< comics/x >
SAME DIFFERENCE
(16-chapter b&w web comic, free, at Derek Kirk Kim's website, Small Stories:
www.smallstoriesonline.com. A collection,
Same Difference and Other Stories, will be distributed in May by Alternative Comics)
Review by Alan Rankin
Over the past few months I've been exploring the world of web comics, guided initially by the list at Scott McCloud's website. And I've discovered some really good ones, including demian.5's
When I Am King, Justine Shaw's
Nowhere Girl, and stuff by Jason Turner and McCloud himself. (See below for a list of addresses.)
This is my latest discovery, also recommended by McCloud: A nice little slice-of-life comedy-drama by Bay Area artist Derek Kirk Kim. A chance encounter at a restaurant puts Simon at odds with an unfinished chapter of his life, a high-school regret that was never resolved. Meanwhile, his pal Nancy reveals a secret of her own: a mean prank that's spiraled out of her control. Kirk Kim uses these two intertwining plots and some lively characters to say a lot about the ways we relate to each other, or more often, fail to relate. As Simon asks in the final chapter, "Who knows anybody?"
There's something else I discovered about
Same Difference, quite by accident. Kirk Kim recently finished the final chapter, but when I came to it, it was still uncompleted. I read the chapter then in progress; intrigued, I read the preceding chapter, then the one before it. In this way, I read the whole story, chapter by chapter, in reverse – and it was terrific! Characters made reference to events that I only understood later, and the unfolding of these earlier events was as suspenseful as if they'd been planned that way. I'm not sure Kirk Kim will appreciate this endorsement – but frankly, his story works as well backwards as forward.
(Scott McCloud's website,
scottmccloud.com, includes his own web comics and a list of others he recommends. demian.5's amusing
When I Am King is at
demian5.com. Justine Shaw's heartfelt
Nowhere Girl is at
nowheregirl.com. (Incidentally, Shaw was just nominated for two Eisner Awards.) Jason Turner's web comics are at
strongmanpress.com. Other web comics are available at various places around the web; try
opi8.com and
onlinecomics.net.)
-------------------------------------------
[ Link to this item ]