Spill about your current obsession
I have many, let me talk to you about Archipelago, my absolute most favorite Webcomic that I discovered about four years back, created by H L. Devera, also known as @thesilvertophat
On a series of islands that are mostly organic on the surface, but comprised of ancient machinery and lost technology below. Elements of steampunk submarines, melded together with magic, and spirits that are remnants of immense slumbering AI.
An old force of evil is stirring. A thousand years ago, it was sealed away by six powerful souls capable of great magic. Now, it has chosen a widely-feared man named Snow to harvest the six souls of the descendants to break the seal and restore the evil force to its former glory.
And the beginning of the resistance against it all starts with a survivor of Snow's previous cruelty- a young woman named Credenza, who stumbles upon the washed-up body of a man with shattered memories. And attached to his soul is a shard of the great evil.
(Without any context this doesn't spoil much, but it's from about... one third of the way into the story?)
The art evolution is incredible. It starts off kind of jarringly, as the comic ran over ten years. (the first half of the first chapter was redrawn later), but a couple chapters in, the art style hits its stride, and only continues to improve from there. It's mostly in greyscale with color splashes here and there, but it's used extremely well.
The character arcs are also just. So good. Two characters in particular that I love with my entire heart (Raven and Tuff) go through big character development over the course of the story. There's themes of close bonds of friendship and found family, hope in the face of despair, self-acceptance, atonement, redemption, and learning what humanity really is.
To drive home how much I love this series, I bought the whole thing in book form.
It could be read in its entirety on SmackJeeves, but with the unfortunate shutdown of that site, so went the most convenient method of reading it. However, there are plans for it to be on Webtoons. In the meantime, you can read it (though without the updated first chapter) on TheSilverTopHat's DeviantArt page. She is also currently working on a sequel/spin-off comic currently called City of Somnus, which IS on Webtoons currently!
There's also a TV Tropes page (just beware of spoilers, lol).
I definitely intend to make fan art of it someday, when I can scrub the rust off my drawing skills.
