Broken Frontier

Last Blood suffers from two major blows going into its second online graphic novel. The hiatus itself, as it turns out, was anything but seamless. Not only was Last Blood’s premiere delayed, but there was also an inexplicable weeklong gap between the first two updates.

As a result, Last Blood fell considerably on Top Webcomics. It didn’t plummet to the bottom – it’s still located in ninth place – but while The Phoenix Requiem has regained its second place sitting, Last Blood seems to be stalling.

There was a second update today, and with a fair bit more dialogue as well as a few cryptic story hints, it’s a lot more effective than the previous page. The proceedings revolve around the apparently dead Addison Payne, presumably marking this as a flashback, as he drinks lots and lots of vodka (a key item in the last pages of the first graphic novel) and interacts with a bold new vampire character.

The page includes a minor hook (whatever the new vamp “came here for”) but what really grabs my attention once again is how well Last Blood creators Bobby Crosby and Owen Gieni make use of spoilers, especially as voter’s incentive. If you want to see the name of the new vampire as well as a few other details, clicking the Top Webcomics icon takes you to the voting screen, which ultimately leads to the incentive – a poorly rendered storyboard page which reveals some of the inner mechanisms of the current story arc itself. It’s a very smart way that the creators draw attention to various actions and details throughout the strip itself.

Ultimately, Last Blood’s story isn’t what needs to be worried about as the sheer accessible strength of the concept places this webcomic far above the rest. Instead, it’s the pacing which produces the big question mark. Can Last Blood keep its consistent MWF updating schedule? If so, it’s going to resume its place on Top Webcomics in no time, but if not, readers could just be in for a rocky ride.

Two other minor bits of news – first to Dominic Deegan, where the emphasis is on a lone female Oracle Hunter painting the town red with Dominic’s colleagues. This storyline has brought back fan-favorite Quilt as well as Dominic’s best friend, gay swordsman Szark Sturtz, who has notably conflicted feelings about Dominic’s engagement to Luna. All of these developments seem shut Luna off in the backgrounds, though I do think some drama is brewing literally, as Luna suddenly has to babysit one of Deegan’s seer friends – a drama queen herself.

Finally, Rayne’s ego seems to be catching up to him in the workplace of Least I Could Do . Of every aspect of his life, Rayne’s work is the one I’m most curious about, as his spunky boss and secretary both have to deal with his over-the-top ego. I’d like to see this latest number, involving an incident in the bathroom and a bizarre sexual harassment claim, have a lasting impact on Rayne, but I’ve long since given up trying to predict this strip.