FreakAngels: Picking your battles

The Children of the Corn had to grow up sometime.

What would you do if every day was spent in a struggle for survival against the very people who should be keeping you safe?  What would be going through your mind if your own government was relentlessly pursuing you simply because of what you were, of what you might do.  And what would you do if the government had every right to logically be hunting you, especially when you consider that you’re not alone, and that all of you together have the ability to knock some people down for good?

Freakangels, by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield, has a pretty simple concept and plot, but has a tendency to present at least three sides to any argument to you and then leave the difficult choice of which answer is right to you.  The premise of Freakangels is simple, and Duffield and Ellis remind us exactly how simple it is at the beginning of every chapter:  “23 years ago, twelve strange children were born in England at the exact same moment.  Six years ago, the world ended.  This is the story of what happens next.”

Dead Winter: Apocalyptic table waiting

Aw yeah

Zombies.  What is even up with those guys?  From mutated viruses diabolically engineered by pointlessly evil companies to space radiation from space, it seems like the dead are just looking for any excuse to rise out of their shallow graves to gnaw on the living.  Sometimes their journey is given a reason, other times not so much.  Sometimes its just enough to know that the man who is trying to bite you isn’t just a hobo with rabies, its a friggin’ ZOMBIE and you should have no qualms about lodging a pipe into its head with extreme prejudice.

A formula for zombie survival has emerged in the past several years:  Travel in groups of four.  The Left 4 Dead games embrace this fun mechanic like an old friend, and even movies like Zombieland get in on the fun.  If you really want to see the formula done right, however, you should be reading Dead Winter, by S. Dave Shabat.  This comic follows the journey of four very different companions as they attempt to survive the apocalypse, though when it comes right down to it, zombies are the least of their worries.

Erfworld is all about the little things

Hail to the king, baby

There are two very different worlds of popular culture out there, and most everyone seems to subscribe to one or the other.  The first is the regular pop culture, filled with information about which celebrity is banging what, popular music, movie quotes and trivia.  The second is internet pop culture, filled with horrific images from 4Chan, hilarious videos of stupid people getting hurt in stupid ways, and mighty gems, like the majestic keyboard cat.  Erfworld draws heavily from both worlds to create a deep and involved, self-referential world that doubles as the ultimate gamer’s paradise.  If you’ve got a finger on the pulse of either world, or have spent a few days involved in table top or console gaming, Erfworld might be right up your alley.

PFSC: Sylvia Plath meets the surrealists

When I entered college in the fall of 2002 I was not in a position to understand why anyone would commit suicide. It seemed to me to be the single most foolish thing a human being could do.

The following fall I read The Bell Jar and suddenly the world became a dark and dreary place. Leaving the world behind didn’t seem so foolish. It wasn’t for me, but it suddenly made sense why someone would think it might be the answer. Pictures For Sad Children had a similar effect on me when I read through the entire archives in a week last winter.  It is for that reason that I must strongly urge everyone I meet to avoid doing that very thing. By all means read PFSC. Just read one a week while vacationing on the beaches of Fiji. In the evening, with a Mai Tai. You know, just to put a little perspective on your good times.

Blank It: Screwing up the universe in ten easy steps

I usually try to steer away from web comics where the main characters share the names of their creators.  It’s nothing against the artists, but the comics that share this trend are usually weak, uninspired, and border vaguely on the realm of indulgent self-fantasy.  I’ve recently made an exception for Blank It, (located at www.blankitcomics.com) a relatively new comic created and drawn by Aric McKeown and Lem Pew.  There’s something unique about this comic that draws me in, namely the fact that I have no freaking idea what’s actually going on.  Well, to be fair it doesn’t seem like the comic’s title characters…  or anyone for that matter, can figure it out either.