The Webcomics Weekly #184: The Webcomics Letter of the Week is ‘L’ (5/3/2022 Edition)

The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life. In the vast, infinite, ever expanding, ocean of webcomics somehow our intrepid webcomic wranglers all chose series beginning with the letter ‘L’. It’s the “Little Things” as it turns out. The small moments that slowly gather mass and become big ones as seen in this batch of “Lavender Jack” as well as in this batch of “Lore Olympus”.

The history of the Nightjar is revealed along with more of the origin of Theresa Ferrier.

Schkade pulls an interesting trick in this batch of episodes, returning to the use of narration boxes via the journal of Captain Oscar Berrada. Berrada becomes our window to the past as the old veteran of war and law looks back on how his student has moved past them. It’s interesting in that it provides a different perspective on Ferrier, who when written about from this point of view is given that Sherlock Holmes mythic presentation. There is a similar kind of gloss to Berrada’s scribbling but the distance between them and her is significantly lessened; it points towards how myths and celebrity get made.

What starts out as, yet another case becomes the foundational case for not all of “Lavender Jack” but the explainer to the history between Ferrier, Endo Gall, and the mysterious Nightjar. In the inter-war period, which never really stopped in this universe, there was a small city state that was rich in minerals. But that state’s administration was not ready to be welcomed into the hegemony of Gallery and their allies. And so, the assassins come into play and one of the original sins of Endo Gall is revealed. Schakade’s cartooning and character acting come through in this batch of strips as they have to create the idea of a person in very little space. The young Nightjar has only one significant speaking scene but the way he draws her in all the other moments do more to humanize and explain her inner self than one well done scene with Ferrier.

Formally there isn’t all that “new” about this batch of strips, they are just simply supremely well composed. I supposed the minor Agatha Christie play that takes place in these three strips is novel and well done. These three strips form an engaging and complete narrative that you could give to someone to entice them to read this strip and none of the larger stuff would be spoiled. The craftsmanship would come through. It also creates the byproduct of making me want a Young Theresa Ferrier spin off.

And with that we’re on break until “Lavender Jack” comes back. Time to find a new strip to dig into for a while.

Back at the start of the year, I said that “Little Tiny Things” was on my must-read list each week. Well, I’m glad to report that half a year later there it remains! Each new page of “LTT” is a true treat, packed to the brim with charm, the intrigue of a small town, and all the depth of character one would hope for from a character-centric drama. I love Emile. I love Pia. I love Noëlle. I even love the angry, potentially-but-probably-not-a-vampire lady we just met. In fact, I don’t think there’s a single character I don’t like or want to see more of.

Clover’s artwork continues to impress and I cannot sing its praises enough. Everyone is so malleable, like they’re made of rubber, allowing for their emotions to stretch and squash and be molded into the way they feel rather than how they would look on a photo-realistic person. Emile gets these the most, as he seems to talk with his whole body, his hair flopping with each movement, but the first panel on page 55 and all of page 58 is a treasure trove of Pia. And the tiny little ladybug that’s slurping up their tears! So cute, and the exact beat needed. A little light, a little melancholic, and a way to get Pia’s mind of whatever (or whoever) has upset them.

I don’t know why but black and white comics tend to evoke a feeling of timelessness, and quiet contemplation, better than color comics. Maybe because it’s an abstraction of the world or calls back to a time when making color representations of it were fewer and farther between. Maybe it’s because greys are somber, reminiscent of a cloudy day. Or maybe it’s because there’s less vying for our attention, so the people are foregrounded and their emotions, problems, lives are what we are asked to care about.

And lives are hard. But they’re also joyous. Clover reminds us of this not only through their characters and the story of “Little Tiny Things” but also through injecting a light splash of red or yellow, reminding us that even when everything seems grey, there are still elements that shine through and bring a bit of color to a drab world.

Apollo just can’t seem to leave Persephone alone. His stalker behavior continues and results in a standoff between him and Hades that leaves Persephone shaking with rage but unable to do anything except steal his Lyre and break it while her hair grows and turns red. (This is supposed to be menacing but Persephone is such a harmless cinnamon roll of a character, she doesn’t really seem able to do much damage. At least not right now, anyway.)

Meanwhile, the endless drama between Hera and Zeus results in the appearance of Ares, who also shows up to pester Persephone when she gets angry at Hades for torturing the paparazzo who photographed them together. There are so many characters in “Lore Olympus” (rightfully so, since this is Greek mythology) that I honestly can’t remember if Ares has appeared before. He badgers Persephone in such a condescendingly awful way that their interaction was hard to read but it appears that may be his thing? To show up and pester people until they want war? It’s unclear but I’m hopeful that the simmering fury underneath Persephone’s interactions with Apollo will lead to some interesting action. Although “Lore Olympus” is a romance, the source material its adapting contains so much violence that it wouldn’t be strange at all for it to include an action scene or two.

This batch of episodes carries the plot forward quickly, such that it’s hard to talk about them in a way that isn’t just summarizing plot point after plot point. “Lore Olympus” at times feels like it moves at a glacial pace when it comes to the romantic tension between Hades and Persephone, but the pieces do keep moving swiftly about the chessboard. There are just so many of them that it’s hard to keep track sometimes.

(One character I always love to see pop up is Poseidon. Here, he shows up to cart Apollo off at the behest of one brother and then shows up to make pancakes in the form of a kitty cat when requested by another brother. He’s a big green goofball and one of my favorite characters, perhaps because he is, thus far, uncomplicated and uninvolved.)

As Persephone has started embracing some of her inner rage, her character design seems to shift with her mood as well. Her eyes turning to red and her hair changing colors are obvious signs that something is happening but at times the whole shape of her body shifts in a way that makes her face look rather odd. It’s a definite visual shift from the candy-colored princess Persephone we’ve known for eighty episodes but I’m sometimes not sure if the changes are intentional or if this new style will last.