Welcome to a world where individuality takes center stage, where embracing your distinct voice becomes a superpower. In this captivating Fresh Friday Feature, we celebrate the art of following the beat of your own drum. Join us as we explore the lives of extraordinary characters who dare to break the mold, inspiring us to stay true to ourselves and march to the rhythm of our own hearts.
This week, ArtCrumbs picked four titles that they feel deserve more reads! In our line-up this week, we've got one comic from each category to give you a varied list of must-reads for your weekend!
- Comic - The Amazing Shakes: Rockin' music meets the supernatural! Begone, bad vibes!
- Graphic Novel - City of Liars: Amnesia, a strange melody of humans and monsters, and a means of escape...
- Manga - Quartet Chronicles: It takes work to make unique voices play together in sweet, sweet harmony.
- Webcomic - Dream Clover: Clover might be the worst singer in the world, but his dream is to be a popstar!
The Amazing Shakes, 15 pages - Published by Mike Gibson, (cc/ @MikeGibson)
What if a band could rock so hard, their music saved the world? The answer to that question is more complicated than you might think! When a going-nowhere garage band is gifted magical masks that possess the wearer with otherworldly spirits of rock & roll vigilantism, they heed the call and join the battle against a world of evil monsters and bad vibes. But who's really in control... the band members or the spirits?
Story and Art by Mike Gibson
Comments from @ArtCrumbs:
Super cool and super rad! The first issue of this series was amazing, the coloring, the paneling and very creative lettering. It's focused around a group of vigilante rock and roll warriors with, literal axe guitars! Fighting supernatural creatures of the night is harder than it looks, especially in the stinky sewers! But more lurks below and things get really dangerous really fast for one of the band members.
It's a creative and adorable story. I was VERY happy to see a list (cleverly called an album) at the end with a list of future beats to rock out to. I'm so excited for more, and it's going to be legendary! Fantastic work to both members of this wicked team.
City of Liars, 55 pages - Published by METADRAGONS!, (cc/ @alsworld)
Johnny finds himself without any memories of his former life captured in a small city full of secrets and liars. What mysteries lie behind those creatures living together with humans? And will he be able to escape the suffocating madness?
Story and Art by METADRAGONS!
Comments from @ArtCrumbs:
Really stunning color choices here, but also deeply psychological and inspiringly bizarre. This comic isn't for the faint of heart! Little Johnny is undergoing some sort of education program, but to unlearn and relearn who he is. His "papa" doesn't seem to be keen on helping him, accusing Johnny of something, but it's not clear what just yet.
I only read the first issue, so I'm really curious what I'll find out later! I'm really pleased with the art, it's abstract in its color choices and even paneling. Some pages have no panels yet still flow naturally. The character designs, especially the eyes really stood out to me, often with multiple irises. It's a very visually stunning Graphic Novel, and I think you'll like it too. Great work, Metadragons!
Quartet Chronicles, 69 pages - Published by Editions Le Loup Hurlant, (cc/ @mle-garrec)
One day, it comes to everyone's mind that everything is going wrong, you don't feel good with your loved ones, you feel disappointed in your team, and you don't want to expect anything good from the future... The bassist Léon thinks that at this moment, the best solution is to give up and be passive. But it is impossible to be indifferent, in a week the music competition, and the tension in his jazz quartet increases day by day.
Story and Art by Editions Le Loup Hurlant
Comments from @ArtCrumbs:
Nothing's worse than a band that isn't on the same beat, literally and metaphorically. Leon struggles to connect with his ensemble quartet members, and with two of them always bickering, I think anyone would struggle. Anyone who has played in bands or ensembles and understand our main character's struggle with what to do. The jealously he feels seeing others doing better, feeling better, and just overall putting out some great music, it's a lot of bare!
However, soon, he starts to make friends from a rival ensemble, and it gets complicated as he appears less and less often, ditching his own practice. What'll happen next? Who knows, you'll have to read and find out!
Along with a good story, and something I can relate to as a former musician myself, it was a pleasant read. Nice art, well drawn instruments and environments. It's a professional looking manga! Give it a read!
Dream Clover, 22 pages - Published by Yubroki, (cc/ @y2)
Clover, "The Worst Singer in the World", wants to become a popstar. In pursuit of his dreams, he ends up fighting nightmares and going on wild adventures.
Story and Art by Yubroki
Comments from @ArtCrumbs:
What a wild ride Dream Clover is. The cover and bizarre character is what really caught my attention. It's really a relatable story even if the art was not what I was expecting. We all have idols we look up to and dreams we want to accomplish. It's harder when the world around us doesn't see our talents, or we just feel like we don't stack up against the competition. The art has a certain charm to it and though I'm usually a little picky about it, I enjoyed it. It's playful and the humor is just right. The main character is relatable. To be honest, it felt like reading the original One Punch Man. The story was funny and there, the twist and ending was there, and I'm excited to read more.
It was a long first chapter, but I enjoyed it. There were a few moments that felt a bit dragging, but overall I'm definitely looking forward to the next one.
That's all for now, but we'll have another set of Fresh Friday reading recommendations next week. If you're looking for more recommendations, make sure to opt-in for our weekly reading list email! You can find that in your User Profile Notification settings. You can also browse through our Featured Comics news section!
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