Comic of the Month

[Linebyline]

Wake up, babes, new Immaterial sequel just dropped!

Edit: And for the artists in the audience, she celebrated by making her comic coloring tutorial on Patreon free for everyone to read.

[Keep Looking]

I also enjoyed Immaterial! It was a fun read, and her art style is definitely quite distinctive in the webcomic world.

[JoB]

Wake up, babes, new Immaterial sequel just dropped!

(Is it just me, or does the Ep1 page refuse to load anything but header, footer, and a square mile of white in between ... ?)

[Linebyline]

Yeah, Webtoons is like that sometimes. Everything has to be assembled on the fly by JavaScript these days, you can't just have a simple Web page. *sigh* Sometimes you just have to keep reloading until it decides not to hate you.

And this sequel is shaping up to be sexier than the original, despite Ethan's self-proclaimed asexuality. (Guessing that's ace but not aro.) Like there's more cleavage in any given panel with Alex than in all of Immaterial. Honestly that's something I appreciated about Immaterial, that it wasn't a romance, which QE explicitly is. I guess I'm slightly disappointed, since romance isn't my thing, but I don't mind that much. I'm just glad Arts Angel saved it for the second story, so there's already a solid foundation on which to build a romance.

Anyway we all know the real OTP is Grimnir and Shutters.

[Linebyline]

Yesterday's page depicts an absolutely normal science experiment in which nothing weird happens and Ethan staring at his hand definitely doesn't... Okay, yeah, I read the series synopsis, we all know where this is going.

Speaking of going, time marches on and March is on time! Who's going next?

[Keep Looking]

I'm happy to go next if nobody else wants to, but if anyone else who hasn't done as many as me or who was already planned wants to go then feel free!

[dmeck7755]

yeah I really like Alex and Ethan.   

[Jitter]

I could go although my suggestion doesn’t have that many pages. If someone who hasn’t done any wants to take a swing, please do! But if not, I’ll do mine in a couple of days hence?

[Jitter]

Oh and here’s an Update update

Suihira is back from dead tablet limbo and will resume Wednesday updates (including today’s).

White Noise has reached the end of Arc 1 but currently an immediate epilogue is updating weekly. Arc 2 has been hinted at.

Shaderunners is still on break, with the intention to post the entire chapter in one go whenever it’s ready.

Phantomarine is running, updates on Mondays for a while now but intends to go back to two pages a week at some point.

Blonde Sunrise has moved to irregular updates but is not dead, the author promises.

Tiger Tiger continues to be marvelous, with a somewhat irregular (I think??) but frequent updates.

Widdershins is back to Friday updates and the current story will be the final one! Oh noes!

Barbarous / Johnny Wander appears to be on hiatus with no info about the future.

Gifts of Wandering Ice is ongoing (and weird), as is of course Girl Genius and Freefall too.

In addition there are a couple of ongoing titles that I don’t follow at least now, please add more update updates if you have any!

[Jitter]

Ok so here we go.

I present as comic of the month Bad Space by Scott Base. https://www.badspacecomics.com/

This is a collection of short stories, mostly hard science fiction but with the occasional fantasy element too. Many of the stories are also horror. Existential horror, body horror, occasional monster horror etc. There are no warnings, so every episode should be read only when and if you are in a state where you are not likely to become anxious by reading something that can be extremely bleak or scary. But then, I don’t do well with horror and yet I’m recommending this, so it’s not that terrible I guess. There are apocalypses, but we can cope with that, right?

Each story is ten panels long, but wow those ten panels can create a world, a story arc, a feeling. Not happy feelings though. Some of the stories have what can be considered a happy ending, but many don’t at all. There is violence but not much gore, and yeah, body horror. On the scale of gruesomeness nothing that SSSS fans couldn’t take, but the overall bleakness of many of the stories can be a hard sell for some.

Still, I love it. There are currently 37 of the ten panel stories, but I at least don’t want to read too many at a time, both to avoid becoming overwhelmed and to give time for the stories and themes to process. And many of the concepts presented are thought provoking at minimum and mind blowing at best. I can’t really describe them well, just read and see. Timescales within one story vary from description of a key moment to millions of years and beyond.

Each episode is stand alone. Someone asked in the comments whether they are meant to take place in the same universe, but the author hasn’t answered that. Some are contradictory so my guess is that they are not even that much related. You can start from the newest or the oldest, it doesn’t make a difference. The comment sections are good (and short) too, and the author participates. Sometimes he opens up his thinking but he repeatedly says there is no right or wrong answer to ”what is going on in this episode” as the interpretation of each reader is unique and just as correct as his.

The back and white art is gorgeous! There’s such a wealth of details for the fan of hard scifi to take in!

[dmeck7755]

I read a few of them.  The stories I have read are amazing that he is able to sum up such things in 10 panels, but they are nightmare inducing.

Swarm reminds me of the short story(image) Grey published in the prompt of the week.

Neanderthal  Secrets made me sad.

You are right though, a few at a time would be best.  They are definitely intense.

[Jitter]

Speaking of Grey, I’m sure you’ll like these @thegreyarea

Dmeck, you are right. They are intense! I tried to warn you in the introduction, do you think I should add something more?

[dmeck7755]

Speaking of Grey, I’m sure you’ll like these @thegreyarea

Dmeck, you are right. They are intense! I tried to warn you in the introduction, do you think I should add something more?

Your explanation was perfect.

I hope I was not insulting.  I was offering a second opinion. 

Though despite it being intense, they are really quite good.

[Jitter]

Nonono I wasn’t upset or irritated by your comment whatsoever! Just worried whether I should make the warning clearer still. I don’t want to spring a trap on anyone.

[thorny]

I think the warning's quite clear.

I read a couple of them; they're quite good, though very dark. I agree that reading them a few at a time instead of all at once is a good idea.

-- Update: I just read the first three (I'd earlier read the one in the first post and the Neanderthal one mentioned.) The first three I think aren't particularly dark (though somebody with different religious views might disagree with me about the second) and the third is WOW that is great.

Do you think the author's getting more discouraged as time goes on, or is it coincidence that the two later ones I've read so far are both very dark and the earliest three not?