Back For Now

Thanks for putting up with my educational related shenanigans over the past week. Finals as always are a trying time, especially when you get hooked onto the dark and foul beast known as OMGPOP and feel your soul and decency slip away as your multiplayer Tetris, errr Blockles humiliate all those around you before some kid across the globe reduces you to tears. And then you play Balloono.

Over the break, though, I met up with my list of comics to read once more and laughed at it. The list, between friend suggestions and ad space buyers and everything else, is pretty big. I had some comics on my mind that  I'd been meaning to read, though, and so read I did do.

Captain Excelsior by Zach Weiner and Chris Jones

Pedigree of this caliber, or at least anything with Zach Weiner (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal) is almost certain to be amazing and therefor doomed to disappoint. Luckily, for readers, Captain Excelsior not only lives up to it's pedigree but it also does not disappoint. 

Captain Excelsior tells the story of Captain Excelsior's family, the machismo-filled namesake, his possibly gay son Kid Liberty, his ex-wife/mindreader Mrs. Mind, socially obtuse daughter Tesla and Ron who has no powers and who nobody likes.

Rounding out what could otherwise be a very generic superhero comedy you have almost all of the characters acting so horribly you'd almost want Galactus or the giant planet destructor of your choice to finish them all off. 

The comic is dark, the art is fresh and the writing is well written. As a bonus for those of you not wanting to worry about catching up, the comic is also currently over so why don't you give it a shot.

TL;DR: Dark, funny and anything but heroic, Captain Excelsior should be read and enjoyed this instant. A+

Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew

Somewhere in my vast number of reviews I mentioned how one well done and profitable stick art comic could ruin the pot by inspiring hundreds more. Welcome to the fantasy tropes version.

Order of the Stick is a fantasy-comedy adventure told with huge amounts of text and  lots of stick art. Normally at this point I'd decide not to review the comic so that you never even hear of it. The art is essentially copy-paste or simple art puppetry with very little work seemingly inserted into it. Unlike other comics though, OotS is actually well written and as with XKCD, that makes all of the difference.

Order of the Stick is the tale of the aforementioned order beginning a quest to kill a lich and retrieve some magical MacGuffin. Long story short, all shit breaks loose, in escalating amounts and as with all RPGs, the party is forced to deal with it.

The comic works well though, slowly introducing plot, characters and tiny Chekov's items that come back and surprise you out of nowhere....almost.

While most of the humor is simple, there are a few more nerdy RPG jokes that I myself didn't get at first (thanks Wikipieda) but in general the comic is accessible to just about everyone. While the comic can also be wordy, there is actually value in the words for once.

TL;DR: A well written, simply illustrated fantasy comic that is pretty much an industry standard. A-

In other webcomic news, Fanboys, Bear and Kitten and Hockey Zombie all are back and updating. Hopefully Fanboys will get better, hopefully Bear and Kitten will keep a schedule and hopefully Hockey Zombie will finally get that ruby slipper or whatever it needed besides a schedule.

Until next week, which will be a nerdy game review for old times sake, I am out of here to play some OMGPOP (look for Koltreg).