#i guess bm is pretty active on twitter but that’s all at the top of my head

[nctsworld]

Hi there, i was wondering (I tried Google but didn’t find up to date answer) if weverse affects bubble at all? Is this replacing it? Will they use this instead of Twitter? Does it cost? Pls help :c

hello! at the moment, sm artists are still on bubble and, for the time being, will still use it. however, since many idols are on there already, sm wants their artists there too.

not sure which idols use twitter that much in terms of communication with fans; ig and bubble/weverse are the main hubs.

to my knowledge, weverse currently doesn't cost (unless you have some specific fandom memberships)

[woohooligancomics]

Webcomic Whimsy: Boston Metaphysical Society

Welcome to the Woohooligan Weekly Webcomic Whimsy! I've given a couple of interviews in the past, but this is my first experience with reviewing. If you have any suggestions for improvements, feel free to leave a note. If you're a webcomic author and would like a review, you can see my announcement and review rules here.

Title: The Boston Metaphysical Society

Author: Madeleine Holly-Rosing • Facebook • Twitter

Site: The Boston Metaphysical Society • IndieGogo

Genres: Steampunk, Supernatural, Mystery, Suspense, Horror

Rating: PG, T for Teen

Updates: Completed - Six Chapters

Synopsis: (from the About page) The year is 1895. Our world has developed along the lines of Steampunk technology, but with a modern twist. Here exists steam driven rudimentary computers and electronics. And dirigibles rule the sky. But with it comes social and political upheaval as not everyone is comfortable with change. In fact, many people fear it.

That fear and the violence that followed caused a psychic rift to puncture the veil of space and time allowing the entity known as “The Shifter” to escape. And the only people who stand a chance in hell of destroying it are: Samuel Hunter, ex-Pinkerton Detective; Caitlin O’Sullivan, Medium and Spirit Photographer and Granville Woods, Scientist Extraordinaire. They are the Boston Metaphysical Society.

"A steampunk X-Files" is the shorter synopsis Holly has been using to describe the Boston Metaphysical Society and it fits. While the BMS team is a little larger and none of the characters' personalities quite match those of Mulder and Scully, the overall feel of this story is fairly similar to the X-Files. There's plenty of mystery and suspense, ghosts and other supernatural creatures, steampunk inventions, and while there is some action, those scenes are few and far between, in favor of a largely dialogue-driven narrative. The strength of this story, like any good mystery, really lies in it's slow pacing that gives the reader time to wonder what the sparse clues really mean.

The story opens on one of its few action scenes:

At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Boston Metaphysical Society is the team of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and Harry Houdini, who are introduced at a dreary funeral on page four.

That group however is called BETH (Bell, Edison, Tesla, Houdini) as opposed to BMS. The BETH group with it's flashy, high-profile names, is seen throughout the story, building machines and trying to hunt down "the shifter", a supernatural creature they believe is killing people. But thanks to their massive egoes, they spend most of their time bickering amongst each other and not accomplishing much. For me, this feels like a fun parallel to the Lord of the Rings, where the flashy big-name characters, the Fellowship's princes and kings are off fighting orcs, but the real work is being done in the shadows, far from the battlefield, by a couple of unknown hobbits. In this case there's some back and forth between the members of BETH about whether or not they should work with BMS. They're never actively hostile, just dismissive of a former Pinkerton's abilities, whith Houdini being the first exception, later followed by Tesla.

The story makes sure you know that supernatural creatures are real pretty early on, showing friendly a ghost in no uncertain terms on page six. But while Caitlin knows that ghosts can be friendly, all the men are much more cavalier, treating them as "its" rather than "whos", the only contention being whether spirits should be studied or simply destroyed on sight. Caitlin is able to prove her point with the help of BMS third member, Granville Woods, in chapter three. While "women talk, men shoot" is a bit of a trope, it feels appropriate in this context. Victorian-era Boston was fairly chauvinistic and stories from that era tend to reflect that, so by having only one female protagonist, Boston Metaphysical is simply in-step with its genre.

Much of the story's personal tension revolves around the relationship between Sam Hunter and Caitlin O'Sullivan. Caitlin is the daughter of a medium named Andrew who worked for Hunter until he died on page two. With her father gone, Caitlin needs money, so she approaches Hunter to take her father's place. This is a problem for Hunter in part because Caitlin's father already died in his employ, but also (and possibly more importantly), because Caitlin reminds him of his wife who he believes was previously killed by the shifter.

I have very few complaints about the art in Boston Metaphysical. Yes, the interior art style is a bit loose and scratchy in places, but I feel like it does a good job of setting the mood and is mostly pretty straightforward. There are only a handful of places where I find it confusing, like on page eighteen where a ghost is being trapped in front of Caitlin and then suddenly the ghost's hand is groping her shoulder from behind. My guess is that Caitlin turned around for a moment but at the end of that page I found myself wondering if there were actually two ghosts and had to conclude that there weren't because there's no further mention of additional spirits on following pages.

Also minor problems are the fact that it's sometimes difficult to tell the difference between Houdini and Edison, a problem that, as an artist myself I know is sometimes hard to resolve, and that the letterer's dialogue balloons sometimes have very little contrast from the background art. Neither the character confusion or the lack of contrast are deal-breakers for me. The dialogue contrast is only mildly irritating in a few places and it was never so bad that I couldn't figure out who was speaking. Page twenty-one shows a few of the more notable examples on Hunter at the top of the first panel and then on Caitlin in the final two panels. There is one specific page where I'm not sure if I'm seeing Tesla or Hunter's father-in-law, which is a little unfortunate because it's a plot-reveal, but I'm willing to let that slide as knowing his identity at that point in the story removes a bit of the mystery anyway.

Holly had originally emailed me a dropbox link for the digital trade (PDF), which also has an extra ten-page airship battle story... but I was a dummy and didn't notice it was a dropbox link and didn't go download it and it expired. :P But at this point I feel like there's plenty of material for the review, so no harm no foul. If you're interested in the dueling dirigibles, I hear you can get your hands on the trade (digital or physical) from the Boston Metaphysical IndieGogo page.

So there's my pitch. If you enjoy steampunk, supernatural and mystery, give Boston Metaphysical a try!

If you are a webcomic author and are interested in a review from me, you can check out my announcement and my review rules here.

If you enjoy my reviews and would like to help ensure I'm able to continue publishing them, you can contribute on our Patreon or if you're short on funds you can also help me out by checking out and sharing my own webcomic, Woohooligan!

Thanks! Sam