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!

Title: Three Panel Soul
Author: Ian McConville (artist), Matthew Boyd (writer)
Start Date: 2006
Genre: Slice of life, dark comedy
Update Schedule: Weekly
Website: http://threepanelsoul.com

Synopsis:

Three Panel Soul is the sequel to Ian and Matt’s previous webcomic, Mac Hall (which I’d recommend checking out if you’ve never read it). For those of you who haven’t read Mac Hall, it chronicled a group of slackers–authors included–who resided in MacDonald Hall, a dormitory in Bowling Green State University (a real life college in Ohio). The comic ended in 2006 after Ian and Matt graduated. Three Panel Soul takes place after they’ve left college and are now out on their own in the world. The comic is titled after its format: every strip is no more or less than three panels.

Recommended Age Group: 12 and up. Objectionable content in this comic is minimal, but the subject matter may still be a bit too dark for younger, undeveloped minds.

Strengths:

Ian’s amazing Photoshop skills carry on from Mac Hall to this comic. The art varies greatly, depending on whether the artist wants to be more cartoony or realistic.

Weaknesses:

The lack of color seems a bit jarring. In Mac Hall, the color made the backgrounds look gorgeous and really pop out like eye candy. Now that his comics are black and white (save for his video game-themed strips), the backgrounds feel rather lacking; the blurriness seems to pop out more than the abstraction (see the below image for a comparison).

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. It’s not a requirement to read Mac Hall first, although I highly recommend that as well; the art is especially breathtaking in his old comic. Ian is an artist who’s definitely worthy of your attention.

Title: The Abominable Charles Christopher
Author: Karl Kerschl
Start Date: 2007
Genre: Dark fantasy, comedy
Update Schedule: Wednesdays
Website: http://www.abominable.cc

Synopsis:

Charles Christopher is a mindless, speechless yeti who resides in Cedar Forest, which is under threat of human occupation by a powerful king. From a hilltop above the forest, Charles is sent on a mission by a wind spirit to retrieve the king from the human city. We also see side-stories from the many animals of the forest that Charles encounters on his journey.

Recommended Age Group: All ages.

Strengths:

The art is breathtaking. Kerschl’s artwork captures the beauty of the forest and the gorgeous scenery.

It’s also a well-executed take on the environmentalist man vs. nature story without driving its message into you repeatedly.

Weaknesses:

This comic has filler. Lots and lots of filler. In fact, it suffers from one of the worst cases of Filleritis I’ve ever seen. Remember when I mentioned in the synopsis that we see side-stories from the animals of the forest? Well, it happens TOO often in this comic. The story shifts away from Charles’ journey much too constantly, usually just to tell a joke. Sometimes the filler lasts for two or three weeks at a time. It’s irritating and it slows down the pacing. It especially doesn’t help when the comic only updates once a week, making it feel like a chore just waiting for the story to continue.

Aside from nearly bringing the comic to a screeching halt, the fillers also have a drastic tonal shift: They’re more comical while the main story is rather dark. It makes for a very jarring experience.

Verdict:

I give this comic a halfhearted recommendation. Reading the main story is a delight, but if you decide to give it a chance, be wary of the fillers ahead of time. You may be skipping roughly half the archive (no joke). This comic has been running for four years, and it’s running at a snail’s pace. The author has just FINALLY gotten into the good stuff as of the most recent update. He recently ended a chapter in which Charles has finally gotten what he needs; now he has to return to the mountain. What peril will await him there? Stay tuned…

Title: Fusion
Author: Essay Bee
Start Date: 2009
Genre: Superhero, action, parody
Update Schedule: Tuesdays
Website: http://www.drunkduck.com/Essay_Bee_Comics_Presents_Fusion

Synopsis:

Savunn Adams is a nerdy high school student with an obsession with comic books, anime, and Star Wars. One night, while observing a meteor shower with her astronomy club, a freak explosion occurs before the shower, and she gains supernatural powers from an interdimensional entity, becoming the titular hero Fusion.

The alien who fused with her, whose name is hard to pronounce–she calls him Bob–has imbued her with flight and powerful light beams, and he can speak to her telepathically. She’s also aware that she’s a comic book hero; Bob informs Savunn that she’s a popular franchise in alternate universes (but not in her own universe), so she and Bob are able to address the reader through narration.

Over the course of the comic, Fusion has to deal with joining the Stupendous Alliance of Superheroes and her trust with the group (due to reasons I won’t spoil, her relation with the SAS is rocky) and having to deal with villains and other alien beings of Bob’s kind that have inhabited other hosts.

Recommended Age Group: All ages. This comic’s content is clean of language and violence.

Strengths:

The art style is great! It’s very reminiscent of Bruce Timm’s DC Animated Universe series.

The characters are engaging and diverse, especially the main character, who is instantly likable and energetic.

Fans of comic books and comic-related media will notice tons of references to their favorite series and creators (some are obvious, others not so much). See if you can spot them!

Weaknesses:

What we see of Savunn’s civilian life is actually quite minimal compared to other superheroes. We never see her adoptive parents (they’re shown in a family picture in her origin story, but beyond that, they’re never seen again), and every time she’s with her friends, the scene feels like a generic buildup that could really be replaced with any scene. All it really serves is for her to hide from view and power up. It just seems like Savunn has no need to concern balancing her civilian life, which is typically a problem for other heroes.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. It’s a great read if you’re a fan of Bruce Timm or comic heroes in general. It’s also age-appropriate if you want to get your kids into comics or if they want a new one to whet their appetites.

Title: Happle Tea
Author: Scott Maynard
Start Date: 2005 (went online in 2009)
Genre: Fantasy, comedy
Update Schedule: Tuesdays, Fridays
Website: http://www.happletea.com

Synopsis:

Happle Tea is a gag-a-day webcomic that makes fun of all forms of mythology, from the early days of Greek literature to the Middle Ages of Shakespearean plays to modern day lore such as Bigfoot.

The main character is K, an avatar of the author who causes mischief with these iconic characters. He has a sasquatch for a roommate and regularly interacts with God (who has many forms, but mostly prefers being a cat).

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

Strengths:

The art style is simplistic, yet very effective. It’s a very pretty comic to look at, and it improves drastically after just two years.

It also deserves credit for its original idea. While a majority of webcomics might focus on popular topics like, for example, video games (which is very overused and I’ll probably get into sometime in the future), it’s nice to see authors take roads that are less traveled.

Weaknesses:

As I stated in my intro, I’ll try to point out any possible weaknesses in the comics I like, but for my first review, it’s hard to find any problems with this one without sounding like a nitpick.

I guess one problem I can find is Allev. He’s supposedly K’s best friend and is advertised on the page’s "About" button and the FAQ page, but he rarely shows up in the comic, and when he does appear, he’s pretty bland. He’s mainly just there to help build up the punchline that K would eventually finish. Maynard could use any other character and I don’t think it would make a difference.

Again, this is only a minor gripe that has little effect on the comic whatsoever, so it doesn’t really hurt the overall quality.

Verdict:

I give this comic a wholehearted recommendation. If you want to show this to your kids, they might need at least an understanding of mythology and classic literature before diving in, and even if you or they missed some of the jokes, the author provides helpful commentary to better help you understand what he’s parodying in each strip.