One of the biggest side effects of the internet has been the opportunity for writers, artists, and musicians to make their work widely available, without having to depend on traditional publishing and distribution.

In fact, a whole medium seemed to rise up in the form of webcomics. Ranging from the avant-garde to the traditional-bordering-on-boring, webcomics are being used to tell stories that may have never been told otherwise.

One such story is the currently ongoing, Paranatural. Drawn and written by Zack Morrison, Paranatural is about twelve year old Max Puckett finding out he can see and interact with ghosts as he moves to the quiet, yet weird town of Mayview.​

He’s soon roped into joining the school’s mysterious “Activity Club”, and from there joke-and-slightly-angst filled ghost hunting adventures begin.

“Kids fighting supernatural threat” isn’t the most original set up for a story to be sure, but Paranatural manages to stand out from the pack.

This is due in large part to its humor, a mix of almost self-aware snark, fun-loving parody, and downright great standalone jokes.
And yet, the humor doesn’t overwhelm the story, letting more serious scenes play out, allowing the audience to be emotionally invested.

Then there’s the cast of characters. Each following some sort of mold, but also with a unique spin or personality that makes them memorable and different.

And on top of all that is the wonderful art.
Striking a mix somewhere between western cartoon and anime, it looks fantastic and fun all at the same time, and lends a lot to the overall feeling of Paranatural.

Of course, nothing is prefect, and Paranatural does have its issues.

Its cast, however charming, is rather large, and long stretches of time can pass before any character can be important; and by that time you may have forgotten them.

Then there’s the plot, which can get hard to keep up with because so many questions are constantly being raised.

But at the end of the day Paranatural is a fun, snarky, barely angsty story about kids hunting ghosts that’s totally enjoyable, so I have to recommend it.