Before I begin, I owe you all an apology. Yes, I know I’ve been gone since November, and I have a perfectly good reason for that.

I’ve been dealing with a lot of real-life problems over the past few months. I’ve been under a lot of stress. I’ve been working on an internship (and I still am). My sister got engaged and has moved out, so we have to save money over the next year while we make wedding preparations. My family has also had to deal with health problems that I’d rather not get into. It’s been a stressful few months, and thankfully, the worst of it is out of our way, and I feel confident enough to be updating this blog again.

Anyway, there has been a recent trend in Hollywood movies to adapt popular fairy tales for the big screen. So why not review a webcomic that does that as well?

Title: Erstwhile
Author: Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy, Elle Skinner (artists), Brothers Grimm (writers)
Start Date: 2011
Genre: Fantasy
Update Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
Website: http://www.erstwhiletales.com

Synopsis:

Erstwhile isn’t bound to just one story, but several. This webcomic adapts the lesser-known tales from the classic German folk lore writers, the Brothers Grimm. Each of the three artists takes their turn adapting and interpreting one story at a time. (Note: Although Gina Biggs is credited with “adapting the story” on nearly all of them, the illustrators are left to their own devices.)

Recommended Age Group: All ages.

Strengths:

Each comic is stunningly gorgeous to look at. Even though this comic is drawn and colored by three different people, their art styles complement each other nicely. It’s also fun to watch how each interpretation plays out, depending on their ranges of narration and visual flair. It also helps that they’re specifically adapting the more obscure titles from the Grimms and none of the popular ones. You won’t see anything that was already covered by Disney in this series.

Weaknesses:

Unlike adaptations which like to modernize a classic fairy tale or play it for parody, the artists adapt the Grimms’ tales completely straight, as they were originally written. If you’ve read these stories before, you will be spoiled on how the tales end.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. Children and adults alike would love this. They would be great in school courses for exposure and critique. This comic is a fantastic gateway to explore the often overlooked tales by these classic authors.

I’ve really been terrified to do this particular comic for the longest time due to its reputation, but now that it’s over, I feel I should give it a eulogy.

Title: Ctrl+Alt+Del
Author: Tim Buckley
Start Date: 2002
Genre: Gaming
Update Schedule: Complete (a reboot is underway)
Website: http://www.cad-comic.com

Synopsis:

Ctrl+Alt+Del can be defined as two different types of comic. The first is a standard gag-a-day strip where a bunch of roommates play video games. The other involves these same characters–best friends Ethan and Lucas, Ethan’s girlfriend Lilah, and their robot Zeke–who deal with everyday situations in their lives, including relationships, jobs, and the occasional adventure.

Recommended Age Group: 15 and up, due to cursing and violence.

Strengths:

What makes CAD stand out among most gaming webcomics is that it has one characteristic that others lack: a story. Gaming webcomics are generally not designed to have storylines due to their overly comical nature; they usually make referential humor and little else. As much as the comic has been overly divisive (see the Weaknesses, because we’ve got a LOT to cover!), I can at least give Buckley credit for adding variety to a rather stale genre.

Unfortunately, just having one unique trait doesn’t make up for its many, MANY shortcomings…

Weaknesses:

Tim Buckley loves to copy and paste.

Every single character has the same face. He uses Google Images for backgrounds and adds a Gaussian blur. Lighting and shading are inconsistent. Simply put, Buckley’s talents as an artist are notably limited.

The characters aren’t well-defined, either. Ethan has been criticized for being a Mary Sue. He’s a constant jerk and he gets away with every stupid thing he does. Even worse, he winds up with all the rewards in the comic. He becomes married to the girl of his dreams, despite not showing his affections for her. He manages to construct two sentient robots that perfectly mimic life. He creates his own holiday and a church for it. He easily outwits all his opponents and winds up owning a gaming shop despite having no business experience. Finally, the characters have to apologize to HIM for all the wrongdoing that HE caused.

Remember how I mentioned that CAD is divided into two comics in the synopsis? They tend to clash constantly, interrupting the storylines with abrupt comedy and killing the tension once the drama reaches its peak.

The humorous comics aren’t structured well, either. A common complaint of the comic is that the punchline is revealed too early, leaving the rest of the panels as meandering filler. This tongue-in-cheek parody of the comic exemplifies this particular issue with the strips.

The comic also breaks the show-don’t-tell rule constantly, relying on long dialogue balloons and walls of text to get the point across (comically or dramatically) rather than allowing the characters to express their emotions.

Verdict:

I give this comic a halfhearted recommendation, if only a rather faint one. Despite all my criticisms, I don’t think it’s as nail-bitingly awful as other webcomics on the Internet. The comic still has a large fanbase, and if you’ve never read it, you could probably give it a quick read and determine for yourself whether or not you would like it. It’s over, so it definitely wouldn’t hurt.

Personally, I used to read this comic many years ago when I was developing my reading habits for webcomics. I enjoyed it during its early days, but then I grew out of it when the flaws started to become more apparent. And they just continued to worsen. I stopped reading around the time the animated series came out (yes, there was an animated series, and it’s best left forgotten).

I wish Buckley best of luck on the reboot. I don’t think I’ll be tuning in, though.

Title: Romantically Apocalyptic
Author: Vitaly S. Alexius
Start Date: 2009
Genre: Sci-fi, dark comedy
Update Schedule: Saturdays
Website: http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com

Synopsis:

Sometime in the future, excessive radioactive pollution has transformed the Earth’s biosphere, causing plant and animal mutations and transforming it into a decaying wasteland known as the Dead Zone. 99% of humanity has escaped from the literal Hell outdoors by moving into large domes and remaining connected to the Internet 24/7 to a large machine, ANNET (“Annie”), which had become sentient over time and, due to an accident and sabotage with the servers, caused it to go berserk and nearly wipe out or zombify humanity. To make matters worse, the remaining 1% who can’t use ANNET have difficulty sleeping due to dreams becoming copyrighted (yes, seriously) by the world’s largest corporation, leading to headaches and occasional nightmares.

The story centers around a military squad joined with the 1%–Captain, Charles “Sniper” Snippy, Pilot, and Alexander “Engie/Engineer” Gromov–who launch a nuclear strike on ANNET and have to deal with nightmares, time travel, and the horrors of the Dead Zone.

Recommended Age Group: 12 and up, mainly due to language.

Strengths:

The artwork is absolutely outstanding! Alexius is a professional photographer who takes pictures of models and actors and morphs them into beautiful compositions with PhotoShop. This is one of the best uses of the software I’ve ever seen.

Weaknesses:

It may be hard to follow along with the story for some readers. The comic has a tendency to blur the line between dreams and reality, so the writing is very mind-screwy and not exactly a clear-cut adventure. I had trouble following the story myself, and I actually had to consult a Wiki just to make heads or tails of everything. After reading through it, the details still aren’t exactly clear.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. If you’re a fan of stories with apocalyptic settings, the psychology of dreams, or just want to look at stunningly gorgeous art, this comic is definitely up your alley! Just be prepared to pay attention, or you may get lost and have to reread through the archives or the Wiki I provided above.

Title: Evil, Inc.
Author: Brad J. Guigar (writer/artist), Ed Ryzowski (colorist)
Start Date: 2005
Genre: Superhero, parody, comedy, satire
Update Schedule: Daily
Website: http://www.evil-comic.com

Synopsis:

Evil, Inc. is a corporation run by supervillains, whose goal is to provide evil-doers everywhere with the tools and services they need to thwart superheroes and enact their plans of crime and world domination. Rather than focusing on a protagonist (this comic contains a large cast of central characters, which include staff members as well as the superheroes they face), the comic instead chooses to focus on the politics in and surrounding the corporation, providing an analogue and satire on real-world business practices.

Recommended Age Group: 12 and group. Most of the comic’s content is safe, although there is some sexual humor.

Strengths:

The comic’s art style and format are very reminiscent of newspaper comic strips. The characters are sympathetic and likable and it contains well-written nods to the tropes of DC and Marvel heroes and villains.

Weaknesses:

This comic contains a lot of filler, usually one strip per week. To their credit, many of these are gut-bustingly hilarious, but the author prefers to keep many of these strips in the exact same format. He basically copies and pastes them and just changes the dialogue. They tend to break the flow of the storylines, and they begin to feel redundant after a while.

Also, the author has a habit of including a bio page for EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER in the comic. It’s fine if you want to introduce main, major, or even secondary characters into the story, but here’s the problem: Guigar also gives bios to background characters who don’t even deserve them. Thankfully, Guigar rarely does this anymore, but it can make for a very annoying read when catching up through the archives.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. In the same vein as Atomic Laundromat, Evil, Inc. provides a unique take on the superhero genre that isn’t necessarily about good guys fighting bad guys. Instead, it’s a cleverly crafted social commentary that’s definitely worth a look.