Vindibudd: Superhero in Training
by A. S. Williams

www.vindibudd.com

Reviewed by Fes Works

Let’s look at a strip comic again. With this Webcomicv Review Trial Run, I’ve been mostly submitted story-based comics. Well, I will be reopening submissions for reviews soon. Just please don’t email before given the word. Mostly for organizational purposes, because otherwise emails just get burried. Also, partly for those that are actually paying attention to the site, and not just sending unsolicited requests for comic reviews.

So! Let’s take a look at Vindibudd: Superhero in Training, or… possibly “The Adventures of Vindibudd: Superhero in Training”. For the sake of breathing, Let’s just call it “Vindibudd”.

This comic has a couple of Hiatuses under it’s belt. Not really sure why it was submitted for review since its not really updating, but that’s not going to stop me. There could still be something to learn from here. For this review, I’ll look at the beginning (since 2003), 2007 comics, as by request of the creator, and the latest comics from 2009.

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To clear, again, I may not always review the ENTIRE archive of a comic for review, but I always look at the beginning and the most recent comics. For story comics, I tried to read the first and last chapter at minimum. For strip comics, I’ll try looking at the beginning comics, and comics from the latest year. Large archives are not time condusive, but you can still get a good feel for the comic by looking at the beginning and lastest content.

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Before we get into the comic, though, let’s look at the website.

The current design of the website is fairly minimal and functional. Decent enough logo, with “Vindibudd” in a dynamic arrangement. There’s the menubar, the comic, and then the blog below. Fairly standard. Fairly simple.

The design, however, doesn’t really lend itself to anything special. Though without actually updating the comic, or in trying to monetize on the comic, there may be little reason to spruce up the site. Again, in many cases, it comes down to having a nice background and logo. The absolute black background just doesn’t cut it these days. It’s just not as welcoming, and visually speaking, everything with cyan and yellow text colors, feel very blown out.

Still, it’s functional and works. The comic being in color help guide the eye inwards. If the comic were black and white or greyscale, the black background would probably be another story.

Well, let’s talk about the comic’s design. Again, it’s in color, primarily flats for characters, and gradients for the backgrounds in most cases (or at least some shadow shapes with gradient). The character designs are fairly consistent over the years, though the comic is hardly that dynamic. The comic has improved in drawing skill over the years as well, but I still see room for improvement in the drawing.

Oh, what I mean about the comic not being that dynamic is in respects to the the strip style approach. Most of the comics are based off of gags or jokes based on current events. Many times the comic panels have characters at bust level, and a lot of dialog. The earlier comics are very cramped. There just isnt enough space to move for the characters anyway. So, while this comic has superheroes, it’s not really an action comic. So that is probably also part of the point of this comic.

I’m not saying it’s wrong, but the creator was clearly trying to force a newspaper style layout, but almost 40% of a panel is dialog, making everything more cramped feeling, and hard on the eyes. I admit that I just am not used to that comic structure, and it possibly isn;t an issue for others, but the comic’s structure get’s better later. The comics eventually change into a full page format, which gives each update a LOT more room to work with, and is definitely an improvement.

I should step back and say that the main character designs are very unique and colorful. No way for one to confuse these heroes for any others. Which is probably why I’d prefer to see more of the characters. Then again, this comic did start early on enough when people were trying to be marketable for the possibility of a newspaper style. The color and background choices may have been make to make the comic more visusally interesting, while trying to stay in the format.

Again, once the comic switches to full page style, everything improves, and more chances are taken with panel and action direction.

In any case, the writing of the comic doesn’t hold up too well when it comes to the “current events” commentary. Very much dates the comic. That makes it less exciting for an archive dive. Though it probably was much better while it was updating. It’s a double-edged sword for anything being relatable to current events. It becomes less relatable over time.

A lot of the rest of the writing relies on knowledge of the characters themselves, as jokes about each character are made frequently.

… I dunno. I just can’t get into this comic. It could be the constant “current events” references and jokes, that “gag-a-day” style, or that it’s a superhero comic. Just not feeling it too much. If one doesn’t like superheroes, they will probably hate this comic. It’s not parody enough for me, but I can see where the parody is.

Perhaps it would benefit from having more of a story, or trying a storyline every once in a while. Really get a chance to develop the characters a lot more. Just seems kinda “the same” for so long. The writing feels a little better than “low-hanging fruit”.

In any case, I think I have way too many biases stacked against this comic to give it a proper review. For my tastes, I’l probably rate this a “C”; an overall average comic.

But I would not put it past someone else really liking this comic. The comic has everything it needs to be a competant comic. It’s just the content which isn’t getting me, personally, into it.

Domain Tnemrot
by David Herbert and Tatiana Lepikhina

www.tnemrot.com

Reviewed by Fes Works

Ok… so…

If you have not guessed by now, I have a sort of routine in reviewing these comics. Because these are webcomics, there is a lot more going into them than just the comic itself. It is the entire presentation, which includes the website.

The whole package.

So let’s begin again.

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Back to the URL issues. Granted, the comic’s name is “Domain Tnemrot”, but “tnemrot” is… I had to double check to see if it was an error. It doesn’t really look like a word, let alone I have no idea how to pronounce it. Which is a huge issue, in regards to someone remembering a name or url, which is “tnemrot.com”.

(Fortunately, the website has a FAQ page explaining that it is pronounced “Nem-rot. The first T is silent.”).

I’m not saying it’s a bad name. I’m just saying it is a bad URL. Granted, yes, you do want your URL to reflect your comic, but you also want to make the URL memorable. Sometimes that is more difficult with less common and/or original words.

In cases like this, I would suggest getting a second, redirecting URL, that would be easier to remember. Such as a prominant character’s name. That or a couple of words, or a short phrase that describes the comic a little bit.

Well, that’s enough of the URL. Let’s look at the site itself.

Ok, so we have “Domain Tnemrot” in a basic type face with a description of it being a… an online manga… and we are being told to “read right to left”…

Uh… You already got a glimpse of my opinion on “western-eastern manga” last time… but I’ll hold my tounge on this point for now.

Ok, ok. So, below this basic text is a leaderboard ad. Already this website is not looking so great. Now I don’t have a big problem with minimalism, but its the juxtaposition of the text title with the big image ad right below it. Depending on what ad is up, could look like THAT is the title of the comic… and not an ad.

It doesn’t help that the comic’s name is a dark blue, against the dark background image. It kinda gets lost. Again, the design could work, if not for the large leaderboard ad image… which is bigger than the comic name, and its description, combined!

This should be absolutely be changed.

The background image is decent enough, though it should also be fixed, instead of scrolling away to white, in my opinion. Since the body of the website is a dark grey, the stark white is just to sharp.

The rest of the site feels like its a basic template with color changes. It’s not a pretty site, but still functional. I mean it is a little busy with all of the text in the side bars, but as far as a spartan design, I’ve seen even MORE minimal and LESS functional. I’d only really push for a better header/logo, and to “fix” the background image.

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Hmmm. Maybe I should give grades to each review point? Maybe fully next time, but If I were to grade this website design, I’d maybe give it a “C”. Changing the Header and background would easily bring this up to a “B”.

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Back to the comic… which is supposed to be a “manga”. This is where I have a bit of a problem. Now, I will admit that I don’t know everything about this comic… or why english speaking people do this… but unless this comic was made by eastern creatives or eastern speaking areas that ACTUALLY READ RIGHT TO LEFT… then this is not a manga.

This has nothing to do with the style of the art, or storytelling methods. This is all about flow of reading of your marketed audience.

If you are making a comic for an english audience… or, say, an audience that readers LEFT TO RIGHT… then you make the comic to read LEFT TO RIGHT.

There is honestly no good reason I can find why people insist on doing this. It disrupts the ability to expand your audience that gets annoyed or lost while reading the comic. Because people that have been raised to right left to right, will naturally be drawn to read left to right as they read.

It’s like making a color comic for color-blind people. (maybe)

If this was specifically being translated to or from a right-to-left culture, that would absolutely make more sense.

ANYWAY…

With that RANT out of the way, I’m not taking marks off the comic for it. I mean, if does TELL the reader at the top how to read it.

So I mainly read the first and last chapter of this comic. The first chapter establishes a sort of premise for the comic. You know Pokémon? Also, have you ever seen the movie Gamer? It kinda feels like a combination of those, thus far… kinda.

The comic opens with a fight scene, and there are a several fight scenes over the comic. With a webcomic schedule of M-W-F, the fights could feel drawn out because it is action that is happening. Very. Slowly. But if you are reading through the archive, it flows a lot better. Which is par for most story/chapter comics anyway.

I took a look at the comic’s Project Wonderful stats, and it looks like the site frequently gets people that do huge archive dives. Either as new readers, or also possibly as existing readers that come by every so oftern to read a large chunk in one sitting.

Anyway, the comic’s story isn’t oo bad, really. It feels, and looks, like an eastern manga/anime property (for all that I have or have not been exposed to). A comic just starting in the middle of something, and the reader has to learn how the world works through the story being told.

Actually… The comic is shaping up to feel a lot more some 70s movie about a future run by rich people and coorporations, exploiting the poor for entertainment.

I can’t help by think about Rollerball right now…

So the art! It’s a black and white comic with screentones. You know, it works. There is energy and decent art. Background can range from being detailed enough, to a white background.

It’s not “simple” art, but it works. It may not be super detailed, not in color, but all of the importan lines are there.

I’m trying not to be biased about the art, really. It’s just sorta… typical. I’m not really getting a sense of an individualized style in this. Mostly just getting a feeling of heavily eastern-influenced art design. All without feeling unique enough to comment about.

The art is good and it works, but it’s nothing terribly special? Interesting?

I know it sounds kinda mean to say the art is good, but not good enough, at the same time? Admit I may have a bias, so please decide for yourself. I am actually liking how the comic is rolling along by the start of chapter 3, and the latest chapter (chapter 20) is starting to look interesting as well. Clearly I will need to keep tabs on this comic to catch up on the story!