Webcomics Reviews V

Shi Long Pang: (Pronounced Sher Loong Pong, apparently.) A kung-fu epic starring a young wandering Shaolin Monk, Pang, in 17th Century China. The art style is well-suited to the subject - simple enough to allow all kinds of crazy action sequences when the need calls for it, but stylized enough that some of the backgrounds that creator Ben Costa put into his panels are evocative of Chinese watercolour paintings. Equally impressive is the effort Costa puts into the historical and cultural depictions of 17th Century China - which lends his narrative a certain air of authority that it would otherwise lack.

If I can criticize it for anything, it's the plotting - I find that for an action/adventure/comedy, the whole thing moves a bit slowly at times; this isn't helped by often-infrequent updates. Your mileage may vary, of course.

It's worth noting that Costa won the Xeric Award for his work on the comic. The Xeric Foundation was founded by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle co-creator Peter Laird, and awards grants to winning comic creators designed to help them self-publish their creations (as well as feed and house themselves while they do so.) It was founded in 1992, and has given almost two million dollars in grants since then. I thought that was pretty cool, and Shi Long Pang a very worthy recipient of the award.

Bobwhite: This webcomic by Magnolia Porter follows the exploits of three friends as they struggle their way through life, love, and art school at Bobwhite University. The thing I love about this comic is how honest it is; while the characters are obviously exaggerated for comic effect, there's nevertheless a lot of truth in everything they do. Each of them is imperfect in a myriad of their own ways, but even for all their flaws it's hard not to love them.

If there's a flaw I can criticize with Bobwhite, it's the art. Don't get me wrong - the art's quite good, and the style is very appropriate to the theme and humour of the comic. However, at times it gets a little inconsistent, as if Porter is just kind of phoning it in - getting it to where it's good enough, rather than getting it to where it's good. I also get the feeling it's often limited by the newspaper-strip format, which is a shame - I often get the feeling that if she'd break out of the format constraints and take the time she needs, she could make some truly mind-blowing visuals.

Starslip Crisis: This is a Sci-Fi parody comic from probably the most prolific creator in webcomics, Kris Straub. It's a webcomic parody of Star Trek, science fiction in general, and pop culture and art, not necessarily in that order, and it's very, very good. The art is not to everyone's tastes - though I think it's vastly improved these days over the style he used when he started the comic - but it's sufficient to drive the story and the humour.

In addition to Starslip, Kris Straub also does/did F Chords, which is to music what Starslip Crisis is to Science Fiction, Checkerboard Nightmare, which is a webcomic about a cartoon character developing his own webcomic, and Chainsawsuit, which is a webcomic parody of webcomics billed as "disposable internet humour." Like I said, the guy's prolific. Starslip Crisis is my favourite of his creations, but if that's not to your taste then there's probably something Straub's done that suits you - maybe even Chainsawsuits you get it it's a joke okay I'll stop.