Comic: Diety Permit
By: Soap Committee (Pseudonym, obviously)
Genre and Setting: Humour, Adventure, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Alternate-Reality, Present Day
Art Style: Manga inks, Greyscale, Occasional Guest Colour
Is About: Rika, a girl who doesn't seem to feel cold. On a walk on the cold Hawaiian beach, Rika is kidnapped by a mysterious woman who believes that Rika is 'infected' with something that is responsible for her condition.
Website: http://pele.keenspace.com
Frequency: Erratic. Generally Tuesdays, but sometimes other days as well. Has an update-notice service though.
Availability: Free
First Impressions and Presentation:
Wham!
On arriving on the site I am greeted by an apology-for-lack-of-updates filler comic with a picture of a manga girl... a pretty well-done manga girl... but it looks like it's done in MSpaint. I didn't think such things were possible ;) . Still, not a very auspicious start, although it could really be just bad timing on my part.
Note inserted later: The lack of new comics seems to stem from computer problems, so looks like it IS bad timing on my part.
Website is simple but pretty, with some good use of space, although there's a lot of black and blue... but really, I shouldn't be one to talk ;)
The Concept:
Is pretty unusual and intriguing... and water-based. The idea of a cold Hawaii and an underwater hospital is pretty cool. So much more cooler is the whole 'cold disease' idea. Thumbs up.
The Art:
Damn, that woman can draw! Very pretty traditional manga-style art at that. The lineart is skillful and so is the use of the grey gradients and screentones. I am particularly impressed by Soap's skill at anatomy, makes me wish I could draw the human figure like she does.
In the beginning, there was a distinct lack of backgrounds in the comic, and the characters seemed to be floating in a white space most of the time, but later on she amends this error, and when she draws backgrounds, she draws backgrounds! I especially admire Soap's use of screentones and pattern fills. Unlike most comics, they blend with the art instead of standing out like sore thumbs.
The Writing:
Confusing and unorganised in the beginning.
During the first half of the comic I was quite confused to what was going on as the storytelling was rather choppy and jumpy. However, about half-way through it started getting interesting, although when the flashback came I had absolutely no idea it was a flashback. The writing does improve considerably and shows more planning as the comic goes on, and by the end of it I was quite absorbed in the predicament of Rika as the whole comic began to form a coherent story.
The characters are a rather flaky bunch, and sometimes act rather incomphrehensibly. As with most mangas, you have your slapstick chibi moments, then your serious brooding moments a few seconds later, which can sometimes be a bit jarring.
But it looks like there's a really interesting story comic coming up, and as the story flow becomes smoother, I think I'm going to like it.
Problems:
Other than the aforementioned initial choppiness of the story, the comic updates erratically and s-l-o-w-l-y. There's a update notice service available, so that does help things a little, but thank goodness the fillers and non-comics are kept to a minimum.
Overall:
I kinda like Deity Permit, but there really isn't really enough of it out yet to be able to judge properly. All in all I think it's interesting, and although the erratic schedule means that though I won't be a regular reader, I will be checking back once in a while to see what happens.
The Next Leg:
There are no webcomic links other than the Keenspace NewsHack (NewsBox) in the main page, so to the links page we go.
There's a nice list of links on the links page, and glory be: descriptions! I love links page that have descriptions, it makes my decisions so much easier.
A lot of the comics listed are pretty well-known but one at the bottom seems interesting. The description for Twice Destined runs thus:
Don't let the nun-fanservice throw you off. This is an amazingly-drawn story about two women in different ages of the world, with their own trials and terrors to spare.I've not heard of this one before, so it sounds like a good candidate as any.
Note: I realise that the three comics I have visited so far are all Keenspace comics and this looks to be another one. What can I say? I'm trying not to review comics that have been reviewed (usually popular ones) before, and the Keenspace community IS tight so they tend to link one another. Still, I'm not targeting Keenspace in particular, it just happens to be that way.
So anyway, next stop: Twice Destined!
