4-Player: Video Game Webcomics

4-Player is a new, weekly video game column examining gaming culture on campus and online, documenting a previously unrepresented segment of BU’s culture. 4-Player is co-written by Jon Christianson, Ashley Hansberry, Allan Lasser, and Burk Smyth.

One of the most beautiful things about a shared community is culture. For those hunkered down in the trenches of video game culture, few things are more enjoyable than sharing it with others in the trenches. Webcomics are one of the ways people can share that culture. As a community through webcomics, people can laugh together about Pokemon jokes, cry together about unsaved games, and sit pajama-clad and alone in their apartment at 3 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon while trying to find something on the Internet that isn’t a screaming goat.

The following are webcomics that help make a community out of video game culture (and yes, I do try to bring comics into everything I write about).

The Big Guns

Penny ArcadeSometimes, a video game webcomic can struggle and die, cold and alone on the side of the Internet highway, never to be missed. Others thrive and raise over $500,000 to remove advertisements from their website. Welcome to the nearly 15-year-old Penny Arcade. This gold standard in video game webcomics follows the misadventures of the authors’ alter egos, Gabe and Tycho Brahe. The website’s enormous popularity has spawned a children’s charity and droves of video gaming conventions emblazoned with the moniker “PAX.” PAX East is one Boston’s major upcoming geek conventions. PA debuts a new comic every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

VG Cats and Super Effective!Here lies my personal gateway video game webcomic. VG (Video Game) Cats follows the wild misadventures of anthropomorphic cats Aeris and Leo as they stumble about popular video games and their tropes. Leo is a moron, and Aeris is the bright pink lady-cat who calls him out on being a moron. A simple formula that works.

In the past few years, however, VG Cats has been updating at a painstakingly slow pace and may or may not be dead. It’s essentially a really entertaining zombie. It will likely reanimate soon, as most zombies are apt to do. Super Effective is a Pokemon themed webcomic that captures similar hilarity in a more focused manner.

Looking for GroupFor those interested familiar with World of Warcraft, MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), or general fantasy setting-based tropes, Looking for Group (LFG) is the webcomic for you. Clocking in at over 500 webcomic installments in seven years, LFG has a lot of story packed into it. Cale’Anon and Richard, an elf and a sentient zombie, respectively, are the story’s lead protagonists. Over the years, LFG has shifted to a more serious, albeit still very humorous, tone.

The masterminds behind Penny Arcade, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins | Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Wikibofh
The masterminds behind Penny Arcade, Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins | Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons user Wikibofh

Little Guns

KakuJomics: When researching webcomics for this piece, I wanted to find stories with protagonists different from “two dudes go on an adventure together.” KakuJomics breaks that mold by following the adventures of a father and his adorable little girl. Most of the video games referenced are of the easily-accessible Nintendo variety. My favorite comic involves a Snorlax addicted to saying #YOLO.

Awkward Zombie: Being perfectly honest, this video game webcomic sold me on its name. There is no title more appropriate for how I feel each and every day of my life. Fortunately, the webcomic is equally as awesome in inception as it is in title. Author Katie Tiedrich captures the appropriate video game settings with an impressively goofy and expressive style.

Critical Miss: As if the video game piece about comics could not even more self-indulgent on my part, I bring you Critical Miss, a webcomic about a video game journalist named Erin Stout! Know that all of her personal struggles and outlandish adventures are 100% true regarding the life of a video game journalist. Yes, I, too, have fought alien battles and lived to tell the story.

About Jon Erik Christianson

Jon Christianson (COM/CAS '14) is the zany, misunderstood cousin of The Quad family. His superpowers include talking at the speed of light, tripping over walls, and defying ComiQuad deadlines with the greatest of ease. His lovely copyeditors don't appreciate that last one. If for some reason you hunger for more of his nonsense, follow him at @HonestlyJon on Twitter or contact him at jchristianson@buquad.com!

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