30 March 2011

Webcomic Review: 69 Love Songs

69 Love Songs Illustrated is not necessarily a webcomic, but it caught my interest. It's the product of a group of about 30 or so London illustrators who, over Twitter, decided to bond together in mutual admiration of the Magnetic Fields and attempt to illustrate all 69 of the band's love songs. Each submission is different, ranging from short comics to collages.

23 March 2011

Webcomic Review: Blue

Oh man. I am a big fan of strict black & white comics, with perhaps a splash of grey ink wash, but this is a wonderful color comic that I like--muted blues and tans with black & white. Very nicely done, and I like the slow dramatic pacing.

Webcomic Review: Muktuk Wolfsbreath, Hard Boiled Shaman

This comic is pretty nice. It's only 10 pages in but it updates 3 times a week so it shouldn't be too painful between posts. I think I'll be visiting this one often. I like the color scheme and the stylized illustration.

Webcomic Review: Doctor Cat

It's about a cat that is also a doctor. 'Nuff said.

09 March 2011

Webcomic Review: Gingerbread Girl

The Gingerbread Girl is on the Top Shelf Comix website as part of their TS2.0. It's updated in three page posts and follows a girl who believes her father removed the part of her brain that registers physical and emotional feelings, which she calls her gingerbread girl. All of the characters, including a pigeon, talk to the camera to help introduce backstory and move the story along.

Webcomics Review: Lackadaisy

Lackadaisy is a webcomic by Tracy J. Butler, who says "It's about a gang of tenacious (if not shady) characters running a St. Louis speakeasy in the era of Prohibition. I suppose it falls somewhere in the realm of historical fiction, parody, dark comedy, and abject nonsense." Oh, and they're cats, and it's really nicely done.



Also, Tracy put together this nice looking and informative tutorial on facial expressions that anyone drawing comics could benefit from.

Webcomic Review: Scott McCloud

Scott McCloud, whose name should be very familiar to illustration students, wrote a serial webcomic about a mathematics major who discovers a link between personally compatible women and the similarity of their phone numbers. The full story is on his website in an interesting format--each panel displays alone, with the next one buried in the current panel's center. The reader clicks through as each panel expands to fullscreen. I like the idea of displaying a finished story arc in an interactive way like this. Also, like stacking panels to be scrolled down and read, it helps in timing and surprise, since you can't accidentally skip ahead visually and ruin something.

02 March 2011

Webcomic Review: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

SMBC is one of those webcomics with recurring characters and themes, but usually different characters every time. Sometimes the comics involve characters from comic books or pop culture, but unlike a lot of webcomics that focus on the DC & Marvel universes, the references aren't usually over my head, like the one below.