The Webcomics Weekly #82: Running Out of Home Puns (4/14/2020 Edition)

Remember when this space was used to make allusions to and fun of our march to #100? What would happen, would there be a reboot? etc. Man that feels like a while ago – it wasn’t. But Webcomics continue to come out and we continue to read them in between figuring out new at home mini golf course designs.

We are officially on the second volume of “Agents of the Realm.” This raises some interesting questions on what to start this batch of “Agents.” Like how do you start it? By the start of the second volume “Agents” had been around for a good while up to this point, there was a successful Kickstarter by Louis to print the first volume. Do you start the second volume with something of a nice recap that states what “Agents” is for potential new readers? That would be the kind of move you would find in more traditionally distributed physical comics, it’s the truth at the center of the adage that “every comic is somebodys first comic.” However that thinking is derived from an inability of new readers to immediately get back issues to catch them up on the growing serialization of superhero comics. Webcomics do not have that sort of issue with archival access, the archive is mere clicks away. This is why the opening 10 pages are not meant to gain new readers, while it picks up a week from the end of the first volume the opening pages are centered on a couple we didn’t know existed until the end of the previous volume. The drama of the pages, the alarm going off and Jade’s “employee” review, are all based on stuff from the previous volume not something new for the start of the volume.

I don’t often comment on the chapter cover pages but the one for Chapter 6 is a very nice image of the sisters Blackwater in a series of mirrored images that represent their broken relationship. It nicely sets up what this chapter is going to focus on. We get to spend some more time with Jade outside of the holo projector as it is her birthday! Things are looking like a nice fun day. Her girlfriend brought her breakfast in bed and made an adorable comment about how they eat. And then the job intervenes. I’m still not entirely sure what it is they do, but there is a kind of rote montonoy to it that is expressed in these pages as Sahar  laments the timing of it all. All the visual indicators are of tense urgency but Sahar reacts with boredom and a hint of disdain.

It should be Jade’s day off or at least something more relaxing, unlike Sahar she is ready to go and like a football coach after a game go over what the Agents did wrong at the costume party. Her Agents are not really in the mood for it. Louis page design for this meeting is really smart. Her character acting for the agents sets it up so that when you get to page 272 with all the overdone visual design with the speed lines, cartooned reactions, and over the top dialog you get this jolt that lands Paige not having any of this keyboard quarterbacking.

This is an interesting way to start a new volume of “Agents.” It isn’t easy in to understand what the series is about and the characters. It is hyper serialized storytelling that leans on the ease of access to allow this decision to be made.

Damn, it seems like Chapter 2 spends more time on a singular cast for multiple pages then Chapter 1. Is that bad? Hell no. But, trying to split these pages up cleanly is difficult. Nonetheless, let’s see what Chandra is up too!

During the first few pages alone Chandra continues to be one damn interesting character. On page 22 this is due to how Merriman draws her frustration in such a manner many readers can relate to. But, when we are introduced to what seems like two helper Robots we learn more of her personality. A personality and attitude I find hard not to enjoy. Then we are introduced to Ajupris’ aid, Muriel, who I like as well. Honestly, Merriman writes some pretty damn good/cool characters that each have their own personalities. It helps Muriel has a weird but awesome animal that follows her around.

Once Merriman brings Ajupris back into the picture, she is still kind of hard to read. It seems she does care about her niece, but she has a hardcore way of showing it. With this taking a few months after they acquired the planet Reed inhabits, they are now working on it. Yet, there is a substance named “goop” that can easily kill you. Ajupris brings this up to Chandra in a horrifying manner that scares her. I mean, it would honestly scare just about anyone.

We end this update in a very cliffhanger way as Ajupris explains the organization known as A.I.D.E. who we’ve talked about before. Merriman has a great way of teasing stuff for the future and per usual it continues to show. As much as the rest of Chapter 2’s story elements brought Reed’s future into play, so does these pages but for Chandra. It seems Chapter 2 is really pushing the narrative further while foreshadowing a lot more. I’m all for it!

Much like the rest of the series, Merriman’s art is fantastic.

Nevertheless, one element stands out most in these pages; Merriman’s use of emotions. She is able to portray a vast range of emotions in her characters. Yet, by changing the background or panels she is able to amplify said emotions. This can be seen in the pink playful background when Ajupris comes into the story. But even more so on the first page where she makes Chandra’s frustration show with rectangle panels and specific coloring.

But alas, now we have to wait two weeks to finish Chandra’s side. Nevertheless, I am overly excited as these 8 pages were great while showing where it may be headed.

I try to look for comics not on Webtoons. It’s not that Webtoons is bad but when everything becomes centralized, the magic of the decentralized web of recommendations that built the webcomics community is lost. Yes, it’s a romanticized notion of the past and yes, I probably have a quarter of an essay on the topic drafted and yes, Tapas is another version of centralized aggregation but my point stands. Sometimes you just can’t find a diamond in the rough like “Portal Pool”there. . .or maybe you can and I’m just not looking hard enough. Regardless, “Portal Pool” is the kind of comic I hope to see flourish, even if it takes a good while to get there.

As it stands, “Portal Pool” is clearly an experiment by a new artist. The art styles are inconsistent, the releases are few and far between, meaning the story has yet to progress in any meaningful way, and there are moments when the dialog doesn’t read as natural, dumping info on us before making the emotional connections stick. Cixx makes many mentions in their author’s comments about this, in the grand tradition of dialog most webcomics creators have with the unknown audience. Without these clarifications and the humanity of the creator on display, it would be harder to forgive these kinds of issues in a work.

However, the art itself is boisterous and highly endearing, the story has a good mix of intrigue and humor, and the constant shifting of styles somehow makes the comic work more, not less. The lack of polish in some panels and higher levels in others, compare page 4 to page 8, highlights the dynamic range of Cixx’s art as well as their eye for when to purposefully simplify for effect and when not to, even if in between there are the fluctuations of an artist trying to find themselves. I also laughed a lot while reading “Portal Pool.” Like, a lot. It’s silly in the best ways and the main character Severi is a wonderful gremlin child.

There’s a wild abandon to the comic, outside of its slightly heavier prologue, channeling the spirit of the common webcomic, ones that don’t quite know what they’re doing but forge ahead anyway, growing as they go, as any good artistic endeavor does.

It has been a recurring habit to return to “Ryan Made Mistakes” for this column. I say this not for the personal link, but to explain to readers that this strip evolves with time, not only for the themes it presents, but how it connects over a longer duration with its audience. Similar to Wonder Years, the sense of familiarity with the cast of characters plays heavily into how much one can appreciate this strip.

Ryan is growing. As he heads into elementary school, readers are taken on this chapter to a literal trip: those of Ryan’s accidental adventures with his family, as his clueless father and never wavering mother do their best to keep the entire family of five entertained.

The art changed somewhat on this chapter. Not that it became unrecognisable, far from it, but it does feel more rounded and just a tad less cartoony. If intentional or not remais unanswered, but it does add to that sensation of growing up and maturing.

“Ryan Made Mistakes” remains a very light-hearted and amusing strip, and yet it manages to infuse a sense of change, of evolving that is often amiss on stories of this nature.

The second half of ‘Rules of the Game’ isn’t as strong as the first, which is a first this series. In order to tie everything together and set up the next book, Randall has to do a lot of narrative justifying through events happening off panel. Mercy gets her man, or so she thinks. It turns out her partner does double cross her and she is right back where she started. That sort of treadmill like progression makes sense for the form. Just none of what we see was all that spectacular or novel.

I wonder if Randall just has spare pages of Mercy fighting it out in the tunnels beneath the city laying around. We are four issues into the series and he’s gone to that play book two or three times. Technically this latest shoot out is well done. I almost don’t mind it because it keeps those infrared goggles in use and is a visual reference to the mutants of “The Dark Knight Returns.” The frequency I see it used, due to reading this series in weekly batches as opposed to monthly increments,  feels over exposed. That sort of banality is nice because it reinforces the futility of Mercy’s actions. As a whole why everything happens makes sense, it just didn’t quite sit well and the ending isn’t supposed to sit well. The protagonist win in the end they fail.

I’m curious if I go back and revisit ‘Rules of the Game’ in a few months how I would feel. My reaction to this particular story is highly informed by the re-serialization as a webcomic. Webcomics with big archives are consumed without the gap that this series was originally produced with. Closing that gap means certain storytelling ticks become more pronounced, it also means that unsatisfying feelings could be short lived book 05 “The Janus Voyage” is a few clicks away and begins next week.