Interested in exploring webcomics and their literary potential for yourself? Here are some complex narrative webcomics referenced or pictured in this issue to get you started! Clicking on each link will bring you to the webcomic itself. Many elements of webcomics can be found in each work, the descriptions below only mention the most prominent elements or elements that are specifically refferenced in one of the articles or essays.
Khaos Komix demonstrates various literary elements within its panels, including the method of story telling. This webcomic is a set of framed stories between multiple characters, each story giving insights to the other stories. Each story follows the troubles of a character connected to the GLBTQ (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Queer) community in some way and how they overcome or deal with those troubles.
Fantasy Realms is a manga (a Japanese art style in the comic world) style webcomic. The plot follows Shiva, a girl with an unhappy past as she connects with a childhood friend who inadvertently takes her on a journey nobody planned on. Through their travels, Shiva and her old friend meet up with other characters also entangled in the dangers surrounding their journey. This webcomic offers a great look at encapsulation and mood as well as the combination of action panels and dialogue panels to move the story along. Unfortunately, the work is temporarily incomplete while the artist and author work through things in their lives that make working on the webcomic difficult.
The webcomic Homestuck is a unique complex narrative webcomic in the way that it is a collaboration between the creator of the story and his friends and fans. They work together to determine smaller elements of the story as well as bringing music to flash animations used frequently throughout the work. The comic follows the adventures of four youths who's endeavor to begin a video game together spirals out of control and leads them on an adventure they can only begin to imagine. This webcomic is an excellent exploration of back story, as well as the use of timing both between panels and in the plot itself as the creator sends his characters back and forth through time in a seemingly erratic pattern to further the plot. Through this technique, the creator brings dramatic irony, foreshadowing, and suspense into the story.
Strays follows the journey of an orphaned wolf cub who can take human form. The cub's journey begins alone, but picks up companions along the way who involve the young cub in events that may be connected to all of their pasts. This comic offers great examples of using dialogue and visual techniques to depict emotion as well as techniques to depict scenery in various ways.
Raven follows multiple characters as they are each involved in the conflicts of a kingdom through their interactions with the protagonist Xie. This webcomic demonstrates mood changes in both textual and visual form, as well as using an unreliable narrator at various points such as in the beginning when the character acting as narrator cannot decide on Xie's gender and simply assigns one.
Alter Ora is a complex narrative webcomic in the process of being born. There is not much behind it yet, but it is a wonderful example of using a combination of text and visual images to convey elements not directly said. Through the use of visual scenery, the reader gets an idea of setting, which deepens information revealed through spoken dialogue.
The webcomic Grim Tales combines characters from various cartoons (especially Disney) to create a complex narrative following a skeleton sibling duo through their adventures in a realm of the underworld where their father forbade them to travel. Great examples of various forms of encapsulation as well as the use of a narrator to give readers just enough background to get a feel of current happenings.
Through simple looking drawings, the creator of Slightly Damned brings his readers along on the adventures of Ria who starts off dead. Through a series of circumstances, Ria and her new companion become a duo racing through the trials and tribulations of the living world, working to keep things together. The comic uses dialogue to express many story elements not depicted in the visual, while at the same time using the visual primarily for depicting short action sequences and character emotion.
