Broken Frontier

Well, I’ve reached the second page of Top Webcomics, and already I feel a conspicuous absence of catgirls descending. The first comic to catch my eyes is Weregeek, which follows a straight arrow protagonist inexplicably drawn to the power of the Geek side – as much as he refuses to admit it.

And insomuch as personal bias is concerned, the current page draws out a cheer for English majors everywhere!

There are plenty of comics out there which play the straight man against the geek, but not nearly enough where the geek and the straight man are one in the same. In the opening chapter, Mark turns into the fantastical weregeek with hilarious results, shuffled into a live-action roleplaying game without even knowing it! The only problem is the “hunter” that’s mysterious pursuing him winds up getting lost in the action, leaving us with little answers as his purpose beyond the first chapter.

The shift between reality and fantasy is both a curse and blessing to this webcomic. On one hand, Mark’s descent into a vampire fantasy LARP is surreally terrifying because it speaks to the character’s own fears of becoming a self-proclaimed geek. Mark’s introduction to classic D&D also works well just for the sheer humor of it, as well as the down-to-Earth introduction to the game itself.

But on the other hand the Matrix/Dark City/Blade Runner/Shadowrun fantasy in the beginning of the second chapter is just too jarring, especially after the last storyline left us scrambling to figure out who the heck this hunter guy is.

Overall, Weregeek is a good comic to recommend to all those friends straddling the line between normalcy and geekdom. The characters are charming and engaging, and the story doesn’t swan dive so far into its source material(s) that it forgets its premise: a mainstream man coming to terms with his hobbies.

In other news,Comixpedia reports Warren Ellis’ new webcomic Freak Angels will go live sometime in February of next year.