Second Review - Wapsi Square

Wapsi Square

http://www.wapsisquare.com

Pros –
The biggest thing I noticed about Wapsi Square is that the art really showed a mark improvement from the beginning is the art. At the beginning it was a very loose unsure style, but over time it because into a more detailed and fleshed out style. And even better it’s unique and can be recognized as the artists own style.

Cons –
Way too many Titties and Ass jokes. Way too many. Titties, titties, titties, ass, ass, ass, titties, and ass. A lot of the humor seems to revolve around juvenile sexual humor and innuendo. And that type of humor only seems to confuse me more about the comic as it goes through a directional shift. At the beginning of the comic, is all about sight gags, simple humor, and “You had to be there” jokes. Then the comic start taking a shift toward a much darker bent with a lot of personal angst and some weird mystical stuff. It’s fairly clear in the beginning that the creator didn’t have a firm grasp on his plotting, so it was simple gag strip stuff and latter he tries to throw in new elements. Problem is that he didn’t really incorporate it well. The creator had all the subtlety and finesses of a brick hitting you in the head. The comic had a certain story logic to it, and the creator starts to ignore the setting he created to make it fit plot ideas he comes up with latter.

Is this comic PVP with more breasts or a rambling episode of Dawson’s Creek? The creator really needs to get a handle on what he wants to do with the comic and do it.

Final Verdict –
After reading the majority of Wapsi Square, I’d have to say I’m totally indifferent to it. While I like the art, the story and humor is flat so I’m really neutral on it.

Suggestion –
It seems like the creator is trying to fit too much into one webcomic (which I’m starting to notice is a trend among webcomics). So my suggestion would be that creator make 2 (or 3) comics and each of them have their own different and unique strengths. As it is now, he has one comic that is a meandering mess.

First Review - Wandering Ones

Wandering Ones

http://www.wanderingones.com

Pros:
First off I am a tad bit biased to this book, because I really enjoyed all those Post Apocalypse movies during the 80's, so Wandering Ones and their Post Apocalypse setting is right up my alley. Also the artist uses more traditional sequential paneling and storytelling, so it's something I find to be a lot more enjoyable to read. With the more comic sequential art, more can be told than the typical 4 panel webcomic. Now mind you in the earlier part of the comic, they use the more simple 4 panel layouts, but it's more like Prince Valiant than say Garfield in it's usage. The art is consistent through out the pages of this webcomic. There's a lot of detail to the characters and the backgrounds are very well fleshed out.
On the story, there is good characterization mixed with all the plots and subplots going on. Wandering Ones is primarily an action story, so there aren't too many unforeseen twists and turns in the plot, but it engages you enough so you're interested in what happens to the characters next. The world is flesh out enough to where the story logic makes sense in the entire setting and nothing seems to be forced or adjusted to fit a particular story point.
The biggest thing that impressed me about Wandering Ones is the artist/writers interest in Wilderness Tracking. I personally have never cared about Wilderness Tracking, but the Artist seamlessly puts Tracking lore into the story to where it actually captures my interest. Talking about wilderness lore could have come across as very dry and textbookish, but in the context of the story it brings more realism to these neo-Indian trackers.

Cons:
I'd say the biggest problem with the long running Wandering Ones is accessibility. While with a typical 4 panel webcomic, you usually don't need to know any back story to get a joke, but with Wandering Ones being an action story you do need to know some of the back story to follow what's going on. Now yes the entire archive is up on the site for one to read, not everyone is inclined to read several weeks work of story to see if they're interested in it in the first place. A lot of people view webpages at work or school so they just don't have the time to devote to one thing on the internet.
Another thing is that while the art is consistent throughout the story, it's too consistent. There doesn't seem to be any growth in the skills of the artist. If you look at the latest page and the first page, you could easily assume that each of them was drawn at the same time, which is sad considering there's about several years between the two pages. To the artist's credit they don't draw a page everyday, but honestly I haven't notice in real change or improvement in the art style at all. Maybe I'm being too harsh to expect such a thing, but my understanding of art is that the more you do it the more you learn and the more you improve. To draw the same way for such a long time is almost like drawing in a vacuum.

Final Verdict
I will definitely continue to read Wandering Ones. It's good enough of a story to where I'll make a point to check it out. I'd even recommend it to my webcomic reading friends if they read more than the silly humor webcomics.

David Aka - Right
P.S. Yes I'm a little bit of ahead of schedule, but I'd rather be that than behind schedule.

Coming Soon

With the new year brings a new blog bring the truth about webcomics everywhere! 2006 is the coming of Right and Wrong!

-David

Starting the 1st of 2006 we will start reviewing webcomics on a weekly basis. If you'd like your webcomic reviewed by us just drop us a line with your URL.

The first comic is David's choice:

http://www.wanderingones.com

-cresc