Series: Superego

The Adventure Thread
The Mirror

Just a tip: if you have not yet read my review of MS Paint Adventures, I suggest that you do so now. Why? Because this series, Superego, is one of MSPA's fan-made "Forum Adventures." Forum Adventures are series hosted on MSPA's forums that use the same user-guided, text-adventury format as MSPA. There are a lot of good ones there, so you can expect to see more in the future.

Superego is a Lost-esque story about a group of people who wake up in an empty hospital, with no memory of how they got there and a different number on each of their hands. As they explore their surroundings and begin to interact with each other, it becomes apparent that they are all working at cross-purposes -- something that the hospital itself seems to be encouraging.

Each of the characters introduced has a color and a symbol associated with them, as well as a number as mentioned above. The symbol and number each have a significance that, surprisingly, the fans have already deduced. Knowing these meanings adds an entirely new layer of experience to the series. However, as it also casts the interactions between the cast members in an completely different light, I will be putting it in spoiler tags of a sort. For those of you who opt not to read them right away, I suggest that you read them after you have caught up. To read the following text, simply highlight it.

Each of the numbers originates from the second axis of the DSM-IV Code -- in other words, each one is a numerical designation indicating what personality disorder each given character has. Sam for example has zero, which on the second axis indicates Paranoid Personality Disorder.

The symbols serve a similar purpose, each one being a visual representation of the disorder. Each one contains a circle -- the idea seemingly being that a plain circle represents a well-adjusted ordinary person, while people with disorders have modified circles. Percy, for example, has OCD, and thus his circle has a square inside of it to represent his need for order.

With this knowledge, the series can also be seen as a sort of psychological case study of what would happen if ten people with various disorders were placed in the same abandoned building, with no way out and filled with various potentially supernatural phenomenon. For anyone with an interest in psychology, this series will likely be fascinating.

Which isn't to say that that's all there is to it. Superego is still an Ontological Mystery at heart, and that has an appeal of its own, one that is arguably even better if you know the meaning of the numbers.

The series itself is still fairly young -- you can read through its archive in about an hour, likely less. But it's still pretty solid, regardless. And if you don't mind registering for a forum, you can even participate as well.

Overall View: If you're a fan of Lost or Psychology, you'll probably love Superego. If you aren't, then you should probably pass this one by.

Series: Girl Genius

The site, accessible through this elegant and finely crafted link

Steampunk, for those of you who don't know, is a type of science fiction featuring steam-powered technology of a far greater complexity than ever occurred in real life. Examples of the genre include The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Wild Wild West.

This sort of thing, pretty much.

And one of the more recent classics of the Steampunk genre is the webcomic known as Girl Genius -- though the author prefers to refer to it as "Gaslamp Fantasy." The series has won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story for every year that the award has existed, was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist (As well as several non-Hugo awards, such as the Eisner Awards), and has won five Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards.

The comic takes place in a "What could have been" version of Europe ("Europa," actually, but it's obviously supposed to be Europe) where, as the genre suggests, steam-powered technology took hold far more than it did in real life. The reason for this is the existence of "Sparks," people who possess the innate ability to create technology that violates the laws of physics -- but tend to be more than a little bit mad.

In spite of this, order was kept for a time by a pair of Sparky heroes known as the Heterodyne Boys -- but after they mysteriously vanished, Europa dissolved into chaos until a man named Baron Wulfenbach conquered all of Europa, to rule with an iron fist.

Years later, our story begins with Agatha Clay, a mentally damaged girl who is working as a lab assistant at Transylvania Polygnostic University when the Baron pays it a visit. After a rather dangerous series of events, Agatha discovers that her "brain damage" is actually a result of a locket that she wears, which is actually a device designed to repress her abilities as a spark. She is taken as a prisoner to Castle Wulfenbach, where the story truly begins...

It's worth noting that Girl Genius actually began life as a print comic, only becoming a webcomic after four volumes. As a result, it holds itself to a much higher standard then most webcomics, and lacks the usual artistic evolution most webcomics have -- it starts out with good artwork, and that art doesn't change that much as the story progresses. It updates three times a week, every Monday Wednesday and Friday at midnight, and it keeps to this schedule no matter what, updating at the regular times even when the colorist ended up in the hospital from a heart attack. And in addition to its adventurous plot, it can be pretty funny, too.

Overall, Girl Genius is a very good series. There are only two real problems that might prevent someone from enjoying it. The first of these is that some of the story arcs tend to drag on a bit, most notably the Mechanicsburg arc (Which started three years ago and is still going). The other, much more minor problem is that the art style is a bit too cartoonish for some people's tastes. If you can get past those, I think that you'll find reading Girl Genius to be an enjoyable experience.

Overall Verdict: Considered one of the classics, both as a webcomic and as a part of the Steampunk genre, and for good reason. Definitely worth reading.

Series: Emergency Exit

The Comic

Emergency Exit is a webcomic started in 2003 by an artist known as "NJ Huff." Like many webcomics, it began life as a simple gag-per-day comic featuring some people living in a strange apartment building. As the story continued however, it underwent what is known as "Cerebus Syndrome" -- a "disorder" where a previously plotless series begins to develop a storyline. Emergency Exit is unusual, however, in that it is actually funnier after the plot begins than it was before. The author seems to have noticed this as well, as a large chunk of the pre-Cerebus strips have been removed and replaced with a condensed version containing all of the information necessary to start reading at the start of the plot.

The story itself begins to develop when it becomes apparent that the seemingly ordinary tenants of the apartment aren't quite as ordinary as they seem. Bob is cursed, Eddie's a mad genius, Sal is a witch, Fred the cat is sentient (Though only Karl can understand her), and Karl has an inter-dimensional portal in his cupboard.

What really starts the plot however, is when a man named Bubba Miyagi comes through this portal and asks Karl and the other apartment tenants to use this portal to collect artifacts that have been scattered across the multiverse, allegedly to save his universe from destruction (Which is revealed in fairly short order to be a complete fabrication). This quest draws the attention of an evil overlord known as "Lord Kyran," who decides to try to get the artifacts before the tenants, simply because he has nothing better to do with his time.

Overall however, this summary doesn't really do the story justice. The plot does start out being rather basic, and the humor tends towards the mediocre in early strips (Even with some of them removed). However, NJ gets significantly better with these things as the strip progresses.

What really sets Emergency Exit apart from other webcomics, however, is the crossovers. Emergency Exit has so far crossed over with two other webcomics: Beyond Reality and Parallel Dimentia. These crossovers are generally considered to be some of the best executed crossovers in webcomic history. Both are well-plotted, don't favor either cast over the other, and have far-reaching effects on the plots of all the series involved -- as opposed to most webcomic crossovers, which could easily be removed from canon without effecting the plot in any major way. The second of these, "The Epic Struggle," is also one of the longest webcomic crossovers out there, being 130 pages in length.

Overall Verdict: While not necessarily one of the best webcomics around, Emergency Exit is still quite good, and definitely worth checking out.

Series: MS Paint Adventures

The site

Problem Sleuth

The music

Fanmade trailer for Homestuck (Contains minor spoilers)

Since this is my first post, I decided to start with the site containing (As its latest installment) what is perhaps my favorite web series. HomeStuck, the series in question, is at the very least one of the only webcomics that I would call "epic."

HomeStuck is the latest installment in MS Paint Adventures, a series which, ironically enough, is not done in MS Paint -- the author switched to Photoshop after a few pages, finding MS Paint too difficult to work with. Each installment of the site uses the same format: the pages are still images or .gifs with text beneath it. The narrative itself is formatted like an old-school text adventure, with the reader giving commands.

While MS Paint Adventures has several minor installments such as Jail Break, Bard Quest, and Dr. Brinner: Ghost Psychiatrist, the two longest and best known installments are Problem Sleuth and Homestuck.

Problem Sleuth is the story of three detectives who must stop a Mob Kingpin... while trapped in their offices. They can leave their offices by building couch forts to enter the strangely disturbing world of imagination, or by using the magic windows in their offices. The series is now complete with about 1600 pages, and was completely reader-driven -- the readers were the ones giving "commands" to be taken by the characters, and sometimes even gave commands to "non-playable" characters or the environment itself. As a result, the plot is meandering and amusingly surreal, and thus not the best read for those who get frustrated when the plot gets sidetracked by humorous antics.

The current installment is HomeStuck. This series started in April of 2009, and now has over 4000 pages, largely thanks to the author's insanely fast rate of updating, which has averaged at five pages per day. This series has significantly higher production values than Problem Sleuth. Whereas Problem Sleuth's pages consisted mostly of still images with .gifs for special occasions, HomeStuck has .gifs as the default. On special occasions such as major plot points or something epic occurring, the command linking to the next page will begin with [S], indicating that the next page is done in flash and thus contains sound. The [S] updates have thus far come in three flavors: The first type, which was abandoned fairly early on, was interactive flash minigames. Another, later type was the Alterniabound updates, which allowed the reader to take control of a few select characters and explore certain areas, having conversations with other characters and examining set-pieces. The first of these contained over an hour-and-a-half of gameplay, but the subsequent ones were far shorter.

The last, most common type of [S] page is the Flash Animations. The action in these animations is always synchronized to music. Rather than use music from outside sources, however, the series uses music created by fans of the series. Several of the more notable composers eventually formed their own group, known as "What Pumpkin" in reference to a running joke in the franchise. The music is absolutely amazing, spanning nearly every genre of music. While the quality of the music varies, there is a vast amount of it. There are eighteen albums, with the smallest containing seven songs and the largest containing sixty-five -- and cheap as well, the largest costing only fourteen dollars.

The series itself is the story of four children who all receive the beta version of a video game called "Sburb." As they begin to play, they discover that the game doesn't just stay in their computers, editing reality itself -- and that there is a lot more at stake than just points. But to be honest, this summary doesn't do the story justice. It has far more depth than what that implies, and reaches a level of epic that would leave most films envious.

Which isn't to say that it doesn't have its problems. When HomeStuck began, the author was still best known for Problem Sleuth, and his fans were expecting this new series to consist of the same kind of meandering absurdity. In order to transition over, it began in the same style, with the end result being that the comic isn't really interesting until the plot starts to kick into high gear at the end of the first act (Hell, the author himself actually summarized the entirety of Act 1 as "doo dee doo dee doo oh shit meteors"). From there, the plot and writing starts getting better and better -- and since then has continued to reach higher and higher heights of quality, even when it seems that it can't get more awesome.

I'll admit that I might be overly effusive with my praise, but Homestuck is my favorite web series, and the only one that I can't find much fault with. There are problems that many people have with the comic, but I don't really mind them myself. The main issue people have is that the author spends a lot of time trolling the fanbase, and whether or not it gets to you can really effect your enjoyment of the series.

What I'm about

In this day and age, the internet is the easiest place to get entertainment. There are web-comics, web-novels, web-cartoons, fanfics, blogs, and all sorts of other things just waiting to be found.

This blog is all about how to find it. Here I will present works of entertainment from every corner of the internet, for your viewing pleasure. You can expect to see works ranging from popular works such as XKCD and TVTropes, to more obscure (but still good) works such as When She Was Bad and I Am Triangles. In between, expect some discussion about their contents. : )

My first such post will be soon. See you then!