Karen Page's Page of Komics: "The Anime Club"

I'm going to use this space to recommend one of my favorite comics of all time, KC Green's The Anime Club. I will warn you now that this comic relies on the reader's ability to relate to it. If you have no prior history with anime and/or had friends who really enjoyed anime, a lot of this comic's charm might be lost on you. Which is damn shame because it's a very enjoyable journey. Especially since it's all too real when it comes to the experiences anime fans have gone through. Who could forget that time you punched someone in the face for talking shit about Card Captor Sakura? The characters seem to be like every fucking anime fan you met or were yourself, from the overly-enthusiastic weaboos to the pretentious douchebags with better taste than you. Anyway, I'd say give it a shot anyway because it does have a plot to it rather than just "haha anime references". It's also fairly short so you don't have much to lose.

The Anime Club revolves around four high schoolers in their own Anime Club: Mort, Mark, Dave, and their newest member, Clyde. Kicked out of Mort's house, the comic starts off with the Anime Club meeting being held at the local library. Mort's choice of entertainment for the meeting is an animated porno, "hentai", lovingly named "Smegma Princess". Unfortunately, the data in the disc is corrupted, giving Dave's computer a virus. A fist fight and a Dave's meltdown later, the club is banned from the library. And thus the quest to find a new meeting location and a refund begins.

My favorite thing about this comic is the outstanding art style. It really carries an old school cartoon look, thick lines, ridiculously dramatic faces, the works. It's almost like something you would find on Nickelodeon. Not only that but you can actually see the artist's improvement over time! We don't often see an artist's progress. We're given the finished, concrete version of their work. Sure, it's important to have consistent quality content but there's something refreshing about seeing where someone started and where they currently are now. (Which is funny because I never keep my old drawings and yet here I am raving about seeing progress on paper.)

Here are some examples of how the visual quality of the artist's content has improved:

From Part 0...

...to Part 1, we can already see a vast improvement.

One of the original strips from Part 0

Compared to Part 4!

The timing, mood, and storytelling have all improved dramatically from the beginning strips! The storytelling stays pretty consistent from Part 1 and on, and the humor is excellent throughout, so it's great ride from start to finish!

If the comic caught your attention, read all 6 parts here! ♥