The Webcomics Weekly #128: Strongest Florist There Is! (3/16/21 Edition)

Welcome back to the Webcomics Weekly. This week Elias takes a look at “The Strongest Florist” which isn’t about the Mortal Kombat of gardening but living your second life in a video game away from disappointed Dad. Meanwhile Michael reaches a key point in “Lavender Jack” as Detective Ferrier gets to say One More Thing and have her Poirot moment and reveal the readers what it is that drives Sir Mimley.

Jaeho just wants to open a flower shop. That’s his entire motivation in life but his fearsome demeanor combined with a physique honed by his stubborn, demanding, and disapproving father stands in the way of his ultimate goal. Enter: New World, a brand new Matrix-like VR “Second Life.” In this immersive game, Jaeho, now Althea, can finally live out his dream…if he can survive the most hostile starting environment, Luxy Forest, home of the Elves.

If the set up sounds like another slight twist on the “MMO fantasy comic,” that’s because it is, but don’t let that fact dissuade you from giving Jaeho’s quest to become the ultimate Florist in New World a chance. Hyun Hoo Joo & Kumata are here to bring the laughs, with the opportunities to get serious at any moment. The mismatch between Jaeho’s appearance and his demeanor is a tried and true formula for laughs, especially when that demeanor is as single minded as it is here. Much like how Goku literally only lived to fight, Jaeho lives to be a florist, no matter what his father and his MMA training may say, and watching him bumble into increased skills & a heretofore unheard of quest through sheer stubbornness and floral love is hilarious.

I’m not in love with Hoo Joo’s art as the linework can be a ill-defined when depicting whole body shots and while the breaking of the models works for the comedic potential, there are plenty of panels where the wrinkles on clothes or creases at joints make body parts look like they’re flattened cardboard cutout versions of what they should be. Also, the story has yet to move out from being a collection of endearing moments and sudden gutbusters encased in the usual tropes and plot beats to something with more character depth and long-term potential.

So, I’m not ready to recommend “The Strongest Florist” wholeheartedly but there is enough here to make me want to keep reading. Jaeho’s earnestness is infectious and May, who seems to be our secondary protagonist, is just now getting more panel time and I can’t wait for these two goofballs to meet up. Maybe things will turn around after 20 or so more chapters or maybe it’ll remain a fun and solid example of the genre. Either way, I’m ready to find out just what it takes to be “The Strongest Florist.”

Schkade has a lot of fun playing with audience expectation in this batch of issues. When we last left off Detective Ferrier and Crabb had Mimley and Ducky at gun point. So where does the next strip begin? In the past, ten years ago, on a relaxing rowboat with Mimley and Gio Sakakibara, happier times. Schkade does a similar switch in at the start of episode 32 as well, although that time with the Hawthorne’s is more plot relevant than emotionally enlightening. These switch ups do help to heighten the tension but also get in the way of the thing he has been teasing from the start: Detective Ferrier getting her Poirot moment. The moment where she exposes all of Sir Mimley’s secrets, minus some fierce interruption by Ducky. Given the level of content in this One More Thing™ spreading it out across three episodes and using it as a base to build the strips around was the right call. One of the things Schkade has been rather good at in the past 15 or so strips is using cross cutting to create the feeling of everything happening simultaneously and inevitably headed towards some explosive confrontation.

Ferrier’s story is one of class and capitalism (aren’t they all?), but it’s also one about relationships. The way friendships can help make people better. That’s what Mimley, Gio, and Agatha had, three friends who were going to change the world. Though they were more than friends with the level of blushing and gazing Schkade draws between Gio and Mimley. It’s unclear if they were a polyamorist thruple or just friends, but Mimley and Gio were in love – Mimley attests to that fact in a later episode.

Schkade is at his most comic booky during this Ferrier-Mimley narrative moment. Panel compositions are no longer routed in recreating reality, but graphic images meant to hold a certain meaning. The panel borders begin to mimic early twentieth century picture frames. The decision to replace gutter space with pure black helps to lessen the friction between past and present as well.

Of course, this story has a bad ending and we finally see what it was that sent Mimley on his years long journey into booze and vapidity.

Episodes 31-34 of “Lavender Jack” do what you’d expect them to do, but it’s not a matter of expectations but how they do it. Schkade does this story justice, giving Ferrier her moment to shine and reveals more to what it is that drives Mimley.