Vote for your favorite MCC comic of 2010!

[Daphne]

So, now's your chance! Through the end of the year, we'll be taking votes for everyone's favorite comics for 2010. You can vote for up to three. Once the poll has expired, we'll announce the winners.

And thanks, everyone, for a great 2010!

[swan69]

I noticed The Green Sign didn't make the ballot 

[Daphne]

I noticed The Green Sign didn't make the ballot 

Whoops, fixed!

[MrJL]

You didn't put Mommy Issues or Go Forth and Multiply up either.

[jmundt29]

Three?  Yikes!

See, this is peculiar.  Ellspeth completely turned around Cuckoo's Nest for me.  It was interesting, but her presence and promised return made it really interesting.  Oral Traditions seemed to be a one shot with her that was very entertaining and might hae her loose in modern times.

Should Oral Traditions be combined with Cuckoo's Nest?

I think all Bertram comics have combined into the "Bearing Gifts" vote.

I had a hard time narrowing this to three.

Definitely Hidden Knowledge (my favorite series so far this year)

Ellspeth made Cuckoo's Nest my second favorite comic--which then combines with Oral Traditions (which is why I voted for Oral Traditions).

However, there are a LOT of good comics.

Convent of St. Nicholas, Wedding Ceremony, Homecoming, Bibliomancy, and 4F all look like really interesting one-shots.  St. Nick's is probably my favorite, but, Bibliomancy (or the concept of Bibliomancy) looks like the easiest to spin off.  It looks like "Hidden Knowledge through history."  We could find out who wrote the tome and exactly why, and whose hands the book passed through before Davvid found it in his bookshop.

#4 Pumpkins is really entertaining and looks like it has continuation possibilities.

I'm a sci-fi and Superheroine fan.  Stream and Free Trade Zone both have potential, but you'd really need to see another episode or two to see how they develop.  I tend to like the art for Stream better.

Good People seems like a Fair Folk variation on Martian Harem.  Both are quite strong.

I could go on, but that suppose that defeats the purpose of the poll.

[stretchgilbert]

I Really Hope That U Decide 2 Continue The "Bearing Gifts" Series They Were My Absolute FAVORITES!

[hypfan]

Most of the stories are good, some are better than others. I really like the stories that are done so the MC content really comes into play early and often. Love to see more soon. I know how hard it is to get the time during the holidays.

[BorisL]

Well, THE HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE went in at the top of the list, no contest.

Then.... Well, then it becomes more difficult.

I really enjoyed the BEARING GIFTS stories but we've had an awful lot of them and I think they've  run out of places to go.

I did enjoy THE MARTIAN HAREM and THE GREEN SIGN but I'm less eager for them to continue.

If you didn't bother with any more of CUCKOOS NEST or TERROR IN THE LOST COLONY  I would feel no disappointment.

So I put down FREE TRADE ZONE and BEYOND RUBIES because although I don't think they have much more left in them I do actually want to see them come to a conclusion.

[Daphne]

You didn't put Mommy Issues or Go Forth and Multiply up either.

Those are all under the Bearing Gifts series.  Arguably, "Oral Traditions" should be under Cuckoo's Nest, but c'est la vie.

[jlpicrdh]

Only 3? It's so hard to choose the top three. There have been some really great ones.

What makes it especially difficult is when individual issues are lumped in to the series. For instance, the rest of the Bearing Gifts story line were good, but no where near my favorite. However Mommy Issues is one of, if not my absolute, favorite issue on the site. But that alone isn't enough for it put the series into the top 3.

On the other hand, several of the ones that just have one issue so far haven't really gotten going enough to be able to recommend them. I had a really tough choice between Drains and Stream. I had to finally give it to Drains though, just because there wasn't as much MC content in Stream (though I think that Stream might have more potential than Drains does).

In the end, my top list would break down like this:
Mommy Issues
Free Trade Zone
Beyond Rubies
Drains
Stream
Oral Traditions
Obedience

What each of these have is something a bit different. Mommy issue has the betrayal, and the BE. Free Trade Zone has an awesome transformation scene (by far, my favorite). Beyond Rubies has some BE, and this slow, unknowing descent. Drains has a hentai feel. Stream has superheros. Oral Traditions has the corruption of one of the girls into being a Mistress over the other. And Obedience has a "surprise" ending, in that, while you knew she was going to be enslaved, you didn't know that she'd already been enslaved right from the start.

[Daphne]

Thanks for such detailed feedback!  (In particular, thank you jmundt29 and jlpicrdh; BorisL too, although it sounds like you didn't like anything besides "The Hidden Knowledge." )

Given the popularity of the "Bearing Gifts" stories, is that a vote for more "hardcore" MC (in the sense of the MC intensity)?

[tods1976]

Might as well give some detailed feedback:

Top 3:
Beyond Rubies, the Hidden Knowledge, and Bearing Gifts.
 
The artwork for Beyond Rubies was fantastically done, and the story was great. It gets the nod over the Hidden Knowledge in large part because the sex scene art was significantly better and not nearly as crowded. I also tend to prefer more subtle MC, which this has to some extent over the Hidden Knowledge and especially over Bearing Gifts. FWIW, Talked Themselves Into It is by far my favorite EMCSA story.

The Hidden Knowledge - has the best story overall. The sex scenes aren't great, as I mentioned, but the concept is a huge turn on, which mitigates that to some extent.

Bearing Gifts was consistently good, excepting Mommy Issues, which I skipped (not an incest guy.) The cover of the first Bearing Gifts is what brought me on to the site.

Contenders:
I could easily have swapped out Bearing Gifts for the Convent of St. Nicholas or Drains. Both had great art and solid stories. I'm not a tentacle guy, so I'd love to see more of the anime art style without the tentacles.

Solid:
Homecoming
Pumpkins
Cuckoo's Nest - the first few issues were slow, but the later ones with the Princess got much better.
Obedience
Excerpts from a Found Travel Guide - very strong story, artwork was very difficult to get into the mood with.
Oral Traditions (not an  FD guy, loved the concept though)
Bibliomancy

Incomplete:
Saint James Infirmary - the scene with the TA was a good start, but we're a few months in and there's been very little action.
Stream - this looks very promising, but it needs another episode or two to fulfill it
Green Sign

Didn't Like:

Art Reasons (mostly that the artwork was too busy):
Signal Failure
4F
Free Trade Zone
Wedding Ceremony
Public Access

Story Reasons:
Martian Harem
Terror in the Lost Colony
Giddyland
Good People (I like the art - just not into fairies).

Overall, I'm torn on the CG vs. hand drawn art. The CG is consistently good - it avoids the lows of hand-drawn, but also the highs.

 

[Symeon]

My votes go to the following (with reasons):

Drains: The manga style is different and fun, the brainwashing and action are both hardcore,
          and the mind-control / tentacle genre blend is fertile ground for all sorts of great stories.

Beyond Rubies: The art is ASTOUNDING, the story is evocative and intense, the mind control
                      style is intriguing, and the B.E. elements don't hurt either.

The Green Sign: The setting details are great, the story is complex and engaging,
                       and three little words: STEAMPUNK. MIND. CONTROL.

The Hidden Knowledge comes a close fourth, but in comparison to the above, the mind control
elements and the sex scenes seem a bit abrupt at times - almost "skipped over."

The CG works are also good, but they lack a certain intensity that the 2D artists
bring to faces and actions. The rendered art feels more like sculpture (extremely detailed
and pretty sculpture, mind you) than real events.

In general though I am very pleased with what's been posted, and eagerly await
whatever is to come (as well as the return of downloads!).

[dzeiger]

OK, so some thoughts on the ones I voted for, and some of the ones I didn't

Convent of St Nick: Nunsploitation--it's a classic for a reason (even if Firefox's automatic spell checker doesn't want to recognize it  ), and it was done very well.

Drains: Serial Recruitment, with elements of betrayal are good button-pushers for me.

Terror in the Lost Colony: This, Cuckoo's Nest and Martian Harem are kind of in their own little section, it's hard to compare longer stories to one-shots directly, they're just two different animals.  So I was going to put one of them in, and I just am liking Terror a bit more.  Possibly because I've been following Vice's artwork for years now.

For ones I did not vote for:

Bearing Gifts: There are some sections/panels of some of the stories that I keep coming back to.  However, there are enough fetishes covered that it, unsurprisingly, hit a few I'm not all that fond of.  Also, putting them all into one option tends to remind me of the holes in the overall narrative--the hypnotist goes from creating part-time whores to full time whores to some sort of A-Team-ish troubleshooter in the series.  As one-shots, that's not too much of a problem, he's just Generic Universal Evil Dude, but if you put them all together, then I'm going to think about such things.

Wedding Ceremony: Great writing, could easily been top-three material had the art been salvageable.

Green Sign: I'll probably go back and re-read these when/if the next issue comes out, but I recall being confused as to what, exactly, is going on in the comic. 

Which actually reminds me of a more general point for something I've seen in several comics--there are times where, I think, more care needs to be taken to make sure that the writing doesn't result in more characters than the artists are able to easily distinguish.  Much as I liked Convent, trying to distinguish between the brunettes or the blondes when they were naked was largely an exercise in futility.  It didn't really hurt things there, but I think it has in some of the other stories.

[Sane Scientist]

• Terror in the Lost Colony
• Bearing Gifts
• 4F

Free Trade Zone would have been my fourth choice. It was an exceptional comic that was a marked difference from the other styles and stories, practically bordering on Hentai.