Erma is one of the most wholesome webcomics I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and that’s quite something for a comic that embraces so many horror tropes and dark-ish humor.
To start with, the art’s very well drawn. Much of the comic is in black and white, which makes it feel like a newspaper comic while also benefiting its horror themes. Though the designs of the human characters are a bit bland (at least for the normal humans. The cartoonish look fits, but their faces seem too identical sometimes), the backgrounds are gorgeously detailed and really balance things out.
The character of Erma is meant to be a take on the Japanese Yurei, the long haired ghost girls popularized in films like The Ring or Ringu. Despite this, she manages to be an extremely cute comic character, while never being too saccharine. She regularly acts horrifying and twists herself into monstrous appearances. But at the same time, she’s a mischievous little girl acting her age, and whenever she’s not shapeshifting she’s extremely huggable, and yet she’s still clearly a supernatural horror creature. It’s this dynamic that makes her character really appealing.
The comic is a tribute to the entirety of horror media, and it references plenty of horror films and games while also making fun of common tropes in the genre. Much of the humor comes from showing Erma’s ghostly behavior juxtaposed with normal everyday life, and also the reactions of people around her. And yes, it’s almost always on point.
There’s kind of an ongoing story through the comic, with an occasional arc pointing to some dramatic events in the future. As of this review, only one of these arcs had gone seriously dark (which is saying something for a horror-themed comic), but even then the humor from the rest of the comic is still present.
There’s a prequel comic that’s available as an ebook and an actual print copy, and it covers how Erma’s parents have met (before you get disappointed: no, Erma’s mother is NOT the ghost girl from either Ringu or the Ring. She’s something quite different.). It also provides a glimpse of how dark the endgame of this comic is going to get, and boy oh boy should you expect Cerebus Syndrome to go up to 11 near the end. I do hope all the drama will be earned when that endgame comes.
In the meantime, this is a very underrated comic that I wish more people know about. There’s even a special animated short by the comic’s creator, and it’s a short prequel to the first strip. Check it out here.
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Erma is one of the most wholesome webcomics I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading, and that’s quite something for a comic that embraces so many horror tropes and dark-ish humor.
To start with, the art’s very well drawn. Much of the comic is in black and white, which makes it feel like a newspaper comic while also benefiting its horror themes. Though the designs of the human characters are a bit bland (at least for the normal humans. The cartoonish look fits, but their faces seem too identical sometimes), the backgrounds are gorgeously detailed and really balance things out.
The character of Erma is meant to be a take on the Japanese Yurei, the long haired ghost girls popularized in films like The Ring or Ringu. Despite this, she manages to be an extremely cute comic character, while never being too saccharine. She regularly acts horrifying and twists herself into monstrous appearances. But at the same time, she’s a mischievous little girl acting her age, and whenever she’s not shapeshifting she’s extremely huggable, and yet she’s still clearly a supernatural horror creature. It’s this dynamic that makes her character really appealing.
The comic is a tribute to the entirety of horror media, and it references plenty of horror films and games while also making fun of common tropes in the genre. Much of the humor comes from showing Erma’s ghostly behavior juxtaposed with normal everyday life, and also the reactions of people around her. And yes, it’s almost always on point.
There’s kind of an ongoing story through the comic, with an occasional arc pointing to some dramatic events in the future. As of this review, only one of these arcs had gone seriously dark (which is saying something for a horror-themed comic), but even then the humor from the rest of the comic is still present. There’s a prequel comic that’s available as an ebook and an actual print copy, and it covers how Erma’s parents have met (before you get disappointed: no, Erma’s mother is NOT the ghost girl from either Ringu or the Ring. She’s something quite different.). It also provides a glimpse of how dark the endgame of this comic is going to get, and boy oh boy should you expect Cerebus Syndrome to go up to 11 near the end. I do hope all the drama will be earned when that endgame comes.
In the meantime, this is a very underrated comic that I wish more people know about. There’s even a special animated short by the comic’s creator, and it’s a short prequel to the first strip. Check it out here
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