To the shock of no one who’s ever read Irregular Webcomic, which uses LEGOs and various other action figures to tell its stories, creator David Morgan-Mar enjoyed almost everything about The LEGO Movie. If you did as well (I thought it was alright- it didn’t grab me the way DreamWorks’s first two animated films this year did, but it was clever and cute), you’ll find a lot to like about this one as it uses a similar style of humor and characterization.
Irregular has a number of separate story arcs that occasionally cross over during its (lengthy) run- most notably due to the screwup in one major storyline from a LEGO satire of Mythbusters. There’s a Bond spoof, a bureaucratic society of Grim Reapers, and a nature exploring couple with a husband who seems to have a death wish.
A band of fantasy characters also argue amongst themselves, though perhaps not as much as the cast of an Indiana Jones parody (including the Nazis, who are written even more buffoonish than usual) and the cast of Harry Potter. From the very first strip on there’s no fourth wall to be found, so even the creator himself gets in on the act every now and then, which turns out to be much funnier than it has any right to be.
And yes, that was Jar Jar Binks being brutally murdered in a rather family friendly way.
Historical characters are also featured sometimes, such as a time travelling Isaac Newton, and William Shakespeare who gets reimagined as a bored office drone aspiring to something more. My personal favorite segment is probably the 419 scam-inspired Nigerian Finance Minister, who manages to be endearing despite his massive greed and even more massive stupidity.
Along the same vein of comics like xkcd, Irregular doesn’t care if you’re ignorant about the topics, theories and references it throws out- after all, Google is at the reader’s beck and call. The annotations only add to the comedy, which is all fairly good natured despite the otherwise sharpness of the material.
Visually it’s mostly just action figures, a camera and Photoshop work, but it’s all well put together. Morgan-Mar has a decent sense of cinematography, which I know is an odd compliment to give a web comic, but then again look at the freakin’ title.
Irregular Webcomic is pretty much finished, as Morgan-Mar has moved onto other strips. But his first big work certainly makes me curious about the rest of his material, which is as lighthearted as it is smart. That’s something I’m not sure enough writers realize is possible, so this is an easy recommendation from me. Click the link to make everything even more awesome.