1 post tagged “black comedy”
This is last weeks webcomic column.
This week, dear readers, I plan to discuss three comics that are all tangentially linked together in what I like to consider one giant universe of happiness. The first of these comics is Queen of Wands, which is written and illustrated by a woman who goes by the name Aeire. Loosely based on her life, QoW is about a young woman named Kestrel who lives with her best friends, Felix and Shannon. They are a very odd household, but they seem to go well together. Kestrel is kind and loving toward her friends, wrathful toward her enemies, and a magnet for kids. This is unfortunate, for she does not like children. Kestrel's adventures center around her failed romances, her jobs, and occasional involvement in the shenanigans of Felix and Shannon. Her life is also complicated, often pleasantly, by her friend Angela. QoW ended in early '05, and thus is a completely finished storyline. It is about Kestrel's personal growth, the strangeness of relationships, what it means to accept change, and our fears of the future. It is a touching story filled with humor, lovable characters, and touching moments, all culminating in a wonderful ending that will bring a tear to your eye.
Queen of Wands may end there, but the story does not. Aeire started a new comic with Chris Daily of Striptease called Punch an' Pie. Punch an' Pie takes place a few years after QoW and is about Angela, Kestrel's friend from QoW. Angela is small, feisty, full of life, and has a child like sense of life not unlike Kestrel's. While the main characters of QoW are not in Punch an' Pie, the characters from the old toy store (where Kestrel met Angela) are still around. The story follows Angela and her girlfriend Heather as they deal with their jobs and their life together. Punch an' Pie is only a little over a year old, so there is not too much to catch up with. It takes a different attitude towards life than QoW but is definitely enjoyable. Daily's art is very good and compliments Aeire's writing and characterizations. There is much to look forward to from this comic.
Finally, I shall end on something extremely positive. Early in QoW's storyline, there was a crossover with another webcomic called Something Positive (abbr. as S*P). Somehow, the crossover stuck. The events of the crossover continued to come back in QoW's storyline, and culminated in Aeire giving Kestrel to Randy K. Milholland, author of S*P, as a permanent character after her own comic ended.
