What is a roomies comic? There’re people who’ve been involved as webcomic fans and creators a lot longer than me. I had sprite/gamer tunnel vision for the first five years of my fandom, with Megatokyo thrown in as an exercise in reader-masochism. So let’s just say this review thing is educational for me as well. I did read Applegeeks before it started to take itself seriously and Mac Hall before it died. So I’m sort of familiar with the roomies concept. It’s pretty simple but I’m not sure if I’m missing any deeper complexities.

Roomies is all about college, twenty-somethings, or gamer guys that live together. 98% of the time this introduces themes of sex, poverty, or gaming and wacky adventures. There’s almost always self-insertion by the author, even if the names are changed—Bobby Sue wish-fulfillment. It’s hard to pull off, especially now a days that so many webcomics are so similar.

Then again, I’ve already reviewed several comics either in this genre, or with a similar tone: Roomies and PSI both went the supernatural/wacky adventure route. Debt On is a more traditional take. BetaPwned and +EV both focus on the family/relation aspect of couples living together. Even Don and Doll offered a sobering relationship between him and his fucktard roommate, or rather his inability to relate. 
 
All this means is that the Roomies sub-genre can be anything: story, gag-a-day, poignant, erotic, social satire, dark, or blissfully retarded. Of all common starting points, this tree has the most branches. The roots find their way into comics you wouldn’t even expect to find them. I despise the Fuzzy and OJ line of “LOL lets make a comic about us fucking hot girls,” but sometimes people nail the premise with something provocative.

Here we go: Treading Ground

Treading Ground is the story of Nate, a twenty-one year old not-so-loser type who hasn’t been laid in two years. He moves out of his mom’s house and in with an old friend and his might-be-gay roommate. Getting his old job at the supermarket back, he works with weirdos only to come home to his new prickish buddies. Blah-blah-fucking-blah.

This is not the provocative part.

From the start, Nate runs into Rose, a cute girl who likes to hang out on the apartment building’s roof. When they go back to his place for some hot sex [groan—why the fuck was I reading this], Nate’s roomie reveals she’s the neighborhood slut, and 16 years old. Nate kicks her out only to meet her again the next day.

And that’s where it gets compelling.

Terrified of going to jail, Nate refuses the schoolgirl’s advances despite his feelings. Young and not used to rejection, Rose honestly likes the older guy and fakes a friendship to get what she wants–him. It’s the most believable lolita story I’ve seen in a webcomic, and Rose comes off as a strong character, not a wish-fulfillment doll. With his roommates and coworkers egging him on, this is the central plot of Treading, and as a relationship comic it’s laugh out funny, endearing, and respectful even when it’s being disrespectful. Nate is the reluctant conscience, and it’s very interesting to see how much he can take before she breaks him down.

The art is fine and attractive for this type of story, full color and well-drawn. As a comicgenesis site, it’s barebones webdesign, having to scroll far down for clusterfuck archives. There’s some decent goodies in the standard cast/author’s bio/story concept, all of which I appreciate.

The negatives get heavy. The last 30-35 comics feature a long (if hilarious) guest comic hiatus, and a months-long side-story that I pray/hope is out of canon. If this comic has truly abandoned the original plot, I’m not longer interested. If this murderer/assassin bullshit is just a ‘what if’ scenario, I’ll be coming back when it’s over (22 of 24 side-story comics completed as of Late April).

This isn’t pro work for serial publication. This is a hobbyist doing his best once a week, from what I can tell. That being said, Treading Ground hooked me deep and then clubbed me by jumping the shark. I’m going to e-mail the creator, Mr. Nick, for an answer on this.

EDIT: I just recieved a amazingly quick reply from Mr. Nick, who graciously answered my concerns. TG will be going back to canon-Nate-and-Rose after the side-story’s completetion. And there was much rejoicing.

The first 60 episodes of the archives are highly recommended. It’s probably a boy’s comic, but one thing I’ve learned is that I can’t judge content along gender lines.

Your Sample <3