Title: Kiwi Blitz
Author: Mary Cagle
Start Date: 2009
Genre: Sci-fi, action, comedy
Update Schedule: Tuesdays, Thursdays
Website: http://www.kiwiblitz.com

Synopsis:

The comic takes place in a future where animalistic mech sports tournaments are all the rage. One pilot, Steffi Frohlich, gets bored with being stuck in the junior league (and in an embarrassing elephant robot). To celebrate her 14th birthday with a new gift she receives–a new bird robot–she decides to use her new mech to fight crime instead. Her escapades lead her to several run-ins with the police as well as the attention of two of the city’s most famous criminals, Gear and the Raccoon.

Steffi’s new double-life also leads to a troubling dynamic with her friends and family. While her father is perfectly okay with it, her childhood friend is reluctant to the point where he wouldn’t want to be her friend anymore.

Recommended Age Group: 12 and up. There’s minor blood and language.

Strengths:

All the characters are instantly likable. Everyone–main characters, secondary characters, minor characters, even the villains–is energetic and a total joy to read.

The artwork is also worth mentioning. It’s gloriously drawn and rich in detail. Everything from color to lighting to even the details on background characters is very well done.

Weaknesses:

Steffi’s motivation to become a crime fighter feels rather weak. She’s choosing to risk her life because she’s bored with doing sports? It comes off as rather selfish. I understand that the author did this to give the main character a flaw, but I feel that there could have been better ways to introduce it, especially since later circumstances (which I will not spoil) explore her flaw in greater detail.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. It’s a fun and exciting series to read with a great story and fun characters. The archive isn’t very long, so you can breeze through it in an hour or two.

Title: Buni
Author: Ryan Pagelow
Start Date: 2010
Genre: Fantasy, dark comedy
Update Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
Website: http://www.bunicomic.com

Synopsis:

Buni takes place in a cartoony fantasy world where animals are the primary species and other mystical elements exist like sentient clouds and a smiling sun. The titular character, Buni, is a naive bunny (obviously) who is the constant victim of his world. His actions always have consequences either on him or the people close to him. He’s deeply in love with a female bunny (who we only know as “Buni Girl”), but she’s in a relationship with a beefier male than him.

Recommended Age Group: All ages.

Strengths:

If you suffered through the archive of Subnormality after reading my article on it, you’ll be relieved to know that Buni is the exact opposite: There is no dialogue in this comic whatsoever! All the speech balloons in this comic utilize pictures instead of text. The archive makes for a very quick read.

The artwork is also notable. The simplistic style perfectly matches the tone and the content that we should expect of a work of this type.

Weaknesses:

There are several recurring characters in this strip aside from the ones mentioned in the synopsis. Buni’s father, a mob of bears, and lawn gnomes who constantly raid Buni’s house show up constantly in the strips, so as a consequence of having a lack of dialogue, the entire cast of characters in this comic goes unnamed.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. It’s a great example of how storytelling can be told through visuals alone. Just be warned that this comic can get very dark and depressing at times.

(Note: I’ve saved the image for the middle of the review rather than the beginning.)

This request comes from testobject at Extra Curricular.

Title: Subnormality
Author: Winston Rowntree
Start Date: 2007
Genre: Comedy
Update Schedule: Whenever
Website: http://www.viruscomix.com/subnormality.html

Synopsis:

Subnormality is a gag-a-day strip, so it doesn’t really have any plot. It does, however, have a few central characters, a setting, and a running gag that makes the strip rather infamous.

The comic (mostly) takes place in a quirky metropolitan city where occasional fantasy and science fiction elements occur in it.

The two central characters are the Sphinx from the Oedipus mythology (although in this comic, her name is spelled “Sphynx”) and an unnamed girl with pink hair who tries desperately to make it through her miserable life under terrible working conditions and substandard wages–the closest thing this comic has to anything resembling a plot.

Other recurring characters include two neo-Nazis who travel through time, a woman named Justine (the author never states it; you had to actually READ THE FILENAME just to find out) whose interests in male activities disrupts the laws of physics and reality, a female demon from Hell who’s VERY interested in humans (if you know what I mean ;)), and many, many others who would probably make this post last way longer than it should be.

The running gag I mentioned above would be better explained in the strengths and weaknesses.

Recommended Age Group: 15 and up. There’s a LOT of swearing in this strip.

Strengths:

I think I’ll let the below image demonstrate what makes this strip so infamous.

The running gag is that you’d have to read walls of text in every strip. The above image provided is actually one of the SHORTEST strips in the entire archive. (You’re welcome.)

Rowntree is actually a pretty smart writer. He can manage to write extensive amounts of dialogue in each strip, then bring in an amusing punchline at the end of the strip that ties everything together. The style of humor is like watching a standup comedian or listening to someone have their own creative variation on “The Aristocrats” (sans the gruesome descriptions). The payoff is well worth the wait.

Weaknesses:

Obviously, the comic’s main feature is also its own downfall. The strip still has yet to reach 200 strips (there are only 193 as of this writing), and it’s mentally torturous to try to read through the whole archive in one sitting. To put this into perspective, 200 strips is typically a very quick read for a webcomic–you might breeze through it in an hour or two. In Subnormality‘s case, you might need more than a day just to get through this tiny archive. It takes several minutes just to read one strip alone.

Verdict:

I give this comic a halfhearted recommendation. You’ll either consider it one of the most brilliant endurance tests ever created, or toss it aside and forget it. If you plan to read through the whole thing, I’d recommend reading it with friends or playing a game to relieve the stress of going it alone. Have a stopwatch ready and see who can read the longest strips in the shortest amount of time, or see how many strips you can read in a set amount of time. Have fun!