Paper Dream Productions Blog
HEROES CON Indie Book Review #15 - "BUGBEAR" Issue #1
“BUGBEAR” Issue #1 is created by Drew Weing and Eleanor Davis, with each contributing their own stories in this thirty-six page, black and white, square-bound comic. This is not my first exposure to Ms. Davis work, I reviewed her “THE BEAST MOTHER” as the first review in this series. Looks like we’ll handle their little anthology much like the “Awesome 2: Awesomer” reviews.
So, if you like what you see you can check out more of their work at littlehousecomics.com, or contact them at drew@drewweing.com and eleanor@doing-fine.com.
REVIEW #1: “LEAFLET DROP” by Drew Weing
This little four-page story follows a three man team of saboteurs in a war torn cityscape. Running and hiding from overhead helicopters, represented by Drew’s wonderful “thup”s which ring the top of the panels, getting larger as the copters close in, and trailing of after releasing their ordinance - propaganda leaflets.
It is here the well done, traditional strip-style art changes to a more symbolic style, revealing the enemies of the saboteurs to be an alien race seeking peace - apparently by blowing things up.
I really enjoyed this story, the lettering and panel layouts really being the highlights. The strip-style character designs are nicely accented by detailed backgrounds to give a nice sense of scope to the overall tale. A very good job.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
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From “Showcase #4” and beyond Tom tackles “The Flash” one episode at a time!
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REVIEW #2: “FARTHER AWAY” by Eleanor Davis
The one-page, sparsely illustrated “FARTHER AWAY” is a nice description of memories and their tendency to fade from our minds as we grow older.
The layout and composition of the panels works very well, with few panels giving the reader a full view of a memory, more a quick glimpse of a fragment of an experience, before breaking down into only caption boxes. Words only left behind when the visual memories fade.
A nice, disjointed feel gave the story a nice weight. Overall, a thought provoking tales the reader can spend more time pondering after the final panel is read.
REVIEW #3: “CAMPING TRIP WITH MY DAD & SISTER” by Eleanor Davis
Ms. Davis’ art takes on a much more realistic approach than Mr. Weing’s. In this seven-page story we see in borderless snapshots events of a camping trip with Eleanor, age fourteen, her sister, age nine, and her father.
The figures are drawn with a thin, detailed line, while the backgrounds have a more sketchy line and bring out the wilderness setting.
The only words in the story are one or two word descriptions of wilderness flora and fauna surrounding the characters in each scene. Trees, insects, wildflowers, birds, and even types of scat are all wonderfully rendered giving the story a bit of a nature walk feel. There’s even a nice little scene of the items used in preparing that night’s dinner.
A good story made better with the use of the picture descriptions of the background “characters.”
REVIEW #4: “SOY-BASED” by Drew Weing
This seven-page story, based on a dream Drew had six months after his father had passed away, is one of my favorites of the book.
The strip-style’s easy to emote character faces are done with a fantastic result giving the story a lot of emotional weight.
The concept of the story is technology now allows humans to re-animate their dead loved ones into soy-based life forms. Pretty good, but it’s the emotional weight of the tale that steals the show.
The borderless panels add to the dream-like quality of the story, and turns into figures on an all black page when Drew realizes he can bring someone else back. And the final page adds a nice bit of humor to the whole story. A great read.
REVIEW #5: “LAUGHING LOUD” by Eleanor Davis
In the one-page, three-panel “LAUGHING LOUD” Ms. Davis returns to her more realistic style in her figures but approaches sound with a variety of techniques.
On the premise of an old radio show Eleanor listens to, old-fashioned reel-to-reel tapes fly from off-panel and into her headphones in the first panel.
The next panel uses a more traditional “pop” sign in one of the tapes, followed by the third panels almost supernova - all to describe the laugh of a woman. A woman “laughing loud.” Very nice.
REVIEW #6: “HER SMELL” by Eleanor Davis
The always changing Ms. Davis offers up another one-page story, this time in an minimal cartoon style, with an illustrated panel, text panel, illustrated panel, etc. layout. All in all, five illustrated and four text panels comprise the page.
In the story we are introduced to a man, a woman, and their chance encounter on the subway - and the man’s recollection of her smell - thus the title. Five years later the smell is noticed walking down the street. I won’t spoil the end, but Ms. Davis’ work dealing with memories and their ability to change our daily outlook continues with another great story. My favorite of her contributions in the issue.
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REVIEW #7: “THE MACHINERY INSIDE” by Drew Weing
The detailed backgrounds are back in Drew’s “THE MACHINERY INSIDE,” along with his great cartoon style. The story layout is landscape, allowing Mr. Weing to show a nice sense of scale when needed, and also let those backgrounds shine.
One problem I had though was with the story. It feels more like a six-page introduction to a much larger story - one that I would be interested in reading more of.
Overall, check this one out just for the third panel on page two to see the detail work - the individual carpet fibers and hatching on the panel are outstanding.
REVIEW #8: “THE MISTAKE” by Eleanor Davis
Our final story from Issue #1 of “BUGBEAR” is a six-page tale with Ms. Davis returning once again to her cartoon style. This fanciful story starts with a small girl waking up in the middle of the night to realize something wrong - there’s been a mistake.
She then proceeds to climb out her window, yelling to anyone who will listen. She is encountered by a number of fantastic beings, all who help her to the end of her quest - and the fixing of the mistake. Something tells me its all a dream, but a good dream.
