The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life. This week we’re particularly bird brained with “Robin and the Fowl,” somewhere the Riddler is thinking of all the avian puns potentially put forward by such a title. We also have continuing coverage of “Lavender Jack” and “Tower of God,” two series that lack alliterative potential.
Pages: Episodes 19-21
Schedule: Tuesdays – currently on seasonal hiatus
By Dan Schkade
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
“Lavender Jack” finishes up its prequel ‘America’ arc and starts a new one with Inspector Crabb and Ferrier beginning to start a hopefully long and beautiful friendship in this batch of strips. Schkade’s character acting really comes through on top of some well-paced paneling that allows for comedic moments to land.
Sir Mimley, despite being the nominal title character of the series, is a bit of an enigma. While we do learn more about him in ‘America’ and the story has it’s equivalent of “yes Father, I shall become a bat” moment, we still don’t know too much about him. Schkade in the present draws him with this vacancy, that is compensated only by his wit. That previous training for the audience is retrained with ‘America’ as we see Sir Mimley not aloof, but actively self-destructive as he and Ducky travel across America. It’s subtle character work that Schkade gets through with how they draw his expression, reacting to news and his surroundings. This hollow existence also lets Schkade setup a few sight gags as Ducky just looks on unimpressed at the wasted talent. We still do not know what specific act drives Sir Mimley but we see how he became the man we know in the present. The whole California sequence is worth looking at just for the formal elements on how Schkade did a walk and talk in a vertical setup.
‘America’ also highlighted most of the rest of the cast. Interestingly, Schkade once again holds back on Ferrier going the full Poirot. Several times she has been setup to tie off a cast and do what consulting detectives do, and once gain it is denied to us despite all the work being done showing how, even diminished, perceptive and cunning she is.
“Lavender Jack” also gets surprisingly violent, which might sound odd considering episode 21 revolves around talking over the dead body of the Mayor. However, that sort of staging fits in with the Classic Hollywood sort of style, even that murder is handled mostly off screen and Schkade uses the formal elements of comics to deliver the intense impression of a murder. In the end we do not see the crumpled remains of the Lord Mayor’s face. In episode 19, however, we get a knife and blood; from a bried episode showing how Honoria Crabb became an inspector and got to know the Lord Mayor. The knife itself is a potent symbol but we also see a bit of blood in several spots. It’s less ritualized than the Lord Hawthorne introduction and more sudden and graphic. It’s interesting to note how the subtle changes can make all the difference.
Chapter 0-4: ‘Prologue’ – ‘Complicated’
Updates: Fridays
By Paulina Maranatha
Reviewed by Elias Rosner
There’s a storybook quality to “Robin and the Fowl” which goes beyond the ‘Prologue’s’ literal telling of a story to two different children. Maranatha’s art is soft, almost drawn in crayon, with a playfulness that calms the nerves and belies the sadness of the characters. Not much has happened in these chapters thus far, so it’s hard to comment on the story and while some readers might find the pacing makes them antsy, I think it fits the story being told. Not knowing much heightens the mystery beneath the characters and allows them plenty of space to grow on their own without greater baggage and allows for those arcs to develop later. What does hurt this approach is the emptiness of some of the chapters.
Webtoons’ scrolling format puts a higher emphasis on gutter placement and size than a traditional comics page. Many creators use a gradient to help ease the reader down the screen or make sure panels are close enough together that there isn’t ever a large break between them. That doesn’t happen here and instead there are chunks of dead space which break the flow of the chapters, introducing just enough friction to make the slowness of the story noticeable in a negative way. Thankfully, that’s an easy fix and the art style as well as the hook of the series are strong enough that I’m excited to see it develop.
Continued belowPlus, did you see how cute Robin Robin & the Owl are?? Sometimes that’s all you need.
Tower of God
Tower of God: Season 1 Eps. 58-67; Episode 11 – “Underwater Hunt, Part 1”
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.
The chickens are coming home to roost and it’s clear that, while in past episodes the streamlining was to the show’s benefit, the greater space afforded to the Webtoon for this half of the “Underwater Hunt”/‘Final Examination’ arc has allowed it to provide a more tense experience. There is a surprising amount of dead time in Tower of God, despite it adapting close to ten chapters…technically. I should point out that some of the events in 58 and 59 occurred “Beyond the Sadness” to one degree or another — Hoh’s funeral, the drunk party, the aftermath of the “fight” between Rak & Khun over whether to follow Bam into the new test or not — but the number of events that got shuffled around in that episode makes it so that these changes are under that auspice. Still, it does mean there were fewer scenes that were whole-cloth made for the anime rather than modified heavily.
The biggest change between “Underwater Hunt, Part 1” and it’s corresponding chapters is that it basically drops the training montage that happens in chapter 59. This is good and bad. While I think it’s ultimately extraneous and unnecessary in terms of how much of the chapter it takes up for what it accomplishes, having it be present in some capacity makes the world of “Tower of God” feel more coherent. Both versions struggle with getting me to care about the characters or to have a good sense of the passage of time in the tests and this montage helps solidify that, well, time does in fact pass between tests and the characters grow during them. We may not see it all but it’s there. Keeping this, even truncated, would’ve benefited the show in helping to make the episode feel less empty.
In fact, while the chapters kinda drag on — they’re about 60% fights and SIU’s art isn’t my favorite thing, especially in fight scenes — they also feel more full. It’s hard to explain but here’s an analogy I’ve found works well. “Underwater Hunt, Part 1” is like one of those big, fancy Ferrero Rocher where it’s HUGE but then you find out under the thin chocolate exterior, it’s 90% air with a couple chocolates inside. The corresponding chapters are more like the Hershey Kiss version. The chocolate is cheaper (and cheaper tasting) and the whole thing is smaller but the inside is full of a few more kisses and the shell is thicker and heavier. Both have the same problems but the ways they compensate for them are different and in this episode, it’s hard not to look past the fact that the Ferrero Rocher is 90% empty space.
The changes made to streamline the characters remains strong in Tower of God however, like how the rivalry between Endorsi & Anaak feels warmer and playful rather than the “catty” way it appears in “Tower of God.” It’s less mean spirited, which shows the way they’ve grown together over the course of the season thus far. Shibisu’s comradery with the now departed Serena is put to the fore with his use of her knife — something that never happens in the chapters because Serena just kinda leaves or disappears. In fact, Serena kinda gets sidelined after the Tag test ends. She and Shibisu have their drunken chat but that’s about it.
This is also where “Tower of God” has the “reveal” that Khun isn’t as sneaky as he thinks as everyone, including “Tower of God” punching bag Shibisu, saw through his acting to get them on board. Just like when the Spear-bearer Revolutionaries were hyper-dunked back in “The One Horned Ogre,” Tower of God took the opportunity to bypass the entire fight scene earlier, cut the fat from here re: Shibisu’s character moment, and get it over with in a fun way that also ended up hollowing out the aforementioned character moment conversation.
Continued belowWe lose the explanation for why Rak calls everyone turtles, the introduction of the Bull is a lot less menacing, and Nare’s sudden powers are more abrupt. Sure, cutting the conversation Hansung Yu & Bam have after Bam leaves the Guardian’s domain was the right move since Rachel isn’t present there in “Tower of God,” but it also robs us of Hansung Yu clearly staking out a position. I read that staking out as a red herring, as he seems like he secretly wants Bam to succeed, but it’s still there and not nebulously in the background. The same is true of Ren, who feels more like a whole character because we’re given more time with him and his battle between Anaak (emphasis on more, not character.) The show also completely cuts out that battle & Endorsi’s short underwater battle with the Bull.
That said, I prefer how “Underwater Hunt, Part 1” handles the portrayal of the test itself. “Tower of God” is normally better about explaining things since it has the space but this is the most complicated test thus far and “Tower of God” basically waves it’s hands and says, “eh, you’ll figure it out eventually.” We keep jumping between the explanation, strategy planning, and the many test participants. It’s fragmented and while each piece isn’t explained until it’s “necessary,” the end result is that the test is and stakes are poorly explained. This fragmentation does help contribute to a feeling that more happens in the chapters however, and we get a reason for the Bull’s name.
Tower of God, on the other hand, streamlines the explanation and places it all in one scene at the start with a nice visualization. The bounds of the test are easy to understand and so when complications arise, the audience understands the stakes if not the strategy. This is where the show falters, by not really showing or telling what exactly the strategy is, the episode feels aimless rather than tense. “Tower of God” was going for an Ocean’s Eleven heist planning vibe but wasn’t able to capture the energy. Tower of God linearized it and thus sucked out what little energy remained. It tried to re-energize it with the death of two minor characters but that was only as a way of jobbing the Bull.
I’ll talk more about the Bam & Rachel scenes next time since they were given so little to do in both, though “Tower of God” did re-emphasize Bam’s odd connection with Shinsu in a way that is totally absent in Tower of God. Next time, the second half of “Underwater Hunt” and the second to last of these looks. Get ready y’all!
