Monster Pulse

Monster Pulse is an all-ages fantasy webcomic written and illustrated by Magnolia Porter.[1] The comic began in 2011[2] and as of 2020 is ongoing.[3]

Synopsis

Set in a small Pacific Northwest town,[4] Monster Pulse follows four children who have 'body-monsters' – spirits which turn an organ into an external, sentient monster. Bina, the main character, has her heart possessed by a spirit and become a friendly monster she calls Ayo. Other children have monsters from other organs: Abel's monster is formed of one of his eyes, Desmond's monster is his stomach, and Julie's monster her hair.[1] A corporation called Shell unwittingly released the technology that caused this, and it seeks to control the power of these monsters.[2]

As of 2014, the comic was updating three times a week.[5]

Themes and reviews

Writing for The Beat, Maggie Vicknair described Monster Pulse as "a really excellent and polished work of all-ages comics, with its focus on character development, beautiful art, and slight dark edge." Vicknair said that the comic "pulls its influences very clearly from children’s television, especially cartoons from the 90’s onward", such as Digimon and Pokemon. Vicknair added that "there’s a real commitment to steady character development in Monster Pulse, which makes the comic a rich read. The characters are a diverse group of kids which create genuine conflict between them – Julie’s earnest energy versus Abel’s grumpy stoicism. The children not only have to deal with crazy problems like 'oh no my stomach is now sentient' but more mundane and relatable problems like 'my parents don’t understand me.'"[1]

The A.V. Club's reviewer Caitlin Rosenburg said that "like a lot of the very best kids’ programming, it’s full of sweetness without being cloying or unbelievable, and the lessons it tries to teach feel important without being heavy handed", and said that "Porter has created a world that has some serious depth and reality to it, despite the supernatural foundation of the plot. Each of the kids’ monsters correlates to some part of their personality, and it’s fascinating to watch what happens as they grow into young adulthood and stare down the barrel of puberty and all that it entails." On the artwork, Rosenburg said that the style "was for a long time sharp and sketchy, with loose lines and almost exclusively drawn in black and white. In later years, the linework has become firmer and smoother, and Porter has added moody color to her panels."[2]

Io9's Lauren Davis, writing in 2011 shortly after the comic began, described Monster Pulse as "an intriguing, all-ages mystery" that "does a lovely job of balancing dynamic action sequences... with likeable character moments."[6] In a 2014 article Davis said that Monster Pulse deserved to be nominated for an Eisner Award.[7] Splinter's Charles Pulliam-Moore praised the comic for reflecting multiple ethnicities.[8]

About the author

Magnolia Porter is a writer and illustrator who has worked on other comics such as Bobwhite and Dracula Mystery Club, and has written for video games.[2][6]

gollark: <@356209633313947648> ```- Fortunes/Dwarf Fortress output/Chuck Norris jokes on boot (wait, IS this a feature?)- (other) viruses (how do you get them in the first place? running random files like this?) cannot do anything particularly awful to your computer - uninterceptable (except by crashing the keyboard shortcut daemon, I guess) keyboard shortcuts allow easy wiping of the non-potatOS data so you can get back to whatever nonsense you do fast- Skynet (rednet-ish stuff over websocket to my server) and Lolcrypt (encoding data as lols and punctuation) built in for easy access!- Convenient OS-y APIs - add keyboard shortcuts, spawn background processes & do "multithreading"-ish stuff.- Great features for other idio- OS designers, like passwords and fake loading (est potatOS.stupidity.loading [time], est potatOS.stupidity.password [password]).- Digits of Tau available via a convenient command ("tau")- Potatoplex and Loading built in ("potatoplex"/"loading") (potatoplex has many undocumented options)!- Stack traces (yes, I did steal them from MBS)- Backdoors- er, remote debugging access (it's secured, via ECC signing on disks and websocket-only access requiring a key for the other one)- All this useless random junk can autoupdate (this is probably a backdoor)!- EZCopy allows you to easily install potatOS on another device, just by sticking it in the disk drive of any potatOS device!- fs.load and fs.dump - probably helpful somehow.- Blocks bad programs (like the "Webicity" browser).- Fully-featured process manager.- Can run in "hidden mode" where it's at least not obvious at a glance that potatOS is installed.- Convenient, simple uninstall with the "uninstall" command.- Turns on any networked potatOS computers!- Edits connected signs to use as ad displays.- A recycle bin.- An exorcise command, which is like delete but better.- Support for a wide variety of Lorem Ipsum.```
gollark: Okay, that is... probably a better idea, yes.
gollark: Anyway, <@178948413851697152>, please do rewrite that query if you have *better* ideas.
gollark: Oh, probably, but this I can actually understand.
gollark: I have ended up writing this slightly ridiculous query: `SELECT * FROM pages WHERE updated = (SELECT MAX (updated) FROM pages WHERE name = ${req.params.name}) AND name = ${req.params.name}`(no SQL injection there, I use `sql-template-strings`)

Official website

References
  1. Vicknair, Maggie (3 October 2016). "Webcomics in Review: Monster Pulse – Saturday Morning Cronenberg Cartoons!". The Beat. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  2. Rosberg, Caitlin (30 August 2016). "InSeXts explores female sexuality with a Victorian lesbian horror story". AV Club. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  3. "Monster Pulse - Page 25, Chapter 38". www.monster-pulse.com. Retrieved 2020-08-14.
  4. Quinn, Sarah (2016). "Most Binge-Worthy Fantasy Webcomics (And They're Safe for Work, Too)". Vocal.Media. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  5. Anello, Marie (3 February 2014). "Monster Pulse: A Comic About Adolescence, Friendship, and Sentient Body Parts | (The) Absolute". (The) Absolute. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  6. Davis, Lauren (15 October 2011). "In the webcomic Monster Pulse, a government conspiracy turns human body parts into kooky kaiju". io9. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  7. Davis, Lauren (16 April 2014). "51 Awesome Webcomics The Eisners Have Completely Failed To Recognize". io9. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
  8. Pulliam-Moore, Charles (11 August 2015). "Looking for diversity in comics? These are the 5 you need to be reading". Splinter. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
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