Posted by Sean C on Jun 20th, 2007
Polymer City Chronicles is a webcomic with a long history. While the vast majority of webcomics have launched within recent years, Chris Morrison has been working on this strip since the late 1990’s. He predates most webcomic artists, too, having done webcomics since 1996. Dare we call him a pioneer? When it comes to tackling the archives, that means there’s a ton of reading to do.
In this case, it’s a good thing. You can see the evolution of Morrison’s work, which simply gets better and more complex with age. Originally a gaming comic, PCC soon ran out of video game gags, and Morrison changed the strip to a fantasy work that takes place in the near future. While there was a rough patch with the first storyline in the suddenly epic comic, Morrison quickly overcame it, and got the comic back on track. The art improves, he flirts with color, and the writing gets better as time progresses.
Once things smoothed out, he created and established a well-developed, complex world with interesting characters and a unique visual style. You’ll notice the “muscle girls” immediately; it’s Morrison’s personal choice to design those characters that way in order to make them appear more heroic. Really, it’s hard to argue that. The more traditional comic heroine, a borderline anorexic girl with a huge bosom and a leotard just doesn’t seem so powerful when you think about it. It’s not always about T&A, and that’s a welcome change of pace. The characters themselves are diverse and creative. Sheeri, who has the appearance of a cat-girl, plays host to two other entities, who occasionally vie for control of the one body. I just thank god he doesn’t treat this one like a traditional cat-girl, a sex object meant to appeal to those with that particular fetish. One of the villains is divided into the parts of the mind, and this leads to a crazed, sadistic kind of collected madness. It also creates an entertaining dynamic between those factions.
It would be impossible to summarize the plot in this space, especially since PCC is a comic that has reinvented itself a number of times. You’ll just have to read it to get into the epic story. Just remember that the first strips are some (now) dated gamer stuff, but they don’t last.
Now, my one real complaint is that Morrison doesn’t use speech bubbles. While narration often takes place outside the frame, (which I like – the flow of the panels is never confusing) the text within the panel can occasionally be obscured by the artwork. Some bubbles would really alleviate that problem. That’s about the only negative I have to say here. This is an incredible body of work, and other than some navigation issues, none of which are enough to make it a turn-off, it’s well worth the significant investment of time needed to read it all.
Polymer City Chronicles by Chris Morrison can be found at: http://www.polymer-city.com
Edit: Forgot this. The Pissed Off Webcomic Geek, a sarcastic (He’s not serious; it’s all in good fun.) video commentator also has put together a critique of PCC. Since I saw some potential in his earlier stuff, and was planning a PCC review, I promised him a plug. You can see his over-the-top fanboyism on display here.  http://www.dailymotion.com/DtotheG/video/x22ba3_pissed-off-webcomic-geek-polymer-ci Sorry I forgot that earlier.
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You know what’s funny? I watched the Webcomic Geek’s review and he’s right on the money…it even hurts ME to go back and look at some of my earlier stuff. :p
Man, it’s great to hear a good word on the video from the author himself!
But seriously, I read the first two years straight on through to your first break, after that, I just kinda skimmed it, picking on strips that I felt necessary.
Usually I do webcomics I read regularly, like F@nboy$ and Hockey Zombie. Yours I found interesting, because as I mentioned, it’s 100% story-based, and the art is very good. That, however, is it’s downfall. It was too involved for me to get into in the tiny span I lent myself to do research, that is, been around too long for me to be all caught up.
However, I stand by my last statement. If you don’t have a “Story So Far” section on your site, a book would be the way to go. Internet connections, and having to click “Next” every 5 seconds does get to be a pain, whereas a book has no loading times. A collection of all the story-based strips (not the LOL DAIKTANA SUXORZ!! jokes) would be something to keep in mind for the future.
Oh, and for interested parties (since I’m pretty sure Sean C. hasn’t told me about THIS one being featured in anyway), here’s Hockey Zombie:
http://www.dailymotion.com/DtotheG/video/3917233
Yeah, this was one of those grand experiments that really was too big, but I’m committed to seeing it through to the end of this storyline at the very least. Once this is done, I need to rethink how I approach the story concepts based on a twice-weekly schedule.