The Webcomics Weekly #40: Things Get Weird … er (6/18/19 Edition)

Welcome back, The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life. This week we things get magical in “Agents of the Realm.” Robert Plesant wraps up “Order of the Stick.” “Fantome Stein” asks “What if Frankenstein lived to become the Phantom in Gaston Leroux’s novel?” Things just get weird in “Sam and Fuzzy,” like, it was always weird but things are turned up a notch. We also have “Crumbs” a strip about a bakery and how just nice that is.

Agents of the Realm
Pages 23-33 (Ch. 1)
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays
By Mildred Louis
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane

Things really beginning to become magical, which sounds like a good thing. “Magical,” it conjures up feelings of whimsy and the fantastical, positive reactions. Norah’s reaction to this magical experience, being chased by a fantastical bear, is decidedly less positive; more on the frightened, how does this keep happening to me side of things.

How this whole magical sequence occurs is very satisfying structurally by Mildred Louis. It is a third repetition of the fantastic invading normal, banal, space and this time it can not be denied like Prof. Blackwater’s aura, and the amulet, great big Bear Spirits have a way of doing that. We pick up where we left off as Norah continues to feel worn down by her college experience, beating herself up over a failure to say “here” properly. Louis repeats the same page design in this two page sequence which builds a nice sense of security and sets up the surveillance aspect without the reader realizing it. She does an excellent job of subtly shifting Norah’s eyes to show her working through exhaustion into a perturbed awareness at whatever it is in the bushes. We are just over 30 pages in an Louis has done an excellent job of dramatizing Norah’s character efficiently without it feeling shallow.

Doing her best to survive college turns into doing her best to survive period as the Bear Spirit leaps from the bushes and a chase ensues, our first real action sequences in the series. The page design for this chase sequence isn’t super stylish but it is effective, a series of horizontal panels showing Norah and the Bear in action. A sense that is increased due to the use of both action lines, interestingly and helping give it an otherworldly feel the bear lacks them, and an ever increasing font size for progression of “shit” muttered running for her life. This batch of pages does an excellent job of using comics as a medium to tell the story.

Out of reach of the Bear, things take a real weird turn. There are TWO Miss Blackwater! As well as more amulets and an adorable drone bot. Louis lettering skills shine in this quasi-phone conversation between Norah and Blackwater II, as the latter tries to walk Norah through this whole mess and could really use some instructions. Louis has shown skill at drawing exasperated expressions but in the context of the writing/lettering everything plays like comedic gold.

It’s do or die and we get our first magical girl transformation page. I’ll be honest despite having history with the genre I haven’t really read many manga versions. Which is why I find the single page transformation to be such an excellent adaptation. In anime it’s a slow, limb by limb, transformations as everything gets wrapped up bright lights and up beat music blares. Louis follows a similarly vivisecting routine giving each limb a panel forming and archway that frames the full pin up reveal. This is a big moment and one that is landed beautifully and should provide a nice template for future transformations.

The webtoon “Crumbs” tells the story of a young woman named Ray, who has the habit of visiting a bakery every week. And despite such a simple, singular premise, it is amazing how it can provoke sensations and emotions, given its beautiful art and its keen sense of pacing.

“Crumbs” is not worried to be fast-paced, or epic in scale. It is not concerned either in quick world building, even if some of this world’s logic is fantastic (if barely). Instead, it is laser focused on its small cast of characters as they go on their day-to-day lives, especially lead Ray.

Under the webtoon format, series creator and artist Witherling has managed to time each panel and page to the experience of its audience which, combined with its attractive art, awakes sensations for readers. If Ray is smelling a freshly baked muffin or toast, the audience will experience something similar, and that synesthetic combination is powerful and unusual to be found on printed or digital pages.

Unto the art style itself, it looks as if Whitherling is drawing with saturated crayons, with a line work that is thicker than usual, and colors leaning to a pastel and water-shaded look. Again, it mashes really well with the story being told, and the feeling of warmth and familiarity is a welcomed one.

Perhaps the best compliment to be given is how quickly “Crumbs” makes readers care about these characters. They are not going through any immediate crisis, nor facing any prominent danger. They are just living their lives, with their gradually-revealing backstories. And yet, one cannot hope but to enter their lives, and feel whatever they are feeling. Outstandingly done.

I am, as one would say, a fucking mark for this kind of story. Gothic lit, specifically Phantom and Frankenstein, and all the tragedy contained therein is the genre with which I love to be immersed. Woefully underrepresented today, perhaps because brightly colored but tonally dark fantasy has become the lay of the land over in the print comic sector, it’s nice to see that the breadth of subjects in webcomics remains intact.

Posited as “What if Frankenstein lived to become the Phantom in Gaston Leroux’s novel?” “Fantome Stein” captures the essence of those novels and distills it into a narrative that reimagines the whole, although mostly the latter half, of Leroux’s novel. What I find most interesting about this, aside from the deeper and more centrally characterized Christine, is how that one simple change recontextualizes Erik (The Phantom.) He is lonely, yes, but not only because the world has rejected him for his looks, but because he is not truly alive. He lives with the burden of all that he once did and was broken because of it, his desire for companionship twisted into a desire to control.

But the bitterness and anger is less present in this interpretation. He, instead, seems lost, scrambling to construct something out of the world before it crumbles between his fingers, which makes him, and the plight of Christine and Raoul, all the more human and thus, all the more tragic. This is a story, however, that benefits from knowledge of those two novels, as there are many details that go unmentioned but are required to glean the full meaning of character’s dialog and motivations. It’s also possible that my close reading skills have become rusty and so I am missing some of the subtext.

In terms of visuals, Duke’s page layouts are simply gorgeous, flowing from panel to panel like an underwater dance. The scratchy nature of the linework and the soft colors aid the feeling that we’re watching something from a bygone age while the fluid motions of the characters bring it all to life. The biggest complaint that can be lodged is that this is a slow story, and thus the opaque dialogue, while pretty, can be a hindrance when read page by page, and that this also, in turn, harms the depth of exploration that is given to the side characters. These last few pages in particular I realized that we know very little about the other members of the opera and so it’s hard to get a bead on what any of the actions taken mean for the narrative as a whole. Also, and this seems to be a result of the new website, the most recent page seems washed out, as if the file was uploaded in a more compressed form than intended.

I fully expect, however, that soon the pace will quicken and the tone will darken, as Raoul’s mysteries begin to surface, Christine angles to escape Erik, and Erik begins his final descent into, possibly, once again, becoming the monster everyone believes him to be.

Order of the Stick
Pages 106-120
Updates: Varies
By Rich Burlew
Reviewed by Robbie Pleasant
It’s the end of an arc, which means I’ll cover a few extra strips to get through this final battle and all that comes after!

We’ve seen both heroes and villains plot and plan in the pages leading up to the showdown, so this is where everything comes together or gets interrupted. There’s plenty of back and forth on both sides – the party nearly falls for Xykon’s tricks (he rolled a pretty high bluff check, even by saying “wink wink”), while a loose end foils Roy’s plans for slaying Xykon with an enchanted sword.

Throughout the battle, everything plays out in a way that’s true to the characters as we know them. For instance, Belkar hasn’t suddenly learned a lesson about teamwork, so he goes off to gank a goblin caster and gets his own party in trouble for it. Even on the villain end, we still get Xykon’s casual apathy to the suffering of his own troops.

We also get one of the best “But for me it was Thursday” moments in all of webcomics. Roy steps up to claim his revenge against Xykon, and the lich has no idea who he is or why he wants revenge. It’s not like Xykon remembers every wizard he slew whose apprentice wants revenge, after all, and exactly how little Roy’s description narrows it down is pretty funny.

Then we also get more of a look at Roy’s own history, including his relation to his grandfather’s legacy, the family sword, and his own family issues. This culminates in a great, rage-filled way of defeating Xykon… for now.

As any DM will tell you, a lich makes for a great recurring foe because they’re so hard to kill. So even though this arc is over, the threat Xykon presents is definitely not. It’s set up and executed well, bringing more foreshadowing for the next arc.

But of course, Order of the Stick is known for its genre awareness, including dramatic exits. The base needs to explode because it would look cool, right? So Elan not only hits the self-destruct button (to the dismay of his less genre-aware companions) but waits until the exact last moment to jump away for maximum coolness in the explosion. The webcomic just plays with genre awareness in such a fun way – it always gets the most out of it, and even in stick figure form the explosion looks fittingly epic.

The arc wraps up nicely, with a summary showing their successes contrasted with cuts to other scenes showing how none of the threats are done quite yet. In fact, we get ominous foreshadowing of a new, previously unseen character who’s clearly out to get them. It keeps readers interested in what’s coming next, and let me assure you, it’s well worth reading on for.

Sam and Fuzzy
Buyer Beware parts 1-20
Updates: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
By Sam Logan
Reviewed by Dexter Buschetelli

Badgers! Slugs that transform into a human blow-up doll! Dinosaurs who don’t have the reach to hand you a drink! The ‘Buyer Beware’ story arc from “Sam & Fuzzy” has it all.

Except, it doesn’t. ‘Buyer Beware’ is yet another of the flashback sequences from “Sam & Fuzzy” that works to explain his complicated past with the character of Hazel, a thief who taught Fuzzy in the ways of…well, thieving, and don’t yet know the reason for their falling out, leading to Fuzzy’s partnership with Sam in the N-M-S.

It is noticeable that in his interactions throughout the series with Sam–his longtime companion–and Dev–their new recruit–Fuzzy never really mentions Hazel. Their past has been alluded to, but it is implied that this is a painful part of Fuzzy’s new life he never really seems to speak of.

Clearly there were trust issues between the pair as Hazel’s former partner is mentioned here while Fuzzy listens in on a conversation between Hazel and Rexford, financial leader of The Underground. But creator Sam Logan chooses to drop these crumbs sporadically across this series, in a way that perhaps attempts too much to entice, and fails.

Rather than draw the reader in, the Hazel installments are laborious to read through, as the interactions are far less fun than those with Sam and Dev. While there are some amusing moments like a discussion of “The Ruxpin” maneuver, Fuzzy’s unintentional offending of some badgers, and an overbearing strip-club owner who is also a slug in her true form, much of this arc is a chore to read through. The backstory and world-building feels less like the usual zany adventures of the duo and more like discussions of intergalactic politics in the Star Wars prequels.

Hopefully the next few entries of ‘Buyer Beware’ pick up as Fuzzy is forced to flee and business-minded tyrannosaurus but for the time buying, “Sam & Fuzzy” is in a bit of a dead spot, story-wise.