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!

Rapture 2011: A Liar's Tale

Okay, so I'm going to start this one off by saying that this isn't a comic review of me being funny or anything like that. It's cool that people are playing this rapture thing like the joke it is, but that's not why I'm writing this. No, right now I just want to go on a bit about just how messed up this whole thing actually is.

For those of you who have been living under a awful large and mighty dense rock, May 21, 2011 is (according to Family Radio personality Harold Camping) the day of the Rapture. From what I understand there are supposed to be earthquakes, good people dying, and all around general mayhem for the better part of 6 months before all the good folk are too dead to be around for hell's rise to earth which means the sinners are all getting their due. Needless to say, anyone with enough common sense to know better is making light of the whole situation. But there are a handful of sad, deluded individuals who have sold off their things and quit everything in their life in order to preach about the end of days.

Before I go any further I'll admit that I'm not at all a religious person. It's just never been something I've really cared about. That being said, I acknowledge that religion is something that can help make one's life a little better. My Grandfather is a Roman Catholic who attends mass everday. He's also 83 (props to my older sister for correcting me!), happily married, unbelievably healthy for his age, a father of 7, a grandfather of 14, a positive member of his community, and just an all around great guy. He's got a great life and religion is a big part of it. So while I may not be a religious individual, I understand that it can be a positive force for the people who practice one.

Okay, so back to the point: people fell for Harold Camping's lies. They then sold off all their things and they quit their jobs so that they could spread his lies. Now we're here, at May 21, 2011 and I have yet to see any rapturing. I'm betting that none of it's going to happen at all and I'm absolutely positive that I'm right. So these people gave it all away for nothing.

Now, we could argue about whether they deserve it or not until we're blue in the face, but that's not the point; Harold Camping lied to them and now they're screwed. This bastard preyed upon these poor souls' faith and I bet you he's going to lie some more when it's all said and done. He lied in 1994 when he predicted the end, he's lying now, and he'll lie to save his ass again. He'll do it because he's a fraud.

So if you're one of those individuals that fell for the lies; I'm sorry. You got duped and outside of a lawsuit there's nothing you can do. You can however take solace knowing this; if Christianity is right and the 10 commandments are the word of the God, then this guy's going to Hell. "Why is that?" You ask? Well, I believe one of the commandments is "Thou shall not take the Lord's name in vein" (my wording may be off, but I'm close enough). Some people falsely interpret this as "Don't say "Jesus Christ" when you stub your toe or "Oh my God" when something shocking happens". They're wrong. What it actually means is "Don't make false claims in the name of the Lord." What's this guy doing again? He's claiming to spread the truth about the rapture and leading people to give up everything to spread his word and he's hypothetically going to burn in Hell for it. As for me, I'll be happy just to see you guys band together to sue his ass into poverty for the rest of his retched little life.

Webcomics I Like #2: Manly Guys Doing Manly Things

I enjoy playing video games. I know for a fact that many people enjoy this particular pass time, too. I'm totally psychic like that. So sometimes I wonder to myself and I says: "Piggy, what the heck happens to my favorite video game characters when they aren't in video games anymore." For years, I just sat there, wallowing in my own waste and slobber pondering this question. It did wonders for my sex life. Then Coelasquid decided to do a webcomic called Manly Guys Doing Manly Things and answered all of the questions in my life. I have lived a shallow shell of a life.

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things is the story of the Commander and his adventures in helping your favorite video game characters find their way in post-game life. Well, the manly ones. Duke Nukem, Kratos, Marcus Fenix, and other manly video game characters. And that's really where the initial charm in this series comes from; watching these insanely muscled guys trying to function in a society where all of life's answers can't be solved with violence. Of course the Captain himself is an interesting character himself; sure he's a ex-space marine who travels time to fight with himself, but he's also a divorced father of two who makes time for his children. And those children are adorable. He's got a girlfriend, Jones, or at least I'm pretty sure they're dating. I could be wrong on that one.

My favorite character, though, is the Pokémon trainer Jared. Now, Jared isn't your normal Pokémon trainer; he's also an intern with the commander and a source of much humor. His origin is perhaps my favorite in the history of origins; his mother got sick of him being a slacker and forced him into the life of a Pokémon trainer. He chose a Magikarp, which is the only correct choice, ever. He then proceeded to bludgeon other trainer's little critters to death until his critter evolved, which again is the only correct decision to make. Sadly he got stuck in a different without a job, which is quite a pickle. Luckily for him, the Commander is a nice enough guy to put up with his hi-jinx and allows him to intern for him. Clearly this man has won the lottery in life, because he gets to own a Gyarados and interns at the awesomest place on earth.

But enough about the characters, it's time to talk about the meat of this comic; the humor. Manly Guys Doing Manly Things is hilarious. It could easily just be a one note strip, but it isn't. Humor is drawn from more than just than the pop culture referenced, but by the situations of these characters in real life. The Commander's life as a father is constantly used for humor. There's humor about sexuality and gender roles. And while there is a large abundance of video game jokes, they're all amazingly well done.

And more-so than the humor, Coelasquid's art is fantastic. Her panel layouts are great. She draws fantastic facial expressions. And her art style isn't stagnant. It's evolved in the year or so of strips that she's being doing. Just take a look at the four strips I've posted here and see how they've changed. She can draw huge, hulking muscle men, women who look like human beings, adorable children, slackers, Pokémon, and everything in between so well that it makes me embarrassed to think that I went to art school for a year.

Okay, so I've talked enough about this webcomic. If you haven't been convinced by the sentence where I tell you about bludgeoning Pokémon to death with a Magikarp and didn't realize that you need to be reading this stuff yesterday, you clearly have something wrong in your brain. Maybe your mother dropped you on your head. Well if you are lacking in thinkingness (Holy crap, spell check isn't flagging that word!) Coelasquid has got your back with her blog posts. Sure you get the standard one paragraph posts, but every now and then she posts up a whole essay on art that is crazy awesome. You will learn stuff reading this blog. No, not my blog. Taking anything I say here seriously (outside of me telling you to read and watch stuff) is madness and doing so is ill advised. But listening to Coelasquid will make you a little smarter. Sure it's mostly art, but it's all stuff that is well written and well thought out. In fact, her blog posts make mine look like mindless dribble (well, even more so than most youtube comments do) and I almost feel like I'm doing a disservice trying to put into words how awesome her posts are.

Verdict: Read it!

So that's it for this week's Webcomics I Like. Then come back for my next article. I've got indie comics to catch up on and I'm ready to give you some verdicts on all of 'em.

Flashpoint #1 Review

This week marks the beginning of DC's Flashpoint event. Written by Geoff Johns and featuring art from Andy Kubert, this is a book that looks to do for the Flash what the Sinestro Corps War did for Green Lantern. And considering how crazy good and event the Sinestro Corps War was, this book has a lot to live up to.

Right off the bat, we're hurled into the situation with Barry Allen waking up to find that his world has been rocked. He's no longer got his powers, he's no longer married to Iris West, and oh yeah, Superman and the Justice League no longer exists. This is a world where Europe has been ravaged by a war between Atlantis and Themyscira. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are tyrants. Batman is a murderer. Captain Cold is Citizen Cold, hero of Central. This is not the world Barry knows. And it is this world and it's introduction in this issue that will have me coming back for Flashpoint #2.

This is a great issue because it does a great job of introducing us to this broken world. And this is a world I want to know about, because it's pretty exciting. Take the Batman of this world, for example, who for the most part is the focus character in this issue. In many ways he's the same dark, brooding protector of Gotham that we know and love. But then he tosses a criminal he's trying to interrogate off of a building after she refuses to tell him what he wants to know. He's a very darker, angrier Batman. I think the most intriguing thing about him is his identity; that is something you'll have to find out for yourself, but it's the thing that's got me the most excited about this version of the character.

It doesn't hurt that this issue Andy Kubert's art, either. It makes this issue look mighty fine. One moment in particular, the scene where Barry realizes that he's no longer the Flash, was particularly nice. The sequence of Barry falling down the steps was a great play on the usual Flash panels where you see him doing cool stuff while running. There's also the two page splash where Cyborg introduces the team he wants to assemble to battle Aquaman and Wonder Woman. It's a great ensemble of the characters in this book and while it isn't especially exciting, it is really good looking.

Still, I'm not completely sold on this series yet. We've been introduced to this awesome little world, but now we need to have something happen in that world. Barry Allen has a challenge to overcome and hopefully that ends up. But what worries me is that the lead up to this point, the Flashpoint Prelude from the main Flash book, was boring and drawn out much too long. It could have easily been told in one or two issues less than it was. That's the kind of drawn out, decompressed story telling that can kill an event outright. And Johns suffered that kind of problem with Blackest Night. Still, with only five issues to fill up I'm a little optimistic that this can work. Give Flashpoint #1 a shot; you won't regret it.

The Verdict: READ IT.

Webcomics I Like #1: Nuklearpower.com

I love webcomics. They're the purest form of independent comics. If you want to get your story out there, you can just post it online for people to go online and read free of charge. No publishers to deal with, no major companies telling you that it has to be a superhero story. You can do whatever you please and if you've got something good, people will read it. So now I wish to write about the webcomics I love, even if that means I'm a little late to the party, which leads me to my first entry: Brian Clevinger's Nucklearpower.com!

Nuklear Power hosts several works of Brian Clevinger, creator of Atomic Robo and writer of the recent Captain America one-shot Captain America: The Fighting Avenger. In fact several Atomic Robo strips are on the site, along with his earliest webcomic 8-bit theater. There's also Warbot in Accounting, How I killed you master, and The Dreadful.

8-bit Theater is a comic about the 4 "Light Warriors", a group of (dishonest) adventurers consisting of a Fighter, a Black Mage, a Thief, and a Red Mage. Their names are Fighter, Black Mage, Thief, and Red Mage respectively. Running from March 2, 2001 until March 20, 2010, with a total of 1224 strips as well as a few special strips, guest comics, and a really good epilogue strip posted on June 1, 2010.

On the whole I enjoyed 8-bit theater. While I wasn't crazy about the use of game sprites for the art initially, after 50 pages or so I didn't care anymore. And any short comings from the art are easily overcome with Clevinger's great sense of slapstick humor. It can be a bit morbid for some at times, with characters constantly meeting a gruesome end, with other characters taking shots at them, but I really didn't have a problem with any of it. It also does a great job of using various elements of table top RPGs, video games, and comics for humor.

It was fascinating to see Clevinger developing ideas that would later come back and even recalling older jokes at later times in rather satisfying ways. One bit of dialog that was shown in a cryptic strip in the middle of the series ends up coming back in the end in a way that actually fit perfectly. Clevinger also does a great job of debunking certain plot holes, in particular one scene where one character attempts to revive a deceased friend through one of the said plot holes, only for it to go wrong. There's also the big reveal for our heroes' major antagonist's identity, which shows how one of the recurring gags would come back to bite the "Light Warriors" on the ass.

If you love comics, video games, table top RPGs, or just laughing really hard at things you shouldn't, then 8-bit Theater is the web comic for you.

Speaking of Web comics that make me laugh at things I shouldn't:

Warbot in Accounting is another of the webcomics I read and loved from Nuklearpower.com! This is a series that is self explanatory, as it follows the misadventures of a Warbot as he tries his hands in a job in accounting. Hilarity ensues.

Really, the magic of Warbot is that it doesn't need any dialog to be funny. Just put Warbot in a situation and it practically writes itself from there. Is he trying to send a fax? Oops, he smashed the fax machine. Is he trying his hand at dating? Oops, turns out Warbots aren't ideal boyfriends. If Warbot is trying to do something, you can certainly bet that he's probably going to fail at it. Of course, ample credit must be paid to Zack Finfrock, who does a fantastic job with the art. He really does a great job at art; while it does seem to be copy and pasted, it's the subtle differences from panel to panel, such as where Warbot's eye is or how close the panel is on Warbot that really makes a good deal of the humor work. Well, having Warbot lodged in the ground or lying atop a smashed couch at his shrink's office help, too.

I think my favorite thing about Warbot is that it makes me laugh and feel horrible at the same time. A large part of the humor is just how horrible Warbot's life really is. He's a figure constantly trying to fit into human society and constantly failing. For example, Warbot makes a horrible attempt at creating a child and never has my heart and gut hurt so much because of the same thing.

Of course, not all of Brian Clevinger's robot comics are as sad as they are funny. Atomic Robo, my personal favorite comic, is too awesome for it to ever make me sad. Okay, so maybe that flash back issue from the first series is a little sad, but the issue where he goes to Mars is hilarious enough to balance that out. Where was I? Oh, right; Nuklearpower.com has Atomic Robo strips on it free of charge!

For those of you with empty lives void of this comic, Atomic Robo is the story of Nikola Tesla's greatest creation, the atomic powered robot. The FAQ for the series explains it so: "So what is Atomic Robo? Take the Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Buckaroo Banzai, and the Rocketeer, combine them into a robot scientist, and you'll have an idea." If that description doesn't have you reeling with excitement, then you obviously hate joy.

If you haven't seen my previous reviews of Atomic Robo comics or even if you haven't read anything in this blog post up until this point, then I'll reiterate myself for the tyrantillionth time: I love Atomic Robo. It is hands down my favorite comic and I look forward to each and every issue with an escalating amount of anticipation each and every time. This is a comic that doesn't dwell in angst, filler, or reboots (seriously, read the promise. They're serious.) . If Clevinger or series co-creator Scott Wegener think a potential story fits in with their timeline, they do it. And they go all over the timeline. As of this post, they've got 11 volumes worked out. The final issue of volume 5 came out today.

"Okay, so they've made promises and they've got it all planned out. So what?" Well, not only is there all that, but they also manage to put out consistently great comics. I can't think of a single issue of Robo that hasn't gotten at least a chuckle out of me. At least three times an issue, something awesome happens. Giant ants, Mars missions, Ghosts of Thomas Edison; they're all common place in this comic. So what I'm saying is this; read these free strips. They're all really awesome. The ones that aren't awesome Robo stories are stories that really help to build up some of the back story to the series.

Sadly, I haven't gotten around to reading HIKYM or The Dreadful yet, but I still suggest you give them a shot. HIKYM is written by Clevinger, and both share the same artist. At best, you get some really good free comics, at worst, it's free. Needless to say, the only thing you have to lose is 10-15 minutes of your time.

And now I do something different: I decided to add a ratings system. It goes like this: if something is good, it gets a rating of "READ IT" and if it isn't good it gets the dreaded "DO NOT READ IT"! I know, it's hard to follow.

So how does Nuklearpower.com fair? Well, considering it's vast amount of great content, including Atomic Robo I'm proud to pass this verdict....

READ IT!