Webcomic Book Club Full Reviews of Traced by Tracy White

Art: Very basic art, line drawings, not much detail, static, but enough to get across the point of the comic, and enough thought to know the artist wasn't just drawing randomly, but was drawing what she needed to make her comic. not a lot of varietym, but was not really needed. Chars: The stoires in this comic revolve around one prime char with some reaccuring chars in a few comics. The char is portrayed as the Artist herself, and goes through her trials and tribulations. Story: A diverse amount of stories, ranging from a variety of diffrent events that happen in a teenage life. Now i personally could not touch on any of these subjects, i did not feel for the char at all. I found the stories to be static and full of angst, but did seem to have a quality of reedeming, and helped the readers discover diffrent aspects of life. Page Design: slighlty diffrent then alot of comics, a kind of hard to manage archive, but that doesnt really matter due to no particular order. most were startadrd click to proceed comics, one or two had a sup menu of diffrnet comics, and one was really annoying to dig through, with hidden procced buttons. Overall: 5/10 This comic was not for me. i found no realtioon to the char, didnt feel any intrest in the story, or the outcome. It does have qualities that i coudl see others might appriciate, but it just didnt seem good to me. Review by Jordin The Learned Sat Aug 02 2003 06:28 PM

While it is tempting, I opted not to review the separate comics in "Traced". I felt they were too short to do so without taking a long time; and I don't have much this week, I'm afraid. Anyway, on to the review. Art: There really isn't much to say about the art in Traced. I do wish it was more detailed, and the use of white on black was a strange choice to me. But on the other hand, the art was primarily a vehicle for the creator's words, to my eye; almost as if it would keep your attention span better than text would. In that respect, I can respect it. But I hope she starts to put more into the comics. Characters: This isn't really applicable for Traced. Since the comics are closely based off of her life, I wouldn't feel right trying to judge who was well done or not. Plot: Again, not really applicable. Since the events aren't under the control of the creator, it's not something you can say was done well or not. However, I can say that I think the story selections were interesting...but repetitive. Writing: I liked some of the stories, but all of them began to wear on me a little. Fortunately, none of them were especially long or grating. In general, the stories revolved around one common theme-the creator as she was growing up, and a few after she was an adult. I couldn't relate to all of them, but some made a lot of sense to me. Overall: I give Traced a 5 out of 10. I think the comics have merit, and talk matter-of-factly, rather than explictly pulling on your emotions. But at the same time, they tread a theme that has often been heard. I think it could stand to improve in some areas, but it's an unusual selection; reviewing certain portions would be reviewing someone's life, and I won't do that if I can avoid it. Review by Benor Sat Aug 02 2003 12:21 PM

*Groans in irritation* I tried to use the new submitting interface and it got rid of all my paragraph spacing. And it didn't seem to put my picture next to my review. Oh well... ANYWAY... Let's try this again. Insecurity, Anti-social tendicies, Depression, Substance Abuse, Bulimia, Peer-Pressure... So many similar themes are covered by "Traced" Traced is a fascinating approach to writing one's own story. It's got a "Live Journal" sort of feel to it. It's a rather good way to look into the past events of one's life. The stories are serious but I had the distinct feeling that she meant some of them to be slightly humourous. However, the humour is lost on me. I especially liked the way things are done in Traced, and the ideas are put across quite effectively. Traced touches on a lot of the problems faced by people, not just females in society today. I especially enjoy the way things are done in it. But unfortunately, I have a similar pet peeve about the Loser comic - the find the object interface just didn't seem to load properly for me and that made reading the comic incredibily annoying. The timing in the dialogue, however, was quite good. The artwork of Traced is terrible - it's not a work of art but seems more like notebook scribbles. However, I feel that this actually suits the comic well because they are memories, and memories tend to be hazy. Furthermore, they're drawn by someone who is merely trying to get her thoughts onto paper. It doesn't matter how well the comics are drawn, so long as the ideas in them are put across properly. I feel that the comics are awfully depressing and seem to revolve around the same ideas. Much as I respect the artist for managing to get through the problems that she's gone through, after a while, I feel that the comics are repetitive. I'm not completely sure if the comics are supposed to have a moral, I think that they're just reflective pieces of a woman who is looking back on her life. I don't think that I am in a position to judge her ideas or her memories or reflections. I give this comic series a 6 outta 10. Although the pieces are intelligent and have feeling in them, I just had to take points away for the lack of material (they all seem to revolve around how sorry she feels for herself) and creativity. Review by Catty Dewclaw Fri Aug 01 2003 01:26 AM

"Traced" Review These strips reminded me of Lynda Barry's work or the "Pathetic Geek Stories" on TheOnion.com--Slice of life reminiscences on the pains and ironies of growing up. The artwork is fairly rudimentary but serviceable for this type of strip. Fieldtrips This first strip put me in a good mindset toward enjoying these stories. It moved quickly, took me to a certain time and place, established empathy with the narrator and had a great ending. Unfortunately, not all of the strips were this strong. Kissing Amusing use of limited animation. Eye movements and timed dialogue work nicely. The piece felt just the right length. This may be one of my favorites. Fat The obsession over fat has been done to death in so many sit-coms, movies-of-the-week, "Cathy" cartoons etc. that Tracy adds little new to the subject here. These strips may all be very genuine and sincere expressions of her experiences, but there just wasn't enough humor or new insights to impress me much. One of the weakest pieces. Virgin I was very disappointed by this one. It was surprisingly superficial. I was hoping for a lot more insight or cleverness regarding her first sexual experience. It's not that I want a blow-by-blow of the physical details, but basic things like whether it was painful or pleasurable, on some level disappointing or better than expected. She's more interested in the fact that Mike turned out to be good friend later. That's a nice ending to the story but the meat of her myriad reactions to the experience itself seems missing. Loser I had technical problems with this one, which frustrated my enjoyment of the reading experience. It was confusing to know where to click. Again, maybe I've been exposed to too much stand-up comedy, but the "guy that never calls back" has just been covered in comedy routines a million times. Here we have the same spiel but with very little humor. Why I liked this one. The use of the Cliff's Notes premise and the scientific precision of her memory I found very amusing. I would still like more details--specific things that happened at the party instead of just generalizations. I Don't Care One of my favorites. It had a nice arc to it and went in a direction I wasn't expecting. Maybe I'm just a sucker for happy endings. Pressure Another so-so entry. Again, the slice of life material here is rather blandly presented without much real insight or interesting details. Not much to note visually either, except the rapid-fire notice of exam subjects. Grandpa I feel like such a meanie to even venture a critique on this, like doing so would be to criticize her pain over the loss of her grandfather. If a friend were showing me a photo album of their family, and pointed to a picture of their grandfather and told me the exact same story, I would be quite moved. But I feel that in comic like this, presented in some sense as a work of art, I want more than easy sentimentality. I mean, you could put up a picture of a dying puppy and get an emotional reaction. Art demands more. Smoking I liked this one. I felt it worked well, except it should have ended on "We were mortified" to really achieve a punch line. The final panel seemed unnecessary Drunk Another one that seemed to lack anything new or interesting. Although the animated version with the voice over and music was a vast improvement. I think all of the strips would benefit from being in that format. Hearing Tracy's actual voice added a lot for me. He narration worked very well with the drawings. High School Parties I liked this one because it had some fairly nice details like the crushing comments made by Linda V. and the waiting in the bathroom line. Overall These comics were really hit and miss for me. Some had a nice arc and/or punch to them while others just felt like unfinished pieces. Though based on real life incidents, they could still be given a lot more depth, insight, and distinctive details without taking away from their fast pace or their 95% accuracy. She's laid out the meat and bread from her memory but hasn't always added the psychological seasoning that makes the good ones so tasty. Review by The Phantom Critic Wed Jul 30 2003 07:32 PM

Well, as has already been mentioned, this is a hard one to judge. It's less like a webcomic and more like illustrated excerpts from a diary, to be honest. The art is pretty terrible, and navigating it was a bit...odd. There's no real coherent storyline to it, just telling - very quickly - various things that happened in this girl's life. The characters all change, except for the girl herself...yet the stories are told in such a way that it could really be anyone. And that, I suppose, is the secret to Traced. It could be anyone. It could be someone you know, it could even be you, if you happen to be female. The art is bad enough that it could really be anyone, the stories are nonspecific enough that it could be happening to anyone... So, overall, I'm not sure if these are this comic's strengths or weaknesses. It fails, as far as I'm concerned, as a traditional webcomic...but as a peek into someone else's life that could be almost anyone...I wouldn't say fantastic, but it's good in that regard. Definitely not for everyone, though, and it certainly wasn't for me. I'll give it six out of ten wobbling wombats. Review by Luthorne Mon Jul 28 2003 07:08 PM

A review of Traced by Kajamir the Giant Father Magnus is fairly on the ball when he says Traced is something of a difficult comic to review. Really, it's not a webcomic so much as a series of autobiographical comics that are on the web. So you could say it's one, but it lacks the feel and delivery of it. The content is enormously neutral, spoken from the experiences of the creator. As such, there's no plot, characters, or other similar things to discuss. Just one woman's early life. It's easier and maybe more sensical to discuss perhaps the presentation of this selection as opposed to saying much in regards to her demonstrated experiences. A reader, even at a fair pace, could probably knock off Traced in a comfortable hour and a half. It's short and loads fast, sometimes with only a few needless words. Rather than reading a straight on comic, you click on panels, and within those, a small anecdote takes place in the creator's life. Typically, you click on those images to progress things, which don't tend to run too long. As such, Traced is easy to pick up at a later time when one is busy. The art is entirely made of black and white outlines, most of it with small repeating animations, sometimes featuring text. All of this is nothing to write home about, but it can be pretty cute sometimes. That's about the extent of it. Textual, there's a few mistakes here and there. How much that bothers you depends on your politics of grammar. Concerning the content... it's hard to judge it in this format. Really, it isn't presented or suitable for our purposes unless you're willing to comment on the creator's life. I'm under the impression the anecdotes shown might be construed by some as perhaps empowering for young females, but it seemed more often to be something more along the lines of public commiseration. There's often no particular moral or apparent success from these anecdotes, such as the drinking and smoking stories. With this, there's a lack of direction, like we're reading a dramaticized version of someone's diary. And quite probable from the context, a good chunk is based from such recordings. I couldn't relate to most of the stories. Maybe this is because it's intended for someone other than my gender (as an example, males are not prone to anorexia or bulimia). Or maybe I was just never so overly neurotic and foolish as to the extent of her. There were some moments I found close to home, such as the Grandfather story, but mainly I couldn't picture myself even in reversed roles with the creator's ordeals. Because I'm not really willing to bash her life, my criticism on it ends largely there. I have to wonder though, if there were perhaps better stories she could have told? Maybe something more universal? I just didn't care much for the selection's content. A less aimless anecdotal theme would have been preferable, because as of this time I'm not terribly compelled to feel for her past rites of passage or neuroticisms. Reading some of these was cute in some places, but mainly dry as Jack Webb from the old Dragnet series. Given the sheer awkwardness and neutrality of this selection for review purposes, I'm leaving it with a very middle ground score. 4.5 of 10 stars. I think something a little closer than 5% fiction is required for reviewing here. I took away a .5 due to the sheer gimmicky irritation of the 'Loser' comic, which makes no abject navigational sense in presentation for the reader. I don't think Traced is bad, but it seems out of place for reviewal here. Lacking a daughter, or having been a young girl at any point, I wouldn't know if this is any good to recommend. Review by Kajamir the Giant Mon Jul 28 2003 05:56 PM

Art The art is very simple. It's not particularly good, but neither is it particularly unattractive. It's minimalistic, but it performs its purpose. That's about all I can say about it. I'll let someone else pick it apart. Characters While there are other people in the strip, it's really about the author. We see her thoughts, and we get a good feel for who she is. Her writing conveys her emotions and feelings very well. Story There is no big story in Traced, but rather; a number of small stories from various things that have happened to her in her life. These usually are milestones for her; her first kiss, her first experience with alcohol, her first sexual encounter... Though sometimes it's something as simple as her Fall ritual of buying pens. More on this later. Page Layout The page layout is generally simple. On the main comic page, there is a list of the comics. You click on the appropriate picture-link, and it takes you to that comic. Once in the comic, you generally click on one picture to get to the next, though sometimes there are arrows. For the most part, you go straight through the stories, and then to a page where you can share your own story on the subject. However, there are three notable exceptions. In the comics "fat?" and "highschool parties," you go through to a certain point, and then you choose which part of the story you wish to read next from a list to the left of that picture (I don't say panel because the comics aren't layed out in that format). The other exception is Loser. This one annoyed me. The comic itself wasn't too bad; it was the change in page layout. In each comic, you are supposed to find an area of the picture that will then change to a green color, which you are supposed to click. Unfortunately, the object in the picture you're supposed to hover over isn't always obvious, and it often devolves in a case of "Hunt-the-object." Readers shouldn't be forced to play guessing games to get to the next panel. It was an interesting idea, but it doesn't work in practice. Perhaps in a strip intended for five-year-olds, but not in this one. But generally, the lay-out is fairly user-friendly, if not overly sophisticated. Overall "Traced" was a difficult comic to critique for me, largely because it's so different from most comics on the web. It doesn't tell an over-reaching story, but nor is it a gag-a-day. The stories aren't interconnected in more than minor ways (such as a person introduced in one story appearing in another that takes place later on.) As I mentioned, the art is very simple, and it isn't something you'd go to the strip specifically to look at. It's the way its written that grabbed my attention. It's written like a diary, to my mind. The language used is simple. It isn't elegant, it isn't beautiful. It's just there. Rather than detract to the strip, I found it grounded it. Between that and the minimalist art style, I had no trouble believing it was at least, as the author puts it "95% true." I had little trouble relating to her, particularly in the "grandpa" story. Some of the stories had less success, but I'm not really in the target audience. This strip, I feel, is intended for young women, from the teenage years to their twenties. Final Thoughts While there are other comics out there that have the same goal, more-or-less, I don't believe I've ever seen another comic take the same approach, so I'm not sure it's fair to judge this strip by the same standards. It doesn't do the same things as other comics I've read. However, I believe it's no less successful in getting its message across. I give "Traced" Seven out of Ten Review by Father Magnus Sun Jul 27 2003 10:11 PM

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