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The Webcomics Weekly #207: Familiar Is Very Familiar With It’s Characters (10/11/2022 Edition)

By | October 11th, 2022
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

Howdy everyone! Elias here, bringing you our first truly explicit webcomic review. Well, the review isn’t explicit but the comic, “Familiar,” is. A supernatural slice-of-life comic too. Does it all work? Read on, fellow webcomics travelers to find out!

Familiar
Chapter 00-02
Schedule: Chapters – Monthly-ish
By Soushiyo
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane

Just a heads up, “Familiar” is an adult only, R18+ comic, insert all the emojis to demarcate minors \ don’t interact here as the kids say these days. All the flaming emojis signing a spotlight on what you shouldn’t do maybe over-sells the potential luridness of this strip. It’s actually not all that excessive. Author Soushiyo describes the series as “a slice-of-life comic about BDSM, magick, witches, and relationships. It is primarily an erotic romance with kink elements.” If you like “Sunstone” or “Fine Print” this will be up your alley – the “Fine Print” comparison is more thematic than a content comparison as there haven’t been any fae tentacle creatures…yet.

The series follows Diana Vallejo, a workaholic book editor in New York. Diana, despite having a steady gig, has perhaps bought too much into the neocon millennial hustle mentality a little too much. This has led to her being unfulfilled in other aspects of her personal life. And this isn’t just a oh she’s not getting laid setup, Soushiyo lays the groundwork for how the work life imbalance is robbing her of enriching personal experiences everywhere. This imbalance begins to be rectified after Diana accidently summons Jack from another realm, they are the titular Familiar. Jack is a familiar who specializes in soft domination and after working out a contract enters a contractual BDSM and eventually romantic relationship with Diana. Soushiyo treats fetish and kink, especially Diana’s submissive side, not as this like a need for degradation and spectacle but a sort of mindfulness toolkit to let her stop worrying about work and let someone else take care of her.

Yes, shocking I know this kinky romance strip is character driven! But isn’t that always the best stuff? Souchiyo’s plotting really takes advantage of the slice-of-life and contemporary elements of the series. It feels like the last season of Felicity in a good way, you could strip away all the horniness and magic and still have a sound and engaging character drama at play.

Now you might not get that feeling if you only read the first chapter, 00, Soushiyo lays it on a little thick in the introductory chapter. It’s not a great representation of the series as a whole and it isn’t supposed to be, it takes place roughly a year into the future well into Diana and Jack’s relationship. All of that fucking also leads to a hilariously funny cliffhanger that makes you want to read the next chapter. While there is consistent sensual and sexual segments and moods throughout it’s generally closer to once a chapter and not 3-4 like in 00.

This series is broken up into chapters that are roughly 25-27 pages a piece, with each episode acting as a slice-of-life episode as Jack and Diana navigate what it is they want to do personally and together. On the archive page the author has provided in-depth content warnings about what will be taking place. The archive page is also the first sign that some chapters are labeled ‘X’, these chapters are more like fun sexcapade one shots that fit the tonality of chapter 00 more than the serialized narrative.

“Familiar” has a lot of plates it needs to balance from character driven drama to sexy fun times. Their art surprisingly manages all of these tones and moods. You can feel the manga influence on the art. This influence isn’t in terms of design – it doesn’t suddenly turn into a Shōnen, overly idealized Shojo, or whatever gonzo hentai of the day, in terms of art style. Their art style is straightforward Western representational influenced cartooning. Their page design is the kind of function-first style you find in Archie Comics, there are several moments where they use the page to make a larger artistic point, but they always go for what is the simplest and most effective way to tell the story. The manga influence comes through in the willingness to cartoon and chibifi, when necessary, in order to make the emotional point or land a comedic beat. This strip is plainly funny, it has its absurd moments and then it just has dry humor. Even if the character stuff wasn’t this strong, reading it to see how the comedic beats land would be worth it.

Souchiyo’s other technical trick is this tri color palette they do everything in. Like their page design it is a good example of how minimalism can help to embellish the line work or the emotional beat. It helps to focus the page and allow it to never get too busy.

“Familiar” is just a plainly well-done slice-of-life strip. If the explicit content isn’t your jam, it’s still worth a read for the character work and the process of doing character work. If you’re looking for something explicit to read, maybe you’ll get hooked on the character work. Like most well done porn it isn’t so much that it rises above its status but shows how that aspect is on equal parts with all the other stuff in the medium.


//TAGS | Webcomics

Michael Mazzacane

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