I won't talk much about JTHM because I've read it before and I haven't had a chance to read it again this semester {I have the book at home and trust me, I've read it so many times I can recite some of the lines}. Written by the same guy who made the old Nickelodeon television series 'Invader Zim', this comic is far darker than this rather dark children's show and the very thought of trying to translate this comic to animation is quite silly. To anyone. This just does too well as a comic that it couldn't be done any other way. It's about Johnny who--as the title suggests--is both homicidal and somewhat of a maniac. He delights in melodramatic monologues, has nothing but contempt and critique for the grotesque world around him, and he has a bit of a sense of humor. It's dark, but it's quite funny, really. I had the Director's Cut version, but I managed to collect three of the individual comics. They're way better in terms of additional content, but the Director's Cut has some old drawings and concepts on the back as well as character pages and an imaginary interview that will still make you laugh no matter how brutal it gets. Anyways, Johnny's madness seems to be just that for the first four comics. He believes he needs to drain blood from his victims quite often in order to keep a certain wall wet. The house he lives in, though it appears no larger than a trailer on the surface, has many rooms underground where he keeps many victims and tortures them. One of the running gags throughout these comics is the fact that he can no only get away with this, but he can get away with murdering people in public. In broad daylight, even. And you stop questioning it after a while because you think that's just the way the world works in this comic. Well, it turns out the wall really did have something to hide, and when Johnny finally kills himself all hell breaks loose {srsly} and the world is eaten away. He goes to heaven and hell, finds out he's a 'flusher'--he keeps the filth of humanity from overflowing as long as he's alive--and he's sent back to Earth where he wonders what to do with his life.
And I said I wasn't going to talk too much about it. I'll sum up the rest quickly. Clearly, this is a fun comic to read, especially if you're a high school kid and you've been exposed to so much Shojo that romance starts to work on your gag reflex. I loved the art style enough that I often tried to emulate it and I had no qualms about it whatsoever. I don't think I ever could now because of the nostalgic quality.
As for Homestuck--no, it wasn't on the list. But you did suggest for us to find webcomics of a worthy nature. Homestuck...I'm pretty sure it's a comic. It sort of reads and...'plays' a bit like a game, but the truth of the matter is you can't control what happens next. You just have the illusion that you can. It's all done on MS Paint, with a style that is both simply and complicated. Sometimes things look copy-pasted, other times they look articulately detailed by the stroke of the artist's tabby pen {I assume that's what the artist uses}. Some of it is even in flash, and once in a while, animated. It's a very strange, wonderful little hybrid and it has a language/dialogue to it that you will definitely spend a while just trying to get used to.
So far...
I'll start by saying NO, I haven't finished it. I couldn't possibly finish it. I'm re-reading it and it literally will take you an entire two days, and ever hour in them, to read every page from day one. This comic has been out for a few years and it does update on time.
The comic/adventure begins with a character named John, a seemly young man with a variety of INTERESTS. He ends up acquiring a game called Sburb, which ends up bringing about the destruction of the neighborhood and threatens to destroy the world itself. We meet from here several other wholesome characters, including a girl named Rose {who is the 'client player' to John's 'server player'} and a boy named Dave. I read up to the introduction of Jade, who is another one of John's friend and perhaps the fourth and last. From there...it's very hard to describe what happens. A lot of it involves understanding the mechanics of their 'game'.
I ended up being drawn to this comic by a few of my online friends who were rather obsessed with it. I saw why pretty quickly. It may take some double-taking to understand, because as I've said before, the language is very unique.
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