Welcome back to The Webcomics Weekly!
This week, a new journey begins! Elias goes into the “Clink” and keeps going up the “Tower of God.” Meanwhile Jason gets spooky with “Regicide: Lilium”
‘The Sniffles’ – ‘Taking Action. . .Eventually’
Updates: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
By Ergo Comix (Mario A. Gonzalez)
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
Returning to the world of “Clink” is like descending into a land designed by “Asterix” by way of a Sunday Newspaper strip. It’s funny, has wonderful timing, endearing characters, and a lettering style that is bouncy and evocative. Last time I reviewed “Clink,” which shouldn’t be confused with the last time I reviewed the other webcomic named “Clink”, I mentioned how the lettering could be hard to parse due to the wide variety of creative emphasis. Well, I’m happy to report that Gonzalez has tightened up his lettering without sacrificing its variety and expressiveness.
These latest updates have been a real treat and I think this mini-arc is one of the strongest thus far. Gary, the talking horse who translates for Elliot, is sick with a nasty cold and so when danger strikes, Elliot is unable to communicate with everyone around him. He’s frustrated. We’re frustrated. But the outcomes and punchlines are always beautifully absurd and the frustration is part of the fun. I love a good sight gag too and ‘Doodl-ie Dah’ and ‘Photorealistic’ provide a clever set-up/delivery that had me cackling.
If you’re in the mood for a fun series that isn’t afraid to get wacky, go read “Clink.” It goes in some very fun directions, playing with its setting, and this is no exception. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to fight a dragon made of chocolate that’s terrorizing the gingerbread lands.
Pages: Episodes 1-3
Schedule: Tuesdays – currently on seasonal hiatus
By Dan Schkade
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
With me catching up to “Agents of the Realm” it’s time to find a new webcomic to read through from the beginning. For this new critical voyage I have chosen Dan Schkade’s “Lavender Jack,” a comic I took a look at way back in Webcomics Weekly #39. Giving this a thorough read through will be enlightening in ways different from just looking at the slice I had before. In particular I remember a review by Masha Zhdanova on WWAC about the shifts Schkade’s art as the series progresses and how those shifts, perhaps unknowingly, perpetuate certain stereotypical depictions of both Black women and gender nonconforming people in general. So, it will be something to keep an eye on.
At the start there’s just a level of compositional fun at play in Schkade’s art. As most vertical scrolling strips are wont to do, he employs plenty of square and rectangular panels, but he is also willing to just remove borders and lean into the Phone as the ultimate frame-panel-page and let an image burst forward. That sort of freedom allows Schkade to introduce our titular character with all the pomp and energy this daredevil should have. It shows Jack as breaking the artistic rules as he breaks the social ones. These visual differences also allow for a few one liner, that in most other contexts would read as cheesy land wonderfully. They are cheesy but they’re presented in such a way that it melts away.
Jack’s cheeky qualities also allow them to be a good narrative foil for the Victorian-esque hysterial and fear his well moneyed victims feel. His presence makes their fears play even funnier than they already are, Schkade in these early issues has a strong knac for cartooning as character acting. That character acting allows for Mayor Quincy to have the most delightful idea. It is both a moment of profound realization and hilarious like it is the first good thing the Lord Mayor has ever done.
Schakde sets up much of “Lavender Jack” core motifs and interests in these opening episodes with such ease and skill.
Page #1 – #8
Updates: Weekly
By Enigma.re
Reviewed by, Jason Jeffords Jr
Continued below
Happy Halloween week scary people, and non-scary people. Halloween is a fun holiday that we all enjoy, but sadly this year it’s not so safe. So, I thought why don’tI do a horror webcomic for this week! Bundle up in your most comfy blanket with your favorite beverage and animal while we look at the silent webcomic – “Regicide: Lilium!”
That last bit probably made you do a double-take, huh? A silent webcomic? That’s pretty insane! Especially one that’s in the horror genre. I can easily say in my
one year of looking at webcomics I’ve never come across one such as “Regicide: Lilium.” Nonetheless, there are words, but only in the synopsis, nowhere else will you find any words. Enigma.re is able to set the tone of the story and tell you all you need to know with just this synopsis alone. Honestly, if the synopsis wasn’t added the story would fall flat. Doing a silent webcomic is a lot of work, and makes you think of different ways to tell your story.
Another big difference is how each update is a singular page. This was a little different but helped the pacing and suspense. For horror, both of those factors matter,
and Enigma.re did well with this decision. Nonetheless, as a test, I read the webcomic first then looked at the synopsis. Going in “blind” I figured out what was going on to a degree, but didn’t enjoy it as much. Yet, when I went back and read the synopsis,
then the webcomic, I had enjoyed it more and wanted to know more about the series. However, the one thing that retained quality during both reads was the art.
“Regicide: Lilium’s” art is done in black & white with heavy hatching shading. This style looks amazing and helps the horror aesthetics. But that isn’t the only thing
that sticks out in the art, but for this, we go back to Enigma.re’s pacing. At no time do they try to rush the art, instead the first two pages are exterior shots that slowly zoom in. To make your art take the time and slowly show everything that’s going on
does wonders for the series. As you figured, the art really carries the story and sets the atmosphere perfectly. That and the black & white style, mixed with the heavy hatching makes the mood seemly gloomy.
The idea of making a silent webcomic is amazing and a huge endeavor to go through. It would be ever so easy to mess the series up and have no one interested. Luckily,
“Regicide: Lilium” is fascinating, and makes me want to read more. But I believe each new chapter would deserve a new synopsis to help remind you of the story. For all the different things Enigma.re tried in the series, it holds up quite well.
Tower of God: Season 1 Eps. 27-32; Episode 6 – “Position Selection”
Updates: Mondays (Currently on Hiatus in English)
By SIU
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
What do you desire? Money and wealth? Honor and pride? Authority and power? Revenge? Or something that transcends them all? Whatever you desire—it can be yours if you climb the tower.
As the season gets farther and farther in, Tower of God diverges more and more from the comic, “Tower of God.” It’s not that the story is changing the narrative events but instead it is getting more confident in adapting the spirit of the comic. The characters’ consistency in the anime versus the comic also helps with this, as the adapters know how to rearrange scenes or adjust dialog to shore up those weaker aspects of the original.
I’ve praised the clever ways they balance exposition, visual presentation, and character-based dialog before and Tower of God’s staff’s control of those elements are on full display in their handling of these changes. Some visuals are adapted one-for-one, such as the illustrations of each position which look far more polished in Tower of God (no surprise there,) but other aspects are transformed, like making the roles appear as if it were a video game selection menu.
That said, this is the first time where I felt that the anime’s adaptation choices, while more consistent, left more on the cutting room floor than I’d have liked. Sacrifices often have to be made for the sake of a coherent product that fits a different medium and “Position Selection” had to make some tough choices. Most of the changes made are good, however; the choice to drastically simplify the position selection test’s rules & the ways they play out having been handled the best.
Continued belowMaking the rules far less complicated allows for a greater focus on the character interactions and that same approach drives the shortening & clarifying of scenes like the one where Shibisu is trying to get the Black March to work. There’s a tightness to the exposition in that scene, and the one between Endorsi & Anaak in the hallway, that I particularly love. Of the characters the show chooses to highlight, I feel like I’m getting to know them better here than I have before, but this greater clarity comes at the expense of the larger cast.
“Tower of God,” thanks to the static nature of comics, can place a greater emphasis on rules, character names, and give minor characters screen time without incurring a greater cost (new models, additional voice actors, etc.) This is one area I think these chapters succeed where the episode does not. I am familiarized with them, even if more than half are disqualified or injured by the end of Chapter 32. It gives the Tower the feel of a larger place and so when these other characters become more major, it’s more natural. They’re not nameless, faceless extras but real characters, even if for much of the time they’re “unimportant.”
The idea of the Guide as a position is also brought up in the comic but not the show, which feels like an oversight and gets to an area I’m split on: how Tower of God handles the lore built up in “Tower of God.” As I’ve illustrated before, Tower of God has done a better job of integrating the lore and mechanics into the dialog, design, and approach to information revelations. There’s a greater sense of mystery and we’re asked to piece more together ourselves. Sometimes, however, this means entire bits of how things work are just. . .dropped.
Sometimes this is because the comic itself has no idea what it’s saying — the explanation of the Princesses of Jahad in Chapter 31 feels particularly impossible to follow — but other times it’s because the comic is very concerned with the how of the world of the Tower, to the point of over explaining but over-exposition in the tutorial level of the video game is to be expected and far less egregious boring in print where my eyes can glaze over and I don’t lose any time. For all the clever tricks the anime uses to work in details of the world, the straight up removal of bits of knowledge like the Princesses are chosen every Hundred Years??? may make sense for keeping the narrative on track but the questions it raises when kept in are better for the long term health of the show.
The last two differences this week I want to highlight are the scenes between Khun and Rachel in Chapter 27 and treatment of Rachel in general (and her relationship to Bam.)
On the first, I think Chapter 27 of “Tower of God” handles this scene far better than “Position Selection” does, giving it plenty of time to breathe and delving more into Rachel’s psyche. Why is the allure of the stars so great for her? What about that goal sparks her imagination? And, most importantly, why she’s afraid for Bam to know that she’s here. By removing these questions, it leaves Rachel as more of a mystery but it also makes her less compelling. It also changes the reason Khun plays along with it. Again, this may be because in the anime his motivations are better established and modified to fit his character arc, but it remains a noticeable change.
Ultimately, I believe this was removed and moved to save time — her talking about the stars was worked into a flashback at the start of the episode in a gorgeous sequence — but this brings me to my last question: which handles Rachel better, the anime or the webtoon? There is a coldness to her in Tower of God. Her loneliness and the pain that inflicts upon her is emphasized and the reason she did not go for the crown is left ambiguous whereas in “Tower of God” it’s explained. Her reasoning for not wanting Bam to know her identity makes sense in both but in the webtoon, there’s a hint of callousness to it, as if Bam will hold her back from achieving her dream, whereas in the anime it’s far more cryptic and much more explicitly callous.
Continued belowThis is made clear most in how she talks about her leaving to go to the tower. In the comic, she says she “left him” and “thought she’d never see him again.” There’s a melancholic nature to this exchange, perhaps because she feels guilty leaving Bam behind, as she was his only friend according to her. In the anime, she says she “had to abandon him” and that she was “certain that she’d never meet him again.” There is an ominous nature to this exchange, as if she was running away from him rather than running to the tower.
From the way SIU writes the flashbacks, it’s easy to see. Bam is a lot more of an annoyance and more selfish in his worship of her in “Tower of God,” lacking in the more defined, altruistic desire to be with Rachel he has in Tower of God. She may want to shed him because of that worship rather than some undefined but unsettling talk of “weakness.”
At the same time, she does care about Bam. She clearly misses him and feels that he has moved beyond her, with all these friends, all while she stays alone in her room, eating the chocolate she stole from Khun (in “Position Selection.”) This feeling is articulated in both via the dream scene, though it is elevated by Kevin Penkin’s sensational score in the anime.
Rachel is an enigma at this point. Why she was in a testing area AFTER Bam rather than before remains unanswered and other questions surround her. It will only be when we get an answer that the scenes here will fall into place. We’ll see which fit like a square peg in a round hole and which are like a perfectly paired wine.
