(Non-Pony) Dear Children (Webcomic) (some minor spoilers) · 2:06am May 9th, 2018
Dear Children is a horror webcomic about a group of high school students who stumble into a strange mystery afflicting their seemingly-quiet and pleasant small old New England port town of Hearthbrook, MA. It draws significant inspiration from, as far as I can tell so far, Lovecraft's Massachusetts, King's Maine and possibly Scooby-Doo.
The group of high school students, the Journalism Club, have started investigating weird and occult events in the town, originally because one of them is obsessed with ghost stories and because it increases readership. To their surprise, it turns out that something very strange is going on in Hearthbrook. There are dark secrets in the town -- and, perhaps, some dark secrets in the past of the students themselves.
The comic boasts a large cast of characters, who are well-drawn and well-written. Even background characters have distinct physical features and personalities. Of course, the protagonists receive especial focus.
The main six characters are:
Cailin, the closest thing the Journalism Club has to an actual leader. She's tall, blonde and tomboyish; extremely enthusiastic, friendly and a little bit goofy. She is fascinated by the idea of the supernatural, and is the one most willing to go into danger in order to pursue her investigations. She had a promising career as a school athlete, before something (it would be a spoiler to say just what) ended it, at least for now.
Devin, who is rude, sarcastic and (in mostly harmless ways) a bit of a "bad boy," is one of Cailin's closest and dearest friends. Devin is impulsive and hot-tempered. He "borrows" (and drives) a school van, which the Journalism Club has made into their mobile headquarters. He sometimes picks on Cailin, but clearly values her friendship.
Emma, Devin's younger half-sister, is a slightly-chubby and rather maternal girl who tries to keep her friends out of getting into too much trouble. Emma is also one of Cailin's closest friends. She seems to have a crush on Josh. Both Devin and Emma are swarthy, with dark brown hair.
Josh is a sweet-natured farmboy who is extremely kind to both people and animals. Tall (but shorter than Cailin), with light brown hair and lots of freckles, he is rather timid and would really rather not venture into spooky places. He may have a crush on Chelle -- or, possibly, someone else entirely. His mother is a bit scary. Chelle is rather protective of him.
Chel (short for "Michelle") is a short, slight brown-haired girl; she is highly-intelligent, has a huge vocabulary and a caustic wit, and does not bear fools gladly. She may have a crush on Josh; in any case, she's quite protective toward him. Chel is a good friend of Cailin, but wishes Cailin would understand her better.
Gabe, the new kid in the club, is a Hispanic from California whose family recently moved into town. He's a classic anime nerd, smart but not very good at sticking up for himself. Cailin takes an instant liking to Gabe and practically drags him into the club. Gabe develops a huge crush on one of their members, which means he's probably sticking around.
I cannot properly explain how good this comic is, without spoiling it way too much. My general reason for loving it is that the writers really understand how to characterize a bunch of relatively weird, smart kids in their mid to late teens without making them either perfectly innocent little angels, or jaded adult Kids In Name Only. They often try to seem sophisticated, and they are intelligent and imaginative -- but they are way out of their depth, and mostly fail to realize this.
Some of the panels are actually simple Flash animations with music, multiple scenes and scads of dialogue. The comic creators plan to add a lot of voice acting, something to which I'm looking forward.
I urge everyone to give this comic a try. You won't be disappointed.
Again, it's here
Comments are greatly welcome.
Yay another web comic! And this one I didn't have to find myself. Thanks a bunch mister ;P
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Hope you like it. I could have said a lot more about it, but I didn't want to spoil too much.
Given how many hours there are in a day, I hate to admit it, but I generally only read web comics that I've already been emotionally invested in, or carter to some of my more egocentric tastes.
Its pretty good thought I have to read more to feel one way or another.
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Add that up to be the what... 72nd comic I have to read?