Black Salt

Staff: Chad Boudreau, J.C. Grande, and Santosh Kumar Rath

Overview:

The 80’s called, they want their kung fu movie back… in a good way.

Review:

So apparently Black Salt is adapted from a screenplay for a movie so that sets some precedence as to why it looks so professionally done. Looks like there is a bit of a budget behind the comic (if not- good job! You fooled me!).

Typesetting and layout wise it looks like something you’d see from one of the big publishers so full points for that. There is some weird pixelation with the PDF version so what would have been a flawless review kind of gets the wind taken out of it but it’s not very distracting.

The title of “black salt” didn’t exactly SCREAM 1980s china shaolin kung fu action movie, but hey- it’s not a bad genre choice. They almost lampshade 80s kung fu action movies. The dialogue is sufficiently campy, the expressions and poses are exaggerated, and some cliche lines actually just add to what is ultimately a homage to this sort of thing. Not sure if this is what they are going for, but that’s how I took it.

When we flash forward to present day I can almost SMELL the 80s & 90s on some of these character designs, though they are a more modern twist. On occasion we get some weird body proportions, but what comic isn’t rife with those right? Seriously, this reads like a more modern episode of like a mash up of GI Joe and Ninja Turtles or whatever cookie action show you watched when you were a kid (if you are in your 20s now…). This is complete with contrived acronyms, cops pulling out ridiculous swords and fighting scuzzy looking villains. And believe it or not, I am not hating on this- it’s actually a lot of fun. I’m totally down with the whole “80s action movie” thing. Hell, I could see a young Steven Seagal in this comic’s movie adaptation because his machismo would be right at home.

Now I can’t say the story leapt off the page and grabbed me. I’m not super enthralled. I’m more excited about the dose of nostalgia I got reading this. I’m sure there is more to this than is just here and it’s kinda cool they are going headlong into some kind of movie, collectible line, and all that. I don’t know if there is a premise here to really warrant all that, but I’d be willing to see what they come out with before passing judgement.

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (Professional)

Lettering: 8/10 (Professional)

Plot: 5/10 (80s/90s Nostalgia classes)

Novelty: 3/10 (Nothing new, lot of old)

Overall: 5.75/10

~Link to Product~

“Kinesis”

Zephaniah Comics: William Council

Overview:

Some hilariously horrifying artwork and some massive writing faux pas

Review:

Oh god. Let’s get into this. So first off this comic uses Poser artwork. Not like, “Oh man, you’re such a poser” but this. While it looks good on that site, what you normally get some weird uncanny valley 3d models. This comic suffers for poser-syndrome in the worst possible way. The character’s faces are as expressive as some of those robots you’ve seen walking around. The teeth and lips come out as weird, the scenes all looks extremely empty (containing ONLY the characters so it looks like a ghost town), and most the characters are the exact same height.

Also… the face of that baby will haunt my dreams forever. It’s like something out of a horror movie.

The lettering is passable. You can read it and it doesn’t bother me. At times it can become hard to read due to the slant on the font. Then again some of the onomatopoeias in this comic are just downright unimaginative (“CLANG”). The text bubbles are bizarre at times and seem to switch up whenever the team remembered to add them. Overall, it’s readable though.

The plot is downright schizophrenic and juvenile. The first few pages jump from talking about how they are the “fastest flyers” to crashing to a flying vehicle and almost killing person before the cop.. wags a finger at them? Then jump cut to some girl? Then jump cut to 22 years ago? This continues pretty much until the end.

The author also violates one of the cardinal rules of writing. Maybe this is the limit of his poser artwork but he tells us things rather than showing it. We get these text boxes explaining what the characters are doing rather than using the visual medium he is working in. The ends up producing lines like  “Once again Cassiopeia reaches into her pouch and selects a creature”. This happens again and again rather than the artist actually showing us what happens. It’s really distracting.

This problem is compounded by dialogue that serves only to speak to the reader. This is like if I went to the kitchen and said out loud, “I am hungry. What sort of sandwich should I make? I don’t like rye bread, nor do I like wheat. Perhaps white.” If I’m the character, I know this and I don’t have to articulate this to the reader. This goes back to showing, not explaining.

Exposition is tossed in willy-nilly on the bottom of the panel on occasion to give us some background information whenever the writer remembers to fill us in on something. Characters gain powers willy nilly and limits seem to be arbitrary and ill-defined. This causes me to not understand what “danger” is. As a reader I can’t empathize or identify with these characters.

Hell, if you’re still with me at this point I’ll say buy this comic just to look at some of the fascinatingly creepy faces that end up on the pages for some reason. Some of the best are on: page 6, bottom of page 12, and the top of page 14.

Metrics

Art: 1/10 (Horrific faces are bad to the point of it being funny)

Lettering: 3/10 (Readable but not “good”)

Plot: 1/10 (schizophrenic and juvenile)

Novelty: 1/10 (What novelty?)

Overall: 1.5/10

~Link to Product~

“Tim and Lynne”

Cremona Publishing: Garth Cremona, Wayne Cambronero

Overview:

Weird art, decent premise, old twist on new thing, but ultimately falls flat.

Review:

So as we start reading this one, the first thing I note is that this is clearly an indy comic in terms of artwork. They go for a fresh approach that ultimately falls flat. The background is done in grey-scale/black and white while the character are all rendered in white. The artwork in the background is a bit sloppy at time (white artifacts, etc) while the characters are VERY clean with strong lines. There are some really sloppy mistakes (like the cups on page 7, the seat on page 13, gas can on 15) This makes it seems like they just traced pictures or something. A lot of it looks like traced stock art perhaps? The style & level of detail varies wildly as a result. Overall, this is a pretty novel approach but ultimately fails to impress.

The text boxes are gradient white->blue boxes that generally exist independent of the panels themselves. They use a thing almost comic sans san serif font which doesn’t detract or add anything to this comic. The premise is a serial killer falling in love with another one. They do a good job getting in the mind of a killer, though only superficially (like the writer watched too much CSI or Dexter). Exposition dominates the first 10 pages or so and the plot hurries along at the pace of a man fleeing the cops. The dialogue is sophomoric and I found myself saying, “No kidding” most of the time the characters use actual dialogue (a lot of it is inner monologue). The second half of the issue felt like a parallel to the first half, which basically had me sleeping by the end of it to see what happens after we get the second story (which is essentially the same as the first).

I didn’t notice any spelling mistakes but a few more editing passes would fix lines like, “Time to drop unlucky for some off”. Use of period was inconsistent

There were a few clever lines. “Which knife to bring” make me chuckle a little but a lot of it felt predictable and expected. The characters feel very similar and rather shallow developmentally. We get to see the surface of these characters but we don’t get any deeper than “they are serial killers and they keep trophies”. We get a few details, but nothing to make me empathize or even remember them beyond “the guy and the girl”. Their designs are simple and ultimately forgettable (mostly thanks to the art style).

Metrics

Art: 3/10 (Sloppy)

Lettering: 5/10 (No issues)

Plot: 4/10 (Few chuckles but mostly snores)

Novelty: 3/10 (Newish spin on old concept)

Overall: 3.75/10

~Link to Product~