WordOwl

For this week, the last of 2008, we take a look at one of the older webcomics out there: Ashfield, variously known as Ashfield, Ashfield Online, and ? - The Demented Comic Strip.

I’ve always taken the name to be Ashfield Online, for reference.

So, what’s it about?

The strip follows the exploits of one Professor Ashfield, though his experiments and attempts at world domination. Like other comics (such as Cyanide & Happiness and xkcd), Ashfield isn’t predominantly a story comic, but mostly a series of one-shots in the classic gag-a-day format.

One of the running jokes is that Ashfield is in virtually the same pose every day, standing upright with his trademark cigarette.

The caption is usually the punchline, sometimes helped by the art.

What’s the appeal?

Unlike some of the beautiful artwork out there, Ashfield tended towards simplicity; frequently there is no art other than Ashfield himself an a line for the horizon, but mostly Ashfield’s humour tends to the punchline in the caption.

Aric McKeown’s own brand of satire - now visible in Blank It - is what defines Ashfield; it is blunt, to the point and often funny because it evoked a sense of realisation about the true inanity of the world.

McKeown also wasn’t afraid to experiment with the format a little; in the later part of the comic’s life, it had two staples that push the boundaries of the webcomic medium: “Multiple Mondays” and “Animated Fridays”

The latter speaks for itself, being a short animation, usually only a few seconds, that featured Ashfield being - well - Ashfield, while the former is still probably the most unique feature about Ashfield to this day: providing three different punchlines to the same artwork. As far as I know, no other comic has attempted to replicate this, despite it being a very interesting (and no doubt difficult) feat to pull off.

There was something about the Internet media realm in the first part of the 2000s where sound was a fad as part of the entertainment business, but looking back it now seems somehow pre-emptive rather than jumping on the bandwagon.

What I like most about Ashfield is that where it is reasonably minimal and relies on the punchline, it’s very quick to digest and doesn’t require studying the artwork - great for a “quick first comic hit of the day” pick-me-up.

What about its history, and its future?

Ashfield started at the end of January 1999, when the webcomic industry such as it is today did not really exist; Melonpool and Sluggy Freelance (among others) already existed, however Keenspot had not formed at that point (indeed, it even predates Superosity by Keenspot’s founder Chris Crosby) so whatever web-only comics were out there at that point were very limited and were all independent creations.

After an almost solid 3 years at a 5/week schedule, the occasional gaps in 2002 hinted that the comic might be slowing down; in spring 2003 it went on hiatus, resurfacing for about a month in 2005 before lapsing back into hiatus again.

Aric has gone on to other unique and individual projects, most notably the Mustache Rangers podcast, although other projects such as Make Me Watch TV were floating around too, and more recently working on Blank It with Lemmo Pew.

Closing thoughts?

Ashfield was one of those strips I discovered in college, not too long (less than a year) after Keenspot formed, leaving it with strong memories in the mind; indeed I was able to follow strips as they came out, which was rather nice.

It is also one of the strongest cases I’ve seen of “less is more” and demonstrates what can be done with good writing, rather than detailed artwork.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.ashfieldonline.com
• Updates: on hiatus since 2005
• Created by: Aric McKeown
• My favourite line: Why mess around with voodoo when you can just stick needles in people you hate?

Well to this week’s Comic of the Week, and this week we take a look at what is probably one of the most popular, and definitely one of the most offensive and irreverent, comics out there at the moment: Cyanide and Happiness.

Unusually, this comic has four regular artists, Kris Wilson, Ron DenBleyker, Dave McElfatrick and Matt Melvin, all publishing under the umbrella of “Explosm”.

So, what’s it about?

Cyanide And Happiness is a gag-a-day with occasionally recurring characters, taking a long hard look at the idiocies of modern life and skewing the views of normality.

What’s the appeal?

Most of its appeal is that it peeks into life and skews our normal views, making it very good for the first-morning read of the day to remind you that life isn’t always normal.

It is also very irreverent, featuring various offensive attributes (strong language, violence, religion on occasion), but done in a way that makes the point, more often than not in a funny way.

The art style itself is also part of the joke, in a number of ways. Unlike some other comics - even those with fantastic art - Cyanide And Happiness doesn’t involve too much art in general. The side benefit is that the joke doesn’t get lost amongst irrelevancies and like other minimalist comics, relies more on its dialogue to make the point.

One of the on-going staples of Cyanide and Happiness are the recurring superhero characters, except that they are not particularly heroic, especially the perfectly-named SuperJerk. It’s just another facet of the subversive nature of Cyanide & Happiness.

The other appeal is that despite sounding like it should belong in the same category as Beavis and Butthead for humour and attitude, it somehow seems to retain a standing above that level.

Explosm itself also has a massive community, one of the largest linked with comics yet, and in some ways the comic is a side point to the forum, rather than the other way around; so much so that there is a fifth member of Explosm who primarily looked after the forums, and the site also hosts other material, such as Flash movies by the gang.

The one last appeal it has, though perhaps more tangentially, is the fact that it is viral in nature; not only do they provide the code from which to hot-link images, they also have a similar attitude at conventions. I had the joy of meeting the guys at the London Film & Comic Convention in July, and throughout the entire day I was there, their booth was consistently the busiest the whole day, except perhaps for a couple of the guests signing autographs. (Even the DeLorean parked in the front, straight out of the Back To The Future films didn’t generate as much of a crowd)

What about its history, and its future?

Cyanide And Happiness was founded in its current form sometime at the end of 2004, when Kris Wilson drew a few comics while ill, and the rest of the site evolved to showcase those comics. As time moved on the rest of the gang joined, all having come from other backgrounds, and the current line-up of comics evolved from early 2005 onwards.

The initial comics under the Explosm banner were Rob’s, a fact which irritated a lot of Kris’ earlier fans, however the comic has never felt as though it was parodying itself; indeed the style Kris originally set out for Cyanide And Happiness (even naming it from one of the early strips) proved a strong base on which to develop and grow in all directions.

As for its future, recent strips have actually been less offensive than some of their earlier ones, although the ones of the last few days have been a strong return to the style demonstrated by the gang in their earliest outings: a nice side-view at life with a side-helping of offense.

The forum is still heaving, and with a bonus comic out for Christmas (not to be added to WordOwl, however) and an ever-growing pool of strangeness from life to look at, it seems the future is bright for the Explosm gang.

Closing thoughts?

This is not, bizarre, the most offensive webcomic I have encountered, although it is consistently more offensive than others. Interestingly, despite the odd characters being so off-the-wall, I can see a strong resemblence to people I’ve known.

The only closing thought I do have, though, is that the gang have made it clear that if a reader finds it offensive, that is not their problem - plenty of other readers didn’t agree on the offense level. For example, Jesus is an occasional character, most notably in the Easter comics - promoting “Zombie Jesus Day”. Of course, this is bound to cause offense, but to others it demonstrates the apparent inanity of Easter, that it’s the irreverent celebration of someone being “undead”.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.explosm.net/comics/
• Updates: Daily
• Created by: Kris Wilson, Ron DenBleyker, Dave McElfatrick and Matt Melvin
• My favourite line: “…thothe are thome fuggin good clothth.”

This week, we’re taking a look at one of the more adult comics available through WordOwl: Menage a 3 (Ma3 for short), by Gisele Lagace and Dave Zero1.

So, what’s it about?

The description from Keenspot’s original press release actually describes it beautifully:

Set in Montreal, the finest bohemian city in North America, MENAGE A 3 follows the lives of comic book geek Gary and his way-sexier-than-he-is roommates in their Montreal tight-as-a-sandwich apartment where the walls are so thin there are virtually no barriers between their rooms.

What’s the appeal?

Like some of the other comics, Ma3 matches quality artwork, elegant and consistently funny writing and a setting that some of the best situational comedy could kill for, not to mention a thriving community most wbecomics definitely would kill for.

I just want to examine each of those in turn, as each aspect makes Ma3 so polished and so readable.

First up, the artwork. Giz, the artist, is a long-standing comic artist, having drawn two previous strips, Cool Cat Studio and Penny & Aggie - the former dating back to 2000, the latter dating from 2004, and both have their own flair and style, but like some of the other long standing comics, it is possible to see the evolution of the artist over time.

The Ma3 forums are regularly buzzing over the quality of the artwork for each strip, with the facial expressions telling more of the story than the words do; Ma3 is probably one of the best strips for artwork in that respect. The interesting thing is the blending of styles; Ma3 occasionally dabbles in anime, although it is not generally anime in style, and yet the incursions never feel out of place, or unwarranted - or even unwanted - but just subtle extra touches.

As for the writing and situation, there are few better scenarios for pushing the comedy boundary than to have three roommates with varying levels of affection for each other, without all knowing each others’ feelings, but additionally the writing takes advantage of the situation, rather than letting the situation carry the humour.

What about its history, and its future?

Well, Ma3 has been around since May 2008, through Keenspot, and appears to be thriving strongly; indeed, Giz actually slowed, and finally ended one of the other strips she did so that she could spend more time on Ma3, as well as other projects.

A book is rumoured to be coming out soon, too.

The comic has a very bright future, with a bustling forum, with plenty of friendly banter, and friendly competitions too - a recent one involved the “Cutest Forumites”.

Between the fanbase and the devotion shown by its creators, I think we can expect Ma3 to continue to be strong.

Closing thoughts?

With a name like “Menage a 3″, one would expect the strip to be generally towards the obscene and depraved, but actually it’s not, although I really wouldn’t suggest that readers under 16 read this. A lot of it is implication, which usually works better than being explicit, and in this case it does work extremely well. That said, we have been privy to certain events that would definitely be regarded as Not Safe For Work, and certainly more of Ma3’s strips trip the NSFW filter on WordOwl than just about any other comic (except possibly Cyanide & Happiness)

It also updates on a different schedule to most of the web’s comics, which is a refreshing change - it means that on days other than Monday/Wednesday/Friday, I have comics to read!

Great! Where next?

• Website: menagea3.net
• Updates: Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
• Created by: Gisele Lagace
• My favourite line: “SWEET 70’s ROCK!!! You must be ready to explode!” - Zii

This week, we’re taking a look at one of the poster childs for “Web 2.0″ - Randall Munroe’s xkcd.

So, what’s it about?

Well, xkcd isn’t about anything in particular, other than “romance, sarcasm, math and language”. It is a series of one-shot cartoons, with a couple of recurring characters - Mr Black Hat, plus certain infamous characters from the technology world, such as Cory Doctorow the blogger and Richard Stallman, the man behind the GNU project.

The artwork is predominantly stick figures, allowing the words to tell the joke, although Randall shows in the earliest posts that he is more than able to draw more complex images too - indeed, he is remarkable for being able to express emotions in stick figures without them having faces.

What’s the appeal?

It is surreal and hilarious, and because of its one-shot nature it appeals to many who do not wish to read acres of back-story to follow it. It also has an almost unique knack of being able to make a point in a few lines that would otherwise take many lines to express.

I also described it as a poster-child for “Web 2.0″. The comic is unique, I believe, for being the only one licensed with a Creative Commons license. It means that people can - provided they attribute the source - copy it, edit it and mash it up, just like Web 2.0 is pushing forward.

It is not uncommon to see the comics in many other places - one example springs to mind of the Map of the Internet strip being used in a college lecture about Internet protocols. But it is very common in avatars and user pictures on blogs (to see it on LiveJournal is not at all uncommon)

xkcd is also one of those comics where it can actually sustain its author full-time, which is quite an achievement for a strip that was less than a year old at the time it started to do that, only updates 3 times a week in most cases, and yet continues to perpetuate with an almost viral like quality.

What about its history, and its future?

Well, xkcd originally started out as a collection of random drawings, posted to a LiveJournal account in September 2005, but were all moved over to xkcd itself in 2006; the first 40 or so drawings were all marked being on 1st January 2006, and the comic has updated nearly every Monday/Wednesday/Friday ever since, although there are a couple of times where it updated on every weekday, when there was an important story to share.

xkcd shows no sign of letting up, having recently had its 500th strip and there is enough material in the bounds of romance, sarcasm, math and language to go for a very long time yet without getting repetitive.

Closing thoughts?

The comic is surreal, bizarre even, and chock full of geeky/nerdy jokes. Yet it’s told in a way that even non-geeks and non-nerds can follow the vast majority of humour. I have little doubt that I’m the sort of person it is most targetted at, someone who loves maths and language and appreciates everything else, and yet many other people - just look at the heaving forums for proof - follow it too, even those that aren’t naturally inclined towards such pedantry still enjoy it.

Great! Where next?

• Website: xkcd.com
• Updates: Monday/Wednesday/Friday, occasional additional updates on Tuesday/Thursday
• Created by: Randall Munroe
• My favourite line: “In what scientists are calling ‘pretty gay’…”

This week, we take a look at another olden goldie, so to speak: Sporkman, by John S. Troutman, the same artist as behind Flat Feet & High Heels.

So, what’s it about?

Sporkman follows the adventures of Sporkman, a superhero whose head is a combination of spoon and fork - thus, Sporkman. It follows his adventures with the Flint family, especially Sophie Flint, with whom in a previous alternate timeline he used to share an apartment with. Now he lives at the Flint family home and has all kinds of naive but hilarious adventures.

What’s the appeal?

Normally, superheros are these suave, sophisticated and above all smug characters with their powers and abilities ruling the day. (Of course this isn’t so true of the modern dark retcons, but we’ll leave those aside for a bit.) Sporkman takes that notion and turns on its head - he’s naive, almost of childlike proportions on occasion - and does things that are cool and mostly right, instead of always being right. Last week, for example, we saw Sporkman turn members of the Flint family into singing and dancing animals, mostly bears, for a jamboree.

In many ways it is the perfect complement for the week to Flat Feet & High Heels - FFHH has darker storylines, although still features the same wit but with a more realistic edge, while Sporkman does not have to conform to the more usual rigours of storytelling, so all kinds of fun and hijinks can ensue.

What about its history, and its future?

Well, Sporkman started around 2000, and as far as is known, has been a member of Keenspot ever since. John decided after a while that he didn’t like the art style of the earliest comics and as such removed them, and in 2004 returned with Sporkman in a newer style, this time chibified. This continued into 2005, but John ended up stopping it to work on his other projects.

In 2008, not too long after the start of Flat Feet & High Heels, John also brought back Sporkman, initially M/W/F but now every weekday, after his fans said they enjoyed Sporkman too.

More recently, there was a time-shift in Sporkman, caused the Nega-Spork, which altered reality so that instead of having two parallel universes (in which Sporkman & the Flint family existed, as well as a second - actual - reality where a slightly different Flint family also existed), John harmonised the two, so that now there is only a single universe, which allows for hints of crossovers between the crazy world of Sporkman and the more subdued world of Flat Feet and High Heels.

Indeed, in today’s Sporkman, there are two characters directly from a FF&HH strip.

Closing thoughts?

Sporkman has come a long way since its 2000 debut. Anyone who either remembers the strip from then, or discovered them via the Internet Archive will no doubt note that the character has evolved, but so too has the artist. It’s been a voyage of evolution and discovery.

As I said, it’s the perfect balance - FF&HH has the darker edge to Sporkman’s lighter edge, FF&HH has more realistic art to Sporkman’s chibi crowd, but the two are now inextricably linked and complement each other beautifully. I’ve actually taken to reading the two directly together (as opposed to whichever order they turn up in my RSS reader) just because it works so well.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.sporkman.com
• Updates: every weekday
• Created by: John S. Troutman
• My favourite quote: “Well, I told 400 million years of evolution where to stick it.” — Sporkman

Welcome to this, our fifth Comic of the Week. This week, we look at a long-standing staple of geeky and tech humour: Angst Technology, by Barry T. Smith.

So, what’s it about?

Angst Technology follows the adventures of the staff at a newly-started games production company of the same name, and the various things things that happen to them.

The core staff are:

• Dante, the lead programmer - middle-aged geek with a coffee addiction.
• Yaz, lead artist - young, hip, far less of a ladies’ man than he thinks he is, and has a thing about designing characters that don’t wear trousers.
• Marc, lead tech support - the naive, kind soul that helps people, and plays the perfect straight man for Yaz.
• Hugh, the boss - who has a habit of misinterpreting the meaning of everything said to him.
• Kit, the HR manager - a no-nonsense but not uncaring woman who helps hold it all together.
• Webmonkey, website designer - who is actually a monkey.
• The IT Ninjas, internal IT support - very little is known about them, for they are ninjas.

What’s the appeal?

Anyone who has ever worked in an office will be able to relate to the characters - every office seems to have them, so it has that recognisability without being so blatant as Dilbert is for office setting.

Although the appeal will mostly be to people with a technical or gaming background, the humour is broad enough to appeal to everyone who has been in the office and knows that there are people out there like that - the office guru who knows everything and is addicted to coffee with the consistency of tar, the young hip ‘dude’ who thinks he’s a stud with the ladies but actually repulses them with his attitude, the young and naive wanting-to-help nice guy who gets used, and so on.

What makes Angst Technology work though is that it is situational comedy at its finest. Where else would you have a computer game called ‘Cowmandos’?

What about its history, and its future?

Well, when it started in 2000, it ran daily, but over time this gradually cut back through various reasons and stopped entirely in 2005.

But that doesn’t stop its influence there; one of Angst Technology’s 2001 storylines had the gang fight it out at a paintball field, to gain experience of first person shooting. The same field turned into its own comic strip - Weak-end Warriors - a few months later.

And more recently, Barry’s current strip - InkTank - is running a storyline where Dante met InkTank in a Starbucks branch, and now InkTank is going for an interview at Angst Technology, proving that Angst Technology is far from being truly gone or forgotten.

It doesn’t seem that things will ever focus completely on Angst Technology again, though, instead InkTank may take on elements from Angst Technology without becoming fully Angst Technology.

Closing thoughts?

A couple of strips from Angst Technology have previously been my desktop picture because they echo that perfectly the situation with me - this strip in particular rings very close to my heart.

It’s well worth putting aside the time to read Angst Technology since it offers a different view on both the gaming industry and office life to other comics, without really needing deep knowledge of either.

Great! Where next?

• Website: http://www.inktank.com/archives/AT/archive.cfm
• Updates: On hiatus
• Created by: Barry T. Smith
• My favourite line: “You have dishonored me for too long. Even though for every one of you I strike down, another two may take his place… …I will kill you all!” [referring to debugging] — Dante

Hello and welcome to our fourth Comic of the Week. This week we take a look at one of the oldest true comics produced entirely for the web: Melonpool, by Steve Troop. Around since 1996, Melonpool is one of the pioneers of the format, and responsible for inspiring many others to join too - not least John Troutman, artist of Sporkman and Flat Feet & High Heels amongst others.

So, what’s it about?

The storyline opens with the crew of a spaceship, the Steel Duck, crash-landing on Earth where the captain has been watching Star Trek on the main viewscreen.

For a ship built by a coffee-obsessed hothead, powered by a 5-foot-high, 220lb hamster, steered by a telepathic dog, and captained by a Star Trek devotee whose leadership skills are more comparable to Gilligan than Captain Kirk, all sorts of odd things happen.

Before long, several of the crew gets cloned (sometimes repeatedly!), they discover another alien living on Earth, and many more strange adventures happen to them.

What’s the appeal?

First of all, this is funny. Grand fun, as one famous writer pronounced it. The setting of having a group of aliens who have primarily used sci-fi shows as basis for their understanding of humanity (and the captain, Mayberry Melonpool, having pronounced himself an ‘expert’ on humans after watching lots of Star Trek) is genius, since it allows the jokes to flow by holding a mirror up to everything about our world.

The other thing that makes this hugely entertaining is the trivia references. There are regular mentions, and jibes, made at Star Trek, Star Wars and Gilligan’s Island, three staples of entertainment for the generations.

The fact also that the strip has never gotten into the realms of harsh language or extreme violence to make its point makes it endearing, too.

I should also mention the books here. There are currently five books, and these only add the enjoyment of the strip to have copies of. Steve has recently made the first three books: The Ultimate Melonpool, Melonpool II: The Voyage Home (aka TUM II), Melonpool III: A New Hope (aka TUM III) available through ComixPress, and are well worth reading. Not just because they’re fundamentally cool, but because you get to see so much more that you’d have missed otherwise, such as the strips that happened before the Internet in college papers, plus fascinating insights into the strips themselves.

Melonpool IV: Castaway (TUM IV) and Melonpool V: This Island Earth (TUM V) are also going to be re-released soon.

What about its history, and its future?

Well, as I mentioned, it started in 1996, making it one of the oldest webcomics, predating even the likes of Sluggy Freelance (1997), and it has aged surprisingly well, and is well worth a read, since it isn’t particularly topical in its storylines; I can only think of a couple of gags in the strip that are intended to be read around the time it first ran, however these can be read much later (I remember first reading Melonpool in 2000) but the jokes still worked beautifully.

Interestingly, the name Melonpool is actually the result of a shifting of names throughout its history; the very earliest were labelled as “The Adventures of Mayberry Melonpool”, before shortening to “Mayberry Melonpool” and more recently, just “Melonpool.” It seems to have been easier to promote that way, as mentioned in one of the earlier books.

Melonpool is also quite distinctive in changing its logo more regularly than most other comics, by issuing a new (or tweaked) logo for many of its storylines, to suit the storyline. For example, some of the time travel strips had a “Back To The Melonpool” logo, distinctively parodying the “Back To The Future” logo.

Additionally, Melonpool is one of the most widely travelled comics, having jumped not only from the web to printed books, but also to a 20 minute movie, had several songs written for it (including a spoof of the Gilligan’s Island theme written specifically for the storylines in book IV), and even played out in small skits live at conventions, using small puppets (as used in the film)

As for its future, it does seem a little as though it is in limbo; Steve has not issued a new strip since January 2008, partly due to a low readership and partly that where it has been moving on so long he felt that he wanted to work on some other things.

More recently he has been working on a full colour comic book, CryptoZooey, but announced this week that there will be a new Melonpool book being issued shortly, along with the sixth regular book to come after Christmas, which has been suggested will be the end of Melonpool.

That said, he has also stated that if demand were to pick up again he would consider continuing Melonpool.

Closing thoughts?

This strip, more than any other is responsible for WordOwl as you know it today. I’ve been wanting something like WordOwl for Melonpool for years. I’ve seen attempts over the years to do it, too, but all except the Secret Comics Database have fizzled and disappeared, and the SCDB doesn’t have a dialogue search that I can see, either.

It’s also the first strip I ever read back in college, in 2000, and I still keep coming back. And I still keep reading the books. I’ve read the archive end to end numerous times (the strips until the end of TUM V moreso when I don’t have Internet access) and it’s still enjoyable, without the jokes being tired or worn out.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.melonpool.com
• Updates: On hiatus
• Created by: Steve Troop
• My favourite lines:

Sammy: Do any of you have normal hairstyles?

Ralph: Nope. It’s in the union bylaws.

This week we take a look at one of the rising stars in the webcomic world, Blank It.

To the right we have a cut of two panels from the sixth strip. You can see it better to click on, but it isn’t full size. You’ll have to read the strip for that. But it does show you the kind of world Blank It is oh-so-nicely.

So, what’s it about?

Blank It, proudly proclaiming itself to be about ‘blah blah’ follows two guys, Aric and Lemmo, as they explores a strange land. It’s empty. It’s really empty, almost void like.

Then… stuff happens. It’s unexpected, but it works extremely well since the things that happen, while not expected still make sense.

And for a universe that seems principally empty, there is a range of objects beginning to fill the void.

What’s the appeal?

It’s funny. It’s consistently, regularly laugh-out-loud funny. The adventures of Aric and Lemmo stretch incredulity but in a way that somehow we can relate to. And they seem to be based off the two creators, Aric McKeown and Lemuel “Lemmo” Pew.

The thing is, this is no ordinary comic. Long time fans of comics will no doubt recognise at least one of the two names, having both been around in the intarwebs for some time. Aric, of course, working on Ashfield Online from 1999 to 2003 with a brief return in 2005, plus Bad Ninjas in 2006, while Lemmo worked on Lethal Doses and Winter.

For two creators who seem to share very different styles of comic, the melding is a surprisingly fresh comic.

There is speculation in the forum exactly what is going to happen next. And after the Giant Flying Nightmare Monster appeared, all sorts of ideas of what were going to happen came to mind.

The thing about this comic, its core appeal is that it is surreal but understandable at the same time.

What about its history, and its future?

As I said, Blank It is still very young; it’s actually the youngest comic currently featured on WordOwl, but given its illustrious comic heritage and the amazing start it’s already gotten off to, I think it’s safe to say that the future is pretty right - even where blah blah is concerned. Lemmo has said in the forums that the events to come may take years to play out, suggesting that there is a strong future ahead.

It’s also quite interactive; both of the creators regularly participate in the forums, although it’s still kinda quiet there at the moment, and both regularly add their thoughts of the day via Twitter.

Presently it runs twice a week, Monday and Thursday, but “The Threat” has been made - once it’s up to 2,000 unique readers a day, it’ll expand to three a week. And, by all accounts, the numbers are growing to reach that.

Closing thoughts?

This is the stuff comics are made of - strong, but easy going artwork, solid writing, generous dashes of humour and very inventive setting. It is quite able, and happy, to push the boundaries of what could otherwise be considered normal and be confident in doing so. This isn’t edgy material, this is explored the undiscovered country instead.

The creators have also shown that they are listening to feedback and thoughts from people - I mentioned a while back that I’d tried to tell some people about it, and they heard me say “blanketcomics.com”. And shortly after this, blanketcomics.com showed up and linked back to the original. And even funnier was the message that greeted people if they went there without having JavaScript enabled to redirect them automatically.

Great! Where next?

• Website: blankitcomics.com
• Updates: Monday and Thursday at present
• Created by Aric McKeown (lead writer) and Lemuel “Lemmo” Pew (artist, and co-writer)
• My favourite line: “If you ruin this moment with existentialism, I’m going to cut through your optic nerve with my molars and bury my pants in your eye sockets.” - Aric

Jumping from one of the more recent comics, in our last weekly review, to one of the older ones, we turn to Bruno the Bandit.

So, what’s it about?

Bruno the Bandit principally follows the adventures of Bruno Bunkleyutz and his micro-dragon sidekick Fiona, on his adventures of derring-do and adventure, set in ‘Rothland’.

Despite sounding like something Errol Flynn might have been cast in, Bruno isn’t your average highwayman or thief; he’s far too impetuous and doesn’t think through what he’s doing before he does it.

For example, stealing a gem from a statue in a temple is bad enough, but while there is a ceremony below at the time? Plain daft.

Bruno is supported in his (mis)adventures by a cast of regulars, his parents Eunyce and Ambrose, and is well known to the king, Xerxes. He also regularly deals with the 800-year-old wizard Maledict.

What’s the appeal?

Despite being a cad and a bounder of the first order, Bruno is that tragic hero we all love to read about. No matter how bad his exploits, no matter how big the job is, when it goes wrong (as it usually does, some way or another), we find ourselves siding with Bruno.

The real appeal is the way the strip looks at real life, holding a fairground mirror to it and watching the twisted reflection. This fantasy swords ‘n’ sorcery epic features all kinds of anachronisms, such as television and a form of Internet, for example.

A regular recurring feature is the idea of fame vampires and fame vultures, creatures who feed off the limelight, and those who go to any lengths to be famous, a perfect parody of some of the media’s current favourite people - usually the celebrities you love to hate.

Bruno grew up trying to be like his father, the best thief in Rothland, whilst supported by his mother, a “Warrior Hottie” in her youth, and showing no sign of rescinding that title despite being in her 70s. Despite being unlike anyone we would know, we can somehow relate to them on a deeper level.

Bruno’s enemies also make life interesting. Although he has had many enemies, somehow we always come back to the best ones; his regular foe King Xerxes, with whom he battled over the throne, and at the time of writing is battling with in civil war.

The most infamous of his enemies, though, is the wizard Maledict. There is something reassuring about there being an evil wizard. (There’s always an evil wizard, right?) And Maledict is no exception, being a great foil for many of Bruno’s schemes.

A number of the events shown in Bruno the Bandit do show a link to real world events in some form, although heavily altered to suit the fantasy world. Previously, for example, was a storyline about a land splitting off from Rothland to be independent. Although the strip had this down as being an Elf territory seceding from Rothland, it wasn’t hard to spot that something similar was happening in Canada at the time.

The ability to hold that twisted mirror up to reality is a tough one to pull off - but Ian McDonald manages it superbly in Bruno the Bandit. To make it regularly funny as well… even tougher.

What about its history, and its future?

Bruno the Bandit has been running for over 10 years now, making it very firmly one of the oldest strips out there, debuting in July 1998.

In that time we’ve been able to watch Ian develop his skills in writing and drawing and it is noticeable that the later strips are more polished than the earlier ones; the artist has honed his craft well.

At present there is a 3 strips/week update schedule, however it has been stated that this may drop back to 1/week as personal events intrude. Ian has made it clear that there is no intention to stop Bruno at any time, however real life events must take precedence due to infractions on time.

However, there is a bright future ahead; the current storyline is strong and there is plenty of material on which to base upcoming storylines on, especially since the 2,000th canon Bruno the Bandit strip is not very far away.

Closing thoughts?

At times it can seem daunting to lay the many layers of history on Bruno and his family, and at times this can seem all too convenient, however instead of being stifling, it actually liberates matters such that we’re not introduced to more new characters each storyline than we actually need, as it would only get more confusing.

What caught me about Bruno most was the ability Ian has to nail the situation in a perfect satire. Many of the events in the world that catch his eye end up beautifully mirrored in Bruno.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.brunothebandit.com
• Updates: Monday, Wednesday, Friday at present.
• Created by: Ian McDonald
• My favourite line: there’s too many to choose from.

Kicking off our Comic of the Week series, we take a look at the latest work from John S. Troutman, “Flat Feet & High Heels”, or FF&HH for short.

So, what’s it about?

FF&HH follows the adventures of John’s long-running detective character Basil Flint, formerly of the comics “Basil Flint, P.I.” and “Flint Again”, and his friends and family. Like all of the previous Troutman works, FF&HH can be found over at Keenspot.

The tagline from John’s profile for FF&HH sets the scene surprisingly well: ‘because the title “Dicks & Dames” sounded too dirty.’

Basil is a classical hard-boiled detective, but operates in Seattle, Washington in the present day. As the 2008 strips begin, Basil find himself - tangentially - on the small matter of a serial killer. As the last couple of months have shown, Basil found himself with an urgent need to find the serial killer.

What’s the appeal?

FF&HH is a very strange work, and oddly compelling: mixing serious crimes with humour is always best done delicately; many of the crime dramas I’ve seen use the humour as light relief in between the serious stuff, or as character development only, and as a result humour is often left out. But FF&HH manages to play the humour off against the serious stuff so that you can imagine these are real people reacting to a real situation.

That said, the strip does have a distinct gag-a-day pattern to it, but in a way that is inventive and creative and without ruining the more serious moments as Bad Stuff happens. The current storyline does actually have a very serious undertone to it, but the humour prevents it becoming moody.

The art style lacks the photo-realism of other strips, but the style itself is strong and clear. It’s also one that doesn’t have the sense of having something to prove, as other young strips do. Not that this is a young strip, nor a fledgling artist; John has been a regular at Keenspot since around 2000, and some of the characters date back that far too, in various multiverses.

The other thing I haven’t seen too much of in other strips is the commentary. Nearly every strip is followed by its own commentary. Sometimes it’s about the events unfolded above, other times it’s about meta-events that could very easily come back to haunt Basil and his supporting cast.

What about its history, and its future?

Well, FF&HH as itself only debuted in July 2008, on a 5/week update schedule, but John has recently added some of the previous strips, from “Flint Again” into FF&HH’s archives, fleshing out the back story even more for the characters and explaining, if in a slightly odd fashion, how Basil came to be a P.I., and what he’s doing in Seattle in the first place, providing even more detectivey goodness.

The strip runs Monday through to Friday, although John is also accepting donations at present, and has said that when the donation counter runs up to $100, additional strips get drawn. Presently, there are 2 more weekends’ worth of strips to be added.

Closing thoughts?

I’m actually quite lucky, really; I discovered FF&HH when it was quite young (I seem to recall it only had 5 strips when I first found it, and I approached John about FF&HH joining WordOwl a couple of days later), so I’ve been able to watch it grow forwards, then gather the backstory.

I can’t say much else; I consider this a definite gem in the comic world.

Great! Where next?

• Website: www.flatfeetcomics.com
• Updates: Monday to Friday, with additional strips appearing on Saturday and Sunday on occasion
• Created by: John S. Troutman
• My favourite line: “You’ll find, Miss Flint, that madness is not always a vice.” — Amanda Beaumont.