C-
Sometimes, as I’ve written in the past, a comic doesn’t need to have a high concept or poignant message. Sometimes it’s enough for it to just be fun! But sometimes… sometimes fun just isn’t enough.
Ophiuchus
A+
“Tight storytelling” is a writing buzzword that I use a lot but have difficulty actually defining, so today I’m challenging myself to do so. A tight story, in my mind, is one that feels efficient – no time is wasted on sideplots or other developments that don’t directly serve the main storyline. This doesn’t necessarily mean a completely straight shot from beginning to end, but it definitely excludes the sprawling, twisting threads of most webcomics I can think of.
Addendum: Kill Six Billion Demons
C
Western culture has an odd veneration for royalty. Our fairy tales and fantasies are full of Good Kings, Wise Kings, and Fated Kings, while Disney has made fortunes upon fortunes churning out fictional princesses for us to adore. It’s a romanticism that seems incongruous with the bloody true history of such things. So if there’s one thing I appreciate about Kill Six Billion Demons, it’s that it never shies away from laying bare the fundamental essence of royalty: violence.
Addendum: Namesake
A
Fairy tales adapted for older audiences are a modern ubiquity. TV, movies, comics, and video games have been tapping into the timeless impact and universal familiarity of children’s stories for almost as long as I can remember. Most often, it’s the mark of a lazy writer; instead of needing to come up with something original and make it convincing, one can simply take the instantly recognizable characters and plots and alter them to make them more “edgy”, creating a contrast with the perceived innocence of the source material that some people, I guess, like, consider interesting for some reason?
Spring Cleaning
Hey folks, I’m gonna spend the next couple weeks updating some of my older reviews, in honor of spring’s return. Contact form is still in the shop, so if you have suggestions for which comics you’d like to see me revisit, comment below or DM me on twitter!