Friday, June 6, 2008

So, welcome to This Week in Webcomics, the blog where I tell you what was awesome in internet comics this past week because I love you. Wouldn't it be ironic if, as I told you what comics you should totally read, I were to mention spoilers for those same comics? So I will try not to do that. All the same, consider us to be under a Spoiler Watch. You know, like Tornado Watch vs. Tornado Warning.

I tuned in to Dr. McNinja on Monday morning and immediately knew that it was going to be a good week. As soon as I saw the last panel of Monday's comic, I was like, "Man, they just totally went there." Drawing a situation like that (notice how I am avoiding spoilers?) takes serious artistic chops, but it opens up some possibilities for sweet action that subsequent installments have totally delivered on. I look forward to seeing where this battle with Dracula on his Moon Base goes.

I'll confess, Penny Arcade has been hit-or-miss for me lately. I expect the work they've been doing on that crazy video game of theirs has something to do with it, but now that they've polished that off, I hope they'll be able to devote more creative energy to their comic-style humors. A noteworthy development: I never thought I'd see the Broodax again, figuring it for a one-off gag, but sure enough, here it is today. Broodax: the Twisp and Catsby of '08? Only time will tell.

Strips that feature children playing make-believe often idealize the experience. The vibe you get from them tends to be: "Oh, look at that, the children are playing pretend, how creative and adorable." (Family Circus, I'm looking at you.) However, Sheldon this week has been doing a strip series in which Sheldon and friends play Lord of the Rings, and Flaco and Arthur insist on making up back-stories and motivations for the villains they're playing. Strangely, it's Sheldon--the actual kid--who's making the observation that kids' games can get way too ridiculous sometimes. It also works as a subtle commentary on the tendency of webcomics to get incredibly stupid when they insist on injecting drama where it's really not necessary at all.

Speaking of kids, it's a rare occurrence that Cat and Girl acknowledges that Girl is an actual child. Seriously, with all her social commentary, it's easy to forget that she doesn't even technically have a degree yet.

Oh, yeah. And Tim Buckley's latest storyline over at CAD is a big tall glass of Cringe Juice. No, I'm not going to link to it. It's that bad.

Did I miss anything? Did anything else great or significant happen in the world of webcomics this week? Let me know if something slipped past my radar--that's why there is a comments feature.

2 comments:

DanEcht said...

CAD = unbelievably painful right now.

Love: Questionable Content

Jackson said...

Questionable Content, like Scary Go Round and Something Positive and Wapsi Square, is one of those popular webcomics about the wacky lives of twenty-somethings that I have not yet been able to get into. There really isn't any reason, as some of these comics strike me as potentially pretty good--the art's certainly up to standards on all of 'em--but there are only so many hours in the day. This blog will almost certainly be influenced by personal bias.

But hey, if there was a particular QC comic that was especially great this week, I urge you to share it with us! We are here to celebrate excellence. We are also here for other things.