Webcomic Review: Widdershins

Well it's that time of the month again, it's a bit terrifying how fast this first part of the year goes by. I'm afraid that I've been focusing one fantasy/sci-fi webcomics here more than I meant to but after thinking about it I realized that most of my favorite "realistic" comics are real-world journal comics, many of which are still fairly new or on and off hiatus fairly regularly. I'd ask for people to recommend me more but I'm not even sure what I would want out of a "realistic fiction" comic, do those include mysteries? Since I am completely down with more mysteries, although nearly every plot-centric comic will have a mystery or two in it just like this one here does.

Widdershins by Kate Ashwin

Comic Review: Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales

Back in 2011 I remembered hearing about Womanthology (a comic anthology that was going to be filled with comics only by female creators) and, while I found the idea interesting, after learning that the creators weren't getting paid from the kickstarter (I think all the money was going to printing with the leftovers being donated to charity) I wasn't really keen on supporting it. So when I saw this one where I was already a fan of some of the creators and they said that they were getting paid for the work here I decided to put my money where my mouth was instead of putting my foot in my mouth. I wasn't sure if I should review this or not at first however since it seemed odd to review something everyone else can't buy but I have since found out that you can still purchase a copy of this anthology, you can go to this page for more information for where to buy. Anyway, this will be more of a summary/general thoughts on the anthology since each story is rather short and it's a bit hard to review short things. But hopefully it'll still be a good overview of the anthology and give people an idea if they want to get a copy for themselves or not.

Cautionary Fables and Fairy Tales (anthology featuring Kate Ashwin, Kory Bing, Mary Cagle, KC Green, Kel McDonald, Joe Pimenta, Katie and Steve Shanahan, and Lin Visel)

An anthology featuring eight stories from nine different comic artists, all based off of classical fairy tales with some being better known than others, most never before published in print or online.

About half of the anthology featured stories I was already familiar with (such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapnuzel), and the other stories were completely new to me (Bisclarvet, The Nixie of the Mill Pond)which made for a nice balance. The only story I really disliked was K.C. Green’s The Singing Bone and the story wasn’t bad, I simply don’t like the way they do storytelling and their art style, it’s just a matter of personal preference. On the other end of the spectrum, Bisclarvet (by Kel McDonald) was my favorite of the group and felt like something I could have seen on Jim Henson’s The Storyteller since it was paced so well and told a very tidy story with no details left unused. There was a nice variety of stories, some sort, some long, a completely silent one, some comedy, and a whole range of art styles. I think all of that makes it a rather successful anthology and, while I might re-read it on a regular basis, I am happy that I supported the kickstarter for it.

Webcomic Review Month 2012: Widdershins, The Wormworld Saga

Gah, I really wish I was ending this month on stronger reviews but I've just had a weird schedule the past few days with little sleep and no time to really write these in advance, I swear I will look over these reviews tomorrow just to make sure I'm reasonably coherent. Nothing like ending with a bang huh? Although technically I do have one more day and tomorrow I'm going to try and write about all of the various Nuzlocke comics I've gotten hooked on recently and why I like them so much. And what is a Nuzlocke comic you might ask? Well you'll just have to take a peak back tomorrow to find out.....
Last year's Ws, X, and Z reviews!

Widdershins by Kate Ashwin
Sidney Malik is an almost completely trained wizard and a performing magcian who loves his craft with one small exception, he has a curse of sorts which has him accidentally steal items left and right and has caused him more harm than good. So of course when his magic causes him to accidentally steal the wristband of the thief king he's none too happy about it but magical hunter Harriet Barber thinks that she can use his wristband to find the legendary treasure of the thief kings and Sidney insists that since it's his bracelet that he's coming along as well.

The story is actually focusing on some different characters at the moment who appeared in the background of chapter one but so far they've been rather interesting as well and it's always encouraging that an author can write multiple groups of interesting characters without having them appear to simply be expies of each other. Both stories so far have had interesting magic in them, well paced plot lines, and great background art so far so no matter who the story follows next I'll be sure to follow.

The Wormworld Saga by Daniel Lieske
Starting in the summer of 1977, young Jonas and his dad are about to spend six weeks at his grandmother's house, although he doesn't plan on spending it working on school work the entire time like his father expects him to do.  Instead Jonas plans on having adventures in the woods behind his grandmother's house and in a secret attic he discovered a few years ago which has become a bit more magical since his last visit.


Something that caught me off guard when I re-skimmed the comic is that Jonas is supposed to be a rising 9th grader, 14 is still a pretty young age but even I wasn't still playing with forts and such at 14 and I know none of my classmates were, I thought that Jonas was closer to 11 or 12. Part of the reason I thought that was because the comic seemed to be aimed at 11 or 12 year olds (and you generally age the characters close the age range you're aiming at for readers) because the portrayal of the adult characters is really childish. You usually find more simplified adult characters in MG or younger writing, my views on this could fill up an entire post on their own, and here Jonas dad and grandmother come off as flat, two dimensional characters and, since the main conflict so far is between Jonas and his dad, it makes the whole conflict really hard to take seriously. I like how this comic is laid out visually so far, much like The Pale each chapter is one long image (this time it's a vertical image however) and perhaps the upcoming third chapter will change my view on it but honestly I don't expect to follow this story to the end. 




This comic is also avaliable in German, Spanish, French, Brazilian (I guess they mean Portuguese?), Russian, Turkish, Simplified Chinese, Bulgarian, Dutch, Italian, Croatian, Bosnian, Czech, and Korean.