The webcomics blog about webcomics

Right Ways, 5ideways, Upside Down

So I’ve been getting into 5ideways a little today. I haven’t got the chance to really get into it yet, but there’s a lot going on in this comic that I find to be awesome.

Firstly, though this is hardly exclusive to 5ideways, I like that it’s unapologetically a fantasy comic. Sometimes it bothers me a little when comics start off with a relatively firm grounding in reality and then the next thing you know there’s an interdimensional war or some such.

Now that I’ve got that off my chest, I also especially like the incidental use of sound and animation in this comic. I am fully of the opinion that we need to see more of this sort of thing in web comics. That said, it needs to be handled with care. Like the afore-mentioned interdimensional wars, these things are fine in context and, providing creators don’t rely too heavily on them, or turn them into a gimmick, then there’s no reason the occasional sound effect or animated panel couldn’t spruce up an already good comic.

Some creators might worry that using sound and movement will hurt their comic’s transition to the printed page. It has to be said though, that if a comic is incomprehensible without the sound or the movement then the creator is probably relying on them too heavily. Also, this is the internet. It’s about time we started seeing more types of comics than the ones we’ve seen in comic stores and news papers our whole lives.

I didn’t realize how prolific K. Sandra Fuhr was till I saw this article. I knew about Boy Meets Boy and it’s successor, Friendly Hostility, but I’d no idea she was doing a second strip alongside that one.

She is a very lovely machine!

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