summercomfort | Brief thoughts about 2 webcomics

Hussie and Gunnerkrigg is an interesting contrast. Hussie has cultivated this weirdly intense cult of personality, and his internet comic thingie about a bunch of teenagers with communication problems sure is impressive. I love Hussie's effective use of colors -- so effective! so simple! And yet, showing such a wonderful grasp of Shapes. As for his story, well, it's a bit too concerned with being convoluted in a pat way, but the characters are nice, even if character development has been scant. Plus, he harnesses this online medium like some sort of internet god.

But when it really comes down to it, I much prefer Gunnerkrigg Court. It plugs along, full-color, 3 pages a week, nothing fancy in terms of using "the internet" -- just straight up pages that you can see in a comic book. Panel 3 from the most recent update just makes me feel so... happy. I love Tom's colors, too -- so rich, especially all the off-purples and off-greens that he uses. But I love how he is developing a freakin' long-form story while still maintaining "chapter" stories. My "feels" about Dirk are really just feelings about a well-presented archetype, whereas my "feels" for Annie and Kat and Robot and Shadow and the rest of the gang are because they've become complex characters over the years.

I want to draw comics closer to the Gunnerkrigg model.