max: April 2009 Archives

1) Paradox Lost

Like too many webcomics, this is the story of a couple of kids who like video games. However, it's funnier than most I've run across. The characters are cute and likeable and personally I appreciate their love of coffee, when in other places so often the love of beer is glorified. I'm more of a coffee guy. There are also lots of ninjas and pirates, so that doesn't hurt. I've thoroughly enjoyed the story and can't wait for what happens next--but I have to, because the one flaw of Paradox Lost is that it doesn't update super-regularly and seems to be in the midst of a long gap at the moment. Still, I recommend visiting the webcomic list and subscribing to Paradox Lost so you can be notified when it does update. (And while you're at it, why not subscribe to Cosmic Hellcats, too? :)

If you read far enough into Paradox Lost, you will see some spectacular artwork.

2) Precocious

It's not often that I actually LOL when reading comics, but Precocious is seriously funny. It follows the exploits of a bunch of gifted school children who for no particular reason happen to be animals (just like the Hellcats!) The characters are awesomely adorable and the stories are very engaging. I don't think I've enjoyed a comic strip this much since Bill Watterson retired. Seriously, go read it.

Here's the link to subscribe at TWCL, which I am apparently also plugging, since it's the site I use to keep track of the comics I read.

For a while now, Mav and I have wanted to add a third strip to our weekly output. But given the time it takes to draw/color/letter a strip, and the fact that we have day jobs, it's just not practical, at least without severely compromising the quality of the strip, which we refuse to do. We thought about doing one in black and white, with a stadard 4-panel daily type format, as a parallel storyline, but that would be nearly as much work and it would be hard to tell a story with just four panels per week.

Then the thought came to me today (with a big "duh"), what about a single panel cartoon, a la The Far Side? It would be free from the constraints of an ongoing story, so we'd be able to visit characters we haven't seen in a while, explore other aspects of the Hellcats universe, and (hopefully) come up with some good gags that aren't really available in the context of the main story.

So we're going to give it a try. If all goes according to plan, Cosmic Hellcat Adventures will continue to publish Monday and Thursday, and on Saturday we'll add...the new cartoon. Whatever it's called. We were thinking, "Cosmic Hellcat Universe," or "Cosmic Hellcat Vignettes," but we haven't yet found a title that we really like. Any suggestions?