Synopsis: I did say I wasn't going to do later chapters, but these two finish the first Penny Blackfeather story arc, and they're good fun. Penny's looking for her nameless adventurer friend, and in the search she ends up in the (full colour!) Goblin Valley, battling monsters and discovering things she and her ghostly Grandfather had not expected. Artwork: Good as always; I like the effects of grey with splashes of colour so much I might borrow the idea ;) The full colour sections are beautiful. Storytelling: I normally get slightly lost in battles, but careful reading sorted everything out. The foreshadowing and hinting are well done. Presentation: Good quality printing, and the watercolour is rendered well (not all printers do a good job of that). I don't remember any typoes. There are extra comics in the back of both parts which are really fun, one by Rebecca Burgess and one by Zarina Liew. And: There's a nice play on the limitations of greyscale towards the end of part 4 ;)
Synopsis: "Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, just another superhero... I know, right? When was the last time you saw a bird?" That's the world inhabited by the currently-nameless superhero main character, who's finding his job a bit of a drag. Nobody appreciates him, and he doesn't even have a profile on Supedia yet. Artwork: Bold lines, very clean artwork, greyscale. Storytelling: With the exception of the Supedia profile pages, each page has four identical size panels in. The story is easy to follow, but meanders a bit. I can't help feeling sorry for the main character! Presentation: Cute CD-sized floppy, colour cover. And: Robowie! The first - only - villain in this chapter, Robowie is a giant robot facsimile of David Bowie. The comic claims to be 28 pages of inaction, but the hero does actually start by facing Robowie, albeit in the background, so that's slightly unfair, I think ;)
Synopsis: A collection of short funny strips featuring Abby the fighter and Sara the wizard, adventurers in an MMORPG. Artwork: Nice clean inking, greyscale shades. Good backgrounds. Characters are rendered simply but effectively, and the expressions are perfect. Storytelling: There's no ongoing story as such, but each short is well told, clear and easy to read. The characters come through very clearly, and the humour is spot-on. Presentation: No moire, no typoes, well presented.
Synopsis: Undine is a trainee cleric, and she is sick and tired of studying and practicing and never getting to actually do anything. So she quits, to become an adventurer. But how is that going to work, since she has no training and no experience of the outside world? Artwork: Full colour, attractive cartoony style with thick outlines. Good expressions. The inking has rough edges, which shows up most on the thick outlines and gives the artwork a bit of a pixelly impression. It's not the printing; the text is perfectly clean. Storytelling: Clear and easy to follow, good panelling. There's a lot of humour around Undine and her mad decision, but the story itself is also interesting. I wish there was more - I went back for the next volume and trawled the comic village twice looking for the table, then when I found it there wasn't another ;_; Next time! Presentation: Good colour printing. One typo. The cover is the same weight as the pages, but neither are flimsy.
Synopsis: Lempi, Ermin and Melisse (who may be Lempi's parents, it's not clear) are travelling to the ocean. Ermin and Melisse are tugging and pushing the boat, and Lempi is riding. They come to a tower wherein lives a mermaid in a cauldron who tells them the sea has dried up. So Lempi decides to do a raindance, which is ridiculously successful, bringing with it its own problems... Artwork: Very stylised characters, black and white, small panels. Despite that, it's always clear what's going on. Storytelling: Easy to read. The internal logic of the story works, although the entire thing is full of whimsical humour. The comic isn't so much about the story as it is about the interactions of the characters while stuff happens. Presentation: It's printed on unusually greyish paper. And: It's a bit reminiscent of the Moomins, which is no bad thing as far as I'm concerned :)
Synopsis: Kade has recently been elected the Champion of Dema, a post chosen for him by the village itself, and not something he can argue with. Theoretically his duties involve protecting the village from the terrifying soul-takers and upholding justice, but the soul-takers aren't a problem any more (as long as you stay within the village when it rains) and as far as Kade's concerned, justice is for the village guard to deal with. So he's all about the good times, gambling and chilling out. Unfortunately for him, his job's about to catch up to him, and he's going to have to face the responsibilities he's been shirking for so long. Artwork: It's a beautifully drawn comic with superb anatomy, especially the faces. Everyone is recognisable, expressions are excellent and backgrounds are good. It's all in black and white, and the only thing lacking is any form of shade. Tone, greyscale or colour, anything would do, but it does need something to make the artwork and the 3D reality of the world stand out, especially in the more complicated patterns. Storytelling: Interesting panel layouts, easy to read. The story is predictable - you can guess what's going to happen from the synopsis - but that doesn't mean it's not a fun read, and watching Kade slowly resign himself to actually being a decent human being is good. It's interesting that the change happens comparatively gradually - he doesn't have a sudden flash of compassion or anything, and it makes both the character and his change more believable. Presentation: Lovely perfect-bound little book, nice clean printing. The justification of the text keeps switching from centre to left-justified, which is a bit weird and is not, as far as I can tell, for a specific effect. There are a few grammar errors. And: The mythology and setting is African, which is a nice change from the more common European/mediaeval basis many fantasies have.
Synopsis: Two short, complete stories. In the first, an alien race ponders a vinyl record retrieved from debris. In the second, a weakling mage faces down a dragon. Artwork: Full colour. The first story is completely lineless, just shapes on backgrounds, but it works very well. In the second story, the lines are coloured, which also works. Storytelling: The first story is narrated, and could have been prose - but the pictures bring across so much more than just the words could have, so it works. The second story starts with narration to set the scene but moves into more normal comicking as the king talks to his mage and, later, the mage to the dragon. Little bits of narrative impinge here and there, but don't really hurt the comic (I don't usually like narration in comics, but it has its place). Both stories are really good, and in neither does what you might expect happen. Presentation: Full colour, staple bound. All the pages are the same weight, including the cover. And: The alien race in the first story have names consisting of coloured dots (well, they seem to communicate by light). Their alien perception is really nicely done.
Synopsis: Crimson the demon is hired by Green, also a demon, to retrieve a dragon orb from the forgotten planes. Cue sneaking, fighting and trickery. Artwork: Full colour but sparingly used, with plenty of black lending a gloomy, threatening feel. Good anatomy. Storytelling: It's a simple story, but well told, with a nice twist at the end which adds interest to Crimson's character and encourages further reading. Presentation: One typo. The text is occasionally misplaced, such that I read it in the wrong order. It's a real shame, but a printing error has resulted in two pages being swapped with the two behind them. They were clipped together with a note so it wasn't a problem, but it's a shame when that happens.
Synopsis: Kupala is a festival held on the shortest night of the year, where the girls make wreaths and float them down the river, and the boys wait on the river bank to catch one. "Boys know how to find their ladies' wreaths", says the grandma to her 6-year-old grandson. Unsatisfied, he sneaks out to join the older boys, and while they're catching their wreaths he sees one they have all missed. He chases it, and meets a girl in the forest, who leads him home. Year by year he goes back and meets her, and their attachment grows. But what is she really, and what does she really want? Artwork: Lovely sketchy ink lines with greyscale for shade and emphasis. The backgrounds are gorgeous, with huts and trees and the village rendered in fine detail. Storytelling: It's narrated in the second person, which is an unusual choice but effective. The narration allows what would otherwise have been a much longer comic to be told concisely while retaining much of the emotional impact. There's no real character development save for the main character; everyone else, including the girl, is more of a sketch than anything else. Presentation: A4 comic, good quality printing. And: Ivan Kupala is a real festival and the ritual of floating wreaths is still carried out in parts of Eastern Europe. "Ivan Kupala" means "John the Baptist", but the Kupala festival is thought to have originally been a pagan fertility rite, predating Christianity.
Synopsis: Mr E is a muse whose charge, David, is slowly giving up on writing, spending his time online or watching TV. He has even applied for a normal job! The first half of the comic is one of David's stories, a Western, and is a really good read. The second half is Mr E (who interrupts at the point David stopped writing - a cliffhanger, of course) and his struggles to make David write again. It finishes at the point of judgement. Artwork: Stylised cartoony characters, good expressions and body language. Full colour. Storytelling: Nice varied panel layout, easy to follow. I'd got so into the Western I'd forgotten the overall concept. Mr E makes for an excellent main character, irritating but sympathetic. Presentation: B5, good colour. The panels frequently lack gutters, but it doesn't hurt readability. I find it a little odd that more of the story is described on the back than is actually presented, but it does make me more keen to read on, if I could. And: Tanya drew me a cat, sitting in a hat, in the front :)
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