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A review by trike
The Doomed Colony by Mac Smith
3.0
While the story is adequate, the standout here is the artwork, which is spectacular. Some of the panels and covers are gorgeous.
It can be read online at www.scurrycomic.com
This is a talking animal tale, featuring a colony of mice in a world where humans have disappeared. There are no clues as to how or why people have vanished, but it's something bad. As the story progresses we meet rats, cats, rabbits, wolves, ravens, hawks, beavers, squirrels, a snapping turtle and a moose, all struggling to survive in a world where food is scarce and the sun rarely shines.
This sits somewhere closer to the dark end of the scale between light-hearted adventure and grimdark, but Smith allows his main characters impossible escapes while not shying away from nature being red in tooth and claw. So he's walking a fine line here.
This is mostly set-up so far, with hints of a larger world and a nicely complex mix of groups, with crosses and double-crosses alike as critters work to survive.
I'm not really buying that these animals are starving, because they all look well fed and plump, and they're never shown eating anything. After 126 pages I would hope there had been some resolution to side stories, but this is clearly intended to be a longer work rather than a typical comic book's 20-22 pages. Less episodic and more novel-like.
I will say that he's lulled me in with his straightforward storytelling, because one twist I didn't see coming at all, mostly because I assumed there wouldn't be any twists. Probably unintentional, but it caught me looking the other way, so kudos on that.
It can be read online at www.scurrycomic.com
This is a talking animal tale, featuring a colony of mice in a world where humans have disappeared. There are no clues as to how or why people have vanished, but it's something bad. As the story progresses we meet rats, cats, rabbits, wolves, ravens, hawks, beavers, squirrels, a snapping turtle and a moose, all struggling to survive in a world where food is scarce and the sun rarely shines.
This sits somewhere closer to the dark end of the scale between light-hearted adventure and grimdark, but Smith allows his main characters impossible escapes while not shying away from nature being red in tooth and claw. So he's walking a fine line here.
This is mostly set-up so far, with hints of a larger world and a nicely complex mix of groups, with crosses and double-crosses alike as critters work to survive.
I'm not really buying that these animals are starving, because they all look well fed and plump, and they're never shown eating anything. After 126 pages I would hope there had been some resolution to side stories, but this is clearly intended to be a longer work rather than a typical comic book's 20-22 pages. Less episodic and more novel-like.
I will say that he's lulled me in with his straightforward storytelling, because one twist I didn't see coming at all, mostly because I assumed there wouldn't be any twists. Probably unintentional, but it caught me looking the other way, so kudos on that.