Category Archives: mystery webcomic

One Punch Reviews #46: The Continentals

Posted on by
10

If there’s one thing I hate about Darryl Hughes and Monica McNaughton’s The Continentals, it’s Lady Fiona Fiziwigg’s stupid looking hat. Alright, to be fair, her entire outfit is completely ridiculous… and when she’s standing next to her partner, Jeffrey Tiffen Smythe, the ridiculousness goes up exponentially. It’s half Zatanna, half equestrian riding outfit. I’m tempted to say that she’s cross dressing because she’s a woman playing in a man’s world. It wouldn’t really be unheard of, since Gilbert & Sullivan, the Trey Stone and Matt Parker of the Victorian era, once mocked “the lady from the provinces who dresses like a guy.”

I wish that Lady Fiziwigg dressed more typical to the ladies of the era, though. If she had to be eccentric, I’d tend more toward Mary Poppins than Annie Lennox. Because, shockingly, no one ever calls her out on her outfit. You figure if this is Victorian England, she’d get sneers and snide remarks everywhere she went. But no, this crossdressing strumpet is never really brought up in conversation. Hence, Fiziwigg’s fashion sense becomes a very unnecessary and distracting detail.

Continue reading →

The Webcomic Overlook #158: Ectopiary

Posted on by
6

In the middle of Hans Rickheit’s Ectopiary, or young heroine, Dale, looks out her window. Staring back at her, sitting in a tree, is a glowing dog. It looks to be a German Shorthaired Pointer. Pointers aren’t necessarily the world’s cutest dogs, but they are friendly. They’re also very useful. German pointers are natural hunters, and as such are blessed with intelligence and natural hunting abilities. They’ve also got a very reasonable look to them.

If Dale were visited by, say, a Golden Retriever, you’d almost expect them to star running out in the fields immediately to play fetch. Or if it were a spectral Doberman Pinscher glaring at Dale with its pupil-less, ice-cold eyes, it would only be reasonable for Dale to scream out in terror. A Pekingese … well, you’d probably assume someone’s toupee had died. On the other hand, a German Shorthaired Pointer possess just the right combination of qualities to inspire both caution and trust.

Almost … paternal, when you think about it.


Continue reading →

One Punch Reviews #42: Dream Life

Posted on by
7

Dreams are a fascinating theme for a writer to tackle. It gives carte blanche to play with surreal imagery, such as, oh, a Duchess who plays croquet using a flamingo and a hedgehog or a huge cityscape falling in on itself. It lets you explore the realm of your mind that you should control, but for some reason slips beyond your grasp. Our dreams represent a highly personal and private experience, so it’s embarrassing enough when we let slip the events going on in our slumber. How do you react when someone’s peeking in on your most unguarded moments?

This fragile mental ecosystem that you enter when you close your eyes at night is one of the major themes of Dream Life: A Late Coming of Age, a webcomic written by comic artist Salgood Sam (a.k.a. Max Douglas, but in reverse). It’s also about mystery, the crises we go through as we age… and Charlie Brown, surprisingly.


Continue reading →

One Punch Reviews #36: Newton’s Law

Posted on by
2

We have this love/hate relationship with scientists an inventors. While we respect their contributions to society, we tend to find them kinda … nerdy. They lack a little something something that more straightforward action heroes possess. This, I think, is why we try to spice them up in media. Thomas Edison invents a lifelike android in Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s L’Ève future while Nicola Tesla’s turn as mad scientist led to the creation of a teleportation device in The Prestige.

Which brings us to today’s review of Newton’s Law, by Garrett Anderson and Dan Dougherty. I’m pretty sure Sir Isaac Newton was a chill guy and all, what with his Law of Universal Gravitation and invention of infinitesimal calculus … but wouldn’t it be more interesting if he was some sort of crazy warlock?


Continue reading →

One Punch Reviews #35: The Watcher of Yaathagggu

Posted on by
Reply

“Darkness reigns at the foot of the lighthouse.” — Japanese proverb

There’s something deeply mysterious about lighthouses. Part of it is the setting. They’re generally located in areas remote from town centers: up atop rocky cliffs, down windy roads, and on desolate islands — some occupied by prisoners. Their very nature recalls darkness, chilliness, and desolation. It’s no wonder that there are more than a few people who are convinced that more than a few of them are haunted.

Today’s webcomic review deals with a girl who must keep the fires burning at her lighthouse … only it’s not only the encroaching darkness she must keep at bay. In The Watcher of Yaathagggu by Robyn Seale, there are horrors that live beyond the fading edges of the lighthouse beacon lights.

Eldritch horrors.


Continue reading →

The DEADcomic Overlook #140: Lovecraft Is Missing

Posted on by
4

“The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window!” — H. P. Lovecraft


I’ve got a confession to make. By an large, I am not that huge a fan of H.P. Lovecraft. I can count the short stories I’ve read on one hand: “Dagon,” “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and parts of “Call of Cthulhu” (which I tried to reread before writing this review). I also generally liked the movie Dagon, which was apparently based on a different short story entitled “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.” (Dagon was probably deemed the catchier title by studio execs.)

However, I understand why there are plenty of Lovecraft admirers, whose ranks include Neil Gaiman, Benecio Del Toro, Stephen King, and the members of Metallica. The horror imagery is creative, enduring, and highly influential. Movies like Alien, comics like Hellboy, and games like Halo 3 are covered with Lovecraft’s fingerprints. No wonder the internet’s in love with him. Google “Cthulhu,” Lovecraft’s infamous deity with the “pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque scaly body with rudimentary wings”, and you get 4.3 million results. Meanwhile, “Leopold Bloom” only gets you 88,900 results. Take that, Joyceans!

Still, I’m man enough to admit that I’m a relative newcomer to the Lovecraft mythos. Yet, here I am, reviewing Larry Latham’s Lovecraft Is Missing. Maybe I’m not the right guy, stripped as I am of any Trekkie-like obsessive knowledge of the Lovecraft mythos. But the new Star Trek movie thrilled both hardcore Trekkies and newcomers alike. Dare I hope against all hopes that Lovecraft Is Missing provides a gateway to the world of eldritch horrors for the uninitiated? (Incidentally, the phrase “eldritch horrors” will pop up multiple times in this review. It’s sort of required when you’re writing something about Lovecraft.)


Continue reading →

The Webcomic Overlook #109: Haunted

Posted on by
9

When I put together a list of the webcomics I’d planned on reviewing for February, I had no idea that two of them had something in common. It wasn’t apparent immediately. One was about a haunted house, the other was about a shaolin monk living at the end of the Ming Dynasty. However, when scanning the press releases, I came to a surprising discovery: both were awarded a Xeric grant. It’s wacky ka-winky-dinks like this that lead to this site’s impromptu theme weeks/months (see also: Zombie Week). Thus, by the power vested in me, The Webcomic Overlook hereby declare this week to be Xeric Week! Cue fireworks!

But wait, what is a Xeric grant? And what is this so called “Xeric Foundation” that’s running it? Judging by the name alone, shouldn’t they be bad guys in a Marvel comic, sworn enemies of the Starjammers and the Shi’ar Empire? No, actually they’re a charitable organization, founded by Peter Laird (who you should know was one of the guys behind a little thing known as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). While involved in several charitable organizations, the Xeric Foundation is best known for donating money to support independent comic book artists. I’ve talked about them before on this blog, mainly in my review of Joe Chiapetta’s Silly Daddy. (Silly Daddy itself is not itself a Xeric winner, but Chiapetta is a grant winner for a previous work, A Death in the Family.)

According to Wikipedia, “The Foundation tends to support work of an alternative or non-’mainstream’ nature, reasoning that if a comic has strong commercial appeal, it would be picked up by one of the major publishers. Therefore, it is an extremely valuable supporter of ‘art for art’s sake’ comics, and has helped launch the careers of a number of ‘literary’ cartoonists.” In other words, indie comics. The kind with unsettling art and embarrassing personal confessions. This criteria isn’t explicitly stated on the official Xeric site; they only say that “Among the qualities that we will be looking for are: originality, literary and artistic merit, and a sense of commitment to the work.” However, a glance through the supremely unconventional Silly Daddy will have you convinced that the Wikipedia description is right on the money.

Or are they? Your honor, I would like to present to you Joshua Smeaton’s Haunted, one of the 5 grant winners in May 2009. The most surprising thing about this indie comic is that Haunted looks — both in terms of aesthetics and content — like it’s got the chops to win mainstream approval.


Continue reading →