Eightland is the website of the artist known as "Eight". He has created several comics, most of which were hosted on Keenspot. The comics are often experimental and random, balancing between genius and not genius. (The artist also has a bad habit of leaving them discontinued.)
Notable works, among others, include:
Road Waffles
Road Waffles is a webcomic ran between 1999 and 2005 at roadwaffles.com on Keenspot. It is one of Eight's few finished works, and could be called his flagship series. It was followed by three very loosely related sequels, of which the two latter were left unfinished. However, the storyline has recently (as of 2010) begun moving again, and continues as of this edit.
The original story chronicles the adventures of Haley, a young blonde female comedic sociopath, and Bruno, a thirtyish-looking bearded man in a cowboy hat, who embark on a random and surrealistic road trip, meeting numerous characters who randomly join and are just as randomly killed off. It primarily ran on Road Trip Plot and Comedic Sociopathy tropes, and grew a bit of a background plot during time (not that the main characters cared very much) involving alternate universes, Time Travel and a Zombie Apocalypse.
The current story is running on roadwaffles.com
or roadwaffles.keenspot.com, and the first four stories are available for download as .gif images in a .zip file on the same page.
This comic provides examples of:
- Contrived Coincidence: There is always someone driving by when you are stranded in the middle of the desert without a ride. It gets even more ridiculous when our characters have just been shot: "I'm a travelling surgeon. I specialize in gunshot wounds."
- Memory Gambit: Worm, a guy who has started the zombie apocalypse, is sent back in time to stop himself, because his long-term memory prevents that he remembers anything that happened longer than five minutes before.
- With a Friend and a Stranger: Bruno and Haley develop into this trio after picking up Elegia.
Cruel Fate (http://cruelfate.keenspot.com/)
A 24-hour comic about a man who attempts suicide, which brings him to meet a pretty girl and, well... It gets worse. Rather tragic / deep for a short comic.
Bloodlark
A would-be fantasy epic, about young girl who gets thrown out of the house by her drunken father who decides that since she has come of age, it is about time that she embarked on a quest. After successfully surviving her first night in a forest full of monsters, she recruits a Boisterous Bruiser and a Ridiculously Cute Critter and gets drawn into a greater plot. Surprisingly light-hearted (and not exceptionally violent by normal fantasy standards), but unfinished.
It lampshaded the following fantasy tropes while it ran:
- BFS - The heroine's sword is to difficult for her to even lift...But its magic causes it to come to life whenever her life is threatened. This requires some creativity on the behalf of its wielder.
- Genius Bruiser - Strey's refreshingly intelligent for a fantasy protagonist, and relies on it rather than physical strenght.
