Comic Review: St. Dyphna Academy
Oct 19, 2008 16:43:50 GMT -5
Post by Modesty on Oct 19, 2008 16:43:50 GMT -5
I got bored and thought hey...some other parts of the forum deserve some love. A bot was posting in the comic review again and it inspired me to do another one.
So first up is: St. Dyphna Academy
It can be found at http://st_dyphna.comicdish.com/
I know it's a bit unfair to review my own comic...but it's only partly mine. ^^
Description: St. Dyphna Academy (SDA from now on) is a collaborative effort of several very talented artists. (In fact it is the very reason I was inspired to start NN). The artists currently working on the project are Cheeko, Dotchan, Eliza, Modesty, and Tozoku.
Other artists who have worked on it are dreamoflife, bunnyH, and tkawaii.
It takes place at a school for fantasy creatures, but it's not just any school, it's a very hoity-toity rich kid school as well. And as with any school for the gifted, there are dark secrets about the school hidden about.
First thoughts:
I'm going to strive to distance myself from the project so as to give it a fair review. The trouble with an impromanga is the inconsistency. When the pages are done by multiple artists you have to readjust yourself to the new style. Some are easier to read than others. However, there does appear to be some strong story threads going on. Some pages seem like tangents that never go anywhere.
The cast however is a fun mix of a variety of creatures. It's interesting to seem them in the various art styles.
Art:
Webcomics are about evolution of art for most artists. If you read a webcomic from beginning to end you can see the steady improvement. However, SDA is the steady improvement of many artists which makes it awkward at times. There are some pages where the styles is easy to read all the way through and others where it remains vague and confusing. It switches between color and black and white very often.
Many of the artists neglect backgrounds which would really keep the comic together. When backgrounds are included in pages, it tends to be easier to interpret. Then artists seem to jump styles from symbolic anime style to expressive cartoon to Western Comic.
Yet amazingly, most artists are able to keep the characters looking distinct from each other and recognizable. (Even if there are 2 blonde males and two girls with pig tails).
Of the whole, art may be the weakest point for SDA. It relies on the more experienced artists to clarify things.
Story:
For a co-authored feat, the artists have been able to keep a mostly consistent story going. There are a few loose ends that appear left in the dust or sometimes an artist does not follow through with one storyline and jumps to another place. This mostly happened in the beginning which makes sense. That is when everyone was "introducing" themselves. (And the way it was run you had to make pages FOR another person and feature mostly their character).
The story is definitely growing along with the art. The big plot is revealed in stages as the artists put their characters in fun situations.
Overall:
It's very difficult to review an impromanga. By its very nature it's a very inconsistent thing. It's a very fun project to participate in but how fun is it to read? As I read it, I actually find myself skipping pages in part because I've read them all before and I know what happened but also partly because some pages are just hard too read. They're crowded or the text is hand written and I just don't want to deal with it.
Yet for the most part, the characters do remain consistent or at least true to their nature. They grow and change, but stay themselves at the same time. The characters are the saving grace of SDA.
As part of the project, I still look forward to see where this ends up!
So first up is: St. Dyphna Academy
It can be found at http://st_dyphna.comicdish.com/
I know it's a bit unfair to review my own comic...but it's only partly mine. ^^
Description: St. Dyphna Academy (SDA from now on) is a collaborative effort of several very talented artists. (In fact it is the very reason I was inspired to start NN). The artists currently working on the project are Cheeko, Dotchan, Eliza, Modesty, and Tozoku.
Other artists who have worked on it are dreamoflife, bunnyH, and tkawaii.
It takes place at a school for fantasy creatures, but it's not just any school, it's a very hoity-toity rich kid school as well. And as with any school for the gifted, there are dark secrets about the school hidden about.
First thoughts:
I'm going to strive to distance myself from the project so as to give it a fair review. The trouble with an impromanga is the inconsistency. When the pages are done by multiple artists you have to readjust yourself to the new style. Some are easier to read than others. However, there does appear to be some strong story threads going on. Some pages seem like tangents that never go anywhere.
The cast however is a fun mix of a variety of creatures. It's interesting to seem them in the various art styles.
Art:
Webcomics are about evolution of art for most artists. If you read a webcomic from beginning to end you can see the steady improvement. However, SDA is the steady improvement of many artists which makes it awkward at times. There are some pages where the styles is easy to read all the way through and others where it remains vague and confusing. It switches between color and black and white very often.
Many of the artists neglect backgrounds which would really keep the comic together. When backgrounds are included in pages, it tends to be easier to interpret. Then artists seem to jump styles from symbolic anime style to expressive cartoon to Western Comic.
Yet amazingly, most artists are able to keep the characters looking distinct from each other and recognizable. (Even if there are 2 blonde males and two girls with pig tails).
Of the whole, art may be the weakest point for SDA. It relies on the more experienced artists to clarify things.
Story:
For a co-authored feat, the artists have been able to keep a mostly consistent story going. There are a few loose ends that appear left in the dust or sometimes an artist does not follow through with one storyline and jumps to another place. This mostly happened in the beginning which makes sense. That is when everyone was "introducing" themselves. (And the way it was run you had to make pages FOR another person and feature mostly their character).
The story is definitely growing along with the art. The big plot is revealed in stages as the artists put their characters in fun situations.
Overall:
It's very difficult to review an impromanga. By its very nature it's a very inconsistent thing. It's a very fun project to participate in but how fun is it to read? As I read it, I actually find myself skipping pages in part because I've read them all before and I know what happened but also partly because some pages are just hard too read. They're crowded or the text is hand written and I just don't want to deal with it.
Yet for the most part, the characters do remain consistent or at least true to their nature. They grow and change, but stay themselves at the same time. The characters are the saving grace of SDA.
As part of the project, I still look forward to see where this ends up!
