Thursday, December 01, 2005

Click here - Webcomic or comic strip of the year

Produced by Australian creators. In recognition of excellence in comics distributed via the web or in magazines and newspapers in 2005.

I know there is a hell of a lot of web comics out there but i see very little of it because i don't try and track web comics down and view them regularly. I'm lazy that way. Plus i spend way too much time in front of the computer, getting hooked on web comics would just mean i'd lose what little non-internerd life i had left (about 7 minutes on Tuesdays). The only ones i see are ones that appear on Live Journal or are forced under my nose by people i like.
So this is what I've seen and liked

Everything by Grug
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/grug/
He has about 23 different web comics which he updates, what seems like, hourly. Or perhaps i'm exaggerating. He has cute animal strips, namely a strip featuring animals trying to escape the forest after they murder the park ranger, which I liked. Then there's one with a monobrowed dolphin, i'm not keen on that because monobrows freak me out (grugs comic self portrait is strangely hypnotic, it looks like the drummer of hanson all grown up but with beard and monobrow – I wanna turn away but can’t). Also, somehow when not drawing he's living a life which he uses as a basis for an autobiographical strip, or maybe its 5 autobiographical strips. Either way for consistency and laughs, Grug is pretty good.

Dean Rankine - Booger Boy and Grossgirl
http://www.phatkidcomics.netfirms.com/
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/deanrankine/

These appear in Mania, some US based magazines and on Dean's LJ. Its funny stuff. Almost as humourous as a 'how to draw' strip done by Dean.

Jase Harper - Big Happy Pet Land
http://www.jaseharper.com/comics.htm
http://www.livejournal.com/users/jaseh/
These appear in Mania and sometimes in his LJ. Funny stuff and its well constructed too. The thing i like about Big Happy Pet Land is that Jase has set up a world where he can tell any kind of story he wants; he's done a raider's spoof, a pirate tale and a rawk! story. Plus by using animals he can fast track characterisation; a slow stupid character - its a turtle, a bully - its a bulldog, that way he can spend more time on plot and gags then setting up characters. All very clever and well executed.

Steve Stamatiadis - Blade Kitten
http://www.livejournal.com/users/spacecaptsteve/
Consistent, well drawn and beautifully coloured. Though my attention span isn't made for serial comics that only pop up for a couple of pages every month or so, Steve's work looks pretty. And now its been cancelled – sigh.

Raymondo - Patrick Alexander
http://chickennation.com/raymondo/
It doesn't appear in Mania or Kzone and it never will. Nonetheless, its genius. For the November 24th edition I was struck, if not awed, at how good Patrick draws. It looked gorgeous. I can only justify myself by saying that I’m usually to busy giggling and the wank and stiffy jokes to notice the pretty pictures.

Of course, there's Platinum Grit, however because of a hate of shockwave I've never read it online.
Otherwise, there's Dillon Naylor in Kzone for Batrisha and there's Dillon and Ian Thomas in Total Girl with Rock N Roll Fairies. Sometimes there's little grabs of Batrisha on the internet which shows how good it is (it even rocks in german!). However, I'm not a total expert - I'm guessing people like it based on the Kzone polls they used to have on their website and the fact that it has been around for so long. Don't forget Dillon's Da 'n Dill in the Morning Herald, in colour on sunday. That particular strip has been running for 4 years which is very impressive.
Owen Heitman's 5031, is very funny when its good (it usually involves abuse of some sort) but its not that consistent. And Nate Soehardi and Patrick’s “Elbow Wallets” only just started but the first couple of strips were very funny.
Again i'm sure there's more web comics out there, i just need to be directed in the right direction.

But of course the idea is that other people nominate what they liked. There's plenty of time (nominations finish early january) so check out www.phasetwocomics.com and buy stuff.
Otherwise get ye to the nomination forms and nominate.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Bah! See, it's comments like that which are the reason you haven't made it into 5031. Yet.

Anyway, consistency is for mundane people! I prefer drastically fluctuating standards of humour. It keeps you on your toes.