Impressions: Sister Claire

Subtitle Pending...

"Sister Claire" is the brainchild of Yamino, a freelance artist, art student, and self-admitted fan of PowerPuff Girls. This last bit may seem like an odd fact to state until you look at the art style for "Sister Claire"; the bubbly and colorful cartoon is an obvious (and admitted) influence for the creator's work. Also drawing from PPGs is the webcomic's extreme wackiness that says "we're not taking this too seriously." And that's always a good thing.

Sister Claire, the webcomics titular character, is young, sweet, naive, cat-obsessed and plagued by a hearty dose of bad luck. Which could all be considered pretty normal, until a mysterious blue woman appears from her toilet proclaiming that Claire is pregnant with the messiah. I'd list that on my top ten list of weird bathroom moments for sure. What follows is some zany physical comedy, cleverly hidden site gags, potty humor and bits of plot development.

The "Sister Claire" is still relatively new, so more has actually been hinted at or alluded to than actually revealed. Which is fine, as the beauty of webcomics is their ability to tell a long-form story without rushing the creators. So far, the story has progressed slowly, revealing Claire's relationship with her friend and mentor, Sister Catherine, and the stern and seemingly cruel Sister Marguerite. Like much in this webcomic, the two characters are very extreme in their presentation. Only recently has it truly begun to delve into the storyline.

I personally enjoy classic Good vs Evil stories that use modern mythology and religions. However, whenever religion, any religion, is involved there's bound to be readers out there offended and ready to cry "blasphemy." And with a tag line of "Pregnant Nun. Holy Crap" those looking for a fight could find one. They obviously have that right to be offended, but nothing I have read so far is outright insulting to any religion or church. The cliche of the strict and abusive nun comes into play, however, according to Yamino's comments on the site, that is based on her own personal experience.

In either case, I'm not sure how much flak she's received from offended readers, but I just wanted to warn reader that if you look for it, you'll find something to get angry about. If, however, you read it as an edgy but humorous story not meant to be taken too seriously, you'll see she means no real offense... at least I don't think she does. Yamino is setting out to tell an interesting and amusing story about good, evil and pregnant nuns. Being edgy comes with the territory and she obviously has no issue with pushing it even further.