39th Leg: Rice Boy

Wayfinder and Kensington the Mouse lounged by the side of the busy festival street, watching the fracas between a group of overly confident hooligans and a rather portly Shaolin Monk.

"So Ken..." said Wayfinder as one of the men lost a front tooth, "Where do you think we should go next?"

Kensington, who was preoccupied with a piece of spilt melon, did not bother to issue anything more than a muffled, can't-speak-my-mouth-is-full kind of squeak.

"Thanks." Wayfinder rolled her eyes before ducking by reflex as a thug whizzed past her right ear. "Very helpful."

"If you're looking for a place to go, I can recommend going to visit the Rice Boy." said one of the onlookers in the crowd, who were too enjoying the free martial arts demonstration.

"Rice Boy?" Echoed Wayfinder, her curiosity piqued. "Sounds rather odd."

"Strange and psychedelic." The Onlooker helpfully supplied further as he pointed to the relevant anchor tag.

"Sounds good to me... KEN! ANCHOR TAG!" Ken gave a resigned squeak and finally abandoned the melon rind. "I guess we'll be out of here." said Wayfinder to the onlooker. "Thanks for the recommendation... Mr..."

"Max." said the Onlooker with a wave as Ken activated the anchor tag and sailed them away into another world...




Comic: Rice Boy
By: Evan Dahm

Setting and Elements: Fantasy, Surreal, Anthropomorphic
Content Type: Epic Adventure

Art Medium: Inked, Colour
Art Style: Unique

Is About: Rice Boy, who has been chosen as the fulfiller of an ancient prophecy to restore balance to the world.

Website: http://www.rice-boy.com/
Frequency: N/A
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The main page is a portal page, which links to several comic projects, Rice Boy being only one of them. It looks to be that Rice Boy is a completed project, so I should be able to give you a complete review this time round.

Hm ok maybe not several comic projects. More like two, I think I got a miscount first time round.

The website design is really nice. It's minimalistic, but effectively pleasant.

And the art style looks interesting... Weird, but interesting.


The Concept:
A tiny little hermit of the woods, named Rice Boy, is chosen by the "divine messenger" T-O-E as the fulfiller of a great prophecy. But T-O-E doesn't really believe in the prophecy, and neither does Rice Boy. Unfortunately for them, the previously decided "Chosen One", does.


The Art:
The art for Rice boy is very interesting, with loose but well-defined lines, clean but moody colours, and character designs that can only be called unique.

There's a lot of design in this despite the initial simplicity, and a level of detail I find surprising. From the different faces displayed on T-O-E's monitor/head, to the plants in the background, the the landscapes of the radically different places in the world, it's quite amazing how Evan has managed to come up with so different designs for each race and character. Characters (will most of the important ones) are easily recognizable, yet bear elements in their clothing and such that mirror those in the real world that allow the reader to associate it with what they are supposed to represent.

I also love some other non-story details, such as how the header for each chapter is customized for an image suitable for the chapter.


The Writing:
Rice Boy is set in a strange, very original, and very fantastical world. The characters are all non-human, but have human characteristics, and in a way are a pastiche of our own societies.

The dialogue between the characters is often charming and well thought out. It's rare when I find a comic where I can read a page and just enjoy it for the sake of the dialogue. It's not something many comics do well. 

One thing I especially like is how characters introductions are done. The pacing is excellent, you never felt swamped by too many characters, and even the secondary characters who make brief appearances radiate depth of character.

The story starts out whimsical, and light-hearted, until a turning point where it begins to get darker and scarier.

So ok, the story is based on a prophecy being fulfilled and all that. And you all know that due to the premise being overused I tend to look askance at any story that is based around a prophecy. But the reason for that is stories based on that premise tend to be incredibly cliched and (what is possibly the biggest sin of all when storytelling) boring. If someone can take an overused premise, put in interesting characters and give the story new life, there's no reason why I won't like it.

Problems:
The story was an interestingly good read and had lots of original points about it, but there were also times when annoyance at the plot broke my suspension of disbelief. I do think Evan has done a sterling job coming up with the characters and background, and the twist at the story is a refreshing change, but the sheer number of times Rice Boy can run into trouble only to saved/rescued by dumb luck/good samaritans/destiny gets little irritating after a while.

Yes I do realize this is often typical of any stories that involve destiny and prophecies, but it does detract from the writing when it happens too often because it really does smack of being rescued by a deus ex machina.

Of course, it's not saying Rice Boy is an entirely passive or cowardly protagonist. He really is quite courageous in his own way after all. Keep in mind for him, what he does what for him is an incredibly scary thing... he leaves the home he has grown up in, ventures into places he has never heard of and despite all he goes through he never gives up on his goal.

It's hard to put my finger on why it bothers me so much. It could be that my over-thinking mind wonders what would happen if Rice Boy DOESN'T get lucky or saved, and then immediately realises that there wouldn't be much of story left in that point. I guess my preference is for less luck and fate and more on the things the characters proactively do.

However the story still works, mainly because Evan carefully balances out Rice Boy's innocence, naivete and faith with a foil character. This comes in the form of T-O-E, the ancient, jaded and somewhat cynical "divine messenger" who is beginning to suspect his "god" is a hoax.

Still, part of me is niggled by the thought that without this flaw it could have been as close to a perfect find as I've seen.

Overall:
Rice Boy is a beautifully done (and even more amazing) completed comic. I definitely enjoyed it very much despite its flaws.

So... if you have a lazy Sunday afternoon to spend, I'd recommend a comfty seat, good music (Last.fm has really been good at giving me good recommendations of late), a tall glass of iced tea, and reading Rice Boy from page one.

I certainly didn't regret it.

The Next Leg:
"Say Ken..." Wayfinder as she looked as the description on the anchor tag. "What do you think of 'creepy and strange'?"

The winged mouse looked at her with a somewhat aggrieved expression.

"C'mon!" Said Wayfinder, grinning evilly as she tossed him onto the anchor tag. "Where's you sense of adventure?"


So many comics! So little time! Journey Legs aim to explore webcomics through creator recommendations. From the links page of a comic, I select another comic, record my first impressions, and then review it in depth. Once that is done, I repeat the process by selecting another comic through the links page of the current comic. This goes on and on... no I have no idea when I plan to stop...

38th Leg: Shi Long Pang

Comic: Shi Long Pang
By: Ben Costa

Setting and Elements: "17th Century China"
Content Type: Action/Adventure, Historical

Art Medium: Full-Colour, Heavy Inklines, Simplified
Art Style: Manhwa-Simplified Cartoon hybrid

Is About: The adventures of a shaolin monk who is forced to wander away from his monastery.

Website: http://www.shilongpang.com
Frequency: Weekly (about)
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
I like the simplistic layout of the site, and how the title image blends with the background. The art is eye catching, if rather heavily styilized, and while I don't mind it for a humour comic it looks to me like this is an action-adventure one. I know some readers might get turned off by that. For some reason the mindset is that simplified = humour and action = realistic, but hey this is webcomics, the rules are made to be bent and broken.

It takes me a moment to realize the main site is no longer at Modern Tales and has moved to http://www.shilongpang.com/

The main site is even more elegantly simplistic. In fact I like the current site design even better. Whatever else you might say for the creator, he knows how to make a site look clean, interesting, and new-reader friendly.


The Concept:
Shi Long Pang is the tale of a wandering monk in ancient China. Yes I know that sounds ridiculously cliched, but this story is more than what it seems at first.

The titular character is a lost monk, wandering around looking for survivors of his monastery after it was razed by an army convinced the monks were harbouring rebels. Aptly described by a city guard as "like a little pork bun", he seems rather nondescript, but as more and more of the story unfolds, we get to see more and more of how he fits into the overall picture of war, intrigue and politics.

And wouldn't you know it, I go and pick a sample image that has the titular character cropped out. Uh... Oops. 

No that monk there is NOT Shi Long Pang.

The Art:

Like I mentioned before, the art at first glance seems over-simplified, but it is by no means simple. The colouring is beautiful, and although sometimes the facial expressions don't quite gel.

But overall the art is subtle and effective. And the detail in some of the pages truly is epic. The fight scenes, (and there are many of them), are intricately done. It's pretty amazing, as is sheer amount of energy and fluidity in them.

The more I read this the more amazed I am than the perspective and point of view the artist uses. It doesn't feel like a comic more, but a full blown movie and I'm in the middle of it. Quite an accomplishment.

And that simplified style really does grow on you.

I have to say though, I'm not a big fan of the use of screentones experimented with in the later pages though. They sort of go against the whole subtle nature of the artist's style. But it could be just teething problems.


The Writing:

One beef I often have with comics set in non-American contexts is pretty much well... the mannerisms and characters in the comics are often pretty much American, transplanted into ancient Japan or Rome or whatever exotic place they are supposed to be in.

There's usually very little research done on what those places WERE like, so it's refreshing for once to see a comic that goes into this with such painstaking detail.

I particularly like the use of authentic terminology, and the very reader-friendly footnotes that explain what they mean. Sometimes they are a little lengthy, but overall they give the comic a feel that I have very rarely encountered elsewhere. This, ladies and gentlemen, is writing with substance.

Although some scenes weave crazily from tragedy to humour the storytelling, pacing and introductions are superbly done. I never felt overwhelmed with characters (who were all humbly lovable), and I loved how the story gradually built up and deepened.
Politics and philosophy in particular, are very difficult subjects to tackle when it comes to comics, but the author carries it off very successfully here, and you can understand why things happen the way they do.

On a personal note, I love the bilingual jokes. Yes I know most people will miss them, which makes it funnier for those who DO get them, I suppose.


Problems:

The layout of the panels, while most of the time artistic, is sometimes confusing. Attempts have been made to improve the readability by adding arrows and such, but in my opinion they didn't work that well. The eye travels faster than the amount of time it takes the brain to register the pointy arrows, so having read a panel or two and then having my eye jerked back to the correct path can get somewhat tiresome.

Sometimes the walls of text in some pages are a little hard to read due to the hand-lettering (rest of the time, the hand-lettering's great though).

Like I mentioned before, the simplistic style of the art might turn new readers off, but I really wouldn't change it for the world. Sometimes you can't pander to the lowest common denominator, and if they miss out on this gem, it's their loss, really.

Overall:

I didn't really expect to like Shi Long Pang as much as I did. You know a comic is good when you continue thinking about it after you're away from your computer and doing something else and you're still pondering about the storyline and your favourite pages.

Yes, I didn't have great expectations of SLP, but the vaunted subtlety I keep talking about managed to get under my skin, and lo and behold, this one's going on my reading list.

The Next Leg:

I'm going to leave the choice of the next leg open for the time being and make my decision on which comic I'm going to pick from the Shi Long Pang links page later. Unless you want to recommend one from there, of course.

37th Leg: Dresden Codak

Comic: Dresden Codak
By: Aaron Diaz

Setting and Elements: Surreal, Sci-Fi, Semi-Futuristic
Content Type: Philosophical, Adventure, Action, Satire

Art Medium: Full Colour, Tablet
Art Style: Semi-realistic Cartoony

Is About: Kimiko, a transhumanist roboticist and her adventures dealing with her disillusionment with humanity, space robots and other things.

Website: http://dresdencodak.com
Frequency: Irregular weekly
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation: I really like the website design. It's clean but not sterile, and is generously sprinkled with samples of the cartoonist's art style. Navigation is clearly linked... my only beef is I'm not sure where to start from.

You would think that clicking the Comic Archive button would solve everything but it doesn't. Yon reader is presented with a list of comics, but there's no clear indication of the beginning, so I guess I'll go by date and take the earliest one.


The Concept:

Dresden Codak is one of the first examples I've seen of a non-serialized comic. There is no clear beginning or end, it's more of a collection of stort stories and philosophical ramblings of the author. The beginning pages you can read out of order if you like, they are standalones. 

It's only up to the "Hob" storyline when things get a little more sequential and there's more a semblance of a contiguous storyline.

Don't expect your typical webcomic setup here. No siree. No-four-friends-in-an-apartment making wisecracks, no party-of-adventurers setting out to vanquish evil overlord, no band-of-freedom-fighters waging a desperate war against a robotic sentience. Oh wait... forget what I said about the last part.

By the way the title Dresden Codak doesn't really have much to do with the comic's naming. It's more of a pen name. At least, as the creator Aaron Diaz says it:

Why "Dresden Codak"? - Because I don't want to be confused with Latin sensation Aaron Diaz.

The Art:

The art for the comic is downright gorgeous. Aaron is a professional artist, and you can tell that from every panel of art, design, layout and detail in his work.

Apparently he does most of his work digitally, with computer and tablet, though many people might think he inks the art by hand and colours digitally (not so). I think I learned more about drawing just from looking at his technique and detail than I have for a long while.

Words are poor choice for describing the art really, I'll let the self-insertion do the talking:



The Writing:

As nice as the art is for this comic, the writing is the most distinctive thing here.

You know how I always complain about subpar comics with boring and cliched writing and such? And how we should all read comics that are out of our comfort zone once in a while?

Well I can assure you Dresden Codak does not fall in the boring and cliched category. This here is a comic that requires quite a bit of outside reading and thinking to grasp. I'll candidly admit I didn't get all the references to quite a few of the theological discussions. (And poof, there goes the illusion I had that I was reasonably well-read. Apparently when you start working you get depressingly practical and what you read and lose all your idealistic theory :( )

Back to the topic of the writing, the messages behind the comic are surprisingly deep and thought-provoking. The topics cover range form science, religion, psychology etc etc. One might not necessarily like or agree with them, but they do make you think. And I like comics that make me think, even when they make me think of things I'd normally wouldn't choose to think about. Lastly, I like comics that introduce new concepts and topics to me. (First time I've heard of "Transhumanism", for example.)

Oh I should also mention, this comic is unapologetically and proudly atheist. If religion is a taboo subject for you, you might not find this comfortable reading. As one of the Dresden's tagline goes: "Alienating audiences since 2005".

The Hob storyline is a merits a seperate section on the writing, being less of the standalone ramblings and more of a full blown epic storyline. There is a detailed story and characters that we have been briefly introduced to are given a deeper characterization, Some of it had me in stitches. 

It's a little easier to follow than the preceding pages, but still has quite a lot of "thinkety think" involved to understand the whole argument on why the characters do what they do.

It is a satisfying read though.


Problems:

I don't think it's a "problem" per se, but more of an on-purpose designed obstacle by the author that so much of the writing of this comic requires effort to understand. 

The thing is, many people don't really read comics to think.

Frankly? People read about star-ships and alien and fantasy elves not because they want to study alien civilizations or elven anthropology (or whatever you call the study of elven culture *chuckle*). No, they read books and comics about these things as a form of escapism from their own real lives. Even if it's for a little while.

So I suspect many readers will be attracted to something that looks like a steampunk/fantasy comic to them, and then when they start reading they're going to end up with a philosophical brickbat in the face.

And the sadistic part of me is going to giggle when they make a hasty retreat back to those comics about blond elven archers and womanizing starship captains vs space aliens.

You know, the old and comfortable well-worn stuff. And it's probably better that way.

Overall:

Dresden Codak is a well done piece of work, but it's something that isn't for everyone, and I get the impression the creator made it with a niche audience in mind. No pandering to the lowest common denominator here. 

And that's what makes it excellent in its own right.

There are cute references to obscure (or not so obscure, eg. Star Trek) things everywhere, and the Flaming Lips-que page names are (I apologize for the gamerspeak) pure win.

All in all, I find it interesting and refreshing, and a bit of a challenge. I might not exactly be checking it eagerly daily, but I will pop back once in a while to see what Kimiko and gang are up to whenever I need something to think about and want something different.


ps: I had no idea until after I had written this that Dresden Codak was the WCCA winner for 2008. Out of touch much, Ping?

ps again: Oooohhh.... guilty. 

The Next Leg:

Well this looks interesting. Westernized manhua? Easternized comics? Depends on how you look at it I suppose.

36th Leg: Sam and Fuzzy

I couldn't find a link image from their link page, so I borrowed one from the archive page instead


Comic: Sam and Fuzzy
By: Sam Logan

Setting and Elements: Present-Day, Alternate reality 
Content Type: Humour, Adventure

Art Medium: Black and White, Line Art
Art Style: Stylised Cartoony

Is About: The adventures of the eponymous Sam, a "normal small-town guy" and his friend Fuzzy. Who is a bear... like... thing...

Website: http://samandfuzzy.com

Frequency: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The page is very nicely done. It's very clean and functional, it really compliments the art well. 

And from what I can see the art is very cute indeed, black and white with clean lines, cartoony portions. I really have no idea what this comic is about with a title like "Sam and Fuzzy" so anything goes.

On a side note, I find the little details, such as graying out the ads on the side of the page to match the rest of it a very nice touch.

Getting good vibes so far, and special bonus points for the "Read from the beginning" link so handily displayed! *clickety click!*

I have to say I am impressed at the lengths this comic goes to make it friendly to new readers. There's an introduction and a recommended starting point, Plus a handy bookmark feature too boot. 

The Concept:
Sam and Fuzzy seems to be founded on the premise of epic, whacky adventure of a normal guy in really abnormal situations. And with a really abnormal companion (In this case, Fuzzy)

Jumping in from the storyline "Noosehead", it follows the exploits of "Crush" (Sam's nickname) who is a fugitive hiding from a bunch of very angry ninjas by being a roadie for the superlatively famous death metal band Noosehead. Of course jumping in at this point I got a bit disoriented, so it took me a while to figure out the concept.


The Art:
Sam (The artist, not to be confused with the character Sam) has a very consistent and distinctive cartoon style. A lot of his character designs are elegantly simple but expressive, although some of the simplicity goes a little too far that it is hard to tell what some of the characters are supposed to be at times. For example, I had no idea Fuzzy was a bear. I thought he was a robot for a good few chapters...

Similarly, I'm not a big fan of Sam's (the main character)'s rather clownish design once he ditched the "Crush" look. A bit too simplistic when you compare it against most of the others. Still, the characters are nothing to complain about, you can tell most of them apart easily, except for most of the ninjas, but then that's intentional.

The background art is in keeping with the character art... minimalistic yet suggestive and suitable. Logan keeps it devoid of superfluous detail, with just enough to let your imagination fill in the blanks. 

All in all the art is solid, once you get used to the style, which may be a bit strange to some. 


The Writing:

At first I felt very confused, probably due to too many characters being introduced at the same time. Granted, it was probably because I jumped in at the recommended storyline instead of starting at the beginning, but after the initial confusion things sorted themselves out and I started to follow the story. Plenty of helpful recaps are provided and while I have no idea how annoying they might be to someone who has read starting from page one, they work for the new reader if you're prepared to accept that a lot of these characters have bloody convoluted pasts.

Characterization of a lot of the secondary characters are excellent. Sam starts off a bit flat ad Fuzzy is annoying but after a while (especially in the recent story arc) Sam's character really starts to develop. Fuzzy is still annoying but you develop a tolerance to him after a while, which presume is the point.

The story plots start off relatively humourous (the lead singer of the death metal band is sick of depressing, angry music and wants to change his musical direction to folk songs, much to the horror of his recording company) and moves on to an epic, full-blown, convoluted conspiracy theory (the recording company is evil, meanwhile Sam is destined to be the ruler of an army of evil ninjas who all want to kill him). 

Surprisingly the story weaves together pretty well. Being the sharp-eyed martinet for gaping plot holes, and with a plot this complicated, I was surprised I didn't spot any that rang my warning bells yet. That's not to say that it's one of those comics that start out humourous and move on to be unbearably draggy and serious. In fact despite the increasing scale of the storyline, funny moments that had me barking in laughter were liberally sprinkled throughout the pages. (The name cards for the ninjas are my personal favourite)

Problems:
I'll be honest and admit I'm picking nits here. As I mentioned before, there are a little too many characters to wrap your head around at the beginning. Some people may have the patience to read through the first part until things start making sense. Others would just skip the whole thing.

The other thing is quite trivial but had a bit of an impact on my read. There are many guest comic periods throughout the run. Unfortunately most of them were just popped in mid-storyline with no option to skip them altogether. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind guest strips, most comics have them. Some of them might even be awesome. I just don't bloody like them in the middle of my first read of a comic, especially if they are in between pages of a gripping storyline. Pop them into their own section or gimme a link to skip them, please.

Overall:
All in all I enjoyed Sam and Fuzzy. It didn't quite blow my mind and keep me reading into the night like Dr. McNinja did, but it was relaxingly entertaining. It was a good read although I almost wish I hadn't started from "Noosehead" but from page one instead. It would have allowed me to escape this nagging feeling I was missing out on quite a bit of background during the whole time I was going through the archives. I might just add this to my read list and check back once in a while :)

The Next Leg:

From the lineup on the Links page, Dresden Codak looks interesting. It's an rather odd name, I dare say I should be able to tell you why it's called that by the time I complete the next leg of my journey.

35th Leg: Kristy Versus The Zombie Army

Comic: Kristy Versus The Zombie Army
By: David Tekiela

Setting and Elements: Surreal Reality, Modern-Day
Content Type: Horror, Action, Adventure

Art Medium: Inks, Digital Colour
Art Style: Cartoonish, Manga influence is heavy.

Is About: A girl named Kristy who hunters Zombies. And other evil things.

Website: http://kristyvsthezombiearmy.com/
Frequency: Fridays
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The layout of the page is neat and professional. It's black, and I love the teaser image for the latest page.

I really am forcing myself to keep my expectations low for this comic (this is based on its concept). After the phenomenal Dr.McNinja, I'm bound to compare whatever stop I make after that unfavourably against it, and I do not want to do that unfairly. I know... I'm human, I'm biased no matter how I try not to be, but that doesn't mean I stop trying.

From the title of the comic I'm morbidly curious on whether I'm going to be disappointed or not. Every superhero/horror comic nowadays seems to have the obligatory army of undead zombies and hero/ine battling them. I've reviewed a few in my past journeys. I may have been away from webcomics for almost 3 years but I'm still jaded to that concept thank you very much.

So if I am THIS pessimistic why did I even come here?

Well, Dr. McNinja recommended it by linking it, that's why. That, and I really want to see if this creator can bring in something fresh and new to a concept that has been worn threadbare. You never know. Besides, it's part of the Dayfree Press, so I assume there must be something!

And with that note, I clicketh the archive button...


The Concept:
Kristy is the daughter of two apparently famous heroes who hunted zombies, and I presume, other forces of evil. She attends the Nightshade University of Higher Learning, a school for Hunters of Zombies and such stuff. The comic follows her adventures as she follows her parent's legacy.


The Art:
The art for KVTZA starts off shaky, as most comics are wont to do. I really like the use of color in the strips, especially how it felt like it wasn't colour slapped on to black and white art. I was sorry to see them desaturate into black-and-white in the later pages.

The art style is distinctive, a cross between cute-cartoony with a lot of influence from manga, particularly in the over-exaggerated expressions whenever any of the characters have some strong emotion.  Sometimes this is a good thing, but when used wrongly and overused in particular, it stops being effective and becomes annoying.

I have to say I really do not like a lot of the character designs. The protagonist Kristy in particular, suffers from a very bland design. Partially due to this, I, as a reader, was absolutely unable to garner any semblance of liking or interest in her, which is a portent of doom for any webcomic. 

I couldn't help noticing a trend... The objects David seems to excel at drawing are anything other than humans. The Master Panda is well done, the Rock Person, Oswald is downright adorable... but when I see the lackluster human depicted next to them, it just doesn't gel. To further stress this point, I cannot help but notice whatever shortcomings the artist might have in drawing people, he is more than capable when it comes to backgrounds and scenery. There were quite a few pages where I just stopped reading and was amazed and how beautifully and artistically simple some of his background work is. 

The Writing:
...confuses me. It infuriates me because there is so much of it and so little substance at the same time. Most of all, it drives me nuts because it doesn't compliment the art, instead it barges in, overwhelms and smothers it.

I think there's a story behind this... and there might be a plot somewhere, I'm just trying to make sense of it. 

I can say without any hesitation that the writing is the very glaring weak point of the comic. In fact I have a dilemma because anything I write about the writing would be qualified to go in the "Problems" section.

Anyways, I will detail the problems with writing here, and any that are in the realm of both art and writing I will pop into the section after this.

Let's start with characterization. The eponymous Kristy is supposed to be a headstrong, independent, courageous girl who has reformed and now dedicated to hunting down the evil zombies. Every now and then a secondary character mentions how special she is, but the problem is from the point of view of this reader she doesn't do anything that seems worthy of the respect given to her. She talks to much, whines too much, thinks too little, monologues too much...

..gawd, don't get me started on the monologuing. This had me pulling my hair out at one point. For some reason Kristy feels that it is necessary to recap in a monologue, the events of the last few pages every few pages, ala old newspaper comics. If she doesn't do it, the narrator does it for her. And it will always be in this cheesy-advert epic sounding wall-of-text.

Unfortunately this is not a newspaper comic, it's a webcomic . When you read this in one shot it's not only redundant... it's absolutely a chore. And the word "chore', let me remind you... rhymes with "bore".

Back to the characterization... my other bone to pick with it is it's also inconsistent. You have an apparently bad-ass Kungfu Panda Master (Oh come on you knew that was coming) whom the writer spends time to set up and how much of a zombie killing machine he is. Yet he gets taken out in an embarrassingly cliched "I throw myself in front of you to take the blow for you" anti-climax. Arrrgh... What's the point then?

There are numerous characters that are introduced for no apparent reason, and more often than not their actions make no sense. Kristy herself makes no sense.  Let me give you an example of what I just said: 

1. In the beginning Kristy receives some mystic orb from her parents that she's supposed to protect at all costs. 
2. Hordes of evil zombies show up and take it (and almost kill her in the process). 
3. She recovers from a 5 month coma and swears she'll get it back. 
4. She goes off to train with KungFu Panda Master (who has another apprentice i might add) in a bid to get it back. 
   
5. Meanwhile bad guys discover it is a fake, assume she swapped the orbs, and swear to get it from her.
6. Bad guys attack Kristy and Panda Master, disappointing panda fight cop-out occurs. 
7. Bad guys realise Kristy does not have the orb. The oh-so-great panda master gets taken prisoner since bad guy is so lazy he can' t be bothered looking for it any more and needs to blackmail Kristy to do his work for him.
8. Kristy does his work for him and tracks the REAL orb down. Apprentice 2 doesn't even merit an appearance . You'd think he'd be worried about his master too or something. Apparently not.
9. Kristy meets guardian of the orb, who despite knowing the bad guys won't keep their word, will give the orb to Kristy if "she defeats him in battle". 
10. Eventually Kristy gets the orb and trades it in for the Panda Master.
11. Bad guys attempt to betray her, orb guardian shows up and throws his sword to her and disappears again.
12. Kristy manages to hurt the bad guy, bad guy retreats and gives back Panda Master.
13. Bad guys get away with orb.

I think most of you will see my problem with this... did we forget point number one? The annoying thing is that she doesn't even seem to show any hesitation on what choice she has to make. No "ok Panda life VS Really Important Thing Dead Parents told me to guard with my life for the good of the world... what do I do?" She just blindly follows the path unwavering like a non-human automaton. Maybe because the script says so. I don't know, but I cannot identify with Kristy. At All. I cannot even begin to understand her thinking.

So uh... we've just touched on characterization, behaviour and dialogue... what about the plot?

It seems to consist of lots of cliches that feel like they've been borrowed from miscellaneous movies. There's whole parent's legacy thing, the Special One onus given to Kristy, the whole quest for an item of power, having to rescue friend by hunting for that thing bad guy wants...? 

And the fight scenes. I like comics with action. I love action. But there is action and there is repetition. This is repetition.

It did cross my mind that KVTZA might actually be a parody of all the cliche films and comics that do the same thing... but it doesn't feel like a parody comic. It feels dead-serious. There is an occasional moment of humour, but none that really have me laughing. It leaves me con-fuddled.

Problems:
I don't like writing negative reviews and I really don't like not being able to praise something that has obviously shown so much effort put into it. But at the same time, I am not a PR officer for webcomics, and I do owe it to my readers to be honest.

And I truly believe I do owe it to David to at least try and explain what it is that didn't work out for me, so he can learn from it.

This is my train of thought at one point:

Ping: Hm, ok, violence... fight scene... oh another fight scene... fight scene... 

*More fight scenes*

Ping: Hokay... why is she narrating exactly what she's depicted as doing in the panel? Surely it isn't necessary to describe slicing zombies with chainsaws on a panel that shows her waving around a bloody chainsaw and slicing zombies... 

*Much more fight scenes Later* 

Ping: ...If I see another character who's grinning say "Grin" and a character running with the sound effect "Run!" and a punching combatant say "PUNCH!" I'm going to kick something... Oh god it's another monologue recap... not another monologue recap!

*Even More fight scenes later*

Ping: This whole thing doesn't make sense. How many more pages of this left? Oh no... another obstacle... she's going to fight again. It's not even interesting fighting. Please... Kristy just shut up and fight and  don't keep narrating your fight. PLEASE! HELP!

To summarize my meandering diatribe, the main problems are thus:

1. Too much fighting, too little substance
2. Plot makes no sense. 
3. Characters make no sense and do not behave in a consistent manner. They are overly dramatic about things they shouldn't be and totally ignore things that they should.
4. Please stop narrating the action scenes. They're action scenes, not narr-action scenes. 

That's the main ones I can think for the moment. It's a pity, because so much more could have been done with this concept, and instead of something new it just feels like a rehash. 

Overall:

Once again, I am left to wonder if this was intended to be a parody. The whole thing reads like this parody page of bad action I did for How Not to Run a Comic a few years ago: How not to Do an Action Scene. It's so similar in spirit its uncanny.

Ok I'm convinced this is a parody comic now. It has to be. Given the similarity of the art here to the Rat Creatures in Jeff Smith's Bone, it has to be.

In all fairness, the comic starts improving towards the end.  And it does seem that David is learning to "Show, not tell"... Behold! A page without text or narration!

I guess time will tell whether KVTZA is salvageable. I do apologize to David if I seem too harsh, but these are my very honest impressions of the comic from the point of view of a first-time reader. I hope he finds them at least a little informative. In the meantime, I'm going to get my flame-retardant suit.

The Next Leg:

The first choice I picked, "END" seems to be a broken link, so looks like Sam and Fuzzy gets the next leg! 

34th Leg: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja

Now if you recall, back in my last actual log I checked out Dementia of Magic. So in grand Webcomic Finds' style, I'm continuing from DoM's link page. There are many well known webcomics there, but the absurdity of the concept made this one stand out:

Comic:
By: Chris Hastings (Pencils and Writing), Kent Archer (Inks)

Setting and Elements: Modern Day, Surreal Reality
Content Type: Action, Humour

Art Medium: Black and white, Pencil and Inks
Art Style: American Comic Book

Is About: The story follows the exploits of Dr. McNinja, of the Irish McNinja ninja clan (I cannot believe I typed that out with a straight face). The Doc, as he is known, has rebelled against his family tradition of being ninjas and becomes a doctor. The stories follow his adventures as he tries to run a general practice and cope with his life as a ninja at the same time.

Website: http://www.drmcninja.com/
Frequency: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation: The white website design is very clinical and well designed. I find it odd that both creators names were not on the frontpage with any sort of copyright notice, but all the information is available on the "About" page.

The illustation on the frontpage, of a ninja in a doctor's labcoat is beautifully rendered, if a little posy and stiff-looking. Overall, it looks to be promising, the premise is definitely unusual. Now to see how it plays out.

There is no "Start reading from first page" link on front page, so off to Archives.

The art style is very old-school comic-bookish, black and white ink lines. It looks pretty good so far. Judging by the preview it's a hugh archive, so looks like I'm in for a long read.

The Concept:
Well to be sure, the concept is unusual. You can have medical sitcoms like Grey's Anatomy and then you can have shows about ninjas. Combining the two is like combining strawberry cheesecake and rice congee. Not something you'd really think of naturally.

The Art:
Like most webcomics, the art starts off a little shaky in the first storyline but steadily improves as time goes on. The comic is in black and white, with clean lines although the artist does make use of what looks like tablet-work for some special effects.

The action looks very well-drawn, although at time I have had a strong feeling that some of the elements in the page have felt traced. Mind you this observation disappears in the later issues, the art is overall very well down and the composition of the pages and panel layout are impeccable.

Character design is very very distinctive. I certainly never had any difficult at any point differentiating between characters even though maybe 50% of the characters are ninjas who never, ever remove their ninja masks. Granted, a ninja who runs about in a white lab coat and stethoscope isn't particularly hard to confuse. Mind you, it's hard to make a ninja in a white lab coat look good, but heck, the Chris Hasting-Kent Archer partnership does it with considerable finesse.

One thing worth of mention is that since the main character is one who never ever (I repeat) removes his mask, all the expression for the Doc is done though what you can see of him, body language and eyes. Speaking from experience, I can tell you this is not easy. And here, it is remarkably well done.

The Writing:
The writing for Dr. McNinja is consistent in a few aspects, mainly that it's funny, and in keeping with the titular character, it's irreverently absurd. All that said, once you can suspend disbelief on the concept, a lot of things make perfect sense.  And it never tries to take itself seriously, and so continually lampoons: internet culture, Batman, the comic book industry, caption boxes, and occasionally, itself.

In short Chris has a very unique, pawky and enjoyable sense of humour, and this really is the hallmark of the series. This doesn't mean that Dr. McNinja is all silliness and no plot however. The plots of the stories, while always absurd, are surprisingly intricate and take care to make sense in the same absurd manner.

Add to this there is some very strong characterization going on in this series. It takes your perceived stereotypes and turns them on their heads. And while the Doc is portrayed something of a wonder (Medical doctors/super ninja) he has is own issues and is flawed and fallible enough to identify with and like. Even the villians are very well fleshed out, and don't get me started on Gordito, Judy (the rather unorthodox receptionist), and the Doc's Fruit and Nut cracker of a family... 

Problems:

Not really much that I can point out, the creators of this comic seem to know what they are doing.

There was one point where I was greatly worried that the comic might have fallen to (Drat I can't remember what's it's called... I just call it GPF syndrome. You can call it the Rowling syndrome too if you like.) the tendency of some humour webcomics to morph into overly serious epic drama comics. But much to my relief, although the overall story took a slightly darker and more serious tone, it never really got angsty or overly serious, and managed to retain the essence of McNinja-ness (there I've coined a new word) that never alienated the reader as much as some other comics did.

The other thing is the most recent storyline touches on a subject I have a problem with. Well, so much that over 3 years ago I wrote an article about it for Comixtalk (previously known as Comixpedia). Granted, it looks more promising this time round given the unconventionality of the writing... Chris might be able to pull this off in a way that doesn't make me roll my eyes. There are always (I am happy to admit) exceptions.

Overall:
I try not to be too gushing or too critical in my review logs, but this is a comic I seriously enjoyed and laughed out loud at. It's a Find, I am very glad I chose it for this leg of my journey.

There's quite a bit of violence, as should be expected from anything with the word "ninja" in it (Unless it's some hunter rolling "Need" on your epic mace in World of Warcraft... oh wait, we murdered a boss for that... nmind) but oddly enough it self-censors profanity, which I suspect is more for comedic effect than anything else.

The Next Leg:
...will be a surprise. There's lot of links in the links page, so you'll see what comes up in the next episode of Webcomic Finds!

Note: I had earlier mixed up names and referred to Kent as the writer when it should be Chris... uh... whoops?

33rd Leg: The Dementia of Magic

Comic: The Dementia of Magic
By: Nicholas Killewald

Setting and Elements: Fantasy, Magical World, DnD Influenced
Content Type: Adventure, Humor

Art Medium: Inks, Cel-shaded colours
Art Style: Simplifed Cartoony.

Is About: The adventures of a thief and his soceress sister in a land ruled by and inept king who is constantly conscripting peasants into his army.

Website: http://www.dementiaofmagic.net
Frequency: Irregular
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
I must admit my first impression wasn't very favourable. Whatever else I may think of the comic later, at first sight, the art for DoM isn't very impressive. As most comics rely on art to draw the reader in and writing to keep them there, I suspect the writing must be excellent to keep them there.

The website design is simple, although the slick Photoshopped (or should I say, GIMPed?) title image contrasts badly against the simple and cartoony art style of the comic. Link colours aren't bad, but a little tooo bright. Navigation however, is straightforward and easy to use.


The Concept: The Dementia of Magic is one of the many and common stereotypical DnD variant comics out there. You have your hero the thief, his sister the sorceress and the people of their village. I have to admit this premise didn't exactly thrill me, and if this comic had not been linked to by Catharsis, I probably would have taken a brief look and moved on. However, because the link IS there, I'm willing to give this a chance (See the importance of recommendation?). Good execution and new spins on non-original concepts can make for good reading, after all.


The Art:
The art for DoM isn't anything to talk about at. Nicholas' art is extremely simplified, which isn't a particularly bad thing, but simplified art often needs smooth lines and geometric shapes to carry it off. Despite the artist's best attempts, the wobbly linework with unvarying thickness results in a rather flat look.

The early strips are quite rough, but over time many improvements have been made, such as the change from black and white to full colour and the clear, more consistent art. The newer strips expecially show quite a bit of effort and attention to detail, and the new colouring work is actually quite good.

While the initial font was hard to read, the change to a more eye-friendly font was a godsend.

The art so far has shown a slow and steady rate of improvement, and whatever is lacking in artistic skill the artist more than makes up for with the amount of effort and attention to detail put in.


The Writing:

In all honesty, I wasn't very impressed by the first storyline. While the story was surprisingly original (No motely crew meeting up and setting out on a quest) a lot of the details didn't make sense.

Ping's train of thought:

"Eh? They killed the dragon and are heroes! Why are they running away? That doesn't make sense!"
*goes on reading anyway*

However, the writing improves drastically after Magic Mushroom storyline, and I'm happy to report that the stories often transcend their set-up and plot inconsistencies by being quite orignal and entertaining. There's also a lot of interesting world-building going on. OK, I generally don't like fantasy that's built on Tolkien unless it has a twist, but I do like to see attempts to develop the thing out of the bloody fantasy sterotype so it adds something to it. The latter strips especially show a lot of thought being put into the world-building, ranging from programming principles put into spellcasting and a forays into the properties of the plants and culture of the world.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure that the most distinctive thing about DoM is the concept of Nasal Flies. I won't tell you what they are and spoil it, but I laughed my head of and judging by the guest strips, they seem to be pretty popular.

While there are many plot inconsistencies early on (these get progressively less and less as time goes on), you get drawn in by the story so (most of the time) you're willing to suspend disbelief.

Another point about DoM is the frequent and regular use of self-insertion. The author often appears in strips pertaining to the creation of the comic, and sometimes at pivotal plot points, making jokes at his own execution of the comic. This makes the whole comic feel more like a comic where the creator learns how to make a fantasy comic. Self-insertion being what it is,it sometimes works and sometimes doesn', but all in all I found the self-insertion strips to be tolerable, instead of the usual closing of the browser window and the vow to never return ( though I shouldn't be one to talk. I've used it myself a few times.)

And... Do I see a reference to Catharsis here?


Problems:

Despite the fact the art is not exactly the comic's string point, my complaints are all concerning writing. Other than the aforementioned plot inconsistencies...

WARNING RANT INCOMING
This is one thing about DnD variant stories that annoys the hell out of me. "Thief" is NOT, and should NOT, be considered a respectable profession. It is definitely an profession you DO NOT admit to having in the open unless you want to be tracked down and tossed in the dungeon for. No one should be able to say "Oh that's So-and-so the Thief's house over there", especially as they live in a place where there are lots of soldiers running around conscripting everyone. I know it's imperative for most fantasy stories to have the stealthy sneaky thief character, but for god's sake at least have the guy/girl pretend to be a shoemaker or peddler or farmer or something.

The other main problem I have with the writing is what I call "It's a Small World After All" and "The World Revolves Around Our Protagonists" syndrome.

The former refers to the fact how every character in the world seems to know everyone else, when logically, that should not be possible. Not only that, the in a lot of cases, some new character the protagonists meet knows someone else the protagonist knows from the past. Not only that, but the characters seem to run into the same people in different places over and over again. Whether it's the palace guard or the evil mage or the elven librarian, it does make you wonder after a while if the population of the entire fantasy world barely reaches double digits.

The latter syndrome is also one that is common in most fantasy fiction, but is no less annoying for that. This refers to the annoying tendency for everything important that ever occured to happen to, or around the main the characters. While I realise that the story wouldn't be very interesting if NOTHING happened to them, how believable everytime something major happens the main character just happens to be in the thick of it decreases.

Overall:

It's hard to put my finger on what exactly it is that makes this comic work. Despite having a number of non-trivial shortcomings (both in art and writing), I found myself enjoying the comic and actually liking the characters.

I suspect this may be due to the sheer amount of effort that has obviously gone into the comic. The creator shows such enthusiasm and depth of thought about the background and world that the reader feels it, and is pulled along with it.

DoM may not be to the taste of most people, but if you don't require lavish art, like original storylines and have a high threshold in suspension of disbelief, give DoM a try, and you may find that you'll enjoy yourself.

Oh, And the concept of "Nasal Flies" is genius.


The Next Leg:

I was going to review Stuff of Legends, but as the comic appears to have reached an end or hiatus, so I decided to head back to the DoM link page and pick another comic.

This is a good thing, really, since I seem to have a bias towards fantasy comics and really should be experimenting more of the other stuff.

32nd Leg: Cartharsis

After a nice long rest, we're back to travel the world of webcomics again! Today we're continuing from where we left off. If you recall (I highly doubt you do, it's been a heck of a time) the last time I was over at Super Hero Vindibudd and the banner of the ninja-cat caught my eye, leading me to...



Comic: Catharsis
By: J. Boeke

Setting and Elements: Modern Day, Slice of Life, Surreal
Content Type: Adventure, Drama, Humour, Severe Cuteness Overload ;)

Art Medium: Inked and coloured, Later Strips appear to be drawn digitally.
Art Style: Hand-Drawn, Stylised, Mix of B/W and Full-colour

Is About: Gwen, who happens to have a dragon as a pet in her apartment... along with a bad-tempered squirrel... and a ninja-cat... and a colony of dust-bunnies and fluffs...

Website: http://www.catharsiscomic.com
Frequency: Daily
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The dragon and stuff looks familair, then I realise that I've seen Catharsis being endorsed by Adis over at Count Your Sheep before. Other than the given that if Adis endorses a comic it's probably good, the art looks really good, especially the dragon.

The website is simple, but enhanced with lots of em... tribal-looking... erm cherries(?) that make up the navigation. I have to idea what they are but OMG they are cute!


The Concept:
Comparisons to Calvin and Hobbes in envitable in this genre, because it's well, the story of a kid and his/her imaginary friend. Now imagine what happens if the kid has grown up and has to take on the challenges of being grown up, but the imaginary friend isn't imaginary but mythical instead. And despite the kid having grown up, she's still very in-tune iwth her inner child. Heck, she even turns into her inner child from time to time.

That's pretty much describes the concept behind Catharsis.

The Art:
While early art is done in grayscale, and differs from what you see on the front page, art is always competent, done in a very individual semi-realistic but stylised cartoony art-style. As the series progress, the art keep improving dramatically until it reaches the very attractive a recognisable stuff you see on the front page.

The artist seems to particularly excel at (how can I say this without sounding idiotic?) drawing cute stuff. Ranging from the balls of fluff with darling beady eyes to the crazy tribal cherries and naked squirrels, the plethora of of excellent cute character designs never fail to astound me.

There's not much background in most of the strips, but where there's a need for them, they're there and competently executed. All in all the art while although not jaw-droppingly awesome, is excellent in a comfortable sort of way, and very distinctive, which most of you know by now scores major points with me.


The Writing:
As good as the art is, the writing for Catharsis is the major pull. It alternates between 'funny' and 'light-drama', but it never lets itself get too serious, and the jokes are consistently funny. JB also has the knack of capturing those 'slice-of-life' moments that most of us have been through, like constantly making a fool of yourself in front of the cute guy from your building, or those awww when something bad happens and all you have is your dragon friend to hug.

The thing that makes my cup run over, however, has to be the characters themselves. Gwen is a very easy character to identify with, while Rremly is endearing, all the more so because of his apparent naivete despite being a dragon with a long lifespan. The other supporting characters have individual personalities that are well fleshed-out. Seriously, when the writer can give three balls of fluff distinct and lovable characters, it's hats off to the creator's writing skills.

Oh, and Bitey rocks.


Problems:
Frequent fillers in the archives are annoying, but given that a comic of this quality updates daily it's understandable, although it doesn't make going through the archives any easier.

Other than that, no major quibbles I can lay my hands on.


Overall:
It's not often that I come across a comic that I start reading and forget that I'm reading, because I'm so caught up in the escapades of the characters. Catharisis is a Find of Finds, and I'm very glad I discovered this little gem.

As an added plus, Cartharsis is suitable for kids to read, which as you remember I was stating not too long ago, is a rare amongst webcomics.

And I want a shirt with one of those cherries on it. :D


The Next Leg:

The Catharsis link page has to be one of the cutest I've ever seen. Being responsible, it even has a ratings system for the links.

The Dementia of Magic looks intriguing. Besides, something with "Magically magnificent!" as a description sounds good ;)

31st Leg: Vindibudd, Super Hero in Training

Another week of drama and controversy in webcomic-dom. Keenspot artists go independent and form Blank Label Comics, which looks to be interesting and bears keeping and eye on. Keenspace gets the decision to be renamed confirmed but the chosen new name of Toonspace isn't sitting too well and now everyone's scrambling for an acceptable compromise.

Me? I'm sick of all the hoo-hah and I am not going comment on the overblown molehill any more. Instead, here's a long-awaited Find report. Enjoy.





Comic: The Adventures of Vindibudd, Superhero in Training.
By: Andrew Williams

Setting and Elements: Aternate World/Dimensions, Superheroes, Surreal, Fourth-wall breaking
Content Type: Satire, Parody, Pop-culture/Social/Political commentary

Art Medium: Inks, Flat colour
Art Style: Angular, Stylised Cartoony

Is About: Superhero Vindibudd (The guy in the blue cape), who is a superhero... in training. He and his sidekick, General Safety go through a series of adventures(?) about life, love and the occasional Lord of the Rings obsession.

Website: http://www.vindibudd.com
Frequency: Irregular
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation: The website is bright and bold, and a little bit gaudy, very much like its genre stereotype before 'dark and gritty' became the fashion.

Oddly enough the first thing that stuck me was not that the art, but how difficult to read the hand-lettering was.

The art is unusually angular and stylised, and appears to have its own distinctive identity. (Always bonus points there)


The Concept:
Superhero Vindibudd at first glance, gives the impression that it's a superhero comic. On closer examination however, you quickly realise this is not really a superhero comic in the traditional sense of the genre. In fact, it's closer to a political/social satire strip starring superhero characters who are the personalisations of various concepts. For example, you have the superheroine "Common Sense Girl", who shows up whenever a good dose of common sense is needed, and "General Safety" who advises criminals to "run not walk or they might slip and fall".

All in all, a rather interesting concept, and I'll admit it took me by surprise. I was expected a typical young superhero in a superhero academy bildungsroman-type story, instead it's less of a story comic than a commentry strip. I have no idea how common these kind of comics are, but I haven't come across too many of them, which is always a good thing.


The Art:
To be honest, without the character costumes, I can't tell one character from the other. For example, I went through most of the comic, thinking the character "General Safety" was another character called "Not Vindibudd", and it wasn't till later when I realised they were separate entities. I have no idea if this is a satirical poke and superhero comics in general, but Andrew does make use of this similarity as a key point of one of his storylines, so it seems to be to some extent, intentional. If it wasn't, he sure made clever use of it!

One other thing about the art is it appears to be inked with a single sized pen, and the lack of line-widths variation does tend to make the characters look flat. I'm not sure if my cohenrency level is very high today, so lets turn to the 'picture is worth a thousand words' adage:



Original art



Altered art to include line-width variation
(Apologies to Andrew for vandalising his work.)

It's a shoddy job of alteration on my end, but I hope that the thicker lines do make the image 'pop' out a bit more and serve as a contrast and explain the 'flatness' remarks.

All in all, the art for Vindibudd is capable, and doesn't feel awkward, and has its own unique look. The flatness and homogeniety does take away from it somewhat, but those are not very major factors.


The Writing:
The premise of Vindibudd that's it's satire and commentary, so it relies heavily on pop culture and zinging humour to make its points.

Unfortunately, maybe it's because I'm not American, but having read through the archives, I didn't 'get' most of the jokes. The majority simple flew past my head without my comphrehension. There were a handful of brilliant ones I did get, and I laughed very hard at those, but they were few and far between.

There are some interesting forays into continuous storylines as well. Unfortunately these forays are frequently interrupted with unrelated joke/commentary strips mid-storyline, so continuity is often broken and scattered.

The characters, like I have mentioned before, appear to be the literal manifestations of the qualities they stand for, like "Common Sense Girl", or "Easily Offended Man". It's an interesting concept, and a lot of the clever jokes work even better because of this, but it does also mean that they get very limited character growth because the characters are not just people, they're stereotypes on/with purpose.


Problems:
I must confess I've read through the entire archive of Vindibudd, and I'm still left with a very hazy impression of the whole comic. Although nothing in the comic seems bad at all, nothing appears to particularly grab my attention either. I found it very hard to get into the comic, and it wasn't until the later chapters when I really started enjoying some of the strips. (Particularly the ones with Fluffles/Dagzar in them. I am very susceptible to cute Golden Retrievers. They rule!)


Overall:
All in all, Vindibudd is a comic with a very interesting concept and the execution is not bad at all, but for some reason, it seems to suffer from a lack of focus in direction.

There's nothing pointedly wrong with the comic, and I think a number of you will be able to enjoy this comic without even noticing any of my nitpicks. In fact, some of the strips are incredibly clever and witty...

But there's just that something missing.


The Next Leg:

Proof that I'm also susceptible to ninja-cats.

Also, I'm planning a new feature to Finds that you might find interesting. More that later.



Edit: Hmm... rereading that review a few hours later, it seems to be more critical than I intended it to be. I should include a disclaimer somewhere that the events mentioned in the beginning of the post made me crabbier than usual, so keep that in mind as it reflects on the writing. Makes you wish Blogger has those little mood emoticons Livejournal has. -Ping

30th Leg: Private Eye Butterfly

If you recall, I had that vote up on the last leg, and the votes for Private Eye Butterfly pretty much squashed the competition. Desert Rocks came in second and Super Hero Vindibudd third.

So by reader request, Private Eye Butterfly it is!




Comic: Private Eye Butterfly
By: Richard Stevens

Setting and Elements: Urban city, Anthromophic World (insects), Noir
Content Type: Mystery, Action/Adventure

Art Medium: Inks, Digital Colouring
Art Style: Cartoony, Stylised

Is About: Peb Casey, a private-eye butterfly in a city of spiders. He's got the case of his career on his hands, but his client's been kidnapped before she can tell him why.


Website: http://www.users.bigpond.com/toonerfish/peb.html
Frequency: Weekly, Sunday
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The website design is simple yet elegant, and suits the comic like a glove. I've often thought that comics with good artwork work best with comparatively simple designs. After all, you don't want the reader's attention being drawn away from the work in question, would you? Sometimes people forget that the website is there to showcase the work, not overpower it. So oh-and-ah Flash animations may be initially cool, but most of them wear thin after a while if not done propoerly.

The art style looks intriguing. Typical noir colouring and setting, but what you quickly realise is that instead of humans we get anthropomorphic insects, which makes the whole thing a little more interesting. I've always liked anthropomorphic insects in stories, especially as people don't seem to pay much attention to them in comics... most of the anthropomorphic stuff I see seem to involve cats or furry mammals or seem to be done without much idea of what the original animal acts like. More on that later.


The Concept:
The concept of the noir detective comic has never been one about originality or wildly different beginnings, but more of how many spins you can put on the same old nostalgic concept. They're kind of like musicals or plays, where you don't watch them primarily for the story. Goodness no... it's all about execution, interpretation and what it can add to the tried-and-tested formula and how well those changes work.

Private Eye Butterfly is a prime example of this genre, and follows the time-honoured tradition of the down-on-his-luck, trenchcoat-and-fedora-wearing private-eye/detective who stumbles across a big case only to have his beautiful client kidnapped before he can get the full details.

I've lost count of how many takes people have made of this genre, whether in books or comics or films. As should be obvious, the main spin Richard Stevens uses on this comic is the anthropomorphic angle of the characters as insects. While not a particularly new spin (I distinctly remember many others doing the same thing, where the characters were animals or even fish.) it doesn't take away from the charm of concept. While not exactly original, it still promises some measure of interest depending on how the story is carried out.


The Art:
The Art for Private Eye Butterfly scores an instant point for distinctiveness. Of course, it's not every day that you see anthropomorphic insect characters (Aw, who I am kidding? It's not like two 3D animation films of the same didn't pop up almost on top of each other a few years ago!). Back to the topic, animal anthropomophism, and those dealing with insects to boot, is something that's particularly difficult to do well. Sometimes you get something appealing, and sometimes you get something that makes you go: "Oh my god what the bloody hell were they thinking?!" that doesn't work out quite so well.

As far as I can tell, Private Eye Butterfly seems to be doing this pretty well. The characters are distinctly human-like enough for the reader to tell what they are, but instectoid enough that they don't lose the attributes of the insects they're supposed to be. My biggest beef with them has been when they sway towards the former more than the latter, and you get the impression that you're watching a masquerade of humans in animal suits.



I should also mention the nice colourwork and the detailed backgrounds. Those two combined make a good job of making the comic feel dark and atmospheric.


The Writing:

To be honest, there's not enough here for me to make a fair assessment of the writing yet, so I'm going by components.

Plot-wise, nothing stellar has happened yet. The story follows standard noir mystery: Private Eye stumbles on big case, but his lady client gets kidnapped before the full details come out. Now he has to track down the persons responsible and rescue the client.

While the plot's nothing impressive so far, there has been some very good fleshing out of it. Instead of blindly following the story, the creator has taken pains to include lots of little whimsical touches that culmulate into a favourable impression of the world. There are lots of little jokes and details that really help the characterisation and the world-building.

Like most anthropomorphic work often is, characters are potrayed by their insectoid stereotypes. A particularly nice touch were the differing sizes and insect variety, but the thing I was more impressed with was that the writer actually bothered to do their research on the insects types and their habits. So far the character designs seem to suit their purposes, so all is good there.

The dialogue also deserves mention, since pains have been taken to give individuals their own speaking style. I also like the characters themselves, who are easily dinstinct and likable and have been given a bit of twist out of their stereotypes.


Problems:
No real problems, other than the fact that the story's barely started and what I've seen so far doesn't particularly jump out. I few people might find it a little cliched at the beginning, but I think that's probably the point.

Overall:
I was genuinely disappointed that there weren't more pages when I got to the end of the archives, which is always a good indicator of whether I liked a comic or not. (If I were to be relieved, now that would be a bad sign).

Private Eye Butterfly is definitely an engaging read. The concept may not be exactly original, but the execution is excellent.

You might not like it if you're not into noir mystery, but a mystery buff will definitely find this worth checking out.

Me? I'll be keeping an eye on this one.


The Next Leg:
Surprise, surprise! Instead of picking a link from here, I'm sidetracking to Super Hero Vindibudd! I might also stopover at Desert Rocks on the way.

Yes, I'm greedy. You don't have to tell me ;)

29th Leg: Storm Corps

Comic: Storm Corps
By: Chester "Chet" Lucero

Setting and Elements: Earth, Futuristic, Space and Sky-travel
Content Type: Action/Adventure, Sci-Fi, Mystery

Art Medium: Drawn, Inked and Digitalled coloured.
Art Style: Disney-esque, Semi-realistic

Is About: The crew of StormCorps weathership Terra Thunder, who in the battle to control the fierce skies, face internal intrigues and sky-pirates as well.

Website: http://www.stormcorps.com/
Frequency: Weekly
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The website design is nice, compact and clean. Colour choice is kind to the eye. Very nice, and helps draw focus to the attractive art. Very efficient navigation too!

It may sound silly, but from the point of view of a first-time reader, the "Story starts here!" sign is VERY helpful. I've always liked being able to jump right in at the beginning, nothing as irritating as having to HUNT for the first or going backward through the archives.

The practice of having every page of the comic available via quick links from every page in the archive is also very handy. In terms of user-friendliness, StormCorps already scores a major point.


The Concept:
There is definitely a lot of originality inherent in the comic. The idea of the controlling the weather (which is by nature unpredicatable) to survive is very appealing, even if the explanations of how they did this were rather vague. Add more so to the idea of the other planet where things seem to take on a mythical feel.


The Art:
The first word that comes to mind for the Stormcorps art is "Disney-style". The art in the beginning is a bit shifty in terms of porportions, but improves greatly, and by the current chapter, is nicely consistent.

The comic has capital airbrushed-looking colouring, and the artist's work on mechanical elements (airships and machinery) is to die for. Being a person who can't draw machinery well, I can particularly appreciate how good Chet is with his technical drawings. Page layouts and cinematography is excellent and varied, and the background-work is beautifully detailed.

Chet also seems to be able to draw very attractive characters without resorting to being gratitiously sexy. Unfortunately, there does seem to be this issue where most of the male and female human characters seem to share the exact same ideal body types and faces, with differences only in clothing and hairstyles. On some of the facial close-ups I had trouble telling one character from another.

The other issue is the lack of expression variety. Expressions seem to be fixed in a permanent smile, even in situations when smiling seems rather out-of-place. There's the occasional 'mildly alarmed' and 'smirk', but it always seems to default to the same smiley expression again. This really does make many of the scenes feel posed and unnatural.


The Writing:
The story begins with a prologue which give a lot of background and history on the world and setting. Some people dislike these kind of prologue because they generally feel a little info-dumpish, but I didn't mind this one. It was a little long and did drag on for a bit too much, but it was well-done otherwise. It was a fairly good introduction, although it looks like it was done after the completion of chapter one.

The first chapter opens in splendid action style, StormCorp ship Terra Thunder spots a mysterious ship in an area it should not be. On closer inspection, one of the crew spots a man being thrown-off the deck of the mysterious ship, which turns out to be a hijacked military ship.

From then on, the story gets more and more interesting. There's a lot of intrigue and good action involved, and it really does pull the reader into the thick of it with cool cinematography.

Although the story focuses on action there were a few hilarious scenes as well. That particular example appealed a lot to me because it happens to me too ;) However, the humour does takes a back seat to the story.


Problems:
Something I must mention though... although the story flow was interesting, something was nagging me throughout the reading of the archives. It's very difficult to put my finger on what it was that distubed me, but the closest I can get to it is the plot is illogical in many places. There are some very nice plot-point and twists throughout, but a lot of other things just don't seem to make sense even though the creator takes a crack at explaining it (and I'm not talking about technical details, here). The story as a result sometimes feels like a very forced and pre-selected sequence of scenes, with a far too many coincidences and engineered plot-points holding them together.

To add to this is the behaviour of the characters, which really puzzles me. The characterisation is excellent, and with many nice little human touches. In regards to their behaviour towards the plot though, 'unnatural' would be the best word to describe the state of things. For example, the reaction of the character "May" appears to be a very strong-willed and loyal, but on discovering that one of her former crew-mates is taking up with pirates and betraying his former organisation, not only does she not do anything other than demanding a few questions, she doesn't do anything about it.

Characters also seem to be almost eternally good-tempered and unperturbed even after the aftermath of events that would plunge a lot of people into depression or at least a spot of traumatic shock.

All in all, these are very subtle details, and I highly doubt most of the people reading Stormcorps will find this a problem if they even notice it at all.

To me however, although good, there's just that intangible something about that just doesn't feel right about Stormcorps that suspension of disbelief can't quite cure.


Overall:
Stormcorps is a comic with excellent art and interesting (even if not very convincing) storyline. It's a good read, but there's just that something not-quite right with it that keeps it from greatness. Nevertheless, it's worth checking out, and some of you might end up disagreeing with me and my gut feelings ;)


The Next Leg:
I feel a bit whimsical today, so for once I'm not going to pick a next leg. Instead I'm going to point out that this is the Storm Corps links page. For this leg I'm letting you guys decide where I go next.

Most of the comics listed seem to be quite popular already, and a fairish number of them (Lovarian Adventures, Eidolic Fringe, Cascadia, Timescapes, Magellan, D101, Mindmistress, Bolt City/Copper) are already on my read (and used-to-read-when-they-updated) list. I'm giving precedence to comic picks that I haven't read yet, but if no one suggests one of those I have no objection going over any of the mentioned.

So pick a link!

28th Leg: Bilaran Wars / Mute

I'm going to do something slightly different today. You see, the current site I am at appears to be a collection of comics by the same creators. Although the site is listed as 'Bilaran Wars', I am much more intrigued by one of the other stories on the site.

Being greedy, I decided to read and review both:



We start off with the title comic:

Comic: Bilaran Wars
By: Jess Calcaben (Art/Story) and David Doub (Writer)

Setting and Elements: Fantasy, Magic
Content Type: Action/Adventure

Art Medium: Digital, Inks, Full-Colour
Art Style: Realistic

Is About: When a half-dead man washes up next to the home of a warrior, the warrior and a few others are dispatched to a faraway kingdom on a scouting mission to find out what happened.

Website: http://www.nightgig.com/subcultured/
Frequency: Unknown
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The flash portal page isn't bad, and the putting the status of the comic on display is a good touch. Bilaran Wars is listed as 'inactive'. Clicking on it brings me to a page with thumbnails. The repeating blue tiles in the background are a bit tacky and don't really suit the feel of the page.

The art is fully coloured and looks intriguing from thumbnail distance, though.


The Concept:
Staple fantasy action/adventure. From the looks of things, we have a bunch of heroes heading off on a quest. not very original, so it's going to have to depend on execution, this one.


The Art:
The art for Bilaran wars could be succinctly described as 'variable art, good colouring'. The art ranges from 'passable' to 'good' and then to 'deformed', but the colouring stays consistently good throughout. The colourist in particular, shows some impressive understanding of tone and hue, and how to use it to convey mood.

The character-designs are consistent. That is, they are consistently identical for the all male and female characters. The male characters are generally buff, over-muscly and for some reason, endowed with extrordinarily short arms. The female characters are all voluptous, shapely, and run around in thongs or skimpy outfits. Some of them have extra-long ears, but that's about it. As a result I had a very hard time telling the character (especially the male characters) apart.

Oh, and in one instance, we also have a hilarious villain who runs around in a pair of nipple-stickers!

(Ping wonders: "Hmm... if she's shameless enough to run around in nipple stickers, wouldn't she be more comfortable running around topless? Not that there's much difference, you'd think.")

Anyway, no prizes for guessing which sex this comic panders to.

There is some nice background-work in the comic, I especially like the painterly approach the artist has taken.

Towards the end, the art does take on a rather intriguing look. There's something very attractive about it when it finally stops trying to be 'tacky comicbook' and goes for 'classical painting'.


The Writing:
The story opens with a very long and drawn-out fight between an assassin and its quarry. The entire fight literally takes up the whole of the first issue! The whole of the fight is punctuated with some rather tedious narration that apparently aims to sound impressive and profound but unfortunately ends up sounding pompous and awkward instead. Here's an example:

(Panel after panel depicting two men fighting)
The reasons why they fight has long been determined.
There is no right or wrong now.
Only live or die.
The time for doubt of misgivings is long past.
Each combatant is fully commited until the fatal end.
Each man is to blame for their current predicament.
But they are also victims of circumstance.

*Ping winces*

Add to this is the narrator's irritating tendency to narrate exactly what is going on in the panel... I often found myself going: "WTF?!"

I mean, really... If you have a picture of the warrior deftly blocking the throwing knife with his sword, there is really no need to narrate "But the quarry is aware and deftly avoids raining death", is there? Sometimes less is really more.

English is obviously not the creator's first language, and I can understand that the flow of language is therefore not likely to run smooth. Regardless, it does distract from the content of the comic itself, because the dialogue and narration just sound unnatural. The dialogue in particular, doesn't so much sound like people talking, but more of someone regurgitating 'impressive' bits and pieces of stuff you see in corny fantasy movies or books.

The pacing is depressingly slow and the descriptions long-winded. I've already mentioned that the whole of the first issue is a giant fight scene. I am sad to report the rest of the other two issues is not much of an improvement. A huge portion of them are pointless fight-scenes, and the remainder seem to be a series of vaguely interconnected (and choppily-transitioned) stories that I suppose are there to build character and develop the plot (what plot?).

Speaking of characters, I must confess I came away from the entire reading without much impression character-wise. The male characters didn't seem to have much of a personality, and females were distressingly stereotyped and seemed to exist only as a crutch for the men. The only one I found that had any redeeming quality was Aria, and even she got saddled with the depressing women-shop-for-fun stereotype.

The comic stops midway through issue 2, the point at which nothing has really happened yet, and the main characters haven't even left town. The status of the comic is currently listed as 'inactive', so I guess the creators realised their efforts were better off elsewhere.


Problems:

Besides the ones I've already grumbled about?

For some reason, Page 27 kept directing me to page 30, resulting a very confused me until I figured out that it was a error.


Overall:

Though not to my taste, I'd recommend Bilaran Wars for those...

Oh hell... who am I kidding? I hate giving bad reviews, but I don't think I can in good conscience recommend Bilaran Wars to anyone reading my blog. Sorry.

There is some nice art and some excellent colour-work, but the writing was... not very good. I didn't enjoy this much.




Now that we're done with that, let's go on to my second pick on the site: Mute.





Comic: Mute
By: Jess Calcaben

Setting and Elements: Modern-day Phillipines
Content Type: Biographical, Survival

Art Medium: Digital Full-Colour
Art Style: Painted, Stylised

Is About: A life of a mute boy, born of a prostitute and abandoned as a baby.
Website: http://www.nightgig.com/subcultured/
Frequency: Completed Comic
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
The presentation for Mute is plain and simple, and a much greater improvement over the presentation of Bilaran Wars. Again I say. Sometimes less is more indeed.

The Concept:
The story is about about young Filipino mute, who abandoned as a child, is forced to grow up an orphanage and then the streets. The story is narrated first-person, which is ironic as the main character is a mute.

A big thumbs ups for originality.


The Art:
The entire comic is done in a very unique style. I see it more as a series of paintings with text narrating them. No clumsy narration boxes. Not odd-looking speech balloons. In many cases the text becomes part of the art.

The art style is reminds me of the works of Berthe Morisot, whose art style often suggested rather than defined. The art for Mute is somewhat similar, and mirrors what it's supposed to be (the point of view of the mute boy) very powerfully. In situations where things are in sharp focus, the comic reverts to inks and lines. In situations where the boy is light-headed or reminiscing, it switches to the painterly technique again.

I've mentioned the artist's ability with colour. Again it's demonstrated very strongly here. In scenes where the boy strikes out in anger the art takes on a reddish hue, in scenes of despair the colours are bleak and the dreams he has of his idealised mother are all in white. The features in the art are sometimes simplified, and sometimes exaggerated to great effect, resulting in an almost surreal feeling to the whole work.


The Writing:
The story is still told in broken English, and every now and then, grammatical and tense errors pop out. And perhaps because of its context (it's being told first person by a boy whose first language is probably Tagalog and not English), it works brilliantly. In fact I would venture to say it works even better than if the story had been told in flawless english.

The story is very well structured and paced. The characterisation is convincing, the narration heart-wrenching. As the story unfolds, you can feel the filth of the alleyways, the panic of pursuit, the hopelessness of the runaway. You can feel the mute boy's silent longing for a mother he's never known. You can feel his desperation as he fights for his very life against the odds.

It simply pulls you into a very different world from the one you're in. And that ending is just staggering.


Overall:
As I write this, I can barely believe that this comic is done by the same person... or at least, one of the same people who did Bilaran Wars.

Because the quality is miles apart.

Bilaran Wars felt like a waste of time on my part. Mute, on the other hand, is an amazing read, very touching and engrossing. In fact, if I may say so, something akin to Justine Shaw's Nowhere Girl.

A Find, what a Find indeed...


The Next Leg:

There are a few little buttons in the links page. Shift didn't seem like something I'd like, so I spotted an old read and picked Stormcorps. Stormcorps was a comic I used to read, but stopped when I lost my previous booksmarks. It should be interesting to see what it's gotten up to since a year ago!