Damn Good Comics

So, the other day I saw this strip over at Planet Karen. And it got me thinking about about what it said. And, interestingly enough, I find myself both in agreement… and in disagreement with the proposed statement.

To start with, this topic does drag us back to the time-honored debate over “What is a webcomic?” Is it something unique and exceptional? Or is it simply comics… on the web?

Eric Burns - after several years of being the greatest advocate of webcomics - finally set that aside, and threw down the gauntlet as he said the only difference is the “fucking means of distribution.“

Is that true? If so, how come so many webcomics have a hard time being fit into the standard print comics categories? There are some webcomics that feel like newspaper strips, yes, and there are some that feel like comic books - but there are also plenty that are a mix of the two. Or something else entirely.

For that matter, is he also saying there is no difference between newspaper comics and comic books? Is the only difference between them a matter of distribution?

So let’s take a step back, and ask the question - what are short form and long form comics? Looking up “short form comics” on the internet, wikipedia for once has no easy answer. While many seem familiar with the term, the only definition I can find (in an admittedly brief search) comes from the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards, who define it as comics “comics with shorter formats with regular gags, or beats to it’s story to reflect each individual strip. Traditionally these comics fit (but not restricted to) ‘Comic Strip’ formats.”

That seems, certainly, the understood definition. The Eisner Awards do not define it - but then, they are focused on the other side of the field in general, the long-form comic, so perhaps they need no such delineations. It may simply be understood that short-form works are outside their field of interest. Oh, they had a category devoted to them in, say, ‘92 and ‘93, and specific creators are occasionally selected for the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame… but those are the very, very rare exceptions.

So, moving on to long-form comics, which the WCCA offers up as “comics with longer formats and extended, continuous storylines. Traditionally these comics fit (but not restricted to) ‘Comic Book’ formats.” Again, this seems the commonly understood meaning of the term. And, again, the Eisner Awards don’t directly define it - the only mention comes in during the “Digital Comics” category wherein they specify that the webcomics must be “long-form stories published online.”

(I apologize if I simply seem to be laying out obvious information - I am attempting, slowly but steadily, to work towards a point.)

So, the Eisner Awards seem to limit webcomics to only long-form works in the same fashion that they limit the rest of the rewards to comic books, or comic book related material. Fair enough.

But… wait just one second! In 2006, the Digital Comic award went to… PvP.

Now, you can say whatever you wish about PvP, but one thing that is undeniable is that it follows the standard conventions of newspaper comic strips. Four-panel layout, daily updates, color sundays, gag-a-day punchlines, etc, etc, etc. Oh, it tells a growing story, certainly - characters change and grow, new characters are introduced while older ones fade away.

But there are plenty of regular newspaper comic strips that do the same. For Better or For Worse was the poster child for this, but there remain others for which this is true. Hell - take a look at all of the soap opera style strips! Suddenly you have nothing but story. 

What does this mean? Are they not short-form comics? Are they not newspaper comics? That is clearly their publishing format, yet they seem to defy other expectations of the genre. If PvP can be honored in the Eisner Awards, why can’t they?

Or is there something different about being online that allows PvP, despite its nature, to qualify as a long-form work? The presence of an archive could be the reason - it allows one to read the entire story in one sitting. On the other hand… that option is open for comic strips, too - it isn’t as immediately accessible, or as free, but it is there.

Or perhaps all of these categories are inherently flawed, and webcomics simply serve to make those flaws more apparent.

There are, after all, webcomics that are both about short-term laughs and long-term storytelling. There are webcomics styled like comic strips and ones styled like comic books. There are ones that use elements of both… and others that resembled neither.

Of course, the same might be said of some alternative comics, or various self-published works. I’m by no means an expert in such fields, but I’m sure there have been comics put forward before that defied easy definition or categorization.

What is a webcomic?

That is the question brought up earlier, isn’t it? If you asked me what I thought of when webcomics come to mind, I would list the following elements: Accessibility, lack of any direct fees for reading the comic, freedom from editorial control, open and comprehensive archives, supplementary material such as cast pages and story guides, and internal communities in which the reader and the audience could engage in communication. And yet - these are elements found in the majority of webcomics out there, and they are certainly a good guideline as to the quality of a webcomic… but they don’t define them. An online comic that lacks one, or two, or even all of these elements is still a comic on the web. Is there a difference between this and this and this?

Let me put forth a hypothetical situation. Currently there are many newspaper comics being updated online at the same time they are updated in the paper. The comic book companies are now, ever so slowly, beginning to place their own material online. Let’s fast forward a bit, and say that all such comics were now available online.

What defines a webcomic then?

I mean, clearly there will still be differences, right? Such as the elements I listed above - even when all the newspaper comics are posted online, they will still be under the control of the syndicates, still lack supplementary material, still lack internal communities.

Or will they?

For Better or For Worse. Classic print comic. And right there it has every classic webcomic element I listed. It is online, it is free, it has over five years of archives available, it is a comic that has shown itself willing to delve into territory normal avoided in the papers, it has a ton of supplementary material, and while I couldn’t hunt down a forum, it does have open lines of communication.

On the other hand, Mary Worth doesn’t, nor does Luann. Does that mean FBoFW has transitioned from a newspaper comic to a webcomic? Or is it both?

Clearly there are differences between most webcomics and printed material. Differences in style and format, but also in content and in context.  But there are also equal differences between various webcomics.

Karen says “the problem is defining webcomics in terms of print comics, which they aren’t. They’re webcomics.” But right now, webcomics is simply used as this catch-all category for which everything is undefined. Despite - or perhaps because - of how incredibly diverse they are.

Karen is right - you can’t define webcomics in terms of print comics. But simply calling them webcomics is missing the big picture - eventually they will all be webcomics. The differences will still be there, though - will the old-fashioned terminology we’ve been using still suffice?

No. No it won’t.

We need new categories.

I, personally, don’t know what those categories will be. And I don’t know who is suited to decide. I don’t even know for sure if clear divisions can be drawn. But you have things like Narbonic, which tell a complete long-form story despite resembling a short-form comic on the surface. You have webcomics that pull style from one type of comic and format from another. Are they too diverse to be categorized? Maybe, maybe not.

Right now, the Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards are the closest any have come to doing so. And, let’s be honest now - they haven’t met with any spectacular success. Don’t get me wrong - I enjoy them every year, I like what they are trying to do, and I respect all of those involved for their willingness to try and get this right. But they also tend to make a variety of poor decisions, and even when they do things right, they still don’t represent the whole field of online comic creators out there.

Perhaps this is one area where the corporations and syndicates have an advantage - they are organized and largely unified. They have the resources to define their fields. Webcomics are a group of myriad individuals, often ones working hard simply trying to make a living from their work - they rarely have the time to try and form any sort of unified committee. And when they do, it ends up as the WCCA - a good attempt, but not enough to truly redefine the field.

I don’t know where one should go from here. I know that I disagree, strongly, with Mr. Burns and the idea that webcomics are identical to print comics save for the means of distribution. I know that I agree with Karen Ellis that online comics shouldn’t be defined by print comics - but I don’t know if simply labelling them as open-ended ‘webcomics’ is enough.

So, some 1,500 words later, I still haven’t arrived at a proper definition for webcomics. But then… I’m not sure I’m qualified to truly do so. I’m part of the audience - an observer and a commentator, but not much more. I’m not the one creating the comics - or relying on them for a living.

Nonetheless, I do think this is a question that needs to be answered - especially with the print comics digital initiative finally on the horizon. Because the terminology they use now is only barely adequate to the task, and will fall apart completely as they move their comics online and find differences in distribution becoming meaningless.

Sure, they are all just comics in the end.

But isn’t there just a little bit more to it than that?

One of the downsides to relying on Piperka for most of my comic updates is that it is awfully easy to fall behind on comics it doesn’t track. Strangely enough, however… is that sometimes this can be for the best. For one thing, when I notice, it means there is suddenly a nice big bulk of strips I’ll have a chance to read through at once. Something to look forward to - that’s a good thing, no doubt about it.

But sometimes, when I notice, I realize that I’m not looking forward to reading them… which means I need to start figuring out why.

Anywhere But Here has been the latest such challenge - and a challenge it is, given that there is nothing wrong with the strip on the surface. In its previous iteration it fell into some pretty ugly territory, with winding plots drawn out over years and melodrama that spiraled deeper and deeper into unreadability.

But, in a rare event, Jason Siebels - the creator - recognized the troubles he was having, and after a few attempts to salvage the current strip, decided to just wipe the slate clean and start back from the beginning. And he did a hell of a job doing so, cranking his artwork up several levels right off the bat - and it soon became clear that the writing was quick to follow.

Since then, the strip has remained far more focused than the previous version. The plot is coherent, the characters are well-developed and the interactions are all effectively done. The humor is able to drag a genuine laugh out of me at least once every few weeks - no easy task. The art has fallen ever-so-slightly; I understand the reasons for no longer using color, but it is sorely missed. Of course, given how much the color brings the strip to life - and given that’s the opposite of the message it is trying to convey - removing it makes perfect sense.

And - ding! - there we have the hidden problem with it. The one thing that has kept me from really enjoying it, no matter how well it is written, no matter how gorgeously it is drawn:

I absolutely loathe the premise.

I hate it. It simply fails, for me, on every single level. And not because it is a bad premise or somehow offensive - but it is simply not a story that interests me.

Because, in the end, it is all about watching the Dude - the main hero of the story - get screwed over by life again, and again, and again. It is about watching his parents completely ruin his college plans for no reason. It is about watching his classmates and teachers conspire against him, about seeing him friendless and miserable and played for laughs… and, in the end, to see him simply accepting all this. For all his complaints and frustration, he doesn’t actually bother to fight it - primarily because doing so would invalidate the scenario the plot has envisioned for him.

I have complained about this sort of situation before - it happened in Abstract Gender, where the main character hated the hand life had dealt her, but was constantly portrayed as simply going along with even the most outrageous things, simply because the plot demanded it. It bugged me then, and it bugs me now.

And I say this knowing that this isn’t how Anywhere But Here will end - knowing what I know of the previous iteration, I am fully aware that we will see the Dude overcoming his hatred for his situation and learning to make the best of it, and maybe - just maybe - finding some measure of happiness.

But… not for a while, yet. For now, it is about life grinding the Dude into the dust at every single opportunity.

And the author has a hell of a good reason for this - he talks about the origin of the strip here, but I’ll quote the key part:

“Anywhere but Here is about life taking a left turn…no, a series of left turns. Anywhere but Here is about life continiously trying to run you into a cliff no matter how hard you try and jerk the wheel away.

It IS Schadenfreude, make no doubt about that, but it’s schadenfreude with a purpose. It was my way of exploring how to deal with life when it keeps trying to grind you down. Do you shut down? Do you fight? Do you wrest the wheel away from the fickle finger of fate, or do you just crash into the cliff and hope you survive the impact?

That’s ABH in a nutshell I guess. Do you deal, or do you not deal, or do you deal with not dealing.”

Now, that’s a powerful statement. It is one that comes from the heart, and yes… it is one that makes for a good story, and good storytelling.

It just isn’t my kind of story.

Seriously - you know all those hi-larious movies out there, usually featuring Adam Sandler, that involve around the main character being constantly embarassed throughout the movie? Where you see them put through the most ridiculous situations again, and again, and again? I hate them. I loathe them beyond imagining.

And this story, right here - yes, its more than one of those stupid movies. Yes, it is building towards a much bigger picture, and one day it will answer the question it asks, and move on from there.

But right here, right now, it just isn’t meant for me. It is simply too much concentrated schadenfreude - something I might be able to handle in small doses, but not when it infests every single element of the strip.

It took me a while to realize this - each individual update is so well-designed, and each tends to work for me in isolation. But put them all together, and it had started to get to the point where I was physically cringing every time the Dude got screwed over, and it wasn’t until I finally sat down and examined things closely that I realized this was a recurring habit.

Does this mean I’m swearing off the strip for good? Probably not. If Siegels takes this story where he wants to, if he builds it up into the sort of work I suspect he’s aiming for, and that it definitely has the potential to be… well, that’s when I’ll come wandering back. When I can sit down and read through the entire story at once - or when it is published in print format, nice and whole and complete - that’s when I suspect it will work. When I can enjoy the transition beyond the undiluted cruelty being handed to the Dude… I will find all well with the world.

But until then, it gets set aside.

Which isn’t necessarily entirely bad. After all, no doubt about it - having something to look forward to is, in the end, a good thing.

Favorite webcomic quote of the day: “Our children are the future! Not those guys from the actual future.“

Current storyline that has me most interested in how things will play out: Bad Haze.

Strangest task I accomplished today: Teaching myself how to make origami cranes - for the specific purpose of enhancing my D&D gaming.

Best joke that remains good despite being used by Tatsuya Ishida many, many times before: I Can’t Quit You.

Most provocative post that completely misses the point: Between the cocoon and the Comics Code Authority.

…and I should probably expand at least a little bit on that last point.

Dirk Deppey has never really pretended to be impressed with fangirl activism in the comics community, and this is hardly the first time he has attempted to take them to task for waging whatever wars they choose to wage. And, to be fair, there are things he says that are reasonable, and there have been times when his disdain may have been justified - fans are fans, whether boy or girl, and it is a very, very, very fine line between legitimate outrage and fannish entitlement.

But the thing that bugs me in Dirk’s latest post is that he seems to be saying that the fine folks over at Girl Wonder shouldn’t be wasting their time complaining about the problems of sexism and misogyny that they see in the industry; they shouldn’t be trying to make the industry more friendly towards female fans. Instead, they should be focusing on convincing Marvel and DC to revitalize their lines in full. They should be convincing them to wipe out continuity entirely, to return to the use of the Comics Code Authority, and to write comics entirely focused at children.

Which, ok, I can see the argument - but are you seriously saying that there isn’t a place for mature, well-written comics that adults of both genders can equally enjoy? Look - I don’t like the current DC environment and the bizarre fetish it has with death and despair. But that isn’t because I don’t believe in serious stories - it is because all the petty drama going around is just that - shallow and mindless.

I don’t want a return to silver age comics. Sorry - that wouldn’t interest me. I want stories with character development and progression. I want stories where the heroes usually triumph, sure - but also ones that involve them overcoming challenging adversaries. I want stories where they are pushed to the limit - and then overcome it. I want stories that are fun and enjoyable while also keeping me engaged in the plot.

They are certainly out there - Blue Beetle from DC, the Immortal Iron Fist with Marvel. Ultimate Spiderman has been succeeding at it for years, and Invincible seems to have a good handle on the concept.

Is it something that can be kept up for decade after decade with the same title and one writer after another? No idea. But clearly quality comics are possible, and I think this is the drive behind Girl Wonder and similar groups - they might focus on little details, because that is really the only way to make progress in this sort of battle. And is it really fair to say it is a ridiculous fight to try and make comics more palatable for 10% of the readership? 10% might not be the whole crowd, but that is not an insignificant amount of people.

And, yes, I think there are others out there that could be and would be reading print comics if they overcame the flaws they are currently afflicted by. I don’t know the actual numbers with, say, webcomics - but this does seem to clearly be a field with a phenomenal number of female creators and readers. And webcomics, let me tell you, are hardly written solely for the benefit of children.

Look, finding a way to save the industry is certainly a good thing. I’m all for it. But saying that you can’t complain about any of the industry’s flaws without dedicating yourself to bringing about that salvation in every way possible… well, it’s a damn silly argument. There are clearly things that need fixing, and even if there are times when elements are blown out of proportion, that doesn’t invalidate the entire movement.

And I think there are goals that can be worked towards that don’t involve dumbing comics down into nothing more than childish fancies. I think there is a place for quality comics with a solid mix of humor and serious issues - and that manages to tell a story without degenerating into softcore porn.

Is that really so outrageous a goal?

Do you know what rocks? Seeing this posted on the Penny Arcade website:

“A reader wrote in today to tell me that he was doing the New York Sun crossword puzzle for January 30th and noticed this clue for 12 down:  “Tycho’s pal in the webcomic ‘Penny Arcade’ (4 letters).” That’s totally awesome.”

Seriously, you can check it out yourself. Man, they keep this up, and maybe all the useless gaming/comic trivia in my head will allow me to actually solve one of these so-called crossword things.

Meanwhile, Girl Genius is wrapping up the latest bit of filler and returning us to the main story; as eager as I am for more plot advancement and other similar goodness, I won’t deny that I’m always a little sad to see these brief installments wrap up.

I have quite a few friends who hate them with an undying passion, and I can certainly understand their concern - the main story of Girl Genius is so relentlessly good that delaying its continuation must seem something of a crime. I can only imagine how much agony it would have been to read the series before its entry onto the web, when weeks would go by awaiting each new issue! The standard modus operandi of the webcomic world, on the other hand, allows readers to get a fix on a much more regular basis, and so it is inevitable that any disruption to the supply would thus trigger rage, paranoia and despair.

But for myself, I find these cheery little “Radio Theater Breaks” to be the perfect counterbalance to the slightly more drama-laden main plot. I would make some comparison here to a gourmet meal, and the requirement for different tastes to provide contrast and the occasional respite between more powerful flavors - but I don’t actually know how all that culinary philosophy works, so why don’t we both presume I said something enlightening and simply move on from there.

It is useful to have these more comedic bits of fluff, but it is also more than that - I find myself quite genuinely enjoying them. The fact is, they have some of the cleanest, tightest characterization in the series - if only because each character needs to be truly broken down to their most basic elements in order to convey who they are in such a short sketch. Agatha Heterodyne is all about science!, Krosp is the inevitable comic relief, Zeetha is simply a badass, and Othar is really, really messed up. Hell, even Ferretina has become a fully realized character over the course of the two installments thus far.

Let’s be honest now - when a creator wants to take a break from their regular storytelling, and does so by presenting another entirely awesome story in the downtime, that is fantastic. I mean, I don’t begrudge folks their… shirt guy tom days, and dead piro days and… you know. I appreciate that they are making some effort (usually), and I recognize that when you are producing a comic like this, on a regular schedule every single week of the year… taking the occasional break becomes something of a necessity.

When that break simply manifests as a more light-hearted outpouring of your creative talent, you really should win some sort of prize.

I should also add that the framework of the Radio Theater Breaks is one of the most incredibly brilliant devices for presenting a story that I’ve ever seen.

There are a lot of top-notch webcomics out there that are good inspirations for aspiring cartoonists, and that provide good examples of what to do and what not to do. But Girl Genius is easily one of a very small handful of strips I can point to and say: This, right here, is a comic done right.

Emulate every facet of it, internalize its wisdom, and one day you will understand how to make an audience irrevocably yours.

So, I was somewhat startled by a post over at MightyGodKing wherein he calls PvP to task for the hypocrisy of indulging in a drama-laden storyline after previously mocking other strips that do so.

Now, his previous commentary on PvP, which was a spot-on piece of criticism about the strip’s current lack of focus and reliance on desperate in-jokes and pop-culture references, was a very nice piece of work - and, in fact, helped fully delineate a lot of the elements that had been bothering me about the comic.

Which is why it is startling to see another post about the comic wherein I disagree entirely in pretty much every regard.

Now to be fair, there isn’t all that much to disagree with - the recent post isn’t very detailed, just a juxtaposition of two strips from the comic (one current, and one four years old), with the apparent goal of pointing out the hypocrisy of the current storyline. If that isn’t truly his intention, then I apologize in advance for assuming otherwise - see the usual disclaimer about it being hard to get a sense for what people are actually saying over the internet.

But, on the assumption that he is attempting to take Kurtz to task… well, I have to object with the examples he is using to do so.

Exhibit A, above, is where Kurtz is presumably putting down how some comics in the so-called funny pages wander into serious storylines, which can be grim and even downright depressing. But here’s the thing - while Kurtz has certainly not disguised his disdain for the majority of the newspaper comic strips, that disdain has usually fallen on the ones relying on tired, formulaic gags… comics that haven’t changed or evolved in decades. The above comic was posted back when For Better or For Worse was still considered one of the true comics of quality in the paper, when the Boondocks was one of the few to challenge the status quo.

Even beyond that, Cole puts forward in the strip the opinion that there can be a time and place for serious storylines. Not a surprising opinion, given that for all of PvP’s own reliance on gags, it has also often been driven by some significant stories built around drama and relationships - in fact, it becomes even more amusing considering that Brent (and his situation with Jade) has usually been the one at the heart of such storylines. Brent just sort of ignores the point, but it is still out there providing a voice of reason despite’s Brent’s ranting.

Is Kurtz seriously saying that comics should be nothing but simple jokes day in and day out? That the rest of the funny pages - the ones he rather universally loathes - are the ones to aspire towards?

Of course not - he’s poking some simple fun at the serious strips, sure, but doing so firmly tongue-in-cheek.

Exhibit B is the current storyline, wherein, as you can see, Cole’s marriage is falling apart. Even worse - it is happening right while Brent and Jade are in the midst of planning their own wedding. Sure, this is drama-heavy territory… but I also would contend it is the best Kurtz has been in months.

Despite the drama, the punchlines have actually been funny. I mean, sure, Brent finding out he has no legitimate reason to be pissed at Cole, and thus becoming all the more pissed, isn’t some powerful new form of humor than will redefine the genre - but it is rock solid in characterization and easily got a laugh out of me. And most of the strips in the storyline have been the same - competent and humorous strips that have also advanced the plot. As compared to just another round of pop-culture references, or trying to find yet another way to work in a panda attack, or a well-meaning but ultimately weak storyline about Shecky the troll.

Honestly? The time to take Kurtz to task for any supposed hypocrisy about “serious issues” was in 2005, when we had Jade suddenly worried she might be pregnant, and Brent trying to deal with the possibility of being a dad.

Which - guess what - despite only being two weeks long, was possibly the best storyline PvP has ever had.

I find it curious that, when I ranted about Sluggy Freelance a couple months ago - or more specifically, about how unlikeable the characters had become - I heard quite a few others putting forward College Roomies From Hell as having a similar problem.

And since then, I have heard this again a few times over, and I can’t deny that it is true - but the interesting thing is that the two comics have ended up in similar situations for completely opposite reasons. For Sluggy, Pete seems to desperately want to retain a light-hearted tone with the characters. Character development threatens the classic formula of the strip, of a bunch of wacky kids - or rather, twenty-somethings that refuse to grow up - constantly getting into absurd hijinks and acting as dysfunctional as possible around each other.

He seems to have even become aware of it, in recent strips, but still unable to resist having them all act like idiots - the last few months have been filled with moments where the characters say, “Wait, why are we acting like this?” … seconds before they engage in even more juvenile behavior. Caught in this perpetual realm of immaturity, it becomes harder and harder to remotely care about their eventual fate - a death knell for a strip based on long, elaborate plotlines.

With CRFH, on the other hand, the characters have become unlikeable as an intentional part of the plot, as the early humor of the strip has given way to darker storylines and heavy bouts of angst. The characters have been driven apart from each other, and even become enemies after a fashion.

Opposite direction, same problem.

For myself, CRFH hasn’t lost me yet - while I have a hard time sympathizing with the characters, there is an overall plot to follow, and one that seems to be heading for the endgame. Even beyond that, for all that I’m not entirely sure of how I feel about the plot, it has resulted in some pretty fantastic individual scenes.

It’s a really bizarre situation. Character wise, I certainly much preferred the entire crew when they were (mostly) friends, and the petty relationship drama seemed to actually lead towards some sort of resolution. But… the path the strip has gone down was not an entirely sudden one. It might not have been obvious early on, but the elements were being set in place for the strip’s eventual focus on the fight against Satan, and the fact that such a fight wasn’t going to involve the characters remaining bright and cheerful and silly throughout.

I mean… it is right there in the name of the comic itself.

So I have to respect that. But even so, that isn’t what is keeping me reading the strip - while it may have been inevitable, the direction of the plot does somewhat rub me the wrong way at times, and it is rough seeing everyone act so… ugly, towards each other.

But the little moments make it worth staying around. There have been some very nice, very concise moments of drama, accompanied by some of the most gorgeous imagery seen in the comic - and interestingly enough, regardless of my feelings on the characters and the plot, those moments alone are strong enough to keep my attention.

There are few comics that can pull that off. I even seem to recall that this was my introduction to the comic itself - a pretty powerful newsbox led me into a certain scene in the “Gone With the Storm” arc, and that moment was enough to engage my interest. I’ll point out that it is extremely rare for me to remember exactly when or how I started reading a given webcomic - which stands as even more of a testament as to how well CRFH can make certain moments resonate in a reader’s mind.

Something Positive is in a strange place, and I’m not entirely sure what to think of it. Which, in many ways, is a good thing.

From what I can tell, PeeJee has proposed to Davan that they commit to each other as platonic life mates. It is not an entirely illogical progression from their current state - they are close, as close as friends can get, and both have a long string of relationships that have tended to end poorly.

Is there more to it than that? I suspect so… though I’m not entirely positive as to what it may be. PeeJee may see Davan as more than a friend - she has definitely shown a certain level of infatuation regarding him in the strip of late… though that may simply have been recognition of how deep their friendship truly is.

She may simply be using this as an excuse, an easy way out, a retreat into that which is comfortable and non-threatening… but there hasn’t been any specific event that I could have seen to directly trigger such an action.

What I am certain of is this - if Milholland can demonstrate one thing, it is that he isn’t willing to settle for simple relationships (or simple characters) within his comics.

I was amused, the other day, when I saw someone ranting about how S*P was turning into Friends - or more specifically, how the comic was set-up so that everyone was forced to end up with their childhood friends, and that it was shown as evil and bizarre to pursue relationships outside of that original social circle.

Now, there is a lot of nonsense being thrown around in that rant there, but what truly made me laugh was that what had triggered this rant was the recent Old Familiar Faces showcasing Branwen. Branwen, who is one of those very outsiders - she did not start out as part of the underlying social group. She started out as Davan’s girlfriend. And, remarkably, their relationship ended well - the break-up wasn’t fun (break-ups usually aren’t), but it wasn’t nearly as ugly as most relationships in the strip. They stayed friends. She remained a distinctly likeable character.

Her latest relationship didn’t end poorly because of some hidden propaganda to sell the idea that characters will only be happy ending up with their childhood friends - it ended the way it did (and the same way others have throughout the strip) because the comic is filled with an incredibly pessimistic view of humanity and their capacity for disappointment.

One tempered, admittedly, by an equally strong optimism of their potential for hope.

S*P has always been a strange mix of ups and downs. It has gone to some very dark places, and the majority of characters are deeply flawed on many levels - but they are also capable of greatness. And happiness. And caring for each other, and overcoming those very same flaws.

Which, yeah, is what people have been saying about S*P for years - and I have, I’m sure, already done so on multiple occasions… but it still impresses me at how well the characters can resonate, and at how willing Milholland is to take the strip in any direction it needs to go.

Many, many, many strips have trouble with the idea of growth. Once they find a nice, simple formula that works, they stick with it. Change is bad, change risks alienating readers. It is the classic reason people mock newspaper strips. Numerous webcomics show the same problem.

But S*P is constantly changing. Characters move away, characters die off, characters grow into different personalities. Life continues on, the focus shifts from one group to another… and, in the end, nothing remains predictable.

Maybe this is the beginning of Davan and PeeJee having a happy life together. Maybe this is the beginning of Davan and PeeJee having an absolutely terrible life together. Maybe this is when Branwen re-enters the picture, or another new girl shows up.

I can see the strip pursuing any one of these possibilities, and countless more besides. Milholland has never pulled his punches before, and I doubt he plans to start doing so now.

Just one of the things that makes Something Positive a damn good comic.

The biggest moment in webcomics this week, at least among the ones I read, came as something of a surprise - not in the least because it occured in Funny Farm.

Now, one thing to understand is that not so many years ago - perhaps half a dozen years back - Funny Farm was actually a pretty big name in the webcomic crowd. This was back in the day when Keenspot stood tall and proud, the only real webcomics hub around. Other collectives were small and unnoticed, or entirely nonexistent. A handful of solitary comics stood on their own, such as Penny Arcade or PvP - but most of the other contenders were found at Keenspot. And as one of Keenspot’s top dogs, Funny Farm had a certain measure of prominence.

But… times change, and the webcomic world grew, and grew, and grew. Ryan Smith’s somewhat zany comic remained a solid strip with consistent quality… but it was now simply one of many such strips. It had it’s share of regular readers, but rarely rose to the public eye. It rarely did anything truly momentous that really stood out from all the other webcomics around.

Until now.

The strip is coming to an end. I mentioned this a few months back - but really, it deserves another mention now. Because ending a comic is a challenging task - not just taking the step and doing so, but managing to actually pull it off well.

The last time I mentioned Funny Farm revolved around the resolution of a relationship between two characters that had been building up throughout the course of the strip. Today’s post is no different. Gulius, loveable dirtbag, had long found only one character who he seemed to form a real connection with - the quiet, cold, efficient Miss Reese.

Who eventually said good-bye.

Then another character was introduced, Janice Morrow, who seemed the very opposite of Miss Reese - she was charming, lively, and constantly smiling. And somehow she also ended up getting close to Gulius.

Which makes sense, as we discover she and Miss Reese are one and the same.

I like it because it is one of the more believable disguises I’ve seen in comics - a different hair color, slightly shorter hair style, contacts instead of glasses… and a different demeanor, which is what really did the job.

More than that, though, I like how well everything seems to be coming together. As I mentioned, this revelation, at its heart, deals with the relationship between these two… but it is something happening within the development of the larger plot, the endgame of the strip.

The thing to realize about many of these webcomics which have been running for close to a decade is that they have ended up with countless plots, countless characters, countless little developments that tend to hover in the background without resolution.

And yet, somehow, Funny Farm seems to be drawing all of its loose ends together. The end is in sight, but the build-up feels smooth and natural in its progression.

For a comic with this much backstory, that is damn impressive. And it gives me the feeling that the conclusion to this comic is going to feature its greatest moments yet.

So, Spiderman is a big topic around the internet these days. And approximately seventy-three million bloggers have already detailed the reasons why the recent events in the series have been so terrible, and about twice that number have simply ranted and raved and proclaimed the inevitable doom that would come from all this. And so it may well seem like there is little more to be said on the matter… but somehow, I can’t resist throwing out a few thoughts of my own.

First off, just for those who have managed to avoid being confronted with the entire ordeal, here is a summary of the situation: The Editor-In-Chief of Marvel comics, on Joe Quesada, dislikes the idea of a married Spiderman. He believes it makes Peter Parker too old for the role, and unrelatable to readers. He wishes to return Spiderman back to the character he was some twenty-odd years back - a swinging bachelor with plenty of hip new stories to tell.

To bring this about, the recent storyline in Spiderman went as follows: A year or so ago, during a recent Big Event, Spiderman revealed his identity to the public as Peter Parker. (With many promises from Mr. Quesada that this was a Genuine Permanent Change.) Not long thereafter, a hitman comes after him - and while Peter is fine, Aunt May is shot. The hospital is keeping her alive, but her health is failing rapidly, and none of Peter’s superpowered friends can do anything to save her - not the greatest scientists, nor the magics of Dr. Strange.

Desperate, and consumed with guilt, he and Mary Jane (his wife) are approached by Mephisto - the Marvel equivalent to the devil. Mephisto offers them a deal - he will save Aunt May in return for… their marriage, a love so pure and true that its loss will be a great triumph for him against the big guy upstairs. Peter and Mary Jane agree, and Mephisto does some hocus pocus that erases everyone’s memory of the marriage - and as a bonus, makes people forget that Spiderman revealed his identity. (At least one person is also brought back from the dead, and a variety of other minor changes in memories seem to be made as well.)

So - that is the long and short of the situation. And, well, there are certainly numerous problems with it, from the very concept to the relatively flawed execution… but such problems have been discussed by others at length. (And if there is one highlight to the entire situation, it lies in some of the completely brilliant commentary it has inspired - such as the usual comedic stylings of David Willis, or a genius Watchmen parody from one chipzdarsky.)

What I find really interesting about the entire matter is the resolution itself - or more specifically, the lack thereof.

See, Marvel doesn’t actually like retcons. That has always been one of the elements that has stood between them in DC - every few years DC tries to tidy up continuity, fix up the past, and in the process wipe the slate clean of various stories that have come before. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

But Marvel likes to stay true to its pre-existing stories. Which leaves Joe Q in a bit of a bind - he wants to render Spidey’s marriage null and void, but without actually arbitrarily changing the past continuity. This was, in fact, a subject of some debate between him and the writer on the series, J. Michael Straczynski.

JMS wanted to have Mephisto perform one simple act - render it so that the marriage had never occured. From there, various fall-out would occur, the usual inevitable ripples that come from a single change in the course of history. I am sure there would have been various problems with this plan as well, and the fall-out from the fans would have been the same - but it would have also resulted in a very different story than the one Joe Q insisted upon.

See, making it so the marriage didn’t happen was exactly the sort of retcon Marvel tries and avoid. So Joe Q devised a way to come up with the same essential result without actually changing the past - he’ll just have Mephisto change everyone’s memories of the past.

Now, this results in a number of key differences. For one, it is actually more disruptive than JMS’s plan - Mephisto has to alter the memories of an entire world, fiddle with physical evidence, etc. And even doing as perfect a job as he can, there are going to be discrepancies - events will have occured that seem illogical and unexplainable, and someone is inevitably bound to notice.

It also, in many ways, ramps Mephisto up to a rather more substantial amount of power - changing the past is pretty potent, certainly, but also a very precise act. (And one that is much more easily bound in ritual, requiring the consent of the two individuals involved in that past occasion being changed.) Altering the memories of an entire universe - well, one would think there would be someone out there immune to such direct manipulation, especially given how far-reaching some of the memory alterations were. With all the cosmic entities out there, the ability to freely rewrite their minds seems a far larger event than simply triggering a ripple through time.

Perhaps the biggest difference, however, is that it renders the change much easier to fix. Just one person regaining their memory or finding out the truth could be enough to start setting things right.

Which brings us to the realization I had about the storyline, and what seems the largest flaw in how it was carried out. Joe Q’s desire was to reset the Spiderman mythos and create a new status quo in which for him to operate. But Joe wasn’t actually willing to go the distance required to do so. He couldn’t create a clean break - it would have been a challenge to do so no matter what, given the weight of the history between the characters, but he had a particularly sloppy attempt to do so, with some very interesting results.

Mephisto’s goal in all of this - at least as far as we have seen - was to destroy this spark of happiness in Spiderman’s life. It seems a bit silly to have expended such colossal power on such a simple task, but there is at least some small bit of logic in it. But you know what would render it completely ludicrous? If it utterly failed to do so. If Spiderman manages to move on with his life and find any degree of happiness in his Brand New Day, the new status quo… well, doesn’t that defeat the entire point of Mephisto’s plan?

The very nature of Mephisto’s plot means that Spiderman can’t move forward in his life without directly invalidating the event that led to it. If Spiderman finds a new love and new happiness, if he isn’t held back by the spectre of his missing life with Mary Jane, then Mephisto’s plan was meaningless. Which means the only way for Peter Parker to move on in life is to find a way to undo what has been done.

Taking that a step forward - the entire universe being currently under the effect of a mind-altering spell is not, can not, be part of any status quo. It is not a conclusion or a resolution - it is an obstacle to be overcome.

That is what is so very bizarre about the method Joe Q chose to use to end this marriage. He didn’t do so with a plot device that was actually complete, but instead essentially chose a story that stopped in the middle. A deal with the devil was made, and Spiderman is now stuck under the devil’s spell, incomplete and unable to move forward. At some point that needs to be resolved. That isn’t an event that can simply be left open-ended or swept under the rug - it is a challenge being set up for him to overcome.

I’m almost tempted to assume Joe Q intended this - but from what I’ve seen of his attitude about the entire project, I’m not exactly inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

All in all, I’m amused by the fact that not only is this a poorly conceived idea, badly executed and presented to the fans in an almost insulting manner… but it is also a story whose own narrative results in it being self-defeating. And perhaps that is why that it seemed almost inevitable that the entire incident will be wiped away not far down the road, and as such my reaction to the story isn’t anger, or frustration, or despair… but simply a sad sort of amusement, and a vague sense that this is so inherently meaningless that it isn’t even worth becoming upset about.

One of the things I like about webcomics - that is to say, comics on the web - is that they are simply there.

The discussion of what really goes into the term webcomics is one that has been going on for years now, without any real resolution. The debate over whether it is simply a medium or if it has managed to capture something more than that - a community, a culture - is an argument where both sides are, in many ways, right.

But regardless of the intricacies of it all, one thing is true - comics on the internet are accessible, and that’s a very cool thing indeed.

Recently I stumbled across a comic called “The Unity of Rings.” It was not an ongoing work - it was a single self-contained issue, only twenty-seven pages in total. It may have been published elsewhere before finding its way onto the web - I could find no such indication, but it would not surprise me given the style of the comic. And it is not something out in the open - placed on the web four years ago and then forgotten, it was only through sheer chance that I discovered it.

What it is, however, is a genius little comic that captures the essence of Planescape, a setting for Dungeons and Dragons that focuses on exploring the various wonders - and possibilities - (and inevitabilities) of the myriad planes of existence.

In twenty-seven pages, this comic manages to capture that idea - no small feat. It is a great comic, prime inspiration for an upcoming campaign I am working - and simply one of the countless surprises floating around the internet, waiting to be found.

What makes a webcomic? Should this count? It reads more like a print comic, in layout and length and purpose. It isn’t tied into any of the networks of webcomic communities. It is formed in the standard print comic design, with an entire crew dedicated to writing and drawing and polishing it into existence, rather than being the work of a single soul, or even the rare duo working together to put something on the web.

And yet… here it is. It may not exist anywhere else. Available for anyone able to find it, a small little treasure there for the taking. No fees attached, no subscription required.

Is it a webcomic?

And - here’s the real question - does it matter if it is or not?