What Did I Learn?

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Dead Days
by John Rios

Dead Days was described by its creator in this way: "Dead Days began with no set cast of characters. It was supposed to be about the college experience in general with ambiguous characters representing the common college student. Over the years, our 2 heroes somehow clawed their way into becoming the main characters and took over the comic. I never named them because, whatÕs in a name really?" This is on the FAQ page as a response to a question about the names of the two main characters. The characters are still in college, but the humor is not all university stuff.

There's plenty of funny material to be found, including storylines on shopping with your girlfriend and being a tortured artist. The storylines are short and you can easily catch up on them wherever you jump in. The artist has a good grasp on what funny is and what kind of funny he is aiming for here.

The art has linework with exaggerated forms, expressions and these angular sort of turns. There are these abrupt, sharp little jumps in spots even though the line is well rendered. You see it much more obviously in the first comics and it is much more refined in later episodes, of course. You can still see it in those square elbows and chunky fingers. I like it. Dead Days is all in black and white, with tones. There is something special about the contrast you find in pure b&w works - it just has a weight that color can't match.

I also like the backgrounds. One of my favorites has just the light from a four panel window vaguely in the background. Other backgrounds consist of silhouettes of trees and the occasional door frame, among other things. These simple, suggestive backgrounds help you focus on the foreground. You get a solid sense of where things are taking place without all any distracting details.

The word balloons are very stylized, matching the art. The latest episodes have a super thick dark line around each balloon which is very rare, if not unique to Dead Days. It forces you to read the text first and then it releases you to look at the art. You've been warned, so expect it. Seriously, the art is very stylized and is used to good effect.

What did I learn?
Dead Days has main characters with no names and it works just fine. Make sure you know what kind of funny you want to use. Stylized art sells itself if you handle it right and you can make things work that you might not find immediately viable. Dead Days updates on Sundays, so stop by and check it out.

Previous Reviews

Battlegate| Butterfly| Good Ship Chronicles| Evil, Inc.| Madscott| Jefbot| Chronicle| Sheldon| Stardrop| Theater Hopper| Knave| Lullaby| High Moon| Metadawn| Dead Days| PC Weenies| Ask Maridee | Tiny Folk | Gordian Algebra | Starslip Crisis | The Front | Coffee Time Comics | Patches | Little Creature | The Horrible Pirates | Serenity Tales | Crashlander | Girl Genius | This Is Me | Handle With Care | SuperFogeys | Copper | Eskimo Dave | Real Life | Chateau Wonderful | Count Your Sheep | Breakpoint City | Eeekeemo | Boxcar Astronaut | Zip and Li'l Bit | Wally & Osborne | Jump Leads | Dr. Sheep and the Aardvark | Station V3 | Dresden Codak | Lab Ratz | Toyzville | The Boids | Cow and Buffalo | Casey and Scotty | Just Outside | The Pretentious History of Everything | Tia's World | Quirks | Patrick Grey | For What It's Worth | The Sixth Dimension | Max and the Gorilla Goon Squad | Rainbow Orchid | Neko and Neko | Lions, Tigers and Bears | Spacequint | Lessons In Fire Safety | Corrupt Hardware | Enker's Tale | The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo | A Rusty Life | You'll Have That | From the Margin | Jitterati

About These Reviews

I love comics and I'm always looking at how I can improve my own work by examining other creators' works. It's such a wildly diverse field that it's not advisable to make sweeping generalizations and ignore special circumstances and subjects.

There's a lot we can learn from one another. And while there are many forums where you might discuss this, I haven't found any lengthy discussion on what we can do to make our comics more successful. There are a few good books on the subject but the aspiring webcomic creator is forced to learn by sheer brute force practice how to adapt his/her personal style to the medium. This is not as efficient as it could be.

Also, there are literally thousands of webcomics but only a handful of places where you can find decent, regular reviews. The focus of my reviews will be on trying to determine what is positive, successful and worth emulating about each comic. You might even get hooked on a given comic you read about here.

You may also wonder where the 'criticism' is and where the negative things about the comics are pointed out. As a matter of fact, I did mention some dissappointing issues with layout and such in my initial reviews. I quickly came to the realization that it's easy for any viewer to know what they like and what they don't. I don't need to call extra attention to the negative. I have, on a few occasions, emailed a webcomic author with a few ideas for improvements but there's no need to make that information public.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, mind you. I just wish to have an open discussion about what good comics do. Hopefully, more voices will join in.