The March issue of Sequential Tart is now online at http://www.sequentialtart.com/. It is an issue that started to blow me away as soon as I saw the new content while helping to proof some articles a couple of days ago. I absolutely love the new series about metanarratives in comics, Messing with Metanarratives, by Suzette Chan. I was also tickled to see that Pam Bliss’s Hopelessly Lost But Making Good Time series delves into shapeshifters this month, since one of my main characters in The Myth of Merula is going to be a very strong specimen of the shapeshifter archetype, among other things. It was thrilling to me to be able to interview Gwen Rachel Stanley for this issue, especially since I’ve written briefly about her work a couple of times in this blog. I find her style fresh, unique and exciting. These are just a few of the highlights that hit me first, but there is so much more content to explore!

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This review originally appeared in the Sequential Tart Webzine on December 1, 2006.

Publisher
Brooke Spangler
http://agirlandherfed.com

Credits
Creators: Brooke Spangler

Grade: 7
A Girl and Her Fed follows the daily life of a young, single, female, liberal journalism intern who is under the surveillance of the fed. Her fed knows that she is not a terrorist, but ever since she has written an article defending civil liberties, he has just been doing his job by following orders to open her mail and watch her. This sounds like a deadly serious subject, but the topic is rendered hilarious by its treatment by Brooke Spangler. continue reading »

“Webcomics suck,” is a lament often read, even issuing forth from former webcomic fans and champions. I hope to convince the reader with this list that lots of good webcomics exist. It’s far from exhaustive – just a sampling. Enjoy.

Alternative History

• Roswell, Texas

Drama

• The Architect
• Jazz Age
• Maroon

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Mark Marino has just launched a hypermedia humor e-zine called Bunk Magazine. It looks like it has potential and is worth exploring. I haven’t yet thoroughly checked out the first issue, but I’ve found a few things that made me giggle and smirk, as well as a few things that didn’t. (You’ll have that.) One of the things that did get a giggle from me was the “Y2K Bug Issue”, found under Features. This link brought up a mock circa-1900 newspaper dated January 1, 1900. In this newspaper, you can read about such things as what our future shall bring. Number four on the list is this:

The entire world will be covered by a vast network of wires which will be referred to as the “World Wide Web.” This web will have been woven by gigantical prehistorical arachnids, who will become our leaders after emerging from caverns beneath the earth, where they will have been hiding for 3 millions years.

I think I just like humor that involves wild flights of imagination. continue reading »

Bob the Angry Flower is a funny and original web comic strip about a not-very-nice flower named Bob. Bob is into a little bit of everything. He tries to push Xaxor pills to an old man. Xaxor supposedly gives back missing zest and zing, as well as curing incontinence. The side effect of of excruciating bone pain almost never happens. Bob is also paranoid about security, complaining that his tactical high energy lasers and other high-tech security measures can’t protect him from magic, the literary assault or emotional vulnerabilities. continue reading »

Gwen Rachel Stanley has a new web comic out. It’s a very short piece called “A Month of Sundays“. It does sort of evoke a Sunday kind of mood. I like Stanley’s style a lot.

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Check out Scarygirl, a web comic in Flash, with no words, just images. Follow her story with her companion, Toycat, who is also scary but cute. The Scarygirl strip is drawn by Nathan Jurevicius of Melbourne, Australia.

The Webcomics Examiner interviewed Scott McCloud last month. Scott talked about his upcoming book, Making Comics, to be published in September. He described what the focus of his new book will be:

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I read the whole Minus web comic this morning. It’s about a little girl with magic powers who goes through all the kinds of things that children normally do in everyday life, only she wins through magic. Except when she doesn’t, as in the strip where the other girls don’t want to play ball with her, because she’ll use her magic powers to cheat. Scott McCloud believes that Ryan Armand, the artist and author of Minus, is a talent worth watching.

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I’ve been following the updates to Paper Moon, a web comic by Gwen Rachel Stanley. It’s about the life of a young woman on the homefront during World War II. It’s very good, managing to convey a feel for what the details of daily life for a woman might have been like, in that time and place. The colors that are used have a 1940s feel.

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