Web Comic Review: Romantically Apocalyptic

Hello all!
Here's another web comic review for you.  I've been following this one for a while.  Romantically Apocalyptic is written by Vitaly S. Alexius.  It's about Zee Captain and her two "minions" Pilot and Snippy.  While the origins of the characters are still fuzzy, each one has a clear personality that interact with the others well and cause interesting and hilarious conflict.  The Captain seems to live in her own world (she'll often refer to herself as "laddie"), almost oblivious to the destruction and death around her.  She interacts with the environment with imagination and fun.  She'll have conversations with skeletons and send her minions on ridiculous errands.  Snippy is very logical and seems to grasp the seriousness of the situation much better than The Captain.  This of course leads to conflict, but usually of a humorous nature.  Their relationship is fraught with conflict, but when it comes down to it they care deeply for each other.

The first think that strikes you about this comic is the quality of the art.  It's all digital, but has the level of craftsmanship and attention to detail as any good painting.  The environment is detailed and gives a very pointed sense of desolation and destruction (this is a post apocalypse world).  The characters feel and look real, though their faces are covered by gas masks.  Alexius expresses their emotions through the speech balloons and symbols.

The story itself started out as more fun and light, but more recently has become heavier and reveals more about the origins of the apocalypse and characters.  The writing at the beginning made me laugh, but now things are starting to get a little confusing for me.  There is still the humor, but also more serious matters.  It's becoming more about the clash of the man-made vs. nature.  I still enjoy the comic, but I do get a little lost sometimes and need to take a second read to get everything.  Maybe things will be easier to follow as more is revealed.

Over all this is a great comic.  Artistically it is beautiful, despite the subject matter and humorous nature.  The writing is funny, though now with the more serious twist can be a bit confusing.  If a reader wants to delve even deeper into the characters and world there is a blog attached to it that is the journal entries of each character.  I definitely recommend you take a look at Romantically Apocalyptic. http://romanticallyapocalyptic.com/

Some Graphic Novel Recommendations

Hello all!
Well, not that there's a lot of you, but I know it's been a while.  Busy with life and all.  I'm currently taking a class on graphic novels and it's exposed me to some great material.  Some I'm familiar with, others I'm not.

First we read Maus by Art Speigelmen.  I've heard of this book and been meaning to read it and found it's a great graphic novel.  It was one of the first graphic novels and defined the genre.  It showed the potential for comics to tell serious stories.  It's autobiographical; Speigelmen tells his story about interviewing his father about the Holocaust.  The artwork is deceptively simple black and white pen and ink drawings.  It's an intensely personal story, but that is part of what makes it so good.  I definitely recommend it.

The second we read I've already read; Watchmen by Alan Moore.  Given the recent announcement by DC to do a Before Watchmen series about the backstories of the characters.  There's a lot of controversy.  Personally, I'm not so sure.  I think there is some potential if they give the material to the right writers and artist, but I'm not sure Watchmen needs a prequel.  The back stories are all there; it's a complete story in and of itself.  As for Watchmen itself it's one of the best graphic novels I've ever read.  The art is beautiful and deep.  Every time I read it I find a million new things.  The same goes for the writing.  It's beautiful.  This comic has influenced me heavily.  It showed me that comics can tell very compelling and complex stories.  If you read comics, even if you stick to just the superhero genre, please read this book.

Most recently we finished Black Hole by Charles Burns.  At first I had a hard time getting past the weirdness of it all, but once I did I saw how good of a comic it was.  Granted, the story is a bit hard to follow since it's not told in chronological order, and the concept behind it is a bit bizarre (a lot of drug induced hallucinations and mutated people).  If you can get past that you get a very intimate look at human nature, especially for adolescents.  It's very real and has characters that you might think remind you of someone you know.  It's definitely an odd comic, but I recommend you at least try it.  It might take a couple reads to get everything (though any good comic you should read more than once).



That's all for now.  Next we're reading Blankets by Craig Thompson and A.D. New Orleans by Josh Nuefeld.  I've been meaning to read Blankets, so that will be exciting.  New Orleans looks good too.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep posting on a regular basis.  Sorry for the long entry, I hope you enjoyed it.