A Rough Guide To Webcomics Made By Twitter Users. (Part One)

5 Comments | Posted: March 16th, 2009 | Filed under: Outbound Linkage, Thinking About Comics | Tags: webcomics

So, I asked people on Twitter to give me a shout if they made a webcomic.  Thanks to “retweets” (blergh) by Deb Aoki and a few other people, I got quite a nice batch of responses.  I’m going to divide this up into three parts so it’s a bit more manageable for everyone and hopefully you’ll actually click on all of the links that interest you versus being overwhelmed.

Abandon: First Vampire by Greg Carter and Eliot Dombo
Manga-influenced online graphic novel about a vampire who has adventures while confronting her past.  There’s quite a lot of stabbing in the first bit, so I will probably go back to check out some more.

Alternate Delusions by Tim Volpe
One of those comics that feels very quaint, with the Zentraedi-like bulk of poorly-drawn, geek-centric strips like User Friendly looming over it menacingly.

Children of the Tiger by Melissa Stone
From the site’s “about” page: “It is a webcomic by Melissa Stone that is based on her novelette of the same name. It will be four parts in length.” That translates to “Not for Kevin, but if you like that sort of thing, you can do much, much worse.”

Cold Iron Badge by Stephen Geigen-Miller and Patrick Heinicke
A fantasy-world police procedural.  Think Life On Mars meets Lars Brown’s NorthWorld.  I imagine I’m in the minority when I say I like the earlier look of the strip compared to the more manga-influenced style being used right now, but I do like what I’ve seen of the characters and their world.

Construction Paper Angst by Topher McCulloch
It’s a semi-auto-bio-comic that’s been recently revived.  Points for the clever use of construction paper, however there are penalties for the sporadic nature of updates and impossible-to-decipher writing that surely seemed funny to the author at the time.  We’ll call it a wash.

Dark Side of the Horse by Samson
The wordless strips here really, really sing and I love the two-tone art.  It feels very much like a classic strip that’s been unearthed, and that’s a good thing.

Dragon’s Fall by William Alexander Righetti and Irene Pitcairn
This hasn’t started yet, but the people involved mentioned it anyway.  So, you know.  There will be something there soon.  The “cover” posted has nice coloring.

El Gorgo! by Mike McGee and Tamas Jakab
We’ve been over this before.  This is better than you deserve.

Entry Level Hipster Garbage by Max Huffman and Ethan (Who Has No Last Name Listed)
When you go to the site, you get confronted with some page that is like “The series has launched,” but go and click on “First Comic” or “Latest Comic” and you’ll see that the title does a good job of explaining it.  A lot of the jokes here seem a bit forced, but I really like Huffman’s facial expressions and how he conveys action in his sketchy style.  It’s nice to see a comic that isn’t rendered to the nth degree.

Fera by David Shirley
“Follow the adventures of this rag tag group as they travel the lost planet of Mu.”  Imagine my disappointment that this is not about the KLF having said adventures.  Not my cup of tea at all.

Finn-Strip by Jarmo
I suspect I would appreciate the near-sociopathic pride in being Finnish if I were, in fact, Finnish.  I do like the art in some strips much more than others.

George by John Norton
It’s interesting that I read a big swath of a comic with the exact style of face that I hate (see also: User Friendly) and jokes that were pretty hackish without really feeling like I was wasting my time.  Maybe it was the Two And A Half Men effect, where things are moving along just enough to keep you engaged even if you know there’s better out there.

Hamstah Powah by Samuel Boyd
It’s about hamsters having crazy adventures with “jokes” that make no sense.  I’m sure it’s wildly popular with a certain sort of person.

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