Dream with me

Web Comic Reviews

Title: Melonpool
Creator: Steve Troop
Site: www.melonpool.com
Melonpool follows the adventures of a couple of aliens, a telepathic dog and a 220-lb. hamster that crash-landed on Earth way back when the series began in 1996.
Main Cast: The comics namesake, Mayberry Melonpool is the inept captain of �The Steel Duck� who managed to strand his crew on earth because he was distracted watching old Star Trek episodes and didn�t realise the Earth was there. Under him are Ralph Zinobop, the sort-of evil, coffee-addicted heir to the Zinoboppian throne and the ships Chief Engineer, the ships pilot, Sam T. Dogg, Sammy the Hammy, one of Ralph�s experiments gone wrong and Roberta Smeffinfeffer, the ships doctor even though she only attended nursing school for a week.
There is also a duck, which is periodically promoted to ships captain�
The Story: Melonpool has parodied more than it�s fair share of cultural icons over the years, including Star Trek, The Jetsons, Back to the Future, Gilligans Island and Star Wars. Take the character of No-Da, for example, who is described as �Yoda's black sheep brother. Neither believing in the light or the dark side of the force, No-da operates in the grey side for such worthwhile pursuits as winning at casino games and picking up on women.�
Melonpool is by far one of the best comics online with archives going back over eight years. Always funny and always smart in an off-the-wall sort of way it is a definite must read.

Title: Sluggy Freelance
Creator: Pete Abrams
Site: www.sluggy.com
Without a shadow of doubt, one of the most popular webcomics around is the hysterically funny Sluggy Freelance. One of the first webcomics, Sluggy set the standards for all those that followed, with new daily comics since August 1997.
Main Cast: The comic follows the exploits of Torg, a freelance web designer and his best mate Riff, an inventor and �freelance bum�. Plus collage student Zoe, the straight woman often caught up in their exploits against her will.
Bringing up the rear (and in some cases randomly attacking the rear) is a sociopathic bunny, a hyperactive ferret with an unhealthy love of all things shiny and a salivating alien secretary. It�s the stuff comic dreams are made of.
The Story: Parodies are a staple part of the Sluggy diet, with cult icons like The Matrix, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Wars, all getting the Abrams treatment. These people have fallen into more alternate dimensions than the entire Star Trek cast combined.
From vampires, demons, aliens and a horde of strange curses, the cast of Sluggy have been there, done just about everything and bought the shoddily made T-shirts.
If you need evidence of this comic�s pure comedy gold, take the character of Bun-Bun, the lop-eared rabbit who joined the cast as the �token fluffy animal�. With a personal vendetta against all telemarketers and a disturbing love of Baywatch for a rabbit, he�s a loveable fluffy killing machine. If nothing else, it�s fun to watch people flee in terror.
Hell, the Bikini Suicide Frisbee storyline alone makes Sluggy Freelance one of the most readable comics on the web.

Title: General Protection Fault
Creator: Jeffery T. Darlington
Site: www.gpf-comics.com
GPF is a daily strip that has chronicled the lives of employee�s at a small software company called GPF Software, since November 1998.
Main Cast: The comic begins with main character Nick Wellington�s interview at the ironically named GPF Software.
The story revolves around his relationship with his fellow employees such as Jason �Fooker� Barker, the Sys Admin and a former spy and Ki Oshiro, a programmer and Nicks girlfriend. The gang also includes Fredrick "Fred" and Persephone Physarum a pair of sentient slime molds that grew in Fookers apartment and Gertrude "Trudy" Trueheart-Glowerhausen, a marketing director with ambitions of world domination (typical).
The Story: Much of the time, GPF revolves around the characters workplace relationships but with a healthy dose of secret cults, time travelling future counterparts, sentient slime moulds and evil organisations bent on world domination thrown in.
Such is the popularity of GPF that it even featured in a crossover with the mammoth that is Kevin and Kell, when Ki and Nick are transported to an alternate dimension via the MuTEx virtual reality system Nick creates.
On the other hand, if you don�t know what Linux is or think that Unix are victims of religious emasculation then some of the humour may go a little over your head. Still, is there anyone in the world who doesn�t find the idea of an amusement park for geeks run by homicidal supermodels funny?

Title: 8-Bit Theatre
Creator: Brian Clevinger
Site: www.nuklearpower.com
8-Bit Theatre is a Sprite Comic (using video game sprites and backgrounds as artwork) and has parodied the earlier Final Fantasy games since March 2001.
Main Cast: The cast comprises of four main characters who are pretty obvious parodies of the typical Final Fantasy characters.
The main character is Fighter McWarrior (catchy, isn�t it?), a complete incompetent with an almost single-minded obsession with swords. With him (often against their better judgment) are Black Mage Evilwizardington, an egotistical, power-hungry wizard, Thief Khee'Bler, a thief and lawyer who commands a group of law-ninja and Red Mage, the only character who fully understands he is in a stat-based RPG and acts accordingly to the complete bemusement of everybody else.
The Story: 8-Bit is of course an old school Final Fantasy parody, pure and simple. While the art may seem simplistic, the humour, plots and characters themselves more than make up for it. Supposedly, they are destined to save the world. If that is the case, the world is doomed. One's an idiot, another's considered delusional, the third a greedy kleptomaniac, and the final one a stab-happy, murderous psychopath and absolutely nothing seems to go right for them. The result; pure comedy genius.

Title: Freefall
Creator: Mark Stanley
Site: www.freefall.purrsia.com
Freefall is a purely sci-fi strip which has followed the criminal antics of the crew of the Savage Chicken since March 1998.
Main Cast: The Savage Chicken, possibly the worst named ship ever to grace Sci-fi, is captained by alien con-artist, Sam Starfell with Helix, an adorable childlike robot and Florence Ambrose, the ship�s engineer and a genetically engineered �Bowman�s wolf� making up the rest of the crew.
The Story: While often criticised for it�s slow moving nature, Freefall is always funny and is hailed as being one of the better purely Sci-fi comics.
Stanley, unlike less able or perhaps lazier writers has never resorted to the infamous �magic wand� explanation for the science behind Freefall, making it one of the most scientifically accurate comics.
The strip follows Florence as she attempts to repair the Savage Chicken and keep her sanity in the face of Sam and Helix�s trouble-making. Unfortunately, Sam's reputation as a no-good low-life is well known, even to the point where the local authorities know that if anything goes wrong, anywhere and at any time, Sam probably had something to do with it.
If that wasn�t enough, the site of large robots throwing open their arms and shouting �Doggy!� whenever they see Florence will at least provide a few chuckles.

Title: Scary go Round
Creator: John Allison
Site: www.scarygoround.com
Scary-go-round is the latest offering from respected British webcomic artist, John Allison. Started in June 2002, it follows roughly from Allison�s previous comic, Bobbins.
Main Cast: The strip follows a multitude of characters but one of the more prominent is Amy Chilton, a spoiled and tattooed art student who featured in both Scary-go-round and Bobbins. Her friend, Shelly Winters also featured in Bobbins and is typically accident prone and loveable. She was a zombie once too.
The Story: The strip basically follows the various bizarre events that befall it�s cast, including noxious sentient gases, parallel universes, zombies and of course time travel, a prerequisite for webcomics. It is set in Tackleford, England, which makes a nice change from the norm and is well known for it�s morbid sense of humour. After all, what is there about imminent death that is not funny?
In an interview for Sequential Tart, Allison described Scary Go Round as �the ongoing story of friends, acquaintances and enemies who live in and around an English town. They're adults, but their world has childlike rules � it can be very brutal, and there is a lot of name-calling. It's also macabre, and vulnerable characters can be picked off if they're unlucky. I think the readers enjoy seeing the characters every day, and seeing what they're up to, but they also enjoy the frisson of knowing that something awful could happen to one of their favourites.�

Title: Penny Arcade
Creator(s): Mike Krahulik (artist) and Jerry Holkins (writer)
Site: www.penny-arcade.com
Penny Arcade is the quintessential gamers comic, running since November 1998 and taking the piss out of just about every game and gaming convention going.
Main Cast: The comic mostly features the two main characters, Jonathan �Gabe� Gabriel and Tycho Brahe accompanied at random intervals by a bevy of other characters.
Gabe, a free-spirited hyperactive character who seems to spend most of his time in front of his computer and his best friend Tycho (named after the astronomer), a bitter and sarcastic man who mostly enjoys deflating Gabe�s ego, causing Gabe physical pain and, of course gaming.
The Story: Story continuity is an alien concept to the creators of Penny Arcade, the writers� describing it as the �dreaded continuity�. Characters regularly die horrible, violent and above all graphic deaths only to return in the next strip.
All manner of creatures tend to pop up in the comic, from Zombies to rabid monkeys in top hats to an alcoholic talking DIVX player.
While many jokes may go in one ear and out the other to a mere casual or non-gamer, they are interspersed often enough with violence and social commentary, done in that very unique Penny Arcade way.
Penny Arcade has an original and much imitated art style and sees tens of thousands of visitors every day, making it one of the most popular sites on the Internet. If you have yet to visit Penny Arcade, now is the time.

Title: RPG World
Creator: Ian Jones-Quartey
Site: www.rpgworldcomic.com
RPG World is a tri-weekly RPG-parody strip, which has been running since August 2000.
Main Cast: The comic follows the daring and often highly pointless adventures of a rag-tag group of heroes as they battle the evil and terminally stupid Galgarion.
The main character is known only as Hero, who has no memory of his past other then a brief stint of service in the SEVIL army (sound familiar?). He is accompanied, often reluctantly by Cheery, a thief who joined solely for the money and Diane, a harlot and part monster; plus Eikre, the token ladies man and Dragobo, the �cute animal� one who communicates though hastily written cardboard signs.
The Story: Unlike most other webcomics, RPG World follows a linear plot, focusing on the hero�s efforts to thwart the evil Galgarion who, rather predictably is trying to take over the world.
Mostly of course, the comic is an excuse to poke fun at every RPG convention you can think of. The characters are easily recognisable parodies while at the same time being free standing personalities and often parodies of themselves.
So if you have ever wanted to kill a Save Point or find out what the token cute fuzzy thing really thinks, RPG World is a one- stop shop.

Title: PvP � Player versus Player
Creator: Scott Kurtz
Site: www.pvponline.com
PVP is a gaming and �nerd culture� strip by the often controversial Scott Kurtz and has been running since May 1998
Main Cast: The boss and Editor of PvP, Cole Richards, is a man with only a loose grasp of modern technology and a strange nostalgia for �80�s arcade games. Working under him are Brent Sienna, a surly columnist and coffee-addict who is often inexplicably attacked by a giant panda and Jade Fontaine, a sarcastic columnist who is hopelessly addicted to online RPG�s and chats.
Along with a throng of other characters, including Skull the loveable, childlike and nervous troll, who�s existence is never fully explained, they work for the fictional PvP gaming magazine company.
The Story: Like many comics, PvP is heavy on the parody and just about anything is fair game, from Star Wars to It�s a Wonderful Life. The writing and art of PvP are always sharp and, above all, funny and Kurtz has yet to miss a strip since 2001, a feat well beyond most webcomics.
A lot of the humour is very fanboy orientated but that is not necessarily a bad thing as it has an uncanny ability to appeal both to fanboys and to those who love to mock them.
Kurtz described PvP as �Dilbert on crack� in an interview for Ninethart, adding that �it's an existential examination on the inner truth of life using popular culture as a vehicle, a mirror held up to my friends and family set in a video game magazine, a sitcom about people in their thirties who were raised on popular culture more than literature or the fine arts. I've thought about this a little."