Webcomics I Like #3: F@nboy$

I promised myself that I wouldn't do 3 gaming based webcomics in a row. I also promised that I'd get out a blog about indie comics last week. Obviously, I'm just letting down everyone. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go perform Hara Kiri to make up for my dishonor. Oh wait, I've got a blog to write. Hark, I shan't be able to taketh mine own lifeth. (Read: I can't keep my promises. Ask The Dude Von Doom about how many times I've been to SDCC. Yeah...)

Anyways, F@nboy$ is a webcomic, written by Scott DeWitt, about three friends: Lemmy, Paul, and Silvia. These friends play video games and each has a system of their preferred choice (hence the name "F@nboy$"!) Lemmy is the Nintendo guy, Paul the Sony dude, and Silvia loves the Xbox. So right there you have a setting that sort of sets this series apart from other gaming webcomics. Of course it's not just that that sets it apart from the esteemed competition; DeWitt's personal brand of humor and his ever growing artistic talent are what really make me love this little webcomic gem.

I'll start with the art since I've alread got two examples posted here. To put it bluntly, the earlier strips of this webcomic weren't that impressive visually. In fact, they're pretty bland looking. Then, however, as time went on, Mr. DeWitt did something amazing; he evolved his art style. Take a gander at the examples I have posted (if you're not pleased with the tiny size I have them posted at here, click on the image and it'll send you to that comic on the actual site!) Notice how different they each look. That's what happens when an artist actually does art right. They evolve their craft and they're better for it.

It's not just the art that I love about this comic; Mr. DeWitt's writing is some of the best in all of webcomicdom. F@nboy$ has a very different sense of humor than most of the other webcomics I've come to love over time. The jokes aren't really vulgar and they're not too reliant on the old "look how random this is" schtick. What he's got to say is almost always relevant to either gaming or just pop culture in general (the last two strips being about the rapture, with the one before being about PSN's return). Where the strip shines at it's most is when it does various movie, tv, and cartoon characters in a gaming setting. My personal favorite strip "Roleplay about nothing" envisions the cast of Seinfeld playing Dungeons $ Dragons. It also happens to get everything perfect, as if this were a script from a lost Seinfeld scene where the cast plays DnD. There was also a strip placing Winnie the Pooh characters in the Team Fortress 2 classes that was masterfully done.

The storylines featuring the actual strip's characters aren't too shabby, either. Perhaps my favorite of the bunch was the story line "Outtage" where we find out that Paul was a Sega fanboy at one time. It wasn't as insanely humorous, but it really did a nice job of adding more to Paul's and Lemmy's back stories. There was also a great storyline "Out at the Beach" in which the cast (surprise!) visits the beach. If I had any criticism of the newer strips, it's that we haven't had any story arcs since the big hiatus. "Red Letter Day" was the last one and it actually never got finished.

Still, unfinished story arcs aside, F@boy$ is one of my favorite webcomics ever. The writing is great, the art is great, and it's overall fantastic. This is a web comic that outshines much of it's competition. And considering how relatively young this one is (first strip was posted in 2006) and how much the art and writing has grown in that time, I'm sure it'll only get better in time.

Verdict: READ IT!