A review of A Drug War Carol
by Kajamir the Giant
When it came time to reviewing this 'webcomic', I came across an impasse about whether to judge it for what it possessed as a comic, or simply write it off as propaganda. With a bit of deliberation, I've decided ADWC will be treated as a typical comic on the basis that more or less all current webcomics that have little points to bring across (Shaw Island, Ozy & Millie), that are inherently attempting to bring the reader to their own side of an idea in an often fairly one sided manner, sometimes subtlety mixed in with humor. That by itself could be construed as manipulative end, not terribly dissimiliar to propaganda itself. So while ADWC might be more blatant and single minded in its aim, I'm going to treat it much like anything else.
Starting with the art, ADWC is fairly good. I don't know how else to describe it other than it reminds me a lot of Ward's work on the MZDM comic, which I'm rather favorable to. The other half of the style presented is something more akin of a real comic book, minus the old style bulkiness of body. As such, image wise, I liked what I was seeing. The last two ghosts are fairly described as appealing to the eye and the images of people from the early to mid century seem styled well enough for them to be believable.
When it comes to the designs of those featured, they're fairly on the mark, although there's sort of an overplayed miscreant cartoonish villainy to some of those presented as being 'bad guys'. A lot of the content is generally on a serious mark, so it breaks the mood with corniness just a little. I would also question why the constant and sometimes pointless quote links exist only at the beginning (click the images).
As effective propaganda, I wouldn't be impressed by this. The first ghost sequence lags badly in terms of explaining things. If I was the senator listening to him, I'd probably fall asleep or wander off. It's little else than long winded rambling, more something to describe an alleged history, than to convince anyone of anything. Only when things are more prone to heart tugging in the shorter second and third ghost sequences, does it seem more effective, although at this point in my life it has no real impact. I will admit a scene of powerful imagery comes in the future sequence with little Tim and his father hiding in the bathtub. But beyond this, I never felt particularly impassioned about any of this. As propaganda to convince of someone's interests, it does not work. As a comic by itself, it's not something people would buy anywhere. It's a somewhat palatable take-off of a Christmas Carol when it remembers that's the source material, but it lacks a power to be anything else than propaganda. To that end, I can't say really that this is entirely a thing worth reading since it serves a purpose, but fails at it.
My own politics are generally for pot being legal. But I would have preferred a more honest and diversified approach to what was made, such as people using the drug for recreation, probably a lot more in use than people overrall need it for more medical purposes. It rather comes across as being ashamed that could be someone's motive, perhaps even the authors. In days like these where High Times magazines can fill every convenience store next to Archie comics and pot references in popular media are about as common as pennies in a bank vault, this sort of ashamed closet mentality seems unnecessary or even deceptive. But again, it is propaganda, and little else.
Because this 'comic' fails its very singular purpose, I can't really recommend it to anyone. It looks nice though, so perhaps if the reader was interested in the art alone, a casual perusal might be alright. Still, to everyone else, I can only shrug.
I give A Drug War Carol 3 of 10 stars. It's a one shot 'story' and has no real re-reading value. |
