Here’s another review of a sci-fi webcomic.  This one is Spacetrawler, by Chris Baldwin.  I’ve been reading Baldwin’s comics for darn near a decade, and he’s one of my favorite cartoonists.  (as an aside, I got to meet him for the first time this past weekend at NEWW, but the details of that event will be in a different post).

Chris has done a number of comic strips in the past, the two major ones being Bruno and Little Dee (which are each currently being rerun with commentary).  Spacetrawler is different in that it’s a graphic novel being posted one page at a time rather than a single strip each day (which can stand alone even if part of a longer storyline).  The plot in Spacetrawler concerns a half dozen Earthlings who are enlisted (kidnapped, really) by aliens to help free an exploited species known as the Eebs.  Nogg, the captain of the ship and leader of this mission, has an elaborate plan – with which things keep going wrong.

This is another comic in which I really enjoy the alien designs.  Some of them are patterned after Earth animals, but others are imaginative.  What’s also great about Spacetrawler is that Baldwin infuses it with serious politics and conflict, as well as with wacky humor (the sense of humor here is similar to that in Little Dee, though aimed at a more adult audience).  He’s always been able to mix comedy, drama, and tragedy in effective ways in his comics.

This is another series with very distinct characters – humans, other species, and robots – with one of the neat (and very funny) things being the different ways in which each human reacts to their newly expanded reality.

If you read only one of the comics I’ve recommended so far this month, I’d advise that it be Spacetrawler.