Read Comics

When Marty and I talked this weekend about comics and such, I mentioned I read a couple of web comics, particularly ones I can get delivered to my RSS reader. One of the ones I mentioned is Bad Rabbit.

Drawn by LiveJournal user auryanne, Bad Rabbit is not your typical webcomic. For one thing, there is no punchline. If you read this webcomic and think “I don’t get it,” then you’re thinking too hard. If you read it and think “wow, it’s like… a LiveJournal blog…. in pictures! With rabbits!” then you get it.

It’s a 3-frame autobiographical comic strip in which the “bad rabbit” (as portrayed by an anthropomorphic rabbit) goes through life, interacting with various friends and family and pets. Humans are anthropomorphic animals, but auryanne has a nice, natural style to her artwork that lends itself to a wide range of expression in her otherwise simple drawings. Pets are portrayed as animals (thank goodness, or confusion ensues!) You can learn quite a bit about auryanne’s world from 3 frames a week. But if you’re looking for story arc or superheroes… this isn’t it. This is a “reality webcomic,” like reality TV but without an annoying host or celebrities.

I enjoyed this, the first Starman TPB penciled by Tony Harris who also penciled Ex Machina, but not nearly as much as I enjoy Ex Machina. I’ll admit it, that’s secretly what I was hoping for. There are certain parallels, you’ve got to admit. Both heroes don leather jackets, and have a sort of “bad boy” look about them; but in Ex Machina, there is this rich and undiscovered back-story. In starman, we have a long (and to me also undiscovered) back-story, but it seems anything but rich. In fact, it seems rather cliché and possibly quite lame. At first I was intrigued by Opal city, until I realized it was just like every other city with superheroes protecting it. Sure, they went on about how it had been cleaner than the cities Batman and Superman protect (thus landing it square in the DC universe), but I didn’t really buy it. After all, I’m guessing the old Starman had to fight someone back in the day. And of course we find out at least one person he fought in the course of reading this book.

We also get the whole “the good son who doesn’t live up to his father’s expectations because he doesn’t follow in his footsteps” story, with an added bonus “other son who tries to follow in those footsteps but ultimately fails because he has no originality” side story.

Worth reading, but only just. I might pick up more of the trade paperbacks, if only because I found the last story reprinted here to be ever-so-slightly more interesting than the rest.