It feels like we’re halfway through the year but that won’t actually arrives until July 1st. Time is a strange concept when you stop to think about it, as I’m sure every physicist and stoned college student can attest to. Anyway, we’re not here for time musings but instead to read about some webcomics! This week sees us taking another look at the zany “Adventures of God” and the very heavy “Dr. Frost” while welcoming newcomers “Everything is Fine” and “Do You Believe in Magic?”
All this and even more statements that live rent free in my head at 2am in issue 139 of “The Webcomics Weekly.”
Adventures of God
Pages: Episodes 23-32
Schedule: Fridays
By Teo Ferrazi and Corey Jay
Reviewed by Devin Tracy Fairchild
This batch of “Adventures of God” has outdone the previous episodes. It is equally if not more zany, biting in its satire and fearless in its comedic criticism of ancient ideas about God, government and life. In episode 23, like in previous episodes, the creative team of Corey and Teo behind “Adventures in God” takes a biblical story and comedically turns it on its head and updates it to modern time. The humans are building the Tower of Babel, the tower that is supposed to reach heaven and bring them closer to God. But instead of the classic mythos when God confuses their language and thus creates the worlds first language barrier, this time he sends the internet? What better way to divide people than with the internet?
In the next episode, #24, Teo and Corey take on Noah’s Arch to hilarious effect brining up an issue I’ve always wondered about, what happens when both predator and prey are on the same ship? This is something I’ve always wondered too. The next episode (25) is an irreverent take on the founding of America and God’s apparent involvement it. It tweaks with and satirizes the false narrative that America was founded as a Christian nation. In the next episode (26) a creepy perverted uncle is dead from his “birdwatching” and through the repentance loophole ends up in heaven and God gives a kind of “aw shucks” shrug of the shoulders. In issue 27 there is a twist on the classic Faustian contract with the Devil (or Lucy). He pleads with a group of small kids who summon him, not to give up their soul. We visit a creator and fan favorite Noah’s Ark once again in 28 as the team probes the question of whether a starving Noah would resort to eating something on the arc. In episode 29 Gabriel screws with God by toying with his lack of scientific knowledge.
In episode 30, we discover that God has a team of lawyers on retainer from hell just in case people try to sue him in a wrongful death case. The last two episodes depict Gabriel who finally has a chance to take over for God while he’s sleeping off a bender. Everything improves immediately, but Winrar sales suddenly spike. Eventually it becomes clear that the reason for the utopia is a lack of free will which God promptly adjusts and everything goes to shit again and Winrar sales plummet again. This episode is an excellent example of the creative teams ability to incorporate pop culture references to their irreverent take on religion. Throughout they steer clear of pop culture references with an expiry date too soon.
The art style remains scaled back for this. Most of the humor relies on this sparse depiction of characters and background and too much detail would distract from the punchlines and biting satire. The art continues to be consistent with everything and everyone proportioned correctly and colored nicely. The art also isn’t overly simplistic, which would also distract from the story and one liners and running gags. I think the humor suits the comics medium, though if they ever made a cartoon out of it with voices and sound, it could also be very interesting. But as far as I know there are no plans to adapt this work yet but I could picture this art, this type of humor and these types of characters on the small screen, perhaps on Adult Swim or something like it.
Continued belowOnce again in this batch of episodes we are given more character development than I thought possible in such a short story cartoon panel format. Although the panels are gag driven and meant to stand alone by themselves, they do endear the reader to sympathize with them, even the capricious alcoholic God. We’ve all known a lovable drunk narcissist like him so I think that’s what make him relatable as a character. Just like when Greek and Roman and Norse mythology anthropomorphized their Gods and gave them human characteristics and flaws, so does Adventures of God do this for the monotheistic Christian God. This anthropomorphism is a great technique to humanize a being and make him less scary, and ultimately more real if that’s your thing.
Do You Believe in Magic?
Pages: Episodes 1-3
Schedule: Unlisted
Written and Illustrated by Javi Khoso
Colored by Namerahkhan
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
“Do You Believe in Magic?” is a reworking of a previous series Javi Khoso did, which I reviewed early on in this column’s history. The original strip was a standard teen romance that felt like it had the makings of a CW series in the best way. Circumstances changed however and Javi was more interested in a fan art AU of her main character Pepper as a witch. After about a year off “Do You Believe in Magic?” is the result. It’s still a teen romance strip, but now with a hefty dose of Sabrina the Teenage Witch energy. Technically speaking Pepper is 21.
Outside of the genre aesthetic changes, the biggest change is the art. In the previous strip I was very impressed by their use of color to evoke a California Dreamin’ experience, one of perpetual golden hour but infused with soft 80s pastels. It was like Douglas Sirk met a millennial. This was further complicated by fantastic environmental design; it was honestly maybe a little over done but it fit the excessive mode of the strip in general. That is all pretty much gone in this new series. Coloring is handled by Namerahkhan, which is largely flats for the figures and pastel backgrounds. Javi’s sharp line work is replaced with a sketchy pencil and those over-designed environments are all gone. The strip is better for it.
There are some clear technical flaws, one of the images that make up the strip in the second episode has a noticeable gap, but overall the sketchy styling has a good deal more energy and sense of momentum. The storytelling isn’t subtle, it’s a teen melodrama with fish out of water gags about the mundanity of human existence, but it is executed well. The images tell you what you need to know. The lettering does read as slightly disconnected in spots, but that also fits the roughed out sketchy quality to the strip.
“Do You Believe in Magic?” isn’t anything profound or new, but there is a rawness to the art that was effective. It’s like seeing someone make something in near real time. It’s a little messy but that’s part of the charm. It reminds me why I found them on social media after reading their first series.
Dr. Frost
‘A Solar Eclipse Between Two People’ (7) – (Case Closed)
Updates: Saturdays
By Jongbeom Lee
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
TW: Suicide
‘A Solar Eclipse Between Two People’ concludes with no easy answers. It ends tragically, as we always knew it would, but the contours of that tragedy are vastly different from what I expected. In fact, even after the death of Seol, there remained surprises that shocked and horrified. It’s telling that we open this section of the arc on Seonga & Professor Chun conversing rather than on the story in the past. We must check in with the present to see how it is molded by the past and this is one of those moments where Lee gets ahead of our questions, seeding the ending more effectively.
I had assumed, as Seonga does, that it was Seol’s suicide attempt here and thus the breakdown of the counseling which caused the rift between Seon & Frost but that was not the case. Neither is it Seol & Frost subsequently growing closer as counseling continues, as Frost learns to open up a little more and learns how to work with people rather than calculated textbook examples.
Continued belowIt isn’t even Seol’s death by suicide, which is a particularly harrowing chapter without being even the slightest bit graphic. That moment drives Seon & Frost closer together as Seon finds comfort in Frost, who tried so hard to help Seol and had even cracked the root of her obsessions, which itself was an excellent reveal. Lee actually laid the groundwork for this reveal, that Seon is Seol’s object of obsession, in earlier arcs via how they played out and then repeated some of the same tells here. If you figured it out earlier, you get to feel accomplished and triumphant all while Lee sets up ticking clock after ticking clock, getting ready to tear you to precise pieces.
Seol’s death is an accident. It is the result of a confluence of unfortunate events, none of which could have been avoided by the players within, at least not without the benefit of hindsight. How was Frost to know Seol would arrive just as Seon had her own breakthrough? How should Seol have known to stay to hear the rest or to confront Seon? How could they have known this would have sent Seol back when their phones were confiscated? And yet, Frost is to blame to some extent. He did not think about how confronting Seon at a party he knew Seol was coming to could play out. He did not wonder where she was, as she was his patient and he had only just cracked the way to long-term stability.
He did not seem to consider Seol as a person external to him but rather a means to better himself. This point is why Seon hates him. Why she blames him for her death, despite it being a horrible confluence of events. It’s possible what he said was not meant to be as callous as it came off but that’s no excuse when lives are potentially on the line. It is his reaction that matters; it matters how he sees this ending. Everyone makes mistakes when they first start, and I love how this series fully acknowledges the messiness of starting out, especially in a field where honest mistakes and quirks of fate can be harmful or deadly. It’s tragic without letting Frost off the hook. That is an excellent complication to have this far in.
Everything is Fine
Episodes 1-9
Updates: Mondays
By Mike Berchall
Reviewed by Mel Lake
With a title like “Everything is Fine,” you know going in that things are most definitely not going to be fine. That’s a given. Then when you see that the people in “Everything is Fine” have huge bobble-heads that look like a Sanrio character tacked onto a human body, you might be forgiven for thinking that maybe things could be fine. But then you start to think, how do they eat with those little cartoon mouths? And by that point, things are clearly not fine.
Other than the heads (and the mysteriously absent pet dog), everything seems to be intensely normal for Sam and Maggie, the couple who live in neighborhood 147-D. Sam goes to work every day and Maggie fixes his lunch. She seems to be a disaffected, depressed housewife. Perfectly normal. Except for little details that stand out like sore thumbs, like the fact that food in the supermarket is alphabetized or the ominous warnings Sam gives her to “forget.” When Sam and Maggie are invited to dinner with their neighbors, they’re asked to essentially give another neighbor up to the state surveillance. Maggie is pressured to believe at every turn that everything is fine. But other than strange hints and a flashing red eye in the middle of their weird bobbleheads, the audience doesn’t know any more than she does what dangers lurk outside the house or in their neighbor Charlie’s basement.
Aggressive normcore is the dominant style of “Everything is Fine,” which serves to lure you into complacency, thinking all is well in this strange version of suburbia. The art almost looks like it could’ve been drawn by someone very talented at using MS Paint, with simplistic, boxy lines. This works because it means the page isn’t ever cluttered and the strange details stand out, like when a character’s eye flashes red or when Charlie is shown only buying tin foil at the store.
If you liked Happy Tree Friends, this type of happy imagery subverted by creepy, stilted dialogue and vague hints at violence will likely have the same appeal. As I type this, I’ve come to find out that Happy Tree Friends is still around, so clearly there’s still an audience for this type of horror-lite content. Even WandaVision capitalized on the idea of using happy television tropes to mask an undercurrent of suffering. Whatever lurks at the heart of this series is still unclear, though. And I’m hoping we’ll get some more explanation soon because otherwise, the vague hints at underlying creepiness might not be enough to sustain the reader’s attention without some focus on the actual creepy goings-on.
