The DC/Webtoon partnership has released another comic and we’re here to cover it! We’ve also got a look at “This Life to the Next” and some more “Dr. Frost” for you all. 5 more until we hit 200! Can you believe it? My brain, running on fumes, certainly cannot.
Dr. Frost
‘Eggshells’ (6) – (7)
Updates: Saturdays
By Jongbeom Lee
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
I’ll be honest, doing two episodes at a time instead of four-six is starting to get difficult. Despite a lot actually happening, emotionally and expositionally, if not “plot” or action wise, there’s not a lot to dig into that I haven’t before. We get some revelations about Moon’s past, we get Frost having a heartfelt conversation with the guy who saved him at the end of the last episode, and we learn more about that guy as well. It’s well done but still in the early stages without a lot to dig into, as the questions build and tension grows.
Well, I say there’s not much but the character work actually has a lot I could talk about. Frost’s conversation with the former school guard is meaty and develops both of them for us. Frost’s insecurities are forefronted, giving us a chance to see just how different he is from the cocksure professor we first met and also the scared hermit we saw at the start of the season. The former school guard, on the other hand, is brash and semi-estranged from his granddaughter and clearly very lonely but can’t admit it, ultimately allowing Frost to do that thing he does, albeit with less passion than before.
You know, while the pacing isn’t quite the same, I’m getting “Monster” vibes from these episodes, specifically the chapters when Tenma is on the run in Czechoslovakia/Czeck Republic. Many of the beats are similar, like the renewed focus on character work, specifically with a brand new character.. Sure the pacing is wildly different, with this being a more fast-paced thriller and that being a more slow-burn mystery, but the parallels are helpful in understanding what Lee is hoping to accomplish with ‘Eggshells.’ Of all the works to take inspiration from, I can’t think of any better and clearly Lee understands what makes that comic work and that’s giving me hope, and fear, for the rest of the arc.
This Life to the Next
Episodes 1-5
Updates Fridays
Written by Jojoohee
Art by YUNO
Reviewed by Mel Lake
What happens to your soul when you die? (Don’t sweat the answer, it’s just a rhetorical question to get you thinking.) In “This Life to the Next,” souls are helped to the afterlife or given another chance at being alive. Two competing sides try and sway the souls one way or the other; in the first episode, we find out that Isaeng guides souls to death while Jeongto calls them back. They used to be childhood friends but now they’re hereditary enemies! Something tells me they might fall in love.
But before we find out more about the world of souls, we flash back to Isaeng and Jeongto’s childhood. Isaeng’s grandfather runs a mortuary next to the hospital where Jeongto’s father works. They joke (a lot) about their friendly rivalry but do seem to really get along, despite being on different sides of the divide between life and death. A car crash victim is brought to the hospital along with an angry spirit bent on revenge, which puts both families to the test. As of episode five, this introductory chapter of Isaeng and Jeongto’s story isn’t complete, so I don’t know how the pair are separated for ten years yet, just that they are.
I started “This Life to the Next” because I’m a sucker for “not supposed to fall in love/be friends with you” tropes as well as grim reaper/afterlife stories. So when the extensive flashback to the main character’s childhood happened I expected to get bored and hit the back button. I didn’t, though, because the story of the young crash survivor Muyang and his father was genuinely compelling and the side characters were lovable despite there only being five episodes of content. The aggressively awful reporter using fake names to get access to places he shouldn’t is a simple joke but as it keeps getting repeated, it really grew on me. There’s a gentle humor to the story that isn’t overbearing but is enough to keep me invested. I’m not one-hundred percent sure that “This Life to the Next” will romantically pair the main two, but if it does, the fact that we got to see them developing a genuine friendship in this flashback helps their relationship feel real and layered.
Continued belowBuddhism and Korean funeral rituals are central to Isaeng’s family business and thus the story. It’s not a subject I know a lot about but found this comic easy to read regardless and an intriguing way to learn. The character designs are easy to distinguish from one another and hilarious when they go into “chibi” mode. I’m looking forward to seeing more of older Isaeng and Jeongto, because both of them look great in a suit. If the afterlife intrigues you or you just like an “opposites attract” kind of story, “This Life to the Next” is worth checking out.
Zatanna and the Ripper
Episodes 1-3
Schedule: Tuesdays
Written by Sarah Delay
Thumbnailed by Rachel Koo
Inked by Syro
Colored by Ayumyum
Lettered by Thismightydimo
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
DC and Webtoon’s partnership continue with “Zatanna and the Ripper” which offers something noticeably different from previous entries like “Wayne Family Adventures” and “Vixen”, this strip isn’t strictly speaking a superhero one. While “Wayne” was more of the episodic slice of life version of masked vigilantism, “Vixen” is more in the traditional vein. “Zatanna” however aims to be a supernatural mystery with the titular magician hunting Jack the Ripper. “Zatanna” doesn’t go the full “Gotham by Gaslight” as it features a young Zatanna on her 21st birthday transported to 1888 London after a fight with a mysterious witch and potential sacrifice by her Father. Its name also suggests a decidedly limited scope for the series compared to previous entries, much like print comics maybe not every Webtoon needs to be 300+ episodes and run forever.
There is a lot to immediately like about this strip. Rachel Koo’s thumbnails, and I assume overall layout design, give episodes a strong foundation. Syro’s inks are solid, finding a nice middle ground between the stylized representational bend of mainstream DC with the more expressive manga influence that dominates Webtoon. Syro’s figure work, in particular their faces, strike me as Issac Goodhart-esque in the best way. All members of the creative team do a good job, in particular Thismightydimo’s lettering in the first episode helps to bridge the gap between panels and uses onomatopoeia to tie into the magical energies Zatanna calls upon in some novel ways.
Everything is technically very proficient, if not great, and yet after reading these three episodes there is this slight feeling of want and not in the good way. Something about the episode’s narrative structure feels slightly unfulfilling. I can’t really quantify this feeling. The length of these strips are in line with others I have read. Perhaps it is a matter of plot wherein each strip has about one big plot moment before hooking into the next one, but most “2000 AD” strips work that way and leave me wanting more. These strips function as serialized episodes better than a lot of strips. This all sounds contradictory because it is. “Zatanna and the Ripper” has so many things going for it, at the sametime it feels a little short. Maybe that’s an issue that will be smoothed over as the plot continues and the creative team have worked together more. Either way it’s worth checking out at the very least to see that DC and Webtoon are willing to take some amount of risk in this publishing agreement.
