Previously on the:
WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW
"I got 10 comics via the blog's email account and have decided to do them all in two potent batches."
Now the conclusion.
Okay, that was silly, even for me. Anyway, this time I must face the problem of taking email reviews: ones I don't like. This is not as much fun as you would think. Let's get these two out of the way first. Yeah, two of them.
256. Ruin-Nation - The first thing is the art, then the writing, then the story. All of it says "bad comic" and yet I can't really declare it such because, well, it feels like someone's first comic. The art isn't good, but it's more like a junior high student's sketches than art work that's just plain bad (I actually checked, and no, I don't think the artist is in junior high). In fact there are a few moments where it gets a bit better, and sometimes simple arrangements and layouts are there, just not the art itself. The writing has some amazingly awful moments of grammatical errors, but there's also a bit of elegance in some of it (especially the first page). The story is, well, all over the place (time travel, government conspiracies, evil corporations and nuclear war), but they are kind of all tied together, though how exactly isn't really in the comic yet. This is a young comic, a FIRST comic, so it gets a bit of slack. Oh, it's not good, but I think the artist might have a comic worth reading in a few years, though that comic might not be Ruin-Nation. Oh, and the archive is one of the most annoying things I've ever run into, but that's a minor nitpick in the end.
257. Tales of the Winterborn - I can't give as much leeway to this comic as I did Ruin-Nation. The art is better (anime style), but it really doesn't improve much over the course of the comic. The writing is better, and by god there is a lot of it (whole pages of transcripts, which work), and the story is, well, less focused than Ruin-Nation surprisingly enough. The problem is two fold. One, the comic doesn't explain ANYTHING for a long time, making it hard to understand what is going on, the nature of the world or, well, anything. Second, the comic switches scenes constantly. Every two or three pages, the comic changes to a different set of characters doing something completely different. It's confusing at first, but even later in the comic it's just as bad. Action scenes are divided up, important plot events are divided up, the climax of the first half of the story is divided up for the most part. It really disengages the mind and made me crawl through this archive dive in a way I haven't done in a long time. The comic is currently on an extended hiatus, and I'm half thinking it might stay that way.
258. Short Stories - Well, they are short, but there's only two of them right now. Of about 7 pages each. Normally, I wouldn't give it a review because, well, it's so short. Shortest comic I've done, possibly ever. Still, from these two I can tell there is a quest for quality even in a small package. They are well drawn, and tell short, concise stories. They're good, quite good. But short, very short. It's easily worth reading, but I'll likely have to come back and do a re-review when they have a few more stories under their belts. Looks like it'll have quite variety as one story is a noir style gangster story and the other is about a ninja. Yeah, it's going to cover a lot of ground. Go ahead and read it.
259. Demon Archives - For a comic with that title, expecting it to be about say, hell beasts, magic, swords and sorcery would be pretty common. Nope, sci-fi action comic. Yeah, it's post-apocalyptic, kind of (rather pointless post-apocalypse, honestly, but don't sweat it), but that had nothing to do with monsters, unless you count men with nukes as monsters. Still, for not meeting the name expectations, it is very well done. High level presentation between art, story and writing making it a damn good comic and one that I would recommend and read myself. I would read it regularly, except for some reason it doesn't work in my browser of choice, Opera 12. No, I'm not changing browsers for one comic, and opening another browser might be a pain just for one comic. I'll have to play with it because it is quite good and worth reading.
260. The Fifth Circle - This comic is a bit different than most I read. It's actually a blog comic, created daily about the artist's life. And I do mean daily as there's something like 1500 strips making it by far the largest comic archive I've read in a long time. The sad part? It's a year behind where it should be, mostly because the artists spend 2 years in Africa as part of the Peace Corps. This guy is also the definition of the artist. Comic artist, yes, but also painter, poetry writer, I think he's done some short stories, and he plays music (often in a band, mostly covers from what I can see, but damn). It's a hell of a life he has and I am glad to have taken the time to read the archive. I would recommend reading it all, but only if you have the time to do it (and can get around the few times he draws himself nekid). Good comic, and I'll be keeping an eye on it for as long as I can and as long as he intends to draw it.
And that's it kiddies. 10 more comics to add to the list (which I'll be doing next week, I think). Until next time.
WILD WEBCOMIC REVIEW
"I got 10 comics via the blog's email account and have decided to do them all in two potent batches."
Now the conclusion.
Okay, that was silly, even for me. Anyway, this time I must face the problem of taking email reviews: ones I don't like. This is not as much fun as you would think. Let's get these two out of the way first. Yeah, two of them.
256. Ruin-Nation - The first thing is the art, then the writing, then the story. All of it says "bad comic" and yet I can't really declare it such because, well, it feels like someone's first comic. The art isn't good, but it's more like a junior high student's sketches than art work that's just plain bad (I actually checked, and no, I don't think the artist is in junior high). In fact there are a few moments where it gets a bit better, and sometimes simple arrangements and layouts are there, just not the art itself. The writing has some amazingly awful moments of grammatical errors, but there's also a bit of elegance in some of it (especially the first page). The story is, well, all over the place (time travel, government conspiracies, evil corporations and nuclear war), but they are kind of all tied together, though how exactly isn't really in the comic yet. This is a young comic, a FIRST comic, so it gets a bit of slack. Oh, it's not good, but I think the artist might have a comic worth reading in a few years, though that comic might not be Ruin-Nation. Oh, and the archive is one of the most annoying things I've ever run into, but that's a minor nitpick in the end.
257. Tales of the Winterborn - I can't give as much leeway to this comic as I did Ruin-Nation. The art is better (anime style), but it really doesn't improve much over the course of the comic. The writing is better, and by god there is a lot of it (whole pages of transcripts, which work), and the story is, well, less focused than Ruin-Nation surprisingly enough. The problem is two fold. One, the comic doesn't explain ANYTHING for a long time, making it hard to understand what is going on, the nature of the world or, well, anything. Second, the comic switches scenes constantly. Every two or three pages, the comic changes to a different set of characters doing something completely different. It's confusing at first, but even later in the comic it's just as bad. Action scenes are divided up, important plot events are divided up, the climax of the first half of the story is divided up for the most part. It really disengages the mind and made me crawl through this archive dive in a way I haven't done in a long time. The comic is currently on an extended hiatus, and I'm half thinking it might stay that way.
258. Short Stories - Well, they are short, but there's only two of them right now. Of about 7 pages each. Normally, I wouldn't give it a review because, well, it's so short. Shortest comic I've done, possibly ever. Still, from these two I can tell there is a quest for quality even in a small package. They are well drawn, and tell short, concise stories. They're good, quite good. But short, very short. It's easily worth reading, but I'll likely have to come back and do a re-review when they have a few more stories under their belts. Looks like it'll have quite variety as one story is a noir style gangster story and the other is about a ninja. Yeah, it's going to cover a lot of ground. Go ahead and read it.
259. Demon Archives - For a comic with that title, expecting it to be about say, hell beasts, magic, swords and sorcery would be pretty common. Nope, sci-fi action comic. Yeah, it's post-apocalyptic, kind of (rather pointless post-apocalypse, honestly, but don't sweat it), but that had nothing to do with monsters, unless you count men with nukes as monsters. Still, for not meeting the name expectations, it is very well done. High level presentation between art, story and writing making it a damn good comic and one that I would recommend and read myself. I would read it regularly, except for some reason it doesn't work in my browser of choice, Opera 12. No, I'm not changing browsers for one comic, and opening another browser might be a pain just for one comic. I'll have to play with it because it is quite good and worth reading.
260. The Fifth Circle - This comic is a bit different than most I read. It's actually a blog comic, created daily about the artist's life. And I do mean daily as there's something like 1500 strips making it by far the largest comic archive I've read in a long time. The sad part? It's a year behind where it should be, mostly because the artists spend 2 years in Africa as part of the Peace Corps. This guy is also the definition of the artist. Comic artist, yes, but also painter, poetry writer, I think he's done some short stories, and he plays music (often in a band, mostly covers from what I can see, but damn). It's a hell of a life he has and I am glad to have taken the time to read the archive. I would recommend reading it all, but only if you have the time to do it (and can get around the few times he draws himself nekid). Good comic, and I'll be keeping an eye on it for as long as I can and as long as he intends to draw it.
And that's it kiddies. 10 more comics to add to the list (which I'll be doing next week, I think). Until next time.
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