Erfworld

I am a huge fan of Order of the Stick, as I have mentioned here. Recently the author has started hosting a new webcomic, Erfworld, created by Rob Balder, the creator of Partially Clips. Interestingly.... it's quite different to both of them. It certainly isn't gag a day, and while it does have something to do with the roleplaying world, in this strip the main character has been thrust into it.

A fantasy classic, the hero thrust into a world not of his choosing, generally used, I suspect, so that the author can explain and describe the world that everyone lives in through the course of the plot- it's legitimate for our unknowing hero to ask these questions that would make anyone else sound like an idiot. A twist here is that the hero has apparently created this world, which follows his design to the point that the characters fight on a turn based system.... It's quite intriguing, and I'm very interested to see where it's going to go.

New Updates

In the past I have spoken about some webcomics that I loved, but have stopped updating. This has changed somewhat, in particular the great Elf Only Inn is back! It's changed location from a chat room to a MMO, but it's still got the same vibe and characters as before. On a slightly different note, Life's so Rad is available in book form, and also the author, Corie Marie, has created a new webcomic, Scene Language, which is also enjoyable. I would reccomend checking both out.

Sadly, my computer is still dead.....

So little time....

So my computer has died- I'm writing this on my housemates computer right now, although I have much more limited access to it. See I'm actually MEANT to be revising.

Anyway, so it looks like I'm going to have to reinstall windows on my laptop, which probably means I'll have to reformat the hard drive. Which also means every single favourite link I've ever made will be gone. And over three years, I have made a LOT. As well as the webcomics I check daily for update, which number in the thirties/ forties, there were a whole bunch of archives I was working my way through, from waspi square to candi.

I had planned to write a post about how I have to prioritise webcomics, simply because of time concerns. There are some that I enjoy, but I get too frustrated with when they update too slowly- I stopped reading No Need for Bushido becuase the updates were so sparse I lost track of what was going on in the overly complex plot. Some webcomics I have stuck with regardless- el goonish shive is one, it has a tendency to stop updating for weeks at the time, but I'm commited enough to the characters to forgive it (although, is it just me who loses track of who everyone IS in that strip?). I wonder if this is perhaps a good way to decide which webcomics to read- those that I remember will probably be my favourite after all.

Having said that, if I was to apply that logic to films I would miss out several hundred films I think amazing, simply because my memory is not the greatest thing in this particular universe. Ideally of course I would like to read about ten times the amount of webcomics I read- there are a remarkable amount of great stories that I have never encountered for one reason or another- I am always quite impressed by the amount of comics on tangents I have never heard of... Thats a good thing of course, being spoilt for choice is far better than the opposite, although it can lead to some hard choice.

xkcd

XKCD is not a webcomic that needs a great amount of promotion. It's a webcomic that snuck up on me- I saw it mentioned in various other comics, but every time I started to read it, the unexciting inital strips put me off. I have gone over this here, and I think it's something that webcomics (that are interested in attracting new readers) really should address.

XKCD is hilarious. Another comic done by someone without the greatest artistic talents, and thus benifiting from the knowledge that a lot of these less able artists seem to have- science. This is great for anyone who does understand science, as we don't really get much physics/mathematics/computational linguistics humour. Or at least, we didn't until the advent of the internet.

Still, XKCD is not just about science, it finds humour in a variety of situations- I'm a big fan of the "my hobby strips" in particular. It's all one shot stuff, which I always imagine is more challenging from the point of view of being humorous- weak jokes can often be forgiven if you are commited to the story and the characters, but when you change every day, you have to fight to make the audience laugh, somthing some webcomics fail to do (I was tempted to put hyperlinks here, but I abstained).

As well as writing a very enjoyable comic (which is going on my top 5), Mr Munroe has also created the very distracting and enjoyable "best thing", "funniest" and "fairest" sites where you can vote for... well what it says on the tin. I would reccomend giving all of this a go...

Is it not nifty?

I, like most sensible human beings, am a big fan of sluggy freelance. I am also, coincidentally, not a great fan of guest strips. They tend to be somewhat lame- the humour if often discordant with the comic itself, and frequently far too self referential for it's own good. I understand why it's done- it's just not something I appreciate.

So it's odd that one of my favourite stories from sluggy was not by Pete Abrams. Instead, it was the koan by T Campbell. In it a fan is in despair- his girlfriend has left him, and the latest storyline has left him tragically sad, and to cap it all, bun bun has escaped out into the real world(how many times has that happened to you?). Hijinks ensue, leading him to a confrontation with this message. I'll leave the rest to you, but the central message is somewhat brilliant, I feel one, and one I truly took away with me. Along with this inspired point, it's also rather true to the characters, and the art looks great. If for some reason you missed out on it, it's worth checking out, and even if you didn't, it's worth another look.

So I'm back

This time for good. Maybe. Well. Possibly. Still, I think last time I put too much pressure on myself as to write something relevant, or exciting. This time round, I'm just going to write when and whatever I feel about. So.... what to start with.

Why do I like webcomics at all? I know I've covered that early on- in my mission statement, but I'm sort of restarting here so I'm going to repeat myself if necessary. I have to be honest, I don't read many print comics. Newspaper comics are mostly dull (apart from some exceptions- doonesbury springs to mind, although I have never really read enough of it to really know what is going on) and as for print comics... well there lies the rub. I am, ultimately, a reader. I like the text, and while I like to pretend I can appreciate art, I will be paying for more attention to the captions than what the characters are actually doing. So I will go into a bookstore and will look, and I will see a graphic novel for £13, and a book for £7. And I will look from one to the other. And I will consider how much time it will take me to read both. And I will know that I could finish the graphic novel in the shop if I wanted to. And I KNOW thats not the point, but I still buy the book anyway.

Yet there is something more that comics can give. The best book has great trouble depicting action, from epic battles to an expression on someone's face, prose can be a rough instrument to portray such things (although, it can, of course, be done), and thats where graphic novels do come into their own. I have finally begun reading some- I have started with the Sandman, having read every book that Gaiman has written, I figure it's probably time to read what makes him famous. And I can see why, and I can see why I'm a fool for not buying it earlier. But still.... books are so much cheaper.

And in come webcomics. You see... they're free. And they're everywhere. There are thousands of them, and many of them are absolutely amazing. Such brilliant creativity that in another age, just a few decades ago, I probably would never have seen. People who may well have never attempted to tell stories have found a medium, and reached thousands. Even those who are not artists- I think of irregular webcomic and dinosaur comics here, but also concerned was brilliant, and while it did involve artistry of a kind, it was not the usual one.

My life has genuinely been enriched by certain stories in webcomics, which I'm going to talk about in the coming weeks. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this new years post, and the ones that will follow.