Posted by Jim at September 18th, 2004

Like a lot of stories I like, Life on Forbez is basically a fish out of water story. Par and his mother move to Forbez (a planet containing many different aliens) from their own planet Nordia (an extremely bureaucratic, conformist society).

His mother is something of a free spirit and really doesn’t fit in on her homeworld. Par is a normal kid, if a bit more level headed and studious than his mother.

In migrating to Forbez, they become part of a world with many types of aliens, some of which hate them, some are more friendly. Particularly worth mentioning are the Omni, aliens that look like the standard “enlightened” alien (big eyes, bald head, hairless humanoid body). The Omni also believe themselves to be the race chosen to rule the universe. All other races are inferior. Omni technology is so far in advance of everyone else that no one argues philosophical points about equality and diversity with them.

Fortunately for Par, he and his mother get on the good side of their next door neighbors (an Omni family). The father has been affected by the cosmopolitan environment of Forbez and re-examined his own beliefs of Omni superiority.

I won’t describe the comic too much more, save to say that I like it. Its generally funny, tells an ongoing story and takes on issues a bit larger than you’d expect given the lightness of the comic’s tone.

Before I go, I should mention one thing that irritates me about the comic. Here it is: The author would like to make money (which I am not against) and has therefore located the comic on Graphic Smash/Modern Tales. The thing that just plain sucks about that is that you therefore can’t read the archives. The most recent update is free for viewing, but if you want to read the archives, you have to subscribe.

This is not a good thing for new viewers of this comic because it is an on-going story and the relationships between the various characters have become a bit complex. I can’t imagine that I’d ever know enough to enjoy the comic by just reading it day by day without benefit of the archives.

Fortunately Life on Forbez has moved around a bit in it’s history. As a result, all but a few of the most recent copies of the archives are available for the moment. Read them fast before the author realizes he’s in violation of his contract…

UPDATE: Life on Forbez has since moved off of Graphic Smash. You can now read the archives in their entirety.