http://nemobay.kaffeklubben.org/">Nemobay

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. | #

From Nicolas Wilson, Stephen-Reichert and Giovanni Timpano comes Survival, a well-written and -illustrated zombie webcomic. The story’s about an outbreak of some army biological virus (you know the jazz) that turns people into zombies.

Although the premise for the comic isn’t original, I couldn’t shake it. Even though it’s action and the main characters (so far) are soldiers, the dialog is so well written and the characters developed in such a way that you never get bored listening to them. Furthermore, it seems to me that the comic is well researched with regard to military tactics, lingo and equipment which makes it seem realistic.

“I don’t know if it was ours or something of theirs we were too stupid or paranoid to destroy. I don’t know if it was released by accident or an act of sabotage but it got out.”

So far, the comic is about something as simple as a Delta Force team trying to extract an officer from the an the airbase where something’s gone completely bonkers.

Here, the team meets a British special agent (Roy Hull). So far, he’s the only one alive (I mean, really alive, not living dead). The place crawls with zombies and sights of horror as the team (and Roy) try to figure out just what the hell happened.

Survival is a humerous, action packed, well written, beautiful comic with lots of zombie fiends who’d like noting better than to get a bite of our courages heroes. Will they finally succeed? We’ll have to wait to find out. Next page should be up at Feburary 18th.

No Comments | In: horror | tags: horror, webcomic, zombies. | #