Title: Real Life: The Complete Year One Collection Volume(s): 5+ Creator(s): Greg Dean Format: Unflipped; Left-to-Right Publisher: Starline Media MSRP: $24.95 Genre(s): Comedy Rated: Youth (10+)

You won’t believe what I have to read for English: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. I’ve read it before and I hated it. Actually, I still hate it as I reread it. So in order to kill time while summoning up the tolerance to read this pile of rubbish I’ve decided to write about Real Life by Greg Dean, whose first collection is sitting on my lap. (I’ve been waiting for this collection to come to me for a long time through inter-library loan. Greg should REALLY write about the local library system!) Like the title suggests, Real Life is a web-comic based on the actual life of the author and artist, Greg Dean. Take “based on” literally. This comic does talk about real events sometimes, but most of the time Greg just lets the characters (himself, Crystal, Dave and Tony) do what they want. Only recently as of 2008-2008 Greg has started to cover his life in more detail, particularly his move to Texas. And what do they do? Play strange Dungeons and Dragons games, go through the “zone” while their friends try to save them from computer hypnotism, travel on a road-trip all the way to the East Coast (crossing over with another cartoonist), depart back in time to medieval France and much more.

I seem to be more fascinated with the fantasy comic strips than with the comic strips that are based on real life events, but in reality I like most of the comic strips. Real Life is not the best comic strip in the world (that title goes to Calvin and Hobbes), but it definitely is a good one and has a story worth reading. I will give you a good reason to read the book version of the comic’s first year, as you can read all the comics in here online for free: the extras. That doesn’t sound like much, but after reading the two PVP collections and finding no color strips in them, it’s refreshing to read Real Life where all the color strips retain their color. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. We not only get color strips, but two introductions (one by Scott Kurtz), two Real Life strips that have never appeared on the site, a collection of Greg’s other online comic “The Forge” (which is up and running again on its own website), and battleship blueprints that Greg did. Oh, and he also did commentary for each Real Life strip. Although there are some commentaries where he includes excerpts from Hamlet or says that he loved a strip, there are also commentaries where he talks about personal history, opinions on certain issues, explanations for obscure/outdated references, and which people are cameos and which people aren’t. I loved the commentary for this long story arc where an evil twin of Tony’s hacked into Crystal’s computer system and kept beating her at games.

The reason why Real Life is funny is because some of the stuff that happens to Greg and his friends actually happened in my life. I’ve never been on Ultima Online or Ever-Quest, but I did have a bad Neopets addiction when I was in fifth grade. Later on that addiction became fan-fiction, and then forums. I think my addiction is now to the Internet itself. Just today we were having trouble with our wireless connection and had to call BellSouth about it. Greg talks about that as well. One short series about camping with all the luxuries made me laugh because it reminded me of how earlier this summer my family and I went to Curry Village in Yosemite and ended up moving to a hotel just outside the park. I’m a little disappointed that Greg didn’t get into Ender’s Game more, but the Timeline arc was uproarious enough to make up for it. (Greg had already conceived the time travel theory I was going to use in my comic strip! Nuts!)

I don’t think the artwork needs commentary on, but as this is a review and not merely a recommendation, I must talk about it. The character designs are original. (I have to complain, however, that two of his cameos look almost exactly alike.) The backgrounds, while not as detailed as my favorite manga, do fulfill their purpose. There are only two strips in this entire book that are hand-drawn, the second looking sloppy on purpose. The strip looks even better when he starts coloring the dailies because the color adds more depth to the comic strip, proving the rule rather than the exception. Compared to the modern strip (which has more sophisticated art), Greg’s early efforts seem juvenile, but by itself the art looks fine.

I suppose that if there’s anything to complain about it’s that while Greg does do anime cameos and tributes, he never does any that I recognize! Although the web-comics I’m most familiar with are about people with gamer interests (Penny Arcade, PVP, and Real Life) the truth is that there is little talk, if at all, about anime. If you go to the more recent strips online there are no cameos or tributes. That may be because the strip has changed, but it would be nice to see Yuko from XXXholic or maybe even someone from Please Save My Earth. (Now that’s a manga that likes to mess with your mind . . .) But this has nothing to do with my technical judgment of Real Life; I just have a pet peeve about this. I still like reading this book. And you will too, even if you’re not a “Dungeons and Dragons” player or someone who plays online RPG’s. Even if you’re biased against web-comics (just like my older brother), give this chance. Greg Dean was a genius in writing this strip. Either that or his friends are that hilarious in reality.

- -Review By Jaya Lakshmi - -