Monday, April 27, 2009

Cancer troop 4/ a tropic of Cancer kind of thing maybe... nah!

They're cute until they shoot you in the Ass with lasers

Cancer Troop 4 is the final review of Zuda April, the creators are Zuda veterans Galvo, and Pon. [With a special thank you for low character count user names and title. ;)] It earned a 3/5 stars from me for being an interesting story, but other comics this month were more to my interests. Here is the Synopsis: Planets of Galaxy Qubart need not worry any longer! CANCER TROOP 4 IS HERE! Have JELLYS eaten your moons? Suns? Harvest worlds? MAYBE EVEN YOUR OWN HOME? Step aside as our fearless team descends into the depths of your planet, to seek out these infamous, parasitic world killers! Dr. Jerod, expert in all things JELLY, heads our valiant group! Following him is his colleague science officer Redd. Always ready for a fight is Chief of Security Berto B, and last but not least their trusted robot C-5000. Tune in as they travel from planet to planet, making new friends as they exterminate the evil, symbiotic, jellacness mecha-bugs known as JELLYS! Fear and danger is around every corner, but hope and victory is seconds away as we follow CANCER TROOP 4. [One of the best written synopsis's ever.]

Be very... very... quiet... we're hunting jelly's

The first thing that hits you is the cute as a button character design. Letters are easy to read, and the colors are very good. The impressive thing on screen one was how well the opening dialogue helped in the characterization of our three main leads. Again the art work is very enjoyable I loved Berto's, expression and comment in panel 5 screen 2. Screen three was MR. Bubble's meets blueberry cotton candy, which is sort of a subconscious reinforcer that this is a light action comic strip. Do you got the good sense God gave a piss ant? Common question in my part of the country for someone you think is acting like a damn fool. I really like Redd more than I thought I would, because he's not cowardly but not gung-ho either. The creators really bring the characterization in all the dialogue. "Bork" on screen 5 reminds me of "Dork" from Judge Dredd, so I liked it. The jelly's funny, but also creepy like that "One by one" girl from Harper's Island. In a previous review for this month I said going the talking heads route would have helped that comic more. In this case speeding things up so we get to the combat action before screen 6 would have improved my rating. It doesn't all depend on the genre/tone every comics different. More action sooner, less taking your time with the suspense building establishing shots, and Dr. Octopus style panel transitions. Around about the end of screen 4 you do start to wonder where the action scenes are???

Smurfs in the 24 and a half century!

When the shit does finally start to go down with the jello mold, it's a fun engaging fight scene to read. Jelly snoting on Doc was equal parts funny and gross. Loved the letters for "Argh" comic staple dialogue if their was ever any. The fight scenes were helped by good panel composition. We got a nice cliff hanger to end on, but the last few panels felt cramped. Building the tension (about to be eaten/ hand reaching for a blaster) when your coming up to a hard break (last screen) , didn't work out as well as it could have. Still a solid 3/5 stars and other comics this month better fit my fav genre's.

It's always the quiet ones

I wouldn't type this if I didn't think their was truth to it. I think Pon and Galvo suffer from not being better known Zuda vet's because their not interacting more with readers on the Zuda site. Pon and Galvo: Commenting on others comics, responding to comments, hell calling somebody a *****-********* ****** **** **** ****-***** on the Zuda message boards would make your name more noticeable. Letting your work speak for itself can sound as loud as a fart in a whirl-wind online. That's not fair in the cosmic karma sense, but I do believe it's accurate. If you don't have a fan friend base to bring, the more people know your name/views (and maybe agree with you), the more of a shot/good will they might give you. 'They' being Zuda voters not related to you by blood, or marriage. You've got to sell your comic, promote it, and that means more interaction with readers than you two guys average. If it's not so much about another 52 screens, but recognition and the love of comics -more interaction would help with that too. I do hope to see both these creators back on Zuda again, because it's easy to see they do quality work.

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