Webcomics Weekly is back in your life with new and old strips. The job hunt continues for Ellie in “Blood Stain.” There’s an easy jail pun to be made about “Clink,” but it’s actually a monster adventure strip. The Order of the Stick in the webcomic of the same name continue to dungeon dive. “Sam and Fuzzy” continues to be cute and fuzzy. “Witch Creek Road” loves the tropes of horror, as a group of people find themselves up a creek.
Blood Stain – Line – Tapas
Chapters 10-15
Schedule: Once a Week on Line/Tapas otherwise currently on hiatus
By Linda Sejic
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
The talk of jobs, and Ellie’s lack of one continues, in these next 5 entries of “Blood Stain.” This batch of 5 has some nice diversity in form and length as they work together to tell a singular story of Ellie’s job as a waitress. Linda Sejic extends the panel count in some strips while others are essentially two or three with intricate subdivisions. These differences let each strip act overall as it’s own unit while feeding into the whole. The previous strips, the job montage, were all roughly the same length and form while acting like discrete units.
Take the first strip, chapter 10, it is the longest at 19 panels. It’s a bit longer than earlier ones but doesn’t really change things other than the length. Sejic uses some good split paneling to show a moment of realization as Ellie and her sister have it out over their current, precarious, living arrangement. Rereading over the original art, it clarifies something that about Sejic’s style that I find rather appealing. She doesn’t really do hard outlines for her figures, instead using the color blends and to a degree flats to differentiate the layers of space. This has changed over the years, and when the art is remastered, but it still comes through in the over coloring of pages. It makes a nice impressionist feel and helps make their sisterly conversation more emotive.
This batch also features a couple of strips that are quick and almost function on their own regardless of context. The revelation that Ellie has a job waitressing/bartending is the first, the strip is technically four panels but it’s split into two large one, it’s in and out fast. The evolution of a waitress strip, tracking Ellie’s growth over 40 days, is the other. Marking the days is a really effective storytelling move since the prior strips were like a work montage, that could also be read as happening over the span of a day for a cruel joke. At the same time the Evolution of a Waitress would feel right at home in a newspaper strip – those are still a thing right?
These two montages of sorts back to back make for a nice emotional crescendo right to the point that she is fired. Which helps give this batch of five a good emotional arc.
The differencing lengths and non-uniform design of this batch of five made for a good reading experience. One of the differing factors of digital comix is their ability to adapt to whatever form they need, major webcomic sites like Line or Tapas have an overall guide, but not everything looks the same. In these five strips form followed function and made it a better reading experience.
Clink
Chapters 1 (pg. 1-14)
Updates: Twice Monthly
By Cody Forkes
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
With an opening reminiscent of Universal’s Dracula or Frankenstein, “Clink” puts its best foot forwards, showcasing an impressive environmental design and tight control of mood. Forkes’ framing is spectacular, knowing when to change angles and when to keep things still. Page 3 is the best example of this. Panel 1 is a wide shot, setting the scene, panels 2-4 are all from a stationary angle while Nate, our main character, is kept central so when he moves, the background shifts around him, giving the illusion that nothing has changed. We’re kept from seeing his face the whole time, adding to the mystery.
On the technicals, what’s striking is the borderless artwork’s evocation of the sounds of the scenes — of the water and the wind whistling through the dead trees and the crunch of dirt underfoot as Nate wanders up the path to the castle/pub, and the use of negative space to slow time and the action down. The coloring is stylized in this way as well, the blues and purples colored in what I presume to be colored pencil, seem smoky, as if covered in the fog of the town, enhancing the eeriness of the situation before we’ve even been introduced to the plot at hand. While very little is revealed by the end, we are given a taste of the genre: noir monster mystery.
Noir is hard to get right. Go too heavy on the hard-boiled narration and you risk telling too much, frustrating your audience. Go too light and your risk losing the characterization brought about through the genre’s distinctive framing device. “Clink” doesn’t quite manage to hit the sweet spot between the two, with somewhat stiff dialogue & narration, but the brevity & economy of information is spot on. It’s a strong start with striking, stylized art and an intriguing hook. I cannot wait to read more.
Pages 21-25
Updates: Varies
By Rich Burlew
Reviewed by Robbie Pleasant
As the Order of the Stick continues their dungeon crawl, so too do we continue our journey into their world. The chimera from last issue is quickly dispose of, but we learn that the characters are fully aware of tropes like “recurring villains” and the many ways they can come back.
Amazingly enough, the chimera is one of the only villains that hasn’t returned after a thousand more pages.
Speaking of villains, though, not only do we get to see a bit more of Xykon, but we’re introduced to the Monster in the Darkness too. This is a great page, giving us a good introduction to the main bad guy and one of the most interesting characters. I love how Xykon is dedicated to the trope of keeping his secret weapon hidden in the shadows, even when there’s no one around to see it but himself (and the readers). It shows that the bad guys are just as genre savvy as the good guys and gives Xykon a bit of personality – he’s powerful enough to earn that flare for the dramatic.
Then we get a good gag about armor check penalties alerting monsters to the heroes, which plays out as a lengthy conversation between offscreen monsters about all the things they’re depriving the heroes of when they flee. Following that is a humorous take on the inverse – if armor makes you easier to spot, then surely nudity, which has no armor check penalty, must make you invisible! It’s Elan being dumb, but it’s funny and it plays off game mechanics, so I can dig it.
Art-wise, nothing has changed yet, nor will it for a while. It’s still simple, flat, and goofy, but it suits the tone perfectly. There’s beauty in simplicity, and everything “Order of the Stick” gives us remains top-notch.
Sam and Fuzzy
Help Wanted parts 16-20
Updates: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
By Sam Logan
Reviewed by Dexter Buschetelli
This week we return to “Sam and Fuzzy” for a barrage of cute assaults from an adorable gang of leather jacket adorned hamsters. Or are they gerbils? They called “Grrbils” but who even really know what the difference is anyway?
Hemingways, Dev has finally met the boys from N-M-S and they all find themselves in a bit of a pickle. How do you really find yourself IN a pickle? Look, that isn’t important here. What matters is mafioso mini-mammals have our protagonists held hostage and are preparing to torture them with…red, red wine?
Sam Logan continues to amuse with the exploits of his titular characters. The humor has ranged from subtle to absurd and continues to keep the readers on their toes; while it has visually remained consistent, relying on heavy use of deep blacks and expressive use of its cast. One image that stands out from these installments is the army of Grrbls in part 17. The creation of depth through a gradual lack of detail gives the tangible feeling of an actual swarm of rodents, which is lovely to look at.
Continued belowWhat lies waiting in the pit for Sam, Fuzzy, and Dev? You’ll have to check back in two weeks to learn. Or…y’know…you could go read the series for yourself. But definitely check back with us for more Webcomics Weekly.
Tigress Queen
Pages 63 – 75
Updates: Friday
By Allison Shaw
Reviewed by Gustavo S. Lodi
“Tigress Queen” is such a complete comic book, with art, story and nuanced sub-plots so well-constructed that one might mistake it for a series being published by the fantasy label of a major publisher. It truly speaks of the quality and consistency of artist Allison Shaw, both on these pages under review, but also on the entire first chapter of this adventure.
The series throws readers in the middle of a long-lived and well-established feud among a central empire and a group of warrior rebels. And if the story seems familiar at first, it quickly dispels pre-conceived notions by adding layers to why these rebels are in this position to begin with and the code of honour and respect that central empire has. There are no clear heroes and villains in “Tigress Queen” (at least not yet) and that becomes amazingly refreshing amid offers that seem so eager on placing every character in tidy little boxes.
Artistically, Shaw delivers in spades on an animation style that is detailed enough to add personality to settings and characters, but very clean, providing a sense of fluidity and motion not often seen on the printed page. One area stands out, that of how specifically character expression are portrayed. There is a lot that can be extracted in terms of past interactions simply by how leads and the supporting cast look at each other. The same can be said about how creatively the princes of the empire on “Tigress Queen” are shown: clearly the same family, with height, haircuts and angular faces doing the heavy lifting to tell them apart.
Over at plot and script, the feeling of opening a treasure trove of back history is intoxicating. The series certainly knows how to play with reader’s anticipation, providing just enough hints on dialogues and attitude to reveal what has been the tale so far, with character ambitions, rather than exposition, being the driving force.
All in all, “Tigress Queen” is an all-around excellent comic, regardless of being a webcomic produced independently or a major release. Do not miss it.
Episodes 4-9
Updates: Saturdays
Written by Garth Matthams
Illustrated by Kenan Halilovic
Colored by Amb3r
Reviewed by Bodhi
Three cheerleaders head into the forest for an evening rendezvous with their boyfriends who are running a bit late. There they, through dodgy decision-making, enter a country lane named Witch Creek Road. Yes. And there are witches in there.
“Witch Creek Road” almost on every episode seems like a parade of horror tropes (or clichés, depending upon how you look at it). The facehugger from Alien, character work from “Carrie”, really bad decision-making, a universe where obviously horror movies don’t exist, oceans-full of blood, “The Cabin in the Woods”–which leads to basically every horror trope ever … did I mention really bad decision-making?
I don’t intend the above paragraph to be reductive in any way. It is obvious that the creators of “Witch Creek Road” are horror fans and scholars and my congratulations to them on creating a kinetic comic (in places) and some really effective baddies: witches who are cannibalistc, sadistic, taunting and till episode 9 pretty darn undefeatable. Kenan Halilovic and Amb3r’s art bypasses your defenses and communicate the fear and helplessness of these teenagers effectively: the seraphic smile on Sara’s face, the haunting mood of a night forest, the witches’ blood-soaked claws.
I’m in two minds about Garth Matthams’ writing. He won me over with episode 4 but that is also a problem in itself. You see, read without the breaks between each Saturday, this horror comic should feel seamless and every time Matthams cuts back to establish characters in happier or safer times I got yanked out of the stream I should be immersed into. That said, Matthams was also able to make me relate to the characters and feel terrified for them. Episode 7, in particular, made me think of “Of Mice and Men” and that’s having an interesting thing to say about a horror comic. There’s also some “Annihilation” in there. I think.
There are a few things that didn’t work for me: a sudden transition into Indo-Japanese body horror and the Rambo’d-up (or John Wick’d-up, if you are a member of the younger generation) hero’s not packing the one thing that’s been known to work on witches.
In spite of the above it was a fast and entertaining read and it left me wanting to see some punishment being meted out to the witches. Give it a try.
