Zuda Reviews for April

I'll have to try to keep these somewhat short so here goes:

Agent Happydeath -- Looking at the overall story on this one I find it kinda humorous and somewhat interesting. I just thought the execution was off. The art seemed to be lacking in the storytelling department and the dialogue was a bit clunky for me.

Brave Ulysses -- I kinda felt that I was being over told the story here. You had the narrative (the storyteller), the pictures, and the dialogue all together and I didn't find it flowed well. Not to mention the acronyms being list at the top of the page, I can't say I liked that very much. The art has an interesting "old-style" to it but I'm not sure I liked it all that much. And I didn't really feel that into the story or characters or see them as all that engaging.

Feverkind -- I actually thought this was an interesting, quirky story with some cute dialogue and story ideas. The character designs were simple and fun. Then the last panel hit and I suddenly lost a lot of interest in the book. For some reason the knife wielding masked maniac just didn't seem like a good idea to me.

Melody -- The current leader (as I type this at least). Visually, I see this as the most solid and appealing of this month's books (at least for me). It's very solid graphic storytelling. And it's written well. But for me, the overall story just doesn't seem all that appealing. It just doesn't seem to be something I'd want to read as the whole idea of this "greatest song of all time" just has me having flashbacks to the Tenacious D song "Tribute".

Punchboys -- Though there seems to be some artistic talent here, I just get the feeling that the art is too sketchy and "unfinished" looking. It almost looks more like quick storyboard sketches. And there are too many splash pages so there isn't much story or characters built up. It needs more meat added to it.

Re-Evolution -- An interesting premise with some decent storytelling but what actually "bugs" me about this one is the art. A few things that sent off warning bells for me is the range of character designs from cartoon looking animals to real life looking animals, I just didn't feel like it had a consistent look. And every time you see a gorilla's face it looks swiped from Planet of the Apes, they look just like Michael Clarke Duncan's character. And as interesting as the premise is, I just didn't feel it was strong enough.

Streetpunx -- This one has some pretty amazing visuals to it but it seems to rely solely on them. The story seems pretty week, at least from reading these first 8 pages. I don't think the art is enough to sell me on this book as it's pretty, but overall needs more story to it.

Suckerpunch -- An interesting art style with decent storytelling to it but this one didn't really blow me away. The story seems overdone whether it's the Matrix or Equilibrium or whatever. The write up also gave a bit more story to it (which sounds even more like Equilibrium) that these 8 pages didn't even get into. I think it needed a better intro to catch my attention and something more that makes it different story wise.

Super Seed -- This story has some interesting aspects to it and the characters seem different and possibly interesting. I say "possibly" because it doesn't seem like you get enough time with any of them to say for sure. There's no connection to the reader. The art is hit or miss. Some panels (mainly the ones of just hands or such) are nice and some are well laid out but often the character's head or face looks squished or off, or their appearance is inconsistent from panel to panel.

The Erebus Effect -- For the most part I like this one visually. There was one instance where I wondered if he was throwing up onto his someone's head (a clearer divide between those images would have helped) and the style might not be for everyone but I thought it fit well. I did find I wanted more from the first 8 pages to sell the story. The talking toy ninja was somewhat intriguing but other than that I didn't really find it "new" for me. I wanted something more.

So I'm still not exactly sure who I will be voting for this month. Going over them again for these reviews I may actually end up going with Feverkind.

And since we're talking about Zuda comics, one news item of note that I just learned (though many probably already know) is that former competitor "Sam & Lilah" has moved to Acti-I-Vate. Congratulations to the creators who put together an interesting comic.