Everblue

Everblue is a wonderfully fresh web comic. It is a nautically themed fantasy adventure presented with very clean and consistent artwork. Written and art by Michael "Blue-Ten" Sexton.  He describes the comic as such:

Everblue is a story about adventure, camaraderie, and exploration in a world with a potentially bleak fate.
In a world of endless ocean, a young shipwright named Luna meets an odd and cheerful drifter when he crashes his flying boat on her city’s dock. When strange circumstances force Luna to leave her home, her once quiet life quickly takes a turn for the unpredictable. In an instant she is swept up in an adventure that will take her beyond the bounds of the charted world and into the Everblue, following the path of an ancient legend with the potential to change the world forever.

At the time of this writing the story is a nice way into it's first volume. That is three chapters of maybe eight, about half way through the first of four volumes.

You can find the comic here > Everblue < updated weekly (usually on Sunday).

The setting is being revealed little by little as we follow the characters through the story. This works wonderfully as opposed to a lengthy opening description about the world it's set in. So far we've seen only humans populating world covered almost entirely by water. There are elements of magic or sorcery and a medieval-ish tech level. Not a lot of steampunk, surprisingly (and somewhat thankfully, as it's getting to be a bit cliche in web comics).

Some of the elements that struck me I'll compare with other favorite settings of mine. Luna reminds me of Fio Picollo from Porco Rosso with her innocent integrity and her gift with engineering. Also a lot of water and aquatic vessels. Ten reminds me of Pazu from Castle in the Sky in appearance mainly. My only complaint is one of the villains name's- General Shar. I couldn't help but think of Mobile Suit Gundam. I'm very impressed with the comic and I'm on board for the duration.

Everblue belongs to a growing club of web comics of extraordinary quality art and very creative story telling. The first of these I came across was The Meek, which has been stated as an influence for Everblue. It's hard to formulate what exactly it is these comics have in common (besides the art), but it is something quality of spirit that is also found in Ghibli/Miyazaki films and comics. I am thoroughly enjoying these comics and I anticipate seeing more emerge in the future.

At the very start, Everblue reminded me of the Pinnacle Savage Worlds RPG setting- 50 Fathoms. That could be easily hacked to run a campaign set in the Everblue world.