Category Archives: sci-fi webcomic

The Webcomic Overlook #171: Blue Milk Special

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Oftentimes, Star Wars brings out the best out in people. Say what you will about Seth MacFarlane, but the guy seemed to be at his peak when he was doing Star Wars parodies on both Family Guy and Robot Chicken. Weird Al charmed millions of his fans with “The Saga Begins” … which was notably based on internet rumors and speculations about Episode One, not the official script. Turning back the clock, I remember totally marking out when Mark Hamill and C3PO showed up on Pigs in Space. And that Star Wars episode of Muppet Babies? Nothing but pleasant childhood memories.

Lucas may be something of a hack, but you have to give George Lucas credit for creating characters and scenarios that stay in that warm-and-fuzzy parts of your nostalgia forever. I think even Harry S. Plinkett would even agree to that. Star Wars was a little nerdy, but it was never as nerdy as the staid-by-comparison Star Trek. Epic and sometimes dark moments were balanced out by fun, creative touches. The movies imprinted both the iconically evil look of Darth Vader and the whimsical muppetry of Yoda into our fertile mental consciousnesses.

Star Wars humor is a natural fit for webcomics, too, with both Irregular Webcomic (featuring a long-running Star Wars parody) and Darth & Droids getting high marks from this site. We also have Blue Milk Special, Rod and Leanne Hannah’s own comedic twist on Star Wars.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

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The Webcomic Overlook #165: L.A.W.L.S.

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Have you and your friends ever tried to do round-robin storytelling? You gather around in a circle … or, if your friends are online, a message board maybe. Someone starts off things by tossing out the first sentence.

You start the ball rolling. Once upon a time, a woman got stranded on a desert island.

And then it’s the next person’s turn, who adds: On that island was a hat.

The next storyteller is a bit saucy and chimes in. And the hat is alive and he bleeds rainbows.

It’s a silly story. You all have a good time, especially when the story gets really out of hand. The webcomic called L.A.W.L.S. seems to practice the same storytelling ethic. It’s written by by Denis Caron (a.k.a. Joenis Norac). The acronym, incidentally, stands for “Large Air Whales Like Silence.”*

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The Webcomic Overlook #154: Wayward Sons: Legends

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Remember that Tim Burton movie, Alice In Wonderland? You know, the one with a grown-up Alice? The one where Wonderland (or Underland, whatever) got transformed into some sort of Tolkienesque fantasy world? The one where Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter did that stupid dance at the end? Of course you remember it, even if only barely. It was, after all, the 5th highest grossing film of all time.

While there are several factors in play here — the price inflation of 3-D movies being one of them — I think audiences just like new spins on old familiar stories. There’s a reason why there’s a new Little Red Riding Hood movie coming out this year where the wolf is of the were-variety. Because … why the hell not? And, as stupidly “internet random” as it was, there’s a reason why readers embraced Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. It’s fun to mix things you associate with your younger years (classic lit and fairy tales) and mix it with stuff you enjoy today (stupid action movies). It’s the right mix of ironic cheesiness and unironic glee.

Writer Benny Powell (along with penciller Weilin Yang, finisher Youjin Yang, and colorist Kun Song) attempts the very same thing in Wayward Sons: Legends, and …. Wait, is that really the title? Wayward Sons? Oh no. Can’t get tune out of my head. This is bad….

Must… resist… Kansas references….

Phew, that’s over. Anyway, the comic starts off as a sci-fi type story, but eventually it transforms into another fractured fairy tale of the world’s most ancient legends. Which ones, you ask? Well, if you carry on to my review of Wayward Sons, maybe you’ll find peace when you are done.

…. gah!

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The Webcomic Overlook #153: Spacetrawler

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Comedic science fiction can be a tricky proposition. The folks who enjoy such things are typically total nerds… and I mean that in the best possible way. The humor has to be clever. The creator has to tread the line between bizarre scientific concepts and a winking acknowledgement of the absurdity of it all. After all, the reader doesn’t like to feel like he’s being talked down to. You must never dumb things down.

When done right, you get Futurama, Red Dwarf, and Mike Resnick’s The Three-Legged Hooch Dancer. When done wrong… you get the Star Wars Holiday Special.

Fortunately, Christopher John Baldwin’s Spacetrawler, a star-spanning space opera, falls in the former category. It’s quite likely that this webcomic draws a lot of comparisons to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books. The gratuitous asides on the Uneyetarians and Brograhm’s Teeth, in particular, are highly reminiscent of Adams’ infamous encyclopedia entries.


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One Punch Reviews #37: American Barbarian

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When I first got into comics in the early 1990′s, everyone in the comic book press seemed to be overly worshipful of one Jack Kirby. I couldn’t understand it. Kirby’s art looked out of date and cheesy. He always used some, to my mind, pretty off-putting poses. Like where a dude’s mouth goes wide open like a frog’s. Or where a guy’s stretched out arm looked flat and badly proportioned. And the colors were just so loud and garish.

It took some growing up to finally understand why Kirby’s so revered. It’s because his artwork is so dynamic. A guy throwing a punch becomes a work of art. Plus you gotta love how he made the grotesque come to life. I appreciate his style more nowadays, especially since everything in superhero comics seems to be photoreference this, photoreference that.

Do you know who else admires Jack Kirby? Tom Scioli, creator of American Barbarian. Sure, it’s a goofy title that makes it sound like the latest webcomic thing of mashing together two unlike things and making a comic about it (Thanks a lot, Dr. McNinja). And, yes, there are a whole lot of goofy touches like a giant villain who dresses like a pharaoh and has tanks for feet. But when you think about it, would an American Barbarian seem out of place next to a Grim Reaper who wears skis or Mad-Hole, Country of the Screamers?


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The Webcomic Overlook #141: Seedless

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Let me take a moment, dear reader, to sing the praises of grape seeds. According to the Journal of Medicinal Food, grape seeds contain lipid, protein, carbohydrates, and Alton Brown’s favorite word: “polyphenols.” Grape seed extract contains a powerful antioxidant that protects the body from premature aging, disease, and decay. Extensive research shows that this is due to “its antioxidant effect to bond with collagen, promoting youthful skin, cell health, elasticity, and flexibility.”

Still, many people prefer seedless grapes over the regular kind. Let’s face it: grape seeds are inconvenient. No one likes to spit out grape seeds, after all, because it’s messy and an accidentally chewed grape seed is bitter, somewhat ruining the sweet, delicious flavor.

It turns out grapes don’t need seeds to reproduce. As long as you are not concerned about breeding, you can create new grape vines through cuttings. Commercial cultivators get seedless grapes from three sources, Thompson Seedless, Russian Seedless, and Black Monukka — which, let’s be frank, sounds like a supervillain name.

It’s comforting to know that I am not the only person who thinks about these things. The same thoughts seem to have crossed the sugar-fevered mind of Corey Lewis (or, as he likes to sign his comics, “Coreyyy Lewis”), who seems to have a hidden agenda against the polyphenol-rich goodness of grape seeds. For you see, in his anime-inspired webcomic Seedless, it is the ones with the grape seeds who are cast as supervillians and the seedless grapes who are the heroes.


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The Webcomic Overlook #134: Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life

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The one sci-fi book that left the deepest impression on me is quite possibly Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Some hardcore sci-fi readers might probably sneer at this endorsement, dismissing the book and the “trilogy” it spawned as “Monty Python In Space.” Which it is, by the way. The greatest aspect of Hitchhiker’s Guide is that it’s very funny.

I like to think that there’s something more than just the humor that keeps the Hitchhiker’s Guide fandom strong, though. At the core of all the silliness about Vogons and towels and Marvin the Paranoid Android and the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, there’s a kernel of utter existential despair. The characters spend all their time looking for an answer to the meaning of their existence. When they find it, they realize that the answer is ultimately useless. Furthermore, they pretty much already know the answer anyway: there is no answer, and even if you did find something that claimed to have the answer, it would be utterly useless. This despair ultimately got the best of Mr. Adams. His last two books, So Long and Thanks for the Fish and Mostly Harmless, get so dark and joyless that there’s a strong cadre of fans who like to pretend that they don’t exist. Adams’ widow had to approach Eion Colfer to write a coda (And Another Thing…) that wasn’t so damn depressing.

Still, I think it’s that kernel of despair — alongside with the satire, the goofy footnotes, and the nutty characters — that makes Hitchhhiker’s Guide so loved by many. Fans might also notice that the same eccentric mix can also be found in the webcomic I’m reviewing today: Kit Roebuck’s Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life … which, frankly, has a title that makes it sound like some indie film Oscar bait. Also, no word yet on why we’re still counting Pluto.


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