A review of Stubble
by Kajamir the Giant
Stubble is a rather lengthy archived comic about a young semi-gothic man's life, mostly concerned around various times in school and love. I feel it's a decent comic, but suffers some outstanding problems.
Starting with the characters, I think they're generally decent to read about. Clint is an enjoyable lead, more or less, and his friends are reasonably interesting to see in their paces. Yet, Stubble's cast is huge, and often filled with characters that sometimes have little reason to be around, or aren't showcased very much. The result is confusing, so readers might do well to stick to focusing on Clint and his more immediate friends, rather than those around him. Some of them, are introduced right out of the blue, and the immediate joining/opinionated relations between old person A, and new person B, don't usually mesh as to be believable, such as Roland and Clint's rocker friend. Also, many of the characters, while often zany in mannerism, can show instances of being very deep and emotional. This is a good thing, to possess range. But therein also lies a thorn with Stubble in general. Inconsistency.
The storylines to Stubble are a little hard to work one's self around. They jump from goofy to dead serious in an instant sometimes. I recall a large note of distaste arrived from the serious storyline of Clint and Lindsey at the ice pond. It goes very well, until, and quite uncomfortably, it breaks into a guest artist intermission with no bearing on anything story based, totally ruining the mood. Stubble needs to just focus on something and run with it for a bit. Even the current storyline involves day by day alternating between the hapless relationships of two characters. Some parts work better than others. My blood did boil during the racism storyline, but things like the giant robot built in four minutes did not. Don't get me wrong, it's okay for a read, but as for mood/atmosphere, it wobbles all over the place.
Artwise, I didn't like Stubble in the beginning. Well, that's not entirely accurate. I thought the art in the beginning was passable, but it didn't do anything for me. Later on, most visible by the second year, the creator starts doing more serious stylings of his characters which work better than the cartoonier ones before. The trend follows, and while the art quality remains maybe just a bit tightened but otherwise the same, his 'look' improves. But again, it jumps back and forth, in how that look is presented.
I think Stubble is a decent comic. It's not outstanding, but a nice read for passing the time. And given the archive size, there will be a lot of time devoted to reading this.
I'm giving Stubble 5 out of 10 stars. Decent comic, but the inconsistency issue really wears on it. If it was improved, I'd probably raise the score by about 2-2.5. |
