The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life and we’re celebrating 250 (250!!) issues with a comic I found at SPX last weekend. This is why I love SPX. You never know what you’re gonna get, just that’s it’s weird, wild, and full of the kind of personal passion you can’t help but love.
There is a hole. In your webcomics reader. There is a hole. In your RSS feed. There is a hole. In your Instagram feed. There is a hole. In your [REDACTED] timeline. There is a Hole. In your webcomics column. And it is hungry for readers.
Hole
‘Chapter 1, Page 00A’ – ‘Chapter 2, Page 12’
Updates: Mondays
By Cori Walters
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
Before I can even start talking about “Hole” as a comic, I have to address the elephant in the room. Yes, the domain is holecomic.rip. Yes, that is appropriately ominous when coupled with the metal-album-cover-font logo. And yes, that does give it at least 10 extra points in my eyes. You can’t judge me and I will hear no arguments otherwise.
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s dig in.
As with many webcomics early in their run, “Hole” has yet to reveal everything that its pitch presents in the chapter and a half we’ve gotten thus far. It’s the story of Jane Nowack who’s (potentially) being haunted by her dead friend, Nat, from 10 years back with the story split between the year of Nat’s demise and the present day. Beyond that, we’re still in the information gathering phase, getting to know Jane as a 27-something and a 17-something, while building the tension and mystery surrounding the death/disappearance of Nat. It stinks that this comic only updates once a week – as is the eternal lament of all webcomics readers – because the comic’s pacing is superb but slow and I want to get to the really dark stuff.
Aesthetically, Cori’s applying a flat color palette with limited to no shading and little crosshatching/inking to provide depth, keeping everything on a single plane. It’s an economical approach that’s an excellent fit for the off-beat, punk & horror feel of the comic, though certainly not to everyone’s taste. They do a great job of differentiating between the background and foreground though, never having the two bleed into each other except to better blend the scene into a cohesive whole.
Characters have a lot of presence too. Rarely are they drawn neutrally into a scene, instead being posed to best express an emotion or their personalities or, sometimes, to get out of the way of a word balloon like on page 9 of chapter 2 (which I found hilarious and brilliant.) They’re distinct enough from each other too, though it did take me a little to catch onto the differences between young Jane & older Jane. That one’s on me. I did not catch the outfit change and hair color change.
That said, I think Cori could benefit from adding a little more detailing to their character models to better place their ages. Once I saw it, I could tell that younger Jane has more of a baby face but it’s still pretty subtle. Right now, everyone looks to be around the same age (mid-20s) except Jane’s boss. I’m mostly looking at Christian who does NOT look 41. It’s a minor thing yet would help make the characters appear even more distinct and help remove some additional friction in the reading of the story.
Oh. And fixing the noses. Oh god, the noses.
I don’t know what it is about Mr. Hawthorne and Nat’s noses that unsettle me to my very core. I think it’s because the flat, minimally shaded approach flattens out the noses but the wiggly, rounded aesthetic that gives the comic its fluidity and bounce makes them seem busted instead of natural. It’s not helped by the thick outlines which give me serious Mx. Potato Head vibes.
Toys with removable face parts aside, “Hole” has one more thing going for it that puts the noses in the rearview mirror and that’s the name of the butchery Jane works at: Super Massive Meat. If you aren’t laughing, then maybe this comic isn’t for you. If you are, then get to reading “Hole” right away and get sucked into the darkness along with me.
