ec2-3-144-17-45.us-east-2.compute.amazonaws.com | ToothyWiki | SmallPressOneLineReviews | RecentChanges | Login | Webcomic To begin! I'm going to try a slightly different format here in an attempt to make it even easier for me to give succinct, to-the-point reviews. I really will have to give up on the one line idea though...
Synopsis: Lucy is a teenage octopus who is weirdly unpopular both at home and at school. Artwork: Full colour, mostly flat with some shading and texture for the backgrounds, cute and consistent. Storytelling: The strips follow on from each other but are generally stand alone, and while it's funny there's a gentle edge of melancholy as well - poor Lucy! Presentation: The comic looks really good all round ^^ And: this is the full comic which I got a teeny preview of [last time.]
Synopsis: Tom, Adam and Sophie, members of the band Her Name is Calla, are heading to a big old house to spend a week working and making music together. A big old creepy house... Artwork: Simple and stylised, it reminded me a bit of Chloe Noonan. Full colour, flat cel-shading. Storytelling: The comic stands alone, and the story is well told, well paced and funny. I didn't actually notice until flicking through it just now, but there's no bleed - the comic is entirely panel-bound. It makes for a smooth and easy read. Presentation: The text is hand lettered but it works well - again, I didn't notice until checking just now. The colours come out nice and bright. And: Rachael told me that Her Name is Calla is a real band, and she writes the stories with their approval, which I think is rather awesome :)
Synopsis: This is a set of short stories, mostly from competitions such as MangaJiman? and Neo's manga competition. Artwork: Beautiful, classical elegant manga style, black and white with tone. The lines are sometimes a little thin and unsure, but that might be the printing. Storytelling: Telling short stories - especially five pagers - is an art all on its own. I found the Pierrot story to be a little flat, but Dilemma and Red Wool were great, especially Meg the cat's internal dialogue, and the special comic done for this collection was funny. Presentation: A couple of typoes, but overall it's a nice collection. The cover art is stunning.
Anarkids: No place like home Ben Palmer
Synopsis: An old lady returns to her childhood home in the country, but it's now lived in by a group of kids who don't want adults around. It seems there's been floods or some sort of disaster - there's a vaguely dystopian feel to it. Artwork: Greyscale - everything is grey, with white edging to pick out contours. The lines are rough but effective. There are occasional anatomy glitches but it works well overall. Storytelling: The stories of the characters and how they intersect, interact and move on come across very clearly without any narration or info-dumps. Presentation: The comic cover is very minimalist, just a title on a red background. The panels inside are presented as photos in an old book - they have the corner tabs to keep them in, which is a nice touch. And: It's good to see Ben's art again :)
T.Y. Rock Stars Valeriya F.
Synopsis: Mai Kougan is a Japanese transfer student in a posh English school. There's to be a school concert, and Mai's pushy friend Lydia wants her to sing. The cutest boys in the school might also be entering, but a jealous prefect could spoil everything before Lydia even gets started, and poor Mai is caught in the middle of it all... Artwork: Confident shoujo manga style, really nice hair, good range of expressions. Not many backgrounds. Some of the tones are badly moired, which is a shame when the lineart is so pretty. Storytelling: The story's only just started, but it has the basics down for a fun read. There's already conflict brewing... Presentation: The text is what jarred for me when I read this. There are a lot of typoes and sometimes sentences come out a bit awkwardly. Also, in some places, the bubbles don't read in the intuitive order, which meant I had to read the page twice before I got what was going on. The font is fine but quite large; it wouldn't be difficult to reduce the size a bit and have more space for the lettering and more art as well. And: Reads right to left.
Synopsis: Set in the same world as Sleight of Hand (reviewed [last year]), this comic follows a ruffian named Jack O'Malley, who has the unusual talent of seeing spirits. This is a proper nuisance for him but is going to come in handy for the rather third-rate wizard charged with clearing up magical mishaps, which seem to be on the rise recently... Artwork: Relatively chunky lines, confident and expressive. Full colour, flat cel-shaded, excellent use of eyebrows. I like a good eyebrow wiggle ;) Storytelling: Intriguing story (there is, of course, more to the sudden need for a spirit-spotter than first meets the eye), well paced, funny, good characters. I particularly liked Wolfe, he was a good foil for Jack. Presentation: Perfect bound book, excellent print quality. I broke the spine reading, unfortunately... perhaps I was too eager ^^ And: I loved this, but I miss Sidney Malik and Harriet the Bounty Hunter (who cameo briefly at a point where their story intersects with this one :).
Synopsis: This is the intersection of Eric's story (reviewed [here]) with Emily's. Eric is still coping with the grief of losing his sister, but Emily, the new girl in town, steps in to help. But Emily's got issues of her own - it's never easy to move. Artwork: There's a really good balance of black and white on each page, which works very well with the restrained use of tone. Amanda's style has developed and improved enormously from the first book, with a nice chunky edge to the lines. It reminds me a little of Kate Holden's work. I particularly like the way dark hair is done with white outlines, it's very effective. There are still anatomy glitches, but it's much less noticeable and the faces are expressive, clear and easy to read. The one thing that jarred is Emily's little sister's face - it seemed more adult than it should have been, I think. The backgrounds work well, being just enough to ground the story but simple enough to stay out of its way, as it were. I always knew where I was. Storytelling: It seemed to me to be much more about Emily leaning on Eric than the other way round, although it is her intervention that reaches him first. But that works well, and the story has a good pace, a good climax and a good end. Presentation: Small, perfect bound, very clean printing. The tone is very occasionally moired.
Synopsis: A lone scientist carries out experiments on dangerous green gloop, talking constantly to the cat and the computer - although only the computer answers back. Artwork: Simple but effective, coloured with markers (I think). Storytelling: As with Anarkids, no concession is made by way of infodumps but the background is revealed at just the right pace as the story unfolds. In some ways it's quite predictable, but that doesn't mean it's not a good read. The main character's mostly one-sided conversation and the cat's meows and expressions are perfect. Presentation: Also perfect bound, good colours. Nice hand lettering.
Synopsis: This is a wordless comic, a sequential collection of photos taken on a mobile phone, mostly by Ruby, a girl who, with her friends Phyllis and Molly, are on a journey. The photos show packing, leaving a house, driving in a car. The three girls and several other people are travelling through the British countryside, but a countryside strangely altered, familiar and different. Artwork: The characters are flat-shaded, drawn with comparatively thick outlines with good variability, and have very expressive faces. The backgrounds are digitally painted and utterly gorgeous. En's style changes with every comic, but I think this is the best I've seen. Storytelling: Very cleverly done. The idea of a wordless comic scares me, but En brings out what the reader needs to know without overstating anything. Although nothing is said - no words - the situation is pretty clear. I can't say anything more without spoiling it, but the last panel before the last page is genius - I didn't realise how much I'd been sucked into Ruby's world until then :) Presentation: This is a gorgeous comic, with really high printing quality and a beautiful, minimalist cover. The A4 size works well for it. And: Cameos! But you'll have to read En's other work to spot them ;)
Synopsis: This is the start of a story. It starts in the dream of the main character, Mathilde, who is met by someone who tells her "We've been waiting for you". And then it fades, and Mathilde wakes up, and for a little while everything is ordinary. Until Mathilde offers to listen to a poster on a forum about the paranormal, who wants to talk about their experience. Artwork: A bit less sketchy than YB427, but still appealingly loose. Black and white with accents of red or purple making for balanced, interesting pages. Storytelling: The chapter ends just at the point of getting interesting, but as with Rowan's previous work ([YB427]) there's an undercurrent of connection throughout. I would like to read more. Presentation: Minimalist but good quality. Despite the loose style of art and storytelling, it's a smooth, easy read.
Synopsis: The story continues from cups 1 and 2, adding in a new waitress and a love interest for Gerry - well, he's interested in her, but having trouble even talking to her, poor guy. And Cream, Gerry's eccentric boss, has got plans... Artwork: Lavish, expressive, tea-coloured - like the last two but better (it's quite hard reviewing books late in a series. Maybe I'll stop doing it and concentrate on first issues. After all, people aren't really going to buy the 3rd book without already being fans, are they? Maybe...) Storytelling: I love the way Jade manages to have at least several storylines going on at any one time, so there's always something keeping the whole thing moving and they tangle together delightfully, aided by the loose but easy-to-read page layouts. Lots of small funny asides to make you laugh too (I loved the T3AFTWLOL panel). Presentation: Beautiful printing, overall very easy on the eyes :) And: It feels a bit like an 'and' - which isn't surprising after cup 2, and to be expected in a series. I think I'll re-read them all after getting cup 4 ^^
Synopsis: Death is about to name an heir, but events go awry - and a pair of humans get involved. Artwork: Good colour, nice style, some issues with anatomy. Not afraid of backgrounds, which is always good to see. Storytelling: It starts with a long exposition of the theology behind the story - it's rather more involved than my one sentence synopsis implies! Normally I wouldn't like that, but it's actually got the best art of the book and it's well laid out, so it wasn't a problem. And the rest of the story would be more confusing without it! Engaging characters, good motives, and there's clearly a lot more to come. Presentation: The text suffers from a few typoes and occasional bad phrasing, and a tendency to put a bit too much into every speech bubble (it would be better broken up into smaller bubbles, I think. Not least because bubble breaks mimic the natural pauses in speech). This isn't apparent in the exposition; I do wonder if it was done last. And: It's not a funny comic. The brief synopsis leaves that unclear, but it's fairly dark, with some violence.
Synopsis: A collection of 6 short stories with no specific theme. Artwork: Varied in style from gentle gryescale shading to bold thick black lines, but always good. Storytelling: Also varied, from comedy to melancholy to just plain fun, but good overall. Short stories are hard to do, and these ones work. Presentation: I particularly liked the titles of each story - one is a cassette, one a CD, one a walkman, one an MP3 player etc etc. It's a nice touch on a well-presented book.
Synopsis: In chapter 1, Jack rescues Jessica from an assassin's blade. In chapter 2, we don't get any more of Jessica's story but instead follow Jack around from one dangerous situation to another. There are a lot of undercurrents and shady deals going on, and it's all a great deal of fun. Artwork: Black and white with tone, functional and surprisingly expressive at the right times. Storytelling: Reasonably clear, although I did get quite confused when there were three people dressed the same... but that's part of the point. There's clearly quite a lot going on under the surface, and I'll need to re-read this one and probably chapter 1 before I read the next. Presentation: The printing is good and the text stays out of the way; it's easy to read. And: This is actually chapters 2 and 3 (as in, halfway through there's a title page for chapter 3), but the cover just says 2 so I'm not entirely sure how many chapters there actually are... it's a decent chunk anyway.
Synopsis: More funny, stupid geek/otaku jokes. Artwork: Black and white, simple but does the job - more detail would actually make it less funny in a lot of places. Ushio is very good at capturing hilarious 'fail' expressions in just a few lines. Storytelling: N/A, really. These are generally 4-koma, short joke strips. After 6 comics you'd expect Ushio to know what he's doing, and he does :) Presentation: Somehow it feels less serious than The Thief's Affair 2... ^^;
Synopsis: Dean, Carol and Julie are cosplaying, and Julie ended up wearing the fursuit. But there's a problem with the suit... Artwork: Ushio's art style is loose and strays from anatomical accuracy, but it works with the story and is always expressive and easy to follow. Storytelling: This is a short, funny story with a decent plot. I liked the end. Presentation: Good balance of tone on the pages.
Synopsis: Penny and the adventurer have been separated by Isadora Quinn, but not for long. Narrated, encouraged and berated by Penny's ghostly grandpa, the pair dodge Penny's dreadful suitor, monsters, Isadora Quinn and each other with amusing ineptitude and surprising success, only to land in a worse pickle at every turn. Artwork: Watercolour, mostly greyscale with flashes of colour at appropriate points. Francesca's style is solid and good to look at, and wonderfully expressive. Storytelling: Not quite as easy to follow as the first book, mainly because there's more going on, but definitely still intriguing and also just funny. Asides, flashbacks and a couple of very strange characters at the end imply deepening plot twists on the way. Presentation: I really like the way the font size and layout varies according to the mood, tone and emphasis of what's being said - it's almost as flexible as Jade's in Cafe Suada, and it really adds to the atmosphere.
Luka and Yeva 1 Kit Buss
Synopsis: This is the start of the story, and it's presented as a tale being told by a masked storyteller to a bunch of kids. As such, it mainly sets the scene, introduces the main characters and leaves the reader at a tantalising point, knowing something foreboding is on the way and that the story has just begun. Artwork: Gorgeous full colour work, digital painting over pencil, I think. The attention to detail on the clothes is fantastic. Storytelling: The comic is an incredibly easy read, and draws the reader in. I want to know what happens next. It's got a distinct feeling of myth, of a folk tale, although as far as I know it's not based on one at all. Presentation: The page colours and layout add to the atmosphere and overall feel. The pacing is really good - Kit's not afraid to spend an entire page showing her characters' reactions to each other with very little text, and as a result her characters are believable as people with their own agendas in their own world, interacting with each other. And: There's a Russian feel to the story - the city is named Ostrov ("Island") and the poem at the start uses some Russian transliterated into Roman characters in the refrain. The headings for the bonus art and extras have been rendered in Russian characters meant to represent the Roman characters they most resemble. This is something which actually niggles at me rather, because although I remember very little Russian I can still read the characters, and what is meant to say "Extras" actually reads as "Ezhtyads", which is just odd ^^;;
Synopsis: Lelatte is a dark elf, but not the usual kind. While chasing unicorns in Stonesgrove forest (I just want to love you, unicorn!) she falls in with a pair of villainous dwarves on their way to attack a bunch of travellers and nick their goods. Lelatte is not only unicorn-obsessed but also gullible and keen to uphold the cause of justice, a dangerous mix. Artwork: Full colour, mainly flat shaded but some texture. The colours are well balanced on each page, although thanks to Lelatte's hair and clothes there is a general aura of pink mixing with the forest's greens. Storytelling: Lelatte is a wonderful character, and her adventure is a smooth and funny read. There's a brief infodump at the start but it's just one page and it's pretty. The pages are lively, with varied layouts, but the action is easy to follow, even in the fights. The main action within the comic is complete in and of itself, but the end is also a setup for what will happen next (which can be seen at the website, since it is also a webcomic, hurrah). Presentation: A couple of typoes, but in general the presentation is really good, with nice printing and good quality, slightly glossy paper.
Synopsis: Ridus collects magical debt, which is what happens when magic is inexpertly used. It's kind of like a byproduct, and it's dangerous. In chapter 2, he and his co-worker, Kofy, end up dealing with a debt underground, but the debt itself is not the main problem. In chapter 3, they plan to return to deal with the debts they've collected, but there may be a hitch on the way (not least their own idiocy - despite being professionals at dealing with debt, they can be quite clueless in the rest of life). Artwork: The anatomy needs work, and it would be really good to have more distinctive hairstyles and face shapes for the main 3 characters. Although there are some backgrounds there's not many, and there's not much depth to the panels. A sense of where the characters are would be really helpful. But the lineart is clean and I followed the battle without difficulty (which is not normal for me). Storytelling: Funny and easy to follow, and I really like the concept of magical debt. By the end of chapter 3 the characters were familiar, their interactions still funny, and there's clearly something more going on which they're about to get dropped on their heads. Presentation: Colour cover, black and white insides, nice clean printing, no typoes. Hurrah!
Imaginary Friends Nua Comic Society
Synopsis: 6 very short stories about friends, imaginary and otherwise. Artwork: Varied in style but suited to each story. Storytelling: Also varied but overall clear. There's nostalgia, humour, sweetness and disturbing imagery. It's impressive how much can fit into 2 pages (or 1 page, for the last story). Presentation: Colour cover, black and white insides on rather nice paper - slightly yellowish and heavy, it feels distinct from the normal 80gsm white paper used for digital printing. No typoes :)
Synopsis: The end of the story of Bubbles, the young magician just learning to control his power, and Eliza, the little girl he adopted who has trouble controlling her own. In hese chapters Bubbles has to help Eliza deal with trouble at school, and we find out about Bubbles' brother Gavin (yes, the rabbit) and what happened in the past - and Jo, Bubbles' fiance, has in turn to deal with the surprise of Bubbles' adoption of Eliza. Artwork: Much as in the previous chapter. Good use of black and white and a little tone, but the anatomy could be better. Also, a little more variety in "camera angle" would be good. Storytelling: It's always clear what's going on and how the characters are feeling and why they're acting as they do, which is important. Pacing and layouts are good. Presentation: Some tone moire. Spelling is generally good, but there are a couple of typoes.
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