on updates and webcomic review Ethos

okay, so when it comes to blogging, i rarely post anything at all. This has got a bit to do with the fact that i actually care about what i talk, ramble on or rant about and a lot to do with my laziness. so i care, don't you? oh well, who cares anyway?

now, the reason i have updated here is because i have a confession to make: i am a webcomics fan. now before you go rolling on the floor laughing so hard your lungs collapse, hear me out. i only discovered webcomics around my 18th birthday when i was looking for some stuff on google. at the time, it was not realy that interesting to me, so i stopped looking and read some books instead. well, two years passed and then i rediscovered webcomics while i was living in a boondocksy suburb in australia. this was the gap time between me leaving melbourne , heading north and going to university in new south wales (advice to people who don't know about either place in australia, use google or your local brain transplant service for further information), so i had plenty of spare time on my hands. two months, to be precise.

and that's when i rediscovered webcomics...

long story short, at the end of the two months, i'd managed to plough through about twenty webcomics in full. these included el goonish shive, sluggy freelance, falcon twin, earthsong, inverloch, the wotch, etc...
now, why would i do that? well, i was in a country town in transit for two months, the most interesting thing you could do was walk for 10 kilometres, get pissed or surf the internet and i had no money, so...
the next reason is probably going to come as a surprise to free stuff skeptics: it may all have been free, but oh! some of the comics would have made a killing if printed outright! sure, a lot of them are drawn and/or written like crap, but some of them are masterpieces in the pantheon of storytelling. if you put some of those comics into sitcom format, you could kiss reality tv goodbye... and that is saying something. seriously, in terms of beauty, storyline, character development and the universe built around the story, some of the best stuff available is in webcomic format. needless to say, my internet quota at the university was dealt a severe blow due to my webcomic addiction in my first semester, before rediscovering manga (but that's another story i won't tell you haha!). then, i packed it in for a while... until now.

I've just finished going through a few new ones that weren't on the topwebcomics list last time i checked six months ago or more (can't remember) and i came across a beautiful webcomic called Ethos.
This webcomic is beautiful in terms of graphical magnificence (apart from the last few chapters; the detail and the spectacular drawing is still there, but no colouring!) and has a storyline that sounds like the author/drawer is on to a winner. i won't summarize the plot for you, because it is still in development and the full contingent of characters hasn't been introduced yet (according to a post by the author on the home site), so find out for yourself. the only thing i can say about it is that it deals with some pretty heavy issues. war, cultural and racial genocide, slavery, torture, murder, losing children, racism... the list goes on, and the story gets better despite the depressing reading material. this may seem counterintuitive, but the way the author writes about how the characters seem to cope with the issues is enjoyable since it is a bit realistic despite some minor set-backs (to be honest, the character development vehicles can be a bit simplistic and obvious at times, especially when the main characters constantly second-guess each other's emotions. they don't occur often, though, so don't pay too much attention to them) and at least the suspense and tension that is starting to build suggests that it's going to get a whole lot darker and more enjoyable as this saga gets into gear.
in conclusion, despite some minor flaws that will only annoy you as a function to how much you pay attention to them, Ethos is off to a good start (having made number 54 on the topwebcomics list and number 85 on the buzzcomix list as of me writing this) thanks to its extremely solid-looking and realistic drawing, dialogue, characters and world (all yet to reach maturity, already kicking ass). i believe this webcomic could go farther than others, already earning its place in my top 20 favorites list of comics in general. as far as i can tell, it sure has the potential to make number one in my webcomics preferences alongside falcon twin (i live in hope...).