Negative One

Negative One is a weekly Speculative Fiction webcomic created by swankivy, which has been updated every week since May 20, 2005. It functions as a prequel to her as of yet unpublished novel series, but can be read on its own without any difficulty.

It is unusual both in terms of format (about half the panels in an average comic are just text), medium (black-and-white pencil sketches) and story telling. Each comic is narrated in first person by one of the main characters, initially alternating between two, but this number has since grown to five. Exactly what connects the two initial narrators still isn't clear.

The original narrators are:

  • Meri Lin, a young Asian-American woman who, as of the first comic, has just discovered that she is pregnant. Her comics heavily feature her partner, Fred, and occasionally her sister Lissa Lee. Initially her story seems quite mundane as they prepare for the arrival of their child, but then things get a little strange.
  • Adele, a young woman from another radically different dimension called Ailashuo. Her appearance, though humanoid, is quite alien. Adele is a seer, and as of the first comic, she is studying with her human teacher, Tabitha, for the day when she will leave her home world to teach in a new one. But interdimensional travel has a catch—she will lose almost all of her memories of her old life. Her comics initially feature various family members and friends in Ailashuo.

Since then, the comic has begun to feature three more narrators:

  • Weaver, a small blue bat-like creature who accidentally travelled from his own world to ours with nothing but his sword. Confused and amnesiac, he is quickly captured by a mysterious man who wants to add Weaver to his collection of strange animals.
  • Dax, who probably comes from the same world as Weaver, but belongs to an utterly different species. Upon arriving in our world, he meets a group of hippies, who are tentatively welcoming towards him, and eventually accept him as part of their group. He and Weaver's storylines have since overlapped, with the two characters becoming good friends.
  • Ivy, Meri Lin's telekinetic daughter, who turns out to be very hard to contain. Her comics have come to feature a young girl called Melanie and a homeless black woman called Theresa ('The Resa') who have become her unofficial guardians.

Due to the nature of the webcomic, each of these characters has their inner feelings (and, where possibly, their backstory) explored in great detail. The story is slow and not terribly dramatic, but fascinating.

It can be found here.

Tropes used in Negative One include:
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