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The Webcomics Weekly #55: The Road to Arbys is Paved with The Meats (10/1/19 Edition)

By | October 1st, 2019
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Welcome back to the Webcomics Weekly!

You know the drill by now. Four reviews a week, two of a continuing nature and two of a newer stock. This week, however, we welcome a brand new change! Well, I say change, really it’s a welcome. Joining our column are two new reviewers, and thus two new reviews per week. Say hello to Cathal and Jason as they tackle “Blanco” and “Scape.” The first you will see more of the coming weeks, the second. . .well, you never know when one might return to that spooky shack.

Elsewhere, we have more “Order of the Stick,” finding oneself in “A Better Place” and a check back in to the world of “Blood Stain.” It’s the month of spook and the start of a new year for the one writing this intro. Welcome and may your stay be sweet and spooky.

A Better Place
‘The Serpent’ – ‘Watcher’
Updates: Thursdays
By Harrodeleted (Harry Bogosian)
Reviewed by Elias Rosner

Do you like Daniel Warren Johnson? Do you love the absolute shred-metal and deep emotions he brings to every one of his pieces? Well, do I have some comic pages for you. You’re reading about it now! While not every page in these updates has the same level of wild detail and inked grit as Johnson, the cleaner and thinner lines of Harrodelted capture the same motion, the same heavy, intense action of giants, giving intensity to the showdown between Empress Computer and Nina. Once again, the comic oscillates between two toned pages and fully colored. The colors feel more balanced this time around, especially on the page with the Terror. *Shudders*

Now onto the equivalent of update 20, and around page 40-50, Harrodelted has been upping the ante a lot and I’m starting to worry that it may not be sustainable across the story as a whole. The fight is breezy, showing how outmatched Nina is, using large panels to propel the action forwards economically. It’s the equivalent of a beat-down so highly choreographed or intricate fights are unnecessary and would undercut the story this early on. It’s over quickly and at the end, it looks like we’re going to be finding a new perspective shift soon, which is where my worries come in.

If this is the pace we’re at, then the act is rapidly nearing its conclusion without having established much in the way of long-term plot complexity. The world is rich and vast, and the characters have many layers we have yet to uncover, but the actual story is hard to see through all the set up.

It does seem, however, to be a purposeful silence.

The hints at where we can go from here are opaque but present and Nina’s hearty defeat at the hands of EC and a pants-to-be-darkened Terror — seriously, I LOVE these monster designs and the care Harrodeleted takes to bring them to life — is an act-ending moment that places our hero at rock bottom, primed to view the world in a new way. Narratives take the perspective of their protagonists and thus far, this holds to be true. We know just the tiniest bit more than Nina but this dramatic irony, this narrative distance, works to mirror Nina’s own awakening while planting the seeds of mystery in our heads.

OH! And seriously, read this on a computer and enjoy the Thanksgiving & Christ-New-Year messages. The tags & descriptions are funny and informative and there’s a freakin’ Turkey with freakin’ lasers! You can’t go wrong there.

Blanco
Pages 1-5
Updates: Wednesdays
By CB Webb
Reviewed by Cathal Donovan O’Neill

“Blanco” is a gothic supernatural mystery by CB Webb. It stars Noah Velazquez, an outsider to a small town who wants to return home to the city of Blanco. His obstacles are great: for one, Blanco seems not to exits. For another, as of page 5,

“Noah Velazquez is dead.”

The first five pages of “Blanco” serve as a prologue to the first chapter, ‘Red Red Devil Behind The Gate.’ They’re light on plot but heavy on atmosphere. We open on a sharp white sky casting thick black shadows of winter trees. A crimson spatter leads our eyes down to a blood-red CRACK! A rough-hewn word balloon begins a sermon, announcing news of a tragic mortality. Blacks, whites, reds, organised religion and a gruesome murder: The first page sets the tone for all that follows.

Continued below

The rest of the prologue contrasts the murder’s immediate aftermath against the later sermon. It introduces elements of mystery—the sermon says the death was a suicide as the murderer cleans his pistol. Most of all, it introduces us to Webb’s gorgeous artwork. There’s a sense of lush detail to the pencils that informs the characters: The way the murderer’s shirt hangs loose as it tucks into his trousers, down to the worn look of his fingernails.

There’s a rustic, naturalistic sense to the way the pages are constructed: the panel borders have a hand-drawn look to them, the lettering uses irregular spacing and rough balloon borders. The forest looms over the scene, with branches and blood-red shrubbery in the foreground of every panel. The closeness of the branches creates a sense of claustrophobia. Add these to the sermon and you have a tableau of small-town murder.

There’s something more to this picture, however. We see the murderer’s red hands before his face. It’d be fair to assume they’re just bloody. Instead, on the close-up, we see that they’re sprouting shoots of the red plant that lurks over the foreground. As we pan out, we see that the plant is growing up around his neck. The sprouts look like algae; an unnatural symbol of corruption, pollution choking out wildlife. It looks like some sort of infection. Although we get close-ups of every part of this man, we never get a good look at him. There is only one panel where we can see his face, and he seems to be guiltily avoiding the gaze of the camera. What’s his secret, and does it have to do with the plants?

The prologue of “Blanco” casts us into a world of snow, shadows and blood. Stark imagery belies murky question. Who was Noah Velazquez? The answers are a few clicks away. We’re left with a strong desire to find out.

Blood StainLineTapas
Chapters 82-86
Schedule: Every Second Monday
By Linda Sejic
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane

Due to Linda Sejic syndicating “Blood Stain” in a variety of spaces, the actual comic has some striking differences depending on where/how you read it. In my read through of the first three chapters of “Blood Stain” I went on the original DeviantArt strips, which are horizontal and featured the original art. When the series was being published through TopCow, Sejic retouched some of the art and used that as their basis for the vertical strips found on Line and Tapas. The start of Chapter 4 brings yet another change, DeviantArt is now vertical strips composed of traditional comic pages – much like how Stjepan Sejic syndicated “Mercy.” This verticality, however, is different from the Line and Tapas strips and creates some interesting differences.

Just a note, if I return to this series, I’ll stick with DeviantArt but for this batch of strips I read them across DA and Line.

The difference in width between DA and Line forces these two strips to be read and composed differently. With the ones on DA being formatted to a standard comic book page the reading line is generally left to right and there is a greater overall use of space. On Line things are tighter with a strict vertical layout, which doesn’t leave much room for layered panels but opens up some interesting tricks. Take the first strip ‘Betrayed’ which primarily centers on various daydreams by Elly contrasted with harsh reality and strict paneling. As Elly imagines what she can do with new found money, such has helping Mom pay for medical bills, the three imagined scenes float next to one another with clouds acting as panel borders in the DA strip.

For the Line strip, Sejic keeps the cloud motif and turns it into one longish single image that is only momentarily broken up by those clouds. It makes for an easy flow and represent the act of day dreaming. This also makes the moment Elly is snapped back to reality by Serge land even harder. Back in reality everything is in a strict border with all encompassing black gutter. In general, it seems like Sejic keeps gutter space on Line/Tapas smaller than most but for ‘Betrayed’ the contrast between the gutterless, free roaming, daydreams and the harsh gutters makes these moments of difference more effective. Elly has confidence issues, but her cringing as Serge lays into her for leaving her check and hiring notice out lands better because of her moments of fantastical daydreaming free of those black gutters.

Continued below

The switch between horizontal and vertical strips leads to differences in the comedic aspect of “Blood Stain.” That difference comes through in strip 87 “the ride” as Elly sees what kind of car her new boss has. It isn’t quite a clown card, but it is a Mini Cooper. The comedic moment, the reveal of that car, is something that only really works in a vertical context as Linda Sejic slowly pulls out to reveal Vlad and his very small car with good use of perspective. Sejic talked about the difference in physical comedy here on their tumblr.

Overall the start of the fourth chapter of “Blood Stain” brings lots of changes both narratively and formally. Sejic quickly establishes what this chapter will be about, Elly and Vlad learning to communicate better after last chapters utter failure. It also shows the real changes in their art style and practice overall as the series grows out onto other platforms.

Order of the Stick
Pages 156-160
Updates: Varies
By Rich Burlew
Reviewed by Gustavo S. Lodi

By mixing the usual conventions of the RPG world with the trappings of real-life logic, “Order of the Stick” offers another great update.

This time around, the party interacts with the former leader of the bandits that have them kidnapped, which leads to a funny discussion on why such bandits keep trying to poach adventures several levels above them, or, perhaps even worse, adventurers that have little to be robbed of. It is a very funny exchange, with real-life economics trying to be applied to the absurdity of a gaming environment and the forced situations that need to occur to move the plot forward.

In addition to that, the strip also shows amusing dialogues involving the party’s bard, the leader of the bandits, and some revelations on the reasons they god abducted in the first place. It is all done by eavesdropping on other people’s conversations and reflected in facial expressions reactions, and it works remarkably well.

One aside that is not commented enough on this series of reviews: for a series so devoid of visual flair (these are stick figures, after all), “Order of the Stick” does a fantastic job on telling all characters apart by using a modicum of cues. Height, facial features, clothing, they are all unique enough to sustain the visual style consistent, but every character special.

Another update, another great time; “Order of the Stick” remains a joy to read and revisit.

Scape
Chapter 1, Pages 34-40
Updates: Tuesdays
By Lauren Myers
Reviewed by, Jason Jeffords Jr

“Scape” is a comic that excels at crafting, and releasing, tension, which in these most recent pages manifests itself through Meyers’ tight control of paneling and use of sound effects. Nearly void of dialog, Meyers starts page 34 by showing Sula’s cramped living quarters in small, claustrophobic panels and the unnatural sounds abound within. Then, through the use of wide panels, Meyers showcases the emptiness of Sula’s rooms, filling that emptiness with scratching noises that crescendo with the terrors of the unknown. Believing she had finally found the culprit, Sula relaxes as Myers’ tightens the panels around her before, on the page turn, the monster returns with a wide panel showcasing its hideous shape.

To note, this marks almost a year since these monsters have been seen. That in mind, Myers builds a perfect moment around their return. By utilizing varying panel sizes and a shocking page turn, Myers builds the tension making, this encounter working magnificently. But, panels aren’t everything, as the sound effects seen in “Scape” help build upon the dreadfully dangerous moment.

Horrifying looks aside, the “HHHH’s” and “HAAAAH’s” the monster makes would be terrifying on its own. But with a loud WHACK Sula fights back. Myers motions for the smack and action that follows feels fluid and fast paced, how an action scene should be. Add the fantastic pacing, the next hideous bigger creature, and sound effects from the hits and you are treated to an amazing tension filled action moment.

This usage of fast pacing and (little amounts of) dialogue showcased may be different than the previous installments of “Scape”, but the method works wonders. By controlling the pace through panel usage, Myers proves how on top of character moments she can handle tension building, and action sequences.

For a more personal note: this is my first Webcomic ever. Yes, ever. Crazy, huh? The reason I mention this is due to the fact I picked a damn fine one to start with. Consider me a new follower of your work Lauren Myers!


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