I've always hated onions cause their evil
Cubicles is another May Zuda comic done by zuda vet Walter Christopher Ostlie. It was a tough month, this was a solo humor comic, not my go to genre but still funny -so a 3/5 star rating from me. Here is the synopsis: Wally is an aging office worker who spends most of his waking life in a cubicle. Ironically he works for Cubicles, INC., the galaxy’s largest provider of cubicles. Wally would have gone insane long ago if it wasn’t for his best friend, Ost. Together they have to deal with all the rigors of cubicle life set in the distant future. Wanda, the manager, is constantly trying to get Wally fired. She can’t because the boss thinks Wally is cool. Would that change if the boss found out about Wally’s crush on his daughter? Wally is on a mission to impress the boss so that he has a chance of one day marrying her. This throws our duo headfirst into all the dangers of space age big business. Will they be able to survive space monsters and pirate hijackings? Plus their biggest threat - the genetically enhanced executive that is trying to take over the boss’s company and steal the affection of his daughter?
A bespectacled older man faces the terror of thunder thighs
In Walt's last zuda entry I really enjoyed the art, and of course the second time around it was even better. The squiggly line panels/ screen composition really aided some funny visual humor. In particular to description/intro of our leads nemesis Wanda was a funny high light. Walt even had a spandex joke! The submission revolves around a office order for 10,000 pencils and trying to duck the fallout from pencil wars. Screen 3 was indeed one of the best screens of the comic. Funny dialogue and great panel composition. Screen 4 also had a close up sequence on Wanda's mouth which was humours and kind of gross. The composition of the screens throughout and the pace of the story was impressive to me. Screen 5 had some nice anime style tribute panels, screen 6 has our leads boss getting them out of trouble and wanting a million pencils for a real showdown. Wally and Ost are the classic funny man/ straight man comedy team. Screen after screen Walt shows an impressive screen layout, that only increases the effectiveness of the story. The creator here definitely has some narrative skills and hope he continues to send in zuda submissions. The story ends with a classic question hook, what happened to make a giant squid go on the rampage? The letters looked very professional throughout and were easy to read. The last screens varied sound effects were a lot of fun to read, a very good ending.
How green were my monitor's settings
Humor comics are not my go-to genre, and May was a month with a number of comics that were. Almost any humor comic is going to have a tough time with me because my interests go in another direction, but this was still funny. The one big problem with this comic is the wash-out faded colors on the screens. It gives it a noticeable style yes, but I'm on color green overload and I'm freaking Irish! ;) The art is great, but the colors here hollow out and curtail the art's effectiveness. The comic artificially reduced it's potential for coolness cause of the colors. The 'hearts panel' and 'mind control powers' screen all that green mixed in well -but the rest of the comic it got repetitive. Humor comic fans would give this title a much higher rating than I did, I have no doubts about that.
"rebooting the franchise"
Walt has said this comic will live on and he's going to redo the start of the story. The art's fine as is just tone down the green. It was nice to read on the comments section Walt's commitment to this comic and getting his ideas out there. Too many zuda comics have ended up in the comics graveyard. Also having daily strips of these characters online for free. It will be interesting to see what new formats/ stories the ideas of Cubicles are spun off into. I am curious to see what directions these characters go in from here, and what is coming next from this creator.
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Thanks for the review and actually saying some good stuff :-). I think the number one complaint was the coloring and also the lack of direction. I do have to admit that these first pages were written without much direction, so it is a valid complaint. but these guys are a little too close to my heart to just give up on, and I think their story needs to be told. hopefully they will emerge from the Zuda fire stronger, faster, smarter and more...colorful?
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