Comic Reviews for 2nd year Cartoon & Comic Arts
Last week we were very lucky to be visited by "The Awesome Comics Podcast" http://awesomecomics.podbean.com/
Tony Esmond @ezohyez came and spoke to the students about the importance of reviewing comics and what they need to consider in their work and how they can use this knowledge to make for better work.
An Easter project was set for students to review their favourite comics, here are some of them.
Samurai Genji : Volume 1 Review
Story and art by Geoff Trebs
10x7 in ,Soft cover,166 pages
Price: $29.99
Available to read from : http://tapastic.com/series/SamuraiGenji
Available to purchase from:
http://dinmoney.storenvy.com/products/13424154-samurai-genji-vol-1
Geoff Trebs can be found at http://dinmoney.deviantart.com/
Follow on Twitter @dinmoney
"Taste the power of flesh, at the cost of
humanity." This phrase carries a lot of weight in this samurai fantasy
epic. The story follows Genji Ryu, a samurai who has eaten the flesh of another
human being and has been granted the power and long life that comes with it,
but also at a price on his path of revenge. In this first volume, after finishing
a job rescuing a water priestess for a village finds himself being hunted by
the group of people originally sent to do the job he completed. Also the
mysterious king of Tamerin has sent out men to get Genji for his own gain.
Coming from a webcomic into a printed collection, seeing
the way the art has been transferred to being read online/on a mobile device to
print is interesting as I didn't know if it would read as well.
The story is just beginning in this first volume and starts
off with a bang, as you get an insight into the personality of all the
individuals involved. It also gives off the feeling that there will be such a
large world with a lot of depth to go into. We don't really get much about
Genji's reasoning or motive behind his revenge fuelled adventure in this volume
but I'm sure it'll become apparent within the next chapters/volumes. It's
action packed, exciting and tense filled fight scenes make you just want to
turn over to the next page to see what's going to happen next.
Trebs' art fits wonderfully with the story as well as its
black and white, with all the blank space being black. Which helps add that
extra darkness and tension to the work. It's a really beautiful digital style
and some of his backgrounds are astounding. The full page images in-between
chapters are a good way to break it up and you get to see some more of some of
the characters.
The dialogue in it is quite modern compared to what most
samurai comics include, but I think it fits into this fantasy world as its
consistent and there's nothing out of place. Sadly there are a few spelling
errors but not enough that it get frustrating but it is a shame that there's
any to begin with.
On the whole though I thoroughly enjoyed this first volume
and I'll be keeping up with the webcomic version over on Tapastic as well as
buying the next volume when its released. So I say go buy it!
