Science Ninja Action Team: Cosmic Hellcats IX

A few weeks ago, Max and I decided to join the Webcomic Planet Collective. It's a community of webcomic artists like us who have banded together for mutual support, cross promotion and maybe even getting drunk and picking up chicks. Ok, that last part wasn't in the charter, but what the hell, one can dream right?

It's actually been really good for us. Aside from having some good incoming links from others sites, it's given me and Max the chance to do something we really love. Namely, check out other webcomics. We agreed to work with the others in reviewing each others comics over the next several months. Our first assignment was Capes-N-Babes. I definitely couldn't be happier about that.

Why?

Well, frankly because it's basically like cheating. You see, I actually started reading Capes-N-Babes before we joined the Collective. I love it.

Something that may not surprise you is, I read comic books. As such, on Wednesdays (world-reknowned as the holy New Comic Day), I go and hang out at my local comic book shop. In fact, as a kid, I even worked at one. Which basically means that Capes-N-Babes is a story I know. It's a story I lived.

In a lot of ways it reminds me of the movie Clerks. It's the story of Marc, a guy, who works in a comic book shop and all the wacky goings on that occur there. Marc does exactly what anyone does in a comic book shop: argue about comics, awkwardly hit on the only hot chick whoever comes in and make fun of the other people in the shop. Really, its the geek mecca. And its hilarious.

Chris Flick, the writer/artist, has come up with a brilliant formula for the strip as well. Max and I have discovered that the hard thing about doing an episodic strip like this is that eventually, frankly you get sick of writing it. There are days where you just want to do something else. That's why we have Hellcat Cosmos. Well, Chris has figured out something even smarter. When he wants to take a break from the story, he just does. So that means not only do we have a wonderful strip about quirky, dysfunctional guys in a comic shop, but sometimes we have a humorous one-off strip about superheroes or pop culture or politics or really whatever is on Chris Flick's mind. Maybe that seems weird, but his sense of humor totally makes it work.

So you should definitely check it out. If you love comics (and I assume you do, because otherwise, why the hell would you be on this site in the first place) then it's definitely worth a read. I laughed myself silly as I went through the archive. And if I haven't sold you on it yet, then I've got one thing that totally will. Marc's best friend, and the most frequent guest in the store is Roy. Roy is a werewolf. Why? Because if I've learned anything from doing Cosmic Hellcats this last year or so, it's that anything is funnier if you have a character that is anthropomorphic furry for no particular reason whatsoever. He's also a sex crazed werewolf. One of these days I'll have to talk to him about doing a crossover strip. Roy and Sarah would probably get along great.

Schoolgirl-Amaya-3
Originally uploaded by chrismaverick

A couple weeks after I did the shoot with Chaste, I ended up doing a similar concept with Damsel.

Typically, I actually do a lot of photoshoots in my studio, so being able to get outside and do some higher concept stuff was really fun.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think. The girls and I always like feedback.

-Mav

One of the things that I've always thought made the Hellcats special compared to other ridiculous oversexified badgrrl comics is that not only are our girls hot but they're all based on real life models.

It's always been our intention to regularly post pics of the real life girls from my photoshoots with them, but I keep getting sidetracked along the way. So here's an attempt to fix that.

I had a shoot with Chaste a few weeks ago. She looks a little different right now, her hair is short and blonde, but as you can see, she's just as much a homicidal maniac in real life as she is in the comic.

Enjoy!

-Mav

Thank you for stopping by. We hope you'll enjoy reading our little comic as much as we enjoy making it. If you're wondering what's what and who's who, our characters pages might help a little. If you're wondering what that floating green text is that turns up now and again, that's the spaceship talking (well, holographically projecting text, actually). And if you're wondering where you can get more Hellcats (and you've already exhausted the archive), try the bookstore, where we've recently lowered our prices.

If you have any questions, suggestions, comments or complaints,  feel free to leave a comment or send us a message. We love hearing from people.

Thanks again for visiting, and we hope you'll stick around for all the exciting adventures we've got planned :)

-Max

Day 803 - The Advent of Admiral Kitty
Originally uploaded by lrayholly

When we first started Cosmos, the idea was to both give you guys, the readers, an idea of the Hellcats Universe beyond what you see in the main strip. We figured we could show some backstory and flesh out some characters without interrupting the ongoing story. It also meant that it would give Max a chance to write some of the strips and me a chance to draw some. Something that both of us have been wanting to switch off on for quite some time. 

The only problem was that I've been so busy with the strip and with other projects that I hadn't had a chance to draw one. But, last week, when I realized Mother's Day was coming up I had an idea. 

For those who don't know, the character of Admiral Kitty is based on my mother, who had been begging me to appear in the strip for quite some time. And of course, ever since she first appeared, she's been begging for more. Well, as a special Mother's Day present, i thought I'd surprise her by putting her in a starring role of her very own strip. Well, a one panel one, and figured I'd even make it in color.

So Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you.

And happy mother's to all the baby's mommas out there. And all the momma's mommas. 

Enjoy the special color Cosmos, a look at the past of the Cosmic Hellcats team during the third intergalactic war. Come back on Monday to see Adventures continue and come back next week to see another peek at the Hellcat's Cosmos.

-Mav

Σ8x)

1) Paradox Lost

Like too many webcomics, this is the story of a couple of kids who like video games. However, it's funnier than most I've run across. The characters are cute and likeable and personally I appreciate their love of coffee, when in other places so often the love of beer is glorified. I'm more of a coffee guy. There are also lots of ninjas and pirates, so that doesn't hurt. I've thoroughly enjoyed the story and can't wait for what happens next--but I have to, because the one flaw of Paradox Lost is that it doesn't update super-regularly and seems to be in the midst of a long gap at the moment. Still, I recommend visiting the webcomic list and subscribing to Paradox Lost so you can be notified when it does update. (And while you're at it, why not subscribe to Cosmic Hellcats, too? :)

If you read far enough into Paradox Lost, you will see some spectacular artwork.

2) Precocious

It's not often that I actually LOL when reading comics, but Precocious is seriously funny. It follows the exploits of a bunch of gifted school children who for no particular reason happen to be animals (just like the Hellcats!) The characters are awesomely adorable and the stories are very engaging. I don't think I've enjoyed a comic strip this much since Bill Watterson retired. Seriously, go read it.

Here's the link to subscribe at TWCL, which I am apparently also plugging, since it's the site I use to keep track of the comics I read.

Just today my mother (who the debuting character of Admiral Kitty is based on) asked me how to vote to make the comic more popular.

If my own mother doesn't understand that, then I figure we're really in trouble. So I decided maybe it was time to remind people. The four buttons across the top of the main page of this site show our ranking on various webcomic ranking sites. If you click on them, you make us more popular and thus we can make more money and then bring you more comics. Everyone wins!

Each site has a slightly different voting mechanism.

Voting on Top Web Comics and Webcomic Planet will give you access to a different Hellcats bonus page everytime you vote. Sadly, the other don't allow that option, but still, its good for us, and that makes it good for you.

So go ahead and make sure you vote for us on each one once per day. And tell all your friends to come here and read the comic and vote too. The sooner we're getting 1 million views a day, the sooner Max and I can quit our day jobs and start working on an animated Hellcats cartoon! Wouldn't that be great?

OH! And be sure to come back Saturday for the debut of our new weekly side comic feature!

-Mav

Σ8x)

For a while now, Mav and I have wanted to add a third strip to our weekly output. But given the time it takes to draw/color/letter a strip, and the fact that we have day jobs, it's just not practical, at least without severely compromising the quality of the strip, which we refuse to do. We thought about doing one in black and white, with a stadard 4-panel daily type format, as a parallel storyline, but that would be nearly as much work and it would be hard to tell a story with just four panels per week.

Then the thought came to me today (with a big "duh"), what about a single panel cartoon, a la The Far Side? It would be free from the constraints of an ongoing story, so we'd be able to visit characters we haven't seen in a while, explore other aspects of the Hellcats universe, and (hopefully) come up with some good gags that aren't really available in the context of the main story.

So we're going to give it a try. If all goes according to plan, Cosmic Hellcat Adventures will continue to publish Monday and Thursday, and on Saturday we'll add...the new cartoon. Whatever it's called. We were thinking, "Cosmic Hellcat Universe," or "Cosmic Hellcat Vignettes," but we haven't yet found a title that we really like. Any suggestions?