Zuda Comics Now Live
The first set of webcomics are now posted at Zuda Comics. Anyone want to review them for me?
Update: Sean Kleefeld doesn’t take the easy way out — he’s got a lot more reaction and analysis.
Independent Opinions, News, and Reviews of Graphic Novels, Manga, and Comic Books
6:20 pm
Hmm, not reviews just quick thoughts:
The Good:
The Bayou – Which has already been named a winner by the site. Its an interesting premise with a story set in the deep south in 1933. Not sure about the supernatural part but I’ll look at part two. Easily the best of the bunch.
Battlefield Babysitter – While The Bayou is the best done, this was the one I enjoyed most. Starring a young woman whose family is disappointed in her, because she doesn’t have superpowers or want them Its a little familiar but still a lot of fun. The lead’s fresh attitude kind of reminded me of Cynical Girl which was a favorite. WAY back when.
The I Want to Like But….
Raining Cats and Dogs – I like the art a lot but I couldn’t read the story as the lettering was SO horrible that I couldn’t make it out.
In fact most of the lettering on the Zudu was hard to read, unless you zoomed in very close. I have a 16 inch screen on my laptop and was getting annoyed.
The American Strife – A daily diary of an artist expressing himself should be interesting. It was actually very boring though. Jokes were either not funny, or were things I’d seen done before only better done. (Jesus is always with me one especially)
In The Eh Not for Me category
Leprinomicom – A Leprechaun has teamed up with a human descended from the toughest guy in Ireland for some adventure that I’m not aware of. Honestly I don’t care after the 8 pages, as its nothing but one lame cranky dialogue joke after another.
High Moon – I don’t like westerns and don’t care much for horror, so this combination of the two would have to be outstanding to win me. It wasn’t, though there were some nicely done individual panels that struck the dark mood well.
The Dead Seas – I don’t get the whole big sword manga/video game adventure genre. The artists here really needs to work on storytelling as there were panels that had no flow at all.
Last and definitely least:
Dead in the Now – No story, awkward art and dialogue that needs both spelling and grammar check used.
Black Swan – Ancient possessed dagger finds itself in the hands of busty clueless teen girl. It could have been fun, but it tries too hard to be hip and cool and just comes off as lame.
Alpha Monkey and The Enders – I’m combining these two as they both seemed to have the same problem. They seem created by people who have read WAY too many superhero comics and very little else.
Jokes or story points are hinged on whether the reader knows certain superhero conventions. Since the creators certainly didn’t show any ability to come up with anything original on their own. Or heck even tell much of a cohesive story. (look at the first page of The Enders if you have time to waste and tell me if those panels telling the origin should be in a different order)
6:20 pm
What struck me was that almost every female character on the site has a bare midriff. I wonder if that was by editorial mandate. But it was oh so thoughtful of them to include one female creator.
6:21 pm
Alpha Monkey:
If a wealthy six year old decided to write a comic script and hire a
professional artist they’d probably end up with something like this.
Ok, that’s a little unfair…maybe an eight year old.
The art is slick, nothing to get excited about but it’s the right
style for the story, executed well.
The story is obnoxious gibberish. What’s the market for this
seriously? Drunk children? If I had kids I wouldn’t want them reading
this crap. Just horrible.
Battlefield Babysitter:
The art is decent, not to my taste but cleanly put together. Overall
it feels more like a storyboard than a comic though. That could just
be because the art is so sparse.
The script is a bit of a mess. The dialogue is actually fairly
convincing, the banter and father/daughter chat didn’t provoke any
cringing. The narration is awkward in places though and I have no
idea why the heroine is running from the cops. Nothing great, nothing
horrible though overall.
Black Swan:
I can’t tell if these are the first eight panels of the story or if
he’s mashed various panels together to make a comic “trailer”. Either
way the dialogue is beyond weak and the story not strong enough to
make up for it.
The ‘modern day’ art is dull and lifeless, the ‘in the past’
brushwork is decent enough although he lost the plot with that first
page, it could have been a much stronger and leaner composition.
Forgettable.
Dead in the Now:
I actually like the art in this one, it’s confident and distracts you
from the almost complete absence of a story over 8 pages. The script
doesn’t read like it was written by someone who’s comfortable with
the english language (same goes for Black Swan to an extent). It
feels like a redbull and pixie stick fueled fever dream put onto
paper after a month of being forced to watch poorly dubbed anime.
Really couldn’t care less about the main character here.
High Moon:
I think this is great. I would have hoped that all the first
‘solicited’ entries would have been this solid in all areas. I’m not
saying the story is anything groundbreaking, but it’s well written
and engaging. The art is excellent, the sketchy woodcut look really
makes great use of digital paintings strengths.
Leprenomicon:
Yeah…everything here seems pretty half assed. I expected something
interesting art-wise from Ruiz given how long he’s been working and
that he _teaches_ comics, maybe an explosion of something fresh style-
wise, but these are just weak sketchy pencils. I think the lead
character is just Reggie from Riverdale fallen on hard times.
The story could be solid, but I can’t get past the art to care.
High Moon:
I think this is great. I would have hoped that all the first
‘solicited’ entries would have been this solid in all areas. I’m not
saying the story is anything groundbreaking, but it’s well written
and engaging. The art is excellent, the sketchy woodcut look really
makes great use of digital painting’s strengths.
Raining Cats and Dogs:
Ugh…this sort of photoshop/whatever paint program work is just like
nails on a chalkboard to me, all visual static and tangles of super
flat imagery and drop shadow induced depth. In a word, sloppy. The 20-
somethings living together type setting usually does pretty well if
it’s at least adequately written, I can’t tell if this is or not
based on these 8 pages. There’d be _alot_ of appeal for the look and
subject matter of this out there I’m just not sure it’s a market
that’s been turned on to Zuda yet.
The Dead Seas:
Another solid package of story and art. Again, nothing
groundbreaking, but something I wouldn’t mind seeing more of.
The Enders:
Art is competent, nothing special. The story is just garbage though.
How is attacking and then throwing a nuclear power plant into space
helping her in her quest? Did the Ender also grant her the power of
idiocy? Why does she sometimes seem to have a southern accent? Why
does Mr. Smith not realise that constantly referring to “the event
that will blow up the world” sounds ridiculous? Just…ugh.
This American Strife:
Beyond dull. The sort of stuff you keep in your sketch book and don’t
show anyone else because it only means anything to you. At best this
should be posted on your blog. Longo also seems to be making alot of
passing comments about how restricted he was by the format and blah
blah blah. Suck it up. This sort of commentary/humour stuff needs to
have a recurring cast of players for the audience to recognise and be
drawn in by. Or it needs to be actually funny (ie Perry Bible
Fellowship).
Somethings I have to ask all of your opinions on though:
Is Daddy Dinosaur having sex with his daughter in panel 4 of that
page? I can’t tell what the hell is meant to be happening there.
What in god’s name do page 6 and 7 mean? Are they just horrible puns?
The Bayou:
Very disappointed with the art on this one. The banner ad looked
great but the final product is just a collection of sloppy colour
comps. Are we meant to find the pencil lines everywhere endearing?
There’s clearly been no time put into the art here. The story could
be good, I thought the synopsis was promising and that still stands.
The art is a big deal to me though and there’s nothing magical about
that aspect of this work.
I know I’m being negative, but I was hoping for alot more from Zuda out of the gate.
6:22 pm
There’s not one out of the eleven that I enjoyed without reservation. There were several I liked with reservation, and of those, I thought the best was Dead in the Now. Corey Lewis seems to be one of those “you like it or you hate it” tastes; me, I wouldn’t mind seeing a whole imprint with his art style. Story concept is not bad either, though it barely gets underway in the space allotted, and it’s a leetle too close to DEATH NOTE for comfort.