Sunday, September 6, 2015

Saturday Revue September 5th: Licensed Heroes!

You Know The Economy's Bad,

When This Is Happening To Heroes!

When even the heroes are in the unemployment office, something's not right! That's what's happening to Tempest, newly licensed hero and the protagonist of  a comic that goes by that very name. The creation of Ben Hsu and Elaine Tipping, Licensed Heroes can be found here. It's an all-too familiar and painfully close-to-home story of hunting for work in a job market that doesn't want your skinny young self!

The Rating

A cute comic, but without enough substance to support its heroic name.

The Raves

Now, don't get me wrong, 'Heroes' definitely made me smile in rueful amusement at the sight of so many job-hunting moments I'd suffered through myself. Every millennial will give at least one pained chuckle of recognition at the jokes in this comic.
 There's some good, solid deadpan humor in here, underlined by the understated art style and Eastern emotional intensifiers.

 Some fun experiments were done with texture and styling as well, and the site design is nice, direct, and simple, with a just plain GORGEOUS thumbnail archive. 

The art style has some definite strengths, especially in composition and framing, and it's got the ability to do some really interesting things....

The Razzes

Unfortunately, there's not a lot more I can say about 'Heroes' that's complementary. Its greatest failing is its writing. Specifically, NOTHING HAPPENS. There are over three hundred pages, and it is, essentially, page after page after page of stuff twenty somethings looking for work go through with a microscopically thin veneer of sword and sorcery. I hate to be cruel, but honestly, it. is. boring.
Nobody wants to read about exactly what they already go through in their own lives ad nauseum. It worked for the first thirty pages, but after that SOMETHING should have HAPPENED.
So maybe I'm a little too judgmental about action, I told myself. Give it a chance, I told myself.
I tried to handle my reaction by looking at the comic as gag-a-day, but that didn't help. Looked at from that direction, 'Heroes' is trying to be Dilbert in armor for millennials, but it's missing the target. The jokes, quite simply, fall flat. A few stand out as great gems, but too many of them are so mundane as to be completely unremarkable, and nothing is done with the writing to draw out amusing elements.  This really isn't helped by the art, which gets more and more simplistic as the comic goes on, as if even the creators are losing interest for the project. When even the creators aren't interested, the project isn't going to do well.

The Revue

A few pages are worth a look, but this isn't a comic worth questing after.

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