"In late 2003, Salen Stormwing, a comic-reviewing ferret, set out on his latest task..."
"To review Teaching Baby Paranoia. Dook! And yes, thats how this review is going to start. Much like almost every comic of TBP (I'll use this term since Teaching Baby Paranoia is a lot to write out), I have set the stage."
"The comic itself is one of presenting facts about historical and 'historically fictional' events in an entertaining way. Or at the very least, in a vague, car-accident that you want to see what happened if just because its different and somewhat disturbing. Its mostly humorous, but not in the usual fashion. Its more like funny in a fact is scarier than fiction sort of way.
Artwork: "Its clean, it works for the comic, and all the people in the comic sort of blend together. You never really can tell who's who in the comic, but considering that the comic jumps to different 'stories' almost every single comic, with very few 'story archs' appearing, the fact that the characters tend to look vaguly similiar doesn't really hurt the comic. Your gunna be told who's who in the comic, so no worries. At times though, the greyscale, or near gray scale seems a bit wierd, but I guess in the grand scheme of coloring, it works for the comic. No need for tons of color. There are a few comics with color, but most of them are muted if they do."
"In the grand scheme of things, the art is pretty plain, but is much better overall than some comics, and there's nothing overtly wront with the style. It might not wow you, but it works."
Characters: "Characters, except for a few story archs, almost all the characters are just one time deals that you'll see. Only a few characters seem to have any sort of recurring roles, like the artist and a few others. Not much to report on."
Writing: "Ok, this is where the comic works overtime. A lot of the writing involves taking stories and tales, and writing them in such a way to be humorous, or at least just be disturbingly funny. Sometimes its hard to tell early on, if a story is based on fact, or the author's fictitious stories. Later on, it becomes easier, as the author adds footnotes to the stories, to help provide information about each strip. In some way... reading the comic was like reading a Penny Arcade comic, but instead of talking about video games or some such... its about stories of fact and fiction, showing you the dark and humorous side of the world. Or maybe not. I actually meant what I said as a compliment."
"Early on, the comic didn't seem to have as much focus as it does later on. Earlier, it seems to be a mish of 'stories' and 'political commentary' but later on, its more centered towards presenting the stories. Some of the humor in some of the comics can be a bit hit or miss on occasion, but usually its pretty good at getting a chuckle out of me, even if its a chuckle that I'd rather not admit to."
Plot: "Not much on this field to mention, as the comic has very few story archs to mention as well."
Overall: "Its a good comic. Its sort of dark and sort of disturbing, but at the same time, you really do wonder what you're gunna see next. Not all the stories were as funny or interesting as others, but most of them were. I'm not sure I'd continue to read this comic or not though. While the small stories in each comic are entertaining to read, I'm not sure I'd read each comic as it comes along, but probably more in waiting a month or two and reading a bunch of them in one sitting instead."
"The one bad point of the comic, more than anything else, is the text. Early on, its unbearably hard to read, to the point that you have to read one word three or four times to figure out what the word is, and then you have more words to figure out after that. Later on, this problem pretty much disappears, but it is sad that the beginning was just painful to try to read, not because of the writing, but because of how small and squished the letters were."
"But still, its a good comic, even if I can't figure out what the title of the comic is supposed to mean. Maybe it doesn't mean anything. *shrug* No clue. Oh well, anyways, if you have some time to spare, and a Modern tales account, you should probably check this comic out."
Score: 8 shinies out of 10. |
