PAX 2004
So, as both my blog readers probably know, I went to the Penny Arcade Expo (a.k.a. PAX) last weekend, with my sister Sveta. I've never been to a gaming convention of this magnitude before, so I was quite excited. Additionally, my sister won the coveted chance to compete in the Omegathon -- the penultimate gaming tournament, encompassing a wide spectrum of games, from the tabletop Diceland to the shiny Mario Kart Double Dash. Not wanting to be left out, I also signed up for the Soul Calibur 2 tournament. It's not as cool (Omegathon contestants are called Omeganauts, whereas I am just called "that guy"), but it has Kilik, so it all evens out in the end, right ?
Anyways, due to administrative mishaps and generally poor planning on my part, this PAX trip was way, way too expensive and hectic; still, this was the most fun I've had in a while. I've posted a few photos on my site (not all of which are linked from this post), but sadly (for my blog loyalists), I was too busy actually doing stuff to document everything properly.
Update: Sveta posted her own PAX report; you can read it here.
Arrival
Agitated GamersWe arrived in Bellevue, Washington on Friday night, a day before PAX. Unfortunately, due to a grueling flight (consumer tip: if you lose your bag, don't ask United for help, they'll just give you a three-hour runaround, until the janitor guy, America West, and the Port Police take pity on you), and unfamiliar motel surroundings, I was exhausted the next day -- especially since we had to get to the Meydenbauer Convention Center bright and early at 9:00 am. On the plus side, we had this cool GPS in our rental car, albeit with a scary female voice (why anyone would implement a GPS unit and not give it the computer voice from Mechwarrior 2 is beyound me).
Anyway, arriving at the convention center was a bit of a shock, especially for my sister. She kept saying: "ohmygod ohmygod... that guy looks like you ! And that one ! They all look like you ! It's so scary !" As for my part, I felt as though I've been transported to some fantasy world... I wasn't even aware that this many gamers existed in our Universe at all; seeing them all at once was simply overwhelming (but in a good way). Since as we arrived about 30 minutes too early (thanks to the scary GPS cyber-lady), about to keel over from starvation, we went to look for food. The following conversation ensued:
Sveta: Ohmygod... those people look like you, too !Now that's what I call a life-altering experience.
Bugmaster: They have Subway bags. Let's ask them. *approaches the gamers*
Bugmaster: Hey guys, you here for the convention ?
Gamers: Yeah !
Bugmaster: Where'd you get the food ?
Gamers: There's a Subway right around the corner.
Bugmaster: *pumps both fists into the air* Sw33t ! Food !
Gamers: *all pump fists into the air* Yeah ! Food ! *wave goodbye and walk off*.
Sveta: Oh... my... god... you cheered for food ! And then they cheered for food ! All of you... you cheered for food ! I... I can't believe you cheered ! And then they cheered ! Aaaugh !
LinuxWhen we came back and finished our food, the overall excitement level was already on the rise: it was 09:00 am, but the doors were still closed. My sister was promptly whisked away by a PAX Enforcer to the über-secret Omeganaut meeting; I stood in line and snapped photos. From time to time, the doors would open a crack, people at the front of the line would cheer, and then the doors would slam shut again. Occasionally, a random SUV would drive by on the road; the looks on the drivers' faces were priceless. In any case, eventually the doors opened for real, and we got in to the convention center. w00t !
The place was simply packed -- and more people were arriving each second. From what I understand, Gabe and Tycho expected a turnout of at most 1000 people, but in fact, about 2000 people showed up. I usually don't feel too comfortable in crowds, but that wasn't the case at PAX. All the Trogdor shirts and GameSkins, people with Gamecube controllers worn around their necks like amulets, small parties saying things like "yeah it's 236+B but it's blockable"... They made me feel right at home.
Exhibition Room
WarmachinesI had a few minutes before the first round of the Omegathon (Diceland), so I checked out the exhibition room (and loaded up on free stuff). Here's some of the stuff that was shown there:
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time 2: They only had a video trailer of the game, not a playable demo. I'm not sure how I feel about it... The "original" game (meaning, Sands of Time 1), as I'd mentioned before, was excellent. The new game seems to be a bit flashier -- watching the Prince jump in the air and scissor the enemies' heads off with twin scimitars was very cool -- but it also seems to be more action-oriented. Sure, action is sw33t, but this isn't why I like the Prince of Persia series. Jumping heroes are a dime a dozen nowadays, but masterful level design, fluid character animation, laconic yet touching story, and the sheer essence of elegance -- those qualities are becoming increasingly hard to find. Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see.
The Matrix Online: I had mixed feelings when I heard news about this game. On the one hand, the idea is almost apocalyptic in its grandiose outlook: the Massively Multiplayer RPG, about the Matrix, set in a persistent online world... They've implemented the Matrix itself ! And it sucks out your money, not body heat, so it's actually feasible !.. well, but, on the other hand, the second and third movies were pretty bad (who am I kidding, the last one was atrocious), and bullet-time would be pretty hard to implement in an MMORPG setting. Anyway, I was expecting something lame, and I wasn't disappointed. The Matrix Online is, as far as I can tell, yet another real-time RPG with turn-based combat, just like City of Heroes, but not as cool. There's no bullet-time, your character just moves too fast for you to see when you click the "move fast" button. You get to walk around a lot, kick people occasionally, blah blah blah. We've seen it all before, we don't need another reminder.
Guild Wars: Another MMORPG from the creators of City of Heroes. I had the following conversation with the exhibitor guy:
PlayNC: ...so you see, all the missions are instanced, so instead of all the people being in the world at once, it's just you and your friends. This creates a unique personal experience :-)
Bah.
Bugmaster: So this is not really a Massively multiplayer online game now, is it ? It's just an 8-way LAN game, basically, but on the Internet ? PlayNC: Er... Uh... well, the towns are massive.
Bugmaster: Thanks. Bye.
Warmachine: This one is actually pretty cool. Warmachine is a miniature-based tabletop game (basically, a Warhammer ripoff) by Privateer Press, set in the world of Iron Kingdoms -- a D&D supplement based on steampunk and magitech. If you know me, you know that a mere whiff of steam-powered giant mecha is enough to get me gibbering about "Machines !" for hours -- and these guys had an actual demo game going ! I liked the miniatures, and I even understood the quickstart rules (I understood enough of them to figure out why my opponent wiped the floor with me), and I bought the rulebook; still, it's the D&D supplement which I'm really interested in. Miniature-based games are simply too expensive and time-consuming (and besides, I can't paint my way out of a paper bag). Unfortunately, the character guide is not out yet, so I have no idea how good the writing is. It did disturb me, though, that the exhibitor guy kept referring to the setting -- the world, the story, the faction histories, etc. -- as "fluff". If that's "fluff", then what's the point of roleplaying at all ? To roll as many dice as possible ? I know this is D&D, but still. Anyway, I haven't read the Warmachine book yet, so I'll reserve final judgement until then.
Fable: A freeform RPG, more Morrowind than Morrowind itself, the ability to be good, evil, or anything in between, a world which responds to the choices you make... I usually try to stay as skeptical as possible, but in this case, the hype is simply too powerful. I've seen only a little bit of Fable, but from what I've seen, it looks like a game made specifically for the little RPG fanatic inside me. Unfortunately, I am not going to buy an overpriced low-end PC with a bear-shaped controller -- a.k.a. the X-Box -- just to play this one game. Maybe I'll rent one or something.
Omegathon
Diceland Round
Halo
Round 1: Diceland. Diceland is a weird dice-based game that no one has ever heard of until PAX. Still, it looks kind of interesting. Basically, you have these octahedral dice, with stats printed on each side. You throw the die onto the table; whatever side the die lands on determines how strong it is. You can move dice around by pushing on the printed green dots, and, of course, you can shoot enemy dice (if they're in your FoV) and deal damage to them, by pushing on the red dots. From what I could tell, the game is pretty cool: sort of a poor man's combo of Warhammer and Magic: The Gathering. But with dice. From what I heard, though, the Blue dice have lost at every table, so word to the wise: don't use Blue.
Round 2: Halo. This was the X-Box version; my sister and I practiced it a bit, but we're not big fans of console-based FPSs in general, and the X-Box in particular, so it was touch and go for a while. Still, Sveta shot people in the head with the rest of the Omeganauts, following up with tasty grenades and severe needler beatings. The strongest player - Sean - came in at 50 frags, with 35 frags being the next highest score; all the other players came in at about 10 to 20. My sister and her team made it in, though.
Round 3: Mario Kart Double Dash. Bah ! I didn't get to see this one; I was simply too exhausted to push through the insane crowd of screaming fans. If you're reading this, Gabe & Tycho: get a bigger console room for next time ! In any case, I got to hear the events, as Sveta's team got three mushrooms and a star in a row, blasting their way from last place and into the winning bracket. W00t !
DDR Sveta
Doom
Round 4: DDR. This actually happened the next day; but chronological order is for wussies so who cares. The DDR round was supposed to happen in the big theater, but no one wanted to lug the heavy machine down there, so we all had to crowd around in the corridor, instead. I am not actually a major fan of DDR (being a big fat geek and all), but I've got to admit, the competition was pretty cool. In the first round, one of the competitors -- Kevin -- walked onto the pad, clicked his music selection, and, with one fluid motion, ripped his pants off. Well, ok, so it was just the bottom sleeves of the pants, and they were on a zipper -- but still, the crowd went wild. Kevin defeated his opponent by a landslide, and it was my sister's turn. Her dance/battle wasn't as flashy, but it was much more tense -- Sveta and her opponent Josh E (who had his own official team, with T-shirts and everything) went neck-and-neck until the very end. Unfortunately, Josh E defeated her by a narrow margin of 5 points (218 vs. 213). He and his team were very cool about it, though, and took everyone out to lunch.
Round 5: Doom. That's right ! Doom. It was the old-skool Doom 1, too, with no mouse, no autoaim, no tricks -- just raw sk33lz. It brought back my fond memories of hanging out in the computer lab, playing deathmatch on mute during Pascal finals... Ah, these were the days. This, however, was Doom on a whole other level: a battle for the Omega Prize, to the death (well, to the most frags in 10 minutes, actually), amongst a crowd of supporters, most of them yelling advice. I was never a big fan of sports, but I imagine that this is how a soccer match in England might feel. The winner of the Doom round, Sean the Omeganaut, was phenomenal -- he shot his rockets with surgical precision that I could never achieve even with the mouse. There were rockets everywhere... I don't know how to describe it. Carnage.
The last round of the Omegathon was a secret; no one except Gabe and Tycho knew what it would entail, but everyone knew that it would be big. So, to keep up the suspense, I'll talk about my own exploits for a while.
Defeated Foe
Fighters
Soul Calibur 2 Tournament: I actually pre-registered for this one, and, in fact, I spent most of PAX playing SC2, in the tournament and in free play. Unfortunately, the torunament was held on the X-Box. Spawn was banned, but this doesn't change the fact that many people were hit hard by the X-Box controller. Some people were smart, and brought adapters; I just had to suck it in and use the Tekken Stance of PS2 (the X-Box controller, though bear-sized, is similar in its layout). Unfortunately, most people in my initial bracket did not show up, and we were left with just three people. I brought out my Kilik, and made people fly (out of the ring and/or onto the floor). The battle was tough, but Kilik's staff was tougher, and I made it in Round 2. In Round 2, however, I've met my match. My opponent was calm, collected, and used a custom arcade-style controller, with a real joystick and Street Fighter-style buttons... It was intimidating just to look at it. He had the home field advantage, and I was fighting sleep deprivation, headache, cafeeine-induced delerium, and the X-Box controller. The result was nothing short of a spirit-crushing experience: he beat me six times in a row, Kilik and Nightmare both. What made the battle even more demoralizing is that he used Yoshimitsu, and he used him with an extreme level of skill. I've never seen Yoshimitsu used at all, let alone with such power... before I could blink, it was all over. If you're reading this, my nemesis, my hat goes off to you; next time, I shall be more prepared. Sorry I didn't get a chance to take your picture, there were crowds in the way.
After that, I sulked for a while, and then went off to check out the free play. What was interesting about the gamers at PAX is that none of them parried, and very few of them used throws. This was very different from my friends, who use parries and throws ALL THE TIME (you know who you are !), and thus I was able to hold my own quite well. In the end, I have once again met my match, in the person of the tournament semifinalist. His Ivy was just too strong, though I managed to defeat her a few times. Curse you, Ivy !
Counterstrike Tournament: Oh, I also signed up for CS, but that was a losing battle from the start. I was the best player on our team, and I haven't played for five years. Still, it was refreshing to see the old classic alive and well. Speaking of which, there was also a "Bring Your Own Computer" room at PAX; in there I saw someone playing Chrono Trigger on an emulator. Yes ! The legend will never die !
Tube
Gabe
PA Q&A: I also got to attend the Penny Arcade Question and Answer session. That was quite a treat: Gabe and Tycho are excellent speakers, and they're even funnier in real life than they are online, if you can believe it. Oddly enough, their personalities are reversed in real life: Tycho is the talkative one, and Gabe is the quiet, reserved one (he seemed almost shy, and was impossible to corner). I did, however, manage to corner Tycho before the Q&A, and got him to sign my tube. He took one look at my short tube (I was reluctant to bring the full-sized one on the plane -- still, thanks for the advice, James !), and said, "well, that's nothing to be ashamed of". Aw ! Little did he know that I plan to attach this short tube to a longer, full-sized tube, thus forging the ultimate cardboard weapon ! Expect an update soon. Anyway, I didn't film most of the Q&A, because I was busy laughing so hard. At some point, someone asked, "how come American Greetings never returns my emails ?", and Tycho answered, "gee, I don't know. They've always been nice to us". They also mentioned the Phantom gaming console: "The phantom is not meant for us. Everyone sitting in this room, the Phantom is not meant for you, either. When you get married, the children and grandchildren of this union... the Phantom is not for them, either. But, somewhere on Earth, there's a guy that would like the Phantom. When it comes out, that guy will be all over it.". Oh, and Gabe and Tycho also showed an animated version of The Wandering Age: Last Rites. They said there'd be a DVD of the entire PAX coming out soon; it's worth buying just for this short animation; trust me.
Omegathon: Final Round. As I'd mentioned before, the final round of the Omegathon was a mystery. All we knew is that it was postponed by two hours due to "technical difficulties", and that (according to Tycho) it would require no special training, but pure gaming skills. I was able to squeeze into the theater along with my sister the Omeganaut (yey !), so I had a good seat. The lights went dim, and the only thing I saw was a green couch, with some sort of device under a cloth in front of it (facing the screen in the back of the stage). Then, Europe - The Final Countdown started playing, and Gabe and Tycho introduced the final contestants: Kevin of DDR fame (the crowd started chanting, "Take off your pants ! TAKE OFF YOUR PANTS !!!) and Sean the Doom master. They settled onto the couch -- this time, to the tune of Eye of the Tiger. Just as the room was about to explode, the cloth was torn off from the mysterious machine, and the screen lit up, to reveal... PONG ! And I mean the original, analog Pong machine with knobs. Only this Pong machine was hooked up to a couple studio-quality microphones, resulting in Pong with surround sound. All lights went off, someone from the theater yelled "this map sucks !", and the game started. It was incredible -- the tension felt as though it could've been cut with a knife. The little rectangular ball made a deep humming noise that followed it in 3d from left to right, right to left. People everywhere yelled words of encouragement, such as "stop camping !", "zerg rush him ! zerg rush !", and "good thing you ducked, or that woulda hit you". In the end, though, Sean was the better player, with the score 15-10.
I guess this is one of those "you had to be there" moments, but trust me: this game of Pong was, quite possibly, the most exciting event I've seen in my entire life. I don't know how Gabe and Tycho pulled it off, or where they dug up the machine, but they were right: these were pure gaming skills on display, raw and unchained.
Group ShotAfter the match was over, Tycho tried to remember some other event that he missed; but first, he and Gabe had to take their turn on the couch, because the roar of "PLAY PONG !" from the crowd was overwhelming. This time, Tycho was the better player, though it was obvious that both of them had put in quite a few hours of practice (or "beta-testing", as Gabe put it). After the game though, Tycho finally remembered what they'd been forgetting. They vacated the stage, and a guy from Australia (I think) named Dave walked up, faced the audience, and proposed to his fiancée: "Honey, I want you to be on my team". I've been to a wedding before, but this was much more touching.
Conclusion: There was actually a lot of stuff that I missed at the Omegathon. I missed out on the gaming industry panel, the D&D session, all of the tabletop free play (why did I not bring my Magic cards ? Why ????!!!), and, worst of all, the live music concert featuring The Minibosses. There simply wasn't enough time to do everything, and too many people to get everywhere. Still, PAX 2004 was incredible; if I make enough money, I'm definitely going to register for PAX 2005. I can't wait to see what secret surprises Penny Arcade has planned for next year.
Webcomics Update
I was going to review a couple more semi-new webcomics that I read on and off, but there wasn't enough material for a full-blown review. So, I decided instead to issue a short summary -- think of it as an ongoing update on many of my previous rants.
Here they are, in no particular order:
Alpha Shade: I hate to say it, but this webcomic is in a rut. The action is fast-paced and well-rendered, but that's all it is: pointless action. Characters die off like flies, but there isn't really any reason to care. We find out that the weird cat-creature that everyone practically worships has shields and hyper-speed in addition to his psi, but we don't find out what he is or why humans respect him. Blah blah blah gunfire blah, you can only see so much of it before it gets old.
Mario Epic: Woo hoo ! The long-awaited Part IV is out. This is like watching Lemmings, only with mushrooms and orchestral music. Brings tears to my eyes.
Outside the Box: A worthy conclusion to an excellent Flash comic. Outside the Box has a well-defined story arc, and it ends just when it should (even though I am a bit sad now that it's finished). As I said earlier, the story is engaging and has a definite Mage-ish feel; IMO, this alone is worth the Modern Tales admission price. Reshape the World !
Tokyo High: On the other hand, this Modern Tales comic is not worth the admission price. It rushes through a pretty boring story, doesn't do anything interesting, and resolves everything with a textbook Deux Ex Machina. If you like getting ripped off, you'll love Tokyo High.
Fear Mongers: On the third hand, this one is pretty sweet. The comic is done in this unique style that I haven't seen before: black-and-white (actually, black-and-dark-blue) 3d renderings, with speech and sound effects drawn to the right of the frame. The rendering quality is fairly high: the backgrounds are nearly perfect, which leads me to think that image-based rendering was used (or maybe plain old photos); and the characters are also very realisitc, though lacking a bit in detail. The overall mood and setting (mental hospital -- of course), combined with the photorealistic style and the lack of speech bubbles, makes the experience of reading the comic similar to watching a silent movie version of The Twilight Zone (especially since their technology features a lot of analog dials and vacuum tubes). The story is one of those good old fashioned, 100% predictable horror-type deals that would normally put me to sleep; however, in this case, it works for some reason. You know exactly what is going to happen, but you don't know how it's going to go down, and getting there is a lot of fun. Well, that, and I've always had a soft spot for Chthulhu and classic shound effects such as "SHHRUUGH-HOTH", so I can't help but love this comic. Oh, and apparently, their mental hospital orders their syringes from the same supplier that the Strangers do. That's just too cool to pass up.
Konsekai Swordwaltzer: I think I mentioned this one before; I have no idea what the title means, but this comic is really cool. The art is occasionally slightly sloppy, but it's colored in this really sw33t shiny way that makes objects glow with razor-sharp, quicksilver-smooth inner light. Combined with the action (sort of like manga, but in color) and story (melodramatic in that Blood Omen-ish way that I like), it produces this "Hell Yeah !" Pavlovian response in me that I just can't deny. Well, the one negative thing about this comic is that it updates very rarely, once a month at best.
Sore Thumbs: This is a fairly new comic, featuring Cecania -- a busty anime babe fresh out of college who is a Vegan, and her brother Fairbanks -- a good Christian citizen who did his patriotic duty by killing two men whom he suspected of being terrorists because they had beards. Their sherry-sipping mother forces Cecania to work in Fairbanks' video game store, which is very wholesome and family-oriented (of course), and thus has only one customer (at best). The writing is hilarious and the character design is anime-ish and shiny, but definitely unique. I am going to read this comic regularly from now on, and so should you, unless you're Owen, in which case you should run away very fast before Coleman the mini-bear gets you.
Seasons of Constancy: Still sucks.
Futurama Panorama: This is not technically a webcomic, but it's still pretty cool. Apparently, someone took frame-grabs of Futurama, and stitched them together into panoramic views. Bender's robot pr0n is my favorite: "ooh baby... who's a naughty girl ?". Link courtesy of boingboing.
Seasons of Constancy mini-review
I found the webcomic Seasons of Constancy through an ad on MacHall. Now, I normally don't click on ads, but in this case I was intrigued by the art. The shiny colors made me click, but it was the author's "comic intro" page that really intrigued me:
The setting is a fictional industrialized society. I can't really give you much else, because at this time (and possibly through the rest of the saga), nothing else is decided. But...are they human? Are they on earth? Is this in the future? Is this a completely different planet? ... When constructing the idea Seasons of Constancy, I was hoping to tell a story about people, emotions, communication and relationships. I wanted it to emulate a real life, where anything can come up and anything can happen... It's basically trying to understand another culture (e.g. watching a foreign language game show) and all the considerations that come with it.Ok, so this idea is not entirely original (more on this in a minute), but it's different enough from the usual crop of pure-action and gag-oriented comics to be commendable. So... Does Bryan Wong (the author) succeed with his highly promising, ambitious and genre-defying project ? Well... In my opinion, no, not really.
The color-rendered art in the comic is very good -- the style sort of reminds me of Errant Story and the aforementioned MacHall all rolled into one. Unfortunately, the color art only appears on chapter covers; the regular comic is black-and-white. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem (Errant Story is black-and-white, and it's great), except that for some reason, all the black-and-white characters look exactly the same. I think you can figure out how this could be bad, seeing as since Seasons of Constancy is a character-oriented comic. Now, it's quite possible that I'm the only one who has trouble telling these people apart -- I've always found it difficult to differentiate faces, in comics as well as in real life -- but... would it really undermine the creative intent of the comic to give the characters more identifying features than just the color of their hair ? Oh, and the fact that all the characters are called something like "Amaschale Kaessinde" doesn't help either, because I usually can't memorize names that I can't even comprehend.
Comprehension-wise, the story is no picnic, either. Bryan Wong writes,
Perhaps one of the most challenging things about the comic is recognizing that even the creator doesn't have answers to some of the more mysterious questions. That's right. I don't know!! It's up to the reader to decide how much they want to fill in with their interpretations. That may prove a bit daunting... The reader will find that the comic never stays in one area for too long, allowing it to be unpredictable as life really is.Yeah, "daunting" is right. I found it impossible -- not just very difficult, mind you, but utterly impossible -- to figure out what's going on without reading the synopses for the first couple of chapters. I had the character guide open in a background window, and I still couldn't figure it out. Even the title is confusing: "Seasons of Constancy" ? What does that mean ? It's a good thing Bryan Wong established at least some guidelines for himself (no flashbacks, no dream sequences, no thought bubbles), because otherwise this webcomic would probably make my head implode.
This morass of confusion and non-narrative makes it really difficult to care for the characters, which is a shame, because I really do want to care for them. I want to be swept away by the tides of pure human emotions which I can almost sense beneath the pages (er... beneath the JPEG files). Unfortunately, I am not quite able to feel anything for people that I can't even tell apart from one another. The author spends a lot of time telling the reader about how his comic "deliberately defies genre boundaries" and is a "challenging piece"; however, without the actual content to back up his claims, he just comes off sounding pompously pretentious at worst, or sadly overconfident at best.
Which is not to say that Seasons of Constancy is all bad. The comic does have a tremendous potential -- especially since, as I mentioned earlier, I love figuring out alternative societies. The art gets a bit better with each chapter (there are six complete chapters so far, with chapter seven in progress), and so does the writing. We even get to see some character development, and some delicious hints about the inner workings of the eerily familiar yet different culture in which the comic is set. Bryan Wong has set a very high bar for himself, and his first attempt to valut over it earned him a faceful of floor -- but he does keep improving at a steady rate, and if he ever achieves the high standard he has set his sights on... Well, that will be a day to remember in webcomic history.
Incidentally, there's a print comic which partially succeeds where Seasons of Constancy fails (yes, this is the point that I said I'd come back to at the beginning). When I was still living in Berkeley, a friend loaned me an issue of Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve, and I was permanently hooked. I'm not sure how to say this except through an analogy: Optic Nerve has the soul-wrenching power that rivals the power of Now and Then or even the Nausicaa manga. The comic is insidious: each issue consists of just a couple short stories, most of which don't even have a clear beginning, middle or end. However, after one has finished reading it, one experiences a strong (sometimes, overwhelming) feeling sadness, or loneliness, or joy, for no apparent reason -- until it sinks in: the comic actually made you feel these things ! This amazing effect works (probably) because Adrian Tomine doesn't attempt to describe ficitional persistent worlds or alternate cultures -- his comic is just about ordinary people, doing ordinary things, and I think that's why it really hits home. Oh, and Adrian Tomine doesn't pen long-winded essays about how his art is "meaningful and profound" -- he just writes outstanding comics, period.
Thus, while I highly recommend Optic Nerve, I can't currently recommend Seasons of Constancy -- unless you, just like me, are fascinated by the mere promise of things to come.
A true epic
Update: Part Four is out
Ok, I normally don't post random links, but this was too good to pass up. Presented by Penny Arcade, written and directed by AlexanderLeon, comes an epic tale about one man's life, the loss of his homeland, and the choice he must make: between his true love, his duty, and the life of his brother. Oh, and there are mushrooms involved. Lots of mushrooms.
- Part One (Loss)
- Part Two (Assault)
- Part Three (Redemption ?)
- Part Four (Revelation)
Man, this stuff is almost funnier than 8-Bit Theater.
Orisinal
Whoa, I actually almost forgot about this one, until my friend reminded me of it. Orisinal is another one of those rare examples where Flash usage is not contraindicated, and actually essential (Alpha Shade being the previous example). Orisinal -- no, it's not a spelling error -- is basically a collection of small Flash-based web games. By itself, this isn't all that remarkable. The games are not very involved, and they're certainly not as addictive as, say, Rocket Mania. However, the truth of the matters is that the Orisinal games aren't actually games at all; in reality, they're tiny works of art. Every mini-game is drawn in this soft, tender style, that manages to be cute and elegant without being offensive to the senses. The art is also very terse, almost impressionistic, except that it's never loud or pretentious, as "official" art sometimes tends to be. The soundtrack, when it exists, evokes similar feelings of peaceful serenity -- calm, rolling notes of the soft piano. Thus, most of the Orisinal games (especially my favorite, Pocketful of Stars) manage to have a calm and relaxing emotional effect on me which borders on uncanny. In these days of exploding demons and marketing hype, it's nice to see that there's still somebody out there who codes little Flash applets just for the aesthetic pleasure of it.
Alpha Shade spotlight
For unknown reasons, I stumbled upon the Drow Tales Top Lists sub-page, which seems to be a list of online manga (which has nothing to do with our subterranean, blood-thirsty, spider-worshipping friends). Naturally, I didn't go through every comic on that list (but one day, I surely will). However, there is one comic I really like: Alpha Shade. The comic is fairly new, but so far, I like what I see. Oh, the Konsekai:Swordwaltzer comic is on that list too, but I think I've discussed it before a bit, so I'll move on to Alpha Shade.
The comic is set in a universe reminiscent of Last Exile (but only a little). I think I can call it "subdued technomagic": the fictional technology we see is very similar to the real technology that we know; however, it is different enough to allow for construction of steam-engine mecha (Escaflowne), punchcard-based mainframes (The Difference Engine) or internal-combustion-powered levitating airships (Last Exile, Alpha Shade). For some reason, I am a real sucker for this type of setting -- I like it even more than outright Magitek (Final Fantasy 6). Maybe the reason is that suspension of disbelief is so easy when the fictional world is only a few degrees off course from our own. Or maybe there is something intrinsically cool about watching a mechanic replacing the uppipe on her old vanship so she can take it into the churning depths of the Grand Stream. Or maybe I'm just being crazy as usual.
In any case, Alpha Shade plunges the reader into the setting without any preliminary introductions. I always liked this style as well: it feels more realistic (since real people aren't as exposition-happy as Hollywood would have us believe), and besides, part of the fun of reading the comic is figuring out how its world works.
The art of Alpha Shade is very good; it's clean but detailed vector-graphics. Which is probably why the comic is presented in Flash; normally, I scoff at such things, but in this case the annoyance seems to be justified -- especially since there are no blinking animations or anything. The story also has good potential, even though there isn't much of it there yet (the comic so far contains only 24 pages). It's intriguing enough to make me want more... and soon.
Strangely enough, some people on that "top manga" list complained that Alpha Shade contains too much text. I am not sure what they're smoking, however... For example the first page of the comic contains just the following text: "Grey... Any second now". Is this what our world is coming to ? Is the attention span of the average Web user too short to parse one and a half sentences ? Come on ! We are humans, not hummingbirds !
Anyway, ranting aside, Alpha Shade definitely has potential. I can only hope that it doesn't fall into the "no update today, here's a random picture of a sad girl in snow" trap that so many other webcomics fall prey to.
Modern Tales
Seeing as all these webcomics are everywhere now, I might as well mention Modern Tales, a site where people actually try to make money by making webcomics. A strange concept, I know. Even stranger is the fact that I actually paid for their content. In any case, most of their comics are, IMO, pure crap -- however, there are enough counterexamples on the site to keep my money flowing.
In no particular order, the counterexamples are listed below. I linked to the first page of each comic for convenience; however, you will probably have to pay money to access the archives. The current page of every comic is free.
- American Born Chinese: The life of a Chinese immigrant as seen through the eyes of the Monkey King (the one in the Chinese story). The art is very clean and clear, and the Monkey King is funny in that homicidal Black Mage kind of way. The comic is split into three interleaved chapters: Monkey (the fable of the Monkey King; I think this is how the author sees his experiences as he looks back on it), Jin (what it must have felt like to be an immigrant, through the eyes of the author as a child), and Chin-Kee (what others see the protagonist as... Not very flattering). Despite all the kung-fu Monkey goodness, this is a serious comic, and I like it that way.
- Ice: Some sort of catastrophe must have struck a long time ago, because the world has descended into an icy waste, where heat is at a premium, most technologies have been lost, and society has changed. Sort of like Fallout meets Thief: The Dark Project. The comic has great potential, but it's relatively new so far, so I am not sure which way it's heading.
- Outside the Box: A Flash comic that actually does not suck. Imagine that. This is a comic noir with a few twists -- for example, the protagonist used to be a codemonkey working for washmypoodle.com during dot-com days. I can't help but feel that the comic was written by one of my former colleagues. In any case, this comic is also very good, and contains certain Mage-ish overtones that warm my twisted little heart -- though you'd have to look hard to find them.
- Tokyo High: An alien girl (well, if that's what she is) on a secret mission lands in Tokyo, where she meets a geeky high school student (after barely making it off with another girl's purse). This is clearly a manga spoof, and it's pretty funny, especially in the beginning. Like Ice, this comic is also relatively young.
- Vicious Souvenirs: This used to be an outstanding Flash comic in its first season. The world of VS is much like ours -- except superheroes (and supervillains, and just super-regular-Joes) actually do exist. The comic used to follow the exploits of Diesel and Wikkid -- two petty thieves with limited powers. Diesel and Wikkid get recruited by Dorian Closer, a shady millionaire who wants to remake the world in his image, because, as he puts it, "it shouldn't be like this". The comic was jam-packed with political intrigue, economic upheavals, mysteries and secrets -- the super-powers were flashy, but they were always in the background of the story. The art was also very original and even hypnotizing. Most of the time, the characters are standing between light and shadow, and it makes for a really neat effect... I could probably go on and on about the art, but I'm not an art major, so I'll stop. Note, however, that I am speaking in the past tense. For their second season, VS must have run out of budget or something, because the art went to the crapper, and so did the story. This is a shame, as the comic is almost not worth reading now, despite its earlier excellence.
- The City Is My Garden: This comic is actually featured on Modern Tales Longplay, which, as far as I can tell, is a device they use to screw up the navigation on their site. Nevertheless, this mini-comic (it only has a handful of pages) is good enough to justify the UI annoyance. It's short, sweet, to the point, and the art is clean almost to the point of abstraction (but, thankfully, not quite). I think Longplay is worth checking out just for that.
- Makeshift Miracle: This comic started as a Modern Tales feature, but apparently it has its own site now. Anyway, this is a neat comic, even though the story is a bit wonky. The art, however, more than makes up for it. Just like The City Is My Garden, the comic is short and to the point -- though it's much longer and spans multiple chapters. Anyway, the current site wants you to use some sort of a BitPass thingy to pay for the comic... Not sure what's that all about.
There are a few other comics on Modern Tales that might be worth checking out. However, they are either too new to form any kind of an impression, or on hiatus... And besides, I think I think this treatise is already long enough. Just to summarize: even though paying for webcomics seems like an alien idea to most people, in this case the expense is probably worth it.
2003 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards
The 2003 Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards are out, and they even have an in-character ceremony. It shames me to say that I haven't even heard of half these webcomics, including the winner -- Nowhere Girl. And it really, really shames me to say that I totally forgot about Demonology 101, an excellent comic featuring fallen angels, uppity mages, and interdimensional intrigue all around. However, I can't say I completely agree with the WCCA's choice for outstanding art -- MacHall. Sure, the art there is good and very original, but there's other art out there that's as good, if not better. Well, or maybe it's just my general dislike of all things chibi talking...
Webcomics in Review
Kuro5hin has a semi-comprehensive article that reviews several prominent webcomics. While I do not agree with all of the author's ratings, the article is worth checking out nonetheless. Inevitably, of course, it misses several excellent webcomics (there are just... too... many of them !), so I might as well add some blurbs for them below.
Before posting all these links, I should mention that most of these webcomics have a continuous story; this means that you will have to read them from the very beginning in order to understand anything. You have been warned.
Schlock Mercenary: Sort of like Reservour Dogs meets O'Henry meets hard SF in the future. This is a very funny comic in a satisfying kind of way: most of the humor is derived from the neat, mind-twisting pranks that the characters pull on each other. Sometimes, the pranks end up destroying entire planets. And, of course, there's Schlock the amorph who looks like a pile of dog doo-doo with a plasma cannon... The art is not that great, but the story makes up for it. 5 stars.
Errant Story: A fantasy (well... sort of) comic about Meji, a psychotic half-elven mage girl on a quest for the ultimate power just so that she can finish her school project and graduate from the mage college. I started reading the comic regularly when I saw one of the supporting characters call Meji a "Kefka wannabe". The art is really good, but the story and humor so far have not been as memorable as other comics. 4 Stars.
Nukees: The life and times of Gav, a megalomaniacal nuclear engineering major at U.C. Berkeley. Giant nuclear-powered robotic ants, psychotic girlfriends, homicidal rogue AIs, and lots of beer. The fact that everything the comic says about Berkeley is true is just icing on the cake, though I suppose some of the jokes have a certain "you had to be there" feel to them -- non-Berkeley graduates might not get them. Also, it feels as though the comic has been slowing down lately; IMO, it was really interesting in the beginning, but has been declining a bit lately. 3 stars, 4 stars if you're a former Berkeley student like me.
Freefall: The story of Sam Starfall, a hideous alien thing in a non-threatening-looking environment suit, and his quest to cheat everyone else out of their money, material goods, and dignity. A few panels in, Sam steals Florence -- a pathologically honest and moral engineer -- because he needs his ship fixed, and he is obviously not going to actually pay for it. His naive robot sidekick Helix persists in calling Florence "Doggy !!!" because she is a Bowman's Wolf, a tailor-made bioengineered species. This comic is similar in feel to Schlock Mercenary, only without all the random violence. 3 stars, because I feel as though it has been slowing down lately, as well.
Acid Reflux: An excellent comic about God, a litte girl deity who inherits the universe from her teenaged (well... by divine standards) older sister. God's sister neglected the universe for 1000 years because she got bored with it, and besides her parents gave her a new one. God is eager to fix things and make Irving (that's the Universe's name) all better, but, being a young child who is only a millenium old, she is not very good at it. God manages to acidentally fall into Erwin, where she meets up with Anathus the shy mage and Roxie the raging Amazon, who are on the run from The Banana Slug Liberation Front. The entire comic is very preposterous and very funny; it also contains multiple parodies of anime, various religions, movies, etc. -- in fact, it feels somewhat like The Fifth Element, only in fantasy setting. For example, one of the major parts of the comic is an extended Fight Club parody, which is actually integrated into the story... The comic is worth reading just for that. Unfortunately, it appears as though the author has moved on to other things, and the comic will never be updated again, which is a crying shame. 5 stars nonetheless.
Well, this should be enough for now... I would type more blurbs, but I have some webcomics to read.