Webcomics

[stoutfellow]

A couple of webcomics have caught my fancy lately, and I thought I'd talk about them here.

Goblins is a revisionist D&D-derived comic, centered on a handful of goblins. The early comics lead up to an attack on their warcamp by a group of standard-model adventurers, in which most of the tribe is killed. The survivors set out to... well, to survive. The goblins quickly are established as more sympathetic than the adventurers, and more distinguishable: Fumbles the klutz, who comes up with the idea that gives them hope; Dies Horribly the coward, who finds himself a slave to a would-be conqueror; Big Ears, who wants never again to see the helpless die; Chief, the unwilling leader; the irascible Complains About Names; and Thaco, the only one without a prophetic name and the best warrior of them all. There is humor; there is pathos; there is a great deal of blood; and the mix is strangely satisfying. Unfortunately, the updating is quite irregular, but if you can tolerate that I recommend this strip.

I'm still going through the archives of No Rest for the Wicked, but I'm already intrigued. This is another revisionist strip, this time focusing on classical fairy tales. Forty-five pages in, I've met analogs of the Princess (as in "and the Pea"), Puss in Boots, and Red Riding Hood, but none of them are quite the same as the bland characters of tradition. Perrault (the puss) is, after all, a cat, with all the baggage that comes along with that; he may talk, walk upright, and wear clothes, but he's a cat. Red seems a rather sinister character - some say she's a witch - but I've just met her, and the Princess vouches for her, so.... This one looks more lighthearted than "Goblins", but that may not last. They've just entered The Forest, and things may change quickly.

Anyway, both strips look entertaining, and if they sound appealing, check them out!

Comments

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

"No Rest for the Wicked" is indeed excellent, but.... well, you'll see. Suffice it to say it keeps some of the more gruesome aspects of the original stories.

[kattsune.livejournal.com]

Goblins is a glorious, glorious thing, but I think you're wrong about Thaco's name not being prophetic. THAC0 is actually a 2nd edition DnD acronym for "To Hit Armor Class 0(zero)".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THAC0

Also, if you like this kind of comic, you might also enjoy www.lfgcomic.com. Looking for Group is based on World of Warcraft, I'm told, but so far it seems that all of the jokes carry through just fine for anyone who has read enough about the swords and sorcery genre to have picked up where the stereotypes lie... Or if they don't, I haven't noticed and still enjoy it immensely.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

It's been a long time since I played D&D - my manuals are from the late '70s - so I'm not up on the acronyms.

I'll take a look at lfgcomic. Thanks.

[kattsune.livejournal.com]

I've played one ADnD game. The rest were all run in 3rd or higher. The only reason I remembered THAC0 was because I remember being really confused by the whole thing. In my first reply, I'd started to explain what I thought it was... thought better of it, and wiki'd... Turns out that was a good idea, since my original thought was all wrong. I remembered the term though! Sounds like thwack-o, which works out well for a mnemonic device.