14th Leg: Deathworld

The new issue of the Webcomics Examiner is up. You'll recall I said it hadn't quite clicked with me yet, but I gave the new issue another go anyway, just to see if the feeling would change.

Wow! I see that this month's issue really seems to be dominated by the Modern Tales family. I spot James Kochalka (American Elf), Dylan Meconis (GirlaMatic), and Gene Yang (Modern Tales).

There's also a surprise review of my friend Ryan Kolter's comic Reasoned Cognition on the line. The surprise is because being pre-occupied with his impending nuptials I think he doesn't even know about that existence of the review yet. In comparison to the other two reviews, the review for Reasoned Cognition is short and sweet, just the way I like it.

Speaking of the reviews, the WCE reviews sure are heavy stuff! When reading them, I couldn't help but feel the contrast between theirs and those on this humble little blog. They sure live up to their name of 'Examiner' and scrutinise those comics to the last inch! Whereas I just hammer them out from the point of a reader.

It got me thinking: Do these things I write on this blog really constitute as reviews or am I just classifying them? Looking up on the Dictionary.com definition I found:

re·view  v. re·viewed, re·view·ing, re·views v. tr.

1. To look over, study, or examine again.
2. To consider retrospectively; look back on.
3. To examine with an eye to criticism or correction: reviewed the research findings.
4. To write or give a critical report on (a new work or performance, for example).
5. Law. To reexamine (an action or determination) judicially, especially in a higher court, in order to correct possible errors.
6. To subject to a formal inspection, especially a military inspection.

I guess I do fulfil the criteria. A bit. Not in the same way, but oh heck...

On to the 'review'!



Comic: Deathworld
By: Rudi Gunther

Genre and Setting: Sci-fi, University-life, Humour, Story,

Art Style: Cartoony, Inked, Early strips B&W, latter strips in full colour.

Is About: Matt Blaster, a futuristic space marine whose squadron is decimated in a failed assault. In the afterlife, he is placed on the Deathworld (Or the U of A, wherever that is), a planet where all being exist just for the amusement of its caretaker. During the course of time. Matt meets other characters in the afterlife and constantly battles both a mad scientist and a bunch of paranormals... apparently just for the heck of it.

Website: http://www.fuddafudda.com/
Frequency: Tuesdays and Fridays. Given that the archive size is currently almost 600 strips, I'd say it's pretty reliable.
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
With a name like Deathworld, I was subconsciously expecting something along the lines of Flatwood or Voices In My Hand. You know, black and white or greyscale art, creepy atmosphere, chilling story/humour... those kind of things.

Instead I was quite surprised when the page loaded and I found myself looking at a cartoony page drenched in very vibrant colour. Let me emphasize the vibrant colour part just so you know how startling that particular detail was to me.

The most curious thing about this whole leg is, I actually muttered: "Wha... Superosity?"

Which is silly at the second take because the art is quite different, and the premise for the story doesn't really seem to be the same. Of course, I've never actually read Superosity. I mean, yeah it's a comic by one of the Fab Four (In case you're not familiar with that: the four Keenspot founders) but I never could bring myself it actually start reading the 2000 pages or so that constitute the archive.

So I guess I'll have to admit that my only impression of Superosity so far has been... lots of bright green... and hand-lettering.

Which suddenly explains why I associated Deathworld with Superiosity based on just the superficial similarities I noticed first. Isn't it odd what the human subconscious registers?

Anyway, the site navigaation is mercifully standard and the buttons are clearly labelled and easy to navigate. The vibrant green do make it easier since it makes the comic and buttons stand out against the dark background.


The Concept:
Well, I found the concept of the afterlife being a puppet on a SIMs-like planet and in a university amusing. It's certainly something slightly away from the norm.

However I was sometimes confused by the constant veering between the sci-fi/adventure and university-gag jokes. And how the simulated world doesn't even try to make sense...


The Art:
Pretty consistent throughout.

It looks like ink-work with very little variation.I wouldn't say it's blindingly good, but something in it does remind me a lot of Schlock Mercenary. I think it's the way they draw eyes.

The latter parts of the comic where the colour comes in are actually pretty cool.


The Writing:
Personally, I quite liked the beginning, where the space troopers storm the alien planet and get butchered by the stereotype Aliens Aliens, Matt gets killed, and is told that his version of hell will be getting plonked on a senseless planet for amusement of the caretaker of the planet which happens to take after some university called 'The U of A'.

So accordingly, Matt ends up on Deathworld, and the story all but goes rapidly downhill from there. For some reason, Matt becomes obligated to shoot pretty much everything that crosses him. Oh, and he makes an arch-enemy out of the resident evil mad scientist-professor, who in return wants to kill him too. And the stereotypically named Prof. Von Rudenstein proceeds to do so, using a bunch of pretty much useless inventions.

Being swallowed by one of these, Matt meets the fellow space trooper Alison (who is pretty much the geek idealised woman. You know, hot babe, engineer, wears silly armour and kicks major ass to boot). Why exactly Alison is in the stomach of a monster is never quite explained, but I presume there should be a reason that I didn't catch on. Or maybe the Caretaker put her there to make things interesting

Anyway for the next couple hundred pages, yours truly was trapped in a ever worsening cycle of maddingly boring action scenes. All of them were senselessly violent. The worst part of it was that the violence and swearing were being set up as the punchline. Look, people swear in stressful situations. It's a fact of life. But having to hear it every other sentence is rather grating on the nerves, just so you know.

Oh, and just because I don't want my site attracting the wrong search strings, I'm going to attempt to reproduce the language without actually duplicating it.

*readers become confused*


Anyway, this is a typical story-arc:

*The bad guys grumble at how much they hate Matt and send their latest minions/inventions/super-weapons after Matt*

Matt: Whafu¢k?

*minion/invention/super-weapon tries to eliminate Matt, never quite does it*

Matt: Suck this. you fu¢kwad!

*fudda fudda fudda* (sound effect of guns)

*After some measure of battle, bad guy dies*

Matt: *some cheesy wise-crack*.

Now repeat several times, with infinite variations (i.e. Different monster, different character involved. Maybe different way of killing monsters). All this repetitive and mind-numbingly boring. Oh, in-between storylines you get something like this. Or you get the hated Beerman character trying to explain something and be funny at the same time. Or you get crass or Fourth Wall breaking jokes and 'Deathworld is the most hated comic' strips. (I whole-heartedly agreed with that one then.)

You really really got the impression violence in Deathworld, at least, is the answer to everything.

The sad part was that the random violence didn't strike me as funny... and it was being set up as the punchline.

(Reading the comic)
Ping: GAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
*nearly tears her hair out*
Ping: All right, who wrote this bloody crap?!


Anyway, just so you know, I was quite close to giving up. There were many many moments when I seriously considered just stopping altogether and writing a review that would have put the one I did of Gigawhut? to shame.

Then something miraculous happened. The comic suddenly changed directions. The name of the storyline was The Dark Heart. And for the first time... or so it seemed to me, we had a plausible storyline, moderately realistic character development and a plot instead of random violence and crass jokes. Granted, it built on stuff that was lightly touched from the previous massacre storylines, but suddenly it all fell into place.

I'm not saying the entire comic suddenly became palatable over the course of a few strips, but you could feel the difference. It had a direction. And it gained character.

At any rate, for the first time since the beginning of the strip, I actually found myself enjoying the read. (As opposed to hoping desperately for it to end soon. Always a bad sign, that.) It was also around that point when the strip went full-colour too, which was a definite plus. The characters got developed out of their stereotypes (That silly goth boy, for instance. Even Beerman became bearable), Rudi cut down on usage of the word fu¢k, and we had less of the very unamusing random violence.

Over the course of the next 400 pages or so (I did mention the archive was quite substantial, right?) the various storylines kept getting better and better, the characters interacted, changed and developed... we saw some interesting plot twists and a violent storyline that wasn't boring (The one where Matt got abducted by the aliens).

And I was actually surprised to find at the end of the read that I had developed what could only be called a fondness for the characters of the comic.

Sometimes a light surprises.


Problems:
Roughly most of the first 200 strips. Minus the beginning part. Please don't make me go through them again *cries*

The the sad part is, most people trying out the comic will probably never make it past the 197th strip to get the where the comic stops being some university self-insertion and inside-joke riddled strip, and instead matures into the real Deathworld.


Overall:
This comic holds the unique postion of being a comic I absolutely HATED in the beginning, and quite liked in the end.

Yes, it is possible to do so. Like I said, there's an insane number of pages in the archive. You could say it became an acquired taste.

I really could have done without the horrible beginning though. *shudder* I think I need a break after reading almost 600 pages in one afternoon too. Thank God I have broadband now.


The Next Leg:
AHA!

Looking through "Webcomics I read" page, I spot an old Graphic Smash neighbour of mine. Clue: The name of my comic is The Jaded. The other comic was always listed after me alphabetically.

Watch out, Dave! I'm coming in!!!

13th Leg: Haiku Circus

Firstly, because someone requested it:



It's nowhere near my best, but I'm kinda starved for time at the present. Originally I wanted a backpacker, but I couldn't fit it in the banner.

Next, if you guys are familiar with Keenspace and the myriad comics that exist on it, AND if you're feeling adventurous, you might be interested in this post which presents this Random Keenspace Sampler. Like what it says: it redirects you to a random Keenspace comic.

In 9 cases out of 10 you'll probably run into something bizarre or horrendous (sprite, stick figures, MS-paint) but sometimes you can get a good find or two. For example, my last 10 attempts:

• Try One
• Try Two (Count Your Sheep!)
• Try Three
• Try Four (This one's downright bizarre)
• Try Five: Sore Thumbz (Is this guy making fun of Sore Thumbs?)
• Try Five
• Try Six
• Try Seven
• Try Eight (MY EYES!)
• Try Nine
• Try Ten (Wow! The art for this one's awesome!).

Entertaining indeed. Sometimes depressing and a tad hazardous, but ultimately fun. (Thanks to Mercury Hat of Gunmetal Annie for the initial heads-up!)

Anyway, for something else a bit on the unusual side: Today's Find.



Comic: Haiku Circus
By: Ken Sakamoto

Genre and Setting: Surreal (?)

Art Style: Various, ranging from digital art to pencil/pen line drawings. Greyscale.

Is About: Modern haikus... done in comic form.

Website: http://www.haikucircus.com
Frequency: Unknown
Availability: Free. Comic has been published in various university papers.

First Impressions and Presentation:
Interesting. This has to be the first comic I've ever seen that has uh... tomatoes as the main characters.

The description for the site reads:

A comic strip that combines drawings with haiku poetry (5-7-5 syllables)

The navigation for the site is a bit different... There's only a previous button (but no first comic button) and an archive page with a list of all the past haikus on the site. Strips are group according to month, so clicking each button gives you a page full of successive strips. There's also this little box under each haiku asking you to rate it. (1-10, Awful - Hilarious/Enlightening)

Yep. Like I said, whatever else this comic might be, it's definitely interesting


The Concept:
According to the 'About' page, a haiku is form of Japanese poetry consisting of three lines, where the first line has 5 syllables, the second has 7 and the last has 5.

Haiku Circus takes this a step further by combining Ken's original haikus with sequential art. so imagine a series of comics, all in three panels, and each panel depicting a line of poetry.

You know, I don't think I've ever been floored by sheer originality before, but this concept is genius. And in my experience, absolutely unique.

And I don't think I've ever had this much difficulty trying to classify a comic before either.


The Art:
Is not exactly the best part of the comic.

I'm rather confused by the quality of the drawings, sometimes they look all right, sometimes the lines looks rather shaky and amateurish (you know, short scratchy lines, off poportions, scary looking eyes). In fact if I didn't know better I'd say they looked traced. But that's just conjecture on my part, so don't take my word for it. The digital stuff doesn't look very finished either, there are a lot of sharp jagged edges that should have been aliased.

I also notice a very high usage rate of 'cut-and-paste'. While in some places it works, at other times it makes the author look lazy.

But for most part the art, while not as easy on the eyes as the last few comics I've found, does what it's supposed to to, and that is: convey the message they are supposed to.


The Writing:
I'm no expert at japanese poetry, so I don't really know whether the haikus are good or bad, but I can tell you some of them are really funny. The following strips made me laugh out loud: Filthy cockroaches, Lunch Special, Whining Crosswalk, Triangles.

Like I said, I'm not sure of the value of the haikus literature-wise, but in terms of how funny they are, they vary. Some of them obviously have connotations that fly over the head of this humble reader, and some of them I didn't think were very funny. Like the previous comic it was mostly hit-or-miss, but the hits made up for the misses more often than not.

It's also interesting that there are no main characters or recurring themes, and the comic tend to focus more on interacting objects more than people.

By the way, having attention paid to the syllables had an interesting effect on the reading of the archives. I found myself subconsciously building up a rhythm (5-7-5-5-7-5...), so even when the particular haiku I was reading was a 'miss' the rhythm of the whole thing was so soothing I didn't really mind anyway.

I don't think I've ever read another comic that had this same rhythm effect.


Problems:
One very bad problem I had with the strips was the level of JPEG compression used. The level is set far too high, resulting in a horrible fuzzy JPEG artifacts appearing everywhere and blurry text, fractured text that challenge my eyes.

It doesn't help that the overall dimensions of the strips are rather small too.


Overall:
I'm not a big fan of this haiku thing, but I found myself charmed by the Haiku Circus because if its refreshing originality. It's not something I think I'd read daily, but I can see myself coming back next month to catch up on the strips, which IMHO are better read all in one go.


The Next Leg:
There's a small section put aside on the links page for webcomics. For no particular reason whatsover, I chose Deathworld.

12th Leg: Voices In My Hand

You'll notice that the individual comic banners are back up again. I just got the ok from Joey to link the images using my Graphic Smash WebComicsNation account. Which is great, as a picture is worth a thousand words: nothing beats having a sample of the art to go with a review, even if it is a teeny sample in a banner.

I have had some worry over the having posted my first relatively negative review (10th Leg: Gigawhut?) a few posts back. I've also been told by some of my readers that I need to write more negative reviews. Personally, I always prefer to give people good reviews, BUT I don't think it'd be fair of me if I wrote a good review for a comic I didn't like and didn't think people reading 'Finds would like. So, I'm not going to try and square the circle and make a comic that doesn't appeal to me sound like it did, but I'll try my best to be fair and certainly not rude while doing it.

I should make it clear that the purpose of Webcomic Finds is to tell people what a comic is like. So if you ever find me whining about a comic I don't like more than actually describing it to you, please don't hesitate to point that out.

By the way, an interesting update on a past Find. Do you remember The N00b all the way back from the 2nd Leg? It was the first comic I discovered as a direct result of writing this blog, and is currently one of the top favourites on my read list.

I'm happy to report the N00b continues to not disappoint. In fact the strips keep getting better and better. This recent strip in particular nearly made me spit my tea onto my PowerBook screen. The punchline is clean, but it's almost dirty humour if you get the subtle implication. The part that makes it hilarious that it's done in such perfect innocence on the part of the main character.

For those of you who don't get what 'suppository' means; try the Dictionary.Com definition.

Where the sun doesn't shine indeed... *snickers*

And now for today's review:


Comic: Voices In My Hand
By: Bill Charbonneau

Genre and Setting: Sci-fi/Horror, Humour, Satire, Commentary

Art Style: Single Panel, Ink, Greyscale, Stylised Cartoony

Is About: No particular theme except for the funny side of death and other issues concerning the darker side of human nature... There's a running gag on two earthworms who keep commenting on how the remains of various famous people taste though.

Website: http://www.voicesinmyhand.com/
Frequency: Weekly
Availability: Free. Subscribe to get the comic in your mail.

First Impressions and Presentation:
Well, the website design is creepy... but cool. Instead of text links you have rusty chains holding aloft various objects ranging from a bucket of blood to the very clever symbol for the links page. Definitely original.

I regret to say I don't get the joke from the comic on the first page. No, I don't know who Rick James is. Hopefully I'll get the rest of the jokes.

I'm particularly pleased to note that this is a single-panel comic... they're something of an endangered species on the 'Net. In fact, I think the only other one that I know of is The Chopping Block.


The Concept:
Well... this is a hard one. It's something like those single panel comics you see in your newspaper dailies. You know, the single panel ones that usually get squeezed on the side beneath the horoscope or the crossword? Yeah. That one.

Except for the fact that the subject matter isn't anything any editor fearful of losing his job would dare to put up. However, according to the about page, Bill's stuff has actually made it to the paper, so I guess there are some sensible editors out there after all!


The Art:
Very professional, but very stylised to the point where Mr. Jackson doesn't really look like Mr. Jackson. But then again I doubt if anyone really knows what Mr. Jackson really looks like nowadays.

All in all the art is pretty good; though obviously geared towards newspaper publication so the lines are minimal, simple, clear and easily reprintable.

It's not outstandingly memorable, but it is good and does the job pretty well; which is the point.


The Writing:
If I could pick just one word to describe it, I'd pick subtle.

There's usually just enough of narration to steer you towards the punchline... it's left to the reader to make the jump to get to the punchline. This results in two possible things: The reader makes the jump and the punchline is all the funnier because the reader needs to do some thinking... or the reader invariably fails to make the connection and fails to be amused.

I'll admit that it was the latter case with me with the first strip. It's a brave thing to do, but the humour for me was either hit-or-miss. The ones that I missed I usually just shrugged off; but the ones that I 'got' were funny.

By the way, does this one remind you of a particular MTV Awards Parody or what?


Problems:
The aforementioned hit-or-miss humour could be a problem... the humour sometimes feels a bit forced... and sometimes doesn't seem to be funny at all.


Overall:
Not a bad comic. There are some gems among a bunch of mediocre strips (or maybe they're just funny but I don't get them), but it's a lot harder to be funny when you only have one panel to express yourself in anyway.


The Next Leg:
The links page contains a few buttons and a looooong list of text links. Anyway, I'm considering some bizarre algorithm or system to pick a link from the long list. How about the numerical value of the first letter of this blog entry?

Which is the letter "Y" = 25th letter of the alphabet.

Therefore the 25th entry in the list... which looks like something rather new, in my experience.

11th Leg: The Fray

If the banners are not showing up, that's because my image host has exceeded its bandwidth. Yeah, I should find a better one... technically I could use my Graphic Smash/WCN one but that'd be an abuse of the account, wouldn't it?

Anyway, you'll notice I've added links to some other webcomic news sites and blogs. Of those four listed, I'm addicted to Comixpedia and more recently, Websnark. News at the 'pedia has been a little slow of late though, and the forums are down :( Websnark is extremely addictive, which is surprising when you consider that as someone else said "it's just some guy talking about webcomics". But I feel compelled to point out it's some very interesting talking about webcomics... and it updates multiple times daily!

I love Sequential Tart, although I usually visit around the beginning of the month when a new issue updates.

The Webcomics Examiner I don't really read, although I've skimmed through it a few times. Somehow it still hasn't clicked with me yet. Maybe it will when more stuff comes up.

With the pre-review the pre-amble done, on to the latest leg:



Comic: The Fray
By: Rob Niedojadlo

Genre and Setting: Sci-Fi, Humour

Art Style: Inks, Black & White, Stylised Cartoony, Newspaper Format

Is About: The Fray, the legendary 'Chosen One' of the (extremely adorable) aliens who are planning an invasion of earth. However, a lowly alien worker named Grugg has accidentally caused the demise of The Fray while he lies in hyper-sleep. In a panic, Grugg proceeds to impersonate The Fray, with disasterous (and hilarious) results.

Website: http://www.funnybonecomics.com/
Frequency: Unknown. Comic is released in chapters.
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
Deja vu. I've seen that cute alien on the right somewhere else before. Of course! Comixpedia. If I'm not mistaken, the artist did a cover for one of the issues of Comixpedia before... and there it is. (Name's misspelled as 'Niedojadio' there, though.)

There seem to be two comics (Confetti and The Fray) hosted on the same website. Judging from the news posts, the other comic, Confetti has just started, so I guess that leaves The Fray.

BTW, the website is nice, slick and clean-looking, although slightly generic.


The Concept:
I love the concept of these funny little anti-hero aliens invading earth and (attempting to) wipe out the human race. Especially when it's revealed the biggest obstacle they have to doing so is themselves.

I also found the 'The One in hyper-sleep' gone wrong plot point hilariousl. You would think that with all those cryogenic sleep stories, there'd be a case or two where something goes wrong. And apparently, something does.

A fun and original concept for a story, and most refreshing to see something different.


The Art:
Slick. Adorably cute.

The drawing style is distinctive, which always scores major points with me. And since we're talking about aliens here, the crazy porportions (imagine just a head, and then a jumble of little limbs beneath it) make perfect sense.

The comic looks great, with great use of large areas of flat black and white. I'm especially impressed at how Rob manages to merge the title of the comic (The Fray) with the comic itself by making it part of the dialogue.

Considering the comic is in a newspaper strip format (which you will agree, can be rather restrictive) The Fray employs a range of surprisingly dynamic angles and viewpoints when telling the story. The 'camera' closes in, swoops out, sometimes you see only silhouettes, handily leaving stuff that should be left to imagination to imagination.

Fantastic work, the art. It's heavily stylised, but not so that it loses its expressiveness, which is actually a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.


The Writing:
The Fray endeavors to be funny, and it is. The level of 'funny' isn't the side-splitting tears-pouring level of funny you might get on some other comics (Early strips from Sluggy Freelance come to mind), but it's more of an 'chuckle-heh' kind of funny. The good thing is that it's consistent: every time I get to the punchline of a strip, I find myself laughing or chuckling more often than not. The interesting thing is that despite repetitive reading, I still find the strips funny, which isn't a common occurence for me

One more positive point about The Fray is that it doesn't feel bounden to be 'funny' all the time. Some of the strips end on a dramatic (and slightly serious) note, which is refreshing. There's nothing I dislike as much as forced humour.

The story is actually quite commendable, and you do emphatise with poor Grugg as things get from bad to worse for him.

Oh, I should mention I was quite impressed that the aliens do have respect even for their lowest crewmen, as 'The Fray' was put to trial for allegedly murdering Grugg. I thought that was an excellent twist, considering he is the Chosen One and all.


Problems:
I have no idea when this comic updates, or will update. It's kinda annoying as I want MORE FRAY!

Other than that, I don't really have any other gripes worth whining about.


Overall:
An excellent and genuinely amusing comic. Ping likee!

And those aliens are just too darned irresistably cute.


The Next Leg:
Looking the links page, I clicked on the first button in the list of buttons.

Do I hear Voices In My Hand?

10th Leg: GigaWhut?

Today's leg is kind of a random pick. If you recall, I closed my eyes and clicked on a random button back at Spells & Whistles... which brought me to the website of GigaWhut?

By the way, since this is the 10th leg and all, it might be interesting if I explained how I write these review things a bit.

I have a set template for each leg of the journey, each with its own set of fields. The first field I fill for every review in is NOT Comic Name, but rather, the First Impressions and Presentation field. Why? Well... I think first impressions are very important. A lot of people judge by first impressions... thus I'm curious to note how accurate first impressions are.

As I proved in the review of The N00b, first impressions can sometimes be inaccurate, but it's fun shooting my mouth off at what I think the comic will be like.

Anyway, after I fill in the 'First Impressions' field, I READ the comic and review it.

Like I shall commence doing now.



Comic: GigaWhut?
By: Brian Maze

Genre and Setting: Real-Life, High School/University Story/Humour

Art Style: Stylised Cartoony, Black and White, Inked(?)

Is About: Some kid in university, apparently.

Website: http://www.elevatorfish.com
Frequency: Thursdays, but actual updating appears random and erratic
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
Okay... let me just be honest and admit I wasn't very impressed by my first look. There shouldn't be any reason, really. The website design is sleek and professional... and the art while vaguely familiar is quite adequate...

Familiar? Ok. I retract my previous statement. I understand why this comic disturbs me now...

The art style and website design look like PvP clones!

Geez. Now I'm in a moral dilemma. I shouldn't judge a comic just by a resemblance... but HNTRAC sense, tingling... I have a baaaad feeling about this...

...which turns out to be justified. The first comic is a broken image dated last year, and the second one is a 'Coming Soon in two weeks' strip...

*blinks*

Holy Crap!

This comic is only threee (proper) strips old!


The Concept:
Can't really see much of it yet, but seems to me like another typical university story involving the wacky adventures of a guy and his wacky pals.

Or so I think.


The Art:
I said adequate, and so it is... nice clean lines and easily readable text...

But it lacks individuality because even if the artist did not intend it at all, the entire art style seems to scream: "I wanna be like Scott Kurtz!". In fact it reminds me of this How Not To Run a Comic strip by Digital War.

I guess I really value individuality, huh? But I don't think I'm imagining this one, folks. The art is eeriely close, down to the way they draw torsos... It's like Penny Arcade faces on PvP bodies!


The Writing:
Let's be realistic. There's been a grand total of three strips so far. I really am in no position to comment of the state of the writing.

I will say it seems passable, although forgettable. Narration done is first person seems to be smooth enough. There are no mistakes in the dialogue although I feel inclined to point out that 'Slogan' is spelled with an 'A' and not 'Slogon'.

Edit: I've been informed that the banner with the misspelled word in fact, belongs to another comic. My apologies on the mistake.

There really isn't enough for me to judge, really.


Problems:
Feels too much like a PvP clone, not enough strips in archive to disprove it yet.


Overall:
I'll reserve comment on this because it's not fair as it hasn't really gotten started yet.

Although if I were a casual reader I suspect I'd be tip-toeing away from this site before I even read the comic just because of the front page impression.

Sorry, but that's the truth.

This must be my first negative review. I guess I ought to not trust random choice, eh?


The Next Leg:
There's a nice bunch of dinky links button on the right of the main page.

Just because it stands out from the sea of human faces, I picked the chicken.

9th Leg: Spells & Whistles

Comic: Spells And Whistles
By: Tauhid Bondia

Genre and Setting: Fantasy, Parody, Humour

Art Style: Inked, Full-Colour, Stylized Realistic

Is About: E'los, cynical elven mage, sets out to gather a motley band of heroes to defeat the Great Evil that threatens to destroy all of Middle Ear... I mean, the world they're in.

Website: http://www.spellsandwhistles.net/
Frequency: Unknown. Currently on Hiatus
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
Well... I can tell I'm not going to be complaining about the art or anything, that's for sure.

The website design is nice and professional, with good use of colours... Navigation is obvious and simple, although I don't see the point of having the double rows of buttons, though.


The Concept:
Possibly the most cliche of all cliches: hero sets out on a quest to save the world blah blah blah gathers companions which span different races and classes with differing abilities blah blah blah defeat ultimate evil dark lord blah blah blah. I'm sure you can fill in those blahs yourself.

Actually, it's a slightly cliche take of a cliche... that is: parodying the fantasy cliche. These things have been popping up all over like mushrooms after the rain. I wonder why?

At any rate, there's nothing fantastically original about the concept, but then again I've always said, success also lies in good execution, not conception.


The Art:
Spectacular!

Expertly drawn, inked and the colouring is clean and purty! It looks good enough to eat!

There's been some hoo-hah over some of the characters looking a bit too much like the characters of PvP a few months back. I regret to say I never caught any glimpse of the art before Tauhid went over and redid the archives but I note the although some very faint (but undoubtable) resemblances remain, no one with any modicum (don't you love that word? Modicum!) of perception could mistake Rakne or Green Milton for Jade and Skull now.

All that said, backgrounds are rather simple and the majority are gradient fills. Nothing wrong with that... it does help focus the attention of the intricately drawn main characters.

Oh yeah! Elf Only Inn cameo!


The Writing:
Pretty all right. The strip aims to be funny, and although the majority of it is mildly amusing, some episodes did have me laughing out loud.

All in all, the joke writing fairly good, and there's some fun repeating jokes that are set up well in advance to make things funnier.

Story-wise it's pretty much the predictable arc of a typical fantasy quest story or an RPG game. I do get the feeling I'm going through essentially the same story I've read somewhere else before, but this time with much much more spiffier art! I guess this series really is all about the jokes.

Personal beef: Why is it, in every permutation of the fantasy genre, 'elf' remains 'elf' while 'hobbit'-esque races get called 'halfling', 'kender' or 'wanderling'? I'm really curious why fantasy writers don't stick to just one. Stop laughing. I'm serious!

Addtion: I forgot to mention, Mr. Bondia is quite the master at using panels to convey time and pace the story/punchline. Nice stuff.


Problems:
Some of the bantering the beginning gets a bit old, especially the poking fun at Lord of the Rings part. It's funny in it's own right, I know... it's just been done a tad too often by too many different people.

And yeah, I HAET BEING LEFT HANGING in the middle of a story!

Like my friend Chuck says, hiatus is the six-letter four-letter word. :(

Yeah, yeah... I know Mr. Bondia is busy with his syndicated comic Suzie View, and all the best to him... but I'm dying of curiosity in the meantime... *sniffles*


Overall:
I can see S&W's appeal to the masses. It's light humoured fun, great for unwinding after a hard day's work or something else. Would I recommend someone read it? Depends. Because of the hiatus it might be a cruel thing to do so, but generally I think it's something someone new to webcomics would love.

It's a well-done comic. I do like it.


The Next Leg:
Whoa! the links page is a solid mass of of teeny link buttons!

Do you know what this means?

*closes eyes and clicks a button at random*

And this is what I clicked.

8th Leg: Flatwood

A new find! "About freaking time!" you say? You'd be right. A month is a long time... but what can I say? I've been so busy i haven't had time to read my usual comics, much less find new ones.

Anyways on to the long-awaited find:



Comic: Flatwood
By: Zachary Parker

Genre and Setting: Surreal, Horror, Mystery

Art Style: Pencil, Greyscale, Stylized Cartoony

Is About: Alex, who wakes up in what seems to be a deserted motel. He has no memory of who he is and how he got there, but the Flat Wood in which the monsters lie waiting in the dark is the only place he can find his answers.

Website: http://flatwood.keenspace.com
Frequency: Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You might get an additional day if you vote a lot, though.
Availability: Free

First Impressions and Presentation:
Firstly, I've got to say the art is impressively distinct. It looks like well done pencil-work, all in glorious greyscale. The text looks to be handwritten (?) but whatever it works!

The website is simple, black and functional. You can't really ask for more than that, really.


The Concept:
The 'wake-up-with-amnesia' plot device is a common one, but none the worse for being used here. In fact, Zachary's spin on it is indeed a great improvement. The fact that he wakes up in some kind of creepy motel that's crawling with creepy horn-mouthed things and that the motel is surrounded by an even creepier wood makes is great.

If I may say so, Flatwood really reminds me of this webcomic called Ancient Messages. It was a really old comic and I think it's no longer available on the net. The art was never really good, but the story was one of the few that could send a chill up my spine.

All in all, very good concept.


The Art:

The whole comic is beautifully done in pencil. Full use is made of pencil textures and large areas of flat black. The beginning few pages are ludicrously difficult to read due to the bad (miniscule) Arial Narrow font, but once Zachary switches to his own handwriting it all comes together perfectly.

I put 'cartoony' in the 'Art' field, and in a way it is... Large eyes and heads (but not manga-style), with disporportionately small bodies... but it works so well I never had any objection. The distorted porportions of the art really help to convey the nightmarish feel of the comic... it reminds me of Edvard Munch's The Scream and other similar work, for some reason.

I also like the fact that the entire comic doesn't have colours. It somehow seems just right... it's a dull and drab and dead world, somehow having colour makes it look wrong. As most of the scenes are partly in the dark, one can imagine backgrounds not being a problem. Not being one to be skive off, however, there's lot of nice background details to give it an atmospheric feel. From the rundown state of the motel to the spooky eyes in the the woods... creepy.

I should also mention there's some cool GIF animations used once or twice during the pivotal moments.


The Writing:
Possibly the best part of the comic. The story is sometimes confusing, but it's a nice kind of confusing, because you can tell the "clearing-up" will be dealing with that soon. There is a lot of obvious planning and foreshadowing... little things in the beginning make perfect sense later on... and I'm particularly tickled at how hitting a ball of light with a flaming racquet can make so much perfect sense!

The dialogue is is also markedly different for your usual webcomic fare. It uses what I call 'fairy-tale' dialogue, and you get phrases like "We have tarried here too long" and "We are ever and anon about our Father's business". I do notice, however, that the main character, Alex, speaks like a normal person (modern language) further emphasizing the fact he has been plonked in Flatwood from the modern world.

Most of all the story is succeeds in doing what every good horror story should do: send chills up your spine. I was postively going "OMG this is SO good!" when reading it, and shivering in horror... in a good way, of course.


Problems:
Mainly in the beginning. The horrible horrible teeny font in the beginning is nigh-impossible to read. In fact, after the first page, I gave up and skipped until the font got a bit clearer and bigger. I'm only 21, and if my eyes can't read it, it must be pretty bad for the older people. ;)

There are also some sequences near the beginning where the page layout and bad placement of the speech blocks had me reading the text in the wrong order.


Overall:
This one is a gem.

Horror comics are all too rare, I was incredibly pleased to find one that could make me genuinely scared. The art and story combine so well, I came to the end of the archives too soon and found myself wishing for more Flatwood. I can see this one going in my daily list of comics to read.

And yeah, I voted ;) The split screen voting system is actually quite ingenious.


The Next Leg:
There's no links page, BUT there's a handy-dandy set of button down the left side of the page.

There's a whole nice bunch of comics to pick from, but after the recent hoo hah about Scott Kurtz and this Tauhid fella, I'm curious about Spells and Whistles.

So Spells and Whistles it is!