Webcomics Weekly is back in your life. This Week: Things get philisophical or comedic, maybe both with “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cerel,” “Agents of the Realm” takes the term “Hot Tag” seriously, Elias takes a look at “Hayden’s Notes,” and it is the end … of the fifth chapter of the first volume of the fourth series of “Sam & Fuzzy.”
Before reviews we have a bit of Webcomics news with awards nominations with the Ringo and Igantz awards.
From the SPX come the Ignatz award and their category Best Online Comic. The nominees are as follows
Isle of Elsi– Alec Longstreth
That’s Not My Name! – Hannako Lambert
What Doctors Know About CPR– Nathan Gray
About Face– Nate Powell
Full Court Crush– Hannah Blumenreich
The Ringo award nominess for Best Webcomic are as follows
Age Matters by Enjelicious,
Aztec Empire by Paul Guinan, Anina Bennett, David Hahn
The Contradictions by Sophie Yanow
Existential Comics by Corey Mohler
Lavender Jack, Dan Schkade
Luff by Arechan,
The Nib by various
Nothing Special by Katie Cook
Agents of the Realm
Pages 79-89 (Ch. 2-2.5)
Schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays
By Mildred Louis
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
Chapter 2 comes to a decisive conclusion with tag team action between Norah and Silveira. Now with this being the “get the team together” phase of things, it isn’t really Norah’s time to shine. In the parlance of pro wrestling, Silveira needs to look strong. This doesn’t mean Norah is made useless or a fool, she is just out gunned by the Demon Spider. Louis lands a couple of solid action comedy beats as the Spider’s webs slowly disarm Norah, they aren’t over done and land with the quickness of Looney Tunes. These beats also allow for Louis to walk the tricky tight rope of introducing Silveira in her Agents uniform. Despite long evolution-change sequences being a staple of Magical Girls and Digimon, it would be a repetitive waste of space here. By focusing on putting Norah in danger Louis builds for the big entrance spot as Silveira comes in on fire (literally.) There are tags and than there are Hot Tags.
Norah and Silveira tag teaming the Spider doesn’t last long, three pages in total, but it more than gets the job done. Once again Louis shows off excellent page design and spatial awareness by mirroring Norah and Silveira off of one another both in the environment and on the page making the pincer attack super effective visually. Action sequences are proving to be a surprising plus to this comic.
While the Good Dr. Blackwater dances like they’re out of a Final Fantasy game, Norah and Silveira catch up. Louis lettering shines in this two panel sequence as the good doctor filters about the panel with praise, most of which is blocked by Norah and Silveira’s conversation – the actually important part of the panel.
After the second chapter comes an interlude, Chapter 2.5, and things get slightly discombobulating. Things are discombobulating due to the information Louis withholds from the reader, namely a locations box or information found on the websites cast page. The comic jumps to the unnamed Other Realm and introduces readers to two new characters Folami and Camiel. Before the pair of what appear to be former/aging out Agents said one another names I thought “Agents” had pulled a “Paper Girls” and this was some sort of future deal.
While the transition is not the smoothest, Louis ability to write dialog matched with expressive character acting comes through. Folami and Camiel appear to be both partners in Agenting and partners in life. The way Louis laces their dialog with little needles is delightful, adding layers to their conversation. Folami really likes being an Agent and the recognition that comes with it, she appears to show the scars of it with a left prosthetic eye. Camiel is looking forward to retirement and using that as an opportunity to move them forward. It’s a sweet moment, but unless this gets far more queer in the narrative sense than pure representation, talking about retirement and getting that house by the river is never a good sign! Louis staging of this whole sequence by balancing the slightly bickering partners off one another down to their costuming is what sells this sequence. She withholds information that could help the reader orient themselves easier, but that stuff doesn’t really matter, compared to the sequence as a whole selling these characters. It told me all I need to be intrigued about them and where they fit into the “Agents” narrative going forward.
Continued below
Hayden’s Notes
Case_01: 14 – 18
Updates: Sundays
By Yufei
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
Immortal protagonists generally come in a couple flavors (bear with my oversimplification for the moment.) You’ve got your lonely wanderers, embittered by all their time upon this earth and then you’ve got your world-wizened mentors who always have a nugget buried in a story from their past. Hayden is neither. He is a chaotic good practitioner of the dark arts, childish and petulant, with the vocabulary of a scholar. Who is he? What happened to him? How does he know this Wolfe and his more mercenary Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider profession? I dunno and I’m 1000% OK with that.
The fun of “Hayden’s Notes” is how it’s a throwback to episodic adventure series. As of right now, there’s only one long-form chapter out, but the latest updates have the trajectory of the start of the end of this adventure, culminating at, probably, the 22nd or 24th page, your standard comic issue. This kind of tight storytelling is perfect for the page a week update model, with each page having a rhythm and an arc that works on its own while making the cumulative experience satisfying. It’s a simple story, with simple characterizations, but at this point in the narrative, demonstrated depth is less important than crafting a fun adventure to go on.
Yufei’s art is a pleasure to look at. Character designs are unique and have wonderful silhouettes, a fact Yufei takes advantage of in a number of beautifully stylized panels. The linework is soft, same for the colors, giving the comic an aged feel and the subdued but not washed out color palette allows for the greens of Hayden’s eyes or a red background to really pop. In addition to this, pages like Case_01: 16 have a great eyeline, using the angle of Wolfe’s vision to get us to grab onto the BANG, and complete the kinetic motion of the shot into panel three. That said, the panelling on the bottom of page 18 loses that eyeline, and I had to do a double take to get the right reading order, the horizontal alignment tricking me into thinking I should continue reading left to right instead of transitioning to up to down, a blip in an otherwise well-constructed comic.
For some, the simple story may not be enough but for me, feed me that good, good Indiana Jones X dark fantasy story ala “The Ancient Magus’ Bride” and I will be satisfied for years.
Sam & Fuzzy
Updates: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays
By Sam Logan
Reviewed by Dexter Buschetelli
We finally made it folks. This is the end of the fifth chapter of the first volume of the fourth series of “Sam & Fuzzy.” I know, it’s all a bit confusing to me as well, haven’t you been reading these reviews?
The origin story of Fuzzy and Hazel’s relationship is wrapped up here, though with several loose ends. After a bungled (but not in the jungled) robbery operation resulting in a car crash tensions between the duo come to a head in a heated argument. Hazel chastises Fuzzy for being so reckless before letting another mention of the mysterious Eric slip. Fuzzy’s questioning of where Eric’s actions got him is enough for Hazel, causing her to storm out.
These are the moments of the flashback chapters that meander, as the series drops it humorous pretenses for less-veiled dramatic beats that, quite frankly, fall flat. As I just hinted, “Sam & Fuzzy” is not simply a comedic webcomic. At its core, it is a strip that does a wonderful job at building its world and injecting the cast with heart. But the appearances of Hazel feel forced and unnatural. The underlying mystery of exactly what she is hiding from Fuzzy is intriguing, but not enough to keep you enthralled during these chapters.
That said, the revelation of the enigmatic voice Fuzzy has heard his companion talking to being the cat as they drive away, abandoning our titular amnesiac certainly makes for a plot thread I look forward to learning more about in volume two, as does the installment that shows the seemingly dead police officer awaking to find his own memory erased. And as we follow the old fuzzball into a bar as he looks for a sucker, remarking “there’s one around every corner,” we’re brought full-circle as none other than Sam sits at the bar in the foreground.
Continued below“Sam & Fuzzy” has, overall, been a great read and it has been my pleasure to review it here at Multiversity. Now, I sit at a crossroads. Having finished this volume, I could inform my editors I’d like to review something different. But something tells me there’s more around the corner that I would be remiss to simply pass up. I’ve become invested in these characters and their story and, yes, even their backstories. So if you want a final score? A resolution to this series of reviews? One last summary of how I feel about “Sam & Fuzzy?” Well, I’ll give you this:
Come back in two weeks as I begin my review of volume two of ‘The N-M-S Series’ from “Sam & Fuzzy.”
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Pages July and August 2019 strips
Updates: Saturday
By Zach Weinersmith
Reviewed by Gustavo S. Lodi
“Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal” isn’t, in any shape or form, a series of sequential storytelling, as each of it’s weekly updates is a strip discussing, often in comedic ways, philosophical, political, economical, and anything in between. What strings those moments together, though, is a cynical, intelligent, and often provocative view of series creator Zach Weinersmith, who manages to walk the line of poking fun at very serious matters, without coming across as biased or offensive.
For this latest bunch, covering the strips that were released during July and August of 2019, Weinersmith seems to be quite focused on the topics of religion and the utilisation of one’s time, topics that can easily correlate to one another. On some of the strips, the artist uses extremely mundane moments of the lives of dogs, or internal monologues of humans, to discuss how can anyone reach the conclusion that a higher being exists, leading to questioning on, if it does, what is its purpose or intent.
On other strips, “Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal” plays with the notion that no two beings are so far separated to not find things in common, be those a man or a friendly bet, or complete unknown strangers discussing opposite world views. It is quite compelling, in this day and age, to find this type of debate, and to have it delivered so effective and with the right measure of levity is, truly, refreshing.
Visually, the series is a clear cartoon, with a level of restraint for the number of lines on each design that leaves the pages and panels clear, to the often dominated word balloons. A wise choice for this type of strip.
All in all, a surprising read. There are a ton of strips on this collection, going back years, but the non-linear nature of them invites to reading at one’s own leisure and choice.
