A web comic I extremely enjoy, that is on a more simpler side of things is called “Erma”. It’s a slice of life horror story, about the daughter of this worlds version of the Grudge. I would liken it to a similar vein as the Addams family, especially since the majority of the comic, asides from guest illustrations and a few random pages here and there, is done completely in black and white. It has a wonderful cast of characters that help push a theme of acceptance that runs throughout the entire comic. In the very first page you can see how the teacher is horrified by erma, in that she actually kisses a cross, and then her and the other teachers talk about how something like her could ever get accepted. As the comic progresses, you can see the teachers come around, but one thing I noticed is that the kids don’t actually care that Erma is technically a monster. There are many instances of her doing inhuman things but they are always treated with an innocent sense of comedy I would expect from children.
One of the main things I value from this comic is the artistic growth from the creator, which is easily visible if you look at the first group of comics and the 5thpage of the current arc. In the first page his perspective is off and his lines are super wobbly and untrained, kinda like he scribbled it out as a random idea and never intended for it to go on this long. In the current arc they journey to japan for a family reunion and when they first see the city its mind-blowing. The perspective is on point and astounding and the level of detail is not something I would have ever expected if I had just seen the first few pages. This is super valuable because its one of the more extreme cases of artistic growth I’ve seen in a web comic, and it inspires me to go out and make one as well. Which is important because a good comic in my opinion should enthrall and entertain as well as inspire.
Erma also deconstructs the standard horror monster trope extremely well while also enforcing it in a finely achieved balance that I feel is especially pronounced and only achievable due to her age. For starters yes she does enjoy horror films, watching them like comedies often, but its very quickly shown that she has a child-like obsession for cutesy things such as this universes version of my little pony, going so far at one point to mind control her babysitters boyfriend to get her an expensive playset. Which while ignoring the mind control part is something I can see a child doing by sneaking onto an amazon account and ordering something. Same thing really.
They just do an absolute wonderful job of balancing otherworldly monster with young girl and it’s amazing.
Erma has also been materialized in the way that recently they have made little surprise bags of erma merch goodies for this years thanksgiving as well as accepting funding so they can make a mobile game.
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