Oracle for Hire

Webcomics: the heartbeat of nerd-dom on the internet. Through webcomics, you can see what's going on in the world of the socially shunned, watch for the latest and greatest in memes (sometimes you even see them created), and be entertained by some of the best artists and comedians the free internet has to offer. However, I will the the first to admit, there is a whole lotta crap out there. Some webcomics are poorly-drawn and incomprehensible. Some are poorly-written. Some are specialty webcomics, designed for the pleasure of a very few people, while everyone else is lost in the dark. Some are just plain stupid. Some are excuses for the artist to draw naked people (if you find a comic labelled 'NSFW' (Not Safe For Work), find a different comic). All that aside, there are some great comics out there, and I'm making it my goal in life for the next few months to educate you fine people on some of the ones I've come to love.

Today's spotlight is on one of the best-known comics on the web: Dominic Deegan.

The comic is set in a fantasy world, a land of magic, monsters, evil politicians (whoops, said the same thing twice), and puns. LOTS of puns. The comic's creator, Michael Terracciano, has a great sense of humor... even if it is a bit broken. The comic typically centers around a seer named Dominic Deegan (gasp! I'm sure you didn't see that coming). Dominic is a practitioner of Second Sight magic, which is used to watch events from far away, see the past, and attempt to predict the future. The most common and most derided application of this is fortune telling. Fortune tellers are often mysterious and cryptic in their messages... this is usually because they have no idea what they're seeing. Second Sight is not an all-powerful art, it only allows the viewer to see events from a different perspective than they normally would. Anyway, enough on magic, back to the main character. Dominic possesses one of the most powerful minds in existence. He was even selected as the Champion of Balance to combat a Chaos cult set on destroying the world. He's fought demons, defeated extra-planar superweapons... twice, dueled (briefly) a centuries-old necromancer, and once, even taught a college course. His mind is a fortress, and nothing can break it. Nothing.

Lately the comic's focused on pretty much every character except Dominic, but that in no way diminishes the quality of the product. Since we last left our hero, we've seen one of Dominic's star students study abroad, we've seen Dominic's younger brother, Gregory, start his own band, and we've seen an old nemesis of Dominic's work his way through the Wild Edge (a scar on the land caused by an ancient magical conflict between two archmages). The current story arc follows the Third War in Hell (the third one we know about, anyway). Usually, though, Dominic is the star.

Even in terms of family and friends, he seems to have interesting tastes. His mother is an archmage of the Fifth Circle, his father is a renowned bard and retired swordfighter. His younger brother was a white mage before losing his magic to an Infernomancer, and now has his own band. His older brother, Jacob, is a necromancer. His fiancée is under a curse unleashed by an orcish black mage at the end of the last war between Callan (human nation) and Maltak (orcish nation). One of his best friends' hobbies is to break things with her face. Another one of his best friends is a werewolf (sorry fangirls, no vampires. And thank goodness for that). His mentor as a wizard is a ball of slime that tastes like jelly. Needless to say, he leads an interesting life.

To give this comic a rating, I'd have to say PG-13. Some parts of the comic are a bit graphic, some are downright gruesome (what, do you expect a war in Hell to be pretty?). There's also some language, a bit of innuendo, and the occasional raunchy joke (artfully censored, but anyone with half an imagination can figure out what was said. Also, any dolt with half a brain could see that human kind has gone insane, but that's another story). It's not something you would want your little kids or grandmother to read, but I can't really think of a reason it wouldn't be ok for the average reader.

Dominic Deegan gets an A+ in my book. Great art, great writing, great humor. Great job, Mookie.

-Defender of the Blog, RTB