VGcats - Scott Ramsoomair

Although I forgot to blog yesturday, I will definately make this one the best as a ending note to the comic topic blog for this week.

I came across VGcats (stands for Videogame Cats due to the many references to videogames the comic makes) one day when I was looking for "Super Smash Bros. Brawl" information and videos and accidently found that video.  I looked it up and realized it was a webcomic that referenced a certain game each strip.  As I began to read more and more of it, I laughed harder and read more until I caught up to where it is now (yes, a webcomic I'm actually up to date with).  The comic is based on moments, references, and insides jokes of those who know the videogames and pokes fun at it by making parodies, pointing out the irony, and simulates situations in those games if it were to happen.  You DON'T need to have played the videogames that each strip portrays, though in some of them it won't make any sense unless you have.  One strip in particular was one of the greatest ones of all and should make sense who's ever been grown up with "Pokémon".

If you don't get this comic strip, then you missed a large part of your childhood, unless you weren't allow to know about Pokémon throughout your life.....which would have been weird but meh~  The two most notable characters are Leo Leonardo (the gray cat) and Aeris (the pink cat).  They usually portray certain characters for each strip, but there are times where they are themselves and have a distinctive personality.  They are based off of the real life cats that "Scott" has and serves as a great influence in his work.  Lately, he's been working on other strips that are more concentrated on a certain series.

"Adventure Log" is based off the "Final Fantasy XI" Online game and his own experience in playing the game.  The artwork is very "Animé-ish" but also follows his own original style he started with VGcats.  This series so far is very typical "poke fun at MMORPG" type of jokes, and so is not incredibly funny to me.

Please do not feel discouraged of playing MMORPGs from this strip.  It actually DOES happen quite a lot where trying to find a "class" you actually like playing with will have you die quite a number of times, but that's the fun in discovery~

The one new series that Scott has started that IS immensely halarious is "Super Effective" which follows the original "Gameboy Pokémon" although some of them are very random or just plain humor.  The Pokémon games always starts the same way: You see a Pokémon professor, he studies Pokémon, and then he asks you what your gender is (in the later series).  But in the original game, there was only a boy you can use, so.....

And then something that people take advantage of is when being able to choose the name of their rival:

But I thought it was even more funny when (someone I know) named their friend/rival in Pokémon Diamond "JAT" (Jerk *** Tard).  LOL!!!  Over all, the VGcats series is probably my favorite webcomic to follow, since it only updates each monday and the artist gets busy/lazy sometimes so doesn't post up new ones.  Hope everyone enjoyed this week of webcomics.

Megatokyo - Fred Gallagher and Rodney Caston

Megatokyo is by far one of the more popular webcomics out there, considering that it has been published and translated into several different languages.  Influenced by the Japanese animé/manga style, Megatokyo attracts animé lovers and gamers alike with their videogame references, incredible artwork and architectual designs for the background, and originality.  The webcomic uses a combination of the western style and Japanese style of 4 panel comic strips which reads in a "Z" fashion (top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right).  The series starts with Piro and Largo wanting to get into E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo where they release news on the latest development of each gaming company's work) but failing to do so because they are not game developers themselves (I want to get into E3 as well...).The story truly starts when Piro drags Largo along to go to Japan for a short trip, but end up stuck there with no money to fly back to America.

Piro, who knows how to speak Japanese, ends up working at a bookstore (I believe, it's been a while since I've followed MT).  Largo, the more imaginative and crazy like friend, goes around trying to prevent an evil attack???  (Yeah, I'm not very far into the series since I actually read the first volume from borrowing it at the library).  At a certain point, the artist drops the 4 panel design to turn it more into a graphic novel that follows the format of a Japanese manga.  Humor, Action, and Fantasy are among the genres in the series as well as a bit of romance and drama.  I don't know what attracted me to this comic, but I'm guessing it's all those gaming references they put in there~

4h, 7h15 57r1p 15 5uch 4 c1551c~ |)u|\| u 7h1n& 50?

Dominac Deegan:Oracle For Hire - Michael Terracciano

Possibly one of the most original and unique webcomic I've read in a while (there are probably hundreds of good ones out there that I don't know about).  Dominac Deegan is a seer who can see into the future.  His occupation is to be of service to the townspeople by seeing into their future for a small fee.  Unfortunately, many of his customers are nothing but dim-witted morons who seek answers to petty questions and discriminates against many of the main characters because of who/what they are.  Dominac meets a young girl who possess the power of magic when he travels to a nobleman's home to release himself from a curse of fish falling on his head:

The magic wielding Luna possesses a feature on her face that frightens people and/or causes them to jeer whenever she is present.  Dominac has a younger brother named Gregory who undergoes the practice of white magic (which is known for its holy powers to vanquish monsters and for its healing).  Gregory has a limp leg and goes through life being called a lame, handicap, or crippled.  The series itself starts out with short story, four-panel humor.  As it progresses, a storyline is unfolded and the readers find out that one of brothers of the main character is tied with the forbidden practices of Necromancy.  Dominac begins to have many visions of his brother killing and torturing innocents to furthur strengthen his powers.  And so, Dominac the seer, Gregory the white mage, and Luna the magic wielder sets off to stop the maddened Necromancer.  Um, there might be more to the story, but I'm at the 50% point.  15 Chapters have been created so far, I'm somewhere in chapter 8.

Thanks to Olivia for this interesting webcomic.

Questionable Content - Jeph Jacques

This week, I'll be sharing some of the webcomics that I've been following that might be of interest.  Since I like to draw comics, I read comics other artists have created to seek ideas and to be inspired (oh yeah, and also to have a good laugh since most ones I've read are humor comics).

Okay, I'll make this one short since I'm actually 1061 pages behind this one.  Questionable Content is about a typical, young, indie college student who finds himself living with a girl who claims she's not attracted to him (I haven't got that far yet, so yeah...) when her apartment burnt down.  References of college life, drinking, relationships, technology, indie music, and some random topics is the base factions that create the simple yet ingenious webcomic.  As you progress through the series, you can see the art style and development evolve.  Reading it is a very good time killer.  Example:

Thank you to Danny for sharing this awesome webcomic to me.