My Favorite Webcomics From Yesterday

Kristofer Straub is one of my favorite writers churning out webcomics on a regular basis right now. For the most part, he's outgrown his early tendency toward overcleverness. I absolutely loved the giant Starslip Crisis collection I picked up at Comic-Con, which represents his best effort to date.

Even so, my heart sank at this installment of the series. I felt I knew where it was going, and I was right. Kris's earlier Checkerboard Nightmare managed to be navel-gazing comics satire yet mostly funny. But the Starslip Comic-Con sequence was contrived, cliched (ha ha! Trekkers are geeky!) and embarrassing (a webcomic that claims webcomics are widely ignored? Boo hoo poor you). Like a great comedic actor stuck in a cheesy movie, protagonist Vanderbeam struggled to mine good jokes from poor material.

And then Kris pulled out his hole card, and Starslip's plot roared back to life. In yesterday's installment, Vanderbeam commits more deeply to a passion that threatens to consume him, for a dead woman whom he barely knew. He's creating an A.I. more advanced than anything in his time, and although he takes some precautions, he's mucking around with the timestream and that's never a good idea. There will be consequences. And yet I can't help but root for him-- whether he's an old fop, a pompous aristocrat or an impulsive commander, in his heart Vanderbeam is just a lonely man who wants to be loved.

And speaking of love, one of the emotional highlights of Sluggy Freelance has been the improbable bond between its protagonist and an omnivorous alien. Yesterday, that bond may have come to an end:

"I feel like I'm never going to forgive you for it."

Sluggy has snatched happiness from the jaws of tragedy before. But I have a bad feeling about this.