Spiderforest Comic of the Week: Precocious by Chrispy



Precocious is an all-ages daily strip comic with a nice line in sarcastic humour. It follows the adventures of a group of kids attending the Poppinstock Academy for Gifted Children, most of whom are rather too clever for their own good ...

The large archive is broken into storylines that a pretty much standalone, and helpfully identified on the archive page, so it's easy enough to dip in and out. The cast gets fairly large, which means the kids can be a little hard to keep track of to start with - but that doesn't take away from the fun of the stories, and it doesn't take long to pick out the main players.

To get a taste of the strips humour, you might like to take a look at the selection on the New Readers page.

This week's Spiderforest Comic of the Week is ... Spare Keys for Strange Doors. But I guess you're already aware of that particular comic.

Well, I made the comic, resized the comic, saved the comic under the right title ... and then completely failed to upload the comic. Yeah, I'm doing well this week. ANYway, spontaneous Friday update!

Okay, a few of you complained about the 'mailto' thingumy I was using for sign-up to the mailing lists, because it doesn't work for everyone, so I finally got around to changing it. Now, to sign up to either the 'weekly' or the 'completed story' mailing lists you just need to enter your email address one of the boxes (top right on this page), and I'll pick it up. Should work for everybody - and if it doesn't just let me know in the comments.

Also, I took out the link page for that extra page I put in the last story, so apologies if your comments got lost ... I just didn't want a bunch of random images in the archive.

There's no Spiderforest Comic of the Week this week, due to confusion (a significant part of it being my fault. Oops). So I'm going to link a SF comic that didn't join the list - 'Think Before You Think' by Sylvia.
Because I like it quite a lot.

Okay, not trying to fool you here - afraid this week the image doesn't have an interesting hidden page attached.

I'd been considering taking a page break between stories as I wanted to catch up on time I lost over Easter, but I really wanted to give you something reasonably interesting to look at. Unfortunately, events have conspired against me, so I got nothing. Except this, which is a panel from the next story, which will start next week.

Sorry. :(

But meanwhile, you might like to take a look at ...
Spiderforest Comic of the Week: Twilight Lady by Blake Chen.



Due to afforesaid events, I haven't had time to take a proper look at this, but the premise sounds interesting so I'm going to make time for it soon. Here's Blake's synopsis:

"In demonic circles, she is spoken of in hushed whispers ... and known only as the Nameless Lady in the Hood. For eons she wandered the realms of the living and dead, craving solitude, yet compelled to aid any wronged who sought justice ... or vengeance.
Two decades ago, this immortal soul found itself born into an earthly body under mysterious circumstances.
Having previously attained near god-like ability and status (worshipped by some, feared by others), the Lady had no desire to endure the limits of being mere flesh and blood. So she created Jen, a separate mind within her own ... to experience life in a physical body whenever she didn't want to ... which was most of the time.
Only Jen turned out stronger than her creator imagined, at times becoming the dominant personality in their shared existence. To prevent losing herself completely, the Lady began surfacing whenever Jen was "asleep". A necessary compromise.
Now a young adult, Jen still has no inkling of the being that dwells within. A budding musician, she just wants to find her place in the world.
But there are those who know of the Nameless Lady in the Hood. Friends, enemies, and those who seek her aid ..."

Blake recommends the story arc 'The Indwellers' as a good jumping in point.

I made a post about how you should go and read the Spiderforest comic 'Keys' by Nicoli Gonnella. I have no idea where that post went. Did I even save it? I don't know. And now I'm too tired to remember what I wrote before, but if I don't put up something now, I'm gonna forget, so ...



Here's Nicoli's blurb for the comic:

"In a land of terrible wars and towering empires, one man finds himself thrust into the machinations of men and gods, and only a mythic blade may hold to the key to his salvation."

Go take a look!

Spiderforest Comic of the Week: Dream*scar by Hchano.



If you've had flick though the Spare Keys links page, you may have come across this already. So, yeah, it's safe to say I don't think this one sucks!

Like Spare Keys, Dream*scar has a modern world setting, and involves a whole pile of mythical beings. However, these 'unhumans' have recently stepped into the spotlight, and the rest of the world is still adjusting to the fact that they quite definitely exist. The story follows Vix, who, after a rather nasty incident at school, is finding out that her own unhuman heritage is rather more complicated - and dangerous - than she originally thought.

I guess I don't need to tell you that this is genre I love, so it was always off to a good start. But it's got a lot of other things going for it as well - like awesome art (some polished backgrounds, and expressive faces), an engaging lead character, and a nice sense of humour that mixes in well with the more serious elements.

So check it out! I recommend beginning at The Beginning.

Spiderforest Comic of the Week: Cetiya by Mitsukaiten.



Cetiya is another comic with a chunky, but readable archive; I got through it in a couple of hours. This is a cyberpunk manga-style comic, with the twist that the technology is also magic.

The story follows the members of a military organization who fight crime, though there may be some shady people running the place. Characters include a woman with trying to forget her past - not always in healthy ways; and a guy who knows nothing about himself and has a ten second memory unless he's plugged into the right hardware.

There's some nice writing in this one, and Mitsukaiten has an eye for interesting page layouts. Overall, it's got a bit of a William Gibson flavour to it, which is something I'm all in favour of.

Spiderforest Comic of the Week: School Spirit by Dutch



Okay, this has a long archive - not one for a single sitting! But it's a strip comic with episodic storylines, so once you've got the gist of what's going on, it's easy enough to dip in and out, and follow the current story without getting confused.

The strip follows a group of young Australian kids, and their adventures with a) normal school problems, and b) a bunch of friendly / occasionally grumpy ghosts from the cemetery next door to the school. The New Readers page gives an intro and also links to various stories, which gives a good starting point for exploring the archives.

It's an all-ages comic, so the tone is kept fairly gentle; but it avoids that sugar-coating you can sometimes get with all-age stories (i.e. none of the characters fall into the 'sick-makingly adorable moppet' category). Instead, it's written with a nice insight into how kids actually behave - probably due to Dutch being a teacher himself!

Just ... don't tell him that in my head everyone talks with an English accent ...

This week the Spiderforest Comic of the Week is 'The Only Half Saga' by Darwin.


Like War of Winds last week, this one has a chunky archive, but is still managable in one sitting. If you'd like to try out a chapter before sitting down to the whole thing, Sins of the Father is a reasonable jumping in point.

The story follows a dhampir (half human, half vampire for those who haven't come across them elsewhere) called Cabal as he copes with an apocalypse, a crazy mother and an absent father who he would very much like to meet ... for the purposes of violent revenge.

I liked the way the story developed in this one; it didn't go where I expected. For instance, when the action leaped 600 years into the future. Of course, when your main characters are immortal, why the hell not? But where vampires are concerned, most people seem to prefer mucking about in the 18th century with the top hats and the ruffles; so kudos to Darwin for taking us in the other direction.
Note, there are a few NSFW pages - but they're pretty well sign-posted before you get there.

And again, because I happened to read this one first ... Darwin also creates another comic 'Gemutations: Plague', which is worth a look too!

Spiderforest Comic of the Week: Chirault by Varethane



This is one I've already been reading - though I still need to add it to the links page, partly because I got a bit behind with it. I thought this would be a good time to catch up on the archive ... then I didn't have enough time ... then I started reading it anyway ... and now it's late.
Stupid entertaining comics. I HAVE WORK TOMORROW!

Anyway. It's a fantasy comic, featuring a demon hunter (who's also a demon. Maybe?) and a girl who's been shunk to the size of a mouse, plus elves and perhaps the end of the world. Despite the plot and events, the comic itself has a quiet tone that I enjoy - it feels different from the average fantasy quest type stories. Plus, I like the art. It's got a distinctive style - hand-drawn black and white, with bold strokes.

Click here to start at the beginning.

I've joined the Spiderforest Comic of the Week link exchange, so I'll be posting about a new comic every week for a bit.



First up is Kez's comic War of Winds.
I admit I hadn't got around to reading it before, but I sat down on Monday to give it a go, and got through the whole thing in 2 or 3 hours - so a nice chunk of archive, without being off-puttingly long. The early art can be a little ropey, but it's great to see how much it improves as she goes along ( ... plus, I know a fair number of you must be used to that *cough Kaspall cough*), and the cast includes some nicely ambiguous characters.
I'm not great at plot summaries, but Kez has helpfully provided one of her own:

"The War of Winds is an epic fantasy about a young man named Talon who takes a flat, blue-steeled ring from a dying woman's hand. He finds himself granted near immortality from mortal wounds, while at the same time, he is dying faster than ever.
Talon quickly finds himself on the run, hunted by a mythical race of half-human, half-beasts called the "Ayenroki," who claim guardianship of what he took. Can Talon find an ally and save himself before time - and fate - catches up with him?"

Go and take a look!

Also, because I've been reading this one for a while and have been meaning to put it on my links page, here's a link to her other webcomic 'What It Takes' as well ...