Another very special Sunday Comics: The fall of Penny & Aggie

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight awesome comics that you may want to check out.


Some of you may remember way back in only my third-ever Sunday Comics when I spotlighted a little bit of awesomeness called Penny & Aggie. It was shiny goodness, a sort of modern-day, more-complex Archie, and I read it with joy and comfort, savoring especially the well-done characterization and layered character-building. This thing lived on how its characters were written.

Sadly, it has now been long enough that I think I can declare this wonderfullity no more.

It began fairly early this year--P&A wrapped up its longest, most serious, most story-impacting arc ever, called "The Popsicle War." It was well-staged, necessary to the large undercurrent plot, and changed the very nature of several key character relationships. Very soon after the "Popsicle War" arc had wrapped up (satisfyingly but still on some small "what now?" cliffhangers regarding characters who got the short end of the stick), it was announced that after five years, Giselle Lagace, their artist, was leaving the comic to work on some other comics/art projects. Though Giselle did good work, I wasn't initially too concerned--after all, the art was strong, but the comic's bigger strength had always been its writing. The new artist, whose name currently eludes me, actually draws fairly similarly to Giselle--the difference is there, but isn't jarring. So it seemed like things would continue more or less as normal.

I and a couple of friends who also read it quickly started to notice that the writing was feeling a bit off with the new artist. I shrugged it off--it's not like the comic was ever flawless, there was certainly the odd page here or there that fell a little flatter than others. Perhaps T. Campbell was simply having an off day, or as it were, off several days. Maybe Giselle was missed to an extent that it was briefly affecting the writing.

A few months later, I think I can say that whatever it is, Penny & Aggie has not been the same comic since that last arc finished, and the transition was sudden. The characters are caricatures of themselves, some, for no reason, even acting bluntly out of character. Characters revealing motivations and thinking has become clunky and as subtle as a train. Characters we should be checking up on have been ignored completely.

I do not write this to retract or rescind my spotlight--no no, at the time I did so it was a wonderful comic, and I will remember it for that. I write simply to ask what went wrong. To note. To, in a sense, warn.

I don't know what happened, but it's upsetting. Clearly, T. Campbell and G. Lagace had chemistry together...let's hope that they realize this as well...perhaps it's not silly to wonder if she might come back. Perhaps this is simply a bad new arc we find ourselves in for whatever reason. Or perhaps Penny & Aggie ended with The Popsicle War.

~Holden Out.

Series Review: 2003-2005 Prince of Persia Trilogy

Woo! Hello, all. I had meant to be doing this review a lot sooner but it's only just now that I managed to actually finish the series. And y'know? Overall, I'm happy with it.
Perhaps I should start a touch earlier, though.

A warning before you continue: this is long. You who know me know I often write at length. Beware!

Sunday Comics Indie Compilation Triple Play: VOID Pulpo: Citric ESP

Sunday Comics is a weekly feature where I spotlight awesome comics that you may want to check out.

Welcome to the third and final round of the Indie Comics Compilation Triple Play on what is actually yet again a Monday. Maybe I should just rename this feature, my Sundays lately seem to find me without a comfortable time to blog. Ha, I kid. We'll get back on track eventually. Anyway, today's compilation is similar to the first one I featured, Fat Chunk, in that it's rooted in a larger overall comics-related project. It differs, however, in that the compilation itself is not the primary project it stems from.

The Comic: VOID Pulpo Volume 2: Citric ESP (Sadly, I don't own any other volumes. I know there's at least three)


By: EnterVOID.com. Yes, the author is given as the website itself.

Type: Compilation

Content Rating: Though individual entries vary in content, overall it's an R, maybe just a strong PG-13, mostly for language.

Plot: VOID Pulpo is a magazine offshoot of a website called EnterVOID, something sort of vaguely akin to a DeviantArt specifically for comics artists. It's a little more complex than that, though--specifically, an artist there will invent and upload reference images and backstory for a character, then put that character in mock "battles" with other artists, in comics form. A more detailed rundown can be found on the site itself. Pulpo, on the other hand, involves artists from the site but has nothing to do with the "battles" normally found on it, instead showcasing various artists' work in a more general comics context. Unlike the other compilations spotlighted in this series, Pulpo does not have a central theme to work with, so there's even more variety in the entries, though they do veer more towards the sci-fi end of the spectrum.

Personal thoughts: There are definitely some notable entries, though I do think the quality varies more in this collection than in the other two I've covered. There's an entry about a space explorer on a quest to find some decent wonton soup that I actually really liked, felt like a small aside in a larger story, and Gabriel Bautista/Galvo makes a reappearance in a fun little wordless comic about the difference between one's at-home and at-work selves. There are a few, however, that I just...don't get. There's this one about a gladiator that I feel is supposed to have some sort of point to it but doesn't, and one that I think is about a robot fighting another robot for some reason but the art, trying to be "detailed," ends up more as a confusing maelstrom of lines, plus the panel layouts don't flow very well. Overall, this one isn't recommended as highly as the others, but still, I say, is worth a look at, and it remains good to see former unknowns getting their work out into the open. VOID is a nifty project for that.

And that concludes the Indie Comics Compilation Triple Play, whee. I've got a game review planned fairly soon, so until then.


Holden Out.