Remember way back when I was musing on the possibility of Hollywood produced web comic movies? Yeah. That was fun. Anyway, as it happens, there is something out there that seems to resemble the antics of certain gaming comics caught on camera, but perhaps not to Hollywood standards. It is called Mega64. Perhaps you have heard of it.

These guys are out there physically doing the funny stuff that we’re used to seeing portrayed by cartoon cats, and it entertains. As long as you can forgive some pretty dodgy camera work and sometimes equally dodgy sound (I’m personally fine with it, since those things are my own primary mode of expression) then you’re in for a treat. In particular, the Hitman, Metal Gear and Shenmue episodes have been huge hits with those who have wandered past my monitor. Beyond the funny (and a lot of it is really funny), it’s also a pretty good message to be sending to the kids. The Mega64 guys often wind up getting in trouble with someone or other for their antics, so maybe the message here is that you can’t just go out and act out your favorite video game without getting in trouble. Unless maybe it’s Tetris.

The public’s reaction to Hitman may be a cause for concern however…

So let’s talk crazy. Why not? Jeff Rowland is going to go out and pretend to be Chris Gaines; an entity that embodies craziness itself. We’re practically dealing with craziness squared here, people! What now? What indeed!?

Well, Jeff’s little identity crisis got me thinking. There are web comic artists out there that run more than one comic. Jeffery himself did it for more than a little while. Would it be more lucrative (if such a term can be applied to web comics without general guffawing) for a particular artist to create separate identities for each of their comics? Would it help or hinder their exposure? Heck, has it been done? Has any nefarious creator been caught out doing the very same? If anyone knows, it’s Fleen readers, so come on folks, do my job for me and tell the people stuff they don’t already know!

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.

Just a quickie from me today, as the pressures of being a micro-budget movie producer have thoroughly frazzled my brain. First off, Apologies to Sommer,  Mr Casares and you, the reader, for reviewing Chili’s World, even though we already had. Maybe it doesn’t hurt to have a few different opinions on any given comic here at Fleen. Maybe I’m just an idiot.

Secondly, I’d like to say a fond farewell to Dr Fun (although knowing my luck, one of the other writers already did and I missed it somehow) for providing us with over a decade of entertainment. I was never a devoted fan, and was only aware of the comic’s existence through the occasional link from Blues News, but what I read was always amusing. Mostly it got me thinking, also after the demise of Megagamerz, how many more of our long running web comics are going to start winding up? I guess that’s why we at Fleen are going to do our best to bring as many good new ones to your attention as possible.

Not tonight though, the sun is starting to come up…

Chili’s World is a quaint little distraction. That is the impression I was left with after reading it’s (admittedly short) archive. This doesn’t mean it’s bad – far from it – but, for now, it’s lacking that certain something that really sucks a reader in.

Santiago Casares has some decent ideas for his comic. The lemming that doesn’t jump over the cliff and Alice’s refusal to go down the rabbit hole are two of my favorites. The titular character Chili is slightly more problematic. It’s not that he’s an annoying character, but his loved up antics with the unnamed girl and her father are just not as entertaining as Mac’s intervention in the tortoise and hare race or the various reasons for the lemmings to go over the cliff. This might have something to do with the art style of the comic. Casares can draw great talking animals. Some of Mac’s facial expressions are priceless. Chili’s crush, her father and, to an extent, Alice just don’t look as good as the other characters. Some of the dialog also feels flat, though I wonder if this is the work of the evil language barrier.

It’s early days for Chili and the gang, and they do have some serious potential. Tighter dialog, better humans and a less clichéd love story would do wonders for the strip.

So the word on the street is that there is going to be a rumble between Dumbrella and Dayfree Press. Man, that rocks. If I could take bets on that, then all you Americans would totally get busted since that’s illegal where (most of) you are from. Actually, that’s illegal for me too since I don’t have a license, but no matter. I’m going to weigh up the various contenders, since that is a fun thing to do.

Jeffery has the Oozinator on his side, I’ll give him that. Not to mention the English. The English did quite a number on my country, (and the laws of probability state that they probably did one on your country too at one stage) yet the opposition is still fierce.

Ninjas, Dinosaurs and Indie Kids are formidable foes, and Dayfree have two ninjas, which hardly seems fair. Hardly, that is, until we remind ourselves that Dumbrella have robots who are controlled by a monster. A monster of poop. Then things get interesting.

After things get interesting, they get crazy. Both sides have their secret crazy weapon in the form of Dr Vampire (Dumbrella) and Double D (Dayfree – which might actually be completely sane, but I have no idea what’s going on). I feel sorry for the MoCCA organisers. Those folk just have no idea what they’re letting themselves in for. Good thing New York has SWAT teams, because Dumblrella are bringing guns.

Well, the call has been answered. Yesterday I bowed my head to the great intarwub, and prayed that she would deliver unto me Irish web comics. The great intarwub is kind, and did verily answer my prayer.

Ahem. Anyway. Needless to say, I was quite excited to get my grubby little browser all over Press Start To Play. Northern Irish comics get bonus points from me simply for being Northern Irish, but PSTP gets super mega bonus points for being a Northern Irish comic that isn’t about all the typical crap that goes on over here and ultra uber platinum plated points for making me laugh out loud.

Okay. So it’s another gaming comic. I know we have lots of those, but can there really be too much of a good thing? Press Start To Play reminds me a lot of VG Cats with a hint of Penny Arcade, which nobody can even remotely consider a bad thing. The humor is also subtly less American. I find it hard to put my finger on it, since I’m from here and I consume so much American media, sometimes I find it hard to tell the difference. If you like gaming comics then there’s really nothing for it, you’re going to have to read PSTP, but when you do, remember these handy tips:

1. Northern Irish people do not say “Feck�? the way they do on Father Ted. We are much cooler.
2. “Crisps�? are what Americans call “Chips�?.
3. “A-levels�? are what you get when you finish high school. I have 3 and a half.
4. The staff in the Game in Belfast actually do this.

So it’s finally starting to feel like summer here in Belfast City. This is the time of year where it’s easier to be proud of being Irish, because the local ecosystem is no longer punishing you by dropping vast amounts of water on your head, as it does for the other nine months of the year.

With that in mind, I put on my Googling hat and went in search of an Irish web comic. My first find was Don and Doll, which appears to be very much defunct, as it’s Blogspot page redirects to a fat ugly 404. A little more sniffing around brought me to House Of Worms. It’s another one of those MMORPG screen shot comics, but the author has gone to some effort to make the comic look like well, a comic. It’s a technique anyone who has ever opened up Photoshop will recognize, but in some panels it works surprisingly well.

Right now, it’s kind of hard to tell what the comic is going to be about, but then again it’s only four pages old. Another problem is that it’s a little difficult to read the first comic, which is a bit of a turn off, but the clarity of text improves immediately afterwards. It has potential, but as I’m not a WoW player, I doubt I’ll be back to check for updates anytime soon.

Well, this little trip into my electronic cultural heritage was interesting, if a little disappointing. If anyone out there knows of any more Irish comics on-line I’d love to read them, otherwise I’ll have to go back to reading British comics.

My Internet connection was down for most of today and boy did it ever make me restless. I spent a lot of the day entirely distracted by the nagging voice in the back of my mind that told me I had to post an update on Fleen.

So then, after a few beers, I got thinking. Is this how the people who write my favorite web comics feel when they can’t make an update? We’ve become like them in a way, we web comic bloggers. Just as they strive to provide you with fresh tasty comics every day (or every other day, or every week, or just a lot) we’re here trying to come up with something relevant, informative and interesting about them. Although writing about comics might not take as much effort as making them, keeping pace with the people whose work you criticize on a daily basis helps keep things in perspective. It’s easy to complain about a comic that updates irregularly, has poor web design or just plain sucks, but these people are putting themselves out there. Even the most bitter, haggard wordbeast has to respect that.

So San Antonio Rock City now has a page to call it’s own. That’s nice. The new(est) comic by Mitch Clem has made the jump from Live Journal to it’s own little corner of Mitch’s site.

So the question is, is it any good? Well, that depends. If you liked Nothing Nice To Say, then the chances are you will like SARC and you should just go read it all now. Actually, if you liked NN2S then you’ve probably already read all of SARC and continuing to read this article will prove to be quite unfulfilling.

If you just didn’t “get�? NN2S because you had no idea what Blake and Fletcher were talking about most of the time, then SARC may well be for you. It’s still a comic heavily influenced by punk rock and the punk rock lifestyle, but it’s also a comic about having a relationship and a sucky job and, for some reason, Al Pacino. So why not check it out. It won’t take long to read since it’s a fairly new comic, but it’s less likely to suck than most new comics since it’s by an established artist. What’s the worst that could happen?

P.S: Up the Punx!