Change in the Hall of Justice

Tatsuya Ishida's Sinfest is a scrupulously-updated webcomic of moderate amusment. Within recent memory, however, he's expanded the Sunday strips and added color; and within even more recent memory, he's really started to use the expanded canvas for some terrific, imaginative work with inspired visuals and something to say. I highly recommend:

• Imperil the World 7: The series regular pig has taken on the persona of "Sarah Piglin", and conflict arises.
• Barack Star: Sarah Piglin encounters the charisma of Barack Star.
• The Rich Will Go On: Parody of Titanic, with a note of banking crisis.
• Samakin Skywalker: US metaphors viewed through Revenge of the Sith. My favorite.
• Damn It Feels Good to Be a Banksta: Familiar cartoon icons of tycoonery sing about the banking crisis.
• Banktron: The bailout explained via Transformers.
• 1984: The fast food corporations control us--but an advertising touchpoint saves us all.
• Cartoon Mafia: Familiar cartoon icons defend themselves against Sinfest's success.
• Genocide: Ishida's regular use of Sam and Liberty seems to especially inspire his work.
• Hall of Justice: After passing through a gallery of black superheroes, Barack Obama reveals his secret identity.

Don't neglect the dailies in between these Sunday strips, either; while the scope is necessarily less ambitious, Ishida is nonetheless using his canvas ambitiously (e.g., the Gitmo era of McDonald's commercials). The strips have been dominated with election, economy, and media subjects for a couple months now, but if you go back further in the archives, you've find the more typical slacking, sex, religion, and marijuana gags.

Posted by Greg at November 9, 2008 10:05 AM