Happy New Year, everyone! I’ve been largely writing shorter posts on my Tumblr account, but I would like to pick up the pace here as far as writing goes in 2022. I also want to write less about Home and more about other webcomics, as their are so many good stories out there.
So to bring in 2022 with lots of hype, here are some of my favorite comic teasers for the upcoming year. Also, if you haven’t tried any of these comics be sure to give them a read. While you’re at it feel free to suggest a few good titles to me.
Click on each image to be taken to the corresponding DeviantArt page.
What Lurks Beneath by ArualMeow – A story about cats trying to survive on an island with limited resources. It takes place from the view point of four characters and each chapter switches to a new view point. I actually just got into the story in November and binged the entire series in a few hours. Great characters, great plot, lots of mystery and intrigue. Plus if you like cats (but maybe never got into the Warrior Cats series), this might be perfect for you.
Under the Ash Tree by ChevreLune – Two bucks lock horns one day and end up stuck together. They must learn to survive until they can free themselves or their antlers fall off during the winter. Both bucks have wildly different viewpoints on life, with one being extremely religious and the other being a free spirit. They also may be falling in love with each other. This story reads less like a typical comic and more like a children’s storybook. Just add some dark themes.
I’m With You by ChevreLune – In a world dominated by satyrs, two of them try to find their place in the world. Pazu is a sheltered young adult living in the highlands who’s life chances drastically when he meets Nomi from the lowlands. The two of them go on an adventure to slay a beast plaguing Pazu’s village.
To Catch a Star by SleepySundae – If you thought the sparkle wolves trend from the late aughts were dead, you thought wrong. In a strange world made up of floating islands, the Moon died and the wolves that live below the clouds, the Dusky blame the Sun for her death. A large lunar cult are on well on their way to execute the Sun’s avatar, when they’re stopped by a Sun worshiping cult of Novas (wolves who live above the clouds) and a fight breaks out. One young wolf named Backlash ends up separated from his pack and travels with the Sun on their quest to collect stars.
A Doe’s Salvation by Wolfnis – A large herd of mule deer live in the mountains. They believe a mighty mountain spirit keeps them safe from predators, but in return for this protection two deer must be sacrificed each month. One day Absaroka, a new mother is asked to sacrifice her young fawn, Crazy. She believes in the Mountains, but the herd’s matriarch is asking her to choose between her child and the well-being of all her friends.
Flames in my Veins by Wolfnis – A Warrior Cats alternative universe story. Follows Rusty aka Scorch, a former house cat who’s found favor with Scourge and his Bloodclan cats. I admit, I never read the Warriors series, so all of this is new to me. Still, if you like these cat-centered stories this one’s worth a read. It updates a bit on the slow side, as A Doe’s Salvation is Wolfnis’ main comic.
City of Trees by SanjanaIndica – Hey, yet another deer themed comic that I previously wrote about. A dhole and a deer become friends under the strangest of circumstances. They keep their friendship from their respective clan and herd. Both struggle with loss and depression and take solace in each other’s company.
Roar Howl Run by Songdogx – Another comic I’ve previously written about. RHR takes inspiration from Greek mythology, namely the tale of Atalanta. Ata is a rabbit who was abandoned by her parents at birth and given to a bear to eat. Instead of eating her, Temis raised Ata as her own child despite them being different species. A small pack of wolves in the bear’s debt also help raise the rabbit. Temis is a disciple of the Stars, or gods who have the ability to grant their followers great power. Ata wishes to follow in her mother’s footsteps and eventually becomes a disciple of the Bear Star. However, such a power comes with enormous danger and Ata would do anything to protect her family.
Repeat by Songdogx – Songdog’s second comic, released in late 2020. It shares a lot of similarities with To Catch a Star, which I need to write about some day. This comic also brings back sparkle wolves with a non-binary twist. Gender isn’t used at all. It’s not even addressed in the comic, but boy is it easy to forget everyone goes by “they” at times. The Sun and the Moon are locked in an endless repeating cycle of killing each other and being reborn. The Sun God, Sol decides to break the cycle by making sure the Moon God, Lun can’t die and be reborn. In shirking their duties, the Sun created a fate much worse for themselves and those they come to care about.
Here are a few other comics worth checking out that don’t have teasers:
Komorerbi by Dirtwizard66 aka Space Doe – Features a herd of deer ruled by a wicked king named Eso. Thanks to a crackdown on religion, the deer have long forgotten the gods, but the gods have other plans. This comic was on hiatus for nearly a year, but has recently comic back.
Tofauti Sawa by TheCynicalHound – Sahara is a strong-willed and rash hyena matriarch. Fed up with having to bow down to lions, she orders her clan to attack the leader of the pride, Kwame. She ends up losing her entire family and roams as a nomad, seeking more hyenas to mount a revenge attack on Kwame. While wandering, she meets an unusual leucistic lion named Silver. He also loses his family when a nomad male challenges him for control of his small pride. The hyena and the leucistic lion are more similar than they may think. This one’s a bit of slow burn, but absolutely worth every update.
The Colour of Your Eyes by SonderCerebro – This comic is a tough one to write about, as it covers themes of domestic abuse, suicide, and general toxicity. Fortunately, the author is well-versed in these themes through her own personal struggles so the subject matters are given the weight they deserve. The story is a slow burn in a world filled with magic and shapeshifting animals. Divo is a wolf who was formerly a slave. She and her partner escape, but he dies when they’re attacked by a large buck. Wilkar, the head hunter of a pack of wolves, takes her in despite the pack’s protest. It doesn’t take long to discover his controlling and abusive side.
The King of Hearts by B00NAFIDE – A story set in 1950s America all featuring anthropomorphic cats. Charlie is a young woman who experienced the loss of her mother at a young age and grew up to have a difficult relationship with her father. She works at one of his coffee shops and lives a decent life. One day she meets a strange kid who takes her to a mysterious place known as “The Pier.” She eventually realizes everyone there are ghosts and she has a terrible accident. She meets the owner of The Pier, Anthony Heart, who lets her go. She eventually returns to The Pier, discovers she died that night and was revived as a sort of a zombie, and Mr. Heart wants her to work for him– otherwise he’ll kill her father, an old business partner from when he was still alive. The King of Hearts is currently on hiatus and probably won’t be back until sometime later this year.
I wish you a wonderful and healthy 2022. See you next update!
Hi Silver Husky. I know this blog post is over half a year old now, but since you are the only active comic reviewer I know of who reads animal comics, I felt like you’re the only one I could ask this particular question; recently Songdog on deviantart has announced that they will no longer be posting their comics online due to a lot of criticism over her previous story, Roar Howl Run. I was wondering what your thoughts were on her latest comics, RHR and Repeat, even though it will never be finished now. While RHR left me feeling lukewarm at the end, I had hope for Repeat, but I never felt like I was “allowed” to share my feelings on either story over on Deviantart, or risk being seen as someone who just blindly hated Songdog’s comics. I’m just hungry for more discussion over these stories, both praise and critique, and hopefully see some other views I haven’t considered, but never felt safe doing so on DA where I might be seen as an attacker.
Hey there! Sorry about taking so long to get back to you. I just got back from vacation.
Songdog’s position is interesting. I do respect the fact that she did stop posting since she didn’t want criticism, instead of putting her work behind a paywall or something. Her comics have flaws, but I enjoyed them, so I will miss her newer stuff.
Roar Howl Run was a mixed bag for me. The high were cool, but the lows were pretty bad. Ata was way too overpowered and her enemies were too one dimensional in some respects. I don’t feel bad for Pommes in the least, but the others? Hylae was basically doing the same thing as Ata and it’s a shame that no one realized that or it wasn’t explored in the comic. Sure, he let paranoia be his downfall, but he could have been a great foil to Ata. The same with Calydon and even Apoll to a degree. I do think it was fitting that Ata did die, though her messing with the stars after death felt like it came out of nowhere. Again, Ata being special again just because she’s a self-insert. I think if the characters had more nuance in their actions and if Ata was criticized more for her dumber decisions, RHR could have been a lot better. I do think there were some great themes of empowerment at times, though. Even as a cishet woman, I could relate to Ata and others insisting she live her life a certain way. Out of all of SD’s finished comics, this was my least favorite just because how OP Ata was.
Repeat, suffered some of the same problems that RHR had. The protagonists were too protected, even from their bad decisions. Songdog didn’t give the antagonists (thinking mostly about Pink’s pack) more to them than falling for Lun’s lies. I mean, thinking about it, Sol and Lun are monsters with different colored eyes who don’t think twice about murdering anyone who gets in their way. Also, Sol didn’t even bother to explain to the wolves that they had been lied to. Is it any wonder they saw wolves with different colored eyes as monsters??? SD used to do gray characters nicely, but Repeat was just far too black and white. Sure, I enjoyed reading it because it was interesting, but I liked it even less than RHR. Sol is just too impulsive and dumb for my liking. Tilter is a lot smarter, but they’re just a child. I respected using non-binary terms and they/them pronouns, but if I’m being honest, it did get tiring from time to time. More my problem than SD’s though.
The DA comments were unfortunate. By that I mean, not everyone critical of the comic was a hater, but there definitely were haters. However, branding everyone who had critical comments as hater did SD no favors. You can usually tell who’s there to cause trouble and those who want a genuine conversation. It’s not a position that I envy, but if I were that tired I probably would have just turned off comments for a while until I was in a better headspace.
And this blog isn’t dead. It’s just that I’ve been a bit more active on Tumblr because the WordPress editor is such a pain to use compared to Tumblr. If you have an account there, feel free to follow. https://thewramblingwebcomicreview.tumblr.com/ There will be more content for this blog, though!
Ah! Thanks so much for the reply! (And sorry for sending my question in twice. I didn’t know you were on vacation, I thought the website just ate my first submission)
Your point about hylae is a good one. Now that I think about it, I do see similarities between him and Ata I never noticed before. Both want to protect their families and don’t want their loved ones to be harmed. I guess I had just suspended my disbelief because I guess the… “foundation” of their conflicts were fundamentally different, I guess? It’s not the choice of predators that they must eat other animals, but a deer who doesn’t want to be predated because he wants to live is seen as foolish and unreasonable because wolves must eat too, and that’s not their fault. but Ata, who constantly goes into an area where she knows her “lifestyle” is not the cultural norm IS making that choice to trespass, yet expects to get away Scott free each time, and we’re supposed to agree with her (That’s a weak comparison I know, but I’m having trouble putting my thoughts into words.)
Funny enough, I’m ace myself, but I found ata less relatable? (Except the page where she challenges the other rabbit doe by asking who gets to determine if she’s “useful” or not, that one struck a chord with me) but.. for retelling a Greek myth, it’s still a little off putting that ata still died in the end. Like.. Songdog could have changed the story as much as she wanted, but the only major deviation (aside from making them all animals) is that ata doesn’t get partnered. She still dies in the end, and I know it’s a Greek tragedy, but if you’re willing to change that major plot point why not give her a happy ending? Why must it remain sad? It aaaaaalmost feels like the “bury your lgbt rep” trope, and kinda rubs me the wrong way.
After rereading RHR a second time now that’s done, I’ve come to the unfortunate conclusion that everything “bad” that happens to ata after page 155 (or arguably page 145) is her own fault, because she was warned to stay away from other rabbits but went into “their” space anyway. (Seriously, why didn’t she ask the wolves to help feed and care for temis/why didn’t the wolves volunteer their aid if they’re always in temis’ dept? Leager even says as much on page 172)
As for Repeat, the plot armor the main characters had never really bothered me, ’cause then there’d be no story (though tilter’s personality did seem to occasionally flip-flop, such as being okay with self-isolating in a hole to die on one page, then resenting their family for planning to do the same thing to them on another).
Not even pink’s sudden behavior and turn-around on tilter and sol was that bad to me. From a purely storytelling perspective, I can see why songdog did so- it was to keep the pace up and move the plot along. If pink had been rational and took the time to uncover the truth, that would have required extra pages and would’ve made the story drag. (Not saying that pink’s actions or the actions of the pack were justified, but I can understand wanting to move the story along, so we got a concentrated dose of these wolves at their worst to showcase their beliefs and methods on dealing with “monsters” all at once)
Sorry for the long rambly reply, and thanks again for answering my question! I’ll definitely stalk your tumblr too!
No worries! I only saw one submission if that helps, but just like that one, I’m getting to this a bit late in terms of a reply.
To be honest, I almost missed that point about Hylae until someone else pointed it out. While in the grand scheme of things, not having any predators would be bad because of overpopulation and disease would be bad, that’s not what the focus of the story was about. Now, if someone had mentioned that, then him being seen as unreasonable would make more sense. Heck Ora could have mentioned this, with her foresight. It wasn’t, so I agree with you. Narratively, he was done a bit dirty. At least he got to out like a badass. And, I don’t think it’s a weak comparison. Ata WAS in the wrong, she was given chances and exceptions that no one else made.
Honestly, I think the one scene were Ata goes up and challenges Pommes was super-relatable. I’m cishet, yet as a woman I’ve gotten this line many times about children. Even now that I’m married my spouse and I haven’t made up our mind regarding them, yet people expect and want it to happen. I think Songdog nailed that aspect of Ata so well. In terms of “bury your lgbt+ rep,” oh, I didn’t even think of this. 🙁 My mindset was that Ata was too OP, she got too many exceptions where others didn’t, and with her reckless nature she’d eventually run out of chances. I suppose there could have been a way Ata lived, but it would have been tough as SD wrote themselves into a corner regarding her outcome. As long as she lived, she’d be an easy target for others wanting her eye. Perhaps if she was abandoned by the Bear star, running or being protected by the wolves could be an option…
Yes, everything that happens after Temis gets sick is Ata’s fault. There’s no way around this. She SHOULD have taken Ora’s advice.
You make some good points about Repeat. Perhaps, I let myself stew in too much negativity, as there comes a time to move the plot forward. Sometimes plot armor is needed. In a way, I suppose I hated how Pink’s behavior was seen as bad, when nothing in their experiences challenged that. Perhaps they would have just called Sol a liar. Lun certainly made the case wolves with two different eyes were bad. Hmmm.
And no worries, I hope you don’t mind a reply just as long. XD