Sequential Art

 Sequential Art

A webcomic by Phillip M Jackson

What's it about?
It's a webcomic that started out slice of life-ish, then branched out more unusual topics like aliens and laboratory testing of intelligent scientist squirrels.  It about a group of people, Art (an artist),  Kat (a cat and photographer), Pip (a penguin, makes his money by buying and selling on Ebuy), Scarlet (a squirrel with a very short attention span), the denizens (black blobs) and Leonard/Ducky (a platypus).

It's told in strip format, with a gag in each instalment and it's British.


What's good about it?
After being introduced to it via the boyfriend I read the entire thing today in about 5 hours.  Usually I get bored with just one thing, but not this.  Many many times it had me giggling and pointing at the screen in appreciation.  I think it's a hoot.  Some of the jokes are visual based, sort of slapstick, for example this one concerning the making of pancakes, but many others hint at the humour happening off panel, where the joke is developed in the reader's imagination, for example this one on the terrors of bathroom spiders.  Then there's other strips which combine words and art to deliver the joke.

It starts out as everyday slice of life and then takes a few bizarre turns to cover aliens of various sorts and super intelligent squirrels, but throughout it all is an emphasis on humour and story telling.  Although many of the strips can stand alone it would be best to read it from the start, as there is an element of continuity within it.

It's imaginative.  It introduced my boyfriend to a new way to get into Easter eggs (although maybe that's a bad thing...).  The squirrel girls are adorable and Leonard/Ducky the Platypus is a fine addition to comic characters.  he came in a mystery box that Kat bought off Ebuy.

What's bad about it?
I thoroughly enjoyed this and do not have a bad word to say against it.

What's the art like?
Considering it's been going since 2005, as I was reading it I didn't feel that the art had changed that much.  Then I compared the first strip with later ones, and uh, it has changed quite a bit.  Art's eyebrows have become more Weetabix like and the characters body and faces have been simplified.  This makes them clearer and if anything, gives them more personality.  It's simple to read, all in black and white and a pleasure to read.

Other information
Start reading Sequential Art here and consider buying the book (collecting strips 1 to 100) here.
Before you go, just check out this strip as well :)