Welcome back to The Webcomics Weekly!
February is in the swing of things and you know what that means. Prep your baskets and brush your sweet tooth because half-priced chocolate day is almost upon us! Oh, yeah, and there’s this valentines day thing before that. Whatever. It can’t beat half-priced chocolate day. Speaking of sweet treats, this week, we’re bringing you a classic sci-fi comic re-syndicated with “Trekker,” more “Punderworld” and our continuing adventures with “A Better Place” and “Order of the Stick.” Let’s get on with it, shall we?
A Better Place
‘It Sees You’ – ‘Things to Learn’
Updates: Thursdays
By Harry Bogosian
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
You might be wondering? What happens if I reach the end of this comic? Will it unfold into a universe of strangeness? Will it come apart at the seams? Will I cry my heart out? How do I know the answers make sense? Does the final tag of ‘Things to Learn’ imply most foods are, in fact, Jell-o reproductions of their original counterparts? The answer is yes.
These five pages are a fantastic cross-section of where “A Better Place” is at this point in its narrative as well as an indicator of where it’s going. One full color page followed by four greytoned pages smattered with a single highlight color, fragmented parties off on their own paths, the mystery that is Mr. Bun and his powers, and the rejection of the fetch-quest narrative so inherent to the fantasy genre and video game worlds, of which Hannah’s so clearly is. It’s slow going but I’m deeply invested, now that Nina is fully on the run, in seeing how this all resolves as well as deciphering the background machinations of Empress Computer, Irtes, the Anti-Theists as well as the unspoken question at the heart of the ephemera: why can’t Hannah get rid of the Terrors?
This isn’t questioned on the page but each mention of the Terrors indicates that, somehow, they are tied to her but also to the rock, the “god” that initially gave Hannah her powers. Oh, and Arma refers to Hannah as they. Have I been misgendering them since the birth of Hannah’s world? I’ll have to pay more attention going forward. Where was I? Oh yes, the Terrors. I wonder if Mr. Bun, with his Terror influencing powers, is somehow involved. Maybe he’s the secret boss. Maybe he’s good, maybe he’s not. Maybe that distinction isn’t helpful. Regardless, it’s gonna pop off soon, it seems, with terror and wonder and just a dash of adventure.
This wasn’t much of a review, was it? Scattered and splintered, branching in many different directions, each more interesting than the last, I think I captured the feel of these five chapters more than the content and execution, huh?
Oh, and the design of the Terror in ‘It Sees You’ is H.R. Giger worthy and I LOVE it.
Order of the Stick
Pages 191 – 195
Updates: Varies
By Rich Burlew
Reviewed by Gustavo S. Lodi
With five entries fully dedicated to the dastardly villain group of this series, “Order of the Stick” once again innovates by showing surely a different side to them. While certainly not benign, following these villains as a party of their own, with some aptly adversaries lined up on the good side of the scale, was a breath of fresh air, mixed with the usual on-point humor that “Order of the Stick” is known for.
The comic trope of villains gone good (or, at least, relatable) is almost as old as comics itself. “Order of the Stick” avoids those trappings by still painting this group surely on the evil side of things, but revealing enough nuance about how their group works, a certain level of hierarchy, and just the sheer mechanics of it, that is makes these chapters really enjoyable.
There are also some very amusing pokes at other comics – one point at “Green Lantern” was particularly funny – as well as the inherent logic of good and evil bases on RPG form, and how it would actually world on a semi-realistic base.
Dialogues and running jokes were just as sharp as ever, even by completely dedicating the spotlight to the evildoers. It was just what the doctor – or should I say healer? – prescribed.
Continued below
Punderworld Tapas DevianArt Patreon
Episode 5-7
Schedule: Bi-Weekly-ish
By Linda Sejic
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
With cartoonist Linda Sejic focusing on “Punderworld” for the time being the latest rendition of the romance between Persephone and Hades has seen increased activity, and for the better as Sejic explores the comedy around their meet cute. Patreon backers do get the strips a little early and there is a slight difference in formatting between the Patreon strip and Webtoon/Tapas versions which are worth considering.
These differences in strips primarily involve splitting episode 7 into two parts (part two is tentatively dated for Feb. 19) and adding more panels to the Webtoon/Tapas versions due to the dialog heavy nature of the episode. Persephone and Demeter. The Patreon strips are formatted like a traditional comic page, a production method similar to husband Stjepan Sejic’s current work in “Sunstone” and “Death Vigil.” Reading and comparing the two strips despite the formatting differences there shared reading orientation smooths overs noticeable differences. The Patreon strip has a bit more of a left to right line at times, which is slightly recreated in Webtoon by stacking a panel of Persephone and panel of Demeter slightly off center. The end result on Webtoon is the reader always going down but now at a slight angle.
The use of quasi-natural panel borders also helps to obscure any major difference between the two. Eventually Persephone gets very angry and summons some thorny vines like she’s Maleficent, these vines form quasi-natural borders for the panels. They are at once very obvious borders that segment and construct a page that also fade in obviousness as you read on. You don’t see these vines in the first part, but a similar structure is employed as Persephone thinks on her friendship with Artemis. These sequences are bookend by thought bubble like borders that seamlessly flow back to present reality. The use of these rounded bubble panels help to create a clear difference in narrative, aside from the marked shift in color palette, and allow for an easy flow between memory and present. One of the recurring irks with vertical webcomics can be the unoriginal or overly similar paneling, Sejic’s work isn’t changing the wheel but it is masking the use of the same basic shapes and giving the scene a vitality that it wouldn’t have otherwise. The panel borders tell the reader about the tense tone of the strip as much as the content they contain.
Trekker
Pages: 1-16 “Trekker” Book 1
Schedule: Mondays
Written and Drawn by Ron Randall
Lettered by David Jackson
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
“Trekker” written and drawn primarily by Ron Randall is an interesting property. Originally it was published through Dark Horse Comics, the first ‘Book’ is composed of the series first appearances initial appearances “Dark Horse Presents” starting with issue #4 from 1987. It has been at other publishers in the intervening years, was available digitally through Thrillbent, creator Ron Randall has more recently turned to publishing the series through Kickstarter. In reviewing this long running series, I hope to see how Randall’s writing and form have changed and how those older ways of doing function when the book is re-syndicated as a webcomic.
At least initially, there isn’t much friction when reading this series on the website. Randall uses the standard webcomic layout with one page at a time and a variety of arrows meant for easy navigation. Other than the art looking like it is out of the 80s and formal storytelling choices, there isn’t much to indicate this is a thirty year old series. “Trekker” starting out as a strip in “Dark Horse Presents,” before spinning off into its own title, is too its advantage as a webcomic. The opening book is done in a series of 8 panel strips, not too dissimilar from a “2000 A.D.” Prog. It forces Randall to be efficient with his narrative and hardly slow down.
By the end of the first three pages, readers are introduced to the titular “Trekker,” slang for all around bounty hunter in the formerly distant future of 2026. We don’t know her name, Mercy St. Clair, but we see what she is capable of. This hard and bloody introduction is soon contrasted by the sentimental monologue of a New Gelaph police officer. Randall manages to evoke the kind of misty-eyed sentimentality in the monologue without over doing the art. The softer side to Mercy comes through in what we see her do, play with her dog and momentarily remark on a bit of missed blood. Mercy is a character of few words at this point, all the characterization comes through her body language and what she does. It’s a little, if understandably, blunt, but effective. There is a sense of interiority in the span of 5 pages.
With a budget of 8 pages, scenes generally have to be contained to a single page. Sure, there is a connection to them, but there is a clear plot progression from one to the next. Randall’s page layouts in these first two strips are a good mixture of inventive and functional. He does a particularly good job of fitting in minor close up reaction style panels that help to cohere some of the larger panels on a page. Obviously, this would have to be reformatted to be a vertical scroll, but there is a level of thought in structuring this set of pages as two strips that some vertical scroll comics fail to obtain.
