Broken Frontier

Getting back to the Daily Read webcomics' pitch article just before New Year (which can be read here), Troop 37 is another Top Webcomicker that doesn’t stand out nearly as much as it should. Boys that somehow turn into hot teenage girls are pretty much a standard feature of the genre, especially with an audience that is bound to be familiar with Ranma ½. What makes Troop 37 different is the rotating cast of artists which illustrate the strip sometimes from page to page.

Troop 37 is far from the first webcomic to do this, as there have been previous webcomic projects have used an ever-shifting cast of Who’s Who in the Webcomic Industry to tell their stories. But while many previous attempts feel like grand side projects for their epic creative teams, Troop 37 seems to languish in its simplicity.

There’s an almost Kafka-like matter-of-fact tone to the story. There’s no explanation on how little Jimmy gets turned into a sixteen year old girl. Like Gregor in Kafka's  The Metamorphosis, we don’t see the repercussions instead of the transformation. Some strips are funnier and others more touching, but each is illustrated by a different artist with an individual approach to storytelling.

Many of these previous attempts are rooted in individual communities bordered by separate sub-genres, but Troop 37 – one part social satire, one part magical realism, one part comedy – easily encompasses the entirety of webcomicdom. The fact that really just about anybody can submit a strip really highlights that Troop 37 is a beacon of originality for the webcomic industry and one that absolutely should be embraced as such.

On a more practical note, webcomickers both established and aspiring should really take advantage of Troop 37. The simple premise offers such a wide range of creativity that a solid strip with great sequential storytelling or a great take on the situation (or both) can really go a long way to standing out here.

Overall, there are probably better, grander collaboration comics out there, but none have the simple elegance and accessible creativity as Troop 37. This is definitely worth checking out on a daily basis or reading all the way through. Nowhere else does a webcomic draw near as many laughs, tears and question marks as this classic gender reversal.