The Webcomics Weekly #90: Continue Being Excellent to Each Other (6/9/2020 Edition)

This week the webcomics weekly has awards news and recomendations! As well as continuing coverage of “Agents of the Realm,” “Trekker,” and “The Otherknown,” with new coverage of “Chickenface,” and “Elephant Town.”

One of the main functions of this column, ideally, is to provide a space that recognizes and recommends comics to you the read. The internet is a big place and I would probably have never heard of or thought about a comic called “Chickenface,” but after reading Dexter’s review I kind of want to check it out. This week a couple of other good recommendations came out the 2020 Eisner nominations which Webcomics are a part of.

Best Webcomic
Cabramatta, by Matt Huynh, http://believermag.com/cabramatta/
Chuckwagon at the End of the World, by Erik Lundy, https://hollowlegcomics.tumblr.com/chuckwagon
The Eyes, by Javi de Castro, https://www.javidecastro.com/theeyes
Fried Rice Comic, by Erica Eng, https://friedricecomic.tumblr.com
reMIND, by Jason Brubaker, https://is.gd/T7rafM
Third Shift Society, by Meredith Moriarty, https://www.webtoons.com/en/supernatural/third-shift-society/list?title_no=1703

There is also a list put together by CBR for LGBTQ webcomics to read during Pride, we haven’t covered all the ones CBR listed but I’m happy to say we covered most of them at some point in the nearly 100 editions of the Webcomics Weekly.

It is funny how happenstance can make reading things hit in a different way. Like say reading “Judge Dredd: Origins” this week or this batch of pages for “Agents of the Realm” as I plow head first into finals week. The Agents talk about what they’re going to do over winter break hit me hard, also they’re on a semester system I’ve never been so envious of fictional characters in my life. That stuff aside this is a plainly good sequence by Louis that balances the layered dialog of a group conversation with the smart framing that highlights the necessary character acting that allows the transition to the phone call section feel natural, surprising, but not jarring.

Phone calls in comics can be easily created with paneling creating the rhythm of the conversation. The inclusion of sort of jagged word balloons to further differentiate who is coming over the phone is a nice touch. The content of it walks a good fine line between predictable, Jordan is still on the hook working with Ruby, and teasing out the potential for more beyond the obvious conflict of interest at play. It is a trick of the staging that makes this phone call sequence stand out as it turns out the Agents are eating right below Ruby’s office! Phone calls are a way to cut across space to tie to characters together here it takes an ironic twist as they’re all so close to one another. It makes me wonder about the size of the campus, however, it is an effective use of the trope. Their closeness helps to further the sense of tension and dread the slowly develops over Jordan as Ruby not so subtly threatens her.

Despite page budgets not being a factor in webcomics big splash pages or spreads have been a fairly rare occurrence. That rarity allows for the near full page pull out of Jordan breaking down to be effective. The reader is left with this sudden lack of page density and the single image of Jordan looking so small against the wall.

This phone call could be the source of a long simmering bit of drama for the reader that would likely make for dramatic reveal for everyone else at a bad moment. Or Jordan could just talk to Norah about it. This is just a good character moment the full conversation will come in the next batch of pages but it helps to show Norah’s character and how she is opening up more to her friends.

This week “Chickenface” gets a little sexy. I’ve been told by KJ that “This chapter is building up to something but I promise, there’s more crazy monsters on the way!” and after finishing the first chapter I am very excited about that prospect. For now, though, “Chickenface” is taking the time to be slow and tender. Or as tender as a flaming marshmallow in your crotch can be. I realize that’s a strange attempt at a metaphor but buckle up, kids, we’re going to the strip club!

That’s right, these installments reveal the backstory of our titular fowl pal’s mommy and daddy met on the job, he of some strange soul seeking endeavor and her of the…exotic persuasions. Chickenface’s dirty demon daddy dabbled in the strangest of strange, and seemingly fell in love. It’s a story for the ages.

As amusing as I find myself describing the plot that this chapter is leading us in to I’d like to take some time this week to discuss the art of “Chickenface.” KJ does a fantastic job of blending a light, cartoony style with straight-up body horror in a way that is incredibly pleasing to the eye. But these pages drop all of that for something truly very artistic.

I do find the first page to be a bit jarring for reasons I can’t quite place my finger on. Perhaps it is the amount of white space on the building. Murr’s previous entries were slathered with myriad shades of gray, whereas here zip-a-tones are used in between the whites and deep blacks, leaving a feeling of emptiness in the negative space. It could also be that the bouncer looks like Nathan from South Park and I was expecting him to yell “MIMSY!”

Regardless, it is pages 3, 4, and 5 that I really wanted to discuss. The dance sequence with CF’s madre is as gorgeous as it is salacious. KJ nails the figure of the character that keeps with the style of the title while also loosening up and allowing the lineart to be seductive. It is well choreographed and framed as she performs, look at the shot of her midriff as she walks away in the final panel.

Lighting is also used to great effect here. Murr’s use of white to illuminate in these pages feels vibrant and shimmery in the way it represents the fire from the marshmallows and how it bounces light off the character. These pages also utilize those grainy, textured gradient gray backgrounds that just make “Chickenface” pop in a way that you don’t consciously notice until you start to dissect it like in this type of review.

“Chickenface” truly reignites my fire, and melts my marshmallows, for webcomics and this column and I am anxious to continue this chapter but glad to be making it a slow burn.

Danielle Corsetto is back with a new webcomic, this time through her patreon. We interviewed her a couple years back, when she was still working on “Boo! It’s Sex,” which I covered about a year back. . .that’s kind of a horrifying thought. Anyway, “Elephant Town.” This is the first long-form, fiction comic Danielle has drawn since. . .well, since “Girls with Slingshots,” and it’s clear from these first few pages that these years have been a great boon.

The events of pages 12-15 aren’t particularly exciting in the abstract, with discussions of necessary curtain purchases and budgets or relationship tensions, taking up much of the pages; they’re everyday issues, with the occasional rarer detail like have 28(!) windows that have to be covered up because of the creepy neighbor. However, this mundanity makes the comic engaging, helped along by Corsetto’s ability to add a layer of humor to every scene. The characters are fun to watch play off each other, their conversations are meaningful and produce small tensions that will almost certainly build in the background, and the scene in these pages is nicely buttoned up with Kris trying to accomplish a simple task with a lamp but causing more mayhem by not having thought through her choices — an apt metaphor for what we’ve seen from her thus far.

While on the whole I dig Corsetto’s art, the colors on these pages are a little drab. It gets across the ancientness of the house, as well as the presence of night-time, but the solid colored maroon and brown backgrounds don’t hold a lot of life or depth to them and the foreground objects don’t seem to be lit in a noticeably different way from the much better lit bedroom. Her lettering, however, is top notch as always. Tillie Walden and her share an approach that mixes cursive and mixed case lettering that’s both warm and playful with the ability to shift into a colder tone by increasing the letter spacing. Considering Tillie is an Eisner nom for her lettering this year, I’d say that’s good company to be in.

What’s also really cool about “Elephant Town” is that it’s interactive for Patrons, mostly in the details, but that’s beside the point. The audience of a webcomic has always been an active and important part of the creation and experience of the work, and Corsetto is using her Patreon to add another layer to that direct feedback. Serialized narratives have the benefit of adjusting as they go based on feedback. What’s more direct than a conversation with the author as it’s being made and what’s more awesome than knowing you’ve made some small contribution to the path of the story?

Much like other updates in “The Otherknown” Chapter 2, pages 46-51 have a lot packed into them! So, without delay let’s jump in!

The six issues primarily focus around Demeck making his way to the mountain Ajupris’ team is working on. Yet, before we arrive with him, Merriman shows Ajupris learning that he is on his way. However, she has no idea how he learned about this, lucky for Chandra. Nonetheless, before she learns about his arrival, she sets her assistant, Muriel on a gift hunt for Chandra. This gift is to buy Judd’s contract so he and Reed can live with them. Honestly, I’ve been known to say that it seems Ajupris is a loving Aunt and that she is strict sometimes to Chandra, yet she really does love her. This small gesture greatly shows that this is true. Even though she may seem to be mean to Chandra, her niece is the world to hear. With just one gesture and a page, Merriman is able to show this.

Yet, one of my favorite parts out of these pages is how one of the workers react to Demeck. Per usual, Demeck isn’t the nicest person and oozes villain vibes. I guess the worker senses this (it helps Demeck talks shit about him) and constantly hopes they don’t die. This is funny as it reminds me of a lot of movies and media when the villain kills random people for being “stupid.”

It’s something I mention quite often with “The Otherknown” and I’ll keep mentioning it every time I see it, but Merriman is fantastic with lighting. Anytime there is a lighting effect from the outdoors, lights, or monitors, she knocks it out of the park. Honestly, a lot of people could learn a lot from her lighting abilities. Nonetheless, that isn’t the only place she excels, as her colors are phenomenal as well. The moment that this shines through is the page Ajupris finds out about Demeck’s arrival. At first, she is calm talking about a gift with a calming blue behind her, yet when she learns of Demeck the background becomes an angry red. Simple, yet effective.

Each new update gets us closer to learning more about the mountain. And damn am I excited to see what happens next!

The opening page of Trekker is kind of great. Randall drops us in a completely new location, Gamma-7, the narration describes it with the right kind of cliché but appropriate texture. The opening few panels slowly bring the reader into the city and than you figure out who it that’s doing the narrating: Vincent! Of course he’d talk like he’s Philip Marlowe, but specifically be perceived as Marlowe from The Long Goodbye. And than Randall ends that first page on a nice cliffhanger, Vincent being pulled off his feet by his cape!

Which segues nicely into the credit page and the splash reveal that Mercy’s finally going to get her revenge or her money, hopefully both.

This “Trekker” story appears to have been published in I guess “Dark Horse Presents” because there is a new credits page for page 11. But you can immediately tell something is different compared to the previous “Trekker” stories by how Randall composes the page. They are perhaps a little denser than normal but as a storytelling unit they are overall more self contained compared to the pages in “Babel Cannon”. The page as its own scene allows Randall to get cute with word associations allowing it bleed into the next page and transport the reader back in time or back to New Gelph for a few pages. Normally these sorts of transitions would be jarring, and they certainly aren’t smooth, but as these free associated single page scenes it works and helps raise the tension for what Mercy is going to do to Vincent.

Wana know what’s better than 15,000 credits? 75,000 credits! Trekker’s gotta eat after all. The promise of an easy score is such a simple hook but one that makes sense for Mercy’s character and the budget for this strip. It establishes an easily understood prisoner dilemma between Mercy or Vincent. Mercy needs Vincent’s contacts for the money. Vincent needs Mercy not to kill him.

After a series of overall well done more standard issue sized stories the return to “Trekker” as a strip is a nice change of pace that works out some muscles that hadn’t been used in a while.