Friday, July 8, 2011

Wild Webcomic Reviews 145 - 149

Well, my busy couple of weeks are still busy, but no new pictures from Champions Online.  Instead, some old reviews.  Enjoy.

June 10, 2007
 
145. Dresden Codak - This got linked from Nobody Scores! so you know it's going to be odd, and it is. It's also completely awesome. Few comics manage to caputure surreal tangents and mix in a batch of superscience as well as this comic. The art is also well above superior, so it looks as wonderful as it's written. Go, read, do it now. Chop chop!

TODAY - The art of this comic is still amongst the best on the net, possibly of any comic period.  It doesn't update frequently, probably once a month at best, but the pages are spectacular when it does.  The storytelling is getting better, improving with each extended story.  I highly recommend this comic, for the art if nothing else.

146. The Nineteenth-Century Industrialist - Yeah, we really need another one of those running around. It's funny in an odd way, mostly in the way of screwing workers, destroying the enviroment and general greed. The art sort of reminds me of Girly, only not as clean, which is fine. One of the earliest jokes features dropping an anvil on someone's head (It's funnier in real life, apparently). Crude, odd, evil, greedy. There you go, that's this comic in a nutshell. Is it worth the time to read it? Eh, not sure. Leaning towards not, but the premise is neat enough that it at least might be worth a look.

TODAY - I stopped reading it, so many other comics to read that I don't have the time or energy to keep up with this one.

147. What Birds Know - More a comic novel than a straight up web comic, the story follows three friends as they go in search of mushrooms. Well, that's how it starts and it only gets odd from there. The pacing is nice, there's a great mystery and a touch of the supernatural. I also love the way the comic is actually displayed: each page in it's own window with no ads to get in the way. Makes for easy and wonderful reading. It's currently on a short hiatus, but is certainly worth reading.

TODAY - The display issues were resolved some time ago, so that complaint is gone.  The comic has gotten rather dark since I originally reviewed it and it's getting darker by the moment.  It's still good, but at the same time. . .

148. Minus - Minus is about a little girl, named Minus, who can basically bend reality to her will. Literally. Trees grow out of no where, dogs become people (temporarily), sidewalk drawings come to life, etc, etc, etc. And it's sweet and nice and wonderful in every possible way. So why are you still sitting here reading this review: GO READ THE DAMN COMIC ALREADY! You'll thank me afterwards.

TODAY - Minus ended some time ago, but the same artist has two more comics going on his site, Kiwis By Beat. Great! is probably the longest lived comic so far, and is mostly about ramen.  Yeah, you really have to read it to get that.  Modern Fried Snake is, well, interesting to say the least.  I like it, but I'm not sure where exactly it's going, or if it even has a direction to begin with.  Either way, both are pretty good and I would recommend them, especially if you like Minus itself.

149. Bruno - Not Bruno the Bandit, just Bruno, a girl with issues (yes, HER name is Bruno). Funny, I just noticed that four of my five comics feature a female lead character. Odd. Anyway, this is a big comic, as in 11 YEARS of archives (the comic did end in Feb 07, so there is an end to it), and each strip averages a metric TON of text. Lots of reading, and its actually a bit of a depressing comic. 90% of the comic is watching Bruno take her life and smash it into a brick wall over and over again. It DOES get kind of old, but there's always this hope that she'll finally get it together. In any case, at least she gets to travel a lot, visit lots of places, angst, work dull jobs, strip at one point, and sleep with anything with two legs (I'm not using that word I want you to finish reading the review first kids). There is some nudity in the later half of the strip, so the youngins probably shouldn't read it, not that they would. Like I sad, a TON of text. In fact, that really makes it interesting as there's no action in the art, all the action is in the dialog (aside from a few rare occasions). So is it good? I enjoyed it, despite Bruno's life disasters getting a bit old after a while, but it did come to an end and so I'll accept it. Will you like it? If you don't mind reading a lot, maybe. Read through the end of the arc with the circus and you should be able to decide.

TODAY - Bruno is currently on a reissue spree, which commentary on each strip and each strip presented bigger and crisper than the original release.  It's only about two years into the comic's 11 year run, so if you want to read a comic with commentary from early on, now's probably a good time to start.  The original archives are still available, but even I may reread everything with the commentary this time.

Man, Bruno continues to surprise me.  First it was a pretty good comic and now it's going through a reissue.  Anyway, sorry I don't have anything more this week, I'm barely ALIVE after working the 4th, so take what little I have.

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