Welcome back to the Web Comic Spotlight where we take a look at a piece of the comic book world that keeps us entertained on a daily basis. Last week, we took a look at a comic that consisted of essentially the same six panels for the past 9 years, Dinosaur Comics. This week, we jump into the world of Rich's Comix Blog.
Most websites featuring web comics are just one continuous story or feature the same characters ever single week. Rich's Comix Blog is different. Creator Rich, from Nova Scotia, is a storyboard artist on a few children's shows and he takes his storyboarding talents and put into numerous stories on the site.
The first one I came across, and fell in love with, is "24 fps." Basically, it's just about life as an animator, contained within a really cool strip border, which looks like film. Rich has a great cartoon style, and I loved the art contained within each strip.
There's tons more on the site though, including a strip called "Storybored." It's about two animators and the strip is set-up like an actual storyboard. ComixBlog has a variety of different web comics all with their own unique flavor, and while Storybored and 24 fps both deal with the world of being an animator, Rich takes a step away from that with other series to create massive narratives with characters geeks and nerds love.
What most people, who enjoy this site, talk about the most is the Doctor Who related web comics. Over the course of two years, Rich's ComixBlog featured a 247 page story called "The Ten Doctors." It's the ultimate Doctor Who story from a die hard fan featuring all ten doctors, up until Tennant's time.
However, the one Doctor Who webcomic that caught my eye wasn't Ten Doctors as much as it was "Outrage." Take one part Colin Baker and one part Jem and the Holograms and you get a very interesting story that could never take place on television.
You can tell Rich is a big Doctor Who fan through this 60 page story because of how the Doctor speaks and how the story plays out. It feels like I'm watching a Colin Baker Doctor Who episode. It's nostalgic on so many levels.
What's really cool about this story is that it brings back characters most people haven't seen in decades, Jem and the Holograms. It's a weird cross over, that's for sure, but it works.
What I like most about this particular story was the art. It has a great animated style, and Rich is great at adapting these real life characters into their animated counterparts. On top of that, I like the fact we get to see the artist's process as the rough lines are still visible on the characters. For someone who isn't an artist, it gives a better understanding for what these guys go through when putting together a piece.
Overall, Rich's Comixblog is a great site full of a variety of web comics to read. If you don't have time to sit on the site all day to read them, there's a download section to download pdf files of Rich's work. Keep in mind, there is a "donate" button there, and he provides tons of free work for everyone to enjoy, so maybe it will be nice to throw some appreciation his way.
Thanks to Starviking for bringing this great web comic to our attention. If you think there's a web comic that needs a spotlight, please e-mail us at comicvinespotlight@gmail.com. I spend sleepless nights going over everything you guys read, so send us some e-mails!
Mat "Inferiorego" Elfring is a comedian, writer, and host of the internet show no one watches, Barely Watchable. Follow him on Twitter: @inferiorego