Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Lasers Dragons and Lies

Lasers Dragons and Lies - John Zakour and Pink Raygun Guy

I'll end the suspense. I'm voting for John again.
But I'm also going to be truthful, there wasn't an obvious pick this month. I actually like this month a bit better than last and there's a few entries that I think I could build a case for, this being one of them.

The biggest problem I've got with this one is the 'everything and the kitchen sink' mishmash of genre tropes. Not just a dragon, a robot dragon.
This is just a personal thing. I have a poor sense of humor and I can't get past trying to develop a system to explain the 'social backward/tech forward' schism that is implied.
I suspect that many of our readers will have no problem with this.

The coloring is pretty good, but I expect that out of Mr. Raygun Guy. He's been handling chores on BCB I hear. I didn't expect the characters to look so good however. That evil Cleopatra chick is fap-worthy.
One thing that doesn't work for me is the last page. The circular panel confused me, I didn't know how to order the panels.

I recommend zooming in. The pages look GREAT on the zoom. I like the linework very much. Reminds me a bit of Robbery's and I THINK he said he uses a brush.
(Going completely off topic for a moment, the fact that I'm getting better at picking this stuff up is good news for me. Means I might finally be learning something about doing inks.)

The final page is confusing because of the circle as I already pointed out, but it's also very densely packed with plot compared to the other 8. I just feel as if a ninth page would've been a big help here.

All in all I like this a lot but I have to admit that the fact that John Zakour is the writer is swaying me his way a little bit. He's been a real great guy in the time I've known him and that counts for something when you've got evenly matched competitors. I've got more faith in his ability to develop a narrative than I would with an unknown so there's that too, and there's an idea for ya.

If you want to win a competition and win my vote, why don't you build a body of material beforehand and direct us to it?
I don't think it's nice to add extra 'unofficial' pages to your entry as one particular repeat competitor once did, :) but if you've got work unrelated to the contest it might help you break a tie with a less experienced competitor.
Food for thought.

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