Webcomic Book Club Full Reviews of Journey Into History by Bob Stevenson

Art: Interesting. The humans were somewhat simple, but I liked the style; the backgrounds had a good deal of detail, which I enjoyed. Overall, this is the best part of "Journey", since it seems to fit the strip like a glove. Story: Apparently we're at the very beginning, and I can believe it. The story that we do have is pretty strange, and I found it hard to believe. Hopefully newer strips will explain some of it, but judging by the first issue, I don't think things will improve. Characters: So far, the two demon/muppet/unexplained things are the most interesting characters. Since we never got their names and they don't appear that much, this is a bad thing. Chain is just a bumbling fool to me, without any humor in him, and his girlfriend/roommate is an anomoly. I did enjoy Mao's ramblings, but since he's not an important part of the strip, I don't think I want to see more of him without some tie-in to the plot. Writing: Another weak point for this comic. The humor feels flat, and the sequence with the woman and her cat was just....well, drawn-out and boring. I felt like it could have been done in one strip, not 4. And the almost random 4th wall breaking puzzled me. I couldn't see any sound reasoning for it. Overall: The layout for "Journey" is atrocious. Not only does it use the line-connected panels that annoy me, but it's enclosed inside this small box, which took control away from me. I spent more time navigating the system than reading the comic! Combined with the weak story, characters and writing, I have to give "Journey" a 2 out of 10. Review by Benor Sun Jun 27 2004 09:21 PM

I'd had some hopes about this one, given that it has clean artwork and what looks to be a pretty clean interface. However, it also took me about 10 minutes to figure out, which is a new record. To be honest, this is somewhat clunky to use, and has nothing really indicating that you should try moving up and down, left and right. When I see just an arrow in a comic, I tend to think it goes to the next episode. It's functional when you learn it, but I still get the idea I may be missing something. I'd have to rate it 1/5 tails for nav system. Plot... the plot needs work. It seems that the author's going somewhere with it, but damned if I know where. So far, a character's come back from the park, been scared by a pair of pink fuzzy demons, and then gotten a letter from some scam operation. So, being the apparent idiot that he is, he gets on a plane, and ends up duct taped to his chair. Something happens, like the plane crashes or something (I'm not entirely sure), and he ends up being conversed about by two bears. That's as far as it's gotten by the time this was reviewed, so take heart that it might get better. At the moment, it's a 2/5 tails, it shows indication that it's likely to get better, but it's fairly unimpressive at the moment. Art. The art's quite good, solid crisp vector artwork. Good understanding of form and design, not much else to say. 4/5 tails there. Overall, I find that this comic could stand to get better, and the plotline could easily get quite more in-depth... it just isn't now. Personally, I rate it overall around 2.5/5 tails, it shows a lot of promise, just that it doesn't have enough quite yet. Review by Krinele Fullin Sun Jun 27 2004 09:00 PM

Review of "Journey Into History" This one looked short, so I thought I'd try to slide in a quick review this week. I didn't chose the best week to return on. Navigation I admit that navigation is a big issue for me. I want simple. I don't want to go through a new learning curve, mastering some convoluted navigation system, every time I read a new comic. I don't read comics to be impressed with fancy navigation systems. Sadly, this was "Journey Into History's" first and foremost problem which frustrated me in new and exciting ways on each page. You could use the navigation arrows a couple of ways. Both bad. One approach is to single click-click-click the arrows and very s l o w l y nudge the page forward a few pixels at a time. The other strategy is to hold the arrows down and run the risk of rapidly shooting the image too far past the frame. It was like trying to catch a slippery eel that kept sliding this way and that. I gave up on the arrows and tried an alternate navigation method (there were a handful). I switched to trying to use the "cursor grab and move" method on the page and would literally find my cursor stuck to the image and unable to get it unstuck. I was sitting there shaking the page around with my cursor like a sticky piece of flypaper. This "flypaper effect" did not happen on all browsers (I wised up and switched browsers midway through). Additionally, some panels were missed entirely on my first reading because there was no indication that you had to click other panels to make them appear. Some panels were too tiny to read, so I wound up exploring further navigation options and got to play around with blowing-up the image. Then, when the next page appeared looking elephantine, I got to play with the shrinky button and shrink the page back down again. Whoopie! The whole experience was so bad, that part of me hopes Stevenson never fixes it, so I can point to this as the quintessential example of how not to design a navigation system for your webcomic. Writing The writing was weak. Sorry "gags" about Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes winners (nay, Cleaning House) and overpriced airport gift shops really smelled moldy. I'm not sure what the point of this story was (which, in all fairness, was far from complete as of the time of this review). The situations came off rather random and disjointed. There was no situation or conflict to hold my interest and the characters were unappealing and dull. The pot-shot banter between the demons felt particularly painful and forced. When, near the end, Stevenson descended into 4th wall breaking, I figured that the author must have really been losing interest in the story he was telling. While having the author to talk to the audience directly can be done brilliantly, nine times out of ten it is merely a sign of writing desperation. And boy did this feel desperate. Artwork The one shining light in this webcomic reading experience was the terrific artwork. Stevenson employed a very appealing drawing style that was simple, but the lines were fun and vibrant. I liked the coloring and character designs as well. I'd love to see this artwork in service of a good story. Overall Excellent artwork, lame humor, weak story, dull characters and god-awful navigation. Review by The Phantom Critic Sun Jun 27 2004 01:41 AM

Put this one in the "Too early to review" category. Considering this is only 38 pages long and only on the second chapter, I feel like it should have been given more time before anyone passes judgment on it. The author indicates that the real story hasn't even begun yet. That aside, this comic merely made me go "Eh..." Story This dumb New Yorker named Chain is being followed by two little pink demons. Chain gets spooked, goes home and checks his mail, only to find out he's won a trip in a Publisher's Cleaning House sweepstakes. He gets on the plane and has wacky antics at the airport, finally being tied to his seat in the plane so he doesn't cause any more trouble. The demons follow him on the plane and cause it to crash, though. He wakes up to some talking bears and... To me, Chain's just not an engaging character, and nothing really happens (until the plane crash) that would really compel me to read on. The story looks like it's going in an interesting direction, but I can't really tell. Humor Humor is competant, but not spectacular. I didn't really laugh at any of the jokes, but at least none made me groan. Seeing Chain tied up in the seat was probably the best one. Art Pretty good. Clear inking styles, some creative use of layout, a dash of Flash to spice things up and really good colors. Not much to complain about here. Navigation I admire the use of Flash in the webcomic, but when you look past the initially clean layout, there are problems. Moving the scrollbars around to find the directional arrows can be a chore, as well as clicking on a bunch of different ones in order to progress properly. Also, there should be limits to how much the user can move or resize the image, as they can make it as big or small as they want and move it as far as they want. If they want to have it come back to its original image they would have to click on the link to whatever page they're on again, as hitting the Reload button on the browser will take them back to page one. It would be quicker than moving and resizing the image back to its default position, though. A default button would be nice, actually. Whatever... This comic seems to have some nice ideas here and there, but I really can't summon a strong opinion one way or another about it. Ask me a year from now to see if my opinion has changed. Review by Cobra Thu Jun 24 2004 03:06 PM

Visitor Reviews & Comments

Thanks for a good deal of honest criticism. I've already done a good deal of retooling of the site navigation and layout. I'll be working on inproving the viewer. I still think a particular kind of art viewer/artwork manager is needed to best experience infinite canvas work so I will continue to work on improving the flash viewer. Until it is ready, I'll be taking down much of the comic. Some I will rework, some I will leave. The only criticism I can say I disagree with was that I relied on the string connectors betweem panels. I think I used the method in only two out of the 30 pages. In large part, JIH is an experiment with space. Eventually, I hope it will become an experiment in good storytelling. I've spent too much time with the set-up, I guess. My next move is to jump straight in, or should I say back nearly 500 years. Thanks again for the advice. I really do take it seriously and appreciate the time you've taken to view what I consider a very freshman work. Meanwhile, at the main site, I've started a comic blog called HB that comes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to fill the gaps creatively while I retool. Review by Bob Stevenson Mon Oct 04 2004 10:34 PM

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