The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life! We’re not dead and we are certainly not gone. Much like this comic by Rebeca Schaffer and Mioko_san, a sensitive webcomic about hauntings and ghost.
Dead But Not gone
Chapter 1-12
Updates Thursdays
Written by Rebecca Schaeffer, art by Mioko_san
Reviewed by Mel Lake
A sensitive kid moves into a house where a kid his age died. He thinks he sees an apparition in the window, and after a near-death experience, finds that he can see ghosts. He doesn’t want to believe in them, but has no choice when they start to invade his everyday life. No, it’s not The Sixth Sense. Well, not just that movie, anyway. It’s also the plot of “Dead But Not Gone” on Webtoon. Although it doesn’t break any new ground, plot-wise, it wields its ghostly tropes well and features likable character designs.
Brian, a kid drawn with an enviable mop of fluffy manga hair, moves into a new house that is suspiciously nicer than any of his previous ones. His dad casually drops the news that it’s rumored to be haunted. Brian’s dad, an incredibly cheerful con artist, doesn’t seem fazed—by anything. Having a con artist dad seems kinda fun to me, but Brian finds it to be a drag, since he has to move around a lot. After a series of strange incidents that mostly involve his game console being played by a certain invisible someone, Brian falls down the stairs and almost dies. He wakes in the hospital and his encounters there convince him that ghosts are real. Back home, he meets Cam, the lonely ghost who tries to be friendly but can’t stop freaking Brian out.
I love ghost stories and have even written a few of my own. But just having a ghost element isn’t really enough to keep me reading. The ambiguity behind Cam’s actions and the artstyle helped keep me interested in this one. “Dead But Not Gone” has a familiar webcomic style, with fluffy-haired main characters differentiated by their main color palettes. (Brian is golden-haired and surrounded by warm colors. Cam has dark hair and is surrounded by a cool, ghostly blue cloud.) Their faces are expressive and remind me of manga series that may be rated “T,” but definitely contain some darker themes. The backgrounds are simple but clear and consistently drawn, and the comic checks all the usual “is this understandable/readable” boxes. Beyond that, I just found myself really liking the character designs. They appealed to me and made me want to connect with the characters.
This story isn’t nearly as chilling as, say, a Guillermo Del Toro movie, but it’s not as quite as tame as Casper. Though the art style may be fluffy, there are chilling moments. If you like light ghost stories that are occasionally spooky but not outright scary, “Dead But Not Gone” may appeal. In the same way that the BBC television show Ghosts (and its American adaptation) is more about the ghosts and humans forming a family in an old haunted mansion, this story is about Brian and Cam’s emotional difficulties. Brian longs for friends, having moved around constantly due to his father’s inability to keep a job. And Cam’s parents are both implied to have been distant and uncaring, possibly even to the point of being involved in his death.
These are the forces driving both characters, and shows why this story has the potential to be a moving one. (Or a terrifying one! I’m honestly not sure at this point. I like that, but readers who want to be on more firm footing in terms of tone and genre might find it difficult.) There’s just enough ambiguity around Cam’s ghostly motivations that I found myself intrigued and wanting to know more. Is he really a sinister presence? Or is he just a lonely boy? Either way the story develops, it could be a fun ride.
