043: Escape from Ohio!
I’m sad to see yesterday’s sketch shuffled away into the archives, as it was so beautiful, but that is the way with such things. In case you didn’t know, the navigation buttons under the comic strips skip sketch pages, so if you ever want to see them, go to the archives proper from the top menu up there. We have a wallpaper and stuff in there too, if you like.
If you enjoyed the Ben and Robert (Robert and Ben?) sketch, then know that they’ll be appearing in some strips before too long, maybe even this month. Next week we will have the return of Grannie Justice (you saw her in a sketch recently), and her showdown with a certain martial arts champion guy. Should be fun times.
In webcomic news, R Stevens (aka the Poopmonster), has started a side project called i heart pixels, which showcases pixel art not related to his webcomic, Diesel Sweeties.
Gunnerkrigg Court recently made my reading list after Eric snarked it. I’ll use his explanation because frankly, he does it better than I would:
For those who haven’t had a look at the strip before, it’s about a boarding school set in a melange of fantasy and steampunk aesthetics. Each strip is a standalone chapter, and each chapter tells another chunk of the story, and the story itself is slightly odd and beautiful, all at once, and the strip is in general pretty worthy.
PvP has really lost me lately. The medieval storyline was trite, and the jokes felt half-hearted. Today’s strip is an improvement from the previous ones, so hopefully he’ll bring the quality back up to what I expect from PvP.
Sinfest hasn’t updated since January 26th. Anyone who knows Sinfest shouldn’t be surprised. Tatsuya usually takes unexplained absences, and when he finally comes back the futility watch has gone up an increment. I don’t know why he’s trying to get syndicated, though I suppose it could be the simple fact that he’s a revolutionary, not trying to break into mainstream comics, but trying to force meanstream comics to recognize that they suck and there are so many better comics on the web. Except Get Fuzzy. Get Fuzzy is good. The Sinfest break is more annoying than normal at this juncture, because I was really enjoying the Slick/Monique/Squig story arc. It’s the most I’ve enjoyed Sinfest in awhile.
Achewood is running the best story of any of the comics I read right now. I used to hate Achewood, but I kept reading it. Then I just disliked it. Eventually I was fairly indifferent to it. Finally I started to like it, and now it’s one of my favorite comics. The style is distinct, the stories are absurd and intelligent (most of the time), and the fact that he creates strips on a day by day basis with no prior planning just blows me away. The dude seriously has to be crazy, and I endorse crazy wholeheartedly. Also, it’s the first comic I know of that went multi-disciplinary and created blogs for most of its characters. Ok, so I don’t read them, but I still think it’s a cool idea.
None of which is to say that Jeph Jacques is not still my webcomic idol. QC itself is back to its old ways, which is to say, horrible unrequited romantic agony. The wiki article on QC is enlightening, catching character references 200 strips before the character even appears, and listing running gags such as the coffee specials at Coffee of Doom (Fried Egg Mocha, anyone?). I don’t know how Jeph ever finds time to run side projects, and they aren’t always long-lived. Indie Tits is fun, though it hasn’t been updated since November of 2005. Now he’s doing Jephdraw, which is purportedly a daily sketch blog, though it updates far from daily. And if you want to see genius in progress, you can torrent this video of Jeph drawing, which is mad crazy. If you want to be an obsessed fan, as many are, you can read Jeph’s livejournal, which has fun real-life pictures.
On a side note, many jokes have been in other strips of Jeph’s height. Turns out, he’s only 6′2″, which leads me to think that J. Rowland is fairly short. Theo is 6′6″, but I don’t know if he could beat Jeph in a fight. Dude looks pretty scrappy.
That’s all for webcomic news for today. Have weekends of greatness, and I’ll see you once more when the humble weekdays roll back around.