The Webcomics Weekly is back in your life and this week we take a wrong turn with the “Wrong Quest”. But like fantasy tales of yore it is a wrong turn into adventure.
Wrong Quest
Episodes 1-8
Schedule: Tuesday and Saturday
By Ozzaworld and Nien955 (story and art)
Reviewed by Michael Mazzacane
If you’re a fan of Jaki’s webcomic “Ladykillers” you would enjoy “Wrong Quest”. “Wrong Quest” follows the fantasy misadventures of an adventuring party. Unlike “Ladykillers” the Ozzaworld and Nien955 strip isn’t going for a slow burn polyamorous romance. It is instead going for something more retro as a series of single gag 4 to 6 panel strips like you would find in the newspaper. That is a format that isn’t very common on Webtoon as a service or in many contemporary webcomics. The deemphasis on seriality takes away one of the hallmarks of most webcomics, a focus on internal narrative that is focused on deep seated character dynamics, which is freeing for this strip. It just gets to be about the gags, and over the 8 episodes out so far a majority of them land and even if one episode doesn’t manage to elicit a chuckle, the friction between episodes is so minor it’s on to the next one.
With only 4 to 6 panels a strip episodes have a definite rhythm. The first panel introduces the general fantasy concept that will be subject to the gag in the case of the first episode it’s a lich about to cast a long-planned ritual. The gag is than set up in the next couple of panels before an ironic reveal in the end, which is a counter spell. That sort of sudden stop fits the fantasy genre the strip is playing in. Other strips are rooted less in the fantasy nature and turn things into a workplace comedy such as the fifth episode, ‘The Pact’, which is an inspired take on demonic pacts. The repeated structure of “Wrong Quest” gives everything just such a good rhythm.
For all of the comedic structure within this strip, none of it would work if the art wasn’t effective. Whomever does the art shows strong funamentals in terms of panel composition and how to confidently create a generic fantasy world without being uninteresting. Take the Lich from the first episode, they have fun with his bone structure and give him a cartooned point chin. The only episode that didn’t fully land for me was ‘If I Was a Wyrm’ simply because the design of the pact demon isn’t a wyrm design. Even if that character design fell short, the environmental work and use of color to show this ethereal realm perfectly captures the pact commune that is going on. With its limited number of panels, the artists don’t change up how they frame things. It is the same panel shapes every episode. How the artists use the panels and frame things is a useful example of how to frame and construct panels of action.
“Wrong Quest” with its limited number of panels and episodic gag format can feel slight when compared to other strips out on the internet. Just because it isn’t copying narrative and aesthetic norms of webcomics does not mean it is lesser. How it goes about producing its content more than justifies at least checking it out and even maybe learning from it.
