Since putting my webcomic reading list on ComicRocket, and catching up on some comics I hadn’t touched for a year or more, I figured I’d try to start posting recs again.
No special theme, just things I’ve caught up with lately:
Helvetica – Recently-dead skeleton kid tries to figure out the afterlife. Long-form story, but we don’t know enough yet for the mysteries to have any dramatic heft. I’m mostly reading this one for the pretty, atmospheric art. It’s great with color. (It’s a little weird that the female characters have eyelashes on their bare skulls, but eh, I can let it go.)
Ellie on Planet X – Speaking of a way with color! Adorable exploratory robot hangs out on an alien planet. Gag-a-day with occasional short story arcs. Sweet characters and lovely art make this a great comfort read. And, ooh, there’s a graphic novel in progress? I’m here for this.
Alice! – Imaginative young teens have adventures, both in their real school-home lives and in Alice’s various fantasies. Arc-based, mostly comedy, with occasional well-handled shifts into drama. (This strip was in hibernation last time I checked, and seems to have de-hibernated and then re-hibernated in the meantime.)
The characters age and grow over the course of the strip, and one thing I really appreciate is how the main girls hit the balance between “still basically a kid” and “young adult” in different ways. And none of them are “wrong” — none of their interests get mocked or denigrated as Growing Up Too Fast, or Not Growing Up Fast Enough.
Zebra Girl – Ordinary young woman gets turned into a stripey demon. Starts as this cute gag-a-day thing, then levels up, in a big way. The artwork is incredible — I love what the artist does with shapes, patterns, and motifs, and the amount of linework in a single page is kinda gobsmacking.
A main antagonist-y character just got back from this big character-building spirit-quest, and is back in the real world. The other mains don’t know about the quest, so they’re pretty apprehensive, but I’ve got fingers crossed that things are looking up.
TUNE – directionless artist gets kidnapped by aliens to be put in an extradimensional zoo. Also, one of them secretly wants to learn to draw. (There’s some gross humor, but if you can squint and get past that, it’s a good story.)
Officially on hiatus, and collected into two graphic novels — I can’t tell if ordering them now will be helpful or if the cartoonist has moved on to more profitable ventures, but I’m putting them on my local library’s to-order list, just in case.
