Grinding down the point?

(From Pointless. Click on image to see full-sized image.)

It seems these days everyone wants to try their hand at creating a web comic. There are tens of thousands of comics out there, with art that ranges from absolutely pathetic to stuff that makes me weep in envy, and storylines that range from nonsensical to epic in nature. So when I first started reading Pointless (thanks to the 3x Grind) I was expecting a comic that was, to be honest, pointless. I expected a gag-a-day strip that I'd glance through and probably not be too interested in. I'd read a couple other strips that sort of fit that range (though they're fine strips in what they are working at... just not what I find interesting).

I quickly found that my expectations were wrong. While I'm still unsure of the ahem point of the title, Pointless is instead a strange mix of science fiction and epic storytelling, with all the classic signs of a heroine who will undoubtedly be doing big things in the world-saving genre. (The title may have to do with other strips in the archives - there are "graveyard" strips in the Extras section.)

We start out with our heroine, Cam, almost falling out of her bedroom because half of it is missing. I mean, it was like an explosion took out half the building, but leaving no debris or the like... and leaving black spires reaching across the landscape. Her wise-cracking brother, Ash, is in the next room, and for no real reason outside the fact he's lazy and unwilling to help her see what's going on, she literally kicks him out of the building. (He survives just fine, by the way. It's a bit of a drop, but I guess shadow-stuff is soft or something like that.)

Cam actually thinks twice about it and goes after her brother. Or tries to. After the obligatory fight against strange shadow-demons (and Cam being rescued by blue-haired, pink-glasses chap with a sword) (she comments on the sword, as they're not exactly in common use these days), the world resets. And things get strange from there.

Yes, things get strange. We've had the world ripped in half and then put back together, an ominous villain in the background, and things are just starting to get odd here. It seems that Ash is part of a secret organization which has several goals, one of which is to fight the shadow things. Cam ends up getting involved as well, but rather than training her (though considering her short temper and apparent physical strength, perhaps they just didn't want to anger her too much) they send her out on the field.

I suppose it's one of those trial by fire things.

Pointless seems to suffer from a couple of problems. First, I'm not entirely sure that Michael Derenge has fully mapped out the comic, or even thought things through. He has an idea of where things are going, sure. But the strips can seem a bit disjointed at times, and the reader can be left as confused as Cam is (though that may be deliberate, as it was in Malakhim's first chapter, when Ben (and the audience) were unsure of what was going on). Still, we're in Chapter 3 of the comic and halfway through I've no real idea of what's going on. (I've a guess or two, but I'm not certain.)

The second problem has to do with Michael's panel setup, though it's nothing major. Still, I have to think that if he just stuck with a certain format, it would make it easier for him to update (though he's yet to miss an update for the 3x Grind). Also, recently several strips have gone up uncolored... and it's surprising how hard it is to determine which character is which without color. I guess I'm used to pinkish hair to track Cam by. Going with a more set panel size (which probably means storyboarding the comic in advance to know what can be put in each update) would likely help with the coloring.

But again, these are minor gripes. While confusing at times, the comic is definitely good, and is something I'm going to continue to follow. I just hope if it ends up missing an update in the 3x Grind that Michael will continue updating, rather than skipping most of a month as happened back in May.

One thing does confuse me, however, and that's why the villains seem so reluctant to kill. The first major shadow-creature that was encountered in Chapter 2 was quite blatant about it; it would only attack the people there if they got in its way of its goal. Even when attacked, it didn't use lethal force when it would have been the easiest way to end the nuisance attacks. Likewise, in the recent encounter (though these villains appear human), the baddies seem to be trying to suppress the heroes rather than kill them. (Though the sniper did have one of the good guys directly in the scope, so I'm unsure if Cam's pushing him to one side saved his life or just kept him from being hurt.)

Maybe Michael will go into this in more detail in the future. Either that or people will start dying, but either way I'll have an idea of what's going on. *chuckle*

Anyway, Pointless appears to be anything but, and is definitely worth reading, especially if you enjoy epic science fiction set in the near future.

Robert A. Howard
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