It’s been a while since I (re-)posted my introduction to Webcomics, but it’s about time that I actually turn it into a serial here on the Blog. Especially as today is Free Comic Book Day – and I can’t participate as we have our own version with different comics next week – and I’ve therefore had a super-hero-ish day on Twitter earlier.
And as tomorrow is mother’s day (over here?), I decided to start by looking at two comics with incredible female leads!
Strong Female Protagonist
© Molly Ostertag & Brennan Lee Mulligan
A lot of webcomic creators use each others help to get over taking a break and I am fairly certain that it was either a guest comic or an advertisement from one of the many other webcomics I read that lead me to this one.
At first I wasn’t quite sure about Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag. It felt as if everything was just starting, even if it was already running for a while when I discovered it. The name of this webcomic might sound like a working title or just a note saying what someone wants the story to be about, but the story itself is so much more.
Main character Alison Green is a young woman that used to be an invulnerable, strong superhero, but retired to lead a normal life, yet that doesn’t really work out the way she wants it to. The story follows her struggles not just with her powers, but also with her differing views and ideals. Intentions and arguments are incredibly well explained and combined with a very nice and great – strong? – drawing style. The movements of the characters feel as natural as their decisions and feelings.
It’s slice of life, but not in a cheesy way, instead it’s more natural/realistic and definitely thought provoking.
Especially a story line concerning Alison’s dad got to me quite badly, as it hadn’t been that long that I’ve been through a similar thing when I read it.
This is not your typical Superhero story. It’s a story about a young woman, in a technologically advanced world with superheroes, wanting to do good – the right thing – that utilizes her special abilities and determination to change things, but doesn’t shy from making others see her point through well thought through arguments and accepting their opinions as well.
Namesake
© Megan Lavey-Heaton & Isabelle Melançon
On the other hand there is Namesake by Megan Lavey-Heaton & Isabelle Melançon where main character Emma Crewe (front) is all but thrown into her „hero“ life.
In this story, that I stumbled upon over at Hiveworks (a great source to discover new comics, by the way), we follow her journey into the world of Oz and learn bit by bit more about the bigger picture of what makes Emma special and what evil (?) lurks in the background.
Where SFP goes for realism, Namesake has a few very interesting Fantasy elements. Magic is possible, Fairy Tale worlds are real and there are people carrying the name of Fairy Tale characters that have to live (or suffer) through parts of the stories we know from the books that are written afterwards by the writers in charge of the „Namesakes“.
Still, the existence of Fantasy elements does not mean the characters don’t act reasonable, quite the contrary. Emma is one of the few lead characters that I like (which is VERY RARE) because she struggles with her role, with her powers and most of all: Questions why the hell she is supposed to do something and what the hell she is supposed to do?! 😀 Where SFP is filled with calm contemplation, Namesake runs on a lot of situation humour and very human (read: flawed) characters.
It’s fun, it’s lovely and again incredibly drawn (though I have to admit I’ve mistaken a few characters for each other on occasion…) with a quite interesting colour schemes and really fun characters.
Afterword
I hoped you enjoyed this little look into two great webcomics. 🙂
Have you read them?
Do you know others with similar themes?
Let me know in the comments below!
As next week is „Gratis Comic Tag“ (Free Comic Book Day) here, I might write another instalment of this about two more comics, not sure which ones, but we’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the pictures lie with their respective creators. I merely used them as example of their work and hope that’s okay.
