With great power, comes great responsibility, such is a common thread in our Fresh Friday Features today! All of us, to some degree, stand on an edge between being happy and miserable, safe and unsafe, good or evil. Walking the line between two different worlds, and realities, or having to make a hard choice can weigh on our souls.
How do you decide? Which path will you choose? Read these stories of an ever-changing and ever-chaotic natural force called life that makes us laugh and contemplate our place within the universe.
This week, @ArtCrumbs picked four titles featuring delightfully dangerous and horrifying tales!
- Comic - Mother Wilds: Deep in the lands far from her world, A girl is trapped with no way home. In ancient times, these were known as the Mother Wilds. Wherefrom ages long past, dwell the creatures and spirits once forgotten.
- Graphic Novel - Kariba: The daughter of a river god, raised by a human father and bound to a tragic destiny. Siku has always called the Zambezi River her home.
- Manga - ATTITUDE: 13: This world is full of odd, interesting, positively absurd people who live in dizzying harmony, dealing with the nonsense of daily life. Beauty in chaos! Sunshine in disaster!
- Webcomic - GLiTCH: After an incident one night with one of these Negavii, Jett is unlocks a powerful ability he calls "GLiTCH" and is recruited by a Venator named Mikayla and tasked with protecting his city from an encroaching threat.
Mother Wilds, 308 pages - Published by Okapi Studios, (cc/ @cyrus-okapi)
Deep in the lands far from her world, A girl is trapped with no way home. In ancient times, these were known as the Mother Wilds. Wherefrom ages long past, dwell the creatures and spirits once forgotten. Here, man and beast live in harmony. But as the seasons change so do the times. Many of the great forests are shrinking. Those that remained were occupied by wild tribes. For these wilds are a place of beasts, warriors,...and Gods.
Story and Art by Okapi Studios
Full foliage and engrossing world building! I've had this comic on my reading list for a very long time and I'm so glad I could finally get to it! Beasts and humans and strange mixes live together. But not everyone is made for the simple life.
I adored the complex culture and deeper lore right away. It wasn't given all at once, but offered in small snippets, stories, artwork, and in visual cues along the way. I'm a sucker for deep worlds I can get lost in and I don't think I want to leave this one! I enjoyed the approach to this, not presenting either angle of the problem as necessarily good or bad, but instead focused on our lead and her feelings and her perspective and growth. I feel like she's someone a lot of us can relate with, being a little lost or afraid of what's to come in the future. But, more importantly, not being ready and being willing to live with that and let a story grow.
It's ok to let a story meander a little bit, and Mother Wilds lets us soak it all in between all the magic, world building, lore. Combined with the artwork, it's a feast for the writer, artist, and explorer in all of us. Fantastic work!
KARIBA, 228 pages - Published by Catalyst Press, (cc/ @catalystpress)
The daughter of a river god, raised by a human father and bound to a tragic destiny. Siku has always called the Zambezi River her home. She understands the water – and it understands her, too, coming to her aid in times of need. But things are changing on the river – a great dam is being built, displacing thousands of Shonga people – and things are changing in Siku, too, as her ability to manipulate water grows out of control. When her father disappears, Siku discovers a terrible secret, and she must journey to the source of the river to understand the ancient power hidden within her.
Story and Art by Catalyst Press
This one has been on my list to read for some time now, and it's a heck of a read. Magical river gods with colorful pages, mythological quests, dreams, a destiny one girl runs from. The biggest thing that stood out to me, honestly, was the paneling. Creative paneling is something I wish more comics and graphic novels would do, as it really just makes the immersion that much more magical, and there's so many instances of that here.
Usually we see children who want to be special, who want to be powerful and strong and save people, who would love to have magic. Kariba was nice in that it wasn't about embracing that and saving the day all magical with no resistance. It's a tragic story and takes time to let the characters, main and support, really develop in their own ways. It's a very deep graphic novel with lots of character and world development, which I'm onboard for! We need more graphic novels that will dig deep into the emotional impact of what it means to have such power, and such responsibility in ethical dilemmas.
Great graphic novel! This is one I want for my bookshelf. Keep up the amazing work!
ATTITUDE: 13, 21 pages - Published by Digitab.M, (cc/ @Digitab)
Life's an adventure dammit! A group of high-school kids goofing around instead of studying, teachers struggling to get a grip on their work and personal lives, a man worrying about his looks, and so on! This world is full of odd, interesting, positively absurd people who live in dizzying harmony, dealing with the nonsense of daily life. Beauty in chaos! Sunshine in disaster! This manga-styled comic covers the surreal day-to-day of people with heart, and a little bit of attitude!
Story and Art by Digitab.M
Immediately the artsyle is what stands out about this one. It's sharp and edgy in a playful, almost sarcastic way, but it's done with enough taste to make it suitable for all. I love the character designs and the more slice of life aspect to this manga. It's a nice calm story, but it's relatable! I've seen the creator, Digitab, work really hard on this through the discord and social media, and they definitely deserve more reads.
If I had to relate it to anything, perhaps FLCL would be the best estimate at the vibes I'm getting from this manga. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and the artstyle in incredibly unique. Stick to your guns, Digitab, you're doing amazing work!
GLiTCH, 57 pages - Published by DEVAUNBEATS, (cc/ @devaunbeats)
Venators are humans who have unlocked powerful abilities by harnessing their positive energy in order to take down "Negavii"- vile creatures formed from negative energy. After an incident one night with one of these Negavii, Jett is unlocks a powerful ability he calls "GLiTCH" and is recruited by a Venator named Mikayla and tasked with protecting his city from an encroaching threat.
Story and Art by DEVAUNBEATS
Bright and colorful artwork combined with stellar character design, this is one webcomic you don't want to be sleeping on! I'm 2 chapters in and it of course ended on a cliff hanger, I'll need to go read the other two chapters as soon as I can! I think my favorite part about this comic was the character designs. They feel incredibly unique yet... fit the world and artsyle so perfectly? Plus, that hella cool weapon we get to see in the beginning? That firestorm was not overkill, it was perfect.
The vertical scrolling is handled great as well, taking advantage of "reveal-scrolling" and the interesting color palette to make everything fun to look at. The poses and angles are dynamic, and there's no shortage of backgrounds. I've been following Devaunbeats for a little while now, and I'm so glad I can share this finally with you all.
I look forward to catching up this weekend!
That's all for now, but we'll have another set of Fresh Friday reading recommendations next week. You can also browse through our Featured Comics news section!
Check out more amazing stuff from @ArtCrumbs below.
ArtCrumbs