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Review: Off-White

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Literature Text

Off-White Webcomic Review
Authors: Akreon and Tanathe
Website Link: www.off-white.eu/
(also available to read at authors' deviantART accounts)



Synopsis:

The plot line of the story revolves around a small nomadic pack of wolves. The leading wolf, Raigho, is bestowed with the strict task of finding one of two lost spirits - the white wolf spirit specifically. If the spirit is not found then both the wolf species and the human species  will supposedly go extinct because the two are spiritually connected (or something along those lines). Suspicions arise when their young adopted pack member, Iki, appears to be different from all the others; especially considering the chosen one the pack is sent to find is told to have deep blue eyes, which Iki happens to have.

The story follows the small family pack as they go about their travels to reach their destination. Unknowns to them, however, human counterparts are also searching - for the same thing.

Author's Direction:

The comic was created around June 2008 (though I'm not 100% positive on this) and is on-going at present date. Currently, the comic has 100+ pages within four chapters and a prologue. All of which are in a single volume. I am assuming the genre falls around fictional Fantasy and Adventure, but I may be mistaken on this. I am not positive if printed copies are to be planned for the future.

The primary direction for the comic is directed towards the animal artist community, or just general animal fans. I find the comic may also be very interesting to those who are fond of Norse Mythology as several elements come into play in it. The story can certainly be enjoyed by people of all kinds, however. The plots and characters are open to all with only a few little Easter Eggs thrown in that only the deviantART animal community would get (e.g. The Blackblood Alliance cover was seen on page 80). Generally I find that the story does very well opening up to all different kinds of readers. It's safe the say the fan base is generally focused around the animal community, though. Especially within the old Forum, from what I've inferred.

As far as the age-range goes, it typically varies. The majority of the comic could easily slide for being PG rated and open to most readers. There are only a few times when violence and frightening imagery change things around. I'd say the overall comic is directed towards an older age-range, perhaps an estimate PG-13/T+ rating. Certainly not something you should be letting your toddlers read at least.

Art Review:

Pros-

Way back when the comic first began I heard everyone raving about the fantastic art the comic had. This is generally what lead me to taking a look. The art definitely does its job and brings life to the story and to its characters. For new readers, the art may seem a bit inconsistent at times since revamped pages have been added in at various points, which causes the artistic level to be a bit shaky at the start. It evens out eventually and you slowly see the improvements come in. The newest pages are definitely marvels compared to the starting points, but in all degrees the art never really disappoints.

Wolf anatomy and behavior has clearly been researched in regards to the characters (that or the artists just have some dang good wolf-drawing talent). The body postures for the animals are incorporated along with their expressions to show the readers the emotions of the characters. This works very well for the style choice, and equally well with the human characters. Human anatomy is well done and the artists do incredibly well making each one unique either in their manor of dressing or their facial features. A fantastic trait that allows the human characters to stand out alongside the main animal cast. Sometimes even more so!

The semi-realistic style favors the story very well. Though the characters carry many cartoony traits, considering some of the darker elements the story carries, the style fits very well and is able to be taken seriously when it needs to be. Backgrounds also do their job in bringing everything together to the point that each panel is a piece of art by itself.


Cons-

There is one thing that has always bothered me tremendously about the comic. The dialogue balloons. Or, rather, lack there-of. It always, and still does, perturb me that the font can simply float around above the characters' heads with just a little tail pointing to them. I give credit for the attempt of going outside the box and being different with presenting the dialogue, but it just doesn't work for me. Honestly, every time I see the text usage I just instantly want to think "lazy". Though I'm positive the artists certainly are not being lazy in any way, I can't help but think that less time is being spent on the text than it is on the artwork. Though the graphics may be very important in a comic, considering it is a visual medium, the text should also be equally important considering it is aiding in telling the story. I just can't help but think the text was added in last-minute on every page. Perhaps this is due to the fact when planning pages you are meant to leave enough space for the balloons in advance before drawing the artwork. On Off-white pages the text just goes all over the place, which works in some pages and not in others.

In some strange way I seem to think it would be better if maybe the lack of dialogue balloons were used for only the humans or only the wolves and not both together. It appears to me as if both are able to speak the same language or something, which I highly doubt. In addition to the invisi-balloons, sometimes the text can blend in with the backgrounds at times, so reading may not always be clear.

As well, there are several cases where the artwork favor a Manga/Anime style-in, particularly for exaggerated expressions (e.g. cartoony sweat drop aside the head during awkward moments). I don't find this to be a very favorable trait. The artwork does fine on its own in revealing emotions. It really doesn't need these.

A smaller negative is the lack of sound effects in certain pages. There were pages involving one of the wolves howling in the background but no "Howl" sound effect was used as example. As well, there were a couple other times throughout it, perhaps during parts where vehicles or snow storms were present, that could have used some more sounds but are instead simply sitting in silence.

Writing Review:

Pros-

The overall story appears to be pretty steady. Characters are each presented wonderfully so the reader is able to learn about each cast member and get a bit of info on their history and personality. This is true for both the animals and the humans.

Despite that the main focus lies with the animals, I really adore the human characters. The authors made sure to put just as much information and page-time for the humans as with the animals. In this way the readers are able to receive a nice balance between the conflicting groups in order to tie everything together.

As far as the plot line itself goes, not an entirely lot is known in order to pull everything together. There are many mysteries lurking about. This is generally a good thing, for me, because it is able to grab the audience's attention to keep them coming back and reading. Suspense is done wonderfully. Everything is written so the story gives enough information so the reader isn't sitting there confused, but also doesn't overbear them. It is well balanced.

Dialogue is presented incredibly well. The reading is clear and focused and is able to be understood rather clearly without having to go back and re-read anything. Despite a couple grammatical errors here and there, all is well in that degree. One big favorable trait I came to enjoy was the "ranting" sequences where a huge wall of text is shown in the backdrop to emphasize severe nagging. Quite comical and a very nice touch that I enjoy seeing in comics.

Cons-

One of the biggest complaints that goes along with Off-White is the painfully slow pacing. At times it seems like it's never going to end. This goes a bit so-so for me. Though I can agree that the pacing is definitely sluggish and makes the story overall generally boring to a lot of people (me included at times), this is something typical of webcomics. It's generally known that web comics, between updates and slipped schedules, present a large gap that causes slow plot development. However, considering Off-White has a good 100 pages under its belt, the story is still very slow even if you read from the beginning to the recent pages. I can partially excuse this considering the introduction of a story tends to drag, but at the same time it couldn't hurt to pick it up a bit. The only times I find that the slow pacing works as an advantage is during parts where suspense is needed. Perhaps this would work out better in printed form.

The biggest aspect of the comic that brought the most disappointment was probably the first 2 (technically 3) pages. These pages basically just tell you all about the black and white spirit concepts and all that jazz. And by telling, I literally mean just /telling/. The entire concept is flat-out there in text form. Though they are accompanied by beautiful layouts, the pretty pictures don't fool me. I would have liked it a lot better if this bit of story were visualized. It's all too common that big blocks of texts are overlooked and this isn't very helpful considering this prelude is a major importance to the story itself.

Conclusion:

Off-white is certainly an interesting read. It brings together several concepts to create a story that can be enjoyed by all kinds. If the story doesn't intrigue you, the artwork surely will. Though it may have its own share of flaws, there is no doubt that this comic is able to stand out on its own.
:iconakreon::icontanathe:
Website URL: : [link]

This review is loooong over-due! I actually asked for permission to review the comic in a YouTube video forever ago and actually nearly completed it but, alas, after re-watching it over and over I realized it failed tremendously.

I think I've came to the conclusion that comics with 100+ pages I will review in written form and anything less in video form. And those won't really be so much "reviews" as just... little critique things. Or. Something.


Anyway, if there's any spelling/grammatical errors or any written errors, like, if I got the plot wrong or something like that, feel free to correct me. C:
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Comments27
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Ko0nafish's avatar
Wow, very well-constructed critique :) I happen to agree with you on pretty much everything. The only things I disagreed with were the speech bubbles (I myself had no troubles reading them) and how the authors/artists supposedly dragged it out. I personally think it's perfectly paced. Unless the story is a long one, drawing it out allows time for detail, dialogue, and a whole variety of things a sped up story wouldn't have room for. Anyway, fantastic job! <3