Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan (Scilight #11)

[Scientivore]

Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan
*NSFW* First Page (http://www.rocr.net/index.php?p=GKBcover)
*NSFW* Home Page (http://www.rocr.net/)
On Piperka (http://piperka.net/info.html?cid=952)

What
Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan by Reinder Dijkhuis is one of my all-time favorites. It's a Dutch fantasy webcomic centered around the ongoing adventures of the titular band of thieves. Originally started in 1991 as a DIY paper comic, Reinder began putting it on the web in 2000. Seven years later, it's still going strong.

Pluses
RoCR has attractively-drawn art with an unusual palette for a webcomic, high in what I think of as "nature colors". The Scandanavian linguistic, cultural and mythological elements are also unusual for a webcomic in English.

It reads like a series of short stories, so there are satisfying plot payoffs along the way. As a combination story and humor comic, it's only a matter of time until any continuity and serious drama are balanced by goofiness and sight gags (or vice-versa). Also, thanks to group dynamics, the ensemble cast is much more interesting to me than the sum of its (rather one-dimensional) parts.

Finally, there is plenty of casual (i.e. non-sexual) nudity. None of the main characters are modest and the faeries are nudist by nature. I think that it's an interestingly different perspective and (usually) nice to look at.

Cautions
There is rampant nudity. Here in the States, it's NSFW. Also, the protagonists include witches and use pagan magic. The people who would be offended by that are probably not here on the site of a D&D webcomic but I'm giving the warning just in case.

This one is just for any completists in the house: although RoCR has technically only had a few full-blown crossovers, the knock-on effects are huge. If you check it out (http://crossovers.dragoneers.com/Clwydrhan.html) at the Webcomic Crossover & Cameo Archive (http://crossovers.dragoneers.com/), the first one there is actually the (in)famous Framed!!! Great Escape (http://crossovers.dragoneers.com/Greatescape.html). Aside from the time that it would take to read everything involved, there are many broken links from webcomics dead, moved or (in the case of No Stereotypes) reinvented. Also, RoCR is now a major player in the current Crossover Wars (http://crossoverwars.dragoneers.com/). I expect that its connectedness would be another positive point of interest for most people and I want to make sure that the few who might perceive it as a potential difficulty know what they're getting into.

I forgot to mention, there is also some violence and gore up to the dismemberment level. It's in Reinder's comic art style, not photorealistic. Violence like that is so much more common than nudity in webcomics that I'm somewhat jaded to it. Sorry for the omission.

Previous
Scilight #10 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=48662): Indefensible Positions
Scilight #9 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47907): Sorcery 101
Scilight #8 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47062): Magellan
Scilight #7 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46321): Emergency Exit & Parallel Dementia
Scilight #6 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45677): Hero by Night
Scilight #5 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44807): The Dreamwalker Chronicles
Scilight #4 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43993): Estancia
Scilight #3 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43509): Juathuur
Scilight #2 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42706): Inhuman
Scilight #1 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41917): Gravity
Note
Reinder Dijkhuis has a lot of other work out on the web; here is the closest thing to a full list (http://rocr.net/?p=fullist).

As always, I'm interested in your feedback, what you thought of my recommendation, requests for future genres and so on.

[averagejoe]

Oh, good, just when I finished Indefensible. Unfortunately I can't currently read it, because of the nudity. Still, sounds cool. Will have to get to it later.

[Gez]

I like RoCR. It's a very European comic, many of its influences are not well-known, I guess, by American readers.

A few examples: Alcidia's attempts at being "witch queen instead of the witch queen (http://rocr.net/index.php?p=20070618)" is an echo of Iznogoud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iznogoud)'s endless and always failed quest at "becoming the caliph instead of the caliph", the frequent fish fights (http://rocr.net/index.php?p=20061011) a homage to Astérix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ast%C3%A9rix), the lutins (http://rocr.net/index.php?p=20031103) and the douards (http://rocr.net/index.php?p=20030505) have been taken from François Bourgeon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Bourgeon)'s "Twilight Companions"...

That said, there are other influences, of course, like a comic-relief copy of Cerebus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerebus) who appeared in a couple of story arcs. And a couple of faeries in a jail named Bonfire & Clydesdale...

Edit: Green word balloons to represent discord (http://rocr.net/index.php?p=20040609), another thing taken from Astérix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix_and_the_Roman_Agent).

[storybookknight]

Heh, Scientivore continues to show good taste! I've read this one before, and I'm more or less a fan (though less so of the recent crossover strips, I'm afraid...)

[rxmd]

It's a Scandanavian fantasy webcomic centered around the ongoing adventures of the titular band of thieves. [...] The Scandanavian linguistic, cultural and mythological elements are also unusual for a webcomic in English.
Small margin note: it's Dutch, and not Scandinavian - I guess that's a bit like saying Tijuana is Texan ;) The mythology is Scandinavian-influenced, but that's far from uncommon in fantasy.

[Scientivore]

I like RoCR. It's a very European comic, many of its influences are not well-known, I guess, by American readers. [snip]

Thank you for the elaboration! I wasn't familiar with any of those.


Small margin note: it's Dutch, and not Scandinavian - [snip]

Fixed! I checked his "about" pages before posting the spotlight and the best indicator that I could find was that he'd done a Norwegian-language collaboration, Hej, Kalle! He wasn't the writer for that one so all it proved was that he knew a Norwegian. I figured that "Scandanavian" was playing it safe -- oops! :smallredface:

[Reinder]

Thanks for posting that. I've made some changes to my online bio to make it clearer that I'm in the Netherlands and not Norway. While I was at it, I also de-linked Hej, Kalle! from the big list of comic because it's hosted on an old web site provided by an ISP I've recently canceled my subscription to. It'll be back. Hej, Kalle!, by the way, is a Deep Purple song I asked Trond J. Stroem to translate into Norwegian for no good reason that I can recall.