Welcome back to The Webcomics Weekly!
Look, we only get one of these and it just so happened that Mike picked two Sejic comics to review this week so we had to title it this way. We’re bound by internet law. I don’t make the rules of the titles, I just enforce my own arbitrary version of them.
ANYWAY, what else do we have for you in this new decade? A nice but in the real meaning comic in “Kin and the Dragon,” and our two returners “A Better Place” and “Order of the Stick,” which is, post-break, about to head into its final book! Though, much like “Vinland Saga,” this final arc/book is gonna be a long time coming out.
What a time to be a comics fan.
A Better Place
‘Do Your Best’ – ‘Believe in Hannah’
Updates: Thursdays
By Harry Bogosian
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
In the new year, “A Better Place” begins to layer the conspiracies at play in Hannah’s world such that no one can be trusted and it’s clear that the child god of this world is no more in control now than when she was simply an older sister. It’s always been apparent that Hannah, despite having the power of imagination, is a poor ruler. Sure, she solved problems like hunger, poverty, and death but she is a child’s version of an empress: grand strokes, one-size-fits-all solutions, and an expiration date on work. The world has been remade in her image, and what a twisted image it is.
This is why her council manipulates her so easily. Irtes’ has it hardcoded into them to be duplicitous; Empress Computer is the living embodiment of a program that has one purpose: please Hannah, at all costs; Nina is the heart of the operation, thus questions the most; and Arma is the brawn, questioning nothing and enforcing all. But these are still people, with depth and complication. Arma is soft-spoken and crushes on Nina; Irtes is clearly sewing discord and loving it; EC is fanatical in her enforcement of her version of Hannah’s laws; and Nina protects her sister, despite her sister being an anti-theist, while remaining loyal to Hannah, believing the best in her.
‘Do Your Best’ – ‘Believe in Hannah’ bring this out not through the plot but in the subtext, in the tags, in the descriptions. The story we get is simple, the capture of Nina, Irtes’ plans becoming a little more visible, and the sinking feeling that we’re nearing the first major turning point for Nina and her perception of the world. . .though the art will remain as textured and full as it has been.
Fine Print
Pages 01-04
Schedule: Monthly-ish
By Stjepan Sejic
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
As part of turning on his Patreon page, Stjepan Sejic is also syndicating a third strip besides the return of “Sunstone” and “Death Vigil,” known as “Fine Print.” Unlike the other two ,“Fine Print” isn’t intended to be physically published or shared on deviantART due to content (think the definition between hard and softcore porn) and is currently Patreon exclusive at the $6 tier – where you’d also get “Death Vigil” updates. To help show off the series and drive subscribers Sejic has posted the first four pages to their deviantART page.
When “Fine Print” started becoming a thing, a sex comedy about a duel between a succubus and incubus over who is the best on top of other office politics, I didn’t expect it to start like this: a full page spread with a bloodied demoness surrounded by Psylocke’s butterflies. It reminds our unnamed narrator something heir friend said about butterflies. There is a lyrical obviousness to Sejic’s scripting in these four pages, it isn’t subtle about the metaphors they’re playing with but also has the lucid dreamlike quality as they bleed out butterflies and wonder how they got to this point.
The butterfly motif is a really smart functional touch as he is able to fill the page with them in the background but also use the ones in the foreground to guide the readers perspective. It helps to further the dreamy mood that temporally destabilizes everything. The butterflies have this manic energy about them while the humanoid figures seem to run around in slow motion. The effect isn’t that far off from the cinematic techniques to show the shock of an explosion.
Continued belowThese butterflies drive everything from the readers vision to the narrators fading train of thought, all pointing the reader to the point of origination a simple question and the woman, Merryl, who asked it.
As far as teasers go this is nicely done. It’s self-contained to be a micro episode. It certainly isn’t clear how this turns into a sex comedy by way of those State Farm “On the Board” commercials from the various process strips they’ve produced. But that’ll come in time, this is meant to tease and entice.
Kin and The Dragon
Chapter 1, Pages 32-36
Updates: Friday – On Hiatus
By Sheren
Reviewed by Jason Jeffords Jr
First “new” Webcomic for me in the new year and I do believe I found a good one still in its first chapter! Personally, either I’m terrible at finding newly begun Webcomics or it’s just hard to search for ones just started on websites. To combat this, I’ve begun following Webcomic creators on Twitter that in turn retweet other new creators and in the end, I find new people! Who said Twitter is so bad. Other than me and everyone else. That aside, let’s recap!
Sheren does something I’ve yet to see in other Webcomics and now that I’ve seen it, I want it for everything I read in the future. That is, her “recap/story” page is immensely detailed. So detailed about the first chapter (only one so far) that you could read that and get all the plot needed. But, you would miss out on some gorgeous art. That said, once “Kin and The Dragon” starts getting more chapters this type of summary will help you remember things that have transpired.
“Kin and The Dragon” starts off pretty easy for readers to get into. At no time does Sheren’s world feel hard to get into, or fill you with too much info. Instead, she adds in little amounts of world building in the dialogue, but focuses more on characters. And damn, “Kin and The Dragon” has some fun characters. Essentially our Eleven Elder, Kinrini (Kin for short) is tasked with taking out a dragon as the Humans keep sacrificing themselves to it for better crop. Thing is, this is all a ruse for another dastardly plot.
Pages 32-36 introduces us to the second character of the title, the Dragon. Who as fate has it is dying due to its belly being slashed open. The Dragon is a cool character in itself, but Kin’s sudden thought process of the Oracle’s words is the highlight of these pages. Thinking back, he remembers that the Oracle said, “…send an agent to TAKE CARE of the dragon.” This brings Kin to the crossroads of, did this mean kill it, or nurse it back to health? Honestly It’s quite fun when writers leave stuff like this, as it gives the character a choice, plus shows how cryptic Oracles can be. This sudden realization is fun in its setup, while paving the way for a different road than first thought.
One thing that greatly stands out in Sheren’s artstyle is the bright colors seen throughout “Kin and The Dragon.” In the previous pages she paints a bright lush world that the Elves live in, like a paradise long forgotten. But, for the meeting with the Dragon she adds in a greater deal of darker shades, thus showing a difference of their worlds. Although the colors are darker they retain the watercolor-esque style seen throughout, which is absolutely stunning.
Sheren’s “Kin and The Dragon” is off to a great start and should be on your radar to check out. At the moment it is on hiatus as her tablet broke. Plus, fun fact: Sheren has an above average amount of swimming diploma’s! I don’t know how many is average, but that’s what she says!
Order of the Stick
Pages 181 – 185
Updates: Varies
By Rich Burlew
Reviewed by Gustavo S. Lodi
These latest chapters on “Order of the Stick” forego some of the social and political commentary, and focus more on the tropes of classic tabletop RPG. The series does this very well, but seeing it take center stage again after a while was brilliant.
Continued belowThe quest members find themselves lost in complete darkness, while their only spell caster has been reduced to the form of a lowly lizard, unable to utter words that can be converted into spells.
What follows are two of the funniest pokes at RPG convention that “Order of the Stick” has shown so far. First, the ludicrous notion that a spell has a very well-defined impact radius, that simply stops at a given boundary. It makes for some very unexcited problem solving.
Second, the entire foundation that tabletop RPGs rely on probabilities and dice-rolls to function properly. The concept of repeated attempts for a given statistical event is played for laughs in here, with an again inventive manner to escape a tight spot.
As always, “Order of the Stick” knows its audience, its source material, and how to be intelligent with its humor. A must-follow series.
Sunstone: Mercy,
Patreon
Pages 01-11
Schedule: Monthly
By Stjepan Sejic
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
Once more we return … wait that’s the another comic, but after a trip into the DCU for “Harleen,” Stjepan Sejic returns to “Sunstone” continuing the ‘Mercy’ incarnation of the series. As always this strip is being syndicated through their deviantART page. However, Stjepan has also turned his Patreon page on where for $1 a month you will get to read the strips earlier and uncensored due to deviantART’s fear of erect male genitalia.
When we last left off Alan and Ally achieved their goal of having some bondage themed intercourse. It sent the volume out on a high note that continues into the next edition with an infectious energy. “Sunstone” is no longer being produced as a vertical strip first, it technically is a vertical but compositionally this strip is 11 comic pages pasted together. That lack of medium specificity doesn’t detract all that much from the reading experience. The first three pages, and throughout the strip, have a strong sense of verticality that gives the strip an energy that matches the cast. At the top Alan fondly looks back on the memories he made with Ally, that eventually morphs into a full page spread of Ally fervently matching through the snow. Scrolling down that page gives it a sort of Ken Burns Effect that propels her smiling face forward.
Ally and Alan’s meeting in the diner is the highlight of these opening pages for me. It is at once a funny bit of sex comedy as they barely contain their thirst, but the character acting Sejic creates also reminds readers of their friendship. That realist element is put to the test as Alan discovers what Ally is wearing under her skirt in a truly hilarious panel. “Sunstone” operates in a realistic-cartoon space, there is a realistic but stylish glamor to everything that allows everything to be heighted just enough. In this heightened space he is able to go for some moments of comic literalism (not in this strip specifically but in past efforts) and reality breaking onomatopoeia. Those moments of style are there for a purpose as they help to capture the mood or the energy I’ve been referring to. It’s a symptom of strong cartooning that places an emphasis on the character acting in the scene. Even when he was primarily a digital painter, Stjepan Sejic had a knack for capturing expressive faces.
The comedy continues as the couple sneak into Alan’s nominally girls free apartment complex. This being digital I can zoom in on features, but even from a distance the smart cartooning of expressions during this sequence to show the shock and awkwardness at the process of entering the building undetected comes through.
“Sunstone: Mercy” returns with a strong start that reminds readers and shows potential new ones what it is that makes this series work. No it isn’t the exquisitely designed costuming or nerdish appreciation of them, it’s the characters and their relationship to one another. As well as some plainly effective comedy and sequential storytelling.
