The most interesting webcomic ever...

 Have you ever seen Electric Sheep Comix? Possibly one of the most interesting things I've seen in webcomics yet. Because although I do enjoy many of the webcomics out there, not a whole lot of them use the medium of the web to its full potential. It's mostly either page after page of the usual folio format, or the classic horizontal strips that's been transmitted to us by generations of newspaper cartoonists. Nothing wrong with that as such. But paper will do just as well for these forms and being on the web really only means that it's easily accessible.

The case of Electric Sheep was slightly different mostly because of the vision of an artist, one Patrick Forley. Scott McCloud had explained in his serie I CAN'T STOP THINKING the kind of tools a comic artist could develop for a web based comics. Those were the first ideas of that kind and they showed much promise, it's worth reading, even though it might seem a bit dated. Other artists came up with different approaches that permitted to expand on the idea of the page in comics, to create interactivity, to explore new storytelling techniques, but they were few: just like all the other artforms, comics were challenged by the new medium and artists had the choice to either keep doing things the same way or to find new means and manners of doing what they wanted. Let's not forget the ever present problem of the ecomics of the web, were free can mean the difference between success and failure and where success can hurt the very artist who has won the 15 minutes of fame lottery.


Nonetheless, Forley was amont those what wanted to invent, and create something new he did. Spiders, his most interesting piece, consists of an assemblage of web-pages that you have to scroll in different directions depending on the specific page, with simulated web-pages included when the story demands it. It recounts the story of a fictitious afghan war perpetrated by the USA with Al Gore at its presidential head. The point of view is a blend of the main characters and also of the spiders, in essence mobile webcams, that the folks at home control and monitor. What you might call a war effort@home! The story is very well laid out, with some strong storylines that keep you fascinated, and the devices of the webpages, animated gifs and links mixed in with the narration never feel gimicky, quite the opposite, as they really add depth to the story. Unfortunatly, only the first 3 parts were published; the fourth, which was supposed to come out in 2004, still has to appear. Nonetheless, it's a gratifying read. And it's far from the only interesting piece you'll find on  Electric Sheep. Apocamon also comes to mind, a wildly enthusiast adaptation of the Apocalypse in a mix of manga style and Chick tracts that's sure to knock you out. Anyway, don't trust me on this: go read for yourself, you won't regret it. Coming back to Spiders, because the URL expired for a while, you'll only find part 1 and 2 here, where it's a bit slow. Part 3 is here. There was also another wonderful piece that I remember called Delta Thrives. Unfortunately, I can't find it anywhere. If anybody knows where one can read this comic, let me know please, I remember enjoying very much.

Meanwhile, I've just found out through Warren Ellis that Forley was looking to jumpstart Electric Sheep and is asking for funds. I know I'll pledge something to that fund, because I'd really like to see more of those webcomics, and I hope that once you've taken the time to read Patrick Forley's excellent publications, you'll also feel compelled to help. After all, if a random dude can request money to fund the scanning of old floppy disks, text games and BBS files, I don't see why we can't give an artist the means to create what could very well be the next Maüs or Watchmen of the web.