iHero

Staff: Luke J Halsall, Graeme Kennedy, and Gary Chudleigh

Overview:

iSquandered the premise.

Review:

So today I’ve got a comic to review called “iHero” from Obscure Reference Comics. Now I’m not an Apple guy. I think they are proprietary garbage if you ask me… but hey- you’re here for comic reviews right? Lets review that instead 😉

Right off the bat I dislike the cover. Maybe it’s all the comics I grew up with, but this is so divorced from the traditional that it bugs me. We have the title “iHero” in a traditional san serif font and a picture of a iPad with a few “superpower apps” on it. It looks really uninspired to be honest and the artifacting in the top right of the image really doesn’t do this comic’s otherwise decent artstyle justice. The credits page are also done in the same fashion, trying to mimic the layout of a mobile device but coming across like someone was messing around with Adobe Illustrator.

The art is a decent attempt, blinding more of a cartoonish style with comic forms. The use of strokes is nice but sometimes the inexperience of the artist (maybe rush?) shows though. While nothing is “bad”, nothing is good either and it is a far cry from the big leagues. A good understanding of dynamic motion is really shown however and I’d love to see some work from this artist in a few years. On a related note, the letting is legible and even the onomatopoeia are decent. I think they left a speech bubble blank on page 13, but otherwise it is a solid job.

So the plot has me on both sides of the fence. The comic is about an iPod like device that gives you superpowers. The product is called “iHero” and was developed by a guy who looked like Steve Jobs… but isn’t. I understand that they can’t call it “Apple”… but it really detracts from it. There is a very heavy “real world consequences for superpowers” feel to this comic, but we have everything BUT the real world. It is like talking about a burger place in a story but calling it “McSonalds” so they don’t get sued. It seems like there always air quotes around every mention of something “non-Apple” related and it is really distracting (A pear logo with a bite taken out of it, etc).

The plot is very quickly rushed through, like a speed run of some video game. We are told of events, sometimes in single panels, and I don’t feel like a reader doesn’t have enough time to develop any sort of investment in the elements of the story. iHero released, we see some fun uses of it, then it is banned right and left, and we see the bad stuff happening with it. At first I thought some of the early stuff was a parody and we were going to get a zoom out to see that it was a commercial they were considering or whatnot. We have some really dark things happen (A girl freezes her boyfriend’s junk off in retribution of him sleeping with someone else) but it comes across like it’s a joke or funny, and it might have been but then two pages later it is banned and it is implied that people are fearful of this because of the stuff. It is like it can’t decide if it wants to be funny or serious and doesn’t have the substance to convey the complexities necessary to manage that sort of dynamic due to the breakneck pace it rushes through stuff in.

A lot of these situations could be a good 3-4 pages worth of material that could allow us to get invested in the characters and thus the outcome. Imagine if we got to MEET the guy who was teleporting around so he could sleep with his mistress? If we learned about who he was, his personality traits, his rationale for doing it, and the context it occurred within maybe the ending could have a real punch- but instead we get 6 panels of it and are not sure if we should laugh or feel bad for him.

There are a few stock superheroes that you can tell are either parodies or pastiches. We have characters similar to superman, supergirl, and batman joining “not-Steve Jobs” on a superhero team (reminiscent of the Justice League or perhaps Avengers) to combat people misusing the iHero. In a world like this- it seems like a really missed opportunity to develop some really unique characters.

While this comic starts off with a potentially really interesting premise- it is squandered on mediocre fair. The whole comic seems really one note; “What if an Apple product gave you superpowers?”. If that excites you- read this and laugh at the iPod jokes. If not, I am remiss to recommend it.

Metrics

Art: 4/10 (Decent but not pro level)

Lettering: 5/10 (Legible)

Plot: 2/10 (Rushed and exposition heavy)

Novelty: 4/10 (Squandered)

Overall: 3.25/10

Fates Abound

Staff: Lee S Dresner and Juan Chavarriga

Overview:

An intriguing and novel premise.

Review:

So today’s main course is Fates Abound by Lee S Dresner and Juan Chavarriga. This one is a doozy so read all the way through the review. There are a few missed steps, but in the end it’s worth the wait.

The first thing that hits me is the rush set up of the first two pages. We get some very knee jerk plot points on the first few pages. We are introduced to our protagonist, he breaks up with his GF, and he immediately makes the decision to move to the “ghetto”. I kind of find it odd to simple refer to a place as a ghetto. I mean normally you’d call it something like, “the 4th street projects” or something. In this case, we are only told he moved to “ghetto”.

The comic itself then kind of winds us though some world building, but again it feels almost like it is out of place. I don’t really get a sense of the plot by page 7 and it feels like we are just watching the protagonist’s day to day routine. That is not to say it can’t be done well, but it totally kills the pacing. On my first read though I got bored. Yeah there were some cool visuals but the plot didn’t grab me… because there was no plot. There was just a guy going about his daily routine. No end goal, no challenge to overcome, no direction.

The comic picks up during chapter 3 (where we get some hints about the plot) and really gets into full swing by chapter 4. It takes a while to pick up, but ultimately it starts to tackle some complex issues so the build up chapters are understandable. I don’t know if they were handled in the best way, but I can see why they were there.

We dive into some pretty deep quantum mechanics that the layman won’t get. While this is being explained, we get hit with a wall of text (seriously- some of the largest dialogue balloons I’ve seen… check out page 22). The concept is very interesting (involving the many worlds theory and the potential multiple outcomes to exist until viewed by an observer, which forces the existence of one reality or another). This is a super unique premise that deserves to be in a much more wide stream medium then this (not that this is a bad one). We get a great one line summary of the premise of this comic on page 33

The dialogue feels a bit stale sometimes. We get these expository lines (“Congratulations… You’re one of the youngest people to earn a PHD in the field of quantum mechanics.”) that don’t feel like they’d come out of the mouth of a person. Comics, being a visual medium, don’t always require heavy exposition. For example, a simple picture of a younger looking man next to an older looking man with a diploma in quantum mechanics would inform the reader just as much without being as expositional. However, when we get a bit of a back and forth between characters we have some really solid writing. Quips and narrative directed line delivery shine here. We get some characterization via speech, and I felt I could identify with the characters. A few clumsy lines or fragments slip in (“your not much older than me but…”) which seems rather expositional, but despite a few missed brushstrokes, the overall painting turns out pretty well.

The art and character design overall is strong and lends itself a great deal to the world this comic is trying to make. This comic makes great use of contrast and value, doing it entirely in black and white but making it feel like there is color. The dark pallet that the use for the most part really speaks to the cyberpunk soul this comic has. However, everything changes on page 24 (in a good way). We get some very eerie, bizarre, but full color art. The style and color pallet remind me of Picasso’s Blue Period and the net result is straight up FANTASTIC. We swing from a very down to earth drull pallet to this explosive insanity for a few vivid pages and then are brought crashing back down like the character is. Excellent direction on the part of the creators here.

Lastly, lets look at the lettering. The typography of this comic varies. The dialogue bubbles work and the text is very slick and readable. However, the in-art text was clearly done with some sort of very basic program. (Example: See page 4-5). It is a little distracting and doesn’t do the rest of the art justice. However, this misstep it is far and few between.

So let’s filter out a reality here where this gets a good review (trust me, the ones where it doesn’t are potentially fewer than the ones where it gets a good one). The story takes a while to pick up and this is definitely an effort by someone who hasn’t worked in comics before. However, the heart of the comic is really something else. Despite some novice mistakes, this is a real diamond in the rough. Give this team time to grow and we could see something astounding. I love the unique premise, the kind of themes it has the balls to tackle, and the way it dives into it feet first. I keep shoveling though shitty indie comics in hopes of finding a gem like this. My hats off to the creators.

For those looking to get into the comic industry, Lee writes an excellent little afterwards regarding the path he had to take to bring this comic to life. It’s a must read for any newbie and it shows the kind of trailblazing he had to do to bring this to a completed state.

Overall, I’m looking forward to reading the next chapters when they come out. Give this bizarre gem a read- you won’t be disappointed.

Metrics

Art: 6/10 (Stylized with a twist at one point)

Lettering: 5/10 (Lot of good, a little bad)

Plot: 8/10 (Wavers but gets to a great conclusion)

Novelty: 10/10 (Read this for the premise. It’s crazy.)

Overall: 7.25/10

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Imperials

Staff: Liam Kavanagh, Stuart Perrins, Paul Moore, Stuart Patrick

 Overview:

So British you can use the hardcopy as a tea bag.

 Review:

So today I’m looking at Imperials from Red Leaf comics. This comes at me from across the pond (aren’t digital comics wonderful?). from the UK division of Red Leaf. So lets dive into Imperials #1!

…and it’s a super British comic. Not sure what I expected, but yeah, this comic is so British I swear I saw the Union Jack stitched into the protagonist’s underwear. This comic is split into two short stories so I’ll be doing two reviews of each section because they differ pretty heavily.

Lettering is really hit or miss. The introduction page is very difficult to read due to a choice to put a black text over a black and white sketch of a man in power armor. After that little misstep, the comic’s lettering gets a facelift and is near professional grade. Then it switches back to terrible when the comics does some robotic dialogue. The glaring red they use at time really clashes with the rest of an otherwise good lettering job.

The second story has typical lettering and ultimately is pretty solid. Not reinventing the wheel, but good.

Something weird about the art is that every character in the background in the first story seems to be expressing some extreme emotion. I guess that is kind of a counter to the way most comics put laughly little detail into background characters. Then again the expressions on all of these characters seem to be exaggerated. It’s not good or bad, simply a stylistic choice. The costume designs don’t really do anything for me

Otherwise the art in the first story is not typically the style you see in an everyday superhero comic. There is a lot of crosshatching being done and use of pure black backgrounds. The art style seems a bit like a political cartoon you might see in the New Yorker or something. There are some very awkward posing at times but for the most part it’s pretty well done.

The second comic has much better art in my opinion. It takes a much more minimalist approach to the way it’s drawn and even though there is a little less detail, it’s a lot of fun to look at. It seems to have a hint of asian influence to the artstyle, which makes it a very compelling mix of styles.

The plot of the first story is pretty straightforward fair. Supervillain robots attack Parliament, a hero attempts to stop them and gets back up from another one. I wish I could elaborate, but this is really just a lot of exposition. It’s a decent read so don’t skip it, but I’d suggest that you read it only with the intention of reading two or three of them back to back to get some momentum going.

The second story is a much smaller scale story that seemed to go by a bit faster. Though it wasn’t as dense or plot heavy, I enjoyed it a bit more. It was smaller in scope but deeper on characterization. Not every panel serves to progress some big story, it relies on facial expressions and action rather than dialogue. Hats off to you on that.

Overall it’s an odd mix. The first story really lost me in it’s heavy plot, iffy costume choices, and paint-by-numbers feel. It was definitely painted in the colors of the UK flag but it was still pretty generic superhero fare. The second story is the saving grace. It’s a street level story about a cop, robot, and a superhero. A lot of fun to read.

So give it a read. It’s only 99 cents (USD) and it’s 23 pages. It’s a nice little collaboration between some UK (and Canadian) writers and artist.

God save the Queen and all that 😉

 Metrics

Art: 4/10 (Decent but mixed)

Lettering: 4/10 (Lot of good, a little bad)

Plot: 3/10 (It does the pulpy action bit well. I liked it.)

Novelty: 5/10 (New art style, new cast of writers, etc)

Overall: 4/10

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Crunch: Revenge

Staff: Kevin Hill

 Overview:

Pulpy action goodness.

 Review:

So opening up this comic I realize that it is actually the third comic in a set rather than the first (which I normally review) but I was quickly drawn in by the fun quirky style it had. So despite this not normally being the typical review I do, let jump into Crunch: Revenge!

So launching right into it, the art is awesome. It’s got this quirky 80s metal/punk aesthetic going on with some more modern tweaks. I got to say, despite it not being professional grade, it’s damn good and has a style all its own. The lines are crisp, the anatomy (however distended) is generally consistent, the artist displays an understanding of dynamic poses that allow his characters to be as expressive in pose as dialogue (very important for a visual medium), and the displays of motion are fluid and informative. Special not should be given to the perspective some of these shots are drawn from. If this was a movie I’d be giving the director of photography a high five for his excellent work. There are a few awkward facial expressions and poses, but all and all it’s a lot of fun.

The lettering could use some work. Some times I couldn’t tell who was speaking due to the placement of the speech bubbles but I could sus it out generally after looking at it for a moment. A lot of time the lettering is pretty close to the edge of the bubble and that can be a little distracting. They should probably stick to their typically lettering or have the artist draw headline text rather than switching to some other font, it just looks sloppy (see page 8).

The plot is nothing new and that kind of disappoints me a bit. However, when I look at the genre it is going for (pulpy action stuff) I can’t really blame it. Pulp thrives on the known and shines in the execution of said existing story elements and in that context this story gets high marks. In the same way the dialogue is hokey but I can’t tell if that is intentional (al Venture Brothers style) or accidental. Either way it works. I mean we have a vertically challenged main character named “Crunch Crakerton”, how serious can you get with the dialogue?

Overall Crunch: Revenge is a party. It’s a pulpy action comic that doesn’t shy in the face of being as hokey and chock full of anachronisms as possible; in fact it revels in it. I mean the hulky hero has his shirt torn off by page 12 after bantering back and forth with an ex-lover turned villain. You can’t do something like that without going headlong into it. If you half-ass it, it would come off as either a bad parody or knock off of something greater. In this case, Crunch not only jumps in feet first, but it does so wearing it’s puply-action colored speedo.

Metrics

Art: 6/10 (Not publisher grade but very fun)

Lettering: 3/10 (Slip ups and issues)

Plot: 6/10 (It does the pulpy action bit well. I liked it.)

Novelty: 3/10 (Nothing new, but keeps it fresh enough)

Overall: 4.5/10

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Female Force: Nancy Reagan

Staff: Michael Troy, Manuel Diaz, Jeremy Kahn, Alberto Pessoa

Overview:

Educational, just not engaging.

Review:

When I downloaded “Female Force Nancy Reagan” I thought someone had made Nancy Reagan into an action hero with a team of other 1st ladies (Note to self: pitch concept to NBC, I’m sure they are looking for something less offensive than Ironsides). What I got wasn’t that but it was still decent.

Jumping right in, the art’s solid but sometimes it looks traced (see: cover). They use a very vibrant palette and it’s clear this was intended for kids (or at least students). Layout it top notch and lettering is readable. A few times it got a bit small and when superimposed over some really vibrant colors (see page 14 for an example) it got a little hard to read when the text was smaller than expected.

The comic gives a glossy overview of Nancy Reagan’s life from birth until childhood. While good overall, it has a few missteps (it compares Ronald and Nancy to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie?) Sometimes it jumps around chronologically (Example: It’s talking about a rocky relationship with her children then jumps to post presidential life when Ronald had medical issues then back). Then on page  16, for no reason, it jumps into some really disjointed things. It just says, “Consulting an astrologer about her husband’s tactics? Star Wars? Reaganomics? Red Scare Nuclear War?” without giving us the context of what is going on until a page later. It is a very odd jump and implies things that might confuse a kid on the first read without supervision.

This comic was clearly meant for students and was designed to be an educational resource. In that light, yeah it is successful. It is nice to see a comic working to engage kids in an education sense. However, it lacks any sort of passion. It’s paint by numbers. It might as well have come from wikipedia. This falls into the trap that educational TV shows and video games (really, all forms of media) falls into. It tries too hard to educate and not hard enough to engage.

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Better then expected with some slip ups)

Lettering: 4/10 (Generally pretty good with some mistakes)

Plot: 1/10 (Disjointed and lacks passion)

Novelty: 3/10 (Educational angle saves it)

Overall: 3.25/10

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Witch Hunter

Staff: Vincent Ferrante, Scott & Victor Dominicis

Overview:

It rises above the preconceptions I had going in.

Review:

Wow, I seem to get into a lot of mythical beast hunter style comics this month. The last two were werewolf hunters and vampire hunters (Happy Halloween I guess). But that brings me to an interesting point point- we see this kind of thing a lot. I guess it goes back to characters like Professor Abraham Van Helsing and the like (lets be honest- it goes back WAY father but not in such a direct way). There is something very captivating about man conquering monsters. At it’s core it’s about man conquering himself and the fears that lurk in the dark. The tag line of this comic is, “Witch hunts aren’t about witches. They never were”. A powerful message and it sets the tone well for this comic.  So with that in mind I am hoping Witch Hunter #1 from Monarch Comics cast a spell on me!

The art isn’t professional grade, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t decent. Something I really appreciate is that the first half dozen pages of this comic have no dialogue. We are introduced by a piece of parchment that says a family is wanted for witchcraft then we are told the story entirely visually. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. I keep saying that comics are a visual medium and takes advantage of this. However, once this ends- we take flight 114 to exposition town USA. We got what happened, we didn’t need an explanation. It almost counteracts the beautiful introduction. Otherwise, the art direction is rather inspired. Some very creative designs that keep the reader guessing if the creatures you see are masks or actual otherworldly entities during a masquerade scene. Even when the comic goes farther into fancy, they retain the creative character designs and build a very strange world. I rather enjoyed the character designs in a madam’s house. It felt like something out of one of Gaiman’s Sandman comics (which are fantastic by the way, so that is high praise).

Something of note is that I really didn’t like the protagonist’s character design. His outfit feels really disjointed. It swings from superhero to fantasy witch hunter. I guess that is the point but they clash a lot. The color pallet just doesn’t match. The purple and white looks fantastic but the dark blues & browns of the rest of his costume are way more down to earth then the “high fantasy” aspects of his outfit. I wish they would go one way or another with this because the basic concept has some real potential to it. The random white eyebrows on the mask I both love and hate. It gives him a mischievous look (which fits him) but sometimes it gets in the way of the character emoting. It reminds me of those pictures where people have drawn eyebrows on dogs a little bit.

Lettering wise this comic is hit and miss. The initial parchment with some text on it was abysmally bad. The in panel dialogue is legible, but a bit hard to read on occasion (the character width was a bit thin). On page 13 we also get this weird interruption where they stuck the credits. It is very distracting and I can’t imagine why they didn’t just do a credits page near the front. Add to that the near illegible nature of them (the thin white characters get lost on the dark blue background) and it is just a jarring stab to the eyes. The last eye-gouger is the name of the next comic on page 38. It looked like someone vomited all over the font and they just decided to use the colors they found it in to make a gradient. Come on! You guys are better than that!

The dialogue isn’t bad. It has some genuine brilliant moments, (“…and bring some milk and chocolate chip cookies.” “Why? Does he need cookies to find my daughter?” “No, he just likes them.”) but then it falls into mediocrity with some very cliche lines. A lot of “witty” characters (Nightwing, Spiderman, the Robins, Gambit, etc) fall into this trap. They try to banter but it just falls flat when a line doesn’t work. It makes them seem like their quips are coming from a place of ignorance rather than intelligence.

The ambiguity of the nature of some characters is a strong point. We are given this fantastic world and we are never sure if we should be employing suspension of belief or not.  Are the witches evil? How about these random rich guys? Is witch hunters good or just in it for the money? It seems like no one has truly clean hands. Sometimes it seems like the comic doesn’t know, but I am giving it the benefit of the doubt that it will build upon this in future issues (I only review the 1st issue of comics).

So to recap, decent art, great use of that art, hit or miss lettering, inspired character design, lackluster protagonist design, dialogue that wavers between great and uninspired, and a story with some fun elements to it. I actually enjoyed this for the most part. I don’t know if “Witch hunts aren’t about witches. They never were” really describes this comic. It is totally about witches, magic, and their persecution. Hey, it’s free. Give it a read!

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (Decent art)

Lettering: 3/10 (Some narley fonts drag it down)

Plot: 6/10 (Decent with some good and bad points)

Novelty: 7/10 (A fun and creative world with inspired characters.)

Overall: 6/10

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Zero Hunters

Staff: Jay Carvajal, Marc Borstel, Federico & Karina Lopizzo, and Carlos Razetto

Overview:

“Vampire” + “film noir” + “cop”. Follow that formula to the letter and you basically have everything in this comic.

Review:

So I’m once again on a vampire book. I’ve stated before that it’s a genre I’m not super fond of, but I’m excited to dig into it. Sometimes this genre surprises me, so let’s sink our fangs into Zero Hunters #1!

The first thing that grabs me is that this is a scifi and I’m a fan of the clean cut modern art style they use in this comic. The lettering is nothing shy of professional grade. There is excellent use of silhouettes (which fits with the tone quite well). Some of the character designs (particularly for some of the vampires) are quite cool, but others lack any real inspiration (including Garrick, the protagonist). This comic also makes great use of this color and takes advantage of the visual medium it uses. Both visuals and script skip happily across the pages of this free 34 page comic.

But I’m afraid that’s where the praise ends. The plot is very simplistic and exposition heavy, the art has a few slip ups (though is generally pretty solid), and the main character is forgettable. A few of the onomatopoeia bugged me as they didn’t exactly jive with the fantastic lettering.

A lot of the plot relies on film noir clichés and stock characters. You can see everything coming and nothing is really new or unique. It seems like someone threw a few darts as a board with ideas tapped to it and came up with “vampire”, “film noir” , “cop” comic. Near the end they get into this interesting plot point about how the protagonist and the antagonist are locked in eternal struggle across multiple lifetimes. A nice little twist, but it doesn’t save the comic.

Ultimately there is a lot of like about this comic but a lot of it falls by the wayside. The plot is cliché, but it has some saving elements. The art is good but it never really rises to the point where it’s noteworthy. The characters are blank slates, though at least they feel like people (through dialogue and action).

Metrics

Art: 7/10 (Decent art)

Lettering: 7/10 (Professional grade)

Plot: 3/10 (Nothing new)

Novelty: 3/10 (Generic)

Overall: 5/10

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Wulfen Prologue: “Teeth”

Staff: Ed Doyle, Liam Kavanagh

Overview:

If werewolves are your thing, give it a read I suppose.

Review:

So today I’ll be sinking my fangs into a werewolf comic. The market is kind of saturated with vampire and steampunk stuff, but at least the werewolf thing came and went pretty quietly. Anyway, lets take a look at Wulfen Prologue: Teeth.

The art on this one isn’t shabby but it’s by no means approaching professional grade. It’s full color but lacks the consistency that comes practice. Sometimes the artwork it pretty decent but then it slips into laziness and it suffers a bit. It’s a shame because it really has the potential to be a very interesting art style. Maybe with a bit more refinement and attention to detail the artist behind this could be downright phenomenal.

The lettering bugs me a little. It’s not bad and it is legible but like with the art, sometimes it looks a bit sloppy. Letters getting close to the edge, things not centered correctly, a few obnoxious bright yellow narration boxes with black text that hurt my eyes a little. Oh and I’m not sure where to mention this so this is as good a point as any but their cover is 3-4 times larger than the other pages so it has the effect of shrinking the others by default (which is a technical issue so I won’t be factoring that into my rating).

Now the characters in the book are pretty one dimensional. We have Wulf, a werewolf hunting outcast werewolf due to the circumstances of his birth (replace “werewolf” with “vampire” and this sounds a little familiar…). The “villains” are generic and serve only as a sounding board for exposition and to demonstrate that Wulf is a badass. I mean he basically lays out all the broad strokes of his background to them while fighting them.

The plot takes a backseat, a wolf was captured because some hunters think it killed some kids. To be honest- I’m with the hunters by the end of this. They did their due diligence to check to make sure it was the one who killed the kids (fangs) and then Wulf comes bursting in and kicks the crap out of them. His rationale is kind of weak, (“Wolves only hunt for food!”*) and leave me kind of thinking that Wulf is an amoral jerk rather than some protector of the wild.

*From what I understand, this is more or less true but a-typical behaviors have been recorded in clusters of incidents. Heck, in 2013 alone at least 6 people were killed by non-rabid wolves.

A lot of the dialogue is excessively grim and contrived (“A mission … of death!”) and sometimes made me kind of cringe awkwardly reading it. I mean, I’ll give it credit- it jumped full on into the vibe it was going for. Despite this, it still feel a bit short like maybe the author’s heart was infatuated with the idea rather than earnestly understanding the premise he was getting into on a intimate level.

Ultimately I am not really impressed with this comic. It delivers what as promised, but only goes through the motion. It feels like the team is trying to mimic making a comic rather than write a story. Getting caught up too much in tropes of the medium (particularly when starting out) leave a comic feeling kind of unpolished. Hey, know what though? They are totally vibing on this comic and if werewolves are your thing- you could do a hell of a lot worse. Give it a read.

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Decent. A bit sloppy at times but a lot of love.)

Lettering: 4/10 (Few missteps)

Plot: 4/10 (Coherant but exposition heavy)

Novelty: 2/10 (Blade want it’s premise back)

Overall: 3.75/10

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Turtle Guitar

Staff: Ben Powis

Overview:

Art in comic form.

Review:

So we have an odd little comic called “Turtle Guitar” here from Ben Powis. I don’t normally read descriptions until after but the lack of a preview image kind of concerned me so gave it a read. It tells us that this is a 6 page comic so I was a little hesitant starting off. Let’s see if we can shake that hesitation with Turtle Guitar!

So first off the cover struck me as odd. It was done in a very NOT comic style. There is a heavy use of stroke-as-texture with thick lines and a very dark color pallet. It looks like some bizarre patchwork wonderland that is very surreal. I’ll admit- this intrigued at first and it managed to continue that surreal art style effectively all the way through. It put this comic in one of those “comics as art” categories that I don’t get to use all that much.

This comic is all about the art, right down to the lettering. I love how Ben used a change in font color to illustrate the impact of certain words (like “parched” and “dying”). It completes the medium and effectively uses the visual aspects of this medium to its fullest extent. This is a letter of lover to lettering.

The narrative is mythological in nature, drawing a lot of influence from old world folk stories. In this context it doesn’t have to make a lot of sense on the logical level, but it does on the moral/philosophical level. Ben easily navigates around a simple but effective plot with the skill of a master while including the phrase “Turtle Guitar” (in its literal meaning) nonetheless.

If I had a gripe about it was that the plot was in fact very basic. That plays nice with the artistic direction the writer was going for, but it does seem a little nonsensical at times.
Saying that this comic utilized its visual elements to inform the reader would be a drastic understatement. So seamless is the integration of the visual aspects into the narrative elements that you don’t think twice about why a word is in light blue or why that little squibble is visually representing music. It takes risks but every one of them pays off and fits together seamlessly. In 8 pages (not 6) Ben Powis did more for the argument that comics are art than the big publishers have done in the last 5 years. It’s a downright shame that this as been up on DriveThruRPG since 2009 and holds a 3/5. This is a masterpiece you can download for free. Why would you skip it?

Metrics

Art: 9/10 (Industry redefining)

Lettering: 9/10 (Love letter to letters)

Plot: 5/10 (Simple but does its job)

Novelty: 8/10 (Something new.)

Overall: 7.75/10

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Sky Pirates of Valendor Issue #0

Staff: Everett Soares, Brian Brinlee, Michael W. Kellar, Jet Amago, and Cary Kelley

Overview:

It knows what it is and doesn’t apologize, going full tilt into the world it made.

Review:

So we’re setting sail on adventure with issue #0 of Sky Pirates of Valendor by Jolly Rogue Studios. I am surprised that I haven’t come across more steampunky pirate indy comics yet. That might be because, while I enjoy the aesthetic, I am a bit jaded due to the media saturation following the deluge of all things steampunk and pirates that has hit me in the last few years. It’s kind of like zombies or vampires- I’ve just seen too much. That doesn’t mean I didn’t buy tickets for Abney Park and rock the hell out a few months back, it just means I’m a little hands off on the genre at the moment. That won’t stop me from giving an earnest review as I buckle my swashes and check out Sky Pirates of Valendor #0!

The comic itself is grayscale and while the art isn’t professional grade, it’s not sloppy either. There is a lot to look at in terms of detail and one can even overlook the faults. A few times the expressions didn’t match what they were saying but overall it’s not a terrible attempt, particularly for an indy comic. This comic does something a lot of comics do and have the characters just seem to kind of pose randomly (even in small ways) but it adds to the style and doesn’t do much harm (Marvel is terrible with this…). The real issue is when you start looking at the background characters. They are really poorly drawn sometimes and it doesn’t do the love I feel in this comic justice. It’s painfully obvious who the characters are and who is about to be killed off screen. It’s like super Red Shirt syndrome. If they didn’t get an intro at the start, they are totally expendable.

They drop you headlong into a plot via the first few pages. They are a little heavy on the exposition (“this is so-and-so my 1st mate and the only man I can trust”, “this is my wife”, etc). I suppose they had to do something as it is a bit of an introductory comic (being issue #0 and free for free comic day 2013) but it comes off as a little heavy handed. I do like the more stock fantasy races just kind of thrown in there with bear people and They make no apologies for the strong fantasy roots they have and let their hair down in terms of what liberties they take with the setting. For example, we get some very scifi weaponry at times but the main character prances around with a saber for no other reason than he is a pirate. While this works and makes a very magic-tech setting, it does leave the reader wondering a bit. I guess what I am trying to say is, it works and it doesn’t work because they don’t tell us much.

The lettering is fine. I never had any issue with it. I like how they have a bit of their own flare with the delivery of the narration. It has a jagged edge on the bottom like it was torn out of the page of a journal. The lines delivered via it also read like they were from a journal so it works out spectacularly.

Speaking of the dialogue, it does come off a bit frilly at times. The captain seems to talk like a pirate and think in a much more esoteric manner. While sometimes this could be used to effectively make a more complex character (a frequent trick of Grant Morrison’s run on Batman) it just doesn’t jive and we don’t get enough in-character dialogue to make the connection to this character’s more introspective musings.

I can get behind something that knows what it is and what it is doing. To this comic’s credit it is a lot of fun. You get what you sign up for- swashbuckling elves, bears with shotguns, airships, pirate jargon and that is exactly what you get. Cut it, print it, we’re good here!

Metrics

Art: 5/10 (Not pro, not bad)

Lettering: 6/10 (Readable and some creative use)

Plot: 7/10 (It knew what it was doing and did it)

Novelty: 7/10 (Fun little setting)

Overall: 6.25/10

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