Bonus: Looking for Group

Image courtesy of
www.lfgcomic.com

Looking for Group (LFG)
Ryan Sohmer
Lar Desouza

The Summary
Written bi-weekly (Monday and Thursday of every week), LFG is an online comic following the misadventures of Cale, an elf bent on changing the world, and Richard the Warlock, a fun-loving guy who is the Chief Warlock of the Brothers of Darkness, Lord of the Thirteen Hells, Master of the Bones, Emperor of the Black, Lord of the Undead, and Mayor of a little village up the coast.

Together, they make new friends - like Benny, a sorceress of questionable parentage, and Krunch, a pedantic and philosophical Bloodrage - and make use of hilarious pop-culture references, burn innocent villages to the ground, and take on the tyrannical Empire that lives next door.

Not necessarily in that order, but you get the point.

The Good
Looking for Group is simultaneously hilarious and witty.  As I said, many of the characters make use of pop-culture references - anything from the most recent internet fads, like Gangnam style, to Star Wars to Lord of the Rings to political blunders - and show a blatant disregard for terms like "good" and "evil."

The characters, too, are amusing.  Sarcasm is simply one of Benny's many gifts, and Richard has a way with absurdity that makes him more just another gloomy warlock.  They each have qualities that make them endearing and memorable, if only a little kooky and crazy.

Although I don't quite understand the lingering importance of the rabbit, I think the overall narrative is amusing, well-written, and well-executed with beautiful full-page illustrations that make the comic an enjoyable, cohesive product.  The story sometimes borders on absurd, but it's memorable - and entertaining - nevertheless.

The Bad
Occasionally, Looking for Group can be strangely serious.  The overarching narrative, as well as some of the background stories and character flashbacks, can prove to be fairly heart-wrenching.

Occasionally, it's also difficult to reconcile Richard's absurdity with the actual damage he causes - and, more to the point, the comic can easily make twists that jump from absurd, to bizarre, to serious in a matter of a few panels that can make the comic seem slightly bipolar.

Although the comic is fine for the reality of life and death, good and evil, it dashes into the mix, it can sometimes be difficult to embrace both the jokes and the undercurrent of serious fantasy that exists beneath it all.

The Ugly
As I've pointed out, Richard isn't the nice, wise, temperamental wizards (like Gandalf, or Dumbledore) that we all know and love.  Richard is - well, he is Richard and he is a Warlock and he likes to kill things.  Especially small defenseless things.

So, in the interest of being candid, Looking for Group has a lot of violence involved.  Maybe, it's the local empire that's committing genocide or, maybe, it's just Richard defending himself from an orphanage, but, either way, you're not guaranteed to find a whole lot of "nonviolence" involved.

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For more information on Looking for Group and other projects undertaken by its creators, check out www.lfgcomic.com.