I’m learning, albeit slowly and in staggering steps. Sometimes we’ve reviewed a comic that I’ve already reviewed somewhere else. I’ve previously chosen not to mention it but that was a mistake. You just end up with half a review just because I’m trying to avoid repeating myself.

Let me take a paragraph or so and summarize that earlier review of Dead Days. There is no set cast but there are two main characters. Storylines are kept short and while many of them revolve around the extremes of the college lifestyle, there are other stories you may enjoy. We get to see the dangers of shopping with your girlfriend and being a tortured artist, among other things.

I also liked about the angular and stylized art. Dead Days is done in toned black and white with suggestions of backgrounds. There are some visual perspective tricks and the art style is very unique in many little ways. I like the chunky fingers, square elbows and the expressive eyes of the characters. Some comics are mainly talking heads but Dead Days offers little details that change from panel to panel. Not every comic artist thinks it is important (or remembers) to include things like one character holding a sandwich and taking a bite while the other one talks. Also, the heavy outline around the joined word balloons also forces you to focus on the text first rather than the characters. That’s a little switchup from the norm, as well.

While I like the art quite a bit and the comic is amusing, I will disclose that I’m not a big fan of the cussing or the latest storyline. I don’t see an obvious lack of technique or quality so I’m chalking it up to my total lack of enthusiasm for college frats and the expected hazing. You could very well find this storyline more enjoyable than I do.

Something I really like about Dead Days is the conversations the characters have. The dialog is always very natural sounding, even when it is about an odd topic. It adds something to the snarky humor and the situations they characters find themselves in. I also can’t recall another comic that refuses to name its main characters. That’s unique, especially with over four hundred comics.

There are a many, many comics about a couple of friends in college - so much so that some consider it to be its own genre or archetype. I found Dead Days to have its own twist on the type in a number of ways and overall it is an amusing read. Rating:

Dead Days
http://www.deaddays.net
by John Rios
review by Delos
(2 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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