Master Recs: Webcomics (Vol. 4)
Oh? Did I forget to feed you? Did I leave you to rot in your dirty little cage for months? Sorry, my bad. Here's a belated helping of webcomics. Hopefully, these will satiate you for the next untold number of weeks.
Oren's Forge by Teagan Gavet
The world is cruel. The laws of nature control every facet of it. Predators eat Prey, Prey eat Smaller Prey. This notion had gone unchallenged for countless moons... or so most critters thought. At some point, someone asked themselves if there were more to existing than to be a cog in this heartless Food Chain. In a land ruled by violence, where survival of the fittest is the mantra by which "Animal Society" abides, what does it truly mean to live?
Oren's Forge invites you to question the supposed immutability of what we have come to accept as The "Truth" of This World, wherein the central premise works as a metaphor for our social hierarchies, stratifications and the many constructs that exist to divide us, to keep us down. To go against these monolithic beliefs would be comparable to defy Nature itself - it would be seen as "unnatural." This a story about fighting the Status Quo, daring to hope for a better future, seeking Change for the betterment of all. However, it is also a cautionary tale about Oppression, those who would monopolize Progress as a means to reinforce the old values - thus underlining how very mutable the laws are and always have been. Ultimately, this is a parable of Hope and Kindness in a time of normalized cruelty. It's a professionally illustrated, carefully crafted, Punk in spirit, furry webcomic and I think it's neat!
Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran
I have already professed my many, swirling thoughts and feelings on this work in my Mega-Thread. The extremely succinct version of that entire tirade is: Meredith Gran, published writer and acclaimed videogame developer, spent ten years working on a webcomic. It's a masterpiece and you will enjoy reading it.
Nerd and Jock by Marco Raassìna
A wholesome comic about friendship, guys being pals, pals being bros, bros being buddies, and so forth. Take some time off your busy schedule of spiraling depression and replenish your serotonin with some fun-filled shenanigans featuring a cast of loveable goofballs.
DOGHAUS by Annabelle Olendzki
An eclectic bunch of college students (most of whom Queer) stumble across the fine line of adulthood and societal expectations, dealing with related anxieties, dread, various deeply personal hang ups, family issues and unflinching depictions of clinical depression. The comic takes the shape of a 3 to 4 panels gag strip but it often refuses to tell a joke, choosing instead to portray the raw feelings of its characters going through a moment of crisis or life in general.
It cleverly, subtly plays on audience expectations, the meta-textual conceit of the medium, to counterbalance the comical farce with the emotional realness behind these "silly yet relatable" cartoon dogs. That is not to say DOGHAUS isn't funny when it wants to be.
It still has comedic setups and resolutions but it's not forcing them upon itself at the expense of an effective gut punch. You will laugh, you might cry, you may feel second-hand discomfort at social events... It's a good read!
Out-of-Placers: A Story of Inconvenient Changes by Valsalia
To put it bluntly: a human man gets TF'd and force-femmed. She becomes a rat-like, bird-limbed creature called Yinglet and with this sudden alteration comes a subsequent, fundamental shift in the way she interacts with society, losing the self-assured tether to her personal, physical, racial and gender identity. Her place in the world has been stripped away from her due to events outside of her control and now she has to deal with the ensuing, traumatic journey to adapt to the unwanted change - similarly to how The War took away her nationality. There is a metaphor here, somewhere...
Out-of-Placers is a comic that explores (in seriously enormous detail) what it's like to exist in a place unsuited to your needs, to be thrust upon a situation that appends not just your livelihood but your own ego, the dysphoria, dysmorphia and quite literal dehumanization resulting from all of it.
Please note that when I say 'in enormous detail', I well and truly mean it. You will learn way more about the Yinglet's physiognomy, biology, anatomy, gender politics, sexual dimorphisms and mating habits than you would have ever dared to ask.
In fact, a good chunk of this comic's run is dedicated to building its world with plenty of meticulously crafted "journal entries" and "scientific papers" in place of actual pages.
Whilst this may seem a rather clunky, flow-disrupting way to establish the setting and its races, I do believe it works here. There is a Terry Pratchett-esque school of wit in how the information, the history, the occasional anecdotes are delivered, which elevate a simple fantasy location to a fully lived-in society.
That too is for the benefit of the overall theming as it is through the support of a community, or a found family, that one can hope to get by in a time of... Inconvenient Changes! If you have the stomach for the, again, greatly detailed subject matter then I absolutely recommend this. Happy reading.
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[VOLUME 1] [VOLUME 2] [VOLUME 3]
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