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The Webcomics Weekly #115: Post-Tryptophan Scroll (12/1/2020 Edition)

By | December 1st, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Welcome back to The Webcomics Weekly!

It’s that time of the week again. Time to dive into some webcomic reviews and see what the winds bring us. I am still in a food coma but there are many in the country who are struggling with food so if you can, donate to your local food bank. They could really use the food and/or the money to purchase a more flexible variety of items, which often include non-food necessities like toilet paper, soap, etc. Feeding America has a whole list of ones “in network” but check with local governmental pages or even state pages to see where the nearest pantry is to you (mine is never listed on these big registries, hence the disclaimer.)

We have “A Better Place,” “Necahual” and “Mr. Boop” again for you this week. Stay safe out there y’all.

A Better Place
‘Somebody in Charge’ – ‘The Greatest Joy’
Updates: Completed
By Harry Bogosian
Reviewed by Elias Rosner

The fight against Hannah is a desperate one. Nino, Theo, Arma, Bun, they’re all on their last legs, up against an increasingly unhinged foe, one who they all still want to reach. Theo is sent to the past to destroy Hannah before she can reform the world in her new image. . .but he can’t bring himself to do it. For a minute, it looks like he will do it, that he’ll stop Hannah’s new world from coming about, and if given a few more minutes, maybe he would’ve, but he chooses not to. Sure, he is held back by having his eyes and mouth shut by his face skin (ew) and his arms and legs chained to a “Sleeping with the fishes” apparatus, but his powers are such that in the world before, he can stop her.

But he cannot. For she is his sister and, even if she does not care for or about him anymore, he still cares about her.

That whole sequence is heartbreaking and, actually, these pages run the gamut of desperate, eleventh hour scrambling to tragic “failure” to culminating escalation and terror and finally to badass, fist-pumping excitement. Beneath it all, the comic retains the bittersweet-ness that is its nature, the description and tags acting as a “This Too Shall Pass” to the positivity or negativity of the accompanying pages. It makes for a damn effective set of scenes and sets the stage for the quiet of Nina & Theo’s final confrontation with Hannah.

There’s too much to talk about with Bogosian’s art and the way he draws action, extends updates to modulate the tension of a moment, or the use of monotone to indicate the before times, when the world was simpler but, perhaps, not “better” as Hannah would see it. Another amazing touch is that if you go back to the corresponding pages, you can see Theo in the background. Or, at the very least, you can hear his panting and see the flash of blue in the bushes. Whether these were always there or added at a later time, I cannot say. But isn’t that, in and of itself, a function of webcomics. Time means far less than in print and space can be bent. A hand reaches from outside the panels to make sure the past stays the past.

In two weeks, the penultimate (or ultimate, depending on how many chapters I pick) update for “A Better Place.” Will it end well for all involved? Will it all come crashing down? We’ll just have to see, though if the mix of vinegar and honey in my mouth is any indication, I suspect it’ll be somewhere between the two.

Mr. Boop
Book I: My Wife Is Betty Boop
Chapters: 21 – 30
Updates: Completed
By Alec Robins
Reviewed by Jacob Cordas

Sometimes love blinds us to the truth, Betty. I love you. I do. I spent all Thanksgiving talking about how deeply my loves runs as my girlfriend quickly stopped holding my hand. She coldly asked me what I thought of her brussel sprouts and I told her they were good, but not as good as whatever you would’ve made, Betty.

Continued below

You’re a goddess, Betty. But even goddesses are created. Who created you, Betty?

Right here and right now, you’re being created by Alec Robbins, an incredibly talented and hilarious writer who can take even the weirdest idea and make it into a comic masterpiece. He has the art style of a sex-positive 4-chan board and it perfectly matches you, my dear. It brings your beauty to life.

My current struggle though is Alec is also your husband. You are married and love each other. And all I can keep thinking about the different ways I want to murder him (or genially get rid of him) so you’ll be free to marry the man most worthy of your love. But he is also your creator here. Can you, a goddess, be married to her creator?

Do I even want to murder someone I find so relatable?

Over the course of these ten chapters, we watch Alec struggle with stress induced erectile dysfunction. He wants to satisfy you, Betty. He wants to make you feel so good he is unable to get hard. He just doesn’t want to let you down.

While publicly, I would never admit to my dick working in a sexual situation, in these private letters to you, darling, I can be honest without the eyes of the public to judge me. On more than one occasion, my dick has not worked properly for this exact reason. I’ve been too stressed by the pressures of pleasure too.

As Alec goes to his pipe smoking therapist with an unspecified PhD to talk through his problems, I found myself reminded of my own depressing dick days. I have had similar talks with my therapist, though mine did her best not to laugh at me. She didn’t succeed but still. I get what you’re going through.

It even goes so far as to frame sex through a far more positive lens that isn’t based on penetration, the very thing that helped me get more comfortable with my body.

I sit here writing you this letter, Betty, while we wait for the Germans to finish their retreat across No Man’s Land and a thought crosses my mind. I have more in common with Alec than I have differences.

If I am perfect for you, is he? Is killing him just killing myself?

Necahual
Pages: Episodes 1-5
Schedule: When It’s Ready
By Sergio and Crystal
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane

One of the joys of webcomics is the low barrier to entry, sometimes all it takes is a tweet with a simple question: Do You Like Magical Girls? To get you to check something out. With comics being on Webtoon everything is just a few taps and thumb flicks away, and I really enjoy magical girls. If you are a fan of comics like “Sailor Moon,” “Agents of the Realm” or anime like Onyx Equinox (“Necahual” is considerably less violent than Equinox), this comic is likely for you.

There are certain tropes within the magical girl genre that “Necahaul” easily fulfills, and if it was just that set within a Mesoamerican setting it would have a fair amount of novelty by itself. One of the core values of genre as a system of understanding is the ability to take those core structures and lay different aesthetic layers overtop of them. Just seeing how those two levels interacted would’ve been interesting enough.

What becomes readily apparent however is how plainly fantastic the art is. The opening episodes begins on a long quasi-single panel image that takes the reader on a journey through the city following some children until we meet the titular Necahaul. Sergio and Crystal, collectively known as 2 Heroes, use digital screentone dexterously it reminds me Tim Bradstreet’s use in “Dragon Chiang.” It is a good example of how screentone can be used to carry a lot of artistic weight. The team’s linework is delightful by itself evoking the shojo aesthetic Naoko Takeuchi but updated with other modern reference points. This is one of the best looking webtoon I’ve ever read.

Structure is where “Necahual” falls a little short. The strips work just ok as episodic units. Their art is fantastic and makes smart use of the vertical reading orientation in spots, which is why the moments where they create too large a gutter space are more apparent. The individual panel work is good enough I don’t want to knock them too much, but it occurs.

I had no idea “Necahual” existed until a random tweet suggested it, and for once I’m glad I learned something on Twitter! It isn’t a perfect series but there is a spirit and style to it that makes me want to keep an eye on it.


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