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Jin Wicked is a freelance artist, cartoonist, and graphic designer with three connected sites; The Art of Jin Wicked, showcasing her paintings; Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, a semi-autobiographical webcomic; Asylum on 5th Street, also a webcomic but with different subject matter than Crap. All three are definitely worth a look.
Jin Wicked uses a lot of heavy black lines in her art, giving her work a solid look like stampings from a woodblock press. Her black and white art has a nice dense feel, with a lot of line work to give it a sense of depth. She uses a lot of secondary colours and muted tones in her art work, and uses contrasting primary colours to bring out the forms in her designs. Her work is unique and eye-catching, and I highly recommend a look through her archived materials.
Asylum on 5th Street is a collaborative effort with writer Cory!! Strode, following the lives of the room-mates living in the asylum of the title. There's no overall storyline, but there are a few longer arcs, and the writing has some solid gags (Watchdog furbies. I knew those things were evil) and lines that stick with you ("If all you can afford is a former asylum on a cursed burial ground, you have to make do."). As I said above, the art is great. The strip updates less frequently than Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, but has an archive reaching back to 2003, so there's lots to keep you distracted from cruel reality.
Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break is my favorite of the two strips. Four panels, one gag, no waiting. Jin Wicked uses the strip to take shots at any target that catches her attention, including herself - How can anyone be scared of a butterfly? - and changes her art to a more cartoony style to match the format. Autobiographical comics often become pointless in-jokes, particularly webcomics where there's no editor to keep people in line, but Jin has enough self-awareness to avoid this. Crap is funny, and holds your attention through the back archives. There's two years worth of archives, covering everything from her old job and bosses, her boyfriend, her pet rats... so you'll find something to make you laugh outloud.
The Art of Jin Wicked wins my highest recommendation for a webcomic; You won't regret the time you spent reading the archives instead of flirting with the cute girl at the coffee shop.
Collections/prints available? Yes.
Worth spending money on? Yes.
From its humble beginnings as a cheezy action-comedy-T&A underground comic, Excel Saga has grown into an internationally popular manga collection and anime series. It's hard to explain why.
The plot - Lord Il Palazzo gives Excel and Hyatt a box to deliver to a specific address at a specific time. Except Excel spent most of the meeting in The Pit, and didn't hear the instructions. And Hyatt is too shy and quiet, and too respectful of hierarchy, to explain the task to her senior officer. So instead Excel and Hyatt go on a long walk in the sun, carrying the box around while enjoying a beautiful day. Hyatt fidgets a lot.
Not that Excel Saga is bad, it's just hard to explain. I've been reading the manga for a couple of years now, and I'm still not sure what the hell is going on. Let's start with the main character, Excel. That's not really her name, the Excel is actually a hotel in Japan, but the audience doesn't know her real name. She doesn't seem to know it either. Excel is pretty bright - She has a remarkable grasp of the sort of facts that most of us forget after cramming for an exam - and a bit of a smart-ass, but sometimes she's a bit odd. Like 'secret satellites are beaming messages into my brain' odd, or 'this funny-looking guy who lives in the basement of a convention centre is going to conquer the world' odd.
The plot - The employees of the Department of City Security are morosely shuffling paperwork at their desks when their boss introduces their new co-worker, a woman of remarkable calm and poise - Well, a complete lack of personal expression, actually. But she is good at book-keeping and accounting. The old hands decide to take the new employee out for lunch; Hey, any excuse to get out of the office.
Excel works for the funny-looking guy in the basement, by the way. And he really is out to conquer the world, or at least Japan. Well, okay, he's only got a small organization working for him, so he's going to have to set more reasonable goals. Instead of all of Japan, he's going to conquer the city with a name like a Hawaiian obscenity - Fukuoka. To carry out his dreams of conquest, Lord Il Palazzo (That's the name of another hotel, incidentally) depends on his mighty organization of Acros. Membership, three humans and one canine; Field leadership provided by Excel, a teen-aged girl who can't even remember her name or hold down a part-time job; Tactical support provided by Hyatt (Yes, named after another hotel), who can't even throw a rock without hacking up blood and collapsing to the ground; Field rations provided by Mince the dog (She doesn't carry the rations, she is the rations); Cheesecake provided by Elgala, a whiny spoiled brat with the bad habit of speaking her innermost thoughts out loud.
Does Lord Il Palazzo's multiple personality disorder count as another member?
The plot - Now hopelessly lost, with the package undelivered and the deadline looming, Excel decides to sit down and gather her thoughts; Maybe they should take the package back to headquarters? Hyatt worries, but can't bring herself to correct her senior co-worker. So Hyatt does what she always does when faced with a serious problem - Or even a minor problem. She goes into convulsions and starts vomiting copious amounts of blood.
Faced with a scheme like this, you can see why the world's counter-terrorism experts aren't losing any sleep over the mighty Acros. Most of Acros's actions seem almost random, carried out with fanatical loyalty but little effect by Excel and her crack(pot) squad. Odd jobs, mysterious packages delivered to ordinary addresses, expeditions into the wilderness (Or at least, into the suburbs)... It all adds up to, well, something in Il Palazzo's mind. And Excel seems to think there's a plan, although she has no idea what it might be. It's all leading somewhere though, you can just start to see the outline of a plan, there it is - No, wait, that's just another long joke.
The timing in this series is the best part. You can never be sure if a new element is just a throwaway joke or part of the slowly unfolding plot, so pay attention. There will be a test later.
The plot - Excel has abandoned the package - Well, it's covered in blood; Would you want to carry it around? - and hauled Hyatt off to safety. The wageslaves from the Department of City Security are looking for a good restaurant, but what they find is a crowd gathered around a package wrapped in blood-soaked plain brown paper. The new girl takes one look at the package and announces that it's a bomb. The crowd vanishes.
The Excel Saga is a parody of Japanese comics, of Japanese television, Japanese politics, Japanese drinking habits... Yes, it's all very Japanese, which explains why most people who enjoy the series are hard-core manga fans, people who have been exposed to all this stuff the series is ruthlessly mocking. It also explains what a team of Japanese superheroes - A sentai team - is doing running around in this already bizarre series. They're the comic relief, and sort of the antagonists. Except that the comic is already weird enough, it doesn't need any comic relief, and the villains of Acros are so inept that using superheroics to stop them just goes right over their heads.
The plot - While the rest of the Department of City Security scatters and hides, the new girl sets to work defusing the bomb. With the grace of a piano player and cool of a, well, a bomb-disposal expert, she disables the optical trigger, by-passes the motion sensor, deactivates the timer -
And cuts the wrong wire. The bomb goes off, and the Department of City Security's newest employee is scattered across the block.
So why should you read this series? Because it's completely insane. Political satire, doggy barbeque jokes, dead heroines (Don't worry, she gets over it), and on-the-job jokes, all in one chapter of a multi-volume series. It's great, but don't read it at work; I can pretty much guarantee that at some point you'll either laugh out loud or scream in outrage - Possibly both at the same time, over the same joke.
The plot - Completely oblivious to the fact that the package was a bomb - She spent most of the meeting in The Pit, remember? - Excel goes looking for the parcel she was supposed to deliver. She's a little puzzled when she can't even find the building she left it in front of...
Is there a convenient online store where I can buy this stuff? Yes.
Should I give these deranged maniacs my money? Hell yes.
Smallpress comics from Calgary, Alberta (Canada. Look it up) artist Damian. Damian has written and drawn Dorkboy for over five years, taking time for side projects such as Workin' jones and Scootboy. Damian's dedication to his craft - Despite the low pay, long hours, and damage to his social life - speaks of a near-pathological obsessive disorder. But at least the public gets some good comics out of it.
Dorkboy is the ongoing saga of a hapless, naive dork. Theoretically he fights evil, but since the evil all seems to be random violence that happens while he's trying to live his mundane life (Doing laundry, visiting his uncle) it's not so much a calling or lifequest as a distraction. The plots are simple, and bounce from sight gag to pun like a pinball game, but they carry you through the important part of the comic - The humour - with no distractions. Good, clean, stupid fun.
Damian's character art is basic, with strong lines and solid blacks, which makes for an odd but visually effective contrast with his more detailed background work. His page layouts are straightforward and easy to read, with no distractions or points where you lose the story. Damian knows his stuff when it comes to humour storytelling.
Previews and reviews are available online. I enjoy these comics, but they're not for everyone. If you liked the Tick, this is the sort of comic you'll like as well.
Can I buy this stuff online? Yes.
Is it worth my money? Yes.