The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life with a saphic dungeoneering adventure in “Ladykillers,” not to be confused with “Lady Killer,” the Joëlle Jones comic about a 50s contract killer housewife. And no, that last bit wasn’t driectly taken from the second line of Mike’s review. We just think, and write, it seems, alike. Onwards to advenure!
Ladykillers
Episodes 1-20
Schedule: Fridays
By Jaki
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
The Legend of Vox Machina second season is in full swing and it has me wistful for foul mouthed, fun, queer, fantasy adventure, like “Rat Queen” but without all the baggage. Enter “Ladykillers”, not to be confused with Joëlle Jones “Lady Killer”, by “Lore Olympus” inker and colorist Jaki. “Ladykillers” is a queer webcomic about a trio of sapphic adventurers pulling jobs as one does in a non-copyright infringing Dungeons and Dragons-esque fantasy environment, bantering, flirting, and fighting along the way. While “Ladykillers” lacks the hard serialization of the Critical Role series or “Rat Queens” it meets my overall want to read a fun queer fantasy adventure.
Jaki presents “Ladykillers” in a style I haven’t really seen on many Webtoons before. The comic is closer to the four panel style web manga like “Tomo-chan Is a Girl!” than the extended vertical paneling of “Wolfbane”. Strips are short, often between 4-8 square panels long. While there is a serialized element, the first 20 episodes deal with our parties’ attempted heist of a jewel macguffin, that’s not really the point. These plots exist for Jaki to just write and create effective moments of comedy and write good banter. The banter in this strip is actually good banter! It isn’t second generation attempts to be Whedonesque. There is a self-reflexive element to the strip, it is a game of TTRPG after all, but the dialog is never the winking disregard that fails to take anything seriously.
If you’re a fan of “Lore Olympus” you should enjoy Jaki’s art style. Their compositions are plainly solid with dynamic poses when necessary and expressive. The formal limit of largely sticking to square panels pushes their compositions forward in a way that isn’t self consciously stylish. All of this seems to be an exercise in how to effectively make a fun adventure strip, and it works.
“Ladykillers” isn’t some deep, engaging read that is trying to push the medium forward, it is a series of adventure comedy of failing upwards with your friends. It more than succeeds at what it wants to and is worth a look if you want something a little different from Line at the moment.
