Manga Punk - Web and Digital Comics

Penny and Aggie

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 07:24:53 -0500

Another Teen Bit high school comic. The early storylines are centred around two teenage girls, Penny and Aggie, who are constrasting in almost everyway- and hence are the perfect "best of enermies". Penny is obsessed with her looks and is very popular, whereas Aggie is determined to save the world and make people care about current issues. Both know how to dish out the insults. It all sounds very typical- but it's not.

Ugly Girl

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 10:48:01 -0500

The life of the "Ugly" girl. All the relatable traumors that come with high school.

Platinum Grit

Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:23:19 -0500

This story begins with the stars making a bet between themselves, involving killing off all of the people with the zodiac sign Aquarius. Jeremy (who is Aquarius), works in a coffee shop, and finds out that he has to fight his cousin Dougal to inherit an entire castle. Nils trains him so that he can win, although the reason behind this is probably for her own benefit rather than for his. Jeremy discovers what weapon works best for him, and it is fish.

Which isn't very good against cousin Dougal's sword.

From here the journey goes from match-making aliens to a crazed zoo-keeper that stalks Jeremy, and there's more!

Fifth Webcomic Review - Lancaster The Ghost Detective

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 18:39:55 -0500

Fifth Review - Lancaster The Ghost Detective
Lancaster The Ghost Detective

http://lancaster.spiderspawn.com/

Pro:
Well it was refreshing to see a simple, cute, light, fun action adventure story as a webcomic. A really nice change of pace. Also I liked how they weren’t afraid to experiment with various art techniques. The creator does black and white, tone shading and hatchwork and manages to pull it off rather well.

Cons:
Remember how I just said I liked it as a fun action adventure story? Well the comic doesn’t stay that way. Rather abruptly, in my opinion, the story gets a bit dark and not as fun any more. Story elements of betrayal, suffering, pain, death, malevolence, and cruelty all of a sudden come out basically at once. Yes I know a story about ghosts is not going to be all happy, but this felt like a major turn in the tone and style of the comic. Also while I applaud the creator’s experimentations with the art, I do have some points of contention about it. Mainly while he was trying all these styles he was forgetting a very basic rule of inking, line weight. There’s was no sense of depth or dimension because of that lack of line weight. The creator seemed to pick up on it much later in the comic but then would seem to only use it for black and white. Still no line weight for color. Also the experimentation was nice but it was a bit random and haphazard. At first I thought maybe it was for dramatic effect, but after awhile it would just switch from color to hatch to shaded at a whim. And the final nick pick about the art is that while I understand its dark for dramatic purposes, it doesn’t help much if the coloring is too dark and muddy that I can follow what’s going on.

Pot smoking angel+in charge=not good!

Wed, 7 Jun 2006 19:32:13 -0500

When a pot smoking angel in heaven tries his hardest to stay on his bosses good side he makes some cover-ups. Only that his cover-ups turn two peoples live up-side-down.

The Dreamland Chronicles

Wed, 31 May 2006 13:53:52 -0500

Ever since he could remember, Alexander was a dreamer. Every night when he would go to sleep he would enter a world called Dreamland. Nightly he would have adventures with his very best friends, Kiwi the fairy, Paddington Rumblebottom the rock boy, and Nastajia the princess of elves. Together they would fly on winged horses, swim with mermaids, battle nightmare pirates, and chase after one eyed giants.

On his 12th birthday, while in Dreamland Alexander uncovers a lost tomb. Inside he finds a sword, and guarding it…a dragon. Before the dragon can kill him, Alexander wakes up…never to dream again.

Bah Bah Black Sheep..

Wed, 24 May 2006 04:24:44 -0500

A comic about 4 Sheep and a Scarecrow that thinks he is Jesus.

Web Comic Review #4 - Loserz

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 22:07:40 -0600

Fourth Review – Loserz
Loserz

http://loserz.scribblekid.org/

Pros:
The art evolves from a very rough style that heavily apes an anime style to its own unique individualistic cartooning style. Also the characters go from merely being props for simplistic jokes to actually being fleshed out personalities.

Cons:
First off I’m getting this feeling that maybe some webcomics shouldn’t be read in large doses because the development of the webcomic is so organic and not as methodical. But thinking about that, I don’t know if I would have stuck around so long for the creator to find his voice (or change his voice). The first part of the webcomic is just bland Anime/Video Game/School/Sex/Pop culture humor that too many webcomics seems to rely on. I honestly didn’t laugh once while reading it because the humor was too obvious or too contrived. Then later as the creator seems to get a feel for the characters that he’s been writing for so long, he starts to make them have “real” issues and there’s all this drama and angst flying around. I’m sorry but the early strips of the webcomic didn’t really endear me to the characters, so I don’t see why I would be interested in their problems now that they’ve added a 3rd dimension.

Third Review – Supernatural Law

Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:08:35 -0600

Note-
This webcomic is somewhat different in design and aims. Supernatural Law is a long running printed comic book that has also been collected in several trade paperbacks. Now some print comics have moved exclusively to the web, but Supernatural Law has gone to the web to further promote itself and add additional content to other fans. The printed comics will continue being made and new additional stories will be made on the web. I’ve heard about a lot of various comics preferring one form of delivery over another, like web vs. printed, but I have to say this is the best idea I’ve seen yet on the matter. The obvious downside is that is a lot of work, but if you’re doing it for a living then maybe it’s not. For an interview about Supernatural Law going to the web, go to:

Web Comic Review #2 - Wapsi Square

Wed, 8 Feb 2006 14:15:35 -0600

Note - The first review is mine and the second is from my sidekick

First Review

Pros –
The biggest thing I noticed about Wapsi Square is that the art really showed a mark improvement from the beginning is the art. At the beginning it was a very loose unsure style, but over time it because into a more detailed and fleshed out style. And even better it’s unique and can be recognized as the artists own style.

Cons –
Way too many Titties and Ass jokes. Way too many. Titties, titties, titties, ass, ass, ass, titties, and ass. A lot of the humor seems to revolve around juvenile sexual humor and innuendo. And that type of humor only seems to confuse me more about the comic as it goes through a directional shift. At the beginning of the comic, is all about sight gags, simple humor, and "You had to be there" jokes. Then the comic start taking a shift toward a much darker bent with a lot of personal angst and some weird mystical stuff. It’s fairly clear in the beginning that the creator didn't have a firm grasp on his plotting, so it was simple gag strip stuff and latter he tries to throw in new elements. Problem is that he didn't really incorporate it well. The creator had all the subtlety and finesses of a brick hitting you in the head. The comic had a certain story logic to it, and the creator starts to ignore the setting he created to make it fit plot ideas he comes up with latter.

Web comic review: Wandering Ones

Wed, 1 Feb 2006 20:32:32 -0600

Note - I and a friend both did a review on this webcomic and will use this format on other webcomics reviews.

First Review - Wandering Ones
Wandering Ones

Pros:
First off I am a tad bit biased to this book, because I really enjoyed all those Post Apocalypse movies during the 80's, so Wandering Ones and their Post Apocalypse setting is right up my alley. Also the artist uses more traditional sequential paneling and storytelling, so it's something I find to be a lot more enjoyable to read. With the more comic sequential art, more can be told than the typical 4 panel webcomic. Now mind you in the earlier part of the comic, they use the more simple 4 panel layouts, but it's more like Prince Valiant than say Garfield in it's usage. The art is consistent through out the pages of this webcomic. There's a lot of detail to the characters and the backgrounds are very well fleshed out.