Grab your chalices of blood and put out the skeletons in your closet because it’s that time of year again. It’s the spook, spookiest season of all. While we’re not having an explicitly horror themed month here at The Webcomics Weekly, we are dabbling in and around the genre with “Code Helix” and “Dr. Frost” while “High Class Homos” stays quite firmly in the bright romance fantasy realm. Sometimes a little balance is what you need.
And you can find all that and references to 2000s anime thrillers in the latest issue of The Webcomics Weekly.
Code Helix
Episodes 1-5
Updates Wednesdays
Written by Nikki Dibya Wardhana
Art by Bryan Arfiandy
Reviewed by Mel Lake
A chauvinist guy gets his comeuppance when his text messages are revealed to the world by a mysterious hacker in the first five episodes of “Code Helix,” newly available in English. When Rendra, a dweeby high schooler, discovers that he can use social media to expose the private messages of a guy who has been flirting with one of his friends, he turns into a PG-version of Light Yagami, of “Death Note” fame. He uses the school’s unofficial YouTube channel to fan the flames of gossip and turn the entire school against his target, unconcerned with the questionable morality of phishing his classmate.
“Code Helix” treads exactly zero new ground with this plot about the perils of social media and the gray area hacker groups like Anonymous use to dox the personal information of unsavory characters. It’s basically a Ted Talk on ethics for the Internet age, but in Webtoons form. The comparisons to “Death Note” practically write themselves, but in that story, the stakes were (sometimes ludicrously) high. Here, Vicky’s supposedly salacious texts reference girls he’s kissing and the students debate whether they should be friends with people who are dating each other. The story is set in Indonesia, however, and so my American cultural bias may simply be showing here, because to my adult eyes, these infractions seems…tame. Rendra seems like he wants to be the hacker version of Light Yagami, but instead of killing criminals, he outs cheating boyfriends to the school’s gossip channel.
Despite the fact that the plot in these first few episodes is familiar territory, I kept reading because the artwork by Bryan Arfiandy is great. He has a grungy, colorful style that really worked for me. His characters were drawn with simple lines and large eyes, much like Bryan Lee O’Malley’s, but with an angular bent to them that I just really dig. It makes each character clearly identifiable without needing to refer back to dialogue, which can be hard to pull off when you have a cast of normal-looking high schoolers who all wear the same uniform. Some panels, especially those where a character experiences an intense emotion, remind me almost of Gurren Lagann, but since the situations in this story are nowhere near as intense as that one, the effect isn’t quite the same.
“Code Helix” is completed in its original language at 51 episodes, and it seems that the showdown between Rendra and Shanty, the hall monitor do-gooder, is the focus until the end. For a toned-down version of “Death Note” or a kid-friendly tale of the perils of social media, “Code Helix” might be of interest.
Dr. Frost
‘Season 3 Prologue’ – ‘Behind the Scenes & Episode Commentary’ (1)
Updates: Saturdays
By Jongbeom Lee
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
Even if you’ve been following along with me in this compressed but still extended look at “Dr. Frost,” I would encourage you to read the ‘Season 3 Prologue.’ Made as a way to catch up readers who, like me, had been waiting the three and a half long years for the good doctor to make his triumphant return, the prologue summarizes each case with a smattering of representative panels, set to a somber piano melody. It’s a very effective way to chart not only Lee’s artistic changes but the changing feel of each case via their highlights in addition to the more pragmatic reminder of key events and people for returning readers and a stage setting for newcomers.
Continued belowI wish more comics did this at the end of each “season” or after a long-break because it got me hyped for the main case ‘The Open Door in the Closed Room’ while also taking me on a trip through past cases without overstaying its welcome. It perfectly set the mood for ‘The Open Door in the Closed Room’ and for the resulting shock of unfamiliarity. Yes, season 3 opens on an indeterminate time skip, introducing us to a new cast of characters, including one who is taking Seonga’s place as the red-headed, wide-eyed, talented but green under the gills newcomer, and dropping us into a brand new setting: the protective ward of a hospital.
Oh, and Dr. Frost isn’t working there. He’s a patient.
This new status quo is brilliant for a number of reasons. It’s the perfect progression for our previously always in control Professor, it shakes up the formula while introducing us to another facet of psychological work, and it introduces a number of mysteries that can be slowly revealed and keeps the big mystery – the bombshell at the end of season 2 – in the distance without it feeling artificial. Lee’s art also took a big step up this season, with much cleaner lines and a clearer palette of colors. It’s noticeable even from ‘Happy Birthday Dr. Frost’ (Case Closed) and especially apparent when having read the ‘Prologue’ episode.
It may not have been long in this read through but ‘The Open Door in the Closed Room’ does what every debut case should do and it does so with flying colors. Welcome back “Dr. Frost.”
High Class Homos
Episodes 1-3
Schedule: Thursday and Sunday
By momzerii
Assisted on Colors by sothiira
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
Guess what another queer romance themed fantasy strip on Webtoon! As obvious as that genre might be for a webcomic, creator momozerii brings a surprising level of class consciousness to this romantic comedy about best royal friends and their plans to subvert compulsory heterosexuality. All the while being an effectively episodic slice of life strip. Momzerii doesn’t break new narrative ground, but there is enough of a twist to make it worth recommending if you want to read another queer romance.
“High Class Homos” follows royal best friends Princess Sapphia and Prince August, presumptive heirs to their neighboring kingdoms. As not just aristocracy, but royalty, their lives of leisure give them enough time to consider the bind heterosexism their gay and lesbian selves in. After yet another suitor date, Princess Sapphia has had enough of it and proposes the two go into a lavender marriage with one another and become freerer of those cursed expectations. Their play marriage hasn’t come quite into focus yet, but as someone who is all about the realness-of-fakery I’m curious to see where this goes.
With their respective marriage partners squared away it frees up one another to have meet cutes with one another’s assumed long term real romantic partners, the maid Odette and Commander Percival. The Odette meeting was a bit more effective as the comedy hinges on a knowledge of class and the privileges it entails as Odette worries about keeping her job and plans for another batch of radish themed dishes. The Commander Percival meeting is more reliant on physical comedy that is effective but undercut by excessive gutter space that interrupts the rhythm.
So far momozerii walk a fine line with their royal leads. With the emphasis on class dynamics in their respective romances the leads need to be lacking some level of self-awareness, as that is the source of comedy, but not too self aware that they come off like the Roy family from Succession. So far the very ability for them to lack awareness in certain areas is what allows them to understand and attempt at actualizing themselves in different ways. Which is a nuance that I didn’t expect or seen much of before.
Momozerii’s art is solid. They effectively create emotive, kawaii’d, images that sell the melodramatic heart of the series. It isn’t anything you haven’t seen before, but the coloring with assistance by sothiira is just kind of wonderful. There is a subtle complexity to their rendering that hides smooth blends against solid backgrounds.
“High Class Homos” may not be the freshest of ideas but there is enough going on in this strip that it is worth checking out if you’re a fan of the genre.
