The Sword Interval, by Ben Fleuter, falls into that lovely category of “highly accomplished long-form narrative webcomics” that will likely be a regular feature here. Running from early 2015 to late 2020 on Webtoon, it’s one I found halfway through and followed to the end, combining the joy of seeing a webcomic in real time with an archive which set a high bar right from the beginning.

The comic is about monsters, and Fleuter is incredible at designing and drawing them: right from the very first nasty encountered, we see a fertile imagination and the artistic skill to convincingly realise all the ideas it can come up with. His creatures are upsetting and horrible, but also plausible as creatures within a living world.

Lots of fun individual concepts are established, taken to a logical conclusion, and then taken way beyond that. In the very first episode we encounter a town built inside a colossal skeleton, a cool background concept which is (literally) built on and, much later, takes on a new life. Gold is established as a weapon with certain significant properties, developed in a few ways and – well, no spoilers, but keep an eye out for the space shuttle launches towards the end. “Worldbuilding” is a term which gets thrown about in all sorts of lazy ways, but this is a standout example.

Narratively, it’s a complete story with an actual ending (a really big satisfying one) that draws on threads established throughout. The first two thirds or so are written in a semi-episodic fashion, so the reader can enjoy individual mysteries – Titanfolly, Broughton Hall, Sugar Fen, Operation Marathon – which feed towards the overall conclusion. This helps stop the length of the comic feel overwhelming (and were easier on the week-by-week reader when the comic was updating live, a tricky balance).

Rereading, something that struck me about the narrative is how even-handedly it treats its characters. The two main protagonists, Fall Barros and David Shimizu, are the centre of the story but not the universe. A huge cast of monster-hunters, freelance witches, agents of ATLAS, and normal people just trying to get by are all treated with the same level of interest and dignity (there are, admittedly, several moments where a whole cast of fully realised minor characters comes onstage with a strong sense of someone’s tabletop group showing up together). I enjoyed the second appearance of Luis, a character who first really just appears as a punchline, immensely. These characters’ motives are often ambiguous (by that I mean “they make decisions and alliances contingent on the situation they’re in and react when the situation changes”, not “everyone is an amoral arsehole who’ll do whatever guarantees drama and quips”) and the shifting relationships of trust, loyalty, professionalism, expedience and love between them are a good source of dramatic tension right til the end. Nobody (almost nobody) is a flat villain; everyone is trying to do right by each other and the world, in ways which plausibly conflict with each other. There are significant emotional beats, but the comic doesn’t linger too much much on characters’ inner lives, just as it’s got some absolutely great comedic moments but never contorts a scene just to score a joke.

This comes through in the art as well; there’s no real hierarchy of “the more screen time they get the cooler and more elaborate their design”; everyone and everything is drawn in, all the pieces matter. The art is consistently high-effort, taking no obvious time-saving shortcuts, and fascinated by the details and practicalities of its work (I adore David’s monster-hunting kits).  There are no cheat panels, no obvious shortcuts, and a sense of respect for the world (I particularly appreciate that he bothers to get weapons and military hardware right; it’s not mandatory, but it’s nice when people do know what they’re doing.) It is also, from time to time, very good at genuine chills.

The Sword Interval is a real standout; read it if you like the sound of a complete story full of fun characters and fantastic creatures set in an excellently realised and endlessly creative world, which also features a terrifying tooth-pulling witch, the theft of a Whole Dracula, and the beating up of a dragon with a baseball bat. You can read it on webtoon here or – this may have been paused due to Tumblr TOS shenanigans – the first chapter at least on Tumblr here.

Ben Fleuter has also done the done (great, but sadly ended) post-apocalyptic comic Derelict, the (cancelled? – certainly paused since 2022) fantasy comic The Beekeeper’s Tale, and – going into regular updates this week! – the new vampire and ghost themed comic Sever & Pierce with Natasha Petrović, who also worked on Sword Interval. He also posts side projects and cool monsters on Bluesky and Patreon.

First photo by me; rest are screenshots from webtoon, let me know if that’s not cool.