Easy review this time, and right to the point. Was the comic bad? No. Was it for me? No. Why? I’ll tell you in 3 easy points:

1. Anime. I don’t care for anime/manga, or the style. Over sized eyes, hair that does really strange things and SPEED LINES really don’t have a big place in my heart. They also don’t have a big place in my head, since they usually make it spin. I think it was because I was forced to sit through Akira as a kid or something. Was the art bad? No, not at all - actually it was very clean and crisp, and well detailed. It just isn’t art I like to look at.

2. Cliche. Cliche abounded. “Petite yet smart-assed and can kick yours for you, too” female cop paired up with typical straight man partner. I could watch edge of your seat drama like The Closer and get my dose of that, thank you. That’s just for openers. I’ll let you find out the rest.

3. Storyline and exposition. Not bad, not a bad thing in and of itself - just too much for me. It may be that I’m more of a Garfield or Peanuts type, or just that after the 300th page I tend to wander a bit, but I’m not a tremendous fan of deep, involved story lines in a web comic.

Now, you’re probably thinking I’m going to give it a bad score. You’re incorrect, in this case. The comic itself is well done, and the art is good. The fact that it doesn’t appeal to me simply because of style isn’t enough for me to rate it badly. This is one of those “If you like that kind of comic, read it!” types. There wasn’t any horrid language that I saw, nor anything else that would make me want to warn people away from it. On the basis of the artwork and story, I give it 4 stars, even if it isn’t my particular cup of tea.

Note, however, that saying “it’s not my type of comic” isn’t a cop out to avoid saying anything negative, either. In this case, the negatives dealt more with my personal taste and not with things inherent in the comic itself. Rating:

Paradigm Shift
by Dirk Tiede
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/dirktiede/ps/series.php?view=archive&chapter=10435
review by the Doctor
(4 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Multiplex is about the behind-the-scenes drama at your local movie theater. I say local, but according to the About page … “The Multiplex 10 Cinemas is a (fictional) theater located in an unknown Chicago suburb.” I guess that means it is based in Chicago but I can sure imagine it being the local theater with no problems.

As you might expect, jokes and storylines about current movies abound. The nice thing is that they don’t steal the thunder and overpower what is going on in the comic. There are character moments and other things to enjoy, so Multiplex is not a one-trick pony. Sometimes characters even leave Multiplex which can cause lasting consequences.

The characters are all very individual with their own thoughts and point of view. You can learn all about them on the Cast page and I even recommend you do so. Usually, cast pages have a little blurb about each character, plus a picture. Each Multiplex character has a short history, date of birth, ‘candid photos’and their job title. They also list their favorite movies. While it not required reading to ‘get’ Multiplex, it is great fan service.

Multiplex has some other features. There are movie reviews offered to the reader, so you get double your payoff for the time it took to check for the latest Multiplex comic. On the forum, there are some lively movie discussions. I also enjoyed the FAQ where the artist answers questions about his inspiration and process. Some of it was surprising.

In the FAQ, a question was asked about the use of movie stills and posters - does it violate copyright? You can read the artist’s answer there, but I sure hope he’s right. The posters are just one of many details you’ll see in the backgrounds.

And sometimes there are moments of movie whimsy. I thought this humorous movie-meld was great! Noooooo! Rating:

Multiplex
by Gordon McAlpin
http://www.multiplexcomic.com/
review by Delos Woodruff
(8 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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“Kidnapped by Gnomes” reviewed by Anthony Cardno

I couldn’t resist the title. I almost called the review “All Dressed up with Gno(me)where To Go,” but figured that’d be pushing it.

Kathy Peterson’s twice-weekly strip will certainly not be to everyone’s liking. Anyone expecting a cute little strip about garden-dwelling, nature-loving little people will be disappointed right off the bat. These gnomes, Ed and Wilson, are furry little guys with pot-bellies and pointy ears who dwell in the house of author Peterson’s doppleganger (who we never actually fully see, but often hear from). They might like nature, but they love all the modern American conveniences and virtually worship the television. (Okay, Wilson is equally prone to worshipping Ann Coulter. Peterson, through Ed and Wilson, promise us right off the bat that her strip will not include what seems to predominate webcomics currently: no anime, no video-game or tv show references, no anthropomorphic characters. As the series continues, there are some pop culture references but she doesn’t rely on them for the funny.

Within the first five posts I knew I was going to enjoy the series; despite the fact that the main characters are virtually look-alike gnomes (Wilson is a little shorter and colored slightly darker than Ed), I felt like I was reading an old favorite strip. I couldn’t figure out why I felt that way, but I was enjoying all the political banter, the light jabs at the system and at both the major parties (the subject that our Esteemed Moderator was sure would polarize we Reviewers) and the “average” American, mixed with some pages that are not topical at all. It wasn’t until the 36th entry that I realized why I felt so comfortable: Peterson is a huge Bloom County fan, and proudly so. I should have seen it right off: so much of what she’s doing here matches up to that classic newspaper strip. She mines the same territory that Breathed did with Opus, Bill the Cat, Binkley and Milo, (Ed wakes Kathy up with his concerns at crazy hours of the night just as Binkley did his father; Wilson is beset by a troll Kathy says doesn’t exist, much like the creatures that step out of Binkley’s Anxiety Closet) but puts her own twists on it – the “Pandora’s Box of Political Lies,” Ed’s attempts to become Emperor of Delaware. There are topical political references, but Peterson’s stated goal is to keep the political humor more broad (targeting parties rather than people) so that it’s still funny a decade or more from now (as the best of the Bloom County strips are). Like the best political comedy, she beats up on both parties equally, and often on herself in the process. And like Breathed, Peterson breaks away from the topical for pages of simple slapstick, like a recent encounter with a waxed floor.

The art is simple, although as the series progresses Peterson experiments more with backgrounds and camera angles to vary up the look of the strip.

Bloom County will never come back to the newspapers as a daily (and the current Sunday-only Opus is good, but not as good), but we get a decent successor in Kidnapped By Gnomes. Four stars from me. Can’t wait to see what my fellow Reviewers thought of it. Rating:

Kidnapped By Gnomes

by Kathy Peterson

http://www.kidnappedbygnomes.com

review by Anthony Cardno

Once again I trouble your eyes with my opinion. But hey, at least I don’t use a KEWL nickname to win you over! Okay, enough chit chat. There’s a review.around here somewhere….

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Lackadaisycats (www.lackadaisycats.com) by Tracy J. Butler is a real hoot – the bee’s knees, the cat’s pajamas (literally in some scenes), a zoot suit riot. Can you tell I enjoyed it?

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Jack here, with another review session for all who want another webcomic lover and creators opinion. This week we’re taking a look at some Zuda competitors to see which is worthy of becoming an ongoing series, at least in our eyes. The first thing I should say is we’re not here to critique Zuda and their awkwardly and slow loading interface, but I just thought I would mention that. Anyway, we have two comics with eight pages each up so far to offer our illustrious opinions of Action, Ohio and Hannibal Goes To Rome. Onward!

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