Broken Frontier

Admittedly, Exiern’s premise is nothing new. The premise of a man becoming a woman is certainly nothing new, least of all in the world of webcomics. But Exiern creator Drowemos takes things a step further – what happens when a sexist bigot barbarian finds his place “in the kitchen” when he is turned into a woman by a misfired spell?

The webcomic is illustrated with flare both in art and narrative, and the tongue-in-cheek humor makes things quite a bit interesting. Many webcomics find themselves in a bit of rut when it comes to storytelling, but not this one – there’s hardly a dull moment anywhere in sight.

There are a couple problems, the first being an unwanted artist midway into the story. Working with artists can be a challenge – its make you dependable on someone else to finish the final product. But it goes without saying – don’t draw a webcomic unless you are a fairly confident artist yourself, and certainly don’t draw a webcomic yourself just because your first artist left – Drowemos may be every bit the master storyteller, but the same cannot be said for art skills, which can be pretty hard to bear witness to after the superior renderings of the original Studio Boom artist. Even as a place holder, the art is jarring and littered with continuity issues. When webcomics are so often collaboration, take if from me – your members will rather wait for either a new artist or the old one’s return – going solo just isn’t advisable unless you have the artistic skills to back it up. However, the art seems to be on track now – hopefully without too many more interruptions.

Even with this low-quality art, the writing never suffers, and remains just as funny and vibrant. However, the webcomic now suffers from the truly sporadic updating schedule. To put it bluntly, its surprising the webcomic has gotten this far with sheer months between updates.

But regardless of its flaws, Exiern is a work that is truly more than the sum of its parts. There’s a lot to like here – so long as one comes prepared to waddle through a truly jarring art shift – and I have feeling once this webcomic is properly illustrated and updated front and back – it’s going to be truly a force to reckon with.

And in other news, I’ve had about 24 hours to think about if I’d buy a subscription to Marvel Digital or not – and I’m still completely undecided. While there are plenty of reprints lining the comic book stores, none of them are exactly flying off the shelves like hot cakes. It really depends on what exactly is being offered. We know there are plenty of choices already – 2,500 back issues plus more every month – but I don’t know how excited I’ll be for six month old comics. That seems like no-sell for most comic book fans.

I do think this could help booster the sell of reprints by providing fans with an advance look of the issues before they buy it. But for myself, I’ve always liked the more obscure characters – the Karnaks, the Mavericks and the Heimdalls of the M.U. – quite usually the last ones on the list, I suspect. But Marvel could still sweeten the pot by totally embracing the digital format.

I have a feeling this is playing well for either the mainstream non-comic readers or the veteran fans that haven't picked up a book in a while, but I think the vast majority of mainstay comic book readers are neutral about the announcement. Marvel could potentially rope that demographic by lacing the product with big name appeal, and perhaps adding optional interviews and commentary from personalities like Stan Lee, John Romita Sr. and other formidable comic book influences.

This is an interesting step in the direction of digital comics, away from DC's Zuda webcomic initiative. It's a potentially lucrative one – especially given the interest of the news media – but in my opinion, it's only what the fans make it, and Marvel will want this enterprise running on all cylinders to truly maximize its impact.