"PIRATE COVE" Enters It's Fourth Year

THE REAL MAINSTREAM

By Glenn Carter

"PIRATE COVE" Enters It's Fourth Year

Pirate Cove...

...is a free online web comic to be found at http://www.piratecovecomic.com

Prolific Creator Joe D'Angelo has created an enormous body of work. Looking at the archives its looks as though he has produced a web comic strip every day since 10th September 2001.

Whether you like the strip or not you've got to admire that level of dedication...

But after reading the current storyline you start really getting into it. You start thinking; "hey, this is actually quite entertaining". The storyline is interesting and quite absorbing.

Initially, you feel a little underwhelmed by Pirate Cove, to say the least. The art is more Cézanne than Raphael, to be honest and although there is plenty of effort the art is pretty poor, by comparison to some other web comics.

The writer's enthusiasm for the subject sweeps you along, and it helps that the comic is quite amusing in places. This keeps you going long enough to work out who the characters are and start to actually care what happens.

The plot ranges from social criticism to murder mystery and does it so seamlessly that you do not realise you're going there until you've arrived. This adds a great deal of interest to the piece as you wonder where he is going to take it next.

The murder mystery plotline is quite gripping and I found myself slowly sinking into being deeply absorbed by the story. I read the current storyline through to today's strip. When I was finished, I really wanted to know what happened next.

That is good sign. I intend to read more.

I guess you really can't judge by appearances and first impressions, huh?