Webcomic Book Club Full Reviews of Vicious Souvenirs by John Barber

Review of "Vicious Souvenirs" by John Barber "Vicious Souvenirs" sort of falls into the post-"Watchmen" genre of revisionist superhero comics. If you enjoy stuff like Brian Michael Bendis's "The Powers" (or really, any superhero comics), you'll probably like this. Story The opening scene was great; it really hooked me in from the get go. The natural flow of the dialogue with interruptions and dropped subjects worked very well to make the super-powered premise seem believable. It was like Samuel Jackson and John Travolta shooting the [censored] between hits in "Pulp Fiction". I felt like a fly on the roof. And the whole way their conversation would be interrupted by stuff happening off screen was terrific. It was more involving to see them react to the activities than actually be shown the action. The story follows Wikkid and Diesel, two super-powered types who get drafted into the organization of a genius megalomaniac visionary who wants to reorganize the world in order to save it. For the most part, I really believed in this world. But I often got confused during some of the scenes over which groups were spying on other groups. Some of the cat-and-mouse power play conversations also went over my head. I'm sure a reread would clear it all up, but I just kind of let it wash over me. By the second half (2.1), something happened beyond a font change. I felt utterly lost. This was mostly intentional due to a mind job done to the narrator, Wikkid. But I also had trouble maintaining my interest after that point. The story kept layering on new characters, new factions, new topical references and I felt increasingly detached from the jumpy, convoluted proceedings. But the story is far from over, so it may just be at a particularly complex point and not the best moment to make an overall evaluation. The story has enough going for it that I can easily be drawn back in. Themes & Tone There was a definite panache to the storytelling, which was refreshing. It was hip in a good way, tossing in a variety of narrative approaches that kept the reader on his or her toes. While the story was big on tossing curve balls at the reader, I really would have like to have had more jolts of humor and less narrative complexity. An example of great humor I wanted more of: The throwaway line when Wikkid and Diesel have a "long talk" about whether to join Mr. Closer. Some of the more obvious attempts at humor, like the news broadcasts, felt too underlined and have been overused at least since "Robocop". The story also felt a bit overstuffed with political references, like it was trying to cram in nearly every item on the global left wing agenda. Initially this was great, and added to the background realism. But more and more the conspiracy theory dog pile felt like listening to an Art Bell sampler on fast forward. The political references and connections just didn't have any real political punch to them. Not that "Vicious Souvenirs" is trying to make a profound political statement any more than a James Bond film. Still, when you bring up issues like Sept. 11th that continue to have a very powerful emotional resonance, it's difficult to have it presented as mere fodder for a super-villain scheme. But blending contemporary politics with fantasy can be done in an effective, thought-provoking way without diminishing the seriousness of the subject matter, as Patrick Farley's "The Spiders" proved. Characters While the various snatches of dialogue were often excellent (the big dinner party where the global bigwigs hobnob was a highlight), somehow, it didn't all seem to build into characters that I actually felt for or cared about. They were well-rendered in many ways, as superhero comics go, but just didn't make that emotional connection for me. None of these characters lived and breathed for me like Chelsea from "Clan of the Cats" (still need to finish that review). Artwork The colors, compositions and layouts were all nice and effective. This is John Barber's real strength. But the actual drawings themselves weren't rendered all that well. They had too much of a loose sketchy look that seemed to get worse in the later chapters. At times the comic looked like poorly posterized photographs. It may have been dangerous to include the Brendan Cahill's artwork on the Vegas interlude strip (which Iooked awesome). Cahill's drawing style is much more appealing to my personal tastes, and it made me wonder how much more I would enjoy "VS" if he had drawn the whole thing. Flash Navigation I'll start with a minor issue, which I notice on a lot of Flash sites. Occasionally Flash seems to have an issue where certain elements have a slightly off-color box around them, so you know which pieces are going to wind up moving. It was most noticeable here with white on white elements (like the credits, which had kind of greenish white boxes.). Now the bigger issue... In the first chapter, I thought the Flash transitions were brilliant. Things like the characters leaping down the building made full use of the medium. But as the story progressed, I became less and less enamored with the animations and felt they detracted from my enjoyment of the story. I don't know what it was exactly, but I think the fact that each click had a different kind of unexpected movement eventually became exhausting on some subconscious level. Seeing panels slide around and bump one another was a very busy visual activity that really called attention to itself, and overshadowed or hampered my ability to be drawn into the content on some level. Other readers probably feel the exact opposite way. But I would have preferred a fairly consistent and motionless transition method, saving the fancy stuff for key sequences where it would really have the most impact. Overall Although I expressed a lot of specific critiques, overall I think "Vicious Souvenirs" is a very fine webcomic and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the superhero or spy genres. It might be a bit confusing for the general reader, as it was for me at times, but I look forward to the conclusion and reading future John Barber projects. Review by The Phantom Critic Sun Nov 09 2003 11:24 PM

Visually: Art Style: The art style is very distinctive. I like it when I can easily tell one comic from the other, and the design of this comic is very good in that respect. There is a visual change between chapter 1 and chapter 2 that took me a little while to get used to, ubt that is the only real change. All of the characters look distincive, which is a very good thing when there are moments of satire. Visual Flow: This is the first Flash central webcomic I have had the pleasure of reading. By using this medium, the writer can control the flow of the story really well, and he does. There were a couple of scenes that lost me for a moment, but I was able to go back and quickly find my place again. This tended to only happen in long dialoges. When action happened, the pacing was very good. Plotline: World-View: The world is like ours, except with superheroes. The history is like ours, except people with super-powers and huge amounts of influence were part of major events as well. It's a setting that's easy to get into, and has a large amount of depth. I want to know why things are happening, and where events are headed. The writer has acclompished his mission. Personal: I want to know more about the characters. A lot is left in the dark about them, which can get annoying. And perhaps some questions will never be answered. But as it stands, I can believe that people like this could exist, though without the superpowers. Their pasts are shrouded in mystery, and I want to read more about them. Final Grade: A I want more. Am I willing to pay for it? Perhaps, but I'm willing to see what else the site has to offer. Review by Taua Boswell Sun Nov 09 2003 02:01 PM

Art: Well, there's art, and then there's art. The actual drawing is not, perhaps, the most beautiful, but the style is quite functional, and the originality certainly deserves some mention. And it works well, don't get me wrong. The characters are distinct, and a fair job is done portraying the various scenery. However, what's of interest to me was the presentation of said art, which is an art in and of itself. While a bit iffy in places, the animations do, for the most part, an admirable job in keeping one's eye focused on the story. Perhaps not the most complex piece of work out there, but I found the overall effect quite pleasing. And, of course, I was certainly impressed with the originality of the concept. Story: This is, of course, the main focus of Vicious Souvenirs, beyond the unique style of presentation. The plot is complex, or at least, so we trust...judging from the number of obscure comments made by assorted characters, at any rate. I'm personally quite looking forward to the final unveiling of what's been going on here. At first, we get a general sense of Wikkid, Diesel, Mr. Closer, and their varied associates as being the 'good guys', albeit, ones of a rather untraditional sort...and then, as Dorian and Wikkid have their differences, a new question arises: is Dorian Closer misguided, or does Wikkid lack vision? As we continue down this road, questions like this continue to arise...one thing is certain, though...'good guys' isn't likely to be a label that can really be thrown onto anyone in this strip...or at least, that's the impression given. Overall, this was, to me, Vicious Souvenirs' greatest strength. Characters: Like the story, these are complex. Unfortunately, barring Dorian and Wikked, with Diesel to a lesser degree, not too much attention has been focused on the others in the comic, though the impression is still left that they are real people, with very real issues of their own. This comic is, however, rather obviously more focused on the story than its characters...which isn't to say they're really lacking, as such...but you do get the sensation that some more detailed information about the other characters would be good. Overall, however, I have really few complaints...the mysteriousness of the characters does go well with the plot. Overall: Vicious Souvenirs was an experience for me, and one I'd reccomend to just about anyone. If you're looking for a light-hearted read, well, this certainly isn't it. But I found it to be intriguing, gripping, and, most importantly to me, original. And it's a good original. When you come up with something original, it's either really good, or really bad...and I'd say that this is definitely a case of the former, not the latter. I give Vicious Souvenirs a 9/10. Review by Luthorne Sat Nov 08 2003 11:19 AM

A review of Vicious Souvenirs by Kajamir the Giant Vicious Souvenirs is the first targeted review of Modern Tales, a subscription based webcomic site. I've often wondered what comics are grabbing enough to be warranted on those things. I wonder if others are of a similar strain to Vicious? The story world seems an underplayed superhero variant of our own. I say underplayed because superhero comics are often rather superficial and goofy, while Vicious Souvenirs is more about vast intrigue and misleads that would make Keyser Söze blush. Get ready to do some mental sifting when you read this one. I can sort of get into the story. Wikkid's narrations are a very nice, if a needed organizing touch to things. The world and situations seem interesting. However, I found it all to be generally difficult to follow. There's so much side stepping and jumping around along the way of what seems to be the plot, it was like reading Stephen King's manner of writing. All over the place and needlessly meticulous. This hindered my ability to enjoy Vicious Souvenirs. A lack of focus. It seemed to me that things had to be written down and compared to be followed. Too many characters kept popping to mind, while Dorian seemed the only one beyond Wikkid with particular depth. Everyone else... there was either too much typical mystery about them or they didn't seem engaging. The catfish anthromorph; Cowboy, however, was a real gem to see. The art was suitably comicbook-like. However, it's a different style than something you might find in a Marvel book, but more unto old pulp fiction using comic book conventions. Linework and colors didn't seem very crisp at all, though use of the latter was rather good at times. Brightness was particularly poor, though sometimes it was obviously intentional. Designs varied, but were generally nice. I think I liked Wikkid better with the punky blond hair though. He looked too much like a generic burn-out later. The layout... it's interesting, I give it that. In the beginning, there's instances of words being repeated for dramatic effect, but it didn't work well. Later, that doesn't occur and the clicking based layout uses less stacking of images atop one another. The comic loads ala flash, and the reader clicks to progress the action. Sometimes there's mild transitional animation. Panels can come in at any angle, so there's a lot of convention thrown out the door. In some ways, I liked Vicious Souvenirs. Others leave me thinking there's more appealing ways to show it. I can feel this is a good work, but I didn't particularly care for the presentation. Because it's so very stylized, I can't say I'd know if Vicious is going to change in some way towards a common direction. There's only so many comics of it up, so anything's possibly technically. I think it would be a plus in particular if they just cut down on the constant new characters who come and go, rather, just sticking with the core group and show some actual relation with Wikkid and Diesel beyond the beginning. I don't understand why they're both posed on the main page when they don't really interact, particularly since Diesel doesn't really rate as a co-star either. Vicious Souvenirs is different. That's about the best sum I can make of it. It wasn't really good or bad, though better than average by a little. It feels ambitious, but not quite there either. That's ambigious, but it's hard to sum up something that felt this disorganized and yet vast. If this was like The Usual Suspects, then I'd just prefer to sit it through than try to reason out the dead ends and vagueness. I give Vicious Souvenirs a 6 of 10. It's good, but not quite the sort of thing I'd pay to read. Due to the load times, it's likely not very friendly for dial up users. Be prepared to look at something else while you wait. Review by Kajamir the Giant Thu Nov 06 2003 01:51 AM

"Welcome another edition of Salen Reads Too Many Web Comics For His Own Ferrety Good. This week's review is Vicious Souvenirs. Dook. Lets get right to the review, shall we?" "Take two Not-so-petty thieves with super powers, add in one assassin, an ex-jewel thief, a whacked out person wanting to dominate the world, and throw in a ton of different styles of comics... and you got yourself Vicious Souvenirs. This comic reads like a super hero comic (actually super-VILLIAN, but thats just one of those details), but with more talking. But thats ok. The comic itself plays out a bit different from your average comic experience, as this one utilizes Flash to present the comic, and in some ways, it really helps seem to make the comic move totally unlike other comics out there..." "Artwise, well... the art just WORKS with the style of comic. Its gritty, its dark at times, and each comic seems to have a somewhat different comic 'coloring' feel to it. You have Golden Age style comics interupting gritty comics, you have black and white comics, you have comics with a look of a late 70s, early 80's look to them... And it just seems to work... There's lot of stuff to just soak in, and the use of flash only seems to help make the comic even more artisticly cool, as it moves around, pieces falling into place as you view it." "On the Plot homefront, you have the simple story of one guy, with super powers, and how his life changes when offered the chance to help someone take over the world. And it only seems to snowball from there." "The world itself seems to have everything a gritty super-hero(villian) comic should. Government officials, super powered enemies, spys, powerful people trying to 'rule' the world, nuclear weapons, terrorist connections, ninjas, genetically altered secret service agents, furries... Yes, there seems to be a few furries in this comic. Maybe its just fan service. Maybe its just one of those things. Did I mention the cowboy fishman? *shrug* Uh... that too." "Yet, amongst all this is a story of one guy dealing with a deal to help someone take over the world, and the ramifications of that choice. And what a choice..." "Characters are diverse. REALLY diverse. And they all seem to have their own motivations for what they do, why they do it, and why they're around. This means things are very complex and the characters are very rich with emotions. It probably doesn't hurt there's a lot of talking in the strip when things aren't getting gunned down, which really lets you inside on what the characters are feeling and what not." "And Overall, its a really cool comic. The comic is gritty, it has a feel of a familiar comic that you've read a hundred times before, and still can't get enough of. Figuring out 'whats next' seems to be very hard, if near impossible. And it proves just how messy making the world a 'better place' can make it a true 'hell on earth'. And probably make you a bit dizzy at how many plots folks are spinning in the world..." "I give this comic a 9 out of 10 shinies. The reasons its not a pure 10, is this isn't really the type of comic I read, although with a comic this good, it probably would be soon, and the second reason is the comic does take a minute or so to load up on my dialup connection. Not unbearable, but still just a very VERY minor issue. At work though, the comic was VERY easy to load up on a 320k connection, so it actually rates a 9 and a half shinies." "And just because I can add a few last lines to my review... I personally loved the 'Secret Agent' style comic and the 'prologue' comic, both seeming to be just really cool artistly. I do wonder about the history of the 'world' though, since there seem to be government super-heros, genetic engineering, super powers, furries, and just a mess of other stuff going on that make me want to ask the question, "How did all this get here?" But thats just me. Dook!" Review by Salen Stormwing Tue Nov 04 2003 05:29 PM

I, like Benor, tried out Modern Tales right away. I also read VS right away. Before I finished my last review, actually. I enjoyed Vicious Souvenirs greatly. The only thing I could compare it to is Rising Stars by J. Michael Staczynksi. You have a world where superheroes and supervillains exist; where people have powers beyond that of normal humans. Then you stick these people together in an effort to take over the world. Now, it sounds a little corny, but stick with me here. This isn't your "I shall rule the world! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" kind of story, but the "Well, the current governments aren't doing any good, so let's make a system where every person out there is taken care of." Okay, it still sounds a little corny, but it's deeper than all that. It has enough intrigue and plot and wrong turns and double-backs to keep you guessing where everything is all leading. Granted, the same things that make the story exciting also make it a little difficult to grasp at times, but the author is good at explaining things and catching you up (at least enough to not be stumbling blindly) within the first page or three. The plot has red herrings and dropped slippers that it hasn't even touched on, yet. The characters read like real people. They're arrogant, mistrusting, happy, sad, sickened, guilt-ridden, and intrigued all at the right moments. They're more than just simple 'heroes', but humans who have more-than-human abilities. Of course, I may just be reading more into the comic than there is, but such is the nature of a critique. Most of all, I cherished the ability of the characters to be wrong. And not wrong in very grand ways or in very min or ways, but in that middle ground where things get really hazy. They have their ideologies, and their day-to-day goals, but thinking, oh, a month or two ahead, or pondering what the boss' past was all about, can see the characters wrong as often as right. In a technical sense, I enjoyed the 'silhouette narration' of Wikkid is his older years (I assume older as he refers to the comic's events in the past tense) because of how it drew the story together. It links the various scenes together as parts of a single flashback. The art was very clean and nicely done. there was a bit of copy/paste in parts, but it wasn't all that horrendous. Especially not with the dynamism that the animation provided. Each chapter had moving parts and panels, to show the world to you one frame at a time. It was a very nice example of how a multimedia comic can be crafted skillfully and still carry all the same punch of static versions. Overall, Vicious Souvenirs is well worth the read. Sit down, check it out, and spend a little while in somebody else's world. Nine out of Ten from this corner. Review by Xenix Tue Nov 04 2003 06:17 AM

Normally I'm not this prompt with my reviews. However, I decided to test the Modern Tales site, to see if the password would work correctly. And...well, I'll say what I thought after I give the review. Art: The art in "Vicious Souvenirs" is quite good. Before I go into more detail, though, I'd like to note the format. "Vicious Souvenirs" is a flash comic-you are, for the most part, given a choice on how it goes. You click on the picture, and you're taken to the next frame. There is also a back button, to go back through the frames. It's hidden unless you specifically put your cursor over the location. Now that it's in the proper context...the characters are somewhat simplified, which is a little disappointing. However, I'm quite pleased with how the comic's layout is handled. Flash comics could become very messy if they're not done correctly, but I think that Vicious Souvenirs has a person of great skill on the technical end. While the art could improve in character design, I have no problems with the layout. And that's something of a surprise, considering what could have happened. There are some moments where new panels are overlayed on old ones, and the result is confusing. Fortunately, though, this is more of a problem in the earlier comics. Also, the layout isn't just used well-it's used in ways that make you think of webcomics as a real alternative to print. Keeping the suspense of what's about to happen doesn't depend on putting the panels in the right order, and making the big thing happen on the next page. Because the creator can display the panels in whatever order (and show as many or as little) as he wants, there are several moments where surprises come out without blindsiding you. Characters: There are some really good characters in Vicious Souvenirs...and some who beg for more explanation. Diesel and Wikkid are interesting, and they're developed enough to keep your attention as the other characters appear. After that, you begin to find out about the man named Dorian Closer. Closer is shrouded in mystery throughout the series-even up to the current comic, who or what he is hasn't been made clear. While the layers of mystery are still interesting right now, I worry that they'll keep piling on, and begin to lose readers. What I would like to see more of, though, is development for Miss Curtis and Fatal. Right now, both of them have been secretive for a little too long, and it's starting to become an annoyance. Plot: A strong point of Vicious Souvenirs. While the plot may not show it a lot, this is a superhero world-and because of that, you get the feeling that there's a lot more going on than you're being shown. Fortunately, it's not a frustrating feeling-the story that you're getting is enough to keep you interested. In fact, for Act I, it was downright gripping for me. It had superheros and supervillains mixed in with espionage and world conspiracy theories, in a way that worked. I was hooked. Unfortunately, though, there was some disconnect with Act II. It was still the same stories, and a lot of the questions that left me on a cliffhanger with Act I were answered. But it felt a little too quick for my taste, and it's only become as satisfying as Act I was in the last two comics. Writing: A whole lot of fun. I really like the dialogue of the characters, especially how some word bubbles pile on top of each other-as a way to show someone interrupting, it's the best method I've seen used. I also like that things fit together...sometimes. And where they don't fit, it's because the characters are missing pieces, not because they've been overlooked by the creator. It has enough mystery to keep me guessing, but enough revelations-and some refutations, to show that characters make assumptions that are wrong-that I wanted to keep finding out what would happen next. Overall: I'm a big fan of superhero comics, and something of a fan for conspiracy theories and secret agent action. Vicious Souvenirs is a damn near perfect blend of those near the beginning, and has managed to get back to that previous pinnacle. I really want to keep going with it. A very enthusiastic 9 out of 10. Review by Benor Sun Nov 02 2003 11:28 PM

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