Recent Reviews:
A Show of the Ropes is about fantasy BDSM scenarios coming true. The main character is a subscriber to a livestreaming couple's sessions. On a job interview she recognizes the couple as the owners of the coffee house where she hopes to work. After some awkwardness, she becomes involved in their activities.
The storyline is simple, but is handled in a smooth manner that seems realistic. Each event flows naturally from what came before. The story presents the ideal of safe, sane, and consensual BDSM activity, where desires and expectations are addressed and safety and comfort are important to all participants. The three main characters (two dragons and a dog) are three-dimensional from the beginning, and are quickly shown to have both their fetish lives and everyday vanilla concerns. The art is wonderfully detailed while not being overwhelmingly complicated.
A Show of the Ropes is erotic material, definitely NSFW, and directed towards fetish-minded readers. Its subject areas include transsexuality, bondage, exhibitionism, D/s relationships, and how to make a great cup of espresso. It doesn't fall into the cliche of a 24/7 Master/slave relationship; during vanilla time and while talking about fetish activities, the sub is quite willing to call out what she believes to be inappropriate behavior.
Although ASotR is fantasy material, it shows the relationships to be complex, complicated, and entirely three-dimensional. Although directed towards BDSM fetishists, it can be appreciated by anyone for its good writing andgood art.
The storyline is simple, but is handled in a smooth manner that seems realistic. Each event flows naturally from what came before. The story presents the ideal of safe, sane, and consensual BDSM activity, where desires and expectations are addressed and safety and comfort are important to all participants. The three main characters (two dragons and a dog) are three-dimensional from the beginning, and are quickly shown to have both their fetish lives and everyday vanilla concerns. The art is wonderfully detailed while not being overwhelmingly complicated.
A Show of the Ropes is erotic material, definitely NSFW, and directed towards fetish-minded readers. Its subject areas include transsexuality, bondage, exhibitionism, D/s relationships, and how to make a great cup of espresso. It doesn't fall into the cliche of a 24/7 Master/slave relationship; during vanilla time and while talking about fetish activities, the sub is quite willing to call out what she believes to be inappropriate behavior.
Although ASotR is fantasy material, it shows the relationships to be complex, complicated, and entirely three-dimensional. Although directed towards BDSM fetishists, it can be appreciated by anyone for its good writing andgood art.
I was not expecting this story to be so good.
I binged 150 pages in 2 days.
I can't stop thinking about Larry and Montimer.
Please send help.
Your mileage may vary.
This story features heavily in the themes of: predator/prey relationships, and forbidden love.
I binged 150 pages in 2 days.
I can't stop thinking about Larry and Montimer.
Please send help.
Your mileage may vary.
This story features heavily in the themes of: predator/prey relationships, and forbidden love.
Over the last 17 years, TwoKinds has become one of the best comics in print.
One thing about Twokinds that impresses me is that, having been first published when the artist/author was 16 years old, it has not been heavily ret-conned. Instead, Mr. Tom F. has incorporated early, adolescent, "written for a gag" ideas into the ongoing storyline. As a result, while the early strips are very roughtly drawn and not well-written, many of the writing that makes you wince in the first chapters makes you think, "Ah! Very good." in more recent episodes.
I began following my first webcomics in the 1990s. Yet, while I've been aware of this comic since it's first year, I've only recently gone back to read it from its rough beginning, and I'm very glad I did.
It has its faults. The storyline is often simple and the humor still occasionally falls flat. It took many strips for the artist to begin to refine his style, and hundreds more before it achieved a fantastically professional look.
I'm also a fan of El Goonish Shive and Schlock Mercenary, which also made the transition from teenage Saturday-afternoon passtimes to wonderfully refined projects. I'm glad to see that this now well-drawn, intricate story is now one of the most popular of webcomics.
I began following my first webcomics in the 1990s. Yet, while I've been aware of this comic since it's first year, I've only recently gone back to read it from its rough beginning, and I'm very glad I did.
It has its faults. The storyline is often simple and the humor still occasionally falls flat. It took many strips for the artist to begin to refine his style, and hundreds more before it achieved a fantastically professional look.
I'm also a fan of El Goonish Shive and Schlock Mercenary, which also made the transition from teenage Saturday-afternoon passtimes to wonderfully refined projects. I'm glad to see that this now well-drawn, intricate story is now one of the most popular of webcomics.
This romantic comic is quite enjoyable.
It’s only three episodes long,
though there’s lots of action and dialog and art in every episode.
In my experience the first episode didn’t prepare me for how much I was going to enjoy the second and third episodes!
Excellent concept, excellently done!
It’s only three episodes long,
though there’s lots of action and dialog and art in every episode.
In my experience the first episode didn’t prepare me for how much I was going to enjoy the second and third episodes!
Excellent concept, excellently done!
It appears that Berrybelle has been lost. The URL was storiesbyshalom.com which appears to now point to freeresultsguide.com
This strip’s humour is pretty good! I laughed out loud at two consecutive episodes; most strips don’t do that for me!
I found this comic to be a pretty fun romp with a few cameos and crossovers between the pages, including "The Shifter", Jenny Everywhere, who is always a treat!
I really wish there was more of this comic, but, the over-arching hub comic of the grand crossover, "Cowboys & Crossovers", seems to have stalled.
I wait patiently for its return, but, at least this chapter, starring the merry 'Misfits of Mischief', had a proper ending!
I really wish there was more of this comic, but, the over-arching hub comic of the grand crossover, "Cowboys & Crossovers", seems to have stalled.
I wait patiently for its return, but, at least this chapter, starring the merry 'Misfits of Mischief', had a proper ending!
So says Sophie at the end of Restored Generation, and I can't help thinking it's an aside to the audience. Reader beware: spoilers abound.
Set seventeen years after Stolen Generation, the comic picks up from its predecessor's cliffhanger: Rumour and Novus' daughter Sophie is almost fully-grown, and can manipulate the same dimensional shield as her parents, poising her, alongside Rena's hitherto-unknown son Seth, as some sort of predestined guardian against the imminent resurgence of the dinosaurs. It's a similar setup to the original: a select vanguard with unique abilities engaging in an epic battle for the fate of the world—only this time they're fighting to save it against a foe hell-bent on -destroying- it utterly. Sprinkled amongst the comparatively shorter but no less-well-managed fight scenes are a love quadrangle between Sophie, her stern boyfriend Haze, cheerful friend Jarvis and newcomer Seth; the revenge fantasy of Natasha, now head of state of Russia; and a recurring discourse on the nature of immortality that carries several implications for the main story. Ambition-wise, this comic has certainly outgrown its forbear's shoes.
Given Restored Generation aired less than a year after the first comic finished, the artistic change is astounding. Pages are done in full digital colour using a technique far superior to the remasters in SG, while the lines are clean and solid, giving the project a professional polish. Midway through, the author introduces a new style that helps better distinguish individual characters and species as a whole, although I find expressions aren't quite as emotive.
Unfortunately this is all the comic qualitatively holds above its predecessor. The writing suffers from the same stumbles as before, with the further hurdle that the story can't seem to pace itself. We open with Natasha on a weapons range, then cut to Sophie at a re-enactment club with a quick synopsis of the family situation, before Seth and his 'sister' Becky join the house on the eve of the dinosaur's awakening. From there the focus bounces between the dino's wake of wanton destruction, the authorities' inability to contain it, and... Sophie's social life. Even when entire cities dissolve into dust, the school day marches on, and if not for background quips about the crisis-at-large it's as if it's not even happening until Queensland is vaporized and a tsunami alert sends everyone home.
This constantly-shifting point of view means I can't tell who the lead characters are supposed to be: given the comic's title, one would think the children, but they spend all their time in the home town; Keith is President of Australia and thus commander-in-chief of the army, but quickly determines he can't -do- anything; Novus et al. are warned off a straight fight early and spend most of their time as vessels for plot exposition; Becky/Rena constantly foreshadows she holds the key to defeating the dino but never explains how, and by story's end the characters -still- don't know why, while the audience barely does.
Is the villain the lead? We arguably learn more about the dino than any other character, and other sequels have shifted point-of-view just as radically. Indeed, Sapphire's confrontation with her 'flawed' sibling Diamond reveals a treasure trove of Nietzschean philosophy, i.e. what do the gods care for mortal morals. But even if RG -was- aiming that way, Sapphire simply isn't a deep enough character to carry the story herself. Unfortunately the story doesn't recognize this, and spends most of its time showcasing how effortlessly she can obliterate a landmass to ratchet up the stakes.
Stolen Generation started with similar shock-and-awe, but tracing the plot's wind-up to the main conflict was straightforward and logically paced. By contrast, Restored Generation is too hectic for its own good. We barely know the new characters, will only recognize the old if we've read SG, and have almost no understanding of the powers that supposedly allow them to confront this looming danger—and said danger hits the ground running before the 25th page. From the word go, the plot floors the drama accelerator and refuses to let up for the rest of the ride. The ensuing mayhem leaves little room for character development amongst the adult cast, while the high-school antics are jarring as breather interludes and in my opinion should have taken place before the dinosaur emerged, with the tangled relationships ironed out during (if not through) the struggle, à la Rumour and Novus in SG.
This all culminates in an abrupt, arbitrary, and decidedly unsatisfying climax. While SG's dénouement was a fumble, it could at least be traced (however tenuously) to the themes and character development built up throughout the story. RG, by contrast, is brutally nihilistic: no-one learns anything of importance, no-one -does- anything of consequence, and the world is only saved from an unbeatable villain by a last-minute Deus ex Machina. Haze "wins" the romance subplot simply by virtue of Last Man Standing, and despite being reduced to plot expositor and Greek chorus, Dr. Burret proves even more infuriating, to the point I literally could not believe she is the -only- character to survive the story -better off-, for no other reason than the dino's whim.
Had this been by design, with the notion of "destiny" against a random, uncaring universe foregrounded to the audience, I might have been impressed; but author commentary suggests he'd become bored of the project and wanted a quick way to tie it up. And it shows: after more than a hundred pages hyping the final fight with Sapphire, the climax arrives as gracefully as a freight train slamming into reinforced concrete, with a flashback sequence that strips away the last remaining shards of character agency while shoehorning in far more questions than the comic intended to answer. Just like its forbear, RG leaves the reader confused and frustrated, but without the consolation prize of a "fallback" milestone before laying out the sequel hook. (A third installment was mused, but ultimately abandoned.)
Adequate if underwhelming, Restored Generation showcases the author at his artistic best, but suffers from a meandering narrative and disorganized conclusion. Recommended only to fans hungry for a payoff to the original comic's finale, this is a story devoid of happy endings, that gleefully defies the notion that suffering must entail a purpose.
Set seventeen years after Stolen Generation, the comic picks up from its predecessor's cliffhanger: Rumour and Novus' daughter Sophie is almost fully-grown, and can manipulate the same dimensional shield as her parents, poising her, alongside Rena's hitherto-unknown son Seth, as some sort of predestined guardian against the imminent resurgence of the dinosaurs. It's a similar setup to the original: a select vanguard with unique abilities engaging in an epic battle for the fate of the world—only this time they're fighting to save it against a foe hell-bent on -destroying- it utterly. Sprinkled amongst the comparatively shorter but no less-well-managed fight scenes are a love quadrangle between Sophie, her stern boyfriend Haze, cheerful friend Jarvis and newcomer Seth; the revenge fantasy of Natasha, now head of state of Russia; and a recurring discourse on the nature of immortality that carries several implications for the main story. Ambition-wise, this comic has certainly outgrown its forbear's shoes.
Given Restored Generation aired less than a year after the first comic finished, the artistic change is astounding. Pages are done in full digital colour using a technique far superior to the remasters in SG, while the lines are clean and solid, giving the project a professional polish. Midway through, the author introduces a new style that helps better distinguish individual characters and species as a whole, although I find expressions aren't quite as emotive.
Unfortunately this is all the comic qualitatively holds above its predecessor. The writing suffers from the same stumbles as before, with the further hurdle that the story can't seem to pace itself. We open with Natasha on a weapons range, then cut to Sophie at a re-enactment club with a quick synopsis of the family situation, before Seth and his 'sister' Becky join the house on the eve of the dinosaur's awakening. From there the focus bounces between the dino's wake of wanton destruction, the authorities' inability to contain it, and... Sophie's social life. Even when entire cities dissolve into dust, the school day marches on, and if not for background quips about the crisis-at-large it's as if it's not even happening until Queensland is vaporized and a tsunami alert sends everyone home.
This constantly-shifting point of view means I can't tell who the lead characters are supposed to be: given the comic's title, one would think the children, but they spend all their time in the home town; Keith is President of Australia and thus commander-in-chief of the army, but quickly determines he can't -do- anything; Novus et al. are warned off a straight fight early and spend most of their time as vessels for plot exposition; Becky/Rena constantly foreshadows she holds the key to defeating the dino but never explains how, and by story's end the characters -still- don't know why, while the audience barely does.
Is the villain the lead? We arguably learn more about the dino than any other character, and other sequels have shifted point-of-view just as radically. Indeed, Sapphire's confrontation with her 'flawed' sibling Diamond reveals a treasure trove of Nietzschean philosophy, i.e. what do the gods care for mortal morals. But even if RG -was- aiming that way, Sapphire simply isn't a deep enough character to carry the story herself. Unfortunately the story doesn't recognize this, and spends most of its time showcasing how effortlessly she can obliterate a landmass to ratchet up the stakes.
Stolen Generation started with similar shock-and-awe, but tracing the plot's wind-up to the main conflict was straightforward and logically paced. By contrast, Restored Generation is too hectic for its own good. We barely know the new characters, will only recognize the old if we've read SG, and have almost no understanding of the powers that supposedly allow them to confront this looming danger—and said danger hits the ground running before the 25th page. From the word go, the plot floors the drama accelerator and refuses to let up for the rest of the ride. The ensuing mayhem leaves little room for character development amongst the adult cast, while the high-school antics are jarring as breather interludes and in my opinion should have taken place before the dinosaur emerged, with the tangled relationships ironed out during (if not through) the struggle, à la Rumour and Novus in SG.
This all culminates in an abrupt, arbitrary, and decidedly unsatisfying climax. While SG's dénouement was a fumble, it could at least be traced (however tenuously) to the themes and character development built up throughout the story. RG, by contrast, is brutally nihilistic: no-one learns anything of importance, no-one -does- anything of consequence, and the world is only saved from an unbeatable villain by a last-minute Deus ex Machina. Haze "wins" the romance subplot simply by virtue of Last Man Standing, and despite being reduced to plot expositor and Greek chorus, Dr. Burret proves even more infuriating, to the point I literally could not believe she is the -only- character to survive the story -better off-, for no other reason than the dino's whim.
Had this been by design, with the notion of "destiny" against a random, uncaring universe foregrounded to the audience, I might have been impressed; but author commentary suggests he'd become bored of the project and wanted a quick way to tie it up. And it shows: after more than a hundred pages hyping the final fight with Sapphire, the climax arrives as gracefully as a freight train slamming into reinforced concrete, with a flashback sequence that strips away the last remaining shards of character agency while shoehorning in far more questions than the comic intended to answer. Just like its forbear, RG leaves the reader confused and frustrated, but without the consolation prize of a "fallback" milestone before laying out the sequel hook. (A third installment was mused, but ultimately abandoned.)
Adequate if underwhelming, Restored Generation showcases the author at his artistic best, but suffers from a meandering narrative and disorganized conclusion. Recommended only to fans hungry for a payoff to the original comic's finale, this is a story devoid of happy endings, that gleefully defies the notion that suffering must entail a purpose.
10:55pm 11/16/2018
Combining good writing and good artwork in order to get a masterpiece
This comic has beautiful art, a well-written story that makes sense and takes you in for a ride, and a bunch of questions you constantly ask yourself after reading each page. Prophecy of the Circle has been an enjoyable read and I can recommend it. Must-read.
We all know someone like Doc. If we don't we wish we did. He'd be a handy guy to have on your side. Except when the zombies or killer robots or guys in the black helicopters with the Neuralyzers show up...what was I saying? Oh yeah, reviewing "The Whiteboard--" If you like your mayhem served up fresh daily with a side of cheesecake, this is the comic strip for you.
09:49pm 10/16/2018
by webkilla
Paintball humor? More like mad science with a fun hobby, and walk-in costumers
This is a really good gag-a-day strip, that is also somehow a vaguely autobiographical (more like wishful thinking) story about Doc, who is an "airsmith" - a guy who makes custom paintball guns and stuff, and his friends, their friends, family, the bartender, the kids, annual zombie invasion, the half dozen nuclear reactors in the basement, the atomic coffee maker, the homemade mountain dew bottling plant, the tentacle monster in the fridge and the paintball minigun that can shoot around corners.
Basically this comic is low-key mad science, but filtered through a private business owner who runs a paintball shop - while also tinkering with rocket-powered sofas in his workshop. It's also about his staff, how they live, love and have fun at the field paintball field.
It's hilarious, its weird, and you will learn to keep your barrel plug on - otherwise Doc eats you.
Basically this comic is low-key mad science, but filtered through a private business owner who runs a paintball shop - while also tinkering with rocket-powered sofas in his workshop. It's also about his staff, how they live, love and have fun at the field paintball field.
It's hilarious, its weird, and you will learn to keep your barrel plug on - otherwise Doc eats you.
As an old geezer in my 7th decade, I've seen a LOT of comics come and go, from Li'l Abner to Peanuts to B.C & Zits. None, and I mean *NONE*, have had the emotional range, depth of content, and downright HUMANITY of this bunch of hyenas. ("It's a comic about hyenas - really!") Ms.Garrison, winner of two Ursa Major awards for stories based on this strip, has chronicled the life of Kathy Grssn since August of 2004, and over the next seven years brought into our lives humor, pathos, intrigue - and surprise - from our young heroine. Then, on May 2, 2011 a whole new world opened for Kathy as a birthday party turned out to be more surprising than she could ever have imagined. I would STRONGLY ENCOURAGE folk to go back to that day, pick up the story, and read it through to today. You WILL not regret it. Oh, did I mention the artwork? Splendid, with nuances of facial expressions that are sometimes almost human! Begin reading, my friend, then ... Carry On! http://www.hirezfox.com/km/co/co1024/d/20110502.html
Like most webcomics, this one has evolved from fun gag-a-day strips to a sweeping epic, with adventure, romance, and terrific characters (and still plenty of well-placed humor). If the early strips turn you off with their simpler drawing style, I would still recommend reading them for both the humor and the character development. I don't have time to keep up with many comics, but this is one of my "must-read-every-update" ones.
07:12pm 10/14/2018
by webkilla
From silly slice of life to riveting political intrigue and incredible character development
There are a lot of comedic furry slice of life comics - and this comic might appear like that at first glance, introducing a hyena family where the oldest daughter is working as a journalist writing obituaries, then it quickly starts revealing the amazing content it has to offer: Really good and well-paced character growth, an incredibly fleshed out setting and some really original characters.
A great example of this is the the anorexic-looking goth panda girl, who has to be taught to love herself by journalist-hyena's brother. She's a great example of the humor in the comic as well: She's first introduce lying seemingly dead in an alley, having tried to overdose on... M&Ms
Oh ya - the webcomic is full of jokes. For the first several years it was a gag-a-day strip, with loads of animal-themed puns, but as the characters grow so does the plot and the content.
This culminates with the multi-year mega-arc called "The Road to Rackenroon" - because that journalist hyena girl? She's actually an african princess, and you would not believe how epic this story is.
Meeting her initially meet and awkward betrothed(!) future husband, seeing how their relationship develops through trials, tribulations and talking about how they would improve the country they're going to become rulers of - the writing here is masterful, and the character development is some of the finest I've ever seen.
Artwise the comic starts out fairly basic - but from having started in 2004, the art quality has improved greatly to the point that Carry On is arguably one of the prettier furry webcomics out there, with a more 'animal' art style, as opposed to one that makes its characters look more human.
9/10 - would archive binge regularly, and do.
A great example of this is the the anorexic-looking goth panda girl, who has to be taught to love herself by journalist-hyena's brother. She's a great example of the humor in the comic as well: She's first introduce lying seemingly dead in an alley, having tried to overdose on... M&Ms
Oh ya - the webcomic is full of jokes. For the first several years it was a gag-a-day strip, with loads of animal-themed puns, but as the characters grow so does the plot and the content.
This culminates with the multi-year mega-arc called "The Road to Rackenroon" - because that journalist hyena girl? She's actually an african princess, and you would not believe how epic this story is.
Meeting her initially meet and awkward betrothed(!) future husband, seeing how their relationship develops through trials, tribulations and talking about how they would improve the country they're going to become rulers of - the writing here is masterful, and the character development is some of the finest I've ever seen.
Artwise the comic starts out fairly basic - but from having started in 2004, the art quality has improved greatly to the point that Carry On is arguably one of the prettier furry webcomics out there, with a more 'animal' art style, as opposed to one that makes its characters look more human.
9/10 - would archive binge regularly, and do.
Endtown is a fallen comic. It is difficult to put into words the depth of my disappointment with it, and yet I shall try. Eight years ago I would have given this comic three stars, six years ago I would have given it four. Now? I need to explain a few things first...
(TLDR at the bottom)
There can be no denying that this comic started out fairly strong out of the gate, originally a gag-a-day strip in the newspaper mold, not unlike a lot of older webcomics before the ongoing plots that they tended to eventually evolve became the standard for new webcomics and the funny-page gag-a-day stuff rarer.
Shortly after we were introduced to the original main duo, the comic, true to type, developed an actual plot rather than just a series of jokes about and within a setting. With this plot came intriguing storytelling, grand adventure, endearing characters, witty humor, the occasional moment of insight, and the message that even at the end of the world there are still new things to learn, that people can surprise themselves with the truth of what's really important to them, and that love might be the most powerful binding force in all the world. It wasn't the greatest story I'd ever read, but it was definitely above average.
Flash forward, through a briefer story that introduces a few more likable (and intentionally unlikable) characters and which feels like a sort of shim between the first and this next one, and we come to what I would call the meat of the comic, in an introduction that feels like a minor retool. Not only do we get a new pair of brilliantly designed and paired main characters in short order, incredibly appealing as a duo and soon to become the main focus of the comic for such a long time that they might legitimately be regarded as the foundation for whatever small success it had, but we are also introduced to the entire central setting of the comic all over again, this time in living and breathing color (figuratively speaking). It reminds me of the way some webcomic creators will make a second start to their comic once their skills have developed and then place a notice on the site to the effect: "Start >here< for preference, or if you really want to look at terrible art and writing, start back >here< instead", merely with less of a self-effacing song and dance made about it.
This second introduction leads directly into one of the best stories of the comic, a third jaunt into the wasteland above, swinging expertly between action, romance, comedy, dialog and exposition without any one element outstaying its welcome, that really illustrates some of the themes of the setting, gives the Topsider faction some much-needed fleshing out beyond the rote Nazi-allegory villainy they'd previously displayed, and most notably gives the characters - the women especially - some real opportunities to shine and bounce off of each other (there is one moment especially which will likely make you cheer). The story quality declines somewhat towards the end, especially as a particular element is introduced (see the bracketed comment at the very end of this review), but on the whole, the part dedicated to the main characters and their companions is a minor masterpiece.
The next story is, it has to be said, a mixed bag. It starts out brilliantly, expanding the scope of one new character, introducing another, highly appealing female character, illustrating the workings of one of the main parts of the setting, and then reinforcing the most appealing characteristics of the more extroverted and lovable of the two main characters while charming the audience with her interactions with the world around her. After a good first segment, it then becomes noticeably more heavy-handed with its themes, much slower paced and dialog-heavy, to the point of sometimes becoming bogged down in its own musings and intrigues, though this is arguably still tolerable considering the character dynamics, especially with the return of the comic's secondary duo and one or two moments from the villain of the piece. Towards the end, I sadly have to report that it honestly becomes somewhat questionable - one of the main characters behaves in ways which don't line up with previous characterization or real world dynamics very well, and the resolution of the mystery is, frankly, kind of a let-down. The only upside is a brief cameo by one of the original stars of the comic, there to give his blessing to the new main characters as they go on their way.
However, things perk up in short order with the next story, featuring yet another Topside quest! Once again the two mains are introduced to the desert, although the story's treatment of the female as inexperienced and incapable is a little questionable considering all she went through and achieved not two stories ago. Nevertheless, they soon find trouble in the form of two new and engagingly well-written characters, who then get them into a whole load more trouble, leading to an encounter with a new society that honestly seems in some ways like an even less believable version of the Topsiders before the masks came off, demonstrating negative societal behaviors that usually take multiple generations of cultural mythology-building and the development of ingrained biases to achieve. This, however, can be forgiven as it then becomes the mere backdrop to an encounter with something far darker (and weirder). I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say the earlier inconsistencies in characterization are overshadowed by the effective formation of what almost amounts to an adventuring group complete with a miniature Dungeons and Dragons-style underground romp in which a certain character comes into her own after half a chapter of uncertainty and doubt. The only downsides towards the end of this tale are the repeated asides to the male character of the main couple getting lost in despair, which alternate between bouts of naiveté and self-pitying angst that make you want to slap him more than empathize with him, and the loss of the more promising of the two new characters. I have to wonder if the plot could have been written as to leave that character in place while keeping the general outline of events. Nevertheless, the story ends on a high note, with another two and a half new characters added to the party, a heart on its way to being mended, and a relationship tested and found to be solid and enduring.
... and then it becomes increasingly apparent, once one reads past a certain point in the following story, that there is some moment in time in which the author very distinctly changed his plans for the comic and its characters. The effect is not unlike sitting in the back of a car while the driver takes a sudden hard turn, smacking your face into the window hard enough to bruise and loosen fillings.
The change is most notable with one character, long the backbone of the better years of the comic and someone who was almost certainly a focus of much of the readers' investment, who quite suddenly and unexpectedly sees her personality altered entirely (indeed, retroactively!), multiple years of established character and development on her part apparently forgotten and effectively thrown out the window, her relationship uprooted in the most ridiculously unbelievable manner, and her partner summarily and lazily hooked up with a newcomer. The worst part is that it all comes across as being down to a decision on the author's part to swap her out for a newer female lead that he must have found preferable - the narrative of the chapter in question appears to serve no other purpose that couldn't have been inserted anywhere else in the comic (and all those minor) than to remove her from it.
The issues with the story in question even go as far as undermining what could be said to be the message of the character through every story she has appeared in so far, which can probably best be summed up as "keep going, look forward to the good times, people are worthwhile, and don't let the world get you down" by suddenly presenting said message as the self-sustaining delusions of a horribly broken person who will compromise her own principles the first chance she gets. It's a repeat of the inconsistency issues two chapters previous, except this time worse by an order of magnitude. Even worse is the fact that throughout the story said message is progressively transplanted in a dumbed-down form containing only the last sentiment to the departing character's disturbingly-obvious replacement in a manner that, frankly, feels not only intended to be emotionally manipulative, but insulting to one's intelligence.
The end result is to make one feel like one has wasted a lot of time reading that lengthy section of the comic containing the character in question, which by the time one reaches the end of it has formed most of the comic's run. I would say the chapter in question even unintentionally erased the aforementioned messages and sentiments of the very first chapter from the comic's universe in its haste to accomplish its mission, so the feeling of waste might extend to the entirety of the comic for some.
It doesn't end there, either, with an awkward and questionably-conceived coda to the tale in which audience members harboring opinions critical of the story are preemptively represented as children in-universe as the author's obvious self-insert regards them with detached scorn and then proceeds to mock the desire for a better written ending to the face of yet another audience stand-in, finishing with a sequence in which he muses to himself on how bothersome the audience (in the shape of the stand-in) are being by not accepting the tale as legitimate (showing a bizarre half-awareness of the issues with the story's writing that I can only assume stemmed from poorly-received negative feedback as the story itself was being written) and drops a not so subtle hint to the audience, telling them to let go of the character they so enjoyed while acting as self-praise for the man writing the story.
And yet, the troubles with the story as a whole continue thus up to the time of review. I really wanted to give the comic the benefit of the doubt after the previous tale, but came away disappointed as the next story, the most recent at the time of writing, was no better, and possibly worse in many ways, taking the form of an overextended, incessantly dark and rambling pseudo-noir jumble that really can't decide if it wants to be a thriller, a mystery, an epic, a morality play or a horror story, without ever really being able to excuse itself by successfully blending any of those elements.
It can't decide which characters to properly focus on, either, which is made worse by a bloated cast and the fact that every character on display has writing issues. New monodimensional characters are introduced that appear to be designed either to fill holes in the plot or to take up a lot of page-time doing nothing but emoting about how awful things are before dying in blandly awful ways, under-explored characters are rendered one-note and then summarily executed by authorial fiat, and recurring characters that do grab a large portion of the spotlight fail to behave consistently with their past appearances, some having singular aspects of their personalities exaggerated to ridiculous degrees, with several in particular being almost inverted from previous behavior:
* A sneering villain is suddenly and inexplicably reformed into a troubled public servant (complete with groan-worthy in-comic meta-commentary!) whose thrilling foreshadowings of villainous behavior in his last story amount to absolutely nada, with the story barefacedly asking the reader to sympathize with him when before he was either a subject of scorn or a detestable fiend and they, of course, remember exactly what he did to get where he is.
* A notable female character who was previously depicted as a level-headed deep thinker and the very image of common sense is pared down into only her most shallow impulses and understandings, reduced to some kind of straw "campus crusader".
* A gentle-spoken intellectual who worried about the future is suddenly outed as having been a murderous co-conspirator.
* The kindhearted caretaker who was previously the minder of a mental case suddenly doesn't care if his home is used as the site of brutal state-run executions so long as they don't interfere with him getting some tail.
* A man previously shown to be a legitimate and beloved uncontested hero with some confidence issues is depicted as nothing more than a well-meaning drunkard with a savage side who is treated as a useful idiot by the people of the town.
Meanwhile the actual villains of the piece are nothing but empty fluff and have no weight, threat or gravitas to them, existing only to metaphorically go "Hah, it was I!" and leave the stage. None of this is improved by the fact that the enthralling and charming character interactions that were previously a hallmark of the comic are nowhere to be found in this story, traded in for sequences of dialog that increasingly trend toward cringeworthy melodrama as the narrative wears on, made even worse by the lack of any reason or desire to get invested in the characters. The ending is again nothing less than an insult to the reader, though not in the same direct manner as the previous story's.
At the moment, as I write this in an intermission between tales, the dark bleakness of the comic has become so over the top that it would be comical if it wasn't also so terribly boring. The author appears to have forgotten that things like this need a proper beat rather than a constant blaring 50hz drone; they need ups and downs rather than downs, further downs, and the occasional Escherine up that just turns out to effectively be a down (or at best, a flat moment). The story as it is now has become a relentless parade of low-grade, low-hanging-fruit awfulness, not unlike working for the postal service.
Two. Two stars. It might have gotten two and a half, but the last story was even more of a let down coming as it did on the heels of the previous one. I'm willing to come back in a few years time and see if the author has managed to salvage his comic, but as of now I would advise new readers to read up to the end of the "Unity" story and then save themselves from a dull and miserable read by putting it aside and waiting for further reviews from anyone still reading the comic, as I intend to from this point forward.
TLDR:
* The comic starts strong, but then begins to fall apart half way through. The issues can be ignored for a while as there's still much to enjoy, but eventually they overwhelm the comic over the 2016-2018 period.
* The author cannot decide what the tone of his comic should be, what it should be about, or even what the main story should be.
* After a while the author develops severe issues with inconsistent characterization, including motives and personalities.
* The author's skillset and talents very obviously favor stories that are tightly-focused character-oriented science fiction adventures; the quality of the narrative suffers and tends to drag the more he tries to go outside that and the more he tries to put the underlying themes of the comic - whatever they might be at the time - in the foreground rather than letting them lurk in the background. This is especially noticeable in recent chapters.
(Please note, there is a reason that I would not give the comic, even at its best, five stars. That reason is called "Aaron Marx". And apart from expressing my dismay at the fact that said character appears to continually being granted an ever greater degree of influence on the story, that's all I'm going to say about that, for fear of this review turning R-rated for language. You'll understand where I'm coming from if you choose to read the comic.)
(TLDR at the bottom)
There can be no denying that this comic started out fairly strong out of the gate, originally a gag-a-day strip in the newspaper mold, not unlike a lot of older webcomics before the ongoing plots that they tended to eventually evolve became the standard for new webcomics and the funny-page gag-a-day stuff rarer.
Shortly after we were introduced to the original main duo, the comic, true to type, developed an actual plot rather than just a series of jokes about and within a setting. With this plot came intriguing storytelling, grand adventure, endearing characters, witty humor, the occasional moment of insight, and the message that even at the end of the world there are still new things to learn, that people can surprise themselves with the truth of what's really important to them, and that love might be the most powerful binding force in all the world. It wasn't the greatest story I'd ever read, but it was definitely above average.
Flash forward, through a briefer story that introduces a few more likable (and intentionally unlikable) characters and which feels like a sort of shim between the first and this next one, and we come to what I would call the meat of the comic, in an introduction that feels like a minor retool. Not only do we get a new pair of brilliantly designed and paired main characters in short order, incredibly appealing as a duo and soon to become the main focus of the comic for such a long time that they might legitimately be regarded as the foundation for whatever small success it had, but we are also introduced to the entire central setting of the comic all over again, this time in living and breathing color (figuratively speaking). It reminds me of the way some webcomic creators will make a second start to their comic once their skills have developed and then place a notice on the site to the effect: "Start >here< for preference, or if you really want to look at terrible art and writing, start back >here< instead", merely with less of a self-effacing song and dance made about it.
This second introduction leads directly into one of the best stories of the comic, a third jaunt into the wasteland above, swinging expertly between action, romance, comedy, dialog and exposition without any one element outstaying its welcome, that really illustrates some of the themes of the setting, gives the Topsider faction some much-needed fleshing out beyond the rote Nazi-allegory villainy they'd previously displayed, and most notably gives the characters - the women especially - some real opportunities to shine and bounce off of each other (there is one moment especially which will likely make you cheer). The story quality declines somewhat towards the end, especially as a particular element is introduced (see the bracketed comment at the very end of this review), but on the whole, the part dedicated to the main characters and their companions is a minor masterpiece.
The next story is, it has to be said, a mixed bag. It starts out brilliantly, expanding the scope of one new character, introducing another, highly appealing female character, illustrating the workings of one of the main parts of the setting, and then reinforcing the most appealing characteristics of the more extroverted and lovable of the two main characters while charming the audience with her interactions with the world around her. After a good first segment, it then becomes noticeably more heavy-handed with its themes, much slower paced and dialog-heavy, to the point of sometimes becoming bogged down in its own musings and intrigues, though this is arguably still tolerable considering the character dynamics, especially with the return of the comic's secondary duo and one or two moments from the villain of the piece. Towards the end, I sadly have to report that it honestly becomes somewhat questionable - one of the main characters behaves in ways which don't line up with previous characterization or real world dynamics very well, and the resolution of the mystery is, frankly, kind of a let-down. The only upside is a brief cameo by one of the original stars of the comic, there to give his blessing to the new main characters as they go on their way.
However, things perk up in short order with the next story, featuring yet another Topside quest! Once again the two mains are introduced to the desert, although the story's treatment of the female as inexperienced and incapable is a little questionable considering all she went through and achieved not two stories ago. Nevertheless, they soon find trouble in the form of two new and engagingly well-written characters, who then get them into a whole load more trouble, leading to an encounter with a new society that honestly seems in some ways like an even less believable version of the Topsiders before the masks came off, demonstrating negative societal behaviors that usually take multiple generations of cultural mythology-building and the development of ingrained biases to achieve. This, however, can be forgiven as it then becomes the mere backdrop to an encounter with something far darker (and weirder). I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say the earlier inconsistencies in characterization are overshadowed by the effective formation of what almost amounts to an adventuring group complete with a miniature Dungeons and Dragons-style underground romp in which a certain character comes into her own after half a chapter of uncertainty and doubt. The only downsides towards the end of this tale are the repeated asides to the male character of the main couple getting lost in despair, which alternate between bouts of naiveté and self-pitying angst that make you want to slap him more than empathize with him, and the loss of the more promising of the two new characters. I have to wonder if the plot could have been written as to leave that character in place while keeping the general outline of events. Nevertheless, the story ends on a high note, with another two and a half new characters added to the party, a heart on its way to being mended, and a relationship tested and found to be solid and enduring.
... and then it becomes increasingly apparent, once one reads past a certain point in the following story, that there is some moment in time in which the author very distinctly changed his plans for the comic and its characters. The effect is not unlike sitting in the back of a car while the driver takes a sudden hard turn, smacking your face into the window hard enough to bruise and loosen fillings.
The change is most notable with one character, long the backbone of the better years of the comic and someone who was almost certainly a focus of much of the readers' investment, who quite suddenly and unexpectedly sees her personality altered entirely (indeed, retroactively!), multiple years of established character and development on her part apparently forgotten and effectively thrown out the window, her relationship uprooted in the most ridiculously unbelievable manner, and her partner summarily and lazily hooked up with a newcomer. The worst part is that it all comes across as being down to a decision on the author's part to swap her out for a newer female lead that he must have found preferable - the narrative of the chapter in question appears to serve no other purpose that couldn't have been inserted anywhere else in the comic (and all those minor) than to remove her from it.
The issues with the story in question even go as far as undermining what could be said to be the message of the character through every story she has appeared in so far, which can probably best be summed up as "keep going, look forward to the good times, people are worthwhile, and don't let the world get you down" by suddenly presenting said message as the self-sustaining delusions of a horribly broken person who will compromise her own principles the first chance she gets. It's a repeat of the inconsistency issues two chapters previous, except this time worse by an order of magnitude. Even worse is the fact that throughout the story said message is progressively transplanted in a dumbed-down form containing only the last sentiment to the departing character's disturbingly-obvious replacement in a manner that, frankly, feels not only intended to be emotionally manipulative, but insulting to one's intelligence.
The end result is to make one feel like one has wasted a lot of time reading that lengthy section of the comic containing the character in question, which by the time one reaches the end of it has formed most of the comic's run. I would say the chapter in question even unintentionally erased the aforementioned messages and sentiments of the very first chapter from the comic's universe in its haste to accomplish its mission, so the feeling of waste might extend to the entirety of the comic for some.
It doesn't end there, either, with an awkward and questionably-conceived coda to the tale in which audience members harboring opinions critical of the story are preemptively represented as children in-universe as the author's obvious self-insert regards them with detached scorn and then proceeds to mock the desire for a better written ending to the face of yet another audience stand-in, finishing with a sequence in which he muses to himself on how bothersome the audience (in the shape of the stand-in) are being by not accepting the tale as legitimate (showing a bizarre half-awareness of the issues with the story's writing that I can only assume stemmed from poorly-received negative feedback as the story itself was being written) and drops a not so subtle hint to the audience, telling them to let go of the character they so enjoyed while acting as self-praise for the man writing the story.
And yet, the troubles with the story as a whole continue thus up to the time of review. I really wanted to give the comic the benefit of the doubt after the previous tale, but came away disappointed as the next story, the most recent at the time of writing, was no better, and possibly worse in many ways, taking the form of an overextended, incessantly dark and rambling pseudo-noir jumble that really can't decide if it wants to be a thriller, a mystery, an epic, a morality play or a horror story, without ever really being able to excuse itself by successfully blending any of those elements.
It can't decide which characters to properly focus on, either, which is made worse by a bloated cast and the fact that every character on display has writing issues. New monodimensional characters are introduced that appear to be designed either to fill holes in the plot or to take up a lot of page-time doing nothing but emoting about how awful things are before dying in blandly awful ways, under-explored characters are rendered one-note and then summarily executed by authorial fiat, and recurring characters that do grab a large portion of the spotlight fail to behave consistently with their past appearances, some having singular aspects of their personalities exaggerated to ridiculous degrees, with several in particular being almost inverted from previous behavior:
* A sneering villain is suddenly and inexplicably reformed into a troubled public servant (complete with groan-worthy in-comic meta-commentary!) whose thrilling foreshadowings of villainous behavior in his last story amount to absolutely nada, with the story barefacedly asking the reader to sympathize with him when before he was either a subject of scorn or a detestable fiend and they, of course, remember exactly what he did to get where he is.
* A notable female character who was previously depicted as a level-headed deep thinker and the very image of common sense is pared down into only her most shallow impulses and understandings, reduced to some kind of straw "campus crusader".
* A gentle-spoken intellectual who worried about the future is suddenly outed as having been a murderous co-conspirator.
* The kindhearted caretaker who was previously the minder of a mental case suddenly doesn't care if his home is used as the site of brutal state-run executions so long as they don't interfere with him getting some tail.
* A man previously shown to be a legitimate and beloved uncontested hero with some confidence issues is depicted as nothing more than a well-meaning drunkard with a savage side who is treated as a useful idiot by the people of the town.
Meanwhile the actual villains of the piece are nothing but empty fluff and have no weight, threat or gravitas to them, existing only to metaphorically go "Hah, it was I!" and leave the stage. None of this is improved by the fact that the enthralling and charming character interactions that were previously a hallmark of the comic are nowhere to be found in this story, traded in for sequences of dialog that increasingly trend toward cringeworthy melodrama as the narrative wears on, made even worse by the lack of any reason or desire to get invested in the characters. The ending is again nothing less than an insult to the reader, though not in the same direct manner as the previous story's.
At the moment, as I write this in an intermission between tales, the dark bleakness of the comic has become so over the top that it would be comical if it wasn't also so terribly boring. The author appears to have forgotten that things like this need a proper beat rather than a constant blaring 50hz drone; they need ups and downs rather than downs, further downs, and the occasional Escherine up that just turns out to effectively be a down (or at best, a flat moment). The story as it is now has become a relentless parade of low-grade, low-hanging-fruit awfulness, not unlike working for the postal service.
Two. Two stars. It might have gotten two and a half, but the last story was even more of a let down coming as it did on the heels of the previous one. I'm willing to come back in a few years time and see if the author has managed to salvage his comic, but as of now I would advise new readers to read up to the end of the "Unity" story and then save themselves from a dull and miserable read by putting it aside and waiting for further reviews from anyone still reading the comic, as I intend to from this point forward.
TLDR:
* The comic starts strong, but then begins to fall apart half way through. The issues can be ignored for a while as there's still much to enjoy, but eventually they overwhelm the comic over the 2016-2018 period.
* The author cannot decide what the tone of his comic should be, what it should be about, or even what the main story should be.
* After a while the author develops severe issues with inconsistent characterization, including motives and personalities.
* The author's skillset and talents very obviously favor stories that are tightly-focused character-oriented science fiction adventures; the quality of the narrative suffers and tends to drag the more he tries to go outside that and the more he tries to put the underlying themes of the comic - whatever they might be at the time - in the foreground rather than letting them lurk in the background. This is especially noticeable in recent chapters.
(Please note, there is a reason that I would not give the comic, even at its best, five stars. That reason is called "Aaron Marx". And apart from expressing my dismay at the fact that said character appears to continually being granted an ever greater degree of influence on the story, that's all I'm going to say about that, for fear of this review turning R-rated for language. You'll understand where I'm coming from if you choose to read the comic.)
After doing some research, this comic's point is this: "Don't let petty things get to you, or you won't be able to love yourself and others". And it says so without saying it. Laugh-inducing, thought-provoking, simply brilliant piece of art and storytelling.
04:18am 09/03/2018
by
Wonderful comic about parenthood from the creator of "Chuck & Beans"
Very relatable and funny.
Gag-a-day, but very well done, and quite satisfying.
Check the bonus strips because they continue the joke.
Gag-a-day, but very well done, and quite satisfying.
Check the bonus strips because they continue the joke.
The writer/artist knows her stuff. The comic is heavily (and I do mean heavily) Egyptian mythology themed. The main character is well rounded, flawed, and not a pushover, making her easy to root for in a very unique comic. The plot easily grabs and holds your attention. You'll love sinking your fangs into it and you won't want to spit it out.
I have found nothing else out there like this, and I mean that in every positive way. I don't anticipate update day for many comics, but I do this one. Give it a read, you'll like it.
I have found nothing else out there like this, and I mean that in every positive way. I don't anticipate update day for many comics, but I do this one. Give it a read, you'll like it.
