| SoulGeek Webcomics |
I attended my very first convention to promote Jump Leads in 2008. It was in London, a mere eight months after I'd moved to the US, and so it was a convenient excuse to visit my family. I'd brought 100 copies of the first issue in print form, my friend's son Rowan, and fellow writers Paul and Euan neither of whom'd had a story run on the site just yet. We weren't there to make any money. We were there to have fun.
I had no idea that Rene Engstrom was also at the event, and that was probably because I had no idea who she was or what she did.
Later that year, Scott Kurtz started to live-broadcast his cartooning on UStream and would often take calls. He spoke to me perhaps more often than either of us really needed to talk to each other, and he also spoke to Rene maybe once or twice. We never spoke to each other, but Scott plugged her work - Anders Loves Maria. He loved it. I read it. I loved it too.
It takes a lot for me to sit down and read an entire archive's worth of comics in one sitting, especially for a long-form comic. But I think I wasted most of the day at work reading Rene's work. She roped me in with pretty artwork and some jokes, and before I knew it I was enraptured by the story. It's a comic that, much like real life, is full of flawed characters making mistakes that make them difficult to like.
Y'know, I retract what I said earlier. I didn't love it. I absolutely adored it.
Updates over the last few months have been sparse, but each one has been worth the wait. Today Rene posted the last strip - the finale, as they often say in the world of television - and I sat at my computer and I cried. The first page, posted in 2006 and read by me in 2008, made me laugh. The last page made me cry. That's one of the things that makes this comic so perfect - it could so easily have been all laughs, or all tears. Instead it's a wonderful blend of emotions - joy, sorrow, anger.
I feel like I'm being incredibly trite. I probably am. But that ending destroyed me. I saw it sitting there on my Google Reader titled "The End" and I didn't read it first. I didn't want to. Instead I worked my way through my usual morning comics until the last comic, the very last comic, was Anders Loves Maria. I read it slowly. I tried not to cry. I failed miserably.
I looked over to my bed, where my girlfriend was sleeping as I read it. Where she's sleeping right now as I type this. I smiled. I cried a little again.
Next week I'm going to set aside the time to re-read Anders Loves Maria from the beginning, start to finish, in one mammoth session. It's such a fantastic comic, such a brilliant story. Magnolia Porter tweeted this morning, "Is it too early to call anders loves maria one of the greatest webcomics of all time? one of the greatest -comics- of all time?"
I don't think it is. If anything, now's the perfect time to say it.
I had no idea that Rene Engstrom was also at the event, and that was probably because I had no idea who she was or what she did.
Later that year, Scott Kurtz started to live-broadcast his cartooning on UStream and would often take calls. He spoke to me perhaps more often than either of us really needed to talk to each other, and he also spoke to Rene maybe once or twice. We never spoke to each other, but Scott plugged her work - Anders Loves Maria. He loved it. I read it. I loved it too.
It takes a lot for me to sit down and read an entire archive's worth of comics in one sitting, especially for a long-form comic. But I think I wasted most of the day at work reading Rene's work. She roped me in with pretty artwork and some jokes, and before I knew it I was enraptured by the story. It's a comic that, much like real life, is full of flawed characters making mistakes that make them difficult to like.
Y'know, I retract what I said earlier. I didn't love it. I absolutely adored it.
Updates over the last few months have been sparse, but each one has been worth the wait. Today Rene posted the last strip - the finale, as they often say in the world of television - and I sat at my computer and I cried. The first page, posted in 2006 and read by me in 2008, made me laugh. The last page made me cry. That's one of the things that makes this comic so perfect - it could so easily have been all laughs, or all tears. Instead it's a wonderful blend of emotions - joy, sorrow, anger.
I feel like I'm being incredibly trite. I probably am. But that ending destroyed me. I saw it sitting there on my Google Reader titled "The End" and I didn't read it first. I didn't want to. Instead I worked my way through my usual morning comics until the last comic, the very last comic, was Anders Loves Maria. I read it slowly. I tried not to cry. I failed miserably.
I looked over to my bed, where my girlfriend was sleeping as I read it. Where she's sleeping right now as I type this. I smiled. I cried a little again.
Next week I'm going to set aside the time to re-read Anders Loves Maria from the beginning, start to finish, in one mammoth session. It's such a fantastic comic, such a brilliant story. Magnolia Porter tweeted this morning, "Is it too early to call anders loves maria one of the greatest webcomics of all time? one of the greatest -comics- of all time?"
I don't think it is. If anything, now's the perfect time to say it.
1 Comment
Global RSS
Not that there's anything wrong with the original, it's just way too serious for my tastes, while the guest strips happily jab at it every way they can.