Follow Friday: Revisitation Edition

I've been reading A Softer World all week, which I've been meaning to tackle for ages. Frankly, I should've been reading it for years and I am ashamed of myself. The frequent photos of Victoria (my home town) make it an extra treat for me, and I've even seen people I recognize from my comic-book-store-days.

Let's revisit two comics today: Penultimate Quest (Lars Brown) and Little League (Yale Stewart.)

Lars Brown, a relatively quiet comicker these days, has returned with a new chapter on the tail of Penultimate Quest. It begins today! Or yesterday. Read it.

Yale Stewart's Little League has come under fire for use its title, of all things. Being the unlicensed kindergarten adventures of the Justice League, you'd think Stewart might draw the eye of DC's lawyers, but apparently this name-change is the the hand of baseball. Weird. The comic will continue, thank goodness, but under a new title, "JL8," which is also cute. If you haven't been reading Little League, start reading JL8 today.

More Lars Brown Goodness

I meant to share this after last week's Follow Friday: a delicious piece of guest art by the generous Lars Brown. Click image to enlarge.

I'm almost certain that Rik has lost some kind of bet here.

Follow Friday: Penultimate Quest

Follow Friday already? Yeesh, quick week.

This week's suggested reading material is Penultimate Quest over at the aptly-named larsbrown.com.

PQ is a short comic book-length feature at 24 pages -- Lars has just posted page 18 today -- but has managed to build a fantasy world with considerable depth. The scene is set on an island which plays home to a magical dungeon so deep that no-one's ever seen its bottom. Warriors and mages come from all over to fight the denizens within, spending their money on inns, weapons, and items in the village on the surface. They return to the dungeon again and again because death simply means re-spawning. Lars' use of card and video gaming references help to put together the story's background while he focuses on telling his characters' motivations, or lack thereof.

Quest is clever, funny and inspiringly inked. Yeah, it's gonna be a short one, but when you're done reading make sure you take in his previous work, the 3-volume North World. Absolutely one of my favourite comic series.