I started reading Yirmumah again.

I had stopped reading it, some ages past, after D.J. did something arbitrary and assholish, and I figured it wasn’t worth my time to read something put together by someone with so little class.

But… well, he doesn’t seem quite so bad these days. Few in the community do – flame wars still flare up, but generally die down in apologies and little more.

So I decided to give another go at his strip – and discovered it has changed quite a bit. Still filled with a dark humor, but going for a much more serious, story-driven tone.

In fact, quite a few strips this season seem to be going through that sort of transition. It is always a risky move, and more often than not, turns me off. It is hard – damn hard – to take characters that exist in one context, and shift them to another, without completely losing the audience.

Which is why I found it surprising that Yirmumah’s attempt – a comic that I only sorta tolerated liking, at the best of times – worked well for me.

I think it helps, tremendously, that we are dealing with an entirely new cast of characters. They are connected to the previous stars of the strip – but only loosely. Enough to see the similarities, but for the different style not to feel jarring and over-the-top.

Others have learned that lesson – Poe tried to turn Exploitation Now into a serious strip, but eventually decided it was best to switch gears entirely. And it worked. If you want a serious, story-driven comic… well, you need to build the story up properly. You can’t just suddenly insert drama and expect story to follow.

Well, not usually. I don’t like to speak in absolutes, and I’m sure some geniuses have managed just that – but nine times out of ten, it isn’t going to cut it.

So far, the new Yirmumah… well, it stands on its own. It’s a good start. I’m not entirely sure where he is going with it, and how it will end up tying back in to the classis strips. But he’s taken the risk of moving into a new direction, and he’s actually done a pretty damn good job of it – and that deserves more than a bit of respect.

Ok. Ok. Man.

So I just discovered this comic called Antiseptic Poetry. It’s about this superhero (named Sunflower {…yeah, seriously}) who we never actually see in action. Instead, she spends most of her time chatting with her roommate – usually while not wearing any pants.

Seriously. 90% of the comic is spent depicting this girl lounging around scantily clad, often striking pretty absurd poses for casual conversation.

It’s everything that is rant-worthy about the state of comics, and that is before the character gives a speech on her apparent modesty (which would ring a bit more resoundingly if the artist of the strip didn’t undermine that point, say, every other panel. Seriously. Every. Other. Panel.)

But the worst part about it? The absolute worst thing?

I really really like the damn comic.

The dialogue is clever and fun. I like the entire idea of a comic where the main character is a superhero, but we never actually see them in action. It’s tangential and irrelevent, and only serves to make for the occasional story. The casual, ordinary troubles they deal with are genuinely engaging. The characters in the strip are each individual and likable.

Man. I’m confounded.

The Makeshift Miracle appeared on the web 5 years ago today.

I haven’t thought about the strip in years. It, along with Narbonic, was the reason I joined Modern Tales in the first place, and I find it amusing that entirely seperate from the recent debut of the new MT stars, events have conspired to remind me of some of the original ones.

This was a comic that had me checking for updates spastically. This was one of the strips that dragged me along by the toes, desperate to see through the mysteries behind it all, desperate to find out what was going to happen to the characters, desperate for the story at the heart of it.

And, ultimately… it was the strip that I found myself most disappointed by.

I want to make this clear – Makeshift Miracle is a good story. It is an incredible story. It is a powerful story.

But it was not the story that I was looking for. I had built up too many expectations of where it was going, and the fates that befell the characters weren’t the ones I would have chosen. It left me sad and melancholy, which was a vast shock from the enjoyment I had previously found in the strip.

And I think it speaks incredibly well of Jim Zubkavich that he wrote a story that brought about such intense emotional response. That alone is testament to the strength of the story – especially considering it only ran for a year and a half. A remarkably short time to leave its mark – but it did so.

Those who haven’t read the story before should do so. I know, I know, I just said that I found myself personally disappointed by the story. I walked away unhappy, dissatisfied.

But hey – that’s me. I’m just one guy. And there are plenty who walked away entirely fulfilled by the story. But while I can’t say whether you’ll love it or hate it – you won’t walk away bored.

I’m not going to say I like being discontented – that I like being left sad when I wanted to be left happy.

But I’ll take that any day of the week over a tale that doesn’t touch me at all.

Continuing with looking at some lesser recognized webcomics, today seemed like a good day to talk about Errant Story.

But wait. Wait just one moment, you say. Errant Story is pretty well known! It’s by Michael Poe, who did Exploitation Now. It’s been around for almost four years now. It has two print collections out!

Well, ok. Fair enough.

But while I know of plenty of people who read the comic… it isn’t something I see discussed all that often.

So here I am, discussing it. Ta-da!

Errant Story, like Girly, is a comic that I discovered due to reading a previous work of the author. And as such, as a comic that I can remember starting, I am sometimes startled by the fact that it is now several years later, and chock-full of plot, and happenings, and all manner of assorted hijinks.

Now, there are good and bad things about Errant Story. It is a well-crafted story set in a complicated fantasy world, and generally follows more than one plot arc at a time. We have elves, we have assassins, we have time monks.

It is fortunate that the strip has it’s own Wiki, because otherwise I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what was going on. I mean, a few things are obvious – the little girl and the cat are annoying. The dude in black is a bad-ass. The elves are mysterious. But beyond that? Well, it’s a lot about mysterious conspiracies manipulating things behind the scenes, and various factions plotting and planning against each other.

Being confusing is downright mandatory.

But, you know, being lost doesn’t bother me all that much. Because while the story is a good one (and don’t get me wrong, it is), it is the more personal aspects that are best put together. The characters. Their interaction. Their development. (Even of the scary little devil girls.)

And, beyond that, the sense of humor in the story. I know a lot of people were put off by Poe switching from the sensationalist fanservice of Exploitation Now to the detailed drama of Errant Story – but it is not, by any means, a strip lacking in a sense of humor. I don’t think Poe could write something totally serious if his life depended on it. The man has a gift, and it makes itself known more often than not.

Today’s strip is a good one.

… I’ll have you know I just spent quite a while writing it about it, before realizing that the character at hand in the strip wasn’t who I thought it was.

So I’ll save myself the embarassment of giving you my most assuredly brilliant thoughts on a plot development that isn’t actually there.

Instead, I’ll emphasize the point I would be getting at anyway – this strip, like much of Errant Story, is filled with layers. Yes, layers, like unto an onion.

As mentioned before, the comic is a complex one. The day to day strips aren’t much different – namely due to the fact that they are usually hitting up both the story and the funny at the same time.

Take a look at today’s strip. We have serious, intense moments for the first three panels, and then a character hilariously starting to plummet to his death. We also have the unexpected reunion of two of the more interesting characters in the strip – and we get to see that, for all the harshness of her entrance, Sarine might care about Jon more than she wants to let on.

That is a good deal to pack into a strip with barely more than a handful of words. Now, admittedly that is also a rarity – one of Errant Story’s biggest weaknesses is the tendency to use quite a bit of text.

But I couldn’t really claim the high ground to complain about that too much, now can I?

In any case, the intricacies of the story are far too complex for me to do them justice here (read: I’ve get myself lost in about five minutes.) But for all the uproar raised when Poe left Exploitation Now behind to start this, I think it is the superior strip by far. It suffers from the common ailments of any heavily plot-driven story: sometimes it engages in over-exposition, and sometimes the story takes a while to get off the ground.

But it is well done, with incredible art, a clean layout, and engaging characters. It has a guide to help the readers that do get lost. It has an archive page that… ok, the archive page isn’t actually all that functional. Ah well, one mark against it – don’t let that deter you from checking it out if you haven’t already.

We aren’t in the business of giving out biscuits around these here parts – but today’s strip made me simultaneously laugh out loud, shout with glee, and shudder in anticipation. That sure as hell has to earn something, so as soon as I can figure out what we do give out around here, Mr. Poe has damn well earned one.

Kagerou is a very pretty comic.

Darkly pretty, more often than not, sure. But you can’t deny the power of the art. It started out a tad more humble, but you can quickly see the evolution of the artist – and even early on, the elaborate use of color made for a pleasurable reading experience.

Don’t get me wrong – art alone doesn’t make a strip. But trust me – if a comic is actively painful for me to read, I’m damn well not going to read it. And when the art is strong enough to carry the reader – sometimes forcefully – through the story?

That is definitely a good thing.

So, Kagerou is an epic fantasy tale, of a hero from Earth drawn into an amazing realm of gods and demons and faeries. He becomes the bearer of an ancient blade of magic, and must help overthrow the dark overlord seeking to claim the power of the gods.

Only… wait, no. Sure, thats the story. And it is there, and important, and home to a fantastic cast of characters.

But it isn’t the story I care about.

You see, our hero from Earth isn’t normal by any means. He has his share of issues – enough to have him checked into a mental hospital, back when he was on Earth. He has a whole ‘nother crew of characters packed within his head. He is haunted by a past that is more mysterious, more horrific, and more engaging than anything going on in the fantasy world he’s been summoned into.

That right there? When the epic fantasy story becomes just a footnote in the tale itself? When the true demons are the ones within the hero himself?

Oh yeah. That’s the good stuff.

By no means is the above the entirety of the story – I’ve simplified it, in order to avoid giving anything away. But there is a story there, and it is a good one.

Of course, nothing’s perfect – and this strip, most likely due to its complexity, has proven a challenging one to keep track of as it updates. It is one of those that works best when read in sizable doses, chapters at a time. But what else can one expect from a strip that hops between the present and the past, between Earth, a fantasy world, and the own internal madness of the protaganist?

So go. Read Kagerou. It’s worth it.