Monstrously Cute is unadulterated escapism

Hitting the random media button on TV Tropes (which I do quite often) let me discover the web comic Monstrously Cute. Which I proceeded to describe to my family as ‘Monster High if Sanrio made it’ To which my son replied ‘Sanrio already did that. That’d be Kuromi’ 

He makes a good point.

Monstrously Cute is a slice-of-life comic about a gorgon, a sphinx, a werewolf and a vampire who are roommates. And they are such chibi monster girls that I only got the vampire’s species right when I saw a cast picture. (Before I saw the tail, I felt the werewolf looked more cat-like than canine)

Monstrously Cute is so cheerfully benign that it makes Chi’s Sweet Home look like Berserk. It is relentlessly sweet and gentle. Heck, the vampire is even vegan.

The stories are about how the girls help and support each other out through life’s trials and tribulations. Their inhuman natures are simply used for gentle jokes like the gorgon’s snake hair getting stuffed up too when she has allergies.

… Actually, Kuromi is hardcore compared to Monstrously Cute.

At another time, Monstrously Cute would just be a blip on the radar for me. However, with the world not only constantly on fire but so many different flavors of fire, Monstrously Cute is wonderfully decompressing. 

Monstrously Cute’s biggest virtue may be escapism but that is a definite virtue.

https://www.monstrouslycute.com/

Peanuts Untold is a tiny drop of gentleness

I recently very accidentally stumbled across a Peanuts tribute called Peanuts Untold. Honestly, I avoid fanfic as a general rule. However, Peanuts Untold wasn’t a deconstruction or a parody of Peanuts. Instead, it looks and, more importantly, reads like it was actually written by Charles Schultz.

The idea is that Lila, Snoopy’s original owner, moved into the neighborhood and becomes both part of the gang and, ultimately, Charlie Brown’s girlfriend. Which is an idea that could easily go horribly wrong. 

Instead, the creator manages to handle the story with sweetness and gentleness.  Lila, who I believe appeared almost entirely off camera in the actual comic, is imagined as being almost as goofy as Charlie Brown but a little more self confident and self-aware. You can see why they work.

It is quite short. Only around thirty comic strips, each laid out like one of Schultz’s daily comics. There are some grammar issues but I actually didn’t notice many of them in my initial read. It is a tiny but delightful read.

https://www.deviantart.com/xunlimited/gallery/42750306/peanuts-2

John Kovalic is the Charles Schulz of gamer comics

Bundle of Holding (not to be confused with Humble Bundle lol) recently had a Dork Tower bundle. Which, of course, encourages me to contemplate John Kovalic’s Dork Tower. Because I am nothing if not predictable lol

Man, Dork Tower got started back into 1997. The world of gaming and the world of geek culture and the world in general were a different place back then.

 

Yes, I feel old.

(When did Knights of the Dinner Table get started? 1990? Now I feel really old)

As you probably know just as well as me, Dork Tower is a comic strip about a group of gamers and their friends. That describes a frightening number of comic strips due to the ‘write what you know’ philosophy. That said, between longevity and overall quality, Dork Tower stands out.

In fact, while there was a gap between me falling away from gaming magazines (and gaming magazines even existing) and discovering Dork Tower’s presence as a web comic, I’ve actually been steadily reading it for a big chunk of its existence. Which hasn’t been the case for Knights of the Dinner Table.

And I think the reason I have stuck with Dork Tower, sometimes without even realizing it, is that it is fundamentally sweet and charming. Knights of the Dinner Table reminds me of gamers I have known. I don’t think I’ve met anyone as nice as as the Dork Tower cast, although I have shared some of Igor’s bad habits. (It must be mine!)

That said, I have always found Dork Tower’s earlier portrayal of gamers and such as a marginalized group uncomfortable, even as an obvious satire. There’s too many actually marginalized groups out there for that to work as an ongoing joke. But Dork Tower seems to be moving away from that. In fact, my favorite character has become Stell, whose gaming life is her source of affirmation and acceptance.

While Dork Tower does feature power gaming and players completely detailing campaigns (I think that’s required in gamer comics), I will argue it isn’t as cynical as many gamer comics. I think there is more of a sense of hope and escapism in it. The characters’ angst doesn’t come from not getting what they want but wanting the world to be better.

Kovalic has frequently sited Charles Schulz as an important influence and it shows. Peanuts may a bleak world of suffering but Charlie Brown never stops hoping and striving. Matt is clearly a tribute to Charlie Brown but all of the characters reflect the aesthetic of Peanuts.

Dork Tower isn’t perfect. Not every joke lands and sometimes it can be schmaltzy. But its strengths outweighs its flaws.

I fail to do justice to El Goonish Shive

I’ve occasionally written about web comics but I recently realized I’ve never written about my favorite web comic, El Goonish Shive by Dan Shive. (The name is a nonsensical reference to the creater’s name and has nothing to do with the strip, by the way)

The series has been around for over twenty years and has kind of followed the evolution of web comic trends. It started off as a fourth-wall breaking snarky strip with loads of pop culture references. Since then, It has evolved into an urban fantasy with a strong focus on emotional problems and gender issues. And much, much better artwork.

El Goonish Shive is about a group of quirky teenagers, all who have varying degrees of experience with the supernatural, with a particularly strong focus on transformation. The tone ranges from silly light to dark heavy and storylines range from slice of life to high fantasy adventure. The tone can range from pure comedy to tragedy, sometimes in the same arc.

While the cast started out with three characters, the number of main characters is now something like ten with gobs of supporting characters, which is more than I want to go into. However, a testament to the quality of character development is Ted. Ted started as a snarky pervert teen mad scientist and has become a sensitive, insightful, gender fluid teen mad scientist.

And somehow, amidst this sea of different tones, Dan Shive keeps his web comic feel consistent.  Honestly, by the second year, his writing started to really click and has pretty much kept improving from there. El Goonish Shive has been relentlessly thoughtful and sweet.

While I can’t recommend starting from the beginning (the birthday party arc is where I feel the writing truly gels), I think El Goonish Shive is worth anyone’s time reading.

Some hopefully coherent thoughts on web comics

I heard an argument that twenty or so years ago was the golden age for webcomics. The argument went that, by the late 90s and early oughts, the internet had entered into common, everyday use but bandwidth was limited enough that posting static images was the viable way to go.

I have to admit, from my own personal experiences, it seems there were a lot more web comics around twenty years ago. There were mutiple sites that served as hosts for multiple web comics. Sort of online comic pages. (Discovering Keenspot was a big deal for me)

And it is very easy to see how broader bandwidth, allowing for streaming to be viable, would push web comics to one side. I’m not saying that the people who are streaming now would have been drawing web comics back then. It’s just that technology has allowed for a different skill set to rise to prominence.

I also feel that, even during this golden period, web comics were considered a lesser medium. Bill Holbrock, creater of Kevin and Kell, stated in interviews that having the strip published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a high water mark for the series. (I still read Kevin and Kell, honestly just because it reliably posts every day.)

I noticed that two series of graphic novels I just read (Kill Six Billion Demons and Blood Stain) are web comics. Is that the new goal of web comics? To be physically published? Was that always fhe goal if being in a newspaper was such a big deal for Holbrock?

It might just my own peesonal tastes but it does feel like web comics are shifting away from a newspaper format to a page format. Graphic novels have been becoming more and more of a mainstream medium. Are web comic creaters now using the medium as a step towards graphic novels? Have web comics become less the domain of college students and more of professional artists?

You know, I am a daily reader of web comics and I have no idea of what the answer to any my questions are.

(This started out as a blog about El Goonish Shive but my rambling went out of control)

Six Billion Demons? Now that’s a lot of demons

Kill Six Billion Demons is…

… Very dense

… a web comic turned graphic novel series

…An awful lot of demons 

… what Planescape would look like if it had been designed by Hunter S. Thompson after he converted simultaneously to Roman Catholicism and Hinduism while on a legendary amount of mescaline 

… a parable about how who you are, who you want to be and who you can become might have nothing to do with each other 

… the story of a possibly ordinary young woman and barista named Allison who was given the key of kings and pulled into a multiverse of angels and demons and tons of intrigue 

Kill Six Billion Demons isn’t the easiest thing to explain but it does have some impressive and intricate artwork, some stone crazy world building and an interesting exploration of character development.

I have finished the third volume, knowing I will read the next volume, then read the unpublished pages online, and then be annoyed when there isn’t more.

And I am glad Image published the first four volumes because Allison really doesn’t have agency until the second volume. It helped to have that first chunk all in one place.

Allison is sympathetic but also very flawed and damaged and prone to impulsively making bad decisions. Start an apocalypse bad decisions. And she’s surrounded by companions who match that description. (Cio, a devil who writes fan fiction to try and control her worst impulses, is a standout example) I honestly wonder if any of them will actually survive the full story, including Allison.

While the story is initially framed around Allison trying to rescue her sort-of boyfriend who was kidnapped when she was given the key, it is really about her finding her place in a decadent and decaying world where good is dead. Particularly since she’s kind of inherited god’s power.

Kill Six Billion Demons is a slow burn but worth it.

Kiwi Blitz is deeper than it seems

When I was bingeing Sleepless Domain for the third time, I decided that I should really try Kiwi Blitz since it’s from the same creator.

Kiwi Blitz is a web comic sent in a slightly cyberpunk near future. There’s cybernetics, mecha, and bioengineering. A girl named Steffi decides to become a costumed vigilante with the help of a kiwi-bird shaped mech, her family and friends, and lots and lots of money.

One touch I like is that the cops easily figure out who Kiwi Blitz is but her dad has too much money and too many lawyers for them to do anything. I can easily imagine a version of Batman where the Gotham PD darn well knows it’s Bruce Wayne but can’t do anything about it.

While the series starts off light-hearted and looking like it wll be a serial-style, villain-of-the-week romp, the threats Steffi and company face prove to be interconnected and serious. The webcomic turns out to be an overarching storyline.

And the characters develop as well. Steffi seems to be a bored, rich thrill seeker at the start. However, she really, really doesn’t want anyone to get hurt, even more than, say, Superman. (Captain America shot folks in WW II in multiple continuities so he’s clearly flexible) 

More than that, we learn that one of her formative experiences was losing a leg during an assassination attempt on her father. When she was five. In fact, while avoiding spoilers, I will say that the more we learn about the incident, the darker it gets.

While Steffi is the most extreme example of character development in Kiwi Blitz, the other characters also get deeper.

I do like Sleepless Domain more. It’s a deeper, richer story with deeper characters. It’s also darker, which is saying something since Kiwi Blitz  has a toddler getting maimed as a major plot point. But I still enjoy Kiwi Blitz.

Kiwi Blitz has been hiatus for several months. But, honestly, I’m used to webcomics ending without resolution. I enjoy them for as much as I can get out of them.

Many guys and ADORABLE velociraptors

After years of seeing commented on, I finally looked at and binged the web comic Manly Guys Doing Manly Things. The title had turned me off but I found out that most of its humor comes from deconstructing toxic masculinity.

It’s about a temp agency whose job is to reintegrate ludicrously macho men back into society. And by ludicrously macho men, we mean characters from video games, movies and comic books. And, yes, I have to look up a lot of stuff to get some of the jokes.

When I do get the jokes, the comic is funny. And Commander Badass is actually an interesting reconstruction of the macho man. (He can be a loving father and sensitive partner AND perform brutal acts of violence.) BUT what won me over were the velociraptors.

Picture fat, fluffy chickens with teeth. 

THEY ARE SO ADORABLE!!!

The velociraptors don’t show up often but a little goes a long ways. They are so ridiculously cute that I _refuse_ to look for plush ones on Etsy because I know they must be there and I don’t know if I could resist them.

If I was asked to show one comic strip that explain why I binged this web comic, it would be the one where the velociraptors needed hugs on the Fourth of July because fireworks are scary.

Manly Guys Doing Manly Things has been on hiatus since 2018 so it’s probably not coming back. But it gave us the most cuddly velociraptors ever so it did what ir needed to do.

Wow, Howard Tayler finished Schlock Mercenary

On July 24, 2020, Howard Tayler wrapped up Schlock Mercenary, after slightly more than twenty years of daily webcomics. And it really was daily, without any gaps. And Sundays were extra big comic strips on top of that.

Beyond saying that Schlock Mercenary was a satirical dramedy about an intergalactic mercenary corp in a dystopian (or at least cynical) future, it’s hard for me to really describe the series. There is just too much. Too many plot elements and twists, too many characters, too many tears, too many jokes.

As near as I can tell, I read it regularly for thirteen years, although I did go back and read the story up to that point. I may very well may try and go back and reread the entire run, one volume at a time to make it manageable. Maybe after that, it won’t make my head spin trying to keep all the details straight :P

Reading Schlock Mercenary every morning has been part of my daily wake up routine. It does feel weird not having it there but, boy does Howard Tayler deserve a break. He has said he has more stories to tell in the setting and I do look forward to them. But if he needs to take a five-year break, the man has definitely earned it!

I always read Kevin and Kell with my morning coffee

I've been reading webcomics on a regular basis for more than fifteen years now. Kevin and Kell was one of the first ones I started reading and one that I still read on a daily basis. 

Which only makes sense. Having started back in 1995, it is probably the oldest running daily web comic out there. 

The world of Kevin and Kell is one of talking animals who walk on two legs and wear clothing but who still observe the food chain. So carnivores eat other people but it's never anything personal. That's just how the world works.

The title couple are a mixed marriage.  She's a wolf snd he's a rabbit built like a linebacker. 

The comic strip was originally designed for newspaper syndication (and is now actually in at least one major newspaper) and it shows. It is sized for a newspaper and, even during storylines, has a gag-a-day format.

Oddly enough, despite being a setting where people eat each other and a series that deals with racism, prejudice and even having a thinly veiled transgender character years before that became a mainstream issue, Kevin and Kell is probably the least edgy and least challenging webcomic I read. 

In fact, I would even go so far as saying it's downright banal. The main characters are always morally in the right and every problem will get worked out nice and easily within a week or so. It's the closest thing I read to Family Circus, not that Family Circus would ever come within a hundred miles within the issues Kevin and Kell discusses on a regular basis.

If it is so banal, why do I keep reading it? Well, Bill Hollbrook is one of the consummate professionals of the web comic world. He puts up a new comic every day without fail. He is consistently amusing, even if he isn't laugh out loud hysterical.

And, while he is sometimes cloying in his theme of acceptance (which is undeniably the overriding point of Kevin and Kell and one I have absolutely no problem with), he does a really good job not being preachy or offensive.

Even his antagonists are almost never straw men or monsters. They are either predators doing their job or folks who need to be educated. Even R.L., who eats his own employees, is a loving dad and respects Kell as a business owner.

I do wonder if Kevin and Kell, able to tackle such divisive issues with such inoffensive charm, is a model for 21st comic strips in general.

Kevin and Kell doesn't move me or challenge me. However, it has been a reliable and comfortable way to start my morning for over a decade.