Shadow Witch Web Review – March 2003

Category: Humour
Download Time: A
Graphics: A+
Content: A+
Overall Appearance: B
Navigability: A+
Music: N/A
Accuracy: N/A
Grammar/Spelling: A
Web Design: A
Organization: A
Originality: A+

This is a new one for TSWWR—we finally found a Pagan-based webcomic, and it’s pretty darned funny. This month is its one-year anniversary, so it looks like it’s gonna stay, hopefully for good because I personally like it a lot! A little obscure and odd, but I think the author is too (in a good way, of course). ;) It’s cute, check it out.

(Tip: start from the very beginning, it’ll make more sense.)

Sequential Tart – May 2004

Grade: 9 (of 10 – Excellent)
Oh My Gods is an often irreverant, tongue-in-cheek look at life through the eyes of a pagan group of friends. Being pagan myself, and being “in charge” of the metaphysical section of the bookstore where I work, I could readily relate to some of the scenarios Vera found herself in, working at her occult store. And I love the drive-thru “Holy Burger”, it has me in stitches every time! No one in this strip is safe from the core characters’ scathing wit, not even themselves. You must have a good sense of humor about yourself to appreciate it (and being at least familiar with pagan practices helps, but is not entirley necessary). Frankly, fundamentalists will not want to read this. But even my Catholic friend couldn’t stop reading; when I heard about the site, we both spent every moment online reading every single one until we had read them all! The art is simplistic, but it works very well for a daily strip — I love seeing in what new ways Balaris can find to put his Fisher-Price-like character designs to use. Someone publish this stuff in a collection, will you?

Written: April 21, 2003
Published: May 1, 2003
By Wolfen Moondaughter

Sequential Tart – February 2004

Grade: 7 (or 8, if your Pagan) (of 10 – Excellent)

While I love everyone at Tart, Wolfen Moondaughter and I are sort of on the same wavelength when it comes to certain values. While she’s a pagan and I’m a liberal Christian with pagan leanings, we both have a sense of humor about our spiritualism and the world around us. So, when Wolfie started saying Oh My Gods was funny, I decided to check it out. Well, add to that the fact that I write an irreverent web comic of my own about magic and mythology called Gun Street Girl, maybe I also looked at Oh My Gods because I wanted to check out the competition. Whatever my motivations, I’m glad I did, as it’s a really cute comic strip with just the right amount of sugar and spice. Oh My Gods is sort of Peanuts for Pagans. It’s a sweet slice of life comic that those up on their new age lore will find very pleasing and amusing indeed. While the strips are more smile making than laugh out loud hilarious, there’s an intelligence here, as well as a sense of humor that comes from really knowing human nature. Unlike Wolfie, I didn’t find the comic to be irreverent at all. I just thought it was an equal opportunity parody of a lot of different lines of religious thought. The new age is no safer from parody here than fundamentalist Christians are. Since I’m a certified Reiki master, I find the jokes about Reiki to be especially funny. It’s this quality of being able to laugh at all religions with an understanding of human foibles that makes the strip fun and funny instead of elitist holier-than-thou crap. We smile at our own foibles as well as those of others because we’re all flawed and imperfect. Oh My Gods may claim to be about the powers that be, but it’s really about we, the people, down here on earth.

One warning, though. You may lose an afternoon to its archives. I know I did.

If you’re a pagan or have pagan pals, you’d probably give this series an eight. For the rest of the world, who might not understand all the jokes, I give it a seven.

Written: January 12, 2004
Published: February 1, 2004
By Barb Lien-Cooper

KU-2 – October 2004

Weekly Plug: In keeping with the holiday season, I wanted to send a shout out to one of the few daily webcomics I make it a point to read: Oh My Gods! by Shivian Montar Balaris. It’s a very funny pagan-centric strip that pokes fun at religion, tradition, superstition, icons, and most importantly, itself. Just a damned funny read. Treat yourself to some Samhain sweets over at Shivian’s!

Awards