So let’s take a look at Amu’s World, a photograph comic featuring amigurumi dolls made by Danielle Craven-Slaski, known online as amubleu. I have to admit that using crochet dolls (and a toy alpaca) is a rather cute idea. Amubleu does a good job of posing the dolls for the various actions, and while the facial expressions are added either in Photoshop or with snippets of felt, they’re done in a reliably simple way that doesn’t clash with the dolls.

The writing, done by amubleu’s friend Brian, takes a bit of time to adjust to. Once the obligatory smashing of the fourth wall is taken care of, things settle into an alternation between the semiserious and the honestly goofy. Ninja, a man with a very accurate name from a community of identical ninjas, finds himself having to defend his new home in Amitown from the local variably ineffective gang, but the roots of treachery are deeper than expected.

Because the comic is founded on such an oddball premise, I’m willing to forgive the ninja-versus-pirates retread, as well as the fact that the villains are a trio of bunnies lorded over by an evil panda. Or, for that matter, the alternate hero ninja being Ecuadorean. Or the damsels in distress turning out to be kunoichi.

Even the frequent holiday interruptions and competing deii ex machinae aren’t too much of a hassle when you realize that the whole comic is pretty much a parody of the sort of movies I wasn’t allowed anywhere near as a kid. So far, it’s all in good fun (and I hope it stays that way).

Amu’s World is a world of high drama and high camp coexisting in an uneasy truce. And as long as the two continue to struggle equally, I’ll be more than willing to recommend watching the battle.

Comic Rating: Five shuriken.

It turns out, however, that she’s not the only one who’s wanted to do such a comic. Take, for example, Multiplex, a soap opera-style comic created by Gordon McAlpin. The stupid, impolite, and disingenuous customers certainly show up in force. The emphasis of the comic, however, is placed more on the tangled ball of relationships resulting from a hectic workplace with a variable staff of teenagers and young adults. And let me warn you now: being a soap opera with plenty of young adults, Multiplex is not. Work. Safe. McAlpin even hangs a lampshade on the fact.

Keeping up with the story gets a little tough, however, when there are so very many different characters to keep up with, most of whom only get a few fractions of a page of face time. Sure, it’s realistic to have unfamiliar faces show up, but half the time when a side character gets pulled into the spotlight, you’re left scratching your head and saying, “Who was that?”

Adding to the confusion, the staff characters like to cosplay as characters from current movies. This is often also a means of making various subtle references to features of the movies or to the goings-on backstage. Those who aren’t up-to-date on the latest celebrity gossip will frequently be left clueless.

The comic also tends to delve into political and religious disagreements, but over the course of the comic, McAlpin puts in the effort to be fair. Sure, one Christian is a certifiable airhead, but then she and the other Christian get more depth as characters. And while the progressive-minded atheist of the group gets his moments to feel superior to the ignorant among the faithful, he also gets his comeuppance now and then. The comic walks a fine line, and it’s a testament to McAlpin’s skill that he can keep it from tipping over.

Multiplex was originally meant to be a series of Flash cartoons (as alluded to here), and the art style reflects it, starting mainly as easy-to-animate colorforms. The style has grown slowly more complex, though, and sometimes the scenery is simply mind-blowing. McAlpin bases the comic in his hometown of Chicago, and the familiarity really shows.

So on the one hand, Multiplex is a crude comic full of sex scenes, crude language, innuendo, and racial slurs. And on the other hand, it’s a very well-written comic with intertwining plots, thought-provoking concepts, and a willingness to be unabashedly nerdy on a specialized subject. It’s likely to be a guilty pleasure for anyone who spends a lot of time at the theater, on either side of the counter.

Comic rating: Eight sides (at least) on the love polygon.