On the Bookshelf

A young woman wakes up beneath a tree with no memories of her life, her name, or her location. She is given the name Willow and comes to learn that she is on Earthsong, a childless planet who has been charged with taking in the children of other planets when their planets elemental lifeblood seeps into them and creates a soul stone, giving the person great powers. All of the other visiting children have remnants of a last memory of their home world and, after a month of residing on Earthsong, can choose to have their soul stone removed so that they can return safely home or remain and use their abilities to defend Earthsong from Beluosus who wishes to take control of the carriers of the soul stones and the tools which Earthsong uses to remove them. The only problem for Willow is that she has no memory at all of what planet she is from and no one recognises her species.

Today's review is of yet another webcomic, Earthsong by Crystal Yates. I love the originality (as far as I know) of this fantasy story which Crystal "Lady" Yates has planned out in great detail. At points, such as in Volume I, Chapter III: Genisis, the pages can get a little bogged down with dialogue in Yate's enthusiasm to describe her detailed world but this is an issue that she mostly works out better as the comic progresses. In comparison, it seems odd that Volume II, Chapter V: The Journal is only eighteen pages long. It is possible that this chapter was Yates experimenting with how best to distribute large amounts of information. Indeed, the pages were less convered with text but it did make for an oddly short chapter in comparison to the others.

About two years ago, Yates decided to commence what has been referred to as the "redux" of Earthsong, editing and reposting the webcomic pages online. The old pages are now inaccessible and I did not start to follow the webcomic until after the redux had commenced so I have never read the old version to be able to compare the art of then and any changes to the story. Regardless, even throughout the course of the redux, Yates' art style changes, develops, and improves significantly. Compare, for example, the cover art for Volume I (above, left) to that of Volume III, Chapter VII: Revelation (below, right). There are mixed views out there on redoing webcomics like this but I think that it is a valid practice, especially if there are plans to publish the work into hard copy for sale. Consider that, although many webcomic creators try to keep a buffer of ready pages, they give themselves only a very limited schedule by which to produce these pages. I cannot blame an artist for wanting to make sure that their work is at the best quality that they can produce before putting it up for sale. The first volume of Earthsong is available for purchase but the publication of future volumes is currently uncertain.

The cast of characters is notably female dominated, which they do discuss in-comic. The main character, Willow, is an interesting balance of meek innocence mixed with a real fiery streak. I have seen criticism of this but, personally, I think it works well.

Earthsong is a webcomic of excellent quality with beautiful art and a great story. It is currently in to it's third volume and is not yet complete. Click on the banner below to go to the Earthsong website where you can read the entire webcomic, hence far, for free!

Terra

The Zombie Hunters is a post-apocalyptic web comic that follows a "team of zombie hunters as they go through life as survivors of the undead outbreak." As infected civilians, they live within a fenced-off town on the Argus Research Campus island and venture out into the wastelands to do support missions as only they can do so without fear of new infection.

The Zombie Hunters started off as a private story for author Jenny Romanchuk and her friends, with a number of the characters sharing their names and appearances. It is easy to be put off by "self-inserts" (especially if you have ever taken to reading fan fiction) but honestly, in this case at least, don't be because The Zombie Hunters is really great. Regardless of the comic's start as just being a little fun with friends, Romanchuck has spent the time to develop interesting characters and back stories.

Romanchuck's version of the zombie virus operates at two stages. The first stage is infection where the virus will spread throughtout a persons body but remain dormant for so long as they are alive. The second stage occurs with the death of the host at which point the virus will become active and animate the corpse with a new craving for human flesh. The Zombie Hunters features an intriguing and unique (to my knowledge at least) class system of zombies, from the Basilisk which will paralyze a person with its gaze, to the Hunter which will stalk its prey for months if it has to for the perfect opportunity to attack and no one will ever even know that they are being followed, to the Mercy zombie which will seek out the weak and injured to deliver a fatal bite to the throat or a vital artery and then hold and comfort their victim as they die and reanimate.

Romanchuk has experimented with the artistic style over the course of updating but there has never been a time when I have not liked the art. In the FAQ section of the web site, she says that each strip takes approximately seven to eight hours to finish and I say that it is eight hours well spent. In the early days the drawing style was less detailed and reflected the more humourous tone. Later on the art style becomes more detailed and consistently realistic. You can watch Romanchuk work on the comic during a live stream broadcast on Thursdays and Saturdays at 2pm EST here.

Click on the banner below to go to The Zombie Hunters website and read the entire comic so far for free! Keep in mind that The Zombie Hunters is rated R for all sorts of fun things such as "coarse language, gore, violence, and nudity." Be prepared for the fact that it is also an ongoing work in process, meaning that it is not finished yet! Romanchuk provides us with a new hit of The Zombie Hunters every Monday. You can also now place a pre-order for book one when the comic gets printed in hard copy!

(Seriously, go read it. Just browsing the web site for this review I have found myself unable to help but start to reread the whole thing all over again!)

Terra

When seventeen-year-old Beatrice "Bea" Whaley begins to have highly realistic dreams set in the Revolutionary War she is at first smitten with the idea of adventure, beautiful dresses, and romance with one rather attractive man in uniform, Alan Warren.

In her waking hours Bea acts with drama club, hangs out with her friends, and daydreams. Not to mention that things are finally starting to look up with her long time crush, Benjamin Cato. Curious about her sleeping visions, Bea decides to do a bit of research only to realise that her dreams are historically accurate despite knowing nothing about the events in which they take place!

Now into volume eight, I've been following the webcomic (or rather, graphic web novel), The Dreamer, since it was in it's second volume, always eagerly awaiting the next update. I knew that Innes had me completely hooked when I had my first dream about the American Revolution, despite the fact that, as an Aussie, I've never learned much about the subject. I think that my own dream was somewhat of a mish-mash of what I've picked up from The Dreamer and what I learned about the American Civil War in my senior Modern History class. Oh dear. Sadly, my dream was also not nearly as exciting as any of Bea's.

You don't need to be a history buff to enjoy The Dreamer, but most certainly lovers of American history will adore this. One of the great things that drives The Dreamer is that Innes is genuinely passionate about the subject and has done her research well. The site blog is scattered with entries about her trips to sites of historical significance. But don't go thinking that this graphic novel is war and seriousness, oh no. Innes has struck a good balance and there are some great moments of humour in both time periods.

The comic is complete with a well-rounded cast of characters in both 1776 and modern day America. I love them all, really, and think that Bea is a great protagonist with whom I, personally, find very easy to relate to, quite possibly because I am prone to day dreaming the days away myself.

Click the banner below to go to The Dreamer website where you can read the graphic novel. Be sure to subscribe to the site's rss feed for more Dreamer updates! You can check out some of the fan art and videos made by the dedicated community of readers while waiting for more. Or perhaps even consider buying some of the published volumes in hard-copy.

Terra