Comic of the Month

[thorny]

Just finished reading Storm Rider. I'm still a little confused as to just what happened in a couple of passages, but that was a lot of fun to read.

And a nice tearjerker ending.

[dmeck7755]

Thanks @Linebyline.  I have been ready many of your comics.  Many I keep up with, some not so much so.  Though it is great to see other things. 

[Keep Looking]

Hello! I have a comic this month that I think people here might like.

It's called Hollow Trails by weirdautumnleaf.

Hollow Trails has a lot of SSSS inspiration (which is very visible if you look at the art style) and reading it does feel a lot like reading the early parts of SSSS, which I found quite nostalgic.

It's by a Mexican author and is set in some kind of post-apocalyptic North America - we don't have the exact details on the situation yet, but it looks like the author is setting up some interesting things!

The first main character we follow is Rosario, who is given a fake passport by his mentor and sent to be a guard for a young man's trip.

There's some cool looking magic with glowing apparitions, shape-shifting characters and some kind of crystal-like substance infecting the wildlife. It makes me very curious for where it's going!

There's only about 100 pages so far and updates are fairly sporadic (although the author is still around/active!), but I'd definitely recommend checking it out! Hopefully we get to see more in the future

Some of the grammar in the dialogue isn't amazing since I don't think English is the author's first language, but I found it didn't hamper my reading experience very much.

[dmeck7755]

Thanks Keep!  This looks interesting

[Linebyline]

Your summary plus one look at the site and current page tells me that if this comic wasn't tailor-made to appeal to the SSSS fandom, it may as well be.

(And the name Rosario does sort of appeal to me as a Catholic but that's neither here nor there.)

Thanks for the rec!

[thorny]

Your summary plus one look at the site and current page tells me that if this comic wasn't tailor-made to appeal to the SSSS fandom, it may as well be.

Yeah -- having read the first couple dozen pages, it sure does seem evocative of SSSS.

Including in that sometimes I'm not sure what I'm looking at. But I expect I will, ahem, keep looking.

[wavewright62]

Bookmarked for future perusal.

[Linebyline]

Prologue thoughts: Wow, he's sure taking that well, all considered.

[Jitter]

Oh, goody! I also stumbled upon Hollow Trails just recently and thought exactly the same. If this was not influenced by SSSS it would be a miraculous coincidence. Will keep checking it!

I am sorry for my lack of … everything, including this thread. Very good if you to keep it alive, special thanks of course to Linebyline!

[Jitter]

I’ll go once in a blue moon! Some interesting ideas about Finnish mythology, magic, pretty boys and badass magic, anyone? Many SSSS fans may know this comic already, but I present Year in Hereafter http://yihcomic.com/index.php

I have considered suggesting this comic before, as it clearly has several themes that are likely to be relevant to our interests, but it went to a long break and was updating erratically. But now it’s back and updating steadily, and the author appears to have found his feet again.

It’s been going for 15 years! So obviously the art has changed but this particular comic undergoes a drastic change in art style. The earlier pages are very epic and dark style, and the newer ones are almost chibi-esque, sometimes so much so that it diminishes the mood for me. But overall, the story and many very impressive pages makes up for it. It’s high fantasy, think mighty magic users, monsters, swords and warhammaers. Oh and spectral squirrels!

Young Mikael travels to the farm of his relatives, the Harmonsuo family, to a distant corner of Finnish Lapland. Something interesting seems to be happening at the nearby mire, where the silent brother Veeti takes Mikael for a bout of fishing. Veeti’s older brother Sakari went missing several years ago, but certainly this boring and entirely ordinary mire has no ties with that event, right? Some family secrets may have to come to light, but the next thing Mikael knows he’s meeting the Swan. Yes, that Swan.

Maybe give it a try! It’s approaching 800 pages, the author estimates there will be around 1000 at the end. Currently updating twice a week.

[Linebyline]

Squirrels, you say...

Looks awesome, thanks for the recommendation!

[Jitter]

I’m following Hollow Trails now but it’s SO similar to SSSS style that it bothers me. Especially as the site doesn’t mention the inspiration anywhere. Hopefully they get back to the forest and whatever the shiny (??) things are instead of this current showing of the human world. The main idea appears to be fair bit different, if only we get back to it!

[Keep Looking]

I’m following Hollow Trails now but it’s SO similar to SSSS style that it bothers me. Especially as the site doesn’t mention the inspiration anywhere. Hopefully they get back to the forest and whatever the shiny (??) things are instead of this current showing of the human world. The main idea appears to be fair bit different, if only we get back to it!

The author mentions SSSS influence on their tumblr (as well as pirates of the carribean, apparently? i suppose we'll see about that later), but you're right in that it's odd that it's not mentioned on the website!