7-01-05

Stranger Than a Strange Land

Some comics, like Filthy Lies, you can just pick up at whatever point you want and it makes no difference.  It's solid funny.  Some, like College Roomies from Hell, you have to read from the beginning—and keep a scorecard handy.  Catharsis, by J. Boeke, fits neatly in between those two extremes.  Ideally, you should start from the beginning, if only because you'll miss a little referential humor if you don't.  But you don't have to.  Each comic stands on its own, or at least each story arc does, and the larger tales of the various arcs are neither epic nor dramatic enough to have to ford through two years of archives to catch up.
          Simply put, Catharsis is the tale of Gwen Dahlgren, a twenty-something woman trying her best to make it on her own in a small town.  She does this, of course, with the help (or hindrance) of her various wacky roommates.  If Catharsis were a situation comedy, these would be twentyish pretty people who spent half anhour every week agonizing about hair gel.  Catharsis, however, is a webcomic, and we hold to an altogether different standard of wacky here in webland.
          First is Rremly the dragon.  He's some 400 years old, but still sees the world through the eyes of a gifted five-year-old.  He's Gwen's friend and (sort of) pet, and much of the mayhem that ensues within the apartment is the direct result of his attempts at amusing himself or Gwen.  If Rremly isn't at the center of the raging weirdness storm (and much of the time, even if he is), you can be sure that Baxter the Squirrel is somewhere nearby.  Baxter is often pushy, rude and generally seeks chaos for his own amusement.  He is the soul of the meanness and selfishness that makes squirrels reviled throughout the world.  He isn't even particularly cute, largely because he spends a lot of time in various states of hairlessness.  The rest of the cast is rounded out by the fluffs, the wild cherries, Cute Guy, and the dread pirate, Captain Funkmouth.
          Catharthis is a whimsical comic.  The art is whinsical, the colors whimsical, and the writing, while sharp and insightful, carries its own style of modern whimsy.  Rremly, for all of his naiveté, shows remarkable wisdom (unless he's bored, or curious, or scared, then he's a lot like a child).  Until recently, Boeke ran a very difficult line-walk, keeping the whinsical mayhem only within Gwen's apartment.  Outside, everything was more or less normal-world.  A few months ago, she introduced the idea that no one can keep a dragon and a talking squirrel (and a sock-puppet pirate, ninja kitten, spear-carrying cherris, etc.) secret for very long in a small apartment building in a small town.  She also ended a years-long subplot about Gwen's crush on the Cute Guy upstairs by Gwen to actually spend time with him and get to know him.
          The comic updates daily, although on weekends and special days Boeke runs Cathartic Doodles, which are semi-autobiographical single-panel strips featuring Doodlebunny Girl, and some wry observations about life. When people remember the gret Disney cartoons of their youth their thinkingof something very like Catharsis.

Updates:  Daily
Caveats:  Whimsical themes and humor, naked squirrels
Rating: