‘Digging for Apples’ is featured on UK comic publisher Markosia’s free webcomic page and ‘Second Skin’ is the artist’s more personal webcomic project (note from the Mole: all relevant links are listed at the end of the column!) Donna has been creating comics for quite a few years now and her credits include a recent publication in Orang Utan Comics’ anthology ‘Eleventh Hour’ as the artist for the short story ‘Ghost Boy’ (featured in volume #1). Previously she also won the first short manga competition run by Neo magazine with her five-page piece ‘Devil_Angel’ (featured in issue #8). So Donna has proven that she can produce quality print work, but we’re not here to investigate print comics – to the webcomics I say!
As most readers here will probably know, Markosia now has a section on their website for free-to-read webcomics. One such comic is ‘Digging for Apples’, which is a full-colour story with a manga influence to the artwork. Anyone out there who knows manga will probably understand when I say that ‘Digging for Apples’ is drawn in a ‘chibi’ style. For everyone else though, this is a more stylised way of drawing where even adult characters are drawn shorter, more simply, more rounded and cute than usual (see the first image attached to this column for an example from the comic).
‘Digging for Apples’ is a fun light read with an amusingly grumpy main character, who enjoys reading and hates snow (among other things). The characters are smoothly drawn with effective use of linework.. Some panels have a very graphical look to them, which seems to take inspiration from Japanese graphic design (for example, packaging design or advertising) as well as manga. This works very well, especially as the pages still manage to convey a lot of energy. However, unfortunately for this reviewer (who loves her comic backgrounds), the backgrounds here are either very simple or non-existent, with coloured tones or effects being used instead. This is a little disappointing, but as it’s a light-hearted comic it doesn’t impact as much as it would have on a series requiring more depth.
A couple of small obstacles to the reading of this comic were found on the website though. Firstly, the comic pages on the website don’t fit onto a 1024px high monitor screen in their entirety. This may have been a conscious decision by Markosia to have the reader scroll down to finish each page, but it is a bit strange to someone who is used to seeing the entire page at once. Also, there is no indication on the website as to when, or even if, the comic is updating frequently. It would be nice to see a note somewhere on the webpage to let us know this information as the comic is definitely not finished yet. On the other hand, a comic which is most definitely currently updating is Donna’s personal webcomic, ‘Second Skin’. This is a monochrome comic, presented in a sepia tone for the web. Unlike most comics in the West it reads right-to-left rather than our usual left-to-right. If you’re used to reading unflipped manga (e.g. Tokyopop’s ‘authentic manga’) then you should find no problems with it. If not, it may take a little getting used to but ultimately is no more difficult than reading any other comic. The artist’s reasoning behind this is simply that it is her personal comic and therefore she can choose the format she wants to present it in, which is pretty much a watertight argument.
The comic is still only on its first chapter but it has updated regularly since it began so hope is high for it to continue in this fashion. So far the story centres around a 10-year-old girl and her brother, who is not quite normal to say the least. As its only just beginning its difficult to say more without ruining what’s been covered so far, but rest assured the story is a page-turner so far (with page 17 being quite the cliffhanger at the moment).
Art-wise there are some moiré pattern problems with the toning (the strange chequered patterns in the tonework) because it is intended for print eventually and has therefore been resized for the web. It can be a little jarring at first but once you get into the comic you can largely ignore it. The artist explains this in her FAQ on the comic’s ‘Info’ page, as well as providing profiles for the two leading characters. Eventually it would be really great to see more character info and maybe even a gallery page or some more extras as the comic grows.
Next time (nasty concrete lugging humans aside), the Webcomic Mole will be discussing the finer points of webcomickry with Donna in an interview (and yes, webcomickry is now a word).
Relevant links for this column:
Vicki Paull (aka. Wikivic) discovered comics in 2004, fell in love with them and started trying to create her own. In the four years since then she has devoured all the UK comics she could get her hands on, taken notes and written several reviews which are available to read freely on her website. She is now poking her head up out of her manga-styled burrow and is digging around like a comic-loving mole trying to find some fantastic western style UK webcomics to inspire her.
Vicki’s webcomic, Cute Loveable Mascot Training Academy, can be found here www.clmtrainingacademy.com
Her portfolio, reviews and other info can be found on her website here www.bumblemoo.com
Feed the comic mole! UK webcomic recommendations, comments or questions can be emailed to Vicki
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