The Watcher's Webcomic Reviews

Templar, Arizona

2007-06-23T10:23:00.001-07:00

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/spike/Templar/series.php

Genre- Comedy, long-form, online graphic novel, slice-of-life

Creator- Spike

Other Info- Sepia-toned, updates 3 times weekly

Introduction

Templar, Arizona is a long-form comic that has been around for a little over two years, as of the time of this writing. It has been nominated for several awards and recognitions, and has won a few of those as well. The recognition is certainly well-deserved. Not only is this comic very professionally done, it is one of the most unique comics you will ever have the chance to read.

Synopsis

The town of Templar, Arizona exists in an alternate universe than our own. This does not mean that the comic is a science fiction story, but it is important to note that the town does not exist, and the author is in no way trying to set the comic in our reality, despite the name. There are many aspects to this world that do not coincide with our own.

The story begins with Benjamin Kowalski waking to a very rude phone call from his editor. He is apparently a writer for a newspaper, and has just been promoted. We follow Ben throughout his day, as he interacts with his neighbors. One of his neighbors, Reagan, learns that Ben hasn't hardly left the house since moving to Templar, and forcibly takes him out to explore the town. They go a few places and meet a few people, most notably Scipio, a large but gentle man, and talk. A lot. Later, Ben has an encounter with a man who has just been part of a riot. The next day, Ben meets up with Reagan and Scipio again, and they talk about his encounter with the man from the riot. And then they go to a hockey game, but it was cancelled.

It sounds boring to sum up that way, but it really isn't. What the characters are doing is not really the focus of the comic so far, the true beauty of this comic is in the characterization.

First Impression

Reaching the website, I am greeted by a simple layout with the comic in the middle and some navigation buttons below it. Simple and easy. The comic itself is unique, sepia-toned with a lot of black filled in areas and a ton of line variation. The style is semi-realistic but very expressive. I immediately like it. Clicking the "first" button, I get to reading.

From this first impression, I am already enjoying the comic. I really wish more comics would use a simple site design rather than throwing links all over the place with complex menus, banners, ads, and splash pages. While such things can be done well, they seldom are. Templar's website is simple and easy to navigate, giving me the comic immediately and making it simple for me to read it. And upon further examination, there are plenty of other options available if the reader really wants to look for them. There's fan art, several other comics that the author has created, a cast page, etc. But the comic itself takes priority and the majority of the focus, as it should be.

The Art

The art in this comic is amazingly clean, expressive, and unique. The artist's choice to use sepia-tones rather than black and white or full color adds to this unique feel, and gives the comic an almost rustic feel. In the comic, it is explained that there is a lot of dust in the air in this town, so much that during the summer you have to wear a mask to avoid lung damage. The sepia really adds to that dusty feeling. I feel the color scheme was a good choice.

The line art itself is also amazing. The first few pages do seem somewhat awkward, with Ben appearing just a little too slender and childlike. But this slight awkwardness is quickly resolved, and by about the tenth page we see the style that stays pretty consistent throughout. The artist is clearly a professional, or at least professional level, and has no trouble whatsoever with any angle, expression, or setting. Expressions seem to be her forte, and this comic contains some of the most expressive characters I have ever seen in a comic.

There are a few weak points to the art. While the expressions are generally excellent, they do occasionally get out of hand and go a little further than perhaps they should to be effective. In some panels, the character's expressions distort their faces to a ridiculous degree, and could perhaps be pulled back just a notch for the greatest effect. This is most commonly seen in the character Reagan, who is often pictured with her lips pursed off to one side. Occasionally the lips move just bit too far off to the side and ruin the expression.

Another weak point is the artist's handling of buildings and scenery. Occasionally, the comic will show an aerial view of a section of town or a skyline. These scenes tend to lack the amazing shading given to the characters and appear somewhat flat in comparison.

The Writing

The writing is where this comic truly shines. So far, in over two years of comics, the plot has hardly inched forward. We still know nothing about the "plot" of this story. The writer has focused almost entirely on character development and world building. She has done this so well, however, that it's very easy to just get into the dialog and characterization and forget that not much is really happening. The humor is spot-on and at times laugh-out-loud hilarious. Though it is quite vulgar at times, and chalk full of cursing, which may be a turn-off to some, it certainly adds a lot to the character's personalities. These people act like people do. And these people are interesting.

I do have to say, however, that it does eventually run thin. I read the entire comic in the span of a few hours, and by the end found myself itching for the meat of the story to unfold. It seemed like things were starting to get exciting toward the end of the first chapter, but then it was back to the same crawling pace in chapter two. While the characters and dialog are able to support a lot of non-action, I'm afraid that, for me at least, action is eventually necessary. And I don't mean fight scenes and explosions, I mean plot advancement. While I highly suspect that the plot has been advanced somewhat, that plot is still invisible to the reader. We literally have no idea what this story is about, other than the life of Benjamin. Character development and world-building is very important, but can be continued (in some cases more easily) while advancing the story along. At this point, I almost feel like the writer is using this comic as an experiment to see how long she can go without anything really happening. And for me, that got old about page #140.

Summary

Templar, Arizona is a truly unique and amazing comic. It's a slice-of-life comic in an alternate universe, which immediately sets it apart. It also manages to somehow stay riveting despite not much happening. In over two years, the story has not even encompassed two days. It is a testament to the skill of the writer that this comic has gained popularity and acclaim, and she should certainly be applauded for her amazing characterization and world-building (not to mention the fascinating world she is building). The artistic ability displayed in this comic is also astounding. There is nothing stiff or unbelievable about the art, and Spike has made many excellent choices throughout the creation of this comic, from color scheme to the angles shown in each panel.

The biggest weak point of the comic is its lack of forward momentum. While the creator has gone to great pains to display the amazing detail of her characters and the world in which they exist, she has now done so at the expense of the plot. While what is there is fascinating and enjoyable, it could be even more enjoyable with a bit of forward movement.

Rating and Explanation of Rating

90%

There's not really much to improve upon in this comic. The web design is superbly simple, the art is catchy and iconic, and the writing is beyond amazing. I had to mark the art down just slightly for its weak depiction of cityscapes and its occasional over-the-top expressions. But the biggest drawback of this comic, for me, was the lack of forward plot progression. Still, I would have to say this comic is one of the best on the internet.

Alaska Robotics

2007-06-22T21:09:00.000-07:00

http://akrobotics.com/comics/akrobotics

Genre- Comedy, "gag-a-day"

Creator- Pat Race

Other Info- Full color, no specified update schedule

Introduction

Alaska Robotics is a relatively new comic, as of this writing, begun January of 2007. It has so far only updated 10 times, and is on no set schedule. It has quirky humor, and seems to feature a set of characters from the author's acquaintance. I suppose this makes it something of an exaggerated autobiographical comic.

One would expect a very part-time comic of this sort to be extremely amateur. Alaska Robotics, however, delivers more quality art and solid humor than many long-running webcomics. It leads me to wonder if perhaps the creator of this comic has had many years of prior experience in comics, but that information is not readily available.

Synopsis

A comic of the gag-a-day variety, this comedic comic, so far, has no ongoing plot of any sort. Rather, it focuses on random events in the cast of character's lives. Because the characters themselves seem to be based on the author and his friends, one might imagine that these jokes are exaggerated from actual events. That is unclear. There is no attempt to reference previous strips in order to understand current updates, and in fact the latest update, titled "Magnetic Poetry," is the first time a robot appears in the comic, and also the first time the regular cast of characters does not appear. So unless things change in future updates, it looks like this comic is strictly a bunch of stand-alone, one-shot comics.

First Impression

This comic's website is an exercise in minimalism, which is usually advisable for webcomics lest they get confusing. There is nothing confusing about this site at all. This comic is actually one of several hosted on the same site, each of which has a small section all to itself. There is a top menu, previous and next buttons, and a link to discuss each comic in a forum. Immediately I felt at ease, knowing that I didn't need to think about the web design. The comic itself appears in the middle of the page, large enough to see clearly. It's a crystal-clear image without any pixelation or bad anti-aliasing. The art style is clean and pleasing to the eye.

The Art

Having read a lot of webcomics, you usually see the greatest change in style and improvement over the first few updates. This is the case even more-so when the creator of the comic is somewhat new to comics in general, or trying a new style. With Alaska Robotics, the look and style of the first 10 updates is extremely consistent. I highly suspect that either the creator of the comic is not new to comics at all, or has been working in the same style for many years. If this is not the case, I would be surprised. Either way, the consistency is a good thing, because the art style is pleasing to look at.

This is one of those super-clean all digital vectored comics that have become so characteristic of webcomics. That being said, just because the method may be common, the quality of this particular comic is uncommon. The action is well depicted, the art style works very well with the subject matter, and there's only one noticeable cut-and-paste in the ten current updates. The art style kind of reminds me of Chris Vangompel's work on Hockey Zombie. It has the same smooth, vectored look, the same sort of facial hair depictions, and the same round blank eyes. While Vangompel changes up the line widths, however, Pat Race has chosen instead to keep line widths the same throughout and use more contrasted shading to indicate depth. It works quite well, keeping the art both simple and making it pop all at once. Another positive aspect of the art is the sparing use of Photoshop effects. Many beginning comics throw in effects and textures to disguise their lack of experience or drawing skill. So far, this comic has only used a few glowy effects, and they are not the least bit overdone.

Distinctively lacking in this comic are decent backgrounds. The foreground characters are usually simply contrasted against a solid colored background, leaving the reader to guess where the characters might be based upon the action or dialog. While this does not encumber the jokes to any great degree, addition of detailed backgrounds would improve the overall polished look of the art, and give the reader more of a frame of reference for each set-up.

The Writing

The writing in this type of comic is usually going to be hit and miss. When the author has not nailed down a specific theme for their humor, and the jokes derive from a variety of subject matter, there are bound to be some that fall flat. With Alaska Robotics, that does not happen very often. Of course, with only ten updates to view so far, it is hard to make an accurate judgment. I laughed at most of the jokes. Also notable is the fact that this comic seems to be written about a close group of friends, yet the author has managed to avoid obvious in-jokes. All of these jokes are enjoyable to the audience at large.

The humor of this comic is hard to describe. It's almost philosophical at times, and at times just lighthearted silliness. There's office humor, roommate humor, and general humor. None of the jokes are fall down hilarious, but none of them are complete duds either. Most of all, they just make me smile. It is a completely inoffensive and sincere comic.

Summary

Alaska Robotics is a new comic, in terms of updates, so it's hard to say anything definitive about it just yet. What is there, however, is far better than could be expected of most new comics. With clean art, aspiring toward professional level, with a slight bit of improvement this comic could be among the best out there in the smooth vector style. The humor is mostly solid, with jokes that do not disappoint, but which also fail to meet the standard of some of the more popular gag-a-day strips.

Rating and Explanation of Rating

60%

This comic gets nearly full marks for its art, taking a slight hit due to its lack of backgrounds. The writing, while not bad at all, is a little hit and miss and perhaps somewhat vague. But the main thing I had to mark this comic down for was its update schedule, or lack thereof. Ten comics in six months does not give this comic much hope of obtaining an audience. Fortunately, everything I marked this comic down for is easy to fix, given a bit of time, and I think this comic has a great future if the creator sticks with it.

Girl Genius

2007-06-22T18:25:00.000-07:00

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/

Genre- Action/Adventure/Comedy

Authors- Phil and Kaja Foglio

Artists- Phil Foglio inks, Cheyenne Wright colors

Other Info- Full color, updates 3 times weekly

Introduction

While it is not completely uncommon for a webcomic to transition to print, Girl Genius is somewhat of an anomaly in the webcomic world in that it began as a strictly print comic, and has now transitioned to being 100% online. It does still release printed books at various intervals, but there are no more single issue comics of Girl Genius, as it is my understanding that there were previously. Phil Foglio is already something of a legend in print comics, bringing an altogether new and wonderful experience to the webcomic world, which is permeated with hobbyists.

This is a comic produced by a 3-person team, all professionals, so you would expect it to be an extremely well-done comic. It does not fail to live up to that expectation. Anyone familiar with webcomics in general will immediately see the difference in quality between this and most other webcomics. The art is polished, both in line work and coloring, the panel layouts are professional and dynamic, and the writing is generally top-notch.

Synopsis

This is a steampunk comic (or "gaslamp fantasy" as the Foglios prefer to call it). Steampunk is science fiction where technology never really advances past the steam engine, but this technology can be used to create things that are at least as advanced as today's technology, and usually more-so. Artificial intelligence, flying machines, and energy blasters are created using steam, chemicals, and cogs. In Girl Genius, the only people capable of creating such mechanical miracles are known as "sparks," and these people possess an inherent gift for creating such devices which usually manifests at puberty. The ability can be trained beyond its instinctual beginnings, but not all sparks are created equally. There are some very powerful sparks, and some that are not so grand. But most sparks are driven completely insane by their gift, making an adult semi-sane spark a rare and valuable thing.

The story begins with Agatha Clay, a somewhat awkward, if not somewhat deranged, girl who is going to the Transylvania Polygnostic University apparently to become a mechanic. She doesn't seem very good at anything, and is generally looked down upon by her professors and fellow students. All of this changes one day when, seemingly out of the blue, Agatha creates a huge, lumbering "clank" (a mechanical robot) to go after the local Baron. She is swept up by the baron onto his giant airship castle, where it is eventually discovered that she is in fact the heiress of a legendary spark family. She escapes the ship, along with a talking cat, Krosp, who was a failed experiment, and is relentlessly pursued by the Baron and others who wish to use her family name and her talents for their own purposes.

First Impression

Upon arriving at the Girl Genius website, you are greeted by a splash page with various options for how to proceed. The image is a girl holding a book with a bunch of airships in the background. The art style of the girl and the background do not match. The girl is drawn with thick, colored lines in a somewhat unappealing style. The background is super-polished in sepia tones. The options below the picture read "The Comic," "Read a Short Story," and "Advanced Class." Well, I'm here for the comic, so I click on that option. I am presented with a color comic that doesn't fully match either style on the splash page, but is still very nice. I click "start" to read the comic from the beginning, and find that the comic began as black-and-white before it transitioned to color. The original art is also appealing, and I get to reading.

From this first impression, I would suggest that the creators change two things about their splash page. For one, that image does not do the comic any justice. It does not convey the theme of the comic very well, and in fact is somewhat misleading. The girl holding the book with the airships in the background makes me think of Final Fantasy. I would expect that this comic is about magic and wizardry, not mad science. Also, the Agatha is clearly not drawn by Phil or colored by Cheyenne in that image, while the background clearly was. It isn't up to the quality of the comic, and therefore not the first thing you want new readers to see.

The second thing I would change is the options people are presented with. It is very confusing. "The comic" link is actually the older Girl Genius comics that were in print, while "The Advanced Class" are the new Girl genius comics created specifically for net publishing. Both of these sections update 3 times a week, so if you read through "The Comic" and then move on to "The Advanced Class," you will still be missing a sizable chunk of the story. Eventually, "the comic" will catch up with the current updates and there whole thing will presumably merge. "Read a Short Story" actually just takes you to specified parts of "The Advanced Class" comic which can be read as stand-alone stories. None of this is explained, so it is up to the reader to bumble their way through the website and learn it for themselves. It is all explained if you happen to click the correct tiny link on the side of the comic after you have already selected an option, though, which is useless. What the creators might consider doing is setting up the splash page in a more vertical format with a short explanation of what each option actually means.

The Art

The art of this comic is jawdroppingly beautiful. In the beginning of the comic, when it was black and white, the art was pretty good. It got progressively better through the years, and now it's simply fantastic. Phil Foglio is well deserving of his reputation. His ability to covey emotion and characterization through body posturing and expression is without parallel. The comic layouts are dynamic and interesting, while still being intuitive. Cheyenne Wright then adds the color, bringing the entire thing to life. The colors are vibrant without being over saturated, the textures natural and well integrated with the line art, and the digital effects applied sparingly and with great effect. It appears to me that, through time, Phil has transitioned to trusting Cheyenne with more and more of the art, keeping his line art fairly basic without textures. They have clearly reached a perfect balance at this point, and each of their talents are showcased by the current comic updates.

That isn't to say that the art is without flaws. But the flaws are so minor as to hardly be mentionable at this point. If I had one problem with the art that was big enough to even mention, it would be some problems with consistency. The characters are almost always drawn somewhat stylized, verging on realistic but staying cartoonish. Every now and again, however, a character will appear in nearly perfect realistic proportions, almost as if one panel was drawn in a completely different style. But this is rare and barely noticeable, and certainly doesn't distract much from the flow of the comic.

The Writing

Phil and Kaja almost always do an amazing job with the writing. Their world building is so impressive that one cannot help but be drawn into Agatha's world in all of its amazing detail. Saying this is a "steampunk" comic does not mean that they have relied upon others to build their world for them. Every detail of this world is unique to Girl Genius, with the exception of some very basic steampunk concepts.

The flow of the comic is natural, well-paced, and exciting. Action and character development are well balanced. The reader is never treated to lengthy exposition, all aspects of the story are conveyed through action and active dialog. There is a lot of humor in the writing as well, despite the fact that this is a dramatic action-adventure story. The humor is never campy or over the top. In short, the comic is extremely well written. The one glaring exception is a recent sewer sequence that went on for many rambling pages for seemingly little purpose, which could be edited out almost in its entirety without losing a single thing from the story. But one hiccup in seven years of a comic's history is hardly much to complain about.

Summary

Girl Genius is about as good as you can expect a comic to be on the internet. It truly raises the bar for other comic creators, who would do well to pay attention to all the things the Foglios and Wright do correctly with their comic. On the other hand, their web design needs serious work. While it is easy enough to read the comic once you know what you are looking at, the splash page is unnecessarily confusing (and unattractive), and the vast quantity of tiny links to the right of the comic once you get past the splash page adds further confusion. It is a shame that such an excellent comic as this should be marred by such terrible web design.

Rating and Explanation of Rating

95%

This is as close to a perfect webcomic as I have ever seen. The art and writing are both professional. I only took off 5% due to web design problems. This could be the perfect webcomic with a little more web savvy.