Today we resume with Fleen Senior French Correspondent Pierre Lebeaupin and his discussion of Japan Expo Paris 2018 from last week. Thank for your patience.

Today’s recommendation is for Rainette¹.

I first learned of Rainette when I went to the 2016 edition of Japan Expo Paris, appropriately enough, but it is only through its recent Kickstarter campaign that I was able to catch up on it. And rather than waiting for it to come in the mail, it turned out creator Biscuit would be receiving copies just prior to Japan Expo Paris.

So getting my copy early, saving on shipping (I got a tote bag in compensation), and meeting the creator, on a trip I would have been making anyway … I have known worse deals.

Rainette is green, and as the saying goes, it is indeed not easy being green [A/V]; but that is also a metaphor for difference and acceptance (and maybe more … we’ll see), and there is a lot of difference to go around here, as Rainette has two moms, only one of which is a witch. She has recently had to start living in a witch village and that itself will be the source of a lot of issues … and encounters.

One aspect I like is how creator Biscuit plays with classical manga elements; for instance, the webcomic starts with the heroine being late … for the first day of the summer holidays. In a related fashion, she plays with expectations and does not feel the need to put everything explicitly, all the while being very easy to follow, allowing the story to unfold in multiple ways.

But what I was most struck with is how the story is meant to fill the book: even though it is published page by page on the web, you would never guess that by reading the book. Indeed, not only is there no punchline, but there is no temporary hijinks that fit in an update, no intermediate chapters or resolution, no somewhat self-contained part: for the past three years, Biscuit has been building up the story of which only the first chapter has reached some conclusion today² (and even then, the web is not yet caught up on the book). This takes a great deal of courage as the web typically does not reward these kinds of long-term payoffs.

I told her as much when I came back to her booth for additional chatter, and we had a very interesting discussion about the changes and opportunities happening in online publishing of comics. This creator and her work are definitely ones to keep your eye on.

This con report is dedicated to the memory of the unnamed art retailer who was killed while being waylaid on the highway, during his return trip back from Japan Expo Paris.

Thanks to FSFCPL for his report, and for the recommendation of Rainette. There are some English language webcomics that treat the pages as non-discrete story units (for example, the when book-length works are serialized), but those are usually less webcomics and more promotional efforts for books. As such, it’s a pretty unique read.

Spam of the day:

This Device Can Save Your Money And Keep You Safe

This spam is hawking a handheld car battery jumper that claims to supply 12,000 volts and 400 amps. The 400 amps is plausible, that’s about what you’d need to jumpstart a car, but the average car battery is 12 volts, not 12,000. That’s 400*12,000 = 4.8 megawatts, or about what you’d generate off a wind turbine with 77m blades on a 158m tall assembly.

Now I really hated the power generation and rotating machines part of my electrical engineering education, but I’m pretty sure this is a load of meretricious, artisanal, hand-crafted bullshit.

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¹ Editor’s note: that link goes to a site in English, in case you’re more comfortable in that language. The original French is here, at an address that is almost identical.

² Editor’s note: this piece was originally intended to run on 1 August, but then Things Happened.