Back of the Envelope

Try this. Flatwood is a surreal comic set in a world of darkness which might just be the afterlife. Full of Biblical allusions and scary creatures, there's quite a bit that remains unclear. Initially, the comics are hard to read, as the order in which events happen is difficult to figure out, but it gets better. The artwork is surreal rather than realistic, and you may find the caricatured figures off-putting at first, but stick with it, as there's nothing cute about the story. Many of the comics are animated, so be sure to wait a few minutes before moving on to the next one if the comic seems short.

Sluggy Freelance — Pete leaves Bun-bun where he is for a while and gives us a flashback to 2002 where Torg and Riff try to earn money for Christmas presents by becoming Holiday Ninjas™.

Day by Day — Maverick Mime Lieberman gets the spotlight at first, then its on to Christmas gift giving humor with the main cast, with a brief break to make fun of Reid.

Scary Go Round — Shelley and Amy go out for drinks with Ryan for Christmas, bringing Amy's Dad with them. Shelley, being the naturally cheery person she is, is enjoying herself, while Amy's being blasphemous. The Boy is ambushed with a snowball by Esther and Erin.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — While Maritza's on break, she's been running the winners from her fanstuff contest.

General Protection Fault — With evil Trish gone, Nick and Ki go to their respective pre-wedding parties, then Ki shows up to visit Nick just before the wedding for some cybersex using the Mutex. He doesn't catch on that it's an alternate universe version of Ki until it's too late.

Schlock Mercenary — A lone freighter captain has the guts to take out Petey's frigate right after it destroys the Assembly, and Petey awards the captain by making him the Principal.

Sluggy Freelance — A quick explanation of Bun-bun's troubles with Blacksoul and his other firstmates culminates with Murdock letting slip that Bun-bun's found Teknokon One.

Day by Day — Sam is having some trouble with telephone solicitors who know too much--maybe she should have a chat with Bun-bun, once he escapes timeless space. Meanwhile, Democratic incoherence on Iraq contines to be a major theme, exacerbated by the recent vote.

Scary Go Round — After showing Chester Jones their pictures of the witch, Ryan and Amy split the 10,000 pound prize. Meanwhile, Shelley's been dating Chester.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — After whatever deal Mike made with Dover, he's pretty depressed. The rest of the Roomies are ecstatic, though. Now that the storyline's ended, Maritza's taking a break from the comic until the new year.

General Protection Fault — Nick and company finally catch on to Trish's evil doings, and she vanishes right in front of their eyes, returning to her own world, where an evil version of Nick has his own Mutex. The interesting thing, which I hadn't noticed before, is that this is the start of another major, year-long storyline, along the lines of Surreptitious Machinations. I look forward to how this develops.

Schlock Mercenary — Petey commits an act of aggression, destroying a world's government in order to take over, using some legalistic reasoning to justify it. Whatever he says, I call it murder, which is yet more evidence that the superconsciousness is becoming a danger to everyone.

I've been checking out a lot of fantasy webcomics recently. No real reason beyond curiosity and an interest in new reading material, I admit. Just now I came upon something very rare. It's not at all uncommon to find a webcomic with beautiful artwork--many of them are quite gorgeous. Intriguing and entertaining stories are a dime a dozen, as well. What is rare is to find a webcomic with really good writing. Perhaps I'm letting my personal bias as a writer sway me, but what I noticed about No Rest for the Wicked was not the artwork or even the story, but the writing. The dialogue is wonderful, and the monologues powerful. This comic draws on numerous fairy-tales to put together a haunting story, and with a short archive, you can read through it in about an hour. Have a look. Now I better get reading the Storyblogging Carnival entries.

As previously mentioned, the webcomic update is now scheduled to appear on Mondays, and will now summarize Monday to Sunday. Today, however, since I didn't include last Sunday, it will cover Sunday to Sunday.

Sluggy Freelance — We finish up Face's explanation of what happened--how they discovered that Blacksoul could fly just before he attacked--and then he gets executed by John Jacobs's goons. Poor guy. Next they're questioning Murdock, who it turns out is completely crazy. But he explains how the Grays met Bun-bun, and how he became captain by winning the ship from Blacksoul, then kicked Blacksoul off the ship. The interesting thing is that in a straight up fight Blacksoul won. Bun-bun almost never loses. He had to resort to cheating to beat Blacksoul, though.

Day by Day — Democratic backtracking, Murtha, Moveon.org's improper relationship with the LA times, and Democratic support for our troops all get special attention this week. Sam also does some Christmas shopping for Zed, and Cox and Forkum make a guest appearance.

Scary Go Round — Amy outwits the witch and stuffs her in the stove, accidentally incinerating her. Once that's done, she and Ryan escape, but now they're being chased by the witch's smokey ghost.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Marsha does her best to bully the others into sticking around while Mike has his private conference with Professor Dover. Dover, meanwhile, is hinting that Mike should come out. Of the closet? That's what it looks like. Dover's being awfully agressive there. I thought we established that he wasn't gay.

General Protection Fault — Trish shows up, ready to take over for Nick's sister as a bridesmaid. Unlike Nick's sister, she comes on to Nick. Fortunately Nick is suspicious of her. Meanwhile, Fooker gets an urgent call from his brother that he's not willing to share, and Fred gets a call from Socrates, whom he's not willing to talk to.

Schlock Mercenary — Schlock lets slip that he saw Fox and Tagon kissing, and those two have a little talk. That talk involves Tagon taking Elf off the duty roster for stim abuse, so it doesn't look like there's going to be any romantic involvement anytime soon in this timeline. Meanwhile, Petey's taking over more governments, it looks like.

Sluggy Freelance — Kada and Calix are still fighting, but Bun-bun forces Kada to get back to work.

Day by Day — Iran's nukes, the Democratic exit strategy, Zed's fitness, Murtha's comments on the military, and Moveon.org's inability to tell soldiers apart all show up this week.

Scary Go Round — After feeding Ryan and Amy, the witch has decided to eat them, but first Ryan needs some fattening up. Hmm, I'm pretty sure I've read this fairytale somewhere before.

College Roomies from Hell!!! — Mike convinces Roger and Dave to go to class despite their best effort to ditch it. In class both the girls and the guys are distracted, and Dover wants to talk to Mike.

General Protection Fault — The wedding's mostly on track, but there's a snag where Nick's sister can't make it, so Ki gets Trish to fill in. Too bad she's the evil doppleganger Trish. I hope the real one shows up some time soon.

Schlock Mercenary — While Kevyn dissects Ennesby, Schlock's dealing with Ovalkwik cravings and a really messed up memory. Two timelines can do that to you. Of course, Elf hears him talking about the time she and Tagon were kissing, and Tagon stumbles on the conversation soon after. This could be good.