The answer should be rather simple: Dresden Codak by Aaron Diaz.
Oh, you've never heard of Dresden Codak? You have no clue what the heck a "Dresden Codak" could possibly mean? You're too intellectually complacent to have your mind blown by Dresden Codak? Boo hoo. You're going to have to read Dresden Codak. It isn't a question of will or taste, its a question of further existence on this planet. Put on your thinking cap, bucko. Because you're in for a futurist mega-science/memory reconstruction/"gestational cycle of the Earth-Fetus" ride.
Few webcomics can ride the line between pure silliness and epic dramatic storylines about the fate of the human race. But Dresden Codak does all that - and does it in style. I don't think there is a webcomic in the entirety of the dark seas of electrocrap known as the Internet that looks half as good as this comic right here. With typically months between new comics, you can tell that Diaz pours solidified love straight into every panel, which shines with massive details and vibrant beauty with each comic having its own independent and beautiful style. Of course, all that is secondary to the mind expanded brilliance and philosophy the oozes outward. This is indeed a thinking-man's comic, not some silly bit of video game fluff like 8bit Theatre*.
The first few comics didn't really have much of a plot. But steadily the comic evolved to have a main character: Kimiko Ross, a super-hot scientist girl who dreams of a technological singularity. Other characters include Tiny Karl Jung, superpowered twins who may or may not be nuclear, and two Victorian gentlemen who live on the Moon. Though at times the comic becomes little more than a forum for Diaz to spout his futurist and pro-scientific progress agenda, the variety and originality of the artist's ideas make for such biases to be hardly a stumbling block to loving this comic's thoroughly bizarre soul. And anyway, what's so bad about us giving up our entire biological forms to evolve into immortal beings of pure data processing power?
....You know, besides the obvious.
Just don't expect a new comic to come in a timely manner: in all of 2009 there were a grand total of nine comics, and 2010 is not looking any better. But perfection takes time, you know. Also don't except to understand each comic in just a single read, especially the Hob story-arc - that will take "End of Evangelion" levels of re-watching to fully understand**. Every so often the comic's complicated lay-out will make it a littler hard to find a rational pattern for your mind to understand. You got to take the good with the bad. It doesn't matter, because any wait is worth the cleverness and brilliance of this work of art right here. Definitely worth a read. This is about as close to a sequel to "Calvin and Hobbes" that you'll ever find.
LOVE THE COMIC! LOVE IT!
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* 8bit Theatre is a classic example of how an absolutely terrible ending that can make you regret years of loyal following a work of fiction. Did you see that ending? Unbelievable, man. Even more unbelievably, nobody seems pissed-off about it except me. I'm not getting those hours of my life back, tragically. Is there anybody out there that's with me here?
** Yeah, I understand "End of Evangelion". Impossible? Hardly.
8 bit theater. Always wanted to see that, I should check it out. Anyway nice read, never heard of this comic. The last actual web-comic I followed was The Last Days of Foxhound, which can be found on gigaville.com, and that ended long ago. I might check this out when I have time.
ReplyDeleteAh, End of Evangelion. In my opinion, one of the most amazing cinamatological(???) experiances I have ever witnessed.
ReplyDeleteHmm, this looks rather interesting. I must check this out.
No one else complained about the end of 8bit because we were all expecting something really anticlimactic anyway.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this before. The only web comics that I've read are from VG Cats.
ReplyDeleteHmm, never heard of this one. I personally stopped reading 8 Bit years ago, as it was just reusing the same six jokes over and over and over again. My favorite webcomic is 2P Start, which is great if you like Nintendo games (or Sonic games; they do a lot of Sonic comics). It can be found at www.2pstart.com
ReplyDeleteOk, I just read some of it last night. The Hob storyline is definitely going to require several rereads to understand.
ReplyDeleteDespite everything, my favorite part is still: "Victor Hugo once got so mad he threw a baseball through a dog!" Sometimes its the lowest common denominator stuff that makes you laugh the most.
ReplyDelete"I bet you don't even have a cow!"
Before I read this I wouldn't have thought that a girl with cyborg prosthetics could be hot, but here we are.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I understand the more basic stuff (relatively speaking), I require a second tab open on Wikipedia for a lot of it.