Broken Frontier

Happy Birthday, Bardsworth!

Another one of my favorite webcomics, Bardsworth, turns two this week. Bardsworth is an enchanting gem, though I’m sure the familiar premise is something of a stumbling block at times. Bardworth follows the adventures of Mike Cosley, a cookie-loving high school nobody who winds up in the magic school Bardsworth University after encountering a wizard named Fizpot Fizzlebottom in his closet. Obviously, some people would cry “Harry” at this point.

But thus far, there’s really not that much similarity. The adventures of Mike, his studious room mate Kris, his best friend Fawn and high school crush Crystal are both entertaining and refreshing. A bit on the dense side, Mike could have looked forward to a probably lackluster high school career, but in the world of magic – dense is downright dangerous. Not only is he a target by both bullies and the inevitable mysterious dark figure Rayner, but he’s also somehow special – as both Fizpot and Rayner intone on many occasions.

There is quite a bit of familiarity in Bardsworth – the all-knowing headmaster, the special boy and the sinister figure with dark designs for the main character. This familiarity isn’t always a bane to Bardsworth’s storytelling – if anything it makes it all the more accessible, and while the results aren’t necessarily deep, they are almost always entertaining, usually through Mike’s often hilarious reactions to the situations he winds up in.

It’s often Bardsworth creator Peter Tarkulich’s enthusiasm for the characters he pens which makes for this enduring webcomic. Yes, there are more original webcomics out there – but Tarkulich’s persistence through thick and thin over the years has made him a stable of the community, and with an accessible piece as this, it’s easy to see why Bardsworth’s place on the webcomic lists have shot up in the recent months.

And with the WGA strike in full bloom, will the Heroes online graphic novel carry an added significance when the scripts run out for its live-action counterparts? It’s too early to say (the last estimate I heard was eleven episodes left before zero hour), but the graphic supplement could be a saving grace for a show that needs to keep hold of an audience without a substantial TV presence (at least until the strike is resolved).