Monthly Archives: January 2010

The Webcomic Overlook #104: Lily of the Valley

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It can’t be easy writing a story from the perspective of a serial killer. They come from a frightening world view, where other humans are disposable meat. HBO struck gold with Dexter, true, but the show incorporated a story element that seems like a bit of a cop-out: the title character satisfies his bloody urges by killing other serial killers. It sets up the question of whether Dexter is truly redeemed. His kills aren’t altruistic when you boil down to it, but that plot point is a safety net, since … hey, it’s only bad guys he’s killing, right? He’s making the world a better place. A serial killer you can love!

But what if you took that safety net away? Would the story still be compelling, opening the door dark possibilities not often explored? Or is it something that’s ultimately despicable and painfully unreadable — darkness for the sake of darkness?

Adam Atherton and Luiza Dragonescu’s Lily of the Valley is, thus far, off to a strong start. After missing out on a contract with Bleed, they regrouped and won the Zuda contract by scoring first place with Lily of the Valley, their second entry. The comic also seems to be a hit with horror fans. The comic came in second to fellow Zuda-mate and digital comic juggernaut High Moon for the Best Horror Comic of 2009 by horror comic fan site ComicMonsters.com. Pretty impressive for a comic that isn’t even 30 pages long yet!

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Librarians Love Webcomics

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The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) recently released a list of 2010 Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens. Webcomics made an incredibly strong showing. The Top Ten included the following familiar titles:

See? Webcomics CAN be regarded as essential literature! At least by librarians anyway.

There’s even a larger list of 73 … however, I didn’t see any webcomics mentioned there beyond the ones I already listed.

(H/T The Beat)

Metapost: Happy Martin Luther King Day, and please remember our brothers and sisters in Haiti

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Just wishing all my American readers a Happy Martin Luther King Day.

In the spirit of universal brotherhood, remember to pray for the poor people in Haiti. It kills me inside whenever the latest estimated toll is released, and it saddens me to imagine all the suffering going on there.

Starthrower in Haiti, the webcomic created to raise money to educate Haitian students, has this to say on their site:

As you know, on January 12, there was a major earthquake in Haiti…my heart is breaking…so much suffering and destruction.

With the devastation caused by the earthquake, the Starthrower Foundation’s resources will be stretched to the limit in meeting their commitment to the needs of the young adults they serve and their families.

The latest updates from the Starthrower Foundation can be found here.

All funds raised by my fundraiser will continue to be directed towards the Foundation’s educational programs ensuring their continuation in both the short term and in the long term.

Should you prefer your donation to go directly to earthquake relief so that the Starthrower Foundation can help as many people as possible in rebuilding their lives, please donate here.

Sharon Gaskell, founder of the Starthrower Foundation was on the CBC radio January 15th, here’s a link to the page where you’ll find the podcast called “Waiting for words from Haiti”…she’s the second guess on the show, about 2 minutes in.

The Webcomic Overlook #103: Dead Winter

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“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” — Pride & Prejudice & Zombies

Currently, zombies are my favorite creatures prominently being featured in horror movies. They’re probably the only horror monster that hasn’t been horribly reconstructed and bastardized for boy-crazy teenage girls. There was a a bit of a scare when the Pride & Prejudice & Zombies was announced. Why, if the horror of zombies were combined with the overpowering machismo of Mr. Darcy, then you would have the sexiest monster of all! Sexier than even Taylor Lautner! Fortunately, Seth Grahame-Smith retains Mr. Darcy’s original status as a human being. He, instead, fights legions of the undead alongside his beloved Elizabeth Bennett, narrowly averting the genesis and proliferation of sexy zombies.

However, I don’t mind injecting a bit of humor in zombie stories. While zombies have so far dodged the romance novel shelves, they do make great foils in comedies. Look at these humans who can’t walk of talk right! Ha ha! I’m sure I should at least be partially ashamed from a humanist point of view, but damn it, they’re dirty brain eating cannibals so they get everything they deserve.

While today’s review of S. Dave Shabet’s Dead Winter is not about a comedy webcomic, per se. It is a zombie comic, with touches of apocalytic wasteland and spaghetti western genres thrown in. Still, the comic is sprinkled with nice touches of light-hearted humor. Look, just because you’re stuck in a zombie apocalypse doesn’t mean you can’t have fun. By the way, there a few panels in Dead Winter that are Not Safe For Work (none of which are linked in this review, so consider them safe if you’re browsing on work hours), and comics feasting on dead bodies are not usually Safe For Children.


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Random Quickies: Nihilarity

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I was browsing the Act-I-Vate webcomics and I came across a recent effort: Shannon Wheeler’s Nihilarity. It’s as if the creator sat down, opened the New Yorker, and thought, “Man, what if these cartoons were actually good?” Or, at least, bizarre. Wheeler takes the standard New Yorker template and injects the cartoons with a sense of self-awareness. Result: more funny than the New Yorker. Also, the webcomic’s title incorporates “nihilism” into a portmanteau, and you know I appreciate that.