Webcomic Review Month 2013: A Redtail's Dream

I only came across this comic a few months ago, which is strange since I've seen ads everywhere for it since then, and I have to admit I'm really impressed by it. Not just by the art or because I like the story, this comic updates in full color six days a week and has a five month buffer. It has such a large buffer because Sundberg works on it nearly every day while managing her college work as well and is doing this completely for free as well. Obviously this has no bearing on how good/bad a story is but, well, every time I see an artist trying to get by without a buffer now I do have to just raise my eyebrows 



A Redtail's Dream by Minna Sundberg

One night the foxes in the sky call a meeting and leave the youngest, Puppy-fox, in charge of the northern lights to keep him out of their fur. Unfortunately Puppy-fox isn't as capable as his relatives hope and manages to trap an entire human village in the auroras, somewhere between life and death, and grabs the only two people not trapped, Hannu and his dog Ville, and charges them with regathering all the people trapped in this dreamscape before their time runs out. Of course, as people they meet along the way point out, their time is even more limited since Puppy-fox doesn't want his family to know he messed up and he's not above erasing whoever is still trapped to do so....


First off, for some reason I don't understand, even after reading it a few times, the prologue is a bit wonky so get through that and then see if you like the rest of the comic before deciding to follow or drop it. The art however looks great from the very beginning and only gets stronger as the comic progresses; Sundberg doesn't shy away from experimenting with different color schemes, settings, or playing with the light. The plot is pretty straightforward, Hannu and Ville end up in a new location and need to help people before they agree to move on, although this has resulted in far less character development in Hannu than I would have expected. But even that isn't terribly surprising, for them it's been far less than a week (mentally, in the real world I don't think it's even been a full night) and in the latest chapter he has shown signs of starting to change and there's around 200 pages left to go, plenty of room for that to happen. It's also paced well, I can't believe how long some of the chapters are since they move along so quickly, it's a really solid comic in every respect I can think of and among the comics I've discovered in the past year it's easily one of my favorites and one of the ones I make an effort to read every day, no matter how busy I am.


A Redtail's Dream can be read online in English or Finnish on Sundberg's website. There isn't a print copy yet but, after a few surveys, Sundberg says that she is tentatively planning on releasing the comic in one, 600 page, full color, hardback volume that will go for about $60 and, since she's in Finland, shipping will be about $30 so if you want this in print start saving your pennies now!


2012 "R" comic

2011 "Q" comic
2011 "R" comics

Manga Monday: Yumekui Merry

This title is a bit of an odd one, I picked it up before the anime adaption came out, didn't like the first episode of the anime so I didn't follow it, read scanlations, and now it's been licensed by JManga. The only thing is that they licensed it several months ago and there haven't been any releases beyond the first chapter, oops. I've asked on twitter and they swear it's coming, I just hope it's sooner rather than later. Also, I don't know if this is related or not but I haven't seen many scanlations for it lately (could be because of the license, could be that the group prefers to buy volumes as they come out and scanlate those instead of buying the magazine each month) so I'm starting to get a little hazy on some of the details here (also, did not know that another translation of it is Merry Nightmare, JManga is just using the untranslated Japanese title for now).


Yumekui Merry (Dream Eater Merry) by Yoshitaka Ushiki

Yumeji has lived a pretty normal life but he does have one odd talent that his friends love to make him use, he can see the kind of dreams people had the night before. It's not always perfect most of the time but it can always tell him when someone has had nightmares and lately he's had a lot of those himself. It's always the same dream until one day a girl falls out of the real world into his dreams and Yumeji learns about the world of dreams and the dream demons who are coming from there to try and take over his world.

Even though the story is currently 8 volumes long (and it feels like it has several more to go) it still feels rather quickly paced to me and it's always nice to have a story that doesn't linger or draw out it's mysteries too much. In fact, one of the biggest mysteries at that start of the manga was "what exactly is Merry and how did she get here?" which has been partially answered and maybe fully answered, again it's been a little while since I read that particular part of the story (and it feels wrong to re-read scans when I know a legal version is coming). Honestly what I'm most happy about however is how involved Yumeji has become in the story, I've seen a number of stories which involve a normal person becoming mixed up in the affairs of another world and being unable to do much about it. Yumeji, really all of the main cast, has a lot of great moments and none of the main characters feel like they could have been cut without hurting the story (which isn't exactly the case for the side characters, they are side characters after all, however there are few enough of them that I don't feel like the writer is trying to fluff out the story by just introducing new characters). The plot is moving along nicely and has grown over the past few volumes as well so, while it's never super complicated or very difficult to predict, I am more than entertained reading this and plan on buying the volumes as they come out on JManga. 

Webcomic Review Month 2012: The Pale, Plume

Wow, only one week left of webcomic reviews, it's going to be so odd switching back to regular reviews after this (especially since I have to read so much for them). I'm actually starting to get a little worried at how much anime I'll have piled up to review, this break to let me catch up on stuff may have worked a little TOO well....
Last year's review here.

The Pale by Cody Coltharp
Neurologist Charlie Bell is a talented doctor who after starting to treat a young girl with vivid and reoccurring nightmares finds himself having strange dreams. As he explores his dreams they seem to be connected to the young girl's and his brother might also be in his dreams, the brother that died years ago.

One of the most interesting things about the comic isn't necessarily it's plot or it's art but it's format. Each page is one long spread that you scroll across by hovering with the mouse so at times it feels more like a silent film than a comic. The amount of planning that must have gone into each page to make sure that each panel flows smoothly into another must have been astonishing and I've never seen another comic quite like it. I'll admit I'm slightly fuzzy on the details of the plot right now since the comic hasn't updated in a few months (which also makes me worried) but I liked how the plot was moving so far and really hope it returns soon.

  Plume by Kari Smith
"My father once told my that revenge is like a plume of black smoke. It seems tangible but when you reach for it you're grasping nothing but air. But really it's not like you're going to stop trying." And trying is what Vesper Grey seems to be doing as she sets off on a journey into the wild west to recover her father's life's work along with Corrick, the guardian attached the mysterious medallion her father once gave her.


This is a bit of a young comic but since it's already had a kickstarter for the first issue (where I stole that quote from) and I really like it so I wanted to bring it up. For it's short length it has had quite a bit of establishing information (there have been character introductions, hints at what the main plot is about, and an introduction to the setting) but the main plot doesn't seem to have started yet. Given it's quick pace I'm sure that's not too far off so once the comic resumes I'm sure things will pick up quickly and I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Manga Review: Afterschool Nightmare (volumes 1 & 2)

I mentioned in my review of Afterschool Charisma that I picked it up thinking it was a volume in the series of Afterschool Nightmare, that would be these books actually. It's another series that was published by CMX so I didn't find out about it until after the company folded. I found the first two (out of I believe ten) books up here at the local library (because apparently libraries love CMX and Go Comi manga, all the better for me!) and checked them out after I made off with half of the libraries selection of +Anima and it looks like they don't have the rest, boo.

Afterschool Nightmare by Setona Mizushiro

Summary: Mashio Ichijo has a secret, he identifies as a guy but was born with the lower half of his body female and the story starts with his first period. Later in the day, after discussing with his classmates why they can't remember any of their classmates who recently left, he is called by the school nurse to the secret basement of the school to face his nightmares and the nightmares of his fellow classmates.

The Good: I really like the set-up/setting of this story, fighting in dreams is nothing new and having a bunch of incredibly messed up characters is nothing new either but the story hints that there is something even more sinister going on behind the scenes. Also, there don't appear to be any real good guys in the story yet, everyone seems to have their own agenda or is simply fending for themselves and, with a cast of characters that are this messed up, that should prove to be pretty interesting.

The Bad: But unfortunately the story isn't that interesting yet. It's moving right along, the characters seem to be developing a tiny bit and the story has revealed/dropped clues about a few things, but it just hasn't done anything big yet. I suspect that once Ichijo really starts to develop as a character he'll be a major catalyst in the story and that's when stuff will get answered but nothing so far. Also, some of the romance in here worries me* but crossing my fingers that it's not going to cross that line.

The Art: Nothing really special about the art here. It's shojo (at least I think so) and tells the story but I don't remember being especially impressed by it.

So, I want to track down the rest of this series but I don't know yet if I like it enough to own (ie, reread) it. Hoping to come across the rest of it in libraries but that probably won't happen but I should probably get a move on it, now that the series is OOP I don't want to wait and then find out that the prices skyrocketed since I don't see this one getting a license rescue either.


*As in, please don't play "forced kissing/sexual interaction/rape as love" and the stuff about that I've seen on tvtropes isn't encouraging.....