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Misery Depot is a science fiction comic written by Hermes Pique and illustrated by Juan Romera, they’ve both done a good job. However, with its 25 pages, Misery Depot, unfortunately, doesn’t explore the setting much which results in a run-of-the-mill Scifi story.

*Spoiler alert!*

Central to the story is a mother and her daughter, Agatha. From what I’ve gathered, the two have had a relatively strained relationship, mainly because of the mother’s mental illness. Agatha decided to commit her mother to a “sanatorium” and, seemingly, just live out her life in ignorant bliss of what exactly the sanatorium did. The sanatorium, which I believe the title of the comic refers to, is a place to store the mad, old people whose minds have degenerated into pure paranoia or childish regress. This being a dark and sinister dystopian future, the patients are, of course, stored in vats at a huge cutting-edge facility. By accident, apparently, the naked mother is released from her vat and seeks out her emotionally cold daughter, only to be rejected and sent back.

It would have been nice if Pique and Romera had invested more time in expanding both setting and plot. There’s no doubt these two guys are good at what they do and they do it without any detours what so ever; the story is trim and simple and the illustrations do a good job of explaining what the text and plot does not. But I want more, I want to know more about the sanatorium, I want to know Agatha’s feelings and why she, apparently, never bothered to visit her mother or even check out the sanatorium, and I want to know what happened (and is going to happen) to the old man etc.

PRLog wrote later this year that a new comic is in the works from Papyrus Comics, the publishers of Misery Depot, but I was unable to find any information about a new comic from Papyrus (seemingly, Misery Depot is the only comic they’ve published; their twitter profile links to the Misery Depot web page). If these guys decide to make a new comic, I hope it’ll explore the setting and expand the story.

All this being said, it is, as always, fucking awesome when somebody decides to publish their works under a Creative Commons license, especially when they’ve got the craft down like Pique and Romera do. And even though it might not sound like it, I’m actually recommending that you read this comic. What saddens me is merely that there’s too little of it, not the quality.

Misery Depot was published in late 2008 and has, somewhat recently, been ported to the Android telephone. The comic, it is estimated, has currently been read by more than 10.000 people and it’s been translated to Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese and French.

Via: PRLog

No Comments | In: Comics | tags: Comics, science fiction. | #

I know it’s been too long since I last posted anything here. The reason for my lag is partially that it’s summer – that’s right… dare draw the curtains and have a look-see (if you’re on the northern hemisphere). It’s also because I’ve had really important stuff to do whenever I was as much as near a computer.

Now on to the entertainment.

I’d like to this time recommend Fly You Fools (FYF), a misanthropic yet funny webcomic. FYF mostly centers around stuff from India, it says, but the great joke is on us all. We all too well recognize all the idiosyncrasies that permeate every “modern” society. From the paradoxes of consumption to the daft demands of authorities, from the pointlessness of mainstream entertainment to the hypocrisy of the whole human species. In FYF’s own words “People are mindless cattle”.

The graphical expression coupled with this particular brand of humor gives FYF a Pythonesque quality. I really enjoyed reading the comics and so should you.

5 Comments | In: Comics | tags: comedy, webcomic. | #

My brain is still trying to re-acclimatize after tumbling through Laroquod’s webcomic Hypothesis. Hypothesis is the brain child of Paul Laroquod, a “time walker, lost in the here and now” (according to himself) from Toronto who dabbles in photography and, of course, comics.

…follow the story of my experiments in your world, conducted with graphic and cinematic techniques you’ll recognise at first, and then increasingly with tools

UNLIKE ANY YOU’VE SEEN BEFORE

Hypothesis is divided into three episodes. In the first episode, the time traveler awakes on earth in a time distinct from his own. During this episode, the traveler tries to make sense of why he’d make a note to himself which says “Shoot Everything”. In the second episode, the time traveler explores the uses of the “desktop TV” and tries to get something to eat, preferably something with gravy.  The third episode deals mostly with the time traveler’s attempt to understand a scrambled news feed and to triangulate a  non-dimensional “New Resonance”.

I still quite haven’t figured Hypothesis out yet. It seems the traveler has had a similar experience; in the third episode, he asks Doug aka. the Oracle:

No answering of plot-related questions, like – why am I here? Why do I have skills I’ve never learned?

WHAT WAS UP WITH THE LITTLE DUDE?

Et cetera?

I don’t lament the fact that I don’t completely understand Hypothesis because I think it’s one of its most seducing qualities. I see the story as a homage to near future science fiction, it’s almost Burroughsian in its style. And those of you who follow this blog know I dig surreal stories where the reader is kept in hesitation. If I was able to “understand” the story, I think it would have been too simple for my taste.

Perhaps one of the most astounding aspects of Hypothesis is the graphic side which is an eclectic mix of edited (for lack of a better non-proprietary word) photography, screen dumps and illustration. Laroquod has also made some experimentation with regard to the layout of text-boxes, supplying them with their own distinct graphical expressions, a feature, he’s revealed, partially inspired by Frank Miller.

Hypothesis is in the Public Domain, making it possible for anyone to use it as they see fit: remixing, sharing, copying, capitalizing, tattooing. However, attribution is still the least you could do if you want to do any of the above things with/to “Hypothesis”.

3 Comments | In: Comics, science fiction | tags: public domain, science fiction, webcomic. | #

Again, I must warn of spoilers, this time, they’ll appear after the image. If you like, you can start out by just reading Andrew Drilon’s What the Cigarette Said, and maybe return later to read this post.

When your cigarette starts talking to you about ancient spirits living in the city and you are all alone in a dark room, don’t you think it’s time to quit? Or would you believe and heed the cigarette?

The protagonist from Andrew Drilon’s webcomic - What the Cigarette Said - does the latter. Bereaved of his love, trying to return to normality, he suddenly relapses, hallucinates and finally loses it. Or is there truly a spirit talking to him through the cigarette? - What the Cigarette Said is inconclusive; leaving its readers in hesitation.

The main character, however, (perhaps because of the comic’s relative brevity) seems unaffected by this ambiguity, wandering off into whatever we as readers eventually decide is the fact: insanity or Elysium.

I realize this post might look as if I were lambasting the comic because of its middle-of-the-road ending, but in fact I’m not. In fact, I like it. I like being left in hesitation.

1 Comment | In: Comics, horror | tags: horror, webcomic. | #

In all her glorious awesomeness, Rebecca Migdal has made a Zombie Punk video available on YouTube.

Originally, Zombie Punk was a webcomic (and still is). The comic tells the story of Nurdt Nobrain’s afterlife. In her own words, “[t]he story begins at the end, with Nurdt’s death and passage to a strange afterworld.”

Volume one of the comic begins with a prelude questioning who Nurdt Nobrain and his spouse, Curtly Loathe, really were. But that’s not included in the video.

The (first?) video (which accidentally fascinates me) begins with Nurdt Nobrain’s suicide.

As he lies pondering whether “somebody puts the gun away before the baby comes home”, he realizes that his brain is splattered all over the room. From here, I imagine, the story will continue into a maddening surreal journey of drugs, fame, sex and undead existential crises. Regardless, It’ll be interesting to see what Rebecca Migdal comes up with next.

No Comments | In: Comics, Punk | tags: Punk, short, video, webcomic, zombies. | #

Everyday Decay follows Emiko (Emi) and Dorian as they try to get by in a world infested by zombies. Despite the fact that the infestation has lasted for years, no one seems to know what really happened.  However, the most prominent theory seems to be that it was caused by a terrorist attack. And no matter what, the zombies keep coming.

I thought the rule was: “Whoever kills it, doesn’t clean it…”

Emiko and Dorian are “married” and live together in a house with Emiko’s beloved dog; Ty Ty. Security is (almost) tight as a drum in the house, however, there is the occasional slip. When the trio go out raiding in the beginning of the story, they meet Matt, a guy who seemingly just moved into the neighborhood. But alas, during a zombie plague, the zombies are not necessarily your worst enemies.

It’s funny to see how the graphic side of the comic evolves through the pages. The skills of Derrick Ravey have improved noticeably, and the comic recently became colorized. Publication of the comic started in August 2008 and the it is still going strong.

I wholeheartedly recommend it to any zombiphiliac out there.

No Comments | In: Comics, horror, post-apocalyptic | tags: postapocalyptic, webcomic. | #

So that’s what Frank Miller’s Peanuts would look like. I must say, I can’t wait for the movie to come out…

Originally via theinferior4+1

No Comments | In: Comics | tags: Comics, Frank Miller. | #

Posthuman Blues recently brought the short movie World Builder by Bruce Branit to my attention. The description reads:

A strange man builds a world using holographic tools for the woman he loves.

World builder is a very beautiful and emotionally loaded movie. As audience, we follow this “strange man” preparing a holographic world for somebody. When he’s done, a woman appears. As she is enjoying this platonic world, the strange man secretly follows her, reacting strongly to her expressions. My words cannot describe exactly how well this is acted out in the movie, so you’ll have to go and see it.

Okay, so I know this still looks like we’re talking about a shampoo commercial here, but trust me; we’re not.

The graphic side is just as beautiful as both script and acting. And you can’t help feeling drawn to a future where world building this easy is a actually possible.

The movie is somewhat reminiscent of Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, although this in no way is a critique. It is only the “feel” of the movie and not the basics of it which indicate that Bruce might have been inspired by Aronofsky’s movie.

Posthuman Blues originally got the hint from Bruce Sterling’s blog on Wired.

Image: from crasch’s Flickr stream

No Comments | In: Comics, science fiction | tags: hologram, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi, short movie. | #

Just realized I had this old bookmark waiting for me to come around. We’ll I did, because seeing it, I remembered that it’d looked neat.

The comic takes place in New York City a good hundred years from now. Manhattan has been hit by a tsunami, the consequences; riots, rampant crime and trafficking from the surrounding area, a martial law has been declared and a giant wall erected to normalize Manhattan once again.

This is a society in which hash is legal, in fact you can’t buy a pack without it containing a bit of hash (for your pleasure, of course). Anything open source is illegal, especially open source drugs such as “M6″ (which is actually licensed under GPL).

The language is tough but poetic and there’s a realistic feel to it, I can’t help feeling.

“It made their fashion mods look like cheap costumes. You had to be hard-core to let them open up your skull and stick the gear into your brain.”

The graphic side of the comic is monochrome but of course spiced up with vivid colors where appropriate.

There are six issues up and even though I’ve only read the first one, I definitely look forward to reading the next five. You can read them online either on your computer or your PSP.

Because the series is licensed under a Creative Commons licence, you can also download the files in zip’s if you’d like.

With all this and more, it most definitely is one of those precious pearls one too rarely finds on the Internet.

2 Comments | In: Comics, Cyberpunk, science fiction | tags: Comics, Cyberpunk, sci-fi, science fiction, scifi. | #

Last year, BOOM! Studios started publishing their Zombie Tales comics online. Currently, there’s 117 pages up. Zombie Tales is a collection of unorthodox short zombie stories. The undead favorites are placed in somewhat unfamiliar circumstances where they’re allowed to chew and gnaw on the flesh of the living.

Because the stories are short, the authors take chances with the zombie motif which, I certainly feel, makes it an interesting read for any zombie connoisseur. Mostly, the stories are well written and well weaved. But I can’t help feeling that the artwork could have been better, had the illustrators had more time and guts. The images are simply too soft and lack the provocative elements that make good comics. This is not to say that Zombie Tales is ultimately bad, I guess it really comes down to personal taste.

BOOM! Studios have also released other comics that can be read for free. So far, I’ve only read HEXED which has been published on MySpace.

Needless to say, I love all good free things. But I is tiresome to wait for the next page to be uploaded. And from what I’ve seen graphicly from Boom, I probably won’t invest in their comics in the near future.

Stay tuned for updates

2 Comments | In: Comics, horror | tags: BOOM! studios, Comics, Zombie Tales, zombies. | #