Webcomic Roundup – 09/29/19 to 10/05/2019, part 3
We’re going to keep this little roundup going as I near the end of my coverage for the week. Keeping each entry limited to 1000 words has been working as a format.
Golden Shrike is a newer comic that flew under my radar for quite a while. In this deer comic, the young adult siblings Runi and Nero have their world upended when the herd suddenly has to find new territory. Nero is the brash type and he is itching for an adventure. As the herd migrates one of the rules laid down by the leader is not to help a deer who has fallen to predators. The herd only looks forward when running. Unsurprisingly, when Nero and Runi’s friend Biro trips they rush back to save him before he’s eaten by wolves. Instead of being celebrated as heroes the two are chastised for breaking the rules. After a brief losing scuffle with his father and an argument with the herd’s king, Nero is banished. Runi rushes off to join her brother and the plot of Golden Shrike begins.
During the most recent pages, the siblings are alone. Nero broods about being banished and refuses to return to the herd, despite Runi urging him to. They decide to simply move forward and literally run into another deer named Riptail.
I honestly thought when it was clear Nero would be leaving his herd that the other young adults would join him and Runi– especially Biro. So when the two of them left alone I wasn’t sure what to think, but I’m glad the story is introducing new characters already. Perhaps from Riptail, the siblings can learn about the larger world, opposed to the sheltered life they had lived in the swaps.
No matter how you slice it, The Caretaker has a very slow moving plot. It really is a comic that is best read chapter by chapter, instead of page by page. Only a single page is released each week ensuring that when the plot is slow, it is really slow. Chapter four started off strong with Simon realizing he needs to go to the store and buy supplies for himself and the groundskeeper. Unfortunately, PTSD surrounding a tragic car accident that killed his mother keeps him from being able to drive. So he decides to walk, but Samuel’s mansion is as gigantic as it is mysterious, and after being chased by a phoenix Simon finds himself lost in the forest. This forest area is filled with worm-infested deer (it’s much worse than described). We’ve been stuck in this forest plotline for exactly four months.
I get it that Simon’s job as caretaker of Samuel’s mansion is extremely dangerous. Not only are there mythical birds, werewolves, and flesh-eating doppelgangers, but even the deer are dangerous. Still Simon being trapped in the forest, trying to escape these creepy deer have ground The Caretaker’s plot to a halt. So far it’s been a deer attacks Simon, he manages to injure it, releasing the worms infecting its body, it backs off, another one attacks, and the cycle repeats. I can’t wait until this part of the plot is resolved and the story picks up again, as the comic is brimming with potential. Fortunately, with the latest page released, it looks like that may be happening.
Speaking of comics that suffer from having just one update a week, Homeworld is another victim of this format. (I’m not asking for comic authors to update more than once a week, I know people live busy lives. I’m just pointing out how slow plots really suffer from slow releases.) This comic is relatively new and has yet to get into heavy world building, or even the overall plot. So far we know that in this world filled with anthropomorphic animal people that off-world travel is possible, aliens exist, and this version of the U.S. military has some deep secrets.
A wounded solider named Benjamin Saunders comes back injured with an otherworldly affliction. A high-ranking officer named General Francis North wants to take him into custody, but the injured soldier’s commanding officer, General Victor Anderson rigs it so that he escapes with help and lies about his actions. Naturally, that angers General North. So when Victor and his family are attacked by unknown assailants, this isn’t surprising.
What is surprising is the save by covert soldiers sent by someone named Warden. At this point in the story, it’s tempting to point the finger at North for trying to disappear Victor, but it’s far too early to really know what’s going on. Even at 30 pages in, it’s best just to sit back a bit longer and let the plot unfold as it promises to be an interesting military sci-fi adventure.
A bit of history: Homeworld is actually a re-do of an earlier comic named Deceit that authors Jack Harper and Mads Madsen worked on a few years ago. That comic’s plot was interesting, but by reading the few pages that were released you would have never guessed it was a sci-fi story. Sure, it had the military aspects, along with secrets, but it leaned heavily on the budding romance between Victor and Eliot. The latter was a small man in an abusive relationship with a member of the military police named John Lector. Victor sought to intervene, falling in love with Eliot in the process. The plot never really had a chance to unfold, as Harper discontinued the comic at fewer than 40 pages in. He and Madsen spent years reworking the project after taking the critique the comic received quite seriously.
Almost all of Deceit has been scrubbed from the web, except for a fairly harsh (but fair) critique and a small and unrelated voice acting project here. To be honest, Homeworld is a much tighter and more focused story. It is completely different from Deceit, save for Victor who is now better established as a character. I honestly think this re-do was the right choice as the authors took the previous critique to heart, sought help from other writers, and strove to create a better story.
Hopefully I’ll be able wrap my coverage of this webcomic week up on Saturday or Sunday. Stay tuned!
