by Matt and Ian are webcomic pioneers and their second webcomic, Three Panel Soul is an impressionistic chronicle of twenty-something post collegiate life. A little bit of relationships, a little bit of work, mix in some video-games and other cultural bits, all layered over realistic yet deeply stylized artwork and you’ve got a consistently interesting, often highly entertaining observational comic. Frankly I wouldn’t be wrong in calling it a journal comic but it bears only the faintest resemblance to the stereotype of that genre.
A fairly recent one from the archives captures a particular flavor of angst of early adult life in the 21st Century. I know this is not everyone’s issue — a tiny few are doing extremely well, a whole lot more folks would be happy to have the opportunity of going to college. But for a lot of middle class folks, huge mainstays of the economy are just gone or changed in such fundamental ways that this comic gets at:
Another one is a bit more topical but I thought it was pretty funny even at a distance of four years:
Still there are plenty of comics about video games, especially Mass Effect and World of Warcraft, cakes, cats, and other silly things. There are also recurring bouts of optimism mixed in with the uncertainty, including this comic about the iPhone, which may or may not have been one of the first examples of recognizing that we are all NOT THAT GOOD at appreciating how AMAZING technology really is (the Louie CK bit on the old Conan show may be the most famous riff on the same notion and let’s link to the very very recent Warren Ellis post as another highlight of the genre):
Anyhow as another comic I read, lost track of and now have caught back up with, I’m really looking forward to keeping up with it again.
