Web-comic Wandering: No Pink Ponies

Hey folks!

Just a quick post today, this ones a two-part comic strip from an artist who has a style and sense of humour all his own and I’ve become an ardent fan in no time!

They’re from a web-comic strip called “No Pink Ponies” which is about a nerd-girl named Jesse who starts a comic store just to meet the guy she’s got a crush on – it’s about as ridiculous as it sounds at the start, but unlike a lot of web-comic content, this does not go overboard on the silly. It’s got it’s stable of shtick, it’s got funny characters and hyperbole here and there, but always in small measure and at its core is just one of the most entertaining comics I’ve come across.

Also I found it to be a great setup that showed women in the nerd world as people that are like women I know who are partially or even heavily into the so-called “geek culture” world – I think geek-girls would definitely enjoy some aspects of this and find stuff to relate to in the main character of Jesse.

Oh and there’s the occassional tangential strips where they parody the popular comics with superheroes like “Tigrine” and “Spider Bee” which really cracked me up!

Our heroine has a brother who’s a “brotha” because their parents are a mixed-race couple and I love the way they approach race and of course she has a coterie of regular customers who bring the geekiness, plus a friend/employee named Maureen who is secretly in love with her. Maureen actually gets a few strips all to herself too and deals with some pretty “real” and intense stuff in the middle of all the fun so it’s not all fun and games which adds something to the overall experience.

Lots of nerd references, real human interaction with characters that I think will engage a lot of people with their simplicity and a whole lot of subtle chaos makes this a fun comic I would recommend reading from start to the finish (such as it is right now…). Though something tells me a lot of people might find this in the first strips to be “female-oriented”, that lasts for no time and you just start enjoying the characters as they are and for who they become over the course of the strip.

It should be noted that when you first visit it can be confusing and even I thought the comic was defunct or something, turns out that was wrong! According to a simple note that is on the site actually, this is the way he’s approached it which is actually a very novel way of doing it:

Why this comic is backdated: No Pink Ponies is a comic based on real-time, so if the date is 2007, then the events occurred in the comic is in 2007. Now, in the beginning of 2008, I missed A LOT of updates and the storyline at the time does not permit me to skip that 6 months and so I had to backdate my comic. I still miss updates and now it’s more than 2 years of missed updates. So, ever since then I’ve been trying to catch up with the dates, cos it’s in real-time and if I just suddenly dated the comic 2013, how am I going to explain the missing 2++ years. I will try my best to catch up asap. Thank you.

Eisu even had a Kickstarter a while back that I also sadly missed but maybe I’ll take part in any he has for upcoming/new collections beyond Volume 1.

Here’s the 2-part moment I was talking about which amused the hell out of me:

And as an addition before I sign off, this has inspired me to make a series of posts about my favourite webcomics because it’s a great medium to get your creativity out there without the restrictions imposed by more obviously commercial ventures – these comics find a readership that appreciates them purely for what they are and that is something special. 

You can check out the other hilarious comic that Eisu is drawing these days (which is how I found my way to NPP to start with!) called Sandra on the Rocks which is actually spin-off of another.. never mind, I’ll get to that when I post about it!

So stick around and keep an eye out and I’ll be posting my webcomic favourites in the weeks ahead amidst the regular/other posts and now leave you with this parting comic that is one of my favourite moments from No Pink Ponies!

Cheers all!