Somehow This Seems Apt
In finishing out the Transmission-X trifecta I mentioned two weeks back (but go look! There’s eight other webcomics I haven’t mentioned), and in anticipation of more lovely New England weather, this week I point you to Karl Kerschl’s charming The Abominable Charles Christopher.
It has its sassy moments, and, overall, the composition is very strong. Space is used very well, as in this particularly poignant strip, in a way I haven’t seen used as skillfully in many other webcomics. The wordless strips are often very beautifully done, and that’s particularly difficult to do. While it doesn’t have the splashy, bright colorwork of something like Mike Luce’s Fite! does (though his animals and these strike me as wonderfully similar), the colors Kerschl uses absolutely evoke a wintery feel and are better suited to creating a mood. They’re very effective, and the overall feel is very elegant.
What I especially enjoy are the moments where this elegance kind of contrasts with the characters, when they’re being emphatic with one another or at certain moments in their conversations. The webcomic is still new enough that you can move through the archives quickly, but the work has a depth of detail to it which may make you want to linger over each, to savor them rather than speed through. It reminds me a little of some of the Japanese animation I’ve seen, and I’m not quite certain of where the story’s going (plus, given the range of charaters–from the henpecked bird husband to the ongoing story of Vivol & Moon Bear–there’s a number of different things happening), but I really like this one. It is absolutely worth your time.
[…] Anne Thalheimer on Karl Kerschl’s The Abominable Charles Christopher. (Above: excerpt from a recent sequence […]
By Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Feb. 22, 2008: Hotter topic on 02.22.08 4:48 am
[…] Anne Thalheimer of the previously-mentioned-villain Fleen has posted her thoughts on Karl Kerschel’s The Abominable Charles Christopher, a charming and simple look at nature […]
By Digital Strips: The Webcomics Podcast on 02.25.08 7:19 am
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