Fourth Review

Loserz

Loserz has been running for a couple years and is created by Erik Schoenik.

Art

The art started out pretty basic, though anyone can see Schoenik has talent, in the years the comic has been running it's become much more refined and unique. These days the art is quite good, clean inking, attractive character designs, and some good expressions throughout.

Schoenik is pretty good at storytelling, mostly using a 3 panel design. Occasionally he breaks out and gives us some larged colored pages that show off his art chops nicely.


Writing

The writing has evolved as the art has. Mostly the jokes are contained with a single strip, and focus on Jodie the Slut, Erik the Stoner, and Ben the Loser. Occasionally, and more frequently the characters discuss their individual take on the world around them, and this is where Loserz shines.


Overall

Loserz has nice art, and distinct likable characters, which is rare in webcomics. Schoenik needs to bring more continuity and character development and I feel he's working on it. In my opinion this is a comic to watch for a while, and this year it's finally living up to it's potential.


-Wrong

Fourth Review – Loserz

Loserz

http://loserz.scribblekid.org/

Pros:
The art evolves from a very rough style that heavily apes an anime style to its own unique individualistic cartooning style. Also the characters go from merely being props for simplistic jokes to actually being fleshed out personalities.

Cons:
First off I’m getting this feeling that maybe some webcomics shouldn’t be read in large doses because the development of the webcomic is so organic and not as methodical. But thinking about that, I don’t know if I would have stuck around so long for the creator to find his voice (or change his voice). The first part of the webcomic is just bland Anime/Video Game/School/Sex/Pop culture humor that too many webcomics seems to rely on. I honestly didn’t laugh once while reading it because the humor was too obvious or too contrived. Then later as the creator seems to get a feel for the characters that he’s been writing for so long, he starts to make them have “real” issues and there’s all this drama and angst flying around. I’m sorry but the early strips of the webcomic didn’t really endear me to the characters, so I don’t see why I would be interested in their problems now that they’ve added a 3rd dimension.

Final Verdict:
I’m noticing a trend with some webcomics now. The same with Waspi Square, this webcomic seems to be a serious learning experience for the creator. The annoying thing is that they all graduate from a humor strip, to a coming of age story. How come these webcomics end at the same destination? And how come if they’ve learned things from making the webcomic and make a new better crafted story with a more defined structure and plot. Their original webcomic is so meandering and organic that I don’t know what it’s suppose to be and I’ve lost interest in figuring it out. Do they not make new stories because they’re afraid to loose the audience they’ve established?

Are webcomics in their tween or teen years where they’re getting maturity and depth but still don’t have a firm grasp on their own identities and their place in the world? (But they assume they fully understand everything regardless).

Third Review

SuperNatural Law -

Art - Batton Lash has been doing Supernatural Law/ AKA Wolff and Byrd Counselors of the Macabre for over 20 years and is just recently expanding his press franchise on to the web.
His art is very old school and I would compare him somewhat to Will Eisner in style and story telling.

Lash has adapted his newspaper style work for the internet, adding color and using a one panel format that gives him more freedom. The colors are flat but appropriate for his line work, personally I think the B&W stuff, I own several of his printed collections, is masterful and prefer that but I understand the change.

Writing - The catchphrase for Supernatural Law reads " Beware the Undead, They have Lawyers!" SL mixes tounge-in-cheek humor with the law process. Wolff and Byrd play it very straight among their over the top clientel, Frankenstien going through a divorce and a murdered woman suing her husband over her murder.

Personally I think the humor is clever, and I chuckle despite the cheesiness. Things are kept light, and some of the minor characters are more interesting than the counselors themselves, Mavis the "World's Greatest Secretary" is more popular than either Wolff or Byrd.

Overall - While the humor may not be for everyone, this is a comic to look out for. Batton Lash is a pro and it's really nice to see someone of his caliber sailing the sea of subpar work on the internet.

-wrong

Second Review

Wapsi Square

Art -

The art of Wapsi Square is confident and skillful, Paul Taylor really knows his stuff.. Character designs are all distinctive and designed in a unique looking cartoon style. Most of the archives are black and white with occasional color, though in the last year I've noticed that Taylor has branched out into screen tones quite a bit.

Really there's nothing bad I can say about the art, I think it looks fantastic.

Writing -

Wapsi Square is an ongoing real to life story with some fantastical elements (such as a mexican god of beverage that the main character Monica discovers early on.) Paul Taylor has a nice grasp of sequential art and leaves each strip at the cusp of a new plot twist. There's a lot of webtoonists out there that could learn from this guy.

On the negative side I'm not estatic about the current Muse storyline. The three Muses are likable enough but I'm not really into supernatural atonement stories. At the moment I find the Tomboy Rachel and her sturggle to try and help Monica deal with her demons, much more interesting then Monica herself.

But I'm confident this will change in due time. Wapsi Square is strongest when the characters are seeking and most often missing opportunities to fall in love and it will turn back to that eventually.

Overall -

Wapsi Square is an enjoyable comic, though perhaps not for everyone (lots of boob jokes). I would recommend reading this daily as there is always something new going on.

-Wrong

The Wandering Ones
http://www.wanderingones.com

This review is based on the last year's (2005) worth of comics.

Art

Clint Hollingsworth does an excellent job conveying his post apocalyptic world. The pages are filled with scenes of overgrowth and wilderness contrasted sharply by the ugliness of modern architecture and weaponry.

The characters themselves are realistically drawn, there's no doubt Hollingsworth is a skilled artist and very good at drawing different ethnicities. That said I sometimes have a hard time telling the characters apart. Former Reich Consript Max is a pivotal character and the love interest of the Master Scout Ravenwing, yet he looks like a dozen or so other bearded men that turn up throughout this long running series. Whenever the story switches to different characters I find I have to get my bearings again. This sameness is more apparent among the female characters, as Ravenwing herself is the only female I can consistently recognize.

Writing

The Wandering Ones is like a crash course in tracking school. Hollingsworth himself studies tracking and his characters sound intelligent when they talk about it.

Ravenwing is a pretty bad ass chick, able to dissapear into the wild at will and can throw a pretty mean boot to the head. If you read long enough the characters develop different personalities especially the Good Guys. Max started out as a simple confused conscript for the black hats, and over the years has become a heroic/romantic lead..

As a writer Hollingsworth knows how to construct expository dialog while keeping the characters in their own time. He also knows to throw in some twists at a regular pace, introducing characters that you grow to love or hate, but always miss when they die. This is really refreshing among the ocean of one - liners that seems to make up the majority of dialog in webcomics.

Overall

The Wandering Ones has always been one of the best webcomics out there in my opinion. The pacing is slow but generally worth the read. I would recommend visiting every few weeks rather than daily so you can get a generous helping of the story. Fans of Mark Shultz or Monique MCNaughton will enjoy this comic a lot.

Third Review – Supernatural Law

Supernatural Law

https://www.supernaturallaw.com/

Note-
This webcomic is somewhat different in design and aims. Supernatural Law is a long running printed comic book that has also been collected in several trade paperbacks. Now some print comics have moved exclusively to the web, but Supernatural Law has gone to the web to further promote itself and add additional content to other fans. The printed comics will continue being made and new additional stories will be made on the web. I’ve heard about a lot of various comics preferring one form of delivery over another, like web vs. printed, but I have to say this is the best idea I’ve seen yet on the matter. The obvious downside is that is a lot of work, but if you’re doing it for a living then maybe it’s not. For an interview about Supernatural Law going to the web, go to http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004568


Pros-
The art on this bit is very polished and very professional. The creator brings a skill to this comic that only experience can accomplish. The line work, the inking, the coloring is all very well done. A lot the print comics are only in black and white due to the costs of color printing and since it’s free to do color on the net that’s an added bonus for the webcomic.

On the writing it’s fairly interesting to see real world court cases and law issues be intertwined with old familiar horror characters and plots. Some of it is done in parody, but some of it seems to be done more in as serious commentary or observation of our world. But even in observation does it feel dry or like someone is preaching their viewpoint. Saying that though you do get an idea of the creator’s political leaning from reading these stories. Regardless, the creator makes a solid story that seems to flow well. Mind you he leans more toward traditional sequential storytelling and I’m used to that, so it flows just fine by me.

Cons-
The only real objections I had about this are from a popular commercial standpoint. While the art is well crafted, the style is a bit dated compared to the art of a lot webcomics out there. With most webcomics having a dynamic, more anime/manga, style to their art Supernatural Law’s art seems to lack energy next to newer webcomics. Looking at some of the art I can’t but help think “Archie and Veronica”.

On the writing, while the humor is fine, a lot of it is puns and other jokes that could be called “kneeslapers” (and I don’t mean that in a good way). Here’s an example of one of the jokes in the comic.

Desmond – Do you have trouble with billables?
Mavis - Unfortunately, Desmon, I have to Haunt some of the clients myself!

Groan. It’s technically funny, but it’s a weak joke and the book is littered with such jokes. Even the situation humor in the comic feels like typical sitcom humor. I’m sure such humor is cute and old school sort of way, but it wears thin on me. I guess I expect more from the creator who’s been doing this comic for so long.

Final Verdict-
I’d suggest this to comic to everyone, but I’d push it more on older people who’d more than likely enjoy it more (like say my Mom, who likes to watch Buffy and Angel). I could be wrong that Supernatural Law wouldn’t appeal to younger readers, but considering the average age of comic readers is noticeably higher than webcomic readers, I’m willing to stick with my hunch for the moment. On a plus side, Supernatural Law does have the power of Joey Manley and http://www.webcomicsnation.com/ behind it.