Honeydew Syndrome

Honeydew Syndrome is a web comic about a group of teenage boys (and two girls) in high school. It’s split basically into two parts, the first section focusing on an emo boy and a jock, the second on two different couples, one that’s been together for awhile and one that’s in the pre-getting together phase.

If you’ve read a lot of online slash fiction, you won’t be too surprised by the general plot line in the first section. An emo and jock are paired together on a project and there was an incident involving violence between them (the jock hit the emo kid in the face). The main difference here is that it’s in web comic form.

Also, it isn’t completely typical. The characters are much less drama prone than in many stories. There’s no stereotypical bullying or rampant homophobia. In fact, I think that at least a bit of the drama (in the first section) can be blamed on the fact that the emo kid buys too much into the fact that all jocks are homophobic assholes. It’s sweet though and the emo kid has a backbone, a sense of humor, and a serious knowledge of geek stuff.

The second section deviates from the typical a bit more and I like it quite a bit more. One guy is interested in another. The ‘another’ in this is cold and aloof. The first struggles with his crush, what to do about it, etc. This section covers some of the same time as the first did and is sort of a behind the scenes bit for parts, but also goes beyond.

It also goes back and forth between the guy that is interested in the other one and his group of friends that includes a couple with a complicated history that they’ve never really resolved.

None of the storylines are outstanding and none of the characters are really ever fully developed. There is nothing explicit and only a few kisses and a little cuddling.

That said, I do like this. It has comical parts and there is just something endearing about it. The characters are cute if not totally 3D and the art is better than sooooooo many web comics out there and even some published yaoi manga.

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