even if you have little knowledge of the subjects. While her drawings may initially seem simple, she gets a lot of expression out of few lines; this, coupled with an excellent sense of humour, is what makes the comic as engaging as it is. Other recurring themes are mystery-solving teens, a fat pony and superheroes (And Beaton also contributed to Marvel’s Strange Tales series).
Octopus Pie is a comic about twenty-somethings in Brooklyn. Written by Meredith Gran, it is in equal parts humour and poignancy. It follows Eve and Hannah, two flatmates who are thrown together by circumstance, and their circle of friends. There is often an air of absurdity to the events that unfold, but at its heart the comic is about human truths; what drives us, and why we do what we do.
MSPA demonstrates the versatility of webcomics more than possibly any other. The initial premise was based on early graphical text adventures, where readers would submit commands, and author Andrew Hussie drew the results. With the site’s third self-contained story, Problem Sleuth, Hussie displayed a penchant for complex, intricate storytelling which continued into the current story, Homestuck. The user-driven conceit was eventually dropped in Homestuck, in favour of telling the story he wanted to tell. At over 6000 pages it’s a sprawling, detailed work. As well as pictures and text, animation, music and even games have been employed to further the story, and the comic has already gained cult status. More than anything else, Homestuck’s success is no doubt down to the fact that it is a good story with engaging characters, well told.
