At the very start of the year I wrote about my favourite webcomics of ‘08 on my old LiveJournal and to end it I’d like to tell you my Top 5 for 2009. I ended up writing quite a lot so I’m splitting it into five posts. I’ll post a comic a day counting down from 5. Feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts.
3. Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton
Kate Beaton is the best at comics. She began posting her comics about Historical figures and talking to her younger self on her LiveJournal and quickly became internet famous and amassed a readership of ten hundred billion. In March this year she got a proper website and named her webcomic, Hark! A Vagrant.
Since then she’s shown her talent is quite restless. There’s no strict format, or genre or update schedule for comics, they just pour out of her when she’s inspired by History, or life around her or has a funny idea. From mocking Canadian Prime Ministers, to quick strips about hipsters or scribbly autobio tales, her humour is irresitable. She has an effortless knack for drawing the exact expression or pose for maximum comic effect. Her timing is also spot on, like in this excerpt from the 7 page Mermaid Story:
What interests her most are History and Literature, or more precisely, the human frailties behind the grandest of stories. I don’t know much about either of these topics to be honest, but by reading Beaton’s comics, I feel like I at least know some of the important bits. That is to say that throughout time most people are just damned silly.
Beaton also has a couple of reoccurring characters of her own invention, Fat Pony, Saucy Mermaids, and the apathetic Mystery Solving Teens among others. They’re all hilarious, goes without saying, but they offer a glimpse of what Beaton could do with her own fiction, and I find them extra fun for that reason.
Her comics are a constant joy and I can’t wait for more. Especially if they’ve got KISS elves in them!
Tags: Top 5 Webcomics 2009, webcomics
