Reviews

Author/artist Erik Lundy apparently did not get the memo that unicorns must always be portrayed as innocent, wondrous creatures. To the contrary, in the Eisner Award-nominated The Chuckwagon at the End of the World, he imagines a future where the space-traveling Killer Unicorns of the Apocalypse have wiped out most of the human race, and the only hope for remaining humans is a pair of food truck operators and their dog, who slaughter unicorns to serve up as unicorn beef sandwiches.

Lundy illustrates this polemic in a style that is unrestrained but nevertheless appealing. The bold, jet-black linework is rendered across a subtle, sepia background made to look like folded, slightly soiled newsprint. You could certainly get away with hanging some of his pages in a gallery and selling them for real money.

To this anarchic saga, Lundy applies a hefty dose of something called interactive layering; in other words, when you hit the right arrow button, the whole image may be replaced, or just part of the image. Say, for instance, the front of the food truck becomes a comics page as the windshield, the front grill and bumper are progressively replaced by comics panels. Lundy has a million variations on this theme, with spatulas, triangles, mustaches, you name it.

From the beginning, webcomics have had the power to produce animation, sound, and other special effects, but artists have struggled to integrate these into comics without the effects becoming annoying distractions. To Lundy’s credit, he has found a way of using special effects to enhance the hellacious mess he is intent on creating.

In this sprightly comedy titled Blood Stain, chemistry major Elliot is suffering from unemployment for months on end, putting her sister’s family under stress while they provide free room and board. She finally decides to apply for a job as assistant to a secluded scientist, Dr. Stein, rumored to be a “complete creep.” That perhaps is an understatement, since we, the audience, catch glimpses of him on the other end of the phone line, his hands dripping with gore.

Laudably, artist/author Linda Sejic (aka sigeel) doesn’t hurry from point A to point B in the story.  Taking full advantage of webcomics infinite canvas / infinite possibilities format, she leans into Elliot’s job search prior to her accepting the job with the scientist. She even dramatizes Elliot’s personal growth from a too-brief stint as a barmaid.  It is only at the very end of the 19-episode Volume I, after a harrowing cross-country flight, leaving behind a confused sister and boyfriend who don’t know what’s become of her– that she comes face to face with Dr. Stein.

The extended, in-depth storytelling is one of the things that makes Blood Stain so entertaining. Sejic has a boundless talent for conjuring up outrageous complications to mundane situations.  She also has a knack for varied and playful facial expressions that milk the scenes of every last chuckle.  Her rendering style is quite good, and she is a superb colorist.  The story takes place “in the asscrack of the Mediterranean”, and for the Europhiles among us, Blood Stain is a first-rate travelogue of the locale.

In the Eisner Award-nominated series The Isle of Elsi, artist/writer Alec Longstreth displays an enormous talent for creating comics for young readers.  His style is simple, straightforward, and expressive.  When the situation calls for it, he crams an impressive amount of detail into the panels, which occasionally resemble a “Where’s Waldo” diagram. Longstreth’s style reminds me of the french master and creator of Tintin, Herge, though Longstreth doesn’t quite possess the same fitness (no one does!)

Starting out reading a Longstreth story, an adult reader is aware that these are children’s comics with simple plots and goofy humor.  But the narration is so straightforward and skillful that you find yourself being drawn in.  Longstreth is much more respectful of logic and reason than most so-called adult authors, and that quality really pays off when the plot is about a dragon destroying a town. The stories have a subtext of honoring education, learning, and books, and it gives us a warm feeling to see those values diseminated. The author also shows his compassion for the characters, whether it is a mother found weeping at her kitchen table, a family gathered around a doctor wrapping a girl’s broken arm, or two juvenile delinquents distraught at the harm they may have inflicted.

Longstreth has a good reason for publishing Isle of Elsi as a webcomics.  “When I was a kid, I used to ride my bike to the local drug store, where I could buy a wide variety of kids’ comics for seventy-five cents each.  These days, a kid’s comic book costs three or four bucks, if you can find one! And graphic novels for kids can cost ten, twenty, or even thirty dollars! A lot of kids can’t afford to buy these comics!  So I chose to make Isle of Elsi a free webcomic so that as many kids as possible can have access to it.”

We couldn’t agree more!

I’m kind of surprised that I’ve only heard of Lore Olympus a month or so ago; it’s the most popular series on Webtoons, with over 1 billion views and 6.1 million subscribers.  I happened to click on it when I started publishing on Webtoons and was looking for examples of style and technique.  What I discovered is one of the most significant works of comix I’ve seen in a long time.

Neil Gaiman and manga comics are probably a big influence on New Zealand artist Rachel Smythe, but she’s taken these influences in radical new directions.  Lore Olympus is described as a romance comic, but if so, it is a romance for grown ups, psychologically sophisticated and with a dark edge.

What excites me the most about Lore Olympus is the style.  Most comics, regardless of genre, proceed in the tradition of newsprint publication, where everything is defined by heavy black lines. In contrast, Smythe composes almost exclusively with brilliant color, and employs only a minimal amount of elegant linework to define selective details. Smythe’s compositions have a strong, confident sense of abstraction, but also hint at a skill depicting human anatomy, architecture and nature.

Her writing as well is minimal and effective.  Funny, fascinating and deep, it introduces us to a world that is mythical but very much like our own. In the opening scene, a brief cell phone conversation portraying the breakup between Hades and Minthe incisively depict her vanity and cruelty. Later, another conversation between Aphrodite and her son Eros suddenly lifts the narrative to a higher moral plain— “Mom, you seem to have such a distorted view of people these days.  When did you stop seeing the best in people?  When did you forget about kindness?  When did you forget about love?”

The weekly series is currently on episode 217.  I suggest reading episodes 1 to 6 to see if you get hooked. 

–Joe Zabel