Tag Archives: indie comic review

Penny Palabras

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Penny Palabras

Staff: Kelly Matten and Waker farrell

Overview:

Wonderful creepy pasta in comic form.

Review:

Ok so today’s main dish is Penny Palabras, a supernatural story by James B Willard and Patrick K Beavers. We are given a brief introduction that describes a girl (Penny) who is terrorized by a paranormal entity known as “the straw man” and she seeks to find a way to free herself from him. It’s a pretty novel concept off the bat and I’m psyched to get into it! Lets dive into, Penny Palabras (Episode One: The Spectacular Revolver).

Let’s start with the visuals. The art is a drag grayscale that uses a lot of negative space and rough lines. It’s very fitting with the theme and is a stylistic choices rather than a demonstration of the limits of the artist. Mix that with the almost handwritten typography and you have a wonderful visual presentation. There are a few limits brought on by the art style and things I wished they had find a way around (some of the dark grey dialogue bubbles have their edges lost against other areas of dark grey due to a lack of stroke for example). That being said, the art is not professional grade but I almost doesn’t want professional grade with a comic like this. It fits too well. It’s dirty and messy, just like the story.

The story is narrated from the perspective of an odd little girl but before you start shouting “gothic-Alice syndrome!” she defies the cliche. Penny is one of the few female protagonists who doesn’t seem to be just a pair of breasts and hips, she is more than that. I could have seen this character being written as a male or female, but I get the feeling that if Penny had been a guy it would have been a much more “emo” comic. Instead Penny is tough yet still sensitive enough to be vulnerable and have problems.

There is some clever writing that match the clever visuals. The story is very engaging and they make use of both the visual and literary aspects of the medium (example: talking about the skull faced man you can see in the moon while moon is right there). There is an art to that and it’s well done here. It leaves us on a cliffhanger, asking more questions than it really answers, and while as a reader that bothers me a bit- it works. It snags you hook-line and sinker and pulls you along for a ride. Penny Palabras doesn’t fall into the trap of a lot of first issues where it just hammers you with exposition. No, it establishes things pretty quick and actually progresses the tale by page 24.

All and all this is a fantastic little comic. Right now it’s donation for the first issue and I strongly suggest you pick up a copy if your into the horror, supernatural or even just plain mystery genres. Totally worth a read.

 

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Not pro but it fits the theme)

Lettering: 5/10 (Sloppy and inconsistent)

Plot: 7/10 (What can I say? I love well written female character.)

Novelty: 8/10 (New and creepy!)

Overall: 6.25/10

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Stargirl

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Stargirl

Staff: Brandon Rhiness, Brittni Bromley, Przemyslaw Dedelis

Overview:

A space opera that manages to put me to sleep.

Review:

Alright so today we are going to do Stargirl. It’s a scifi that looks like a space opera and I LOVE me some space opera so let’s get into it!

Starting off, the art is well done even if it is not professional grade. At times it looks like there might have been a compression and/rasterization issue on some of the panels but overall it’s a solid effort with a lot of life to it. There are some great use of perspective in here, showing some real talent, though the colors are a bit simple. However, that’s kind of ruined with a few sloppy panels that lack the details of the others and it stands out. There is also this odd coloration on some of the skintones of the characters. It’s like it had shadows that were just drawn on with a low-opacity brush and left unblended. The effect is that they look more like odd 2D skin blemishes rather than adding depth. Perhaps the best way to express it is that this comic has great linework but the color is not on the same level.

The lettering could really have used a professional edge to it. There were plenty of poor choices and they were made on a most basic level. There are small things like always fitting a bubble into a panel rather than allowing it to merge the border, cramped lettering, inconsistent spacing, etc but there were also large things. An example is located right on the cover where a light colored font in the subtitle gets lost in a bright white starburst.

We get some expository dialogue and the writer falls into the trap of using his words to explain rather than letting the visual aspects of the comic illustrate what is going on. On the flip side, there is a lot of fun dialogue in here (particularly between a character and a humanoid dog) that is a cut above some of the dryer bits we get. A lot of the pages are really dialogue heavy and don’t really progress the plot. It felt like I was waiting for SOMETHING to happen.

The layout of the comic is pretty solid and it has some fun paneling showcased. There is this odd use of a really large panel in the middle of the comic (not like double size) that is a bit disruptive and I’m not really sure why it couldn’t just fit onto a single page. However, on the whole, it’s pretty well laid out and they play with panel/perspective enough to keep it interesting.

I’m not sure how to phrase this delicately so I’ll be blunt- I was really bored by this comic until the very very end. They spent a lot of time working on these characters, fleshing out their personal life, but it just kind of stays there and doesn’t move for about 25 pages. We get small victories until then, but it feels more like a time waster. And the worst part is that very little adds up to the end result- they could have summed up 90% of what was said in a few pages and it would have had the same impact on the story.

All and all I don’t think I’d recommend it. I love space opera stories and this doesn’t make the grade. It has some fantastic linework and the components of a real solid story are laying about- but they were not deftly assembled into a compelling narrative.

Metrics

Art: 3/10 (Good linework, hit & miss color)

Lettering: 2/10 (Sloppy and inconsistent)

Plot: 3/10 (The pieces of a good story are here but it left me bored)

Novelty: 5/10 (It’s new to me! Draws from some other established tropes but that’s ok)

Overall: 3.5/10

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I Am Michael Watcher

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I Am Michael Watcher

Staff: Brian Hawkins

Overview:

A psychological thriller that falls kinda flat.

Review:

I Am Michael Watcher by Brian Hawkins is next up in the good ol’ review queue. I know a few other reviewers have done this one (check out a few over at GoodReads or on J53518’s review on YouTube) but I skipped reading/watching them for this comic to make sure I could formulate my own opinions. So that being said, let’s dive right into “I Am Michael Watcher”.

The art, to be honest, reminds me of an art student. It has a lot of texture and detail in SOME things. It lends itself to this cliche where there tends to be the characters involved and some object to give us perspective but other wise we are only treated to an uninspired background. There are some occasional minor oversights in terms of perspective but nothing super major, however the death by a thousand cuts is often worse than one fell blow. It all adds up to feeling like this was drawn by an art student rather than some kind of professional. Nothing wrong with it, just nothing impressive. There are also some very ugly facial expressions that suffer from accentuated realism that gets applies to a character’s face when the artist is too focused on the facial details (example: see the bottom right panel of page 10). I’m happy to report however that the lettering is just fine and looks quite professional.

The characters, when we finally get to them, are pretty lively. I like the down to Earth take they have on college life (and relationships during college in particular) and the personality they exude. I don’t want to say that they dwell too much on it- but I felt like saying, “just get on with it already” a few times. The dialogue walks the line between unnecessarily explanatory (“I don’t know who this is?” “My roommate”) and relatively realistic dialogue between two people.

While the pacing suffers, it isn’t a bad story overall. It has enough there to keep you guessing but it didn’t invest me in the world/stakes as much as I’d hoped. Maybe I’m jaded by CSI and Law & Order, but it felt a little contrived at times. That’s not to say it doesn’t have good points, it really does real quite well and it’s worth the read (maybe TV is just a better medium for murder mystery?). If it has a flaw though, it is that it really is one of those comics that crawls near the end (for the second half of the comic) and rushes in the beginning. You can tell the direction it is going but by the end of it you are just flipping pages to make sure you are right.

Ultimately the only word that comes to mind with this comic is “harmless”. It’s not bad, but I don’t think it will make it to be top of 2014 list either. I feel like the comic could have been made better by cutting the page count in half (example: The entire struggle on the first pages could be done in three or four panels relatively well) and moving the plot more in the first issue. An increased reliance on visual storytelling could have also benefited the piece and allowed it to retain an air of mystery. As it stands, they spell everything out with painful detail in heavy dialogue.

In conclusion, it’s worth a read if horror/mystery is your thing. I’d recommend you give it a read but suggest you buy the first two or three issues if you are going to get into it.

Metrics

Art: 3/10 (Unpolished)

Lettering: 5/10 (Spot on)

Plot: 4/10 (Pace is a slow and you can call most of it but it’s still good)

Novelty: 4/10 (Nothing super new. Enough to keep me interested.)

Overall: 4/10

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Last Breath

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Last Breath

Staff: Sam Eggleston, Jason Baroody, Josh Oakes, John Hunt, Kim Eggleston

Overview:

Hard hitting space survival story that is competently executed

Review:

I love a good scifi and today’s entree is “Last Breath” which as a crying astronaut on the cover so- hey, I guess this is my cup of tea. This is a KickStartered comic and I’m always glad to see delivery on those. Anyway, let’s jump in.

This comic opens with the iconic space race and mainlines us some concentrated backstory that expands the timeline of the space race into the future. I am glad to see that they didn’t go to hardcore into the scifi (no giant robots, alien invaders, etc) when they begin with such a historically grounded premise.

I gotta say, the art is spot on for this comic. It’s pretty standard high production value American style comic art. It has realistic proportions and even though it’s a scifi that takes place in the future (no that distant though) it still looks very recognizable. I really dig the way they use expansive starfields behind the character to stress how alone he is.and how little they make him look for a lot of it. The lettering is also standard comic book fare for comics and that is to say it was legible and differentiated internal dialogue and spoken dialogue well. The thing with lettering is, when it isn’t a problem it’s good (it’s SO easy to mess up).

The writing is done primarily through internal narration for the first half, which again, lends itself to the “lone survivor” vibe it is going for. There is no one to hear him, so he talks to himself. I don’t want to spoil a lot of this comic (it’s VERY well written) so I’ll leave it at that.

Plot wise, again I am not looking to spoil this so my hands a bit tied, but it is something not to be missed. It reminds me of Apollo 13 a little bit and I say that in the best possible way. There is some very good characterization, though after a point we basically are left with two characters in an impossible situation. They don’t got into the geopolitics that is evidently going on in the background (then again, this is the first issue) and the plot kind of flies by as the pacing picks up to a rocket’s pace by the end. A defter hand might have slowed it a bit near the end but then again it could have ruined the action a bit.

All and all this is a solid comic and you should pick it up if only for the production value and premise. Not to spoil anything but it’s a near-future, hard science, survival story with man facing off against the environmental dangers of the exploration of the moon. It’s competently written, engaging, with some great art to boot. The backers for this KickStarter will NOT be disappointed. Give it a read! 

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (High grade)

Lettering: 6/10 (No complaints)

Plot: 6/10 (Good with a little rushed pacing near the end)

Novelty: 6/10 (Hey- it’s new to me)

Overall: 6.25/10

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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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