Category Archives: Guest reviews

Guest-written Webcomic Reviews

Guest Review – Who Killed Claire Cace?

Posted on February 11, 2013 by | Leave a comment

While Tangents will be returning in the near future, I thought I’d post a guest review that Francisco De Freitas was kind enough to send my way. And I must admit to being intrigued – this is the first Mystery Comic that I recall coming across.

I have been following the weekly whodunnit Who Killed Claire Cace? for about 10 months. Let’s start at the beginning:

The residents of a gated community in Australia are awoken by a scream in the middle of the night:

Claire Cace, a writer who lives in the community, is found murdered. Two police officers are sent. We follow their investigation as they interview the residents and deal with the contradictions in people’s statements.

I like it because the comic dangles clues in front of you and leaves it to you to work out which are useful and which are red herrings. The art is good and the author tends to crack jokes in the mouseover text.

I do have an interest to declare — I know the author from a forum we both post in. The comic is pretty close to the end of it’s story (the FAQ states that the whole story would be told in 80-90 pages and page 62 is due to go up on the 3rd February 2013).

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Weregeek

Posted on October 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Here’s the second guest review I received, compliments of Francisco De Freitas. I’ve been meaning to review the print compilation for this strip for a while now, so I appreciate this glimpse at a comic I found most amusing and worth reading.

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Weregeek is, for the most part, a slice-of-life comic about Mark (pictured above) and the group of geeks he joins. When the gang role play the comic takes on the look of the role play they are taking part in.

There are, however, some fantastical elements (I am not counting the role play images as fantastical as they are meant to be in the imagination of the characters). The first of these is that there exists “weregeeks”. Under the right conditions they can transform into humanoid creatures (see below). In their weregeek form geeks are stronger but they are more geeky. The other fantastical element is that there is a band of hunters that are trying to eliminate the world of geeks.

The main plot is centred around Sarah. Mark has a girlfriend but, with him spending most of his time with his new friends, he isn’t spending as much time as she would like with her. Sarah, on the other hand, would like to hook up with Mark but knows that he is taken.

The hunters form the main sub-plot. It bubbles along in the background and, just when you start forgetting about them, there’s another development.

The comic tends to follow Mark, Abbie (a friend of Sarah’s) and Sarah. However, the comic sometimes centres on Joel, the mysterious member of the gang.

Do you love Star Trek and/or Star Wars? Do you role play? Do you like comics? If the answer is “yes”, maybe you should meet the gang.

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Bruno

Posted on October 21, 2010 by | Leave a comment

And it’s that time of year again, when the weather in the Northern Hemisphere starts growing cooler, nights longer, and as Halloween starts creeping over the horizon, the Guest Reviews appear. Unfortunately, the economy being as it is, we’ve had slim pickings this year in the Guest review front. We do have two nice reviews, however; the first from the creator of the webcomic A Moment of Peace, Abigail Corfman. The next will be up on the 26th… followed by the first installment of a e-novel I’ve been writing on the 28th. And now for the review:

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‘Bruno’ is a black and white webcomic about a young painfully intelligent and blisteringly opinionated girl trying to find her place in the world. It is dialogue heavy by necessity — each ‘strip’ is actually one long or tall panel with an illustrated scene and a conversation between characters. This is comic very much driven by characters, not by any sort of an overarching plot.

The comics vacillate between being long and rambling, and quick and pithy. Almost all of the humor is character based–Bruno’s reactions to people around her.

Bruno’s cynicism and indecisive anxiety can be grating, but it is generally offset by her wry sense of humor, insight, and occasional deviations into unrepentant silliness. As a reader you will probably find yourself empathizing with Bruno’s friends– and forgiving her her flaws for the sake of her charm and the occasional perfect luminescence of character she displays.

‘Bruno’ the comic has a very pronounced flaws that are extremely evident in the beginning, but gentle as the comic goes on. In the beginning, it tosses you immediately into the action without providing exposition. You need to pay careful attention to the conversations the characters are having to figure out who everyone is and where you are.

There are sufficient cues in the dialogue to orient you, but it’s easy to miss one (I didn’t figure out the comic had started in New England until Bruno left and came back) and it’s shocking to immediately have so much pressure on the reader to figure out everything.

On the bright side, this rewards an attentive the reader with understanding and the satisfaction of having figured things out for yourself. Even when somewhat incomprehensible, Bruno’s style is interesting and engaging. The comic doesn’t talk down to you, the characters regularly discuss complex ideas and don’t shy away from big words. Is rewarding and educational to read.

But getting back to criticism, there are a few points early on where it’s simply impossible to get sufficiently oriented. I initially assumed Bruno was at college because people kept talking about it, and was startled to find out she was on break. There were many instances where you meet a character, and only later discover how significant they are. There also many instances where you need a character, and then never ever see them again.

The snapshot style of the comic makes it difficult to intuitively keep track of how much time is passing. Given all these obstacles it’s extremely impressive that it all hangs together as well as it does. The author quickly learns how to transition us more gradually from situation to situation, and to focus more on individual characters (other than Bruno) to help us develop relationships with them.

The comic really comes into its own with the introduction of Amy, Bruno’s niece. This happens in the archives on April 29, 1996. if you’re not entertained by then, put it back on the digital shelf.

I want to make a particular note about characters. The vastness of Bruno’s cast is a beautiful and potentially befuddling thing. Christopher Baldwin does an exquisite job drawing faces. Faces pop out from every comic, the focus and the point. Vivid and expressive. The story is character based, and the drawing style expresses this by making people’s emotions the centerpiece of every image.

And the voices of the characters are wonderfully varied and evocative. It’s obvious this author loves people.

The comic has some trouble resolving itself, and sometimes seems to lack direction. Appropriately, Bruno constantly struggles with these very same problems. You could argue that this indecision is an elegant metaphor for Bruno’s life, but it seems more likely that it’s the artist not knowing what to do next.

To summarize: Bruno’s main flaw is that it is sometimes confusing and indecisive, but it’s a beautiful and challenging character piece.

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Guest Reviews – A Girl and Her Fed

Posted on October 20, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Heyla all! Assuming the auto-updater actually works properly, this will show up while I’m freezing my extremities in Colorado while hunting Elk armed with a digital camera (because no one is going to trust me with a hunting rifle! Besides, hunting licenses cost money!); actually, I’m accompanying my father after years of his offering to take me along. Assuming everything goes well, I should be back before Halloween. And if it doesn’t… well, that’ll explain the lack of updates. Guest reviews will be up on October 14, 20, and 25.

Seeing that I’m entirely too lazy to write up reviews ahead of time, I put out a call for guest reviews. This is the second of the reviews, by HiFranc (who has recommended this comic to me in the past).

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Review of A Girl and Her Fed:

When Otter, the artist, started her style was very different to what it is now.  She is in the process of updating the archives to make the art consistent throughout, and to correct plot holes and pacing.  At the time of writing (August 2009) the update is not yet complete so the old strips form the middle if you go to the new archives.

I’ll warn you now that there is a lot of swearing in this comic and there are a few bedroom scenes.

To get an idea of the art and a quick introduction to two of the characters here is the first page:

The first page as it originally was:

The new version of the first page:

The comic is about a young woman (the “Girl” of the title), who is in touch with the ghost of Benjamin Franklin.  At the start she thinks he’s just a hallucination because she is the only person who can see him.  The Government is keeping an eye on her because for some reason she’s unjustly listed on a no fly list.  She is also an unpaid intern for a newspaper.

The agent (wait for it….the ”Fed” of the title) who has been assigned to her has his own invisible friend.  He is part of a secret programme where a chip has been inserted into his head and the display is projected in mid air such that only people in the programme can see it.  The interface looks like President Bush.

Someone connected to a local politician dies and our heroine[1] decides to investigate.  The agent decides to help her so the two of them start following the clues.  The comic follows them on their mission to discover the truth.  It also charts their relationship.

Otter has informed us that the comic will end when the adventure is over.  The plan is for the comic to finish sometime in 2011.

How else can I describe the comic?  The plot is based on at least one conspiracy theory.  There is a mixture of light hearted strips and deadly serious ones.  The humour comes mostly from the interactions between the characters and some that you would expect in a sitcom.  In its own way it pokes fun at the paranoia that has engulfed most countries since the events of 2001.

How would I summarise its style?  The first thing that I can think of is: MASH meets Enemy of the State (but our heroine and hero are far from helpless).

In short, if you want a fun conspiracy thriller with a lot of humour, ghosts and strange characters then A Girl and Her Fed is the comic for you.  If that doesn’t grab you then you’re probably best giving it a miss.

[1] Sorry for the lack of a name but the author has specifically hidden that information from her readers.

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Guest Reviews – Weesh

Posted on October 15, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Heyla all! Assuming the auto-updater actually works properly, this will show up while I’m freezing my extremities in Colorado while hunting Elk armed with a digital camera (because no one is going to trust me with a hunting rifle! Besides, hunting licenses cost money!); actually, I’m accompanying my father after years of his offering to take me along. Assuming everything goes well, I should be back before Halloween. And if it doesn’t… well, that’ll explain the lack of updates. Guest reviews will be up on October 14, 20, and 25.

Seeing that I’m entirely too lazy to write up reviews ahead of time, I put out a call for guest reviews. This is the first of the reviews, by one of my competitors contemporaries, the WebcomiCritic. So if you’re surprised by the change in writing style and different style of graphics… well, I didn’t write it. No doubt it’ll be a vacation for all of you as well. Meanwhile, enjoy!

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Review Number 1: Weesh

Hello I’m the WebcomiCritic, I do it because, well… Somebody has to!

Good god, where have I been? when was the last time i reviewed something, a month? I’m losing my touch and I don’t even have it yet! That’s the LAST time I accept an offer to go to New Orleans for a month!

Now, how are my fans (Or Lack thereof.)?

DEAR LORD! Okay Okay okay! I’ll make it up to you, All four of you! here is it, right here, one bonifide review, ready for the world to draw its opinions from…

All kids would want a genie. All adults would want a genie. ANYbody would want a genie. Okay, maybe not everybody (FOOLISH GIRL!), but They’re seriously just cool. I think Aladdin may have influenced that, but let’s face it, who wouldn’t want a being that could grant your every wish? Pretty righteous, huh? Heck, if people asked what kind of superpower I’d want, I’d say wish-granting (Subset of Reality bending ^_^).

Why about wishes? Well look at the title of this comic, it’s called freaking Weesh. Sound like anything to you? This comic is AWESOME. Okay, maybe not “awesome” but “adequately satisfying!”

Unlike my usual Newbie Rants, this comic is made by a veteran webcomic artist known as Dan Hess. Mr. Hess is famous for his works such as Angel Moxie, Realms of Ishikaze, and Rebus.

Well, in July of 2008, Mr. Hess enters the webcomic scene once again with kid’s story about wishes…


When I first saw this comic I was drawn in by the art. Not by how clear, crisp and cute it was (Okay, maybe it was) but I couldn’t help thinking “Where have I seen this artwork before?” Further research led me back to Angel Moxie, a webcomic I couldn’t quite get into in my younger days. In retrospect, Angel Moxie rules as a parody of the Magical Girl genre and plays it straight at the same time. Also, you can really tell how much the art has improved and yet you can tell it was the same guy who did it, even though it seems almost radically different.

With that said, I guess I’m talking about the art style first. it fits the tone of the comic very well. It’s smooth, innocent, and has a very flexible feel. The large heads and skinny bodies can be difficult to pull off but this guy has it down to a science. The characters are appropriately designed, including the title creature, Weesh. It has a very unique design. You dpn’t see too many green bunny/kangaroo-like thing with stumpy legs and a stringy tail granting wishes. He went out of his way to make a unique design and I’m proud of him for that. Mr. Hess also has backgrounds down perfectly. but then, he’s a veteran and a professional, should we expect anything less?

The style makes me think anime super deformed (cute and tiny breaks from the ordinary style for comedy and silliness.) but apparently Mr. Hess knows haw to make laziness and turn it into hard work.

What’s more, he’s flexible. He has backgrounds and scenery down and he’s able to do a good mecha and monster. I still can’t do anything good beyond drawing people!

Now, the story is as good as any story will get. He’s put the comic in the format of a 4 panel gag-a-day, similar to Angel Moxie, only Angel Moxie had a plot. this is basically something a person would find in the newspaper. In fact, it’d be perfect as a newspaper comic, good money made that way. No! Wait! It’s too good for that! It wouldn’t be appreciated in the Washington Post, you deserve better. All shall know your greatness in another way… By why should they? I found you, you belong to Moi! No newspaper, nobody, NOTHING shall ever have you, my precious Weesh…

Uh, with that unhealthy moment of obsession aside… The stories are focuses around some wish the youngest two kids make and it’s results and consequences. Unlike most stories about wishes *coughfairlyoddparentscough* Mr. Hess doesn’t try to bore us with morals and aesops and run them into our craniums. the kids don’t care to learn lessons and aren’t willing to learn. Therefore, we continue with cute, innocent, lighthearted fun. Of course the lesson of how one phrases their wishes remains.

Another fascinating plotpoint is that Weesh is still in-training. When he isn’t messing up a wish because of wording, it’s because he’s not good enough. Hilarity ensues. It’s also a convenient plot device that Weesh isn’t good enough because it means that the wishes don’t last longer than approximately ten minutes. Hooray for Convenient and Clever Cover-ups! It’s like the gift that keeps on giving. Mr Hess created the perfect formula to create perfectly reasonable comic that can perpetually keep itself running for years to come and remain entertaining, provided some jokes aren’t recycled too quickly or he falls victim to Cerebus Syndrome. I doubt it though, the odds are horribly unlikely.

the characters are decently made as well. they’re 2 dimensional enough to be interesting and keep the plot going. Can’t be too 3 dimensional, heaven forbid a real story kicks in. The characters are the 3 Merle kids and genie; Weesh.

The youngest child is the impossibly innocent Olivia. she’s the quintessential 5 year old girl. She’s every stereotype you’d ever suspect to find in a little girl, innocent, cheerful, optimistic, has absolutely no idea of the consequences behind her actions, and she likes dollies and flowers…

My god, I can’t believe I wrote that. just thinking about her gives me goosebumps! What’s scarier is that Mr. Hess doesn’t subvert this character archetype; he embraces it. Most people usually reveal to us that their version of this character is secretly evil or a short and violent temper. But, no. This limits her wishes to the cute, innocent, and fun things in life that you’d expect any irresponsible and naive little kid to ask for. She also follows Mr. Hess’s tradition of incorporating one small, young, innocent, childish female character. Hooray for Recycling! Or maybe just a theme or motif, whatever it may be, he seems to make it work,

Next we have the middle child, Tate, who gives the feel of being at the most, 3 years older than Olivia. He represents the quintessential young boy who’s interested in aliens, rockets, monsters, jungles, and adventure. And to pump this up to the max, he’s a sci-fi geek. He makes the most wishes from what I’ve observed and hangs out with Weesh the most. Probably because his big sister doesn’t care and his little sister isn’t smart enough to realize Weesh’s true potential. But not only as a tool does he treat Weesh, but as a best friend. Like many boys his age, he’s easily bored and his attention span is abysmal. But let’s face it, if you have a wish granting kangaroo/rat thing you would be as bored as sin with everything else.

And finally, Zoey, the stereotypical quintessential young teen rebel girl filled with sarcasm, sardonicness, and apathy. Who could ask for more? Who cares if she’s also a walking stereotype, I’m a sucker for these characters. she may not be the life of the party but she certainly puts her own spin on things. Her general apathy towards Weesh is a bit discomforting. The ability to have wishes granted before she gets too old and she doesn’t give rat’s hind-corners? What has age done to this poor girl? She thinks these things out way too well! Well, except for when it really matters. Though, like most characters of her build, she has a heart somewhere in there.

And then there’s Weesh himself. He’s the reason why morals don’t get shoved down our throats. He doesn’t learn, thus destined to repeat the same mistakes for whichever family he meets. Weesh is the second most sarcastic character, Zoey being numero one. This guy is lazy and laid-back. He’s no walking stereotype unlike the rest of the family, unless you want to draw some Garfield parallel and even that’s stretching it. This guy is original in so many ways which I will get to soon.

Like now. This guy is pretty creative, I must give Mr. Hess points for originality. I mean, Weesh first and foremost. He’s no traditional genie, in neither appearance nor origin. His limitations aren’t rules (so far) but instead by how much licorice he can eat. Yes, a wish granter powered by licorice! The characters act like a big happy family rather than making Weesh a tool. They can confide each other in the silliest or most serious of things. And the wishes are about what any kid would wish for. I’ve seen Fairly Odd parents, most of those wishes are far too ridiculous to be relateable. The Rule of funny rules that show while the rule of… Everything Good rules Weesh.

Speaking fo funny, Yes, Mr. Hess has good jokes. Unfortunately they tend to fall flat. I don’t mean they’re bad nor poorly executed. They’re just kinda “meh”. You’ll good a smile, sometimes a chuckle, maybe even a laugh if he was feeling good that day. But not something I’ll be rolling on the floor in laughter with. The jokes aren’t by any means bad, but defiantly not top notch. Merely above adequate.

And that’s Weesh, I have nothing bad to say in a humorous manner about this one. Sorry folks, I’ll try to be more critical next time, but I’ll need a fairly repulsive comic to do it.

Until next time. I wanted to finish off with a Weesh quote, but this one really stood out.

“How can anyone ignore puppies?”-Olivia

-Read or Die you Uneducated Buffoons
The WebcomiCritic

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Guest Review – Zona

Posted on January 28, 2008 by | Leave a comment

The Challenges of Zona

Before starting this review, I think it is important to get one thing out of the way. The Challenges of Zona is a very sexual comic. The title character is a half-naked barbarian woman and it doesn’t take very long for her to have sex with the main male character. She’s even part of a people known as the Erogenians. If you come to this comic, expect sexuality on the order of that found in The Lounge or Flipside.

OK, still here? So the comic is about a self-professed loser from San Bernardino, Mentl, who touches a magic book one day and gets transported to a fantasy realm. When we meet Mentl, he is traveling through the woods in some clothes that he stole in order to fit in, his only possession the aforementioned book. He wanders into a campsite after smelling meat cooking, only to find that the meat being cooked is human, and the cookers are demonic lizard people. They come after him, but he is saved in the knick of time by the sudden appearance of a sword wielding barbarian woman who makes short and bloody work of the Urtts as they are called. This is, of course, Zona, the title character.

I would hardly dare to call this an original plot, and even the twist that he gets a hold of a lute, and is able to charm people playing classic rock songs is pretty similar to an Alan Dean Foster story I read once. But it is also said that there are no new stories, and I’ve seen this basic plot done a lot worse. There is a good helping of humor in the comic to go with the action. In a dig at the classic barbarian warrior woman story (Red Sonja), there is one knight who keeps showing up to try and defeat Zona in battle, cause he heard that she was a virgin warrior who would only give herself to someone who could defeat her in battle. This greatly surprises Mentl since he had just slept with her the night before. Then there is a mysterious old man that appears to Mentl sometimes, and likes to pepper his speech with quotes from Star Wars. In many ways, it is a silly comic, but JE Draft (the comic creator) doesn’t make the mistake of having his characters take it lightly. They are serious about serious matters, and have fun when they have fun, and the fourth wall stays pretty darn sturdy. But, mostly, when it comes down to it, while as an original epic tale of fantasy the Challenges of Zona is nothing special, as a romantic tale of two people falling in love, it actually works pretty well. Zona, while physically imposing can be pretty vulnerable emotionally, and Mentl is smitten from the start, but has to deal with the fact that he knows nothing about this world he is on and its customs, and the fear that he will mess things up like he has done with everything before in his life.

Now as for the presentation itself, this is a 3-D comic, and it is undoubtedly initially created with Poser or some similar software, but the range of expression of the characters, the richness of the scenery, and the care taken with lighting put the art a cut above most computer generated comics. The action sequences flow well, and while I’m no expert at putting comics together, the fact that I’ve never gotten confused about the panel sequences seems to point to JE being pretty good at that aspect of things. The magic affects generally seem well done as well, looking good visually without being over the top. Some other aspects are a little more hit or miss. Some of the clothing works better than others (Mentl’s never seems to work all that well) and sometimes the eyes of the characters in particular fall into the uncanny valley. I also wouldn’t call this a pretty comic; there is not a lot of warmth to most of the tones, the skin is a bit too shiny and the world is a lot more Boris Vallejo than Charles Vess. But, I can’t fault the effort that is put into the comic particularly when compared to some of the comics out there. There are lots of details that either point to heavy work on textures or heavy post-production. JE hasn’t put up anything on how he puts the comic together, and I’m no CG expert, so I can only say that it looks like he puts in a lot of effort compared to many 3-D comics.

As for the website, it is functional, but could use improvement. There is hard to read text on the home page, the comic navigation is very basic with no good way to jump to a particular spot in the archives. The color scheme is pretty poor as well, and I’m guessing JE is more familiar with modeling software than HTML. Still, turning a bad website into a good website is a whole lot easier, IMHO, than turning a bad comic into a good comic, so I will hope that he gets someone with some usability abilities to help with the site, and in the meantime continue to read the comic.

As usual, whether you will like this comic or not will revolve on your tastes. I like a good romantic plot-line, don’t mind things being a bit bawdy, and can overlook the deficiencies in originality and navigation scheme. If your tastes and tolerances run similarly, I expect that you may like it too.

Eric Stokien aka Quiller

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Guest Review – The Wotch

Posted on September 7, 2007 by | Leave a comment

(Preword: One of my less-brilliant ideas in 2007 was an online webcomic review contest where the reviews would be judged by three existing webcomic reviewers (myself, Steve Anderson, and Brett Hainley). Unfortunately, due to my having no funds to buy an actual prize that would encourage people to submit reviews, it petered out after only a couple of submissions, and was put out of its misery in April of 2008. Rather than strip the reviews of the commentary from Steve, Brett, and myself, I’m keeping the submissions as-is.)

Review:

The Wotch

This isn’t exactly one of those reviews that you recently called for, Tangent. Instead, I thought I’d chime in with some more insight into your recent exploration of (what is probably) an emerging relationship with Jason and Katie in The Wotch, which you determined with simple gestures and seemingly vague interpretations of dialogue in a couple of recent one-shots.

This isn’t exactly the first time when Katie and Jason’s relationship was touched upon. A much earlier one-shot from over a year ago has a recollection of a previous time when Katie was alone with Jason, which “still haunts [her].” Although their dialogue was obscured by the ensuing chaos of a lab accident, readers can basically read the undertones of what the strip may have been implying (especially when Katie grabs her hair, which Jason has a known fetish for). And at the end of the strip, they both agreed to forgive and forget. This may indicate that she still has feelings for him.

On a side note, I sometimes wonder if this “last time” was the reason why Jason (assuming the incident occurred before the much earlier Slumber Party of Doom arc) was refused invitation to the all-girl slumber party. It was Katie specifically who stated that Anne shouldn’t bring him over. Jason’s history with Samantha Wolf (another redhead and a good friend of Katie) was never stated in the comic if he even had one, so we’re uncertain if she was aware of his own actions, yet she nodded in agreement when Katie told Anne not to inform him of the party. Was Jason’s fetish too well-known across Tandy Gardens High School, or did Katie warn all the other redheads on campus and she just wants him to stay away? If it’s the latter, would Katie might’ve wanted Jason gone as a ruse to keep him from meeting and developing a relationship with other attractive redheads? It’s a long shot, I know, but Anne has thrown curveballs before (warning to new Wotch readers who are still catching up on the archives: that linked strip is spoilerific), so it makes you wonder…

Anyway, back to the present. What I found interesting in the latest one-shot was that the random girl who passed by the crew at the mall happened to be blonde, and “Kevin” couldn’t help but ogle at her. Could it be possible that Katie maybe has a personality that mirrors Jason’s, where she’s a redhead and has a fetish for blond hair, while Jason’s a blond and has a fetish for red hair? Again, I’m aware that this is just more wild speculation, but this can maybe grasp a piece of the puzzle as to why the incident from long ago happened in the first place. When she discovered Sonja, the fact that Jason was a girl probably wasn’t the only factor bothering her; she also probably disliked seeing someone she secretly (perhaps even unconsciously) admired constantly abandoning her own fetishes. She probably finds another redhead as anti-”eye-candy” just like the way Jason finds another blonde (even himself) as anti-”eye-candy.”

As you said in your editorial, this relationship is definitely intriguing.

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Steve Anderson: Are we speaking FARSI here? Is the concept just too damn vague for everyone to wrap his or her head around? It’s American REVIEWER! Not American Essayist or American Rebuttal or American Paint-a-Picture-With-Words or even American Primal Scream Therapy Hour (though that would kinda kick ass). It’s American. REVIEWER.

Write. A. Review! Send. It. To. Us! We. Will. Read. And. Discuss. It!

Hopefully now we’re all clear on the rules….

At least this one’s closer than the last one I read. Look…you’re within striking distance, okay? Next time, just leave previous works out of this, read a comic, and tell us about it. Granted, you’ve broken some interesting ground here and made some pretty damn nifty points, but you have not actually REVIEWED THE COMIC!! This is not the time to get all avant-garde on us. Review is a simple process designed to help people make a critical decision about their commercial choices. Read or not read? Buy or not buy? Watch or not watch? Yes, no, or maybe and a little space devoted to why.

That is review. And that is also exactly what this submittor has not done.

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Robert Howard: My vote is against it:

You have some very interesting points here. However, this reads more like a forum board post or a Letter to the Editor than a review. Of course, that’s a common complaint of a number of my reviews, but it’s a valid point. You touch upon some issues concerning the characters and raise some good points… but what about the comic itself? We don’t really gain any insight into The Wotch as a whole from your comments. Indeed, without having read my own review, the reader is left wondering just what is going on here.

This can work. However, what you’d need to do is craft this review around the comic, not around my own comments. Talk about the comic and about characterization… and then draw in this interaction between Jason and Katie to prove a point about characterization and the “ripple effect” that happens over time.
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Brett Hainley: This isn’t a review. It’s a critical analysis. Not only that, it’s a rebuttal of somebody else’s critical analysis.

No.

.

.

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