Wasted Talent by Angela Melick
Showing posts with label journal comic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journal comic. Show all posts
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Webcomic Review: Wasted Talent
Funny enough, this is a Webcomic Thursday instead of a Webcomic Wednesday because I finally got a new computer and spent an hour transferring over my webcomics! The bookmarks came over as part of Chrome but I didn't realize the RSS feeds for my add-on wouldn't, it wasn't the most tedious task ever but that's because I have done the most tedious tasks in the world recently so the bar is pretty high for me.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Webcomic Review: Wasted Talent, Weregeek, What Birds Know, Winters in Lavelle
I have no idea how I manage to follow four awesome webcomics that start with the letter "W" while I only follow one for a much more common letter like "L." Oh well, life is strange like that, onto the reviews!
Wasted Talent
Another journal comic I just found recently that, like Today Nothing Happened, started when the artist was in college so the comic covers from then until current day young adult life (which, as someone whose starting to get a little freak out by "life after college" is rather reassuring). Following the life of the Jam it's a fairly realistic comic with only a little embellishment so anyone who likes slice-of-life or journal comics would probably enjoy this. I think it's also fun to see life from an engineer's perspective instead of an artist's (also fun to see comics made by non-USians) and just a fun comic in general, go look at it!
Weregeek
I've mentioned before that I know a number of comics that switch between fluffy, slice-of-life stuff and then more plot centric arcs and that's really hard to balance. Weregeek pulls it off in a really interesting fashion by focusing mostly on the characters regular lives but having occasionally having snippets from their tabletop games. For, as the comic title suggests, this is a comic about nerds (young adults, not the high school/college crowd) who live their ordinary lives by day but have all sorts of fun after work. The more nerdy references you know the better you'll like the comment (and if you don't the comments should be able to tell you at least what series it's from) and everything is done in good fun so you'll usually end up laughing at the page anyway. There does seem to be some sort of conspiracy lurking in the background of the slice-of-life side of things but that plotline may have been abandoned by now, one problem is that the story moves pretty slow since it's a three or four panel strip most days. Oh well, I'll take well done gags over ill-paced ones every day.
What Birds Know
A fantasy webcomic that has taken a mindf*ck turn of late, the premise of this story is that Vandi, Dores, and Elia are on a school trip to collect mushrooms for a teacher which should only take a few days to complete. But in those few days we've learned the backstories for all of them (all with some unhappy parts), learned about their families, and watched them slowly go crazy. To be as spoiler-free as possible, the first part of the story starts with a mysterious story about a prince, which is later repeated at the beginning of the third chapter and, while almost nothing has been explained about that, there have been enough hints in the story to suggest that this is directly related to the other weird/creepyness of the story. The creepiest part of the story however (and done on purpose) is how such strange and disturbing things will happen to the girls and then a cut to how their families are still going about their normal lives, or how most of the girls just accept these things that are happening. I'd love to have this one in print so I could reread it easier (since the reread I did before this review was really enlightening) and I recommend this to fans of fantasy or deconstruction in general (it's not a full-on deconstruction but it's doing something interesting).
Winters in Lavelle
Another fantasy comic, just without the mindf*ck part. The story starts a little before the comic does with Aiden Winters discovering a magic globe at his house that allows him to travel to another world and one day his sister (Kari), who knows about it and doesn't like it, follows him to the world (Lavelle, title drop!) and now their a bit stuck since they don't know where the corresponding orb is to bring them back home (and, to make matters more interesting, their dad figured out what happened and seems to be freaking out, plus the fact that Aiden's grandmother told him about the orb in the first place, makes for an interesting subplot). Oh, and Aiden and Kari now have magical amber stuck in them, are being chased by mysterious deer people, and might be getting mixed up with some rebels (politics please?), sounds like a fantasy story to me! The comic still feels young to me, past the introductory stage but not by much, so I can't wait for more, is it Friday yet?
I've got yet another speaker to hear tomorrow (I think the photography department is trying to bore me to death) but since I only have one comic to review tomorrow everything should go up as normal! But, since I'm already talking about it, no reviews Monday since I have back to back club and speaker (and they're not even the last one! ;-; ) which means that I'll spend three straight hours knitting and that doesn't leave much room for reviewing, at least I like knitting....
Wasted Talent
Another journal comic I just found recently that, like Today Nothing Happened, started when the artist was in college so the comic covers from then until current day young adult life (which, as someone whose starting to get a little freak out by "life after college" is rather reassuring). Following the life of the Jam it's a fairly realistic comic with only a little embellishment so anyone who likes slice-of-life or journal comics would probably enjoy this. I think it's also fun to see life from an engineer's perspective instead of an artist's (also fun to see comics made by non-USians) and just a fun comic in general, go look at it!
Weregeek
I've mentioned before that I know a number of comics that switch between fluffy, slice-of-life stuff and then more plot centric arcs and that's really hard to balance. Weregeek pulls it off in a really interesting fashion by focusing mostly on the characters regular lives but having occasionally having snippets from their tabletop games. For, as the comic title suggests, this is a comic about nerds (young adults, not the high school/college crowd) who live their ordinary lives by day but have all sorts of fun after work. The more nerdy references you know the better you'll like the comment (and if you don't the comments should be able to tell you at least what series it's from) and everything is done in good fun so you'll usually end up laughing at the page anyway. There does seem to be some sort of conspiracy lurking in the background of the slice-of-life side of things but that plotline may have been abandoned by now, one problem is that the story moves pretty slow since it's a three or four panel strip most days. Oh well, I'll take well done gags over ill-paced ones every day.
What Birds Know
A fantasy webcomic that has taken a mindf*ck turn of late, the premise of this story is that Vandi, Dores, and Elia are on a school trip to collect mushrooms for a teacher which should only take a few days to complete. But in those few days we've learned the backstories for all of them (all with some unhappy parts), learned about their families, and watched them slowly go crazy. To be as spoiler-free as possible, the first part of the story starts with a mysterious story about a prince, which is later repeated at the beginning of the third chapter and, while almost nothing has been explained about that, there have been enough hints in the story to suggest that this is directly related to the other weird/creepyness of the story. The creepiest part of the story however (and done on purpose) is how such strange and disturbing things will happen to the girls and then a cut to how their families are still going about their normal lives, or how most of the girls just accept these things that are happening. I'd love to have this one in print so I could reread it easier (since the reread I did before this review was really enlightening) and I recommend this to fans of fantasy or deconstruction in general (it's not a full-on deconstruction but it's doing something interesting).
Winters in Lavelle
Another fantasy comic, just without the mindf*ck part. The story starts a little before the comic does with Aiden Winters discovering a magic globe at his house that allows him to travel to another world and one day his sister (Kari), who knows about it and doesn't like it, follows him to the world (Lavelle, title drop!) and now their a bit stuck since they don't know where the corresponding orb is to bring them back home (and, to make matters more interesting, their dad figured out what happened and seems to be freaking out, plus the fact that Aiden's grandmother told him about the orb in the first place, makes for an interesting subplot). Oh, and Aiden and Kari now have magical amber stuck in them, are being chased by mysterious deer people, and might be getting mixed up with some rebels (politics please?), sounds like a fantasy story to me! The comic still feels young to me, past the introductory stage but not by much, so I can't wait for more, is it Friday yet?
I've got yet another speaker to hear tomorrow (I think the photography department is trying to bore me to death) but since I only have one comic to review tomorrow everything should go up as normal! But, since I'm already talking about it, no reviews Monday since I have back to back club and speaker (and they're not even the last one! ;-; ) which means that I'll spend three straight hours knitting and that doesn't leave much room for reviewing, at least I like knitting....
Monday, March 21, 2011
Webcomic Revew: Today Nothing Happened, True Magic, Trying Human, Two Kinds,
After glancing over my list of webcomics I realized that I should be able to make one large post today and take care of all the "T"s that way, huzzah! So today we have one journal comic, another fantasy parody, a fantasy, and one of the few sci-fi titles I follow!
Today Nothing Happened
Unlike the other semi-journal comics I follow, this one isn't fictional at all, although some situations might be exaggerated, and it proves something my mom and I have been saying for years, reality is way stranger than fiction. The comic originally started as a school project, the creator liked it so much that she kept it going, so it covers college life and young adult life after college and I think it's a bit uplifting, that even now people can still live happy lives and sometimes I feel like the world needs that reminder. I might also be biased towards this comic since Shazzbaa and I seem to live in the same state (so whenever there's a post about crazy weather I'll go "YES, THAT'S EXACTLY IT!") and I was bemused to see Blitzkrieg from Conventional Wisdom cameo a couple of times (and vice-versa over in his comic). Plus, I like videos of cute kittens so it stands to reason that I'd love a bunch of comics about the strange things cats do and if the main page doesn't make me crack up the incentive voting piece normally does. So I'm recommending this to all fans of journal comics or of everyday humor, this is honestly one of my favorite webcomics and I really hope that it gets printed soon!
True Magic
Out of the several fantasy parody series I follow, True Magic is my favorite because I think it does the parody aspect of it the best (which isn't to say the others I've reviewed or bad, this just means I have opinions). The basic plot of the story is that some peasants, fed up with how they have no rights against their ruling nobles, are journeying to the capital to try and change the laws but are having a hard time just getting to that point. The peasents are all genre-savy (which is played for laughs agaisnt the very not genre-savy nobles), things rarely go as planned, cliches/tropes are usually subverted as well, and each page usually makes me laugh about it at least once. This one also has a bit of an erratic update schedule but the plot is simple enough that I don't have trouble remembering what just happened. The art is a bit more basic than some other comics but it works just fine here, again I'm more amused by the writing than anything else.
Trying Human
I suspect the reason I read fewer science-fiction webcomics than fantasy ones is because there simply are fewer out there but this one seems reasonably well known. Not to be confused with the BBC show Being Human, Trying Human splits it's focus on Rose (recently an alien abductee), Hue (an alien who has fallen in love with Rose*) and Rose's boyfriend Rodger (who was just recruited to go work in Area 51). There is a central plotline to the story although I'm not exactly sure what it is (flashbacks at the beginning of each chapter suggest that something went wrong at Area 51 about 60 years ago) and, since the government is covering up the fact that aliens are real I'm sure there's a government conspiracy in there somewhere, but none of these plotlines have really connected yet and it feels like it'll be a while yet before they do. The plot feels well paced however, and does a good job balancing three or four different points of view, so I'm not worried about the plot, it just seems to be moving at it's own pace. So for now we have various high-jinks involving aliens and Rose, various alien related work involving Rodger, and ominous foreboding involving Philena, the woman in the flashbacks, it's a fun enough read in any case!
Two Kinds
Hmm, normally I just think of this as a fantasy comic with a lot of anthropomorphic characters but I suppose most people would call this a furry comic^. Oh well, the art is pretty and you see plenty of cat/fox girls in anime anyway, it's not that much of a stretch. The plot here involves three main groups of people, humans, Keidran (the afore mentioned anthropomorphic characters) and the Basitin (who looks more like anthros than humans) who all hate the other species and are engaged in a number of skirmishes, if not war, against each other. The amnesiac Trace (human, not a nice guy before the amnesia) wakes up to find the world in this state and eventually falls in with the Keidran Flora and the Basitin Keith and so far the three of them have been traveling around and keep running into trouble with the various governments. Now that one big arc just ended I'm not quite sure where the plot is going next but, as I said earlier, the art is pretty and the story is entertaining enough (even thought tvtropes brought up some fridge horror involving Keidran slaves kept by humans, squick).
For some reason I can't get Two Kinds to load today and it might be because they're switching website providers (or some such thing) so here's another web address in case anyone else is having the same problems. Not many comics left now, one U, four W, one X and one Z, anyone want to guess what each of them are?
*yes from meeting her during the abductions, the comic makes it seem way less creepy than I could ever hope to describe it but still....
^frankly I've never been quite sure what the anime/manga fandom in general has against furries but okay guys, you can go rant about it and I'll be over here reading my comics.....
Today Nothing Happened
Unlike the other semi-journal comics I follow, this one isn't fictional at all, although some situations might be exaggerated, and it proves something my mom and I have been saying for years, reality is way stranger than fiction. The comic originally started as a school project, the creator liked it so much that she kept it going, so it covers college life and young adult life after college and I think it's a bit uplifting, that even now people can still live happy lives and sometimes I feel like the world needs that reminder. I might also be biased towards this comic since Shazzbaa and I seem to live in the same state (so whenever there's a post about crazy weather I'll go "YES, THAT'S EXACTLY IT!") and I was bemused to see Blitzkrieg from Conventional Wisdom cameo a couple of times (and vice-versa over in his comic). Plus, I like videos of cute kittens so it stands to reason that I'd love a bunch of comics about the strange things cats do and if the main page doesn't make me crack up the incentive voting piece normally does. So I'm recommending this to all fans of journal comics or of everyday humor, this is honestly one of my favorite webcomics and I really hope that it gets printed soon!
True Magic
Out of the several fantasy parody series I follow, True Magic is my favorite because I think it does the parody aspect of it the best (which isn't to say the others I've reviewed or bad, this just means I have opinions). The basic plot of the story is that some peasants, fed up with how they have no rights against their ruling nobles, are journeying to the capital to try and change the laws but are having a hard time just getting to that point. The peasents are all genre-savy (which is played for laughs agaisnt the very not genre-savy nobles), things rarely go as planned, cliches/tropes are usually subverted as well, and each page usually makes me laugh about it at least once. This one also has a bit of an erratic update schedule but the plot is simple enough that I don't have trouble remembering what just happened. The art is a bit more basic than some other comics but it works just fine here, again I'm more amused by the writing than anything else.
Trying Human
I suspect the reason I read fewer science-fiction webcomics than fantasy ones is because there simply are fewer out there but this one seems reasonably well known. Not to be confused with the BBC show Being Human, Trying Human splits it's focus on Rose (recently an alien abductee), Hue (an alien who has fallen in love with Rose*) and Rose's boyfriend Rodger (who was just recruited to go work in Area 51). There is a central plotline to the story although I'm not exactly sure what it is (flashbacks at the beginning of each chapter suggest that something went wrong at Area 51 about 60 years ago) and, since the government is covering up the fact that aliens are real I'm sure there's a government conspiracy in there somewhere, but none of these plotlines have really connected yet and it feels like it'll be a while yet before they do. The plot feels well paced however, and does a good job balancing three or four different points of view, so I'm not worried about the plot, it just seems to be moving at it's own pace. So for now we have various high-jinks involving aliens and Rose, various alien related work involving Rodger, and ominous foreboding involving Philena, the woman in the flashbacks, it's a fun enough read in any case!
Two Kinds
Hmm, normally I just think of this as a fantasy comic with a lot of anthropomorphic characters but I suppose most people would call this a furry comic^. Oh well, the art is pretty and you see plenty of cat/fox girls in anime anyway, it's not that much of a stretch. The plot here involves three main groups of people, humans, Keidran (the afore mentioned anthropomorphic characters) and the Basitin (who looks more like anthros than humans) who all hate the other species and are engaged in a number of skirmishes, if not war, against each other. The amnesiac Trace (human, not a nice guy before the amnesia) wakes up to find the world in this state and eventually falls in with the Keidran Flora and the Basitin Keith and so far the three of them have been traveling around and keep running into trouble with the various governments. Now that one big arc just ended I'm not quite sure where the plot is going next but, as I said earlier, the art is pretty and the story is entertaining enough (even thought tvtropes brought up some fridge horror involving Keidran slaves kept by humans, squick).
For some reason I can't get Two Kinds to load today and it might be because they're switching website providers (or some such thing) so here's another web address in case anyone else is having the same problems. Not many comics left now, one U, four W, one X and one Z, anyone want to guess what each of them are?
*yes from meeting her during the abductions, the comic makes it seem way less creepy than I could ever hope to describe it but still....
^frankly I've never been quite sure what the anime/manga fandom in general has against furries but okay guys, you can go rant about it and I'll be over here reading my comics.....
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Webcomic Review: Shurb Monkeys, Skin Deep, Sorcery 101
Alright, got half of the "S" comics up today and look for another three tomorrow, which, weirdly enough, all start with "st". Yeah, I don't know how webcomic artists come up with names either but it is funny to see trends like that.
Shurb Monkeys
These days Shrub Monkeys is a journal like webcomic (sadly one that hasn't been updated much within the past year) but the first 25 or so strips are rather, random, didn't remember that until I skimmed back through them, wonder if the print books will be like that as well (actually, there are a number of rather random comics stuck in here that I'd forgotten about). In any case, these days the comic is about the adventures of it's artist and, since I enjoy random, slice-of-life shows, it's right up my alley and it doesn't require me to remember any important backstory so it's easy to read, even with the breaks. I also like the color scheme in the comic (white, blue, black, and purple), bit of an unusal choice and I'm sure it'll look great as a print comic, just wondering what they plan to do with the random/filler comics that pop up early on.
Skin Deep
Well, this comic is a little hard to talk about not because of hiatuses but because the comic has been on a short story for two years now (actually, the latest page of the main story line was posted back in August of 2008, there have been a couple of other short stories posted in the meantime as well as the current, erm, prequel side story thing that's posting right now). The basic idea to this story is that the creatures of legend and myth are in fact real, they have just developed some sophisticated magical clocking technology (using medallions) so they can blend in with humans. This magic does have an interesting side effect however, namely that people who are the offspring of a mythical animal/normal human relationship will be born human and remain so until they come into contact with one of these medallions, enter Michelle and her problem which kicks off the Orientations chapter (and there seems to be a similar problem going on in the Exchange chapter). I have to admit that I like the Orientation plot line more than I like the Exchange one (the backstory being built up there is much more complex which I love), hence why I'm a little testy about taking so long to get back to it (the comic only updating once a week isn't helping out) but the current comic isn't bad at all, don't get me wrong there. And it is nice to have prettier art now, even within Orientation there was a big art shift and it's a very good looking comic now, sadly the latest chapters aren't available in print form yet. But, since it is a webcomic, it's all up on the website and I would recommend people check out the short stories as well (they don't add much to the main plot but they are pretty fun).
Sorcery 101
I probably need to completely reread this comic so I'll keep the review short. Set in an alternate world with magic (unknown to the general public however), vampires, demons, werewolves (which is apparently just another way of saying wolf demon), the story mostly follows Danny (an adult which is an oddity in the comics I follow) whose a former crown prince, a wannabe sorcerer and blood-bonded to a vampire whose currently teaching at a local private school. As for plot, there are a number of rivalries between, well, everyone but there's no central plot line in the story yet which is probably why I have a hard time remembering all of the episodic chapters. The story crosses over with As We Were (both by the same author, same artist as Today Nothing Happened) and Strange Someone (which I think was done round robin style, now completed) and those stories made things a bit clearer for me, but since Strange Someone takes place in the future it's a bit spoilerific. I'd recommend the whole set of comics to fans of urban fantasy, I just feel like I should really reread this before I say something wrong and make a fool of myself.
So, more "S" tomorrow and I'm almost done with the alphabet! Still got a couple of special days after that but expect a break sometime this week since I can afford to take another at this rate, plus I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm going to have a lot of homework this week which, sadly, takes priority.
Shurb Monkeys
These days Shrub Monkeys is a journal like webcomic (sadly one that hasn't been updated much within the past year) but the first 25 or so strips are rather, random, didn't remember that until I skimmed back through them, wonder if the print books will be like that as well (actually, there are a number of rather random comics stuck in here that I'd forgotten about). In any case, these days the comic is about the adventures of it's artist and, since I enjoy random, slice-of-life shows, it's right up my alley and it doesn't require me to remember any important backstory so it's easy to read, even with the breaks. I also like the color scheme in the comic (white, blue, black, and purple), bit of an unusal choice and I'm sure it'll look great as a print comic, just wondering what they plan to do with the random/filler comics that pop up early on.
Skin Deep
Well, this comic is a little hard to talk about not because of hiatuses but because the comic has been on a short story for two years now (actually, the latest page of the main story line was posted back in August of 2008, there have been a couple of other short stories posted in the meantime as well as the current, erm, prequel side story thing that's posting right now). The basic idea to this story is that the creatures of legend and myth are in fact real, they have just developed some sophisticated magical clocking technology (using medallions) so they can blend in with humans. This magic does have an interesting side effect however, namely that people who are the offspring of a mythical animal/normal human relationship will be born human and remain so until they come into contact with one of these medallions, enter Michelle and her problem which kicks off the Orientations chapter (and there seems to be a similar problem going on in the Exchange chapter). I have to admit that I like the Orientation plot line more than I like the Exchange one (the backstory being built up there is much more complex which I love), hence why I'm a little testy about taking so long to get back to it (the comic only updating once a week isn't helping out) but the current comic isn't bad at all, don't get me wrong there. And it is nice to have prettier art now, even within Orientation there was a big art shift and it's a very good looking comic now, sadly the latest chapters aren't available in print form yet. But, since it is a webcomic, it's all up on the website and I would recommend people check out the short stories as well (they don't add much to the main plot but they are pretty fun).
Sorcery 101
I probably need to completely reread this comic so I'll keep the review short. Set in an alternate world with magic (unknown to the general public however), vampires, demons, werewolves (which is apparently just another way of saying wolf demon), the story mostly follows Danny (an adult which is an oddity in the comics I follow) whose a former crown prince, a wannabe sorcerer and blood-bonded to a vampire whose currently teaching at a local private school. As for plot, there are a number of rivalries between, well, everyone but there's no central plot line in the story yet which is probably why I have a hard time remembering all of the episodic chapters. The story crosses over with As We Were (both by the same author, same artist as Today Nothing Happened) and Strange Someone (which I think was done round robin style, now completed) and those stories made things a bit clearer for me, but since Strange Someone takes place in the future it's a bit spoilerific. I'd recommend the whole set of comics to fans of urban fantasy, I just feel like I should really reread this before I say something wrong and make a fool of myself.
So, more "S" tomorrow and I'm almost done with the alphabet! Still got a couple of special days after that but expect a break sometime this week since I can afford to take another at this rate, plus I have the sneaking suspicion that I'm going to have a lot of homework this week which, sadly, takes priority.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Webcomic Review: Johnny Wander, Juathuur
Js today, hopefully I'll get the K post up tomorrow (it's a little bigger plus I'm going to be busy, I'll post on my twitter if it won't go up after all) and I should post about the loan L comic on Sunday, almost halfway through the alphabet!
Johnny Wander
Another journal comic (in case you can't tell by now I'm very fond of the genre) that deals mostly with the lives of Ananth (who does the blog posts) and Yuko (the comic artist) and their various friends. There are a few fictional short stories in the archives but the majority of the comic is just about every day life (cats, cooking experiments gone wrong, life being strange ect). It's a very relaxed feeling comic yet manages to get a giggle out of me with almost every update so it's great if you don't have much time to read or even if you do. Some of the comics have been collected into a volume (and, since it's labeled volume one, I suspect there will be more over the years) and I'd like to grab it sometime, and maybe some of those cute keychains from the short stories.
Juathuur
As a quick note, Juathuur is a story in two parts, the first comic (now completed) is One Way or Another and the second part, Gatecrash, is the one currently updating. And, since they are two consecutive comics, yes you need to read them in order or you will be horribly, horribly confused.
Anyway, the simpliest way to summarize this series is that it's a fantasy story focusing primarily on Faev who is one of the juathuur ("wanderer," a group of people with magic) and the first part is her discovering her heritage, discovering her magic, and finding really really icky secrets about the world (since part two is a direct sequel it's too hard to explain without spoiling). The first part is in black and white but part two is in full color and it updates three times a week so, despite the already massive size of part two, the story is flowing pretty quickly. My only complaint is that there are tons and tons of characters to keep track of but there don't seem to be any extraneous characters (plus it got much simpler to tell them apart once the comic switched to color). The art itself has gotten much better from the beginning of the series and it wasn't terrible to start with. Just discovered that there are print copies of the books but, due to the massive size of the series, I'm not sure I'd want to start buying the series before I knew how it ended*, although it would be easier to reread in book form. I still completely recommend this series since it's both plot heavy and visually pretty, just be prepared to spend some time reading!
And my heart goes out to Japan today, it's hard to even comprehend that they just had the fifth strongest earthquake in recorded history, especially after seeing Christchurch get slammed so recently. I know a lot of people are donating to the red cross, YA author Maureen Johnson is holding another set of giveaways for people to donate to the shelterbox campaign, so I hope everyone who is able to donate even just a little money does. The world is starting to scare me quite a bit these days, may you live in interesting times indeed.
*ie, was really sure I wanted to invest that much money in it, still feeling burned by TRC/Holic and I'm much more cautious about long running series now.
Johnny Wander
Another journal comic (in case you can't tell by now I'm very fond of the genre) that deals mostly with the lives of Ananth (who does the blog posts) and Yuko (the comic artist) and their various friends. There are a few fictional short stories in the archives but the majority of the comic is just about every day life (cats, cooking experiments gone wrong, life being strange ect). It's a very relaxed feeling comic yet manages to get a giggle out of me with almost every update so it's great if you don't have much time to read or even if you do. Some of the comics have been collected into a volume (and, since it's labeled volume one, I suspect there will be more over the years) and I'd like to grab it sometime, and maybe some of those cute keychains from the short stories.
Juathuur
As a quick note, Juathuur is a story in two parts, the first comic (now completed) is One Way or Another and the second part, Gatecrash, is the one currently updating. And, since they are two consecutive comics, yes you need to read them in order or you will be horribly, horribly confused.
Anyway, the simpliest way to summarize this series is that it's a fantasy story focusing primarily on Faev who is one of the juathuur ("wanderer," a group of people with magic) and the first part is her discovering her heritage, discovering her magic, and finding really really icky secrets about the world (since part two is a direct sequel it's too hard to explain without spoiling). The first part is in black and white but part two is in full color and it updates three times a week so, despite the already massive size of part two, the story is flowing pretty quickly. My only complaint is that there are tons and tons of characters to keep track of but there don't seem to be any extraneous characters (plus it got much simpler to tell them apart once the comic switched to color). The art itself has gotten much better from the beginning of the series and it wasn't terrible to start with. Just discovered that there are print copies of the books but, due to the massive size of the series, I'm not sure I'd want to start buying the series before I knew how it ended*, although it would be easier to reread in book form. I still completely recommend this series since it's both plot heavy and visually pretty, just be prepared to spend some time reading!
And my heart goes out to Japan today, it's hard to even comprehend that they just had the fifth strongest earthquake in recorded history, especially after seeing Christchurch get slammed so recently. I know a lot of people are donating to the red cross, YA author Maureen Johnson is holding another set of giveaways for people to donate to the shelterbox campaign, so I hope everyone who is able to donate even just a little money does. The world is starting to scare me quite a bit these days, may you live in interesting times indeed.
*ie, was really sure I wanted to invest that much money in it, still feeling burned by TRC/Holic and I'm much more cautious about long running series now.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Webcomic Review: Enjuhneer, Everblue, and Evil Diva!
Still messing around with the formats for these reviews so apologies if my switching back and forth is bothering anyone. Not much else to say here so onto the reviews!
Enjuhneer
A journal style comic that is part fiction, part based on the artist's current/past experiences in life and college, it's about a art student named Jenny in a geeky tech school* with LARPers, mutant squirrels** and general mayhem. In short, it's a fluffy little story about both what you want college to be like and what it sometimes is actually like (I can completely see some of the comics events happening in my life in any case). The series has undergone a major art shift (from hand drawn basic comics in the beginning to computer colored strips now) and, while it had a good sized cast of side characters, everyone looks distinctive enough that you'll recognize them even if they don't appear for a while. I've already recommended the comic to several of my friends so, if you enjoy oddly realistic mayhem in college, go check this out now!
Everblue
As a heads up on this review, this is currently one of my favorite webcomics so I may gush a little bit.
Set in a fantasy world covered mostly by water, Luna is a quiet yet secretly adventurous teenage girl who is starting to open up to others after Ten crashes into her town after the town guard shot down his flying boat and she offers to repair it, fascinated with all the modifications he made to it. My only complaint about the story thus far is that it's still a pretty new story so we're still in the world building part (heck, apparently the story has two other main characters, one of whom I saw a mini-comic about and the other has only appeared in the background on wanted posters) and, since it's only a once a week update, we might be in the introductory stage for a while more. But the updates have been consistent and continued even when the earlier pages were being re-drawn so this isn't as big a concern as it is for other comics. Finally, the art! The style and shading look a bit similar to the artwork of The Meek^ which means that it looks amazing. Lots of rich colors, a good grasp on lighting, an astonishing amount of background detail, and seeing the comparisons between the old pages and the newer re-drawn ones so just how far the art has come so quickly. I don't believe the comic is available for purchase outside of conventions yet but this is a webcomic after all, just click the link about to read it!
Evil Diva
For my final webcomic today, we have an amusing story of a devil who finds herself doing more good deeds than evil ones, clearly the right thing to do in this case is become a superhero! That's how the site phrased it actually but the story reminds me a little more of a magical girl story than a superhero story (and by that I mean, since Diva uses a wand for a few transformations, not a set costume, that's why it reminded me more of a magical girl, otherwise it's a pretty thin comparison). I like the series so far except for one, semi-important thing, why the heck did the art change/did the story have a timeskip?!? I know that there is a new artist for the comic now but I saw her work, she could draw in the old style perfectly well and, combine that with the sudden age up of the characters I'm really confused. It looks like this is going to be explained in comic soon but it still really threw and confused me. So I'm warming back up to the series now but I'd still recommend other people to go check it out. Oh, and we need more "Really Old Man Adventures" mini-comics, I loved those!
*Huh, enjuneer, unjuneer, unengineer, crap it just took me over a year to get that pun, I'm not exaggerating when I say I just figured it out.
**Crud, I still need to post pictures of my knit Tails plushie too...
^and yes, the artists are well aware of this and joke about it, I've seen Der-shing Helmer (The Meek) joke about kidnapping Michael (Everblue) to go do coloring on their comic.
Enjuhneer
A journal style comic that is part fiction, part based on the artist's current/past experiences in life and college, it's about a art student named Jenny in a geeky tech school* with LARPers, mutant squirrels** and general mayhem. In short, it's a fluffy little story about both what you want college to be like and what it sometimes is actually like (I can completely see some of the comics events happening in my life in any case). The series has undergone a major art shift (from hand drawn basic comics in the beginning to computer colored strips now) and, while it had a good sized cast of side characters, everyone looks distinctive enough that you'll recognize them even if they don't appear for a while. I've already recommended the comic to several of my friends so, if you enjoy oddly realistic mayhem in college, go check this out now!
Everblue
As a heads up on this review, this is currently one of my favorite webcomics so I may gush a little bit.
Set in a fantasy world covered mostly by water, Luna is a quiet yet secretly adventurous teenage girl who is starting to open up to others after Ten crashes into her town after the town guard shot down his flying boat and she offers to repair it, fascinated with all the modifications he made to it. My only complaint about the story thus far is that it's still a pretty new story so we're still in the world building part (heck, apparently the story has two other main characters, one of whom I saw a mini-comic about and the other has only appeared in the background on wanted posters) and, since it's only a once a week update, we might be in the introductory stage for a while more. But the updates have been consistent and continued even when the earlier pages were being re-drawn so this isn't as big a concern as it is for other comics. Finally, the art! The style and shading look a bit similar to the artwork of The Meek^ which means that it looks amazing. Lots of rich colors, a good grasp on lighting, an astonishing amount of background detail, and seeing the comparisons between the old pages and the newer re-drawn ones so just how far the art has come so quickly. I don't believe the comic is available for purchase outside of conventions yet but this is a webcomic after all, just click the link about to read it!
Evil Diva
For my final webcomic today, we have an amusing story of a devil who finds herself doing more good deeds than evil ones, clearly the right thing to do in this case is become a superhero! That's how the site phrased it actually but the story reminds me a little more of a magical girl story than a superhero story (and by that I mean, since Diva uses a wand for a few transformations, not a set costume, that's why it reminded me more of a magical girl, otherwise it's a pretty thin comparison). I like the series so far except for one, semi-important thing, why the heck did the art change/did the story have a timeskip?!? I know that there is a new artist for the comic now but I saw her work, she could draw in the old style perfectly well and, combine that with the sudden age up of the characters I'm really confused. It looks like this is going to be explained in comic soon but it still really threw and confused me. So I'm warming back up to the series now but I'd still recommend other people to go check it out. Oh, and we need more "Really Old Man Adventures" mini-comics, I loved those!
*Huh, enjuneer, unjuneer, unengineer, crap it just took me over a year to get that pun, I'm not exaggerating when I say I just figured it out.
**Crud, I still need to post pictures of my knit Tails plushie too...
^and yes, the artists are well aware of this and joke about it, I've seen Der-shing Helmer (The Meek) joke about kidnapping Michael (Everblue) to go do coloring on their comic.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Webcomic Review: Conventional Wisdom
Well, there were going to be two blurbs today, then I realized that Cealdian hasn't updated since October* so it's going into the "needs to be updated more often" post later this month. Sooo yeah, just a few more days folks and I should have bigger posts!
Conventional Wisdom
A journal comic except it's only about one thing, this guy's (Blitzkrieg) adventures at anime cons. I found these comics since he goes to my local con and usually posts a link on the forums afterwards (so I'll vouch all the posts about Animazement for the past few years being completely true). He's got a couple years worth of comics now (I think he goes to four or five cons a year) and anyone whose been to any sort of anime/comic convention can probably sympathize with and laugh at at the same time. My only complaint is that recently he's started putting in all these filler strips (ie, stuff between cons) with random mascots and I just don't like it as much. I'd much rather have a page saying when the next con is instead of all these odd filler characters, but that's just me.
You know, I think he does a second comic as well, probably even have it bookmarked somewhere, but since Convention Wisdom only updates a few times a year I can see that schedule actually working. And yes, it's finally spring break for me so I'm hoping to build up my buffer again (only the promise of reviewing shojo anime is going to keep me going through all that Lord Byron, I can tell now this isn't gonna be fun....) so, even if April gets crazy, which I strongly suspect it will, I have a plan for it and fingers crossed that my reviewing won't slow down!
*Y'all remember what I said yesterday about art students doing comics and then getting eaten by their work? I think that's what happened here, plus I think the creator decided to do another comic at the same time which is just crazy. I only know of a few people who do more than one comic at a time and one or both of those comics is usually a collaborationd so they DON'T go insane.
Conventional Wisdom
A journal comic except it's only about one thing, this guy's (Blitzkrieg) adventures at anime cons. I found these comics since he goes to my local con and usually posts a link on the forums afterwards (so I'll vouch all the posts about Animazement for the past few years being completely true). He's got a couple years worth of comics now (I think he goes to four or five cons a year) and anyone whose been to any sort of anime/comic convention can probably sympathize with and laugh at at the same time. My only complaint is that recently he's started putting in all these filler strips (ie, stuff between cons) with random mascots and I just don't like it as much. I'd much rather have a page saying when the next con is instead of all these odd filler characters, but that's just me.
You know, I think he does a second comic as well, probably even have it bookmarked somewhere, but since Convention Wisdom only updates a few times a year I can see that schedule actually working. And yes, it's finally spring break for me so I'm hoping to build up my buffer again (only the promise of reviewing shojo anime is going to keep me going through all that Lord Byron, I can tell now this isn't gonna be fun....) so, even if April gets crazy, which I strongly suspect it will, I have a plan for it and fingers crossed that my reviewing won't slow down!
*Y'all remember what I said yesterday about art students doing comics and then getting eaten by their work? I think that's what happened here, plus I think the creator decided to do another comic at the same time which is just crazy. I only know of a few people who do more than one comic at a time and one or both of those comics is usually a collaborationd so they DON'T go insane.
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