With this review, Aarin’s Blog celebrates the first anniversary of this webcomic review project! Without masturbation on the subject, I will say we’ve covered a lot of ground; ‘we’ being me-and-ya’ll.

So back to the Bflod, which continues to balloon as people submit themselves despite all evidence that I rarely use it for anything other than fishing. Often, the topic of inspiration isn’t even represented in that grand clusterfuck, so that’s the why as to my selection process and why the list has never once gotten any smaller.

However, I do keep a very large links-folder filled with every name submitted, and I do click through it semi-frequently to see if anything sparks a deep topic, knee-jerk rant, or simply begs to be shredded/lauded. So that’s why I keep the list, and that’s why people should still feel free to submit themselves.

And I can better expedite that insane backlog by writing focused, topical reviews that don’t span the project’s entire art, writing, design, webpresence, genre, etc…

Just critique the points that matter.

(Only took me a year to figure that out.)

Let’s try it! We’ll fish around and see if we can find anything that isn’t on permanent/semi-permanent hiatus. Many on this list are out to sea, but that comes with the long wait, and with reviewing unestablished or hobbyist projects. I ain’t hating :P

Here we go: Simulated Comic Product

Holy fucking shit. This isn’t even fair.

Are you telling me this has been on my list (Number Six out of Fifty) since February 07? And that I either passed it up, or missed it over-and-over for an entire year? I mean, I’ve heard of it before, but never gave it a full-read.

That’s not fair, and I don’t mean to SCP, or ya’ll. It’s not fair to me. Christ, this comic is good. Good good. Great good. [/fawn]

SCP is a full-color, weekly, gag-a-day, three-panel comic that’s chock-full of socially-and-scientifically-relevant sarcasm and dark-humor. This is exactly the kind of writing I adore, since it’s saying everything an eyes-open-to-the-world adult thinks and feels, and it says it indirectly. We’re not getting a sermon from SCP, and it’s not opening our minds. SCP assumes we’re intelligent, that our minds are already open, and that we can appreciate a textless panel saturated with nuance the same as we can understand the subtext when ninjas attack suburbia over elections.

This project respects the reader’s intelligence by not explaining its jokes, and by confidently pushing the pedal, expecting us to keep up. 

SCP features a fantasy world that blends high-technology, ritualistic mysticism, steam-punk industry, and pointy-hat princesses. Those elements overlap with casual confidence. Rather than hoping we don’t question the anachronism and jarring imagery (forest bears in business suits, space stations hovering over medieval castles) these juxtapositions are presented as half the punchline, be it for social commentary or simple lulz.

Humans, talking animals, and robots coexist and interact, with robots being the regular focus. These self-aware automations try-and-fail to fulfill their roles in society as blue-collar workers and household servants, more often than not sharing some perspective about our own faults as a result. And that’s not to say it’s unfunny, or too smart to be funny, or too relevant to be funny. SCP revels in OSNAP ‘ouch moments,’ which aren’t so much uncomfortable as they are razor-sharp daggers thrust into whatever instant-empathy has formed with the new-lead-character-o’-the-strip.

Credit the art for invoking those emotional connections. Credit the writing for fist-fucking them.

While it is ComicPress, the normal navigation problems (finding the archives, etc) are non-existent. And a ‘neat thing’ about this site is the use of a star-ranking per comic, which I’ve certainly seen before in webcomics, but never with any kind of traffic to make the numbers useful. With 100+ votes for many of the strips, you can find the fan-favorites easily, which is a pretty neat place to start if you’re just browsing.

SCP is certainly worth your time, whether you just like chuckles, or really appreciate dark-comedy and social-satire. I think my initial overlooking it was based on the downbeat tone, maybe a weaker strip when I found it, or perhaps even the title. While ‘Simulated Comic Product’ fits the robo-theme and general cynicism, I think it’s rather invisible. I don’t normally bring up names unless there very stupid, and this one isn’t even bad, but it can explain how without art or reading to back it up, it’s easy to overlook one project out of thousands (in a toplist) based on the name alone. Sad but true.

Christ, this comic is good.