EXTRA EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! The Webcomics Weekly is back, bringing with it three familiar faces and three new, very different, but equally interesting comics about magical girls, witches, and imaginary friends.
0717
Parts 1-3
Updates: Unclear, appears to be on an unannounced, indefinite hiatus
By Rachel Song
Reviewed by Dexter Buschetelli
“0717” opens with a jubilant brightness. Main character Rae narrates and relates her youthful exuberance and passion for art, which is quickly revealed as clearly being in the past to her therapist. The strip immediately begins to indulge in teen angst, which is in no way said as a slight to the content within. Cynicism and discontent in teenagers is often derided in literature, viewed as trite or only worthy of “young adult” literature, as though that is some sort of an insult.
This way of thinking, often from the old guard of high-brow critics is absurd. These emotions are real and authentic portrayals of them resonate with readers young and old. While some representations may be cheesy and at times cringeworthy, “0717” is anything but.
The series offers a light touch to the inner-turmoil of a teenage girl, only briefly giving explicit commentary and exposition in its opening pages of Rae’s therapy session. The following pages revel in their mundanity. Song’s work focuses on “boring” moments in order to highlight how they inundate the life of a young person.
This technique of dynamic presentation of seemingly uninteresting actions is very evocative of the style Edgar Wright uses in the opening scenes of Shaun of the Dead, and is done to great effect. Song’s compositional work is strong, accompanied by seemingly crude line-work draped in beautiful colors. The art is almost a contradiction symbolic of the adolescent experience, whether intentionally or subconsciously on the part of the creator.
“0717” waits until the final moments of its most current installment to reveal the actual story element of a seemingly imaginary friend for Rae, which naturally freaks her out at first; and then it ends.
It is at this point I feel inclined to mention that I did not look closely enough at this series before choosing to review it. “0717” has not updated in ten months, which is a shame. There’s meat here, and it isn’t even unrefined. This is a series that seems to have already hit a stride in story-telling and art which, for unapparent reasons, has been stalled. It is not clear why this is, but it would be a deprival to see “0717” not continue, as it is a brilliant setup to a longer story that readers deserve to see brought to fruition. Here’s hoping Song comes back to the project soon.
Bad Machinery
September 29, 2009 – October 8, 2009
Updates: Completed
By John Allison
Reviewed by Bodhi
These pages of “Bad Machinery” reunite the reader with some old friends: Amy Chilton and Ryan Beckwith from Allison’s other webcomic “Scary Go Round.” New readers, think of “Scary Go Round” as “Bad Machinery’s” elder and naughtier sibling. Amy and Ryan were part of its main cast of free-spirited friends. But time has passed in Allisonverse and here in “Bad Machinery” they are now a happily married couple with Ryan a bespectacled, betweeded schoolteacher. Allison opens up Ryan and Amy’s home life for us to see which also showcases his gift of making the reader care for characters within the space of a single update.
We also are introduced to Sonny’s irrepressible positivity, another teacher Mr. Bough (pronounced ‘boff‘), Shauna’s stepdad, an “extremely violent girl gang,” and some instances of bullying. We get to see Shauna’s spirit and learn why Charlotte’s singing might not be a cause for celebration. As for the art side of the story, I have just one thing to point out: watch Allison’s rendering of Shauna’s expression while she’s being told off for talking in class.
With this we come to the end of “The Short Preamble” and next we start on our first proper story: “The Case Of The Team Spirit.”
Four Leaf
Chapters 1-3
Updates: Fridays
By Lumaga
Continued below
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
“Four Leaf” a new webstrip by Lumaga has all the hallmarks of the manga influence (magical girl in particular) that you often see in this generation of creators. The pallet is bright, befitting characters with wild hair, big expressive eyes, and costumes that owe a debt to Tetsuya Nomura. The only minor moment of dissonance is how it visually ages down our main heroine, Guadalupe Jara, to be something more tween like than the stated age of 16 and even that is shown to have narrative purpose as the strip progresses. It is, however, one of the many instances that retrospectively shows Lumaga using reader genre affinity to lull them in for a twist that would make M. Night Shyamalan go “What a Twist!” Giving away the twist would be wrong, and as with any good twist, it isn’t about the wild left turn, it’s about rereading scenes and finding their dual meaning.
Part of the reason the twist is so effective is due to how well these opening strips sell an alternative version of the comic. Not in a false sense but generically – the first two strips read like your normal school day comic. Lumaga does a good job of capturing the awkwardness of being a new kid in class, finding ways to visually isolate Guadalupe in otherwise busy panels. That is until she meets her friend Lina. There is an alternative version of this where it’s just a school strip and perfectly fine, on the sheer technical skill of the creator.
“Four Leaf” is listed as Lumaga’s first strip on Line, but Uruguayan artist shows real skill in using the vertical space and reading position for this strip. The motif of falling is featured in all three strips, in a recurring dream by Guadalupe and papers, in each case Lumaga uses the vertical space to accentuate the feeling of freefall. Overall though they show a deft hand in using it to create varying gutter space for the more traditionally paneled sequences. In order to show the passage of time, the gutter space gets increasingly large to the point that the image of juxtaposed clocks seems superfluous. They also use the segmented paneling as means to emphasize the distance between Guadalupe and her mother in the second strip.
Introductions can be hard, these three opening strips do that well, before driving a big rig through your expectations and replacing them with something potentially more interesting.
Lost Nightmare
Pages 1.10-1.15
Updates: Completed
By Julia K. (a.k.a. Miyuli)
Reviewed by Gustavo S. Lodi
For this second update of “Lost Nightmare,” readers are again presented to Ink and the other residents of the Nightmare dimension, all under the command and influence of the Bogey Man.
Something that is clear from the visual consistency of this webcomic is how colors are being utilized to quickly establish mood and the personality of new characters. This time around, “Lost Nightmare” introduces new nightmares-in-training on the castle, with a pair of twins garbed predominantly in red (showing a vibrant, feisty personality) and an older “teen-nightmare” in a more muted tone of orange (aligned with his apparently blasé personality). It is an interesting touch that could already be seen from the first pages with the uses of purples and blacks for the main characters.
The expansion of the cast also opens up story opportunities going forward, especially as readers want to determine how Ink will grow up to be (?) the eventual new Bogeyman. The series also introduces some initial challenges and a rivalry around the mantle, but also adds enough doubt about the multiple character’s true intentions to keep readers guessing.
An aspect that is amiss and that, hopefully, will be developed further in subsequent updates, is the protagonist Ink’s personality: he is still being overly defined by what he isn’t (powerful, fearless,) with the focus being solely on his shyness and inability to act as a nightmare. At this stage, the reasons why the Bogeyman chose him to be his successor are very unclear, other than it being the “status quo” of the story.
All in all, “Lost Nightmare” continues to impress visually and the introduction of new nightmares expand this world. Hopefully the series will develop its core plot a bit more thoroughly in the next instalments, letting Ink flesh out his personality and abilities.
Continued below
Shattered Starlight
Pages 108-112
Updates: Mondays
By Nicole Chartrand
Reviewed by Robbie Pleasant
“Shattered Starlight” is a webcomic with a great concept – what happens to magical girls once they’re no longer preteen girls? How do they adapt to the mundane world after everything they’ve done? The webcomic follows protagonist and former magical girl Farah Shaughnessey as she tries to adapt to her new life, but vestiges from her time as a magical girl keep bringing her back in.
Perhaps the most noticeable and stunning thing about this webcomic is Nicole Chartrand’s artwork. The designs are detailed and clean, the characters sharp and expressive and the action, though it’s mostly one splash page at a time, is intense. But the color work is what makes it even more unique – it’s mostly in black and white, save for sharp colors for certain things, mostly anything related to magic. Farah’s pink hair always stands out against the background of grays, as does the shattered pocket dimension where she fought her foes. Her shoes too, for reasons which may or may not come into play later.
Story-wise, these most recent five pages are the cooldown after a large battle. The conversation Farah has with her former mascot character, Bunny, helps recap and contextualize the previous events, reminding readers of previous plot points the story introduced a while back. It reestablishes the story and mystery, and while it doesn’t propel the plot forward, it still helps us get to know the characters a bit better.
It also gives us some great up-close looks at the characters, showcasing more of Nicole’s artwork. Farah has the most amazing expression when she returns home and Bunny asks what’s going on – a look that screams “don’t ask” while still telling a full story. The conversation also helps establish the familiarity between the two, moreso than just describing it in narration could.
Anyone who’s a fan of the magical girl genre, from “Sailor Moon” to “Madoka Magica,” should give “Shattered Starlight” a look. The artwork is gorgeous, and it gives us an interesting look at the world of magical girls once they’re girls no more. The story has been slowly but steadily building, while the world building has been natural and effective. Although the updates are slow (and understandably so; Nicole has a day job and a second webcomic, “Fey Winds”) it’s well worth the wait for each new page.
The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn
Chapters 5-8
Updates: On Hiatus until October 2018. Updates Fridays.
By Tri Vuong
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
Concluding the initial adventure and beginning the next, Chapters 5-8 offer a marked shift in storytelling quality and readability for the series. It’s worth noting that this is most likely because of the shift from Tapas to Webtoons, which also precipitated a change in format and thus these chapters were built for the vertical scroll as opposed to being modified for it. As for the content itself, chapters 5 & 6 conclude the opening chapter with a neat bow, providing through visuals all we needed to know about the spirit that was haunting the house. The choice to keep the details sparse by having it be wordless, save for Oscar’s, was the right one. It allows the story to retain an ethereal quality and to not get bogged down with unnecessary exposition. Not much more is learned about Oscar but what fun would an opening chapter be if we knew everything about our protagonist right off the bat?
Chapters 7 & 8 are really where this comic clicks and begins to find it’s own voice. ‘Lost and Found’s’ story was shallow. Written with the right atmosphere, suspenseful and intriguing, but not very complicated and solved fairly quickly and with ease. It was akin to the cold opening of a pilot, introducing us to the world and characters through actions and visuals instead of dialogue and discussions. ‘The Last Soldier of Somme,’ however, is already drawn with more care. It’s still sketchy but each panel is more full, the shadows deeper and the pacing between panels more rhythmic.
Additionally, the framing device of the story of the rifle as well as the narration and Oscar’s admittance that he is a small piece of this particular story gives us the proper mindset going into this adventure. We know Oscar will be here in some capacity, which grounds us and prevents us from feeling confused as the focus shifts. Plus, the script feels tighter. The humor lands more and the story already feels larger and more complex than before. We’re still in this chapter’s prologue so what comes next, you’ll just have to come back in two weeks to find out.
