Myth Zuda review/ Out of the Bayou into the Dogwoods

The first April review is for the comic I'm voting for: Myth by Michael Loniewski, Marcom, and E.T. Dollman. I faved it, 5/5 stars, and voted for it (for keeps) the first day of the contest. In other words get ready for lots and lots of fawning praise. You do like fawning don't you?

Here is the synopsis: After years of battling a wicked headmistress, young Sam has escaped his orphanage for a life far from adults. What he finds instead is a fallen kingdom of fantasy hidden in a nearby forest. Within the bizarre landscape Sam finds the perfect sidekick for justice in a solitary giant. Armed with his massive new friend, Sam heads out to rescue his fellow orphans and punish their cruel headmistress once and for all. But when the town’s children begin to disappear, the boy and his giant must battle something far more sinister.

So their is this poor child who wanders into a fantasy kingdom...

Bayou is about a young girl in a horrible situation, Myth is about a young boy in a horrible situation. Bayou is in 'cool as hell' color, Myth is in 'cool as hell' black and white and gray. Bayou deals with racism along with other themes, Myth seems to be dealing with child abuse in general, it's too early yet to gauge to rest of the themes in the comic. My comment: I like Batman and Moon-Knight. In other words two stories in the same genre can go in radically different directions, I hope Myth wins so I can read for myself what direction it goes in.

The idea the creators thought about coloring this comic scares the shit out of me!

I love the artwork as is!!! It is the first thing that drew me to the story the layout's reminded me of Frank Miller. Myth's creators gave a fantasy story a bit of a noir look which worked so damn well. From the first panel on the first screen they set the mood with the art and the words. Making full use of the B&W&G again in the first panel of screen 3, so very impressive. Normally I'm the one yelling color your comic, it's a rare case when not coloring is the better way to get my vote. This is one of those exceptional reads that proves the rule. Color would have diminished the impact of the scenes for me. The stark white backdrops is more dread inducing for me than any kind of scary forest colors you might have came up with. The art reminds me some of Dan Thompson or Sunday funnies style (think Little Orphan Annie) comic artists as well. You also have to give the writer credit for his excellent pacing in the 8 screens he had to work with. They talk about 'the woods' on screen 2 and our young hero Sam is trekking off into the undiscovered country by screen 3. In some of the writing styles on Zuda in the past we wouldn't have seen 'the woods' by screen 9. Meaning of course we the readers wouldn't have gotten even the tiniest bit of payoff by the end of the comic. It's like someone wrote a book about all the things not to do with your 8 screen submission, and the Myth gang didn't make a misstep, not once. The arts great, and after the bold you can read how good the writing is, but the letters are very good too. E.T. did a fine job making them easy to read in any screen mode, and a font that didn't distract from the story.

P.S. I love silhouettes, and big scary monsters so that was the cherry on top for me.

Some nifty examples from the comic to show you what I mean

You've already read plenty of praise for the art, but how about some praise for the script/ and the letters. Everyone who's read just about any of my comments know I hate text boxes. I especially hate thought balloons that try to pass themselves off as text boxes. The only exceptions are when it fits the story, is very well written, and isn't over done. Case in point the text on screen's 3 and 4 were particularly well written. The reader gets hints (everybody loves foreshadowing) at more supernatural elements to come with the line "other than the weird lines on those rocks".

I have no idea what the line "Babies" was in reference to though???

E.T. did a great job with Chewbacca's new more masculine wookie Growl. I also liked the question mark and other thought punctuations used for Sam. Macrom of course did a great design job on the monster.

Where this comic really shines is the pacing: panels 6, 7, and 8, are fantastic in building the suspense of the story into a cliff-hanger ending. The creators really did well in mixing up the panel count/screen layout for the most impact to grab a reader. Michael did a fantastic job (and marcom & E.T.) of making the script a perfect fit for the Zuda format. To end with a P.O.V. shot from Chewie's perspective was just icing on the cake, extra sprinkles for the ice cream, and all other complimentary cliches are fitting, and deserved.

Cool as hell is my highest form of praise

That's just what this comic is from start to finish. Normally I talk about the things I dislike too, but 5/5 stars and a vote on the first day/ first read through. Nothing critical for me to say about this comic. Your up there with The Crooked Man (longtime Zudites know how I feel about that comic) and Dual with me. If you don't win you will be on my Zuda Invitational 2009 list, assuming of course Zuda has that contest again, which they should. I always tell people who I'm voting for, so thanks guys for the Avatar to let people know who has my support before a word needs to be typed.