minus.

"minus." by Ryan Armand is a webcomic about a little girl with the powers of Almighty God.  Its never explained where the little girl gets her powers from, but everybody seems to just run with it.  Her name is "minus", always spelled lower cased, though in the comic title its spelled with a period for no apparent reason.  Through minus' inexplicable omnipotence, the comic becomes a weird and wonderful world where anything can happen.  One day minus can be the warrior queen of the ant-people, and then the next she'll be playing with her lunch (see above).  Thanks to the unlimited imagination of this little girl, "minus." becomes a 21st century digital "Calvin & Hobbes" - which is easily the highest recommendation I can ever give a webcomic.

Drawn in soft childlike colors with a spare sense of space, "minus." appeals to a sense of childlike innocence.  "minus." does not attack complex issues directly like Bill Watterson's "Calvin & Hobbes", rather it briefly brushed up on them then moves on.  "minus" is a quiet character who simply enjoys playing for its own sake, not some great philosopher like Calvin.  Despite her unlimited power, minus still goes to school, listens to her mother, and has friends, of course all this happens when she's not flying into space and trying to befriend an alien culture or conversing with ghosts.  Typically in stories where little kids get unlimited power, they wind up wishing innocent people "to the cornfield", but minus is not vindictive - but don't get on her bad side or she'll turn you into a balloon, then pop you.

For example of the subtle brilliance of "minus.", in one strip minus is reading a kid's book while an adult condescends to her about reading simple books.  He's reading a book on the afterlife.  So then he convinces minus that their has to be a spirit world, so she goes ahead and creates one.  When the guy finds the spirit world minus creates (which includes tennis games and hamburgers) to be too mundane, minus then creates one based on Classical Mythology.  Of course, the assorted spirits don't care for "being trapped in the ground for all eternity", so they form a committee and ask for changes.  However, the dark humor of minus eventually pops up towards the end of this story, because minus hands the man his "life candle" - the candle that represents how much time he has alive.  When she sends him back home, he's still holding it, meaning that the moment that flame goes out, he's toast.  Then just a few weeks later the comic totally switches directions when minus adopts a puppy.

minus is drawn in a very unique style.  It follows the conventions of newspaper comics, though of course, without the restraints that drove Bill Watterson crazy back in his "Calvin & Hobbes" days.  The main character is somewhat androgynous, I didn't know minus was supposed to be a girl for at least a dozen strips when the first feminine pronoun was used on her*  Her hair color seems to change just about every comic, from brown to wild anime shades like purple and blue.  Of course, the other kids in her class also has strange colors, like minus's best friend, the green-haired girl (forever unnamed).  minus's main feature is a little bob of hair sticking up, which steadily gets longer and curlier depending on the artist's whim.  That ultimate goal of "minus." seems to be to recreate the world as it would be in a child's eyes:  simple backgrounds, bright colors, and full of wonder.

"minus." only ran for 130 strips before Ryan Armand decided to move on to other things, but before it reached its conclusion, its all-powerful protagonist managed to bring back the dead, turn herself into an elephant, summon the KRAKEN, explore the pictures inside a museum, become Cupid, play ball with an Angel, send a girl back to the 1800s and have her live a happy and fulfilling life there, and then accidentally bring about the Apocalypse**.  The comic brilliantly straddles the line between kid-friendly and adult, dealing with some very dark issues while being silly and imaginative.  And at only 130 strips, you can finish the entire thing in an afternoon.  Much worth the read.

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* "minus." does address minus's boyish features one strip when an ice cream seller calls her a "little boy".  So she then grows Disney-princess hair and puts on a long dress.

** Don't worry, everybody is happier as ghosts.  And the Earth is made into a lovely theme park where the ghosts can laugh at how we used to be.  Namely our legs.