The Downward Spirals

Welcome to The Downward Spirals webcomic by John Simcoe.
This comic features the Downward Spirals, the all-opossum squad in the Meadow Hockey League.
Check back on this very page for updates on the team’s efforts, and  look directly below for the most recent update.

You can also BUY the first collection of Downward Spirals comic strips by going here!

PREVIOUS ENTRIES
These are the official pages for each comic. Be sure to check them out, because they will often include alternate endings, early drawings, videos and/or links for further information!
01 — What’s in a Name?
02 — Coaching Tips
03 — The Toughest Foe Yet
04 — This isn’t Hopscotch
05 — What’s the Plan?
06 — Cheap Shots in Hockey
07 — Fit to Print
08 — Penalty Box Blues
09 — What the Puck?
10 — The Shirt Off His Back
11 — How to Start a Hockey Fight
12 — Hockey, You Know, For the Kids
13 — Goal of the Goalie
14 — Illegal Equipment on the Ice
15 — Hockey on a Holiday
16 — Who Plays Hockey?
17 — Take a Break From Hockey
18 — Major Milestones in Hockey
19 — Hi-Tech Hockey Facility
20 — The Fine Arts and Hockey
21 — Faceplant
22 — Not the Players You’re Looking For
23 — Make Your Intentions Clear
24 — Helping Them Help Themselves
25 — Making the Grade in Hockey
26 — Be a Better Hockey Player
27 — Crime and Punishment in Hockey
28 — Hockey on the Inside
29 — We’re Playing Hockey Here!
30 — Hockey Lessons
31 — Hi-Tech and No-Tech
32 — Hockey & the Bard
33 — Halloween and Hockey
34 — Working for Peanuts
35 — More than hockey

WHAT ARE THE TEAMS?
The comic strip stars The Downward Spirals, the tree-dwelling all-possum team. The entire league is:

• The Downward Spirals (Possums)
• The Dam Quixotes (Beavers)
• The Bluff Nuts (Squirrels)
• The Apple Corps (Raccoons)
• The Bone Yards (Dogs)
• The Garden Jests (Rabbits)
• The Marsh Invaders (Skunks)
• The Bridge Billies (Goats)
• The Loch Foxes (Foxes)
• The Coniferous Coldbloods (Turtles, who always seem to cancel their games)

WHAT’S WITH THE SCORES?

The way I see it, each strip represents a game played within the
Meadow Hockey League. I’m just giving you the final score of each game.
Eventually, I’ll post up a stats block for these guys.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

I’m John Simcoe. Right now I live in York, Pennsylvania, but I grew up in the farmland just outside of Corning, N.Y. You can probably guess I don’t have any formal art training — and you’d be correct. Other than high school art classes and a stack of How-To books, my art education is limited. But that doesn’t matter, creating stuff is just amazing and since art is just my hobby and comics are my passion a comic strip was a natural.

Looking over the vast landscape of webcomics (and comics in general) I noticed there weren’t many sports related comics, so I decided to give a hockey comic a try.

Rather than focus on people playing hockey, I found I had more fun drawing critters in hockey gear, so that’s how the Downward Spirals were born.

If you want to help me keep drawing my comics, please help me with art supplies or just order my mini-comic!

UPDATES?

Updates to the Downward Spirals legacy are going to be few and far between at this point, but please keep checking back. If you don’t see one and want one, e-mail me and demand one!

Of course you can also make the big step to buy the Downward Spirals collection. That certainly motivates me to do more! Click here for details!

HOW DO YOU MAKE YOUR DOWNWARD SPIRAL COMICS?

I draw them with a ball-point pen on the back of the most useless
paper product known to man: Comic-book backing boards. Then I scan them
in, shade them, add my zinger of a punch-line and post them up.

(Click here for Downward Spirals notes and designs)