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The Believer

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The Believer

Staff: Larry Morgan

Overview:

Generic superhero doesn’t begin to cover it.

Review:

So today I am reading The Believer by Larry Morgan for Electro-Magnetic Press. I actually got a physical copy sent to me for this one so I’m a little out of my element (I normally do PDF based reviews here) but that doesn’t mean much. I see a few crosses and some superhero goodness so lets jump in!

The first thing about this comic is the character design and to be honest, it is not very inspired. He looks like someone was made on HeroMachine.com and doesn’t have anything super defining about his appearance other than the cross over his head and heart (oh yeah and on the bottom of his boots too). It gives me the “BibleMan” vibe and in the worst possible way. The cover has him with a variety of colors and an asymmetrical “v” shaped neckline that extends over his heart and down his arm in blue. This might translate well in a color comic, but we have a black and white comic and this is just left white (like the rest of his suit) and kind of comes off as an odd out of place line at times. He also has this magically disappearing cape that is sometimes replaced with a shield and sometimes just not there (it varies from panel to panel).

The art in this comic is decent at times but at other times it is downright terrible (see Midnight Man’s hand on page 7). It’s obviously drawn by something with talent as the perspective and profiles are spot on. Part of me things it is partially traced or drawn by multiple artists because some parts are excellent and others are unforgivably bad. The jarring differences are blatantly apparent and causes a very weird disconnect.

The art also suffers a bit in the details, foremost in musculature and the background. The background of most panels are left white and I lost what was happening because I lacked any sort of visual cues as to what is going on (example: When a character is falling I was not sure if they are just standing funny or falling). And since the story jumps so much it’s nearly impossible to follow what it is going on at time. Images also clip beyond their stroke sometimes (example top right panel on page 5) which makes me wonder how these were drawn (like like vector artwork?).

The story reads as generically as possible. I really hate to use the word, “generic” because generic superhero stories are a pet peeve of mine. They feel like cheap knock offs and try to use the same tropes used by writers of established heroes and it always falls flat unless it is in parody. The story here is that there is a generic hero, with generic powers, who fights genetic villains, in a generic universe that wouldn’t be out of place in a major publisher (except without as much history, depth, background, continuity, etc). I kept waiting for this to turn out to be a joke or a parody but it wasn’t. It just kind of read like a recap of a generic superhero universe that I wasn’t invested in. I’ve seen that song and dance a thousand times before. There is so much exposition crammed into the front had of the book that only a miracle could save it and the second half of the book is basically a fight scene between two characters. It doesn’t advance the plot much, it doesn’t tell us who these guys are, the set up is weak, and honestly- it is just really stale.

One thing I did like about it was the ending. It gave me a glimmer of hope for this character. It was a single pearl in a pile of mud though. However, even then the execution was flawed. A good twist, like they pulled at the end, needs build up and context. We are never given a hint or reference that this is something that could happen or how out of place this would be in the world (despite all the exposition in the front half of the book). If you pull a twist with no investment or build up, it doesn’t work. It’s just random.

The dialogue is dry and comes off like a parody of human speech. Most of it is exposition or explanation of things. People hardly talk- they make declarations or attempt one-liners. It feels like the characters are giving us the cliffsnotes version of the story. If the staff slowed down and gave their characters time to develop and impress upon us who they are it might not have been as bad but they rush it. We basically get what could have been two or three stories in one comic and only a few pages per story. Each of them could have been pushed into a full issue to give us time to really get into the nitty gritty of this big universe.

All and all I am really disappointed in this comic. There is obvious passion, forethought, and a bigger story trying to be told in this comic that the skill of the writer can’t execute properly. In the hands of a more veteran writer this might have been a great plot with an amazing twist but instead it’s a forgettable comic with a slight shrug on the last page before you close the book.

Metrics

Art: 3/10 (A few good pieces, but a lot of rough stuff)

Lettering: 4/10 (Sloppy and inconsistent)

Plot: 1/10 (Rushed and bland)

Novelty: 1/10 (So painful it generic)

Overall: 2.25/10

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The Fog Walkers

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The Fog Walkers

Staff: Tim & Alorian Haire

Overview:

Hate to say it but buy this comic for the artistic direction and ignore the rest.

Review:

So today I am looking at an indie comic called “The Fog Walkers”. This is one of the more painful reviews I have had to do. It is a downright dream in terms of art but everything else falls so flat. In short, I REALLY want to love this comic but I just can’t. That being said, I lets jump into the good stuff first.

Fog Walkers takes a different spin on art. They are using photos rather than illustrations and it WORKS so well. The tone and style is something this comic has down pat. They have a heavy filter over their black and white pictures which blends the line between illustration and photograph. It is gritty and dark and lonely and it perfectly matches the aesthetic they were going for. It’s a risky gamble that pays off. I’ve seen other comics that have tried to do something this but it ended up looking like terrible clip art (generally traced with Illustrator). Add to that the fantastic and creative page layout, where they extend characters beyond the panel edge to look at images in other panels, and this is one of my favorite comics visually thus far for 2014. 

One thing that bugs me about this comic is the lettering. Hands down the worst I’ve ever seen. It might be a technical glitch but the lettering has odd spaces and occasionally will separate a letter or two out from the rest. I don’t think it was done for tone or style, and if it was- it fails to convey anything other than “this comic is hard to read”. They use a spidery thin font and made me strain my eyes to read it on occasion and the jumbled mess that was their spacing just compounded the problem.

The plot, unlike the fantastic artwork, is lacking as well. We hop on the exposition express in the first two pages. The dialogue is stale and doesn’t sound human and not much progresses in the first comic. We have a guy who is fighting aliens who have conquered the planet. A fog they need to survive has mutated some humans and they fight back against the aliens. Our protagonist is a “fog walker”. It’s a really interesting premise that doesn’t really go anywhere in issue #1. That is not to say that a first issue has to go somewhere and I was actually pretty interested in the setting. However, I didn’t care all that much about the character or his situation.

It seems like there were more interesting stories that could be told in this world unless I am missing something. Where is the twist? Where is the passion? Where is the intrigue? The first issue comes a guy putting on some cloths and leaving his shelter for a city where he kills something. It feels like it fell flat and honestly that is a shame considering the kind of love that went into the premise and downright gorgeous artwork.

UPDATE: Having received an updated version from the publisher the quality of the lettering has improved significantly. It was a technical error on their behalf and they have amended it. The new lettering is still not superb. I would still suggest they do another revision on the kind of font they are using. The inconsistent character stroke and embellishment may play to the tone of the comic but it is a bit difficult to read (particularly with a black and white comic). I can admire the intent but the finished product is still a bit difficult to read.

Metrics

Art: 8/10 (Oh man was this cool)

Lettering: 4/10 (Difficult to read)

Plot: 3/10 (Setting has potential. Characters and plot didn’t grab me)

Novelty: 8/10 (Trippy and boundary pushing)

Overall: 5.75/10

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Salvagers

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Salvagers

Staff: Bob Salley, George Acevedo, Delfine Siobhan-Kanashii

Overview:

Caution: Hardcore scifi slummy greatness inside

Review:

So Salvagers comes to us from Hound Comics who has a pretty good rep and I’ve been looking to check out a comic or two from them. I picked up Salvagers #1 and can’t wait to dive in.

So these guys are pros. I read that comic without even blinking I think. 28 pages gone in a flash. Salvagers is about, you guessed it, salvage… but in space. At first it vaguely reminds me of the series planetes (If you haven’t seen that, stop reading this and treat yourself to an episode or two) but by the end the only things I could really liken it to were Firefly and Star Wars. A rag-tag crew of high-risk salvagers scour the stars for a few legitimate jobs. We join our crew as they are attempting to salvage a warship. When the ships security measures start kicking in, things go FUBAR. Don’t want to give anything away because it’s a solid comic but the real star of the comic is the characterization. The characters and their interactions with each other is a lot of fun to read and you can tell by the way they talk that they have been slumming in on these crummy jobs for a while now.

The art is professional, no questions asked. Top notch grade A USDA approved comic art. The color and proportions were consistent, the dynamic action spot on, and the perspective creative and indicative of the action. If there is one complaint I can make it is the lettering, it switches for various reasons (com chatter, synthetic voice, etc) and sometimes that is for the worse. A few times the type got kind of close to the edge of the speech bubble and I really felt like it wasn’t on the level of the awesome art this comic has.

Sorry for the short review this time, but I don’t have a lot of critiques for this one. Love it, go check it out.

Metrics

Art: 9/10 (100% Grade A Comic Art)

Lettering: 4/10 (Sloppy in a few places)

Plot: 6/10 (Characterization is the strong point here)

Novelty: 6/10 (Nothing groundbreaking in novelty but an instant classic.)

Overall: 6.25/10

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Dr. 2

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Dr. 2

Staff: James Chiang & Peter Tieryas

Overview:

Messy and weird and I love it.

Review:

Sometimes it takes a few rough edges to make something memorable. It’s not the pearly white clean “by the book” things that stick in our minds, no they are far too ordinary, we remember the rough things that challenge us. Dr. 2 is not a clean thing by any stretch of the imagination and it’ got faults and flaws a plenty but it sticks in your mind and you can’t help but wonder if the little things were not intentionally stabbed like a needle in your brain to catch your attention.

A little background. Dr. 2 is done by two VFX artists and I can almost see it in the way this is made. It is drawn with a janky, grayscale, hyper stylized approach that draws heavy inspiration from film noir. The deformed faces and rough brushstrokes the comic is drawn in plays to the overall tone of the comics and really captures the aesthetic they are going for. Sometimes this makes it difficult to tell what is going on and they throw a LOT at you real fast and to be honest- I didn’t catch everything with just one read through. That is not a compliment because I felt pretty lost by page 20 and key points got lost due to some points that are mentioned early on that get resolved later.

Some sleight lettering/dialogue balloon mistakes are actually gambles that didn’t pay off. For example, on page 28 we have the driver of a car turning a radio on but we can’t see it so we have an arched bit of text that says “Radio On” with a curving arrow indicating that the character is turning it in that direction. Visually that works and is kind of novel, however the arrow has this issue that occurs in Adobe Illustrator when you try to curve a line and then apply a stock arrow style to it as a stroke where it oddly warps the traditionally straight tip. I know I’m getting technical here but for what is otherwise a great comic- little things like that get in the way of really pushing it up to the next level. It’s more a “death by a thousand papercuts” kind of thing that drags the production quality down and most of it could simply be reworked and repaired (provided they kept the layers separate).

The contrast used in the comic is undoubtedly the best use I’ve seen in an indy comic and reminds me of Samurai Jack fighting the Ninja. It fits with the “shades of grey” sense of morality to get and pays homage to the kind of detective flicks that this reminds me of.

There is a very compelling story to be told here and it is currently sitting in a bunch of pieces like a puzzle sitting on the floor. It’ll probably take a few issues (well… no doubt a series) to sort itself out and I gotta admit I’m pretty hooked. I’d love to see the ways this fit together. The characters were mysterious yet familiar enough in their roles that it was genuinely enjoyable to spend some times in this little world Dr. 2 has created.

As a heads up to younger readers, this comic probably should have an NC-17 rating on it but if you are of age- give it a read!

Metrics

Art: 6/10 (Good and stylized)

Lettering: 3/10 (Not this comic’s strong point)

Plot: 6/10 (Engaging and fun)

Novelty: 7/10 (Took risks and some paid off, some did not.)

Overall: 5.5/10

Diskordia

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Diskordia

Staff: Andrew Blackman

Overview:

A kinda of trippy “Alice in Wonderland” kind of thing going on here.

Review:

So today I am taking a step into madness and reviewing Diskordia #1. This is another one from a team that contacted me and I reviewed. So without further ado, let’s jump down the rabbit hole.

The art is bizarre and weird, but meshes with the aesthetic (dare I say it defines it?) and is well drawn. Sometimes I can’t tell if they are being sloppy of stylistic though and while the junky madness vibe they are going for can be engaging I can’t help but wonder if I am giving them too much credit. However, later in the comic there are these odd “chibi” heads that pop up and kind of rips you kicking and screaming from the comic’s immersive grasp.

Also, this is definitely a 18+ comic*. Tits everywhere and slogans like “Penis for President” are kind of the status quo here but it works. It’s kind of a fun little “fuck you” to more tame comics and it works with the aesthetic they are trying to establish.

(*Not sure why I’ve done so many 18+ recently. I try to avoid them generally.)

The lettering bugs me on the first page. It’s near impossible to read and really doesn’t serve much point but otherwise it is pretty solid. The yellow on black text at first kind of annoyed me but when they are using such a dark color pallet I understood why they made the choice. They took a chance and it turned out pretty well. It preserved the right tone for the comic while being sufficiently

So I’m going to go on a rant here. There are far too many comics, movies, and games out there that do the “gothic Alice” sort of “madness” thing. Personally, I don’t dig it. It’s never been my thing. Like that whole Zenescope Wonderland thing, not my cup of tea. Diskordia kind of dips into that rather than marinating itself in it and to be fair the result is a whole lot better than the rest (also… it’s nothing like Zenescope’s artstyle).

Ultimately, this comic’s plot is incoherent. It moves from stock set up to stock set up with some big set pieces for their own sake (and maybe shock value). I get that comic called “Diskordia” might be entitled to a bit of craziness but it didn’t feel like it had a point. I get it was following drugged up logic, and suspension of logic due to an unreliable narration is ok, but it felt like a lot of the scenes were not chosen not for their part in a larger story but rather to set up for some sort of line delivery. That’s not to say it wasn’t a fun read and the art alone is probably worth checking out.

Metrics

Art: 6/10 (Good with some rough edges)

Lettering: 6/10 (Solid and takes risks that pay off)

Plot: 3/10 (Incoherent)

Novelty: 4/10 (Weird but I also get a “I’ve seen this before” vibe)

Overall: 4.75/10

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Master Tape

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Master Tape

Staff: Harry French, Amaru Ortiz Martinez, Lesley Atlansky, Colin Bell, Coll Hamilton

Overview:

Strap in, it’s time for an overdose of counter-culture references (in the best possible way).

Review:

Alright so I am jumping in to review Master Tape (side one) today. I got some hot beats playing in the background here so hopefully we’ll have a hot comic to match 😉

Anyway, this comics has a very bizarrely wonderful artstyle. God, I love this stuff. They use a lot of skewed perspectives and an array of color palettes to great effect. Unfortunately sometimes it slips a bit and we have a few sloppy panels (see bottom of page 12, middle of 22, etc) but 75% of the time they are spot on. When it’s bad, it’s bad. When it’s good it’s good.

The lettering is clear and legible but some of the onomatopoeia are not really in tone with the rest of the comic and could have been used to greater effect. Something to note is that the text has a very different compression on it than the image (almost seems like a matter of raster vs vector) but it doesn’t make any real difference.

The dialogue is plays right along with the art style, creative a very cohesive vibe for the whole thing. They curse, they use slang, and they almost insult the reader sometimes (and it’s wonderful!). Something this comic managed to pull off that I have not seen in other comics is the use of explanatory panels as de facto dialogue. For example we have a conversation where one character asks another what is chasing them. We then get a panel of what is chasing them and we flip back to the next part of the conversation as if they had told the enquiring character. Very effective.

The content is probably 18+ or at least something you want to read your kids as a bedtime story (unless them talking about “en-mass fuck-choirs” is pg-13 in your book). There is a lot of creativity in this comic. It envisions a truly bizarre futuristic world where music has been replaced by more colorful methods of entertainment. The kind of wild ride this takes us on is truly unexpected, involving drugs, post-apocalyptic death metal bands storming corporate offices, and internet piracy contract murders. Come on, how can you not love this kind of stuff? And it is all done with the most exquisite brand of personal style and some almost overwhelming passion for its source material.

The characters are all very identifiable with a few trope braking roles. Like the protagonist who, in another comic, might have been a sleazy record producer or a playboy is instead cast as a sarcasting shell of his former glory (a parallel to the music industry). Their dialogue is a lot of fun to read due to some good banter and the engaging story.

Overall, that was a bit of an eye-opener. I was expecting counterculture but what I got was an almost overdose. It felt like Tank Girl  with a bit of Heavy Metal and a touch of Eureka Seven but with a more coherent plot and more modern aesthetic. Definitely one to check out.

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Fitting but with some bad panels )

Lettering: 5/10 (Decent and clean)

Plot: 8/10 (Human characters, good dialogue, solid writing)

Novelty: 8/10 (It’s weird and wonderful with a lot of passion)

Overall: 6.5/10

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Allwënn: Soul & Sword

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Allwënn: Soul & Sword

Staff: Jesús B. Vilches and Javier Charro

Overview:

It’s gothy and emo but it has amazing art and prose.

Review:

Alright next on my post-hangover 2014 review binge is Allwënn: Soul & Sword. It’s the preview for an upcoming comic series and it is hella free so that’s a plus right there (no excuse as to why you can’t “buy” it right?) Again, as per normal I didn’t read anything on this one prior to jumping in so let’s see how it did!

…only I totally did read up on it and there was this YouTube video the creators did so I watched that before reading the comic. The tone I got from it was that of an anime series that takes itself way too seriously and tries to be “dark”. So consider this section a kind of mini review of the comic’s promo video. The intro text was very… weak. It was a bunch of emo vague statements over some cool music than a montage of artwork from the comic. Honestly, it conveyed tone but did not interest me. The art alone got me invested but the weak and vague statements didn’t tell me anything about what this book I would be buying would be about. Something about how the narrator (who is unknown to us) “was there” when a sword was baptized in “her” name and when he tried to kill himself.

(Sigh) I really hope this comic’s story explains or I am gonna be ripped. Anyway, on to the comic!

So first off this is not so much a comic as a true “graphic novel”. I don’t mean in the “serious comic” sort of way, but in the layout of the comic. It is a series of pages with dialogue over them with art in the background. Sometimes there is no art and just a stony black background.

The art of this comic is beyond captivating. It fits the tone, it expresses emotion, it backs the dialogue, etc. In fact this book is nothing if not artistic and I say that because every visual aspect of this comic was design from the perspective of an artistic mindset. When there is art- it is a choice to do so that makes the story stronger, when there is no art- there is a aesthetic reason behind it, and the type of art (linework, full body, etc) it is all back by a solid rationale that I can understand. The background are beautiful too. Even when just a blackish stone texture it feeds that visual tone the comic is striving for. It feels a bit like a Conan story set in a high fantasy setting visually. Kind of remind me of Skyrim’s take on fantasy and I am impressed to the nth degree.

After I finished this review I read another and it talks about how there are a few reused pieces in the comic but ultimately I find this acceptable. When they use the picture more than once, the first time we see only part of it and as the story unfolds, we see more of it.

I’m sorry to say that the plot is just straight up “emo”. As a reviewer, I like to use better words than “emo” but it’s the most fitting one I can think of. The protagonist acts like he is going to kill himself every night by holding a dagger to his chest but stops and is always seeking his own death. Really? REALLY! That is the plot you are going for with art as goddam GORGEOUS as this? That is the tone you are going to use for a graphic novel laid out as well as this with as much love as was so clearly put into this? We get to hear the goth kids from South Park’s backstory for their D&D character? Ugg. Kill me now… except don’t. I don’t want to be as emo as this comic’s premise.

The premise, as far as we are really told is that this a half elf half dwarf guy loves this girl… a lot. Like a lot a lot (we are told about it on just about every page) and since he couldn’t have her he went 120% emo and started seeking his own death by doing stupid stuff like trying to kill 20 people at once. Of course since he is the protagonist- he can’t die and keeps on going around repeating his suicidal quest.

The writing itself is solid. No grammar mistakes, no odd word choices, and overall is brilliant. You have to get past all the gothy-emo stuff that is just laid on so thick and heavy it hurts at times. It reads more like poetry or limerick than story and you have to read between the lines quite frequently. The writing style reminds me of a Homeric epic at times while at others I find little snippets of The Bard in there. There is a particularly vivid love scene that we get one (tasteful) picture of but are then given a powerfully moving bit of prose that would make even a salty maiden blush.

One thing that kind of bugs me, but I can totally see why they did it, is that they tell this story in such short fragments. It jumps around every four or five pages and I am unable to follow any one trail for more than a moment before the graphic novel jumps to something completely different. It was really hard to get through the first few “chapters” (which are only a few pages long) but around the midpoint it started to all click. There is an overall narrative that begins to take shape but since the story is not told chronologically for the most part it is a tough read.

All and all this is one of those graphic novels you don’t want to miss. It’s a rare gem with greater prose and artistic direction that is second to none. The premise they chose is really dark and a little overplayed but the team that made this is wildly passionate about it and dives head first.

Metrics

Art: 9/10 (If this art was a woman, I’d put a ring on it)

Lettering: 5/10 (Nothing groundbreaking but always legible)

Plot: 4/10 (They were a little heavy on the emo but great on the prose)

Novelty: 7/10 (A crazy attempt at a true “graphic novel” with solid art direction)

Overall: 6.25/10

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Spying with Lana: Sweet Nothings

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Spying with Lana: Sweet Nothings

Staff: Sean Harrington

Overview:

A surprisingly smartly written 18+ indie comic with some quality issues.

Review:

Oh good another 18+ comic. Today I’ll be spying on Spying With Lana: Sweet Nothings.
I’m pretty sure I’ll regret it, but hey- I give everything a chance.

Straight up, the art is good. For one we have a pretty realistic comic and the artist/writer (Sean Harrington) has a very good grasp of anatomy, even if it is the anatomy of a porn star. I gotta say though, when every shot of every character is kind of centered on their massive tits… it’s not really something that screams “awesome artistic direction” in my mind. Then again, this is an 18+ comic. There is also this really odd disconnect between the character’s skin, the lineart, and the backgrounds.Like on page 7 (page 1 of the actual comic) the skin of the man yelling is drawn hyper realistic, the stroke is done with some rough tool, the suit he is wearing is another texture all together, and the background is non-existant. I have this weird suspicious that this guy is tracing stuff or just ripping pictures. Like the wall on the bottom of page 8 is from Google, but the panel above that is drawn. It’s SO weird. Like sometimes it is clearly drawn and sometimes it is clearly not. And when it is drawn there is this odd “manga” style that gets introduced every now and again that is another divergence from the art style. Maybe it is his style? Maybe it is some kind of artistic shortcut? I don’t know. Either way the meshing between all these styles really creates a very inconsistent tone.

The typography is not so good and a lot of care was taken in it. There is a minor rasterization/compression issue on the text (possibly on the whole comic) but that’s not much to complain about.

Ironically, I am going to say the story was actually pretty engaging. Like I went into this assuming we’d get a “pizza delivery” class porno story… but yeah, I was wrong. I sold it short. The basic premise is that a sexy spy tricks three people into giving up their components to a secret invention they were meant to be protecting. I mean there are tits every page or two and some sexy time, but… yeah. Decent. There was some clever line delivery, I actually got a few chuckled out of it and the characterization was pretty solid. If it wasn’t for the tits being shoved in my face every like 30 sec it would have been a solid normal comic, but it has the 18+ label to be honest it would have detracted from the humor. The excessive sex and titts actually kind of play to the kind of humor the comic is looking to portray.

So then there is this weird shift in quality on page 20. Rather than being drawn or use stock images we get a random low quality 3D image as the exterior of a house with some text that is either super compressed or low quality is superimposed over it. Really? I gave you credit for some solid art early on in this review, don’t make me regret it.

Anyway, in conclusion this is a smartly written 18+ comic that really is bogged down due to some poor choices. The artistic disconnect in styles is disconcerting, the compression issues are glaring, and the whole thing could have benefited from a serious upgrade. Otherwise, the writing was good, the plot was engaging, the characterizations were strong. Maybe I prejudged an 18+ indie comic but hey- I’m game to review anything and give it a fair chance.

Metrics

Art: 2/10 (Weird clashing art styles. Generally good. Quality issues.)

Lettering: 4/10 (Solid with compression issues.)

Plot: 6/10 (Actually pretty solid.)

Novelty: 5/10 (A new story to me… and tits?)

Overall: 4.25/10

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The Dead

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The Dead

Staff: James Maddox, Jen Hickman

Overview:

Unexpected take on a common theme.

Review:

I have a comic today that the author promises me is “not about zombies“ (quite explicitly actually) despite being called “The Dead”. I was told it is about the afterlife, but in a way that would be unique and compelling. That being said, lets jump into The Dead.

So the first thing that jumps out at me is the very grungy art style. I mean I expected grungy from a comic named “The Dead”, but it is quite well done. At times the scrappy line-work made me think it was messy (see the lack of apparent stroke on Sam’s pants on page 10 due to the black background), but it was clearly the look they were going for. A comprehension of how to effectively use perspective is demonstrated early on with a series of very nice dutch angles (I feel like I am watching Battlefield Earth or Thor). Combine the two artistic choices (angle and style) and you can almost convey the vibe of this comic. They craft a very uneasy, bizarre, world that faithfully recreates the feeling of a nightmare at times. There are some great character designs as well, with everyone being visually distinct and memorable. I like to play a game after I read a comic to see if I can mentally picture all of the characters and normally I can do pretty poorly. However this time I could pretty vividly remember just about all the characters visually (even if I couldn’t recall all of their names).

It should be noted that the lettering on this comic is top notch. The onomatopoeia is fantastic, something a lot of comics neglect. They transform the typography visually to mimic the sound (example: “Crash” might be broken up like a shattering window). I really wished more comics took the time to invest in their letting and onomatopoeia, it’s the single thing that separates the novices from the pros. I don’t mean to say “amateurs can’t have good typography” or “the barrier for entry to becoming a pro is outstanding lettering” but in 99% of the really bad comics I read they have really bad lettering as well. It’s kind of the litmus test for pro vs joe in my book and this one really shows off some really stellar work.

Plot wise I think they are following dream logic. While it works, but there is not much “meat” to it. This is more a comic that is meant to invoke a feeling. It’s very piecemeal and kind of stitched together the the begining, but again that is what they were going for I suspect. A lot of dialogue kind of picks up in medias res quite, and while it is effective in invoking that dream logic kind of jumpiness, it does get distracting if you are reading this, even in one go. I can only imagine putting this down and picking it up and trying to remember what the heck is going on. The same goes for transitions; we get a lot of the comic equivalent of jump cuts.

That brings me to a weak point of this comic. While the comic is engaging, it doesn’t seem to “go” anywhere. Near the end we get a bit of plot development with a “bottle game” (with a fun infographic) and a kind of teaser of things to come, but otherwise it feels very aimless. The direction of the plot seems very suited for a video game from the 90s and will no doubt result in some very amusing “high adventure” style storylines but it didn’t engage me like I expected it would.

To be honest, it was a fun little vacation but it didn’t grab me hard enough to really keep me there permanently. Like I like the world and it is a very seductive world, but I was lacking that “draw” that keeps me there. It might be the detached view the story takes but it never really sealed the deal for me. There is this bit about collecting objects to learn more about The House but the comic itself even says they are just doing it to pass the time. I’m sure there is a bigger plot out there somewhere but dangling a little bit of bait about the nature of something so inherently bizarre doesn’t really do anything for me. Like we have a shattered norm (if you are a Joseph Campbell fan, they are in the “special world”) and as a reader I don’t know the relative value of this danger. If they are in the afterlife or whatnot, what does death even mean? If the information is valuable but unreliable, as it is mentioned that it is often speculative, why risk life and limb (if life has a value)? I feel like the comic could have done a bit more to establish us in the world and explain things a little more before just saying “tune in next week”.

Overall, I liked it. Very unique setting penned by a very novel hand, great artwork, and there was some serious investiture into the establishment of the aesthetic of the comic. I was given issues 1-3 to read but I only read issue #1 (as per my guidelines). It’s worth a read if only for the art and setting.

That is not to say it is a bad comic, far from it, so give it a read!

Metrics

Art: 6/10 (Scrappy but fitting)

Lettering: 8/10 (Outstanding)

Plot: 4/10 (Fun vacation, not to stay)

Novelty: 8/10 (Unique world, fun premise)

Overall: 6.5/10

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HellOhGirl

Posted on by Standard 1

124179-thumb140HellOhGirl

Staff: Jeremy Key, Opan

Overview:

Worst comic I’ve ever reviewed. Period.

Review:

Holy jesus. So I started off with this one by looking at the cover. This is what stared back at me.

holy jesus

I don’t normally do adult stuff so I’ll spare you all the details, but I am going to review this trainwreck because… I don’t know. Maybe I’m a masochist or something.

So the first page starts with a page from this girl’s diary. Lord almighty I can’t read a word of it at normal magnification but let’s not pick on such trivial things when there are so many juicy tidbits to select. This page is written with as much grace as a three year old having a seizure. Let’s look at an excerpt,
“I hang with Finx. He’s kewl. He’s from back home too. We are buds until he farts, Then is when we war and fight over normal stuff like food, the toilet.”
Shakespeare, you have been surpassed. This is the kind of stuff I couldn’t make up if I tried.

Oh yeah, and there is a talking rat who has every “proper British” cliche, pulling words, phrases, and sayings from every era of its history. It wouldn’t be so bad except that they are misused sometimes and the protagonist is made to seem “stupider” because she doesn’t get what he is saying.

So even the spelling and grammar mistakes, which are QUITE numerous, pale in comparison to the kind of bizarre bizarre meta panhandling that occurs. Mind you this is Issue #1. In the middle of a exposition  (I can’t find a stronger word to indicate that every word of every speech bubble is exposition for like 3 pages) scene the main character starts talking about how many fans the Six Source Studios DevinatArt page has and how many fan emails they get and… wow (also I checked, the have like a dozen watchers and their FB page has like 5 likes). I don’t know if I can continue this review. It’s… wow. This is honestly the worst comic I have ever read. Ok Scotty, you can do this, soldier on. Flip to the next page…

hellspawn
Oh god. Why have you forsaken me? What hellish influence has driven the studio who made this comic to include an image like this? Oh lord. Anyway after that nightmarish non-sequitur scene we continue our schizophrenic plot in which Hellyssa is set up on a blind date… and is wearing a pair of joke-shop glasses and nose for some reason. (… do I have to continue to review this? *Searches contract* Fine.) she is set up on a date. But after that- time for a half naked fat cyclops because WHY NOT!

Oh and I’ll list my grievances with this comic in no particular logical order because the comic did away with logic long ago. “C”. You can use a “C” author. “Kewl” or “Krazy” is not kewl to do 15 times. It was kind of ok in the diary entry where we had an unreliable narrator… god why am I applying any iota of thought to this. Anyway, it ends with a… big surprise here… non-resolution (and not even a cliche cliffhanger?) and and ad.
Dear artist. Boobs don’t work that way. (Also, hi bender)


Otherwise it is surprisingly good for a 3D piece. It doesn’t suffer with the issue of lack of clutter or background characters that other comics that use this art style have. The models were surprisingly consistent (except for that news anchor whose face will haunt my nightmares).

They have this odd fascination with the main character who kind of looks like an aged hooker with breast implants and have the mistaken idea that she is some kind of sex symbol or something. The texture for her skin just looks grody and wrinkled. I don’t find her attractive, she is really just kind of terrifying, hardcore uncanny valley stuff going on. I mean if you look at the last page you can see how freakishly large her hands are? Maybe someone thinks she is attractive but to me she looks like they stretched hyper realistic skin over a blow up sex doll and put a pink wig on it.

Also, what is with the adult rating? Other than the half naked cyclops and her comically large boobs- why did this get an adult rating? Like I can see that maybe this could be seen in some super conservative country as “adult” but I totally expected this to be some raunchy sex fantasy. I’m really glad it didn’t though. I did NOT want to see granny sex doll bumping uglies with a half naked cyclops. 

Metrics

Art: 3/10 (Quality 3d with some nightmarish uncanny valley)

Lettering: 4/10 (A few mistakes but overall good)

Plot: 0/10 (Kill me now.)

Novelty: 0/10 (Boobs and pink hair are novel right?)

Overall: 1.75/10

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