It’s the day after Christmas and all through the site, not a review was stirring, not even a mic.’ The year in review was just starting, the regulars all asleep, but this webcomic thing would not just keep. So come one, come all, come to read what we could see, about all these great comics, in the year 2023.

Deeply Dave
Episodes 1-6
Schedule: Complete
Created and Animated by Grover
Music Composed by Eric Michael Robertson
Web Development by Andrew Jensen
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
In looking back at the webcomics I read and wrote about this year, I kept coming back to the Eisner nominated “Deeply Dave” from the creative team of Grover, Eric Michael Robertson, and Andrew Jensen. It is in my mind the most complete articulation of what a digital first web hosted comic could be. While the webtoon format has become standardized the initial promise of what could be done in that form has not itself become standardized. I remember being blown away at something like “1000” because it had a soundtrack! “Deeply Dave” through Grover’s animation and Andrew Jensen’s web dev skills gives you musical accompaniment and more in that vertical scrolling, episodic, webtoon form.
Through a mixture of moody music and limited animation, “Deeply Dave” becomes something that is technically ‘more’ than a comic but still sequential art in spirit. It pushes forward through its use of animation and music. The normally stoic and static sequential art takes on a Sisyphean quality as figures endlessly loop through their animation cycle – this feeling is somewhat literalized in episode 3. The use of these animations, however, do not make this a web animation in my mind or something akin to an animatic. Animations become to act like their own panels within the larger frame of the comic catching and drawing the reader’s eye down the vertical scroll. While some of the flashing lights at times were a bit much, the overall use of animation in this strip made it one of the most interesting and thought-provoking reading experiences I’ve had.
All of this technical wizardry would not matter if the narrative of this series wasn’t there. At the core of this strip, it isn’t a technical exercise, it is a drama about a young boy trying to find his mom at the bottom of the ocean. Or maybe that’s all a metaphor that makes me want to just throw all the Freud and Lacan at it. The overall narrative of this strip is well known and understandable but the way the creative team come together to tell this story is what stops this from being generic. It’s kind of like the platonic idea of James Cameron’s populist mode of filmmaking in order to demonstrate new digital film technologies.
“Deeply Dave” did not win the Eisner award, that went to “Lore Olympus” , another one of my favorite reads this year week in and week out. I can see why that happened, but I also feel like this webcomics inability to exist outside of the web makes a case for itself as a “webcomic” in ways other nominees and other webcomics cannot. Is a webcomic just something that is digital distributed over internet protocols or is it something that expands and pushes the medium in different directions? The creative team have another strip “Hamburglar” that follows a similar technical trajectory that is worth looking at.

I’m Fine I’m Fine Just Understand
Updates: Whenever, Usually Every Week or So
By ND Stevenson
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
While there were plenty of excellent webcomics out there this year, some of which I read for this column, some of which I have never read, and some of which I’ve never even heard of, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about ND Stevenson’s “I’m Fine I’m Fine Just Understand.” (I know he uses Nate but the official name on the comic is ND so that’s what I’m using.) If I had to pick a singular reason for why, it’s because the comic is simple and raw. More tellingly though, it feels nostalgic.
There’s a specific type of autobio comic that Stevenson is evoking, the likes of “EmiTown” from the mid-2000s. The art is quick and sketchy but full of life. The creator is narrating as much as showing and the two are often in conversation with each other as much as they are in conversation with the readership. The topics range from humorous anecdotes to deep introspection to a random aside into an aspect of their hyperfixation, as evidenced by the most recent three newsletters: ‘Travelogue #3,’ ‘Outside Nate/Inside Nate’ and ‘Family Game Time: Harder Than Expected.’
Continued belowI missed out on that wave of comics, where the internet was growing fast – still niche, still oddly personal yet diffuse – but hadn’t yet hit the same level of centralization and commodification as it has now. Instead, I came in during the early 2010s when Stevenson was making his name with Tumblr comics, one of which became “Nimona.” The comics I read were primarily story driven, made by animation students or other (mostly young) artists. Those just happened to be what I followed. The rest I saw in snippets on a Tumblr timeline or in messages from friends.
Stevenson has always had a knack for cartooning, the simple act of taking two dots and a couple circles and making them emote, express, evoke, and connect. He makes it look effortless, though it’s clear that even in the sloppiest drawings, time and effort went into it. It’s hard to draw folks! It’s even harder to draw about oneself. Nate’s got real fortitude. If I’m rambling, it’s because I’m in the midst of a cold and having trouble focusing. Apologies. Let me bring this home.
“I’m Fine” is what I want from a comic about someone, a look into their life and their thoughts. It’s, of course, a curated look but it is still open about difficult topics. Stevenson conveys what he wants to say clearly and poignantly, even when that point is “I’m a little gremlin child. Look at my amazing boat look.” That’s the duality (or multifaceted nature) of people. Profound thoughts, fart jokes, and endings that lack a point because we’re too fucking tired.

Kingfisher
Rotgut Chapter 1, 2, and 3 (up to page 21)
Updates Fridays (on hiatus until January 2024)
Created by Rowan MacColl (Skulkingfoxes)
Reviewed by Mel Lake
For the end of the Webcomics Weekly year, we’re taking another look at a comic we read this year. Scrolling through my list of reviews, I knew there were only two comics I actually wanted to read more of: “Kingfisher” and “Golden Hour.” I didn’t realize I’d read “Kingfisher” in 2022, not 2023 until after I went back to it. But since “Golden Hour” is still part of the annoying “WUF” program on Tapas, “Kingfisher” it is. Begging for forgiveness from the Webcomics Weekly wranglers over here.
My original review of “Kingfisher” wanted more character exploration and a deeper dive into the mysterious properties of the magic box our main character Seymour possesses. The current story, “Rotgut,” delivers on one of those things, as Seymour haplessly experiments on the box to find out what it can do. He’s not having much success, however, and meanwhile, a plague has descended on Fogport. It appears to only be striking the speakeasy and docks associated with one mob family, though, and Gabriel is enlisted against his will to investigate. When Seymour is stricken with the mysterious disease, the femme fatale who originally helped them recover the box, a woman named Fox, helps them get Seymour to safety. That’s as far as the story has developed, but it’s shaping up to be an intriguing one. Magic artifacts and bootlegging, what’s not to like?
The artwork in this story continues to impress. I simply love the color choice and sketchy, pen-and-ink style. The panel layout is advanced—the kind of panels you’d see in professional, printed comics, and flows perfectly well with the story. I love how the panels melt in the sections where characters are under the influence of the mysterious illness (person? creature?). Seymour and Gabriel continue to be cute but not saccharine together, and it looks like the story is about to expand into the larger political and social world of Fogport as prohibition is well underway. I look forward to reading more of this series as it develops!