So, I've always had a sort of 'meh' attitude towards webcomics. I thought they were pretty much all like Penny Arcade and Ctrl + Alt + Del. Funny in their own way, but really nothing beyond that.
Then I started reading some by Gisele Lagace (I'd link it but some of the stuff is mildly NSFW). These were still focused on humor, but they had consistent characters and story arcs. Still not fantastic, but enough for me eventually work my way through all the series up to the present.
And then I found one of Lagace's first works which she primarily just did art for: Penny & Aggie. And then I proceeded to read the entire thing (all 1200+ strips of it). In one night.
Holy crunchberries. What starts out as a simple strip about two high school girls who hate each other turns into a series of stories confronting themes of (among others) Tolerance (racial/religious/sexual), social responsibility, psychological disorders, rape, attempted murder, suicide, and in the epilogue (yeah they actually have an epilogue) the transitory nature of life in general.
My favorite example is what happens with a particular character that is built up to be "the perfect guy". Imma slap this in a spoiler just in case you want to read the strip (and you should). It's not a huge spoiler, certainly not even in the top 10 surprises the strip has, so I still encourage you to read it.
When I finally finished the series, I felt something I didn't expect when I started reading it.
I felt that bittersweet after glow that I get after reading a good book. Pleased to see it reach the conclusion, but sad to see the characters move on. Wanting to keep them but knowing all good things must end.
AND THIS IS A WEBCOMIC???
I wasn't expecting that.
It just goes to show that you can't judge a story by the medium it's presented in. A good story will enrich your life no matter how you experience it.
Here's a link to the stip if you want it: http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=1
Just bear in mind the series doesn't start dealing with the really heavy stuff until about 200-300 strips in. It's still pretty good before that, though, and the early stuff helps put a lot of the later stuff into context.
Then I started reading some by Gisele Lagace (I'd link it but some of the stuff is mildly NSFW). These were still focused on humor, but they had consistent characters and story arcs. Still not fantastic, but enough for me eventually work my way through all the series up to the present.
And then I found one of Lagace's first works which she primarily just did art for: Penny & Aggie. And then I proceeded to read the entire thing (all 1200+ strips of it). In one night.
Holy crunchberries. What starts out as a simple strip about two high school girls who hate each other turns into a series of stories confronting themes of (among others) Tolerance (racial/religious/sexual), social responsibility, psychological disorders, rape, attempted murder, suicide, and in the epilogue (yeah they actually have an epilogue) the transitory nature of life in general.
My favorite example is what happens with a particular character that is built up to be "the perfect guy". Imma slap this in a spoiler just in case you want to read the strip (and you should). It's not a huge spoiler, certainly not even in the top 10 surprises the strip has, so I still encourage you to read it.
A certain character, we'll just call him 'M', is built up for about half the series to be the Perfect guy. He's handsome, athletic, sensitive, confident, etc. Half the main characters at one point or another have a thing for him.
He even has the 'troubled' thing going for him as he has problems with his mother (this will be important later), but it doesn't seem to negatively impact his personality. He seems to be coping. So yeah, pretty much Edward, but with less sparkle.
M ends up in a relationship with a girl who may not be the best suited to him. She's manipulative, aggressive, and, as things turn out, borderline downright evil. He stays with her, though, because, as he claims, he has a lot of respect for where she came from, and he can see she's trying to be a better person. At least that's what she tells him.
He is able to stand up to her though, and does so on several occasions when she pressures him for sex (this will also be important later). You even get to see her internal struggle at times as she battles with her self, because she, as she herself puts it, doesn't deserve him.
Well, one of the main characters falls for him (near the start of the strip, actually) and so you think you know how it will end up (he realizes his girlfriend is bad and ditches her for the main character).
But you're wrong. Oh, so wrong.
When the main character (who is one of his close friends) finally confronts M about his girlfriend and suggests that she (his girlfriend) was behind a recent string of acts that are bordering on criminal, he doesn't believe it. He says he knows her too well.
...and then he says something odd. He says that she's provided him with a relationship more secure than anyone else has offered (THIS IS IMPORTANT).
The main character then, haltingly, admits to being completely head over heels for him, and has been for a while. This would be the point you think the story turns into your typical romance. You know how it goes: He pauses. Looks into her eyes. Then pulls her into a tender embrace.
That doesn't happen.
M gets as far as looking into her eyes, then proceeds to verbally rip her to shreds. He goes so far as to accuse her of trying to place a wedge between him and his girlfriend for her own purposes. He then says what is, and he knows it is, the most hurtful thing he can say to her. With that, he turns and walks away, leaving her crying on the sidewalk.
...
WHAT?!
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
This was supposed to be the EDWARD character. This is the one character that has been nice to EVERYONE. The one character that doesn't seem to have any flaws. Why would he do that??
The answer? Because the author is the most badass drama writer I've seen.
Suddenly, with this brazen display of cruelty, M's stone facade of being "Mr. Perfect" comes crashing down. At this point the reader has to stop and really think about everything M stood for. Everything he said. Everything that troubles him. And when they do they realize something.
M hasn't been "Mr. Perfect" naturally. He's been doing it to because of those troubles with his mother we talked about. To make a long story short, his mother is portrayed as one of those slutty girls who never wanted to grow up. She goes from relationship to relationship. Treats sex casually. And basically tries to constantly get her own way.
You know THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT M ACTS LIKE! Suddenly, M's entire character makes sense.
He doesn't refrain from sex because he thinks it's sacred or anything. He does it because his mother treats it so casually.
He isn't selfless because of some inner virtue. He does it to prove he's better than his mother.
He doesn't cling to a his relationship because he can see the good (that isn't actually there) in his partner. He does it because of how many relationships his mother has been through.
He's not really even mature. He just wants to be that way because his mother doesn't want to grow up.
He's constructed a facsimile of what he wants to be and what he wants his life to be like based entirely on rebelling against his mother. The problem is he's done it so well, and in such a socially acceptable way, that he believes it.
So when he lashes out at the main character, it isn't because of what she said or did. It's because facing the truth would mean ripping a hole in that facade. It would mean he's not as grown up as he likes to think. It would mean facing the fact that he's in a bad relationship. It would mean, in essence, facing the fact that his facade is just that. That the inner child is still there, just playing at being a grown up.
And he reacts just like a child would. Lashing out at the person trying to help him. The one person trying to show him the truth. The one person who might have accepted it.
This is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the series (and there are more than a few of those), not only because the main character has had her heart ripped up by the one person she just wanted acceptance from, but also because of M.
It show us for the first time, just how tortured he is. It shows us how hard he's trying to do right, for all the wrong reasons, and just how much growing up he still has to do.
One of the few problems I have with the series is how it handles M after this. He pretty much just disappears. After finally discovering the truth about his girlfriend and apologizing (kind of) to the main character (who basically tells him, understandably, that she probably will never be able to forgive him completely), he just kind of disappears. He's pops up later in the strip in tangential ways, but we never actually get to see him deal with this stuff. It's merely said in the epilogue that he still dealing with his issues.
Personally, after pulling something like that, I'd like to see it taken to it's conclusion. I guess I can see why they didn't. He was only important to the story because of the main character's affections for him. After he destroyed those, he really served no purpose.
Still would have been nice to see the fallout as it were, though.
He even has the 'troubled' thing going for him as he has problems with his mother (this will be important later), but it doesn't seem to negatively impact his personality. He seems to be coping. So yeah, pretty much Edward, but with less sparkle.
M ends up in a relationship with a girl who may not be the best suited to him. She's manipulative, aggressive, and, as things turn out, borderline downright evil. He stays with her, though, because, as he claims, he has a lot of respect for where she came from, and he can see she's trying to be a better person. At least that's what she tells him.
He is able to stand up to her though, and does so on several occasions when she pressures him for sex (this will also be important later). You even get to see her internal struggle at times as she battles with her self, because she, as she herself puts it, doesn't deserve him.
Well, one of the main characters falls for him (near the start of the strip, actually) and so you think you know how it will end up (he realizes his girlfriend is bad and ditches her for the main character).
But you're wrong. Oh, so wrong.
When the main character (who is one of his close friends) finally confronts M about his girlfriend and suggests that she (his girlfriend) was behind a recent string of acts that are bordering on criminal, he doesn't believe it. He says he knows her too well.
...and then he says something odd. He says that she's provided him with a relationship more secure than anyone else has offered (THIS IS IMPORTANT).
The main character then, haltingly, admits to being completely head over heels for him, and has been for a while. This would be the point you think the story turns into your typical romance. You know how it goes: He pauses. Looks into her eyes. Then pulls her into a tender embrace.
That doesn't happen.
M gets as far as looking into her eyes, then proceeds to verbally rip her to shreds. He goes so far as to accuse her of trying to place a wedge between him and his girlfriend for her own purposes. He then says what is, and he knows it is, the most hurtful thing he can say to her. With that, he turns and walks away, leaving her crying on the sidewalk.
...
WHAT?!
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
This was supposed to be the EDWARD character. This is the one character that has been nice to EVERYONE. The one character that doesn't seem to have any flaws. Why would he do that??
The answer? Because the author is the most badass drama writer I've seen.
Suddenly, with this brazen display of cruelty, M's stone facade of being "Mr. Perfect" comes crashing down. At this point the reader has to stop and really think about everything M stood for. Everything he said. Everything that troubles him. And when they do they realize something.
M hasn't been "Mr. Perfect" naturally. He's been doing it to because of those troubles with his mother we talked about. To make a long story short, his mother is portrayed as one of those slutty girls who never wanted to grow up. She goes from relationship to relationship. Treats sex casually. And basically tries to constantly get her own way.
You know THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT M ACTS LIKE! Suddenly, M's entire character makes sense.
He doesn't refrain from sex because he thinks it's sacred or anything. He does it because his mother treats it so casually.
He isn't selfless because of some inner virtue. He does it to prove he's better than his mother.
He doesn't cling to a his relationship because he can see the good (that isn't actually there) in his partner. He does it because of how many relationships his mother has been through.
He's not really even mature. He just wants to be that way because his mother doesn't want to grow up.
He's constructed a facsimile of what he wants to be and what he wants his life to be like based entirely on rebelling against his mother. The problem is he's done it so well, and in such a socially acceptable way, that he believes it.
So when he lashes out at the main character, it isn't because of what she said or did. It's because facing the truth would mean ripping a hole in that facade. It would mean he's not as grown up as he likes to think. It would mean facing the fact that he's in a bad relationship. It would mean, in essence, facing the fact that his facade is just that. That the inner child is still there, just playing at being a grown up.
And he reacts just like a child would. Lashing out at the person trying to help him. The one person trying to show him the truth. The one person who might have accepted it.
This is one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the series (and there are more than a few of those), not only because the main character has had her heart ripped up by the one person she just wanted acceptance from, but also because of M.
It show us for the first time, just how tortured he is. It shows us how hard he's trying to do right, for all the wrong reasons, and just how much growing up he still has to do.
One of the few problems I have with the series is how it handles M after this. He pretty much just disappears. After finally discovering the truth about his girlfriend and apologizing (kind of) to the main character (who basically tells him, understandably, that she probably will never be able to forgive him completely), he just kind of disappears. He's pops up later in the strip in tangential ways, but we never actually get to see him deal with this stuff. It's merely said in the epilogue that he still dealing with his issues.
Personally, after pulling something like that, I'd like to see it taken to it's conclusion. I guess I can see why they didn't. He was only important to the story because of the main character's affections for him. After he destroyed those, he really served no purpose.
Still would have been nice to see the fallout as it were, though.
When I finally finished the series, I felt something I didn't expect when I started reading it.
I felt that bittersweet after glow that I get after reading a good book. Pleased to see it reach the conclusion, but sad to see the characters move on. Wanting to keep them but knowing all good things must end.
AND THIS IS A WEBCOMIC???
I wasn't expecting that.
It just goes to show that you can't judge a story by the medium it's presented in. A good story will enrich your life no matter how you experience it.
Here's a link to the stip if you want it: http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=1
Just bear in mind the series doesn't start dealing with the really heavy stuff until about 200-300 strips in. It's still pretty good before that, though, and the early stuff helps put a lot of the later stuff into context.
