vansau / Member

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The world is my canvas...

Yes, I know: I wish she was a game character, too.
The past few days have been a bit of a blessing because they've let me catch up on my sleep... at the moment I'm putting off studying for my exit exams and am instead working on more constructive things like finally playing Black & White 2 (an insanely buggy but highly enjoyable strategy game), City of Villains (I finally caved and bought the collector's edition for the art book it came with), and playing the heinous Street Supremacy for an upcoming review (I'm pretty certain that Konami should be banned from making any further PSP titles). There might have been a movie or two thrown in there (Mirrormask was pretty bold and imaginative, to be honest), but I also spent a great deal of time pursuing my favorite time-killer: webcomics. Now, as you know, my little blog-comic is something I only am able to pull off in my free time because I'm one of those college students who has a life outside of classes. In fact, I'm probably one of the least impressive students you'll ever meet since I tend to spend more time sleeping through my classes than actually attending them; I'd much rather hang out with my friends, work at one of my five jobs on campus, do freelance photography or graphic design for various Whitman groups, or fulfill my obligations as the managing editor of a certain gaming site. As a result, I don't actually have all that much free time at the moment... when I actually finish with school this semester, I'm hoping real life will allow me to slow down and devote a little more time to my art and give my friend, Doug, and I a chance to get our idea for a real webcomic off the ground. Over the past few years, these comics have become a bit of a hobby for me because
a) many of them are better written than most mainstream comics available for sale
b) several of them feature better art than you'll see in most mainstream comics
c) new issues/strips are often delivered on a much more regular basis than, say, Rob Liefeld was able to do when he actually believed in the concept of deadlines
d) many of them are a lot more mature than the aforementioned comics
e) reading them sure beats the hell out of listening to some stupid lecture about oppressed Japanese factory workers in the 19th century for a stupid exit class. So, what makes for a good webcomic? Well, it usually helps to actually have someone who can draw, but that isn't always necessary. Just look over at Daffyphack's page. Matt here has proved that stick figures can still be hysterical. Hell, your images don't even have to be from something you've drawn, you can just put in speech bubbles over pre-existing ones (but they better be damn good captions), as in the case of the Half-Life 2 comic that's skyrocketing to infamy on the web. What is really the key ingredient for a winning formula is the strength of a comic's writing. It doesn't matter if you're being funny or serious: so long as you manage to write well, you'll manage to secure an audience. It doesn't matter if you're trying to be funny or serious or heartbreaking; the beauty of the internet is that it allows you to actually touch people across the globe with your thoughts and words. As a result, if you can write memorably, you'll most likely find people who appreciate your gift. So, now that I've waxed poetic and given you my opinion about what makes a good webcomic, I'd like to offer you some recommendations for some series you might not have heard of before (I'm assuming you're all aware of the collective brilliance surrounding Penny Arcade and Applegeeks), and, if you're willing, I'd like to hear some of your suggestions for other good stuff to read: Alpha Shade: One of the more serious and ambitious forays into the online comic industry, Alpha Shade is a work in progress that features some truly innovative web design, a great anime/western fusion art, and an epic story about lost ages of mankind featuring dragon-like creatures and talking cats (trust me, they're way cooler than that talking fleabag from Sabrina the Teenaged Witch. Atland: Nate Piekos's brilliant fantasy satire is one of the most sarcastic and funny strips one can hope to find on the net. Imagine Penny Arcade in a Tolkeinesque world and you'll have a good idea about what Atland is like. Nate's currently asking for readers to submit art for his upcoming book, so this week's image is my version of what I would have Juno the Huntress look like had I created her. Fantasy Realms: Remember those amazingly pretty but rather shallow Warlands comics that were published by Image Comics a couple of years ago? Imagine those quality images and instead use characters that are actually more than your lame sword-swingers, and you've got this gem. GU Comics: Woody Hearn takes a slightly more mature attitude to his daily panels by often covering stuff that a lot of the average consumers may not be aware of, such as how LucasArts and SOE are both scrambling to cover their asses after the NGE fiasco to Snoop Dogg's upcoming involvement in the industry to the overall ridiculousness that permeates much of the MMO community. The art is great and the writing is wonderfully sarcastic, not to mention Little Gamers: A disturbingly simple and devastatingly funny comic brought to us from the faraway land of Sweden, Little Gamers uses the always classic idea of combining disgusting cuteness with side-splitting vulgarity in the form of some foul-mouthed Muppets whom are practically impossible to not like.