Comic of the Month

[Jitter]

Thorny, an already finished work is fine! It has the added benefit of no risk of getting canceled in the middle of everything.

[thorny]

As for the no language, I have “read” a brilliant work that has no text whatsoever. It was a while ago so I’ll have to see if I can find it still, but it’s possible!

Was the central figure an immigrant?

If it's the one I'm thinking of, I agree that it's brilliant; but I'm afraid I'll be no help in finding it online, because I took it out in hardcopy from one of the local libraries. I also don't remember name or author, though if you need those I could probably find it in the library again; they don't have so many graphics that I couldn't just look through the shelves.

Thorny, an already finished work is fine! It has the added benefit of no risk of getting canceled in the middle of everything.

OK! Maybe I'll ask to do Digger in one of the winter months, then, when I've got more time; unless somebody else wants to get to it before I do, which would be OK too.


-- this whole idea looks like it's going to a) be a lot of fun b) be mind-broadening c) have the potential to keep these boards busy indefinitely.

[Songbird]

As for the no language, I have “read” a brilliant work that has no text whatsoever. It was a while ago so I’ll have to see if I can find it still, but it’s possible! I am also imagining there could at least in theory be a work where several characters speak their own language, but it works even if you don’t understand all of those. So I didn’t want to make it too specifically about being works In English.

This sounds brilliant and I'd like to read it if you can find it (it's a lovely potential future comic of the month!), but disagree with making that a requirement because that's a narrative-type niche. Conventional comics are about dialog + art, not just art. It'd be very hard to find other comics of this type, and I don't think that's what people envisioned when the idea was brought up. Imho this works well as a recommendation, not a requirement.

[Jitter]

Oh no no, comics in English are ok! But also comics that are not in English, but are understandable to a person speaks (or rather, understands) English. My point is to not exclude comics that are not in any language

I’ll try and see if I can find it again… it wasn’t about an immigrant, it was a story of a girl and lamps and lost castle.

[thorny]

I’ll try and see if I can find it again… it wasn’t about an immigrant, it was a story of a girl and lamps and lost castle.

Ah. I'll have to see if I can find online the one I was thinking of!

ETA: got it! The Arrival, by Shaun Tan. Described as a children's book, which surprises me. Available online at comiconlinefree; but I'm not at all sure that's a legitimate site approved by the authors. Does anybody know?

[Songbird]

Oh no no, comics in English are ok! But also comics that are not in English, but are understandable to a person speaks (or rather, understands) English. My point is to not exclude comics that are not in any language

I’ll try and see if I can find it again… it wasn’t about an immigrant, it was a story of a girl and lamps and lost castle.

Oh. Then I'm absolutely for it!

I'm looking forward to that comic and the one thorny mentioned. They'd be great comics of the month, interesting yet probably relatively unknown.

Edit: I can't help to think of Kochab when thinking of a comic about a girl, a lost palace castle and lamps. But although it's full of quiet panels it has dialogue, so it can't be.

And wow, The Arrival is gorgeous.

[thorny]

I'm looking forward to that comic and the one thorny mentioned. [ . . .]

And wow, The Arrival is gorgeous.

I don't know if it's available to read online anywhere legitimate, though. The one place I found looks suspicious to me.

[Keep Looking]

I've read The Arrival (and several other of Shaun Tan's books - he's from Perth, same city as me, and he was in some of the same uni classes as my mum). His art never ceases to amaze me - it's so detailed and beautiful and fantastical - and I think The Arrival is really powerful as a story about somebody arriving in a new and unfamiliar country, with a language they don't really speak, that it's a book without words that can be understood by anyone who speaks any language.

I don't think comiconlinefree would be a site supported by the author, though (just given the name of the site if anything) - I've only ever seen The Arrival in print, so I think you have to actually buy the book. Still, if you have the money it's definitely worthwhile, and even if you don't, if you look up 'The Arrival Shaun Tan' online you can see some of the illustrations from the book, which are truly beautiful.

[thorny]

Also check your local library system. That's where I came across it.

ETA: if you've got the money, yes, buy it! It's definitely worth it. But if you're broke, you might be able to read it for free from the library.

[Jitter]

Songbird, it is Kochab! I must have forgotten the dialogue because in my mind it has none

Since there haven’t been any comments on the “rules” I guess they are ok for the first iteration ao I’ll copy them to the starter post. And @SkyWhalePod you are on for August!

[SkyWhalePod]

Since there haven’t been any comments on the “rules” I guess they are ok for the first iteration ao I’ll copy them to the starter post. And @SkyWhalePod you are on for August!

Roger roger! I'll set an alarm. Excited to be a part of this

[Sc0ut]

I'm not sure how to go around it, but I think this thread would work better if it were prevented from becoming a duplicate of the "webcomics" existing thread Maybe encouraging people to send recommendations as a private message to whoever is managing the thread (it doesn't have to be the same person who opened it, necessarily) would go some way towards that.

I was one of the proponents of this activity and the part I was most excited about was actually hanging out in the comments with the rest of you! I think of it as going to a different pub or park with a familiar group of people. If there is interest in this, I would suggest adding a "rule" that says if the webcomic is ongoing and has a comment section, we are encouraged to comment there (as well) for the month when it is featured. As an artist who publishes their work online, I can tell you that there is no fuel like people expressing interest in what an artist posts! This kind of support can go a long way towards seeing more good comics out there.

Well, regardless of that, I would like to claim September

Sorry if I was unclear, I'm very sleepy right now but I'll be happy to clarify anything tomorrow if needed!

[Jitter]

Sc0ut, that is a very important point! Thanks for bringing it up. I will add a recommendation to that effect on the opening post!

I hope it will be different from the recommendations thread that is mostly a list of titles and maybe a couple of comments. The intention is that a work being the Comic of the Month will prompt Forumites to read it at the time (as opposed to “I’ll check it out at some point” I least tend to do…) an thus generate more discussion and hopefully steady following, at which point there can be a thread dedicated to that particular work.

And you are in for September!

[Jitter]

Added recommendations to the rules + reserved September for Sc0ut

[SkyWhalePod]

Okay, so here we go I guess!

My comic recommendation for August is actually an artist duo recommendation, because all of their free online works have been posted to the same website under the moniker

 Johnny Wander

This is the webcomics page for writer+comic artist team Anath Hirsh and Yuko Ota, two first-generation Asian Americans whose work is influenced by global mythology (leaning toward Asian), anime and manga, among other things. They're very funny people and I've been following the stuff that comes out on Johnny Wander since it launched back in 2008.

There are a couple of different Hirsh+Ota comics available to read on Johnny Wander:

The original comedic one-page autobiographical comics that started the project. These are all completely safe for work, except in one or two cases where some strong language might be implied (but not explicitly written). These autobio comics include Yuko's travelogues to Japan and a little bit about how Ananth's family celebrates different Indian holidays, as well as lots of goofs from their early adult lives. If you like Scott Pilgrim, you'll probably like this art style and sense of humor.



They've also written long-form comics though! Lucky Penny is another Scott Pilgrim-like story about a young woman with, uh, humorously awful luck. It's light, it's cute and quirky. Penny (the main character) likes romance novels, so there are some sort of steamy but still PG-13 frames. Some mild/strong language too, if I recall correctly, but nothing obtrusive.


They've also dabbled in some short fiction in which they develop a character who falls in love with Death -- they wound up loving the character so much that they put her in their current long-form comic, which earned a Reuben award in 2019:

Barbarous is Hirsh and Ota's current project, and the most 'serious' one to date. By which I mean, they've put a lot of work into developing an interesting universe with interesting, complex characters (as opposed to writing goofs about their cats). Barbarous is sort of an urban fantasy, magical realism story with aspects of myths from all over the world woven in: a young woman has left a prestigious magic academy and is trying to pull her life together by working as a super at an apartment building. The more we learn about her past, and the past of her big beast man co-worker, the deeper into the magical universe we're drawn. The comedy is still there, but there's a lot of heart and drama as well. Might be some strong language every once in a while (I don't remember) but otherwise it's a pretty safe read.


Somebody recommended Sakana on here a couple of months ago, and I definitely think that fans of Sakana will like at least something that Hirsh and Ota have published over the years!

-- I guess, to follow Jitter's guidelines: everything except for Barbarous has been completed, and Barbarous just started its second 'season' of the story (really just the next act) on Thursday, so it's actively being updated. Everything is completely in English. I would call Hirsh and Ota's genre autobio/comedy/manga-esque/urban fantasy/magical realism (I am not great at genre tags though). Pretty solidly PG-13 if not G most of the time, and I don't think there's any content to warn about. I've loved Yuko and Ananth's work since I was a teenager, and they've inspired me and gotten me through a couple of rough patches. They're just a good time, they make me laugh, they got me into webcomics and kept me there. Yuko's art, particularly her standalone pieces, is lovely as well. Both the Johnny Wander comics and Minna's comics have similar senses of humor and similar physical comedy, which I think is part of what drew me to SSSS in the first place (that and the languages aspect), so you all are probably going to find something in Yuko and Ananth's work that makes you giggle!