1
Worlds & Stories Discussion Board / Re: Comic of the Month
« Last post by Linebyline on November 22, 2024, 12:09:20 PM »No takers for November either? No worries, I've got you covered!
You know that spooky dark-haired ghost lady that comes out of the TV to kill you in that horror movie? (I forget what it's called, like Saw or Blair Witch Project or The Tigger Movie or something.) Well imagine if a similar but legally distinct ghost settled down with a kindly novelist and had an adorably wholesome daughter who takes after her mom. That's Erma, by Brandon J. Santiago, available on Webtoon.
Erma is the title character and silent protagonist. She starts out as the weirdest thing in the comic, except for maybe her mom, but as time goes on more and more oddness is revealed to exist and even be pretty normal. Which is probably one of several reasons that most people are perfectly chill with Erma, at least once they get used to her. Other reasons include "She's just so gosh darn cute" and her insatiable desire to be a friend to everyone.
It starts out as a gag strip with some short arcs. Later on the arcs get a little more plot to them, with Cerebus Syndrome finally kicking in just a couple arcs ago as Erma and the readers learn about her mom's side of the family. The heavier tone is broken up by some old-fashioned wholesome gag strips posted as filler as the family reunion arc took a long time to produce.
The art is charming, starting out in a newspaper comic style before evolving to a neater and more detailed version of itself. The family reunion arc shows a lot of manga influence, which is fitting since it's set in Japan. But in all cases, it's both charming and readable.
Some caveats: First, some content warnings. There's little violence before the family reunion arc, but there's definitely violence there. Like, a dude gets frozen solid and then shattered, on-panel. There's also animal harm, though not deliberate abuse or cruelty.* The comic's approach to horror is usually to twist it into something cute or wholesome (like Erma herself), but there's some genuinely scary stuff, and the arc after the family reunion arc is called "aftermath" for a reason as the body/psychological horror Erma goes through is seriously traumatizing. There are themes of prejudice, as not only does not everyone accept Erma but a lot of other spooky/paranormal types aren't as lucky as she is. There's also serious psychological/emotional and sometimes physical abuse (guess which arc) that's mostly in the past and off-panel but is very explicitly talked about.
The treatment of some of those issues, uh, feels kinda iffy to me? Like, mostly I'm not seeing a problem but in one case:
IDK, maybe it's just tone-deaf. I don't think that reflects the overall position of the story or its author toward issues of racism/colonialism/etc.; it just seemed like a red flag to me.
Last warning is, there's a lot of filler. Early on, it seems like it's going for a newspaper setup with weekly strips and Sunday strips, but the Sunday strips at the time are all single-panel fan art crossovers of Erma with pop culture characters (often but not necessarily horror). Later on these mostly get moved to the October "Ermaween" strips. But shortly after that happens, you see more and more "Sorry for the lack of updates, here's some art" posts as well as ads for merch and spinoff prose novels (at least one of which is written in-universe by Erma's dad). Finally, as mentioned above, regular one-off strips get posted as filler between installments of the family reunion arc. It's a bit of a pain (I've complained here about less intrusive filler in The Sword Interval) but the comic is still good enough that I can't be too mad about it.
So if you're sad that Spooky Month ended almost a month ago and you've run out of Halloween candy, check out Erma for an extremely sweet take on horror! (And if you're annoyed that it's not even (American) Thanksgiving yet and we've already spent weeks getting blasted with Christmas music, take heart, as Erma doesn't get along with Santa Claus either.)
You know that spooky dark-haired ghost lady that comes out of the TV to kill you in that horror movie? (I forget what it's called, like Saw or Blair Witch Project or The Tigger Movie or something.) Well imagine if a similar but legally distinct ghost settled down with a kindly novelist and had an adorably wholesome daughter who takes after her mom. That's Erma, by Brandon J. Santiago, available on Webtoon.
Erma is the title character and silent protagonist. She starts out as the weirdest thing in the comic, except for maybe her mom, but as time goes on more and more oddness is revealed to exist and even be pretty normal. Which is probably one of several reasons that most people are perfectly chill with Erma, at least once they get used to her. Other reasons include "She's just so gosh darn cute" and her insatiable desire to be a friend to everyone.
It starts out as a gag strip with some short arcs. Later on the arcs get a little more plot to them, with Cerebus Syndrome finally kicking in just a couple arcs ago as Erma and the readers learn about her mom's side of the family. The heavier tone is broken up by some old-fashioned wholesome gag strips posted as filler as the family reunion arc took a long time to produce.
The art is charming, starting out in a newspaper comic style before evolving to a neater and more detailed version of itself. The family reunion arc shows a lot of manga influence, which is fitting since it's set in Japan. But in all cases, it's both charming and readable.
Some caveats: First, some content warnings. There's little violence before the family reunion arc, but there's definitely violence there. Like, a dude gets frozen solid and then shattered, on-panel. There's also animal harm, though not deliberate abuse or cruelty.* The comic's approach to horror is usually to twist it into something cute or wholesome (like Erma herself), but there's some genuinely scary stuff, and the arc after the family reunion arc is called "aftermath" for a reason as the body/psychological horror Erma goes through is seriously traumatizing. There are themes of prejudice, as not only does not everyone accept Erma but a lot of other spooky/paranormal types aren't as lucky as she is. There's also serious psychological/emotional and sometimes physical abuse (guess which arc) that's mostly in the past and off-panel but is very explicitly talked about.
Spoiler: * show
The treatment of some of those issues, uh, feels kinda iffy to me? Like, mostly I'm not seeing a problem but in one case:
Spoiler: show
IDK, maybe it's just tone-deaf. I don't think that reflects the overall position of the story or its author toward issues of racism/colonialism/etc.; it just seemed like a red flag to me.
Last warning is, there's a lot of filler. Early on, it seems like it's going for a newspaper setup with weekly strips and Sunday strips, but the Sunday strips at the time are all single-panel fan art crossovers of Erma with pop culture characters (often but not necessarily horror). Later on these mostly get moved to the October "Ermaween" strips. But shortly after that happens, you see more and more "Sorry for the lack of updates, here's some art" posts as well as ads for merch and spinoff prose novels (at least one of which is written in-universe by Erma's dad). Finally, as mentioned above, regular one-off strips get posted as filler between installments of the family reunion arc. It's a bit of a pain (I've complained here about less intrusive filler in The Sword Interval) but the comic is still good enough that I can't be too mad about it.
So if you're sad that Spooky Month ended almost a month ago and you've run out of Halloween candy, check out Erma for an extremely sweet take on horror! (And if you're annoyed that it's not even (American) Thanksgiving yet and we've already spent weeks getting blasted with Christmas music, take heart, as Erma doesn't get along with Santa Claus either.)