In today’s ever-changing comics industry, there are two universal truths. First and foremost, Dogman is an iconic comic of our time. The second is that more people are reading comics and online comics (also known as vertical comics) than ever before. So, we at The Comics Beat have chosen to embark on a new adventure: Beat’s Bizarre Adventures. Each week we ask three authors to recommend some of their favorite books and series from Japan, Korea, and elsewhere. This week we have amazing freelancers, teenage private investigators with unique skills, and of course… SPACE!
Magical Freelancer Guild
Writer/Artist: Birdie Black
platform: Tapas.io / webcomic / comic rage / itchio
Magical Freelancer Guild The story takes place in the 1920s in the city-state of Hawkesborough and tells the story of Lana, Luca and the mysterious con man Monty Burch. They are both members of the eponymous Magical Freelancers Guild, a guild of people with an interest in magic who also happen to be battling supernatural entities and creatures to stay afloat in the city-state’s ever-changing political landscape.
The first few chapters of the story introduce us to the world and the lore surrounding the Magical Freelancers Guild, and then we see the adventures the guild has as they help the local townsfolk. There are also elements of mystery surrounding Monty, such as dialogue that hints at past events that put him in very questionable situations, but he playfully brushes these aside.
I like the creature designs that contrast with the character’s art style, and it makes me curious about when other creatures will show up and what they’ll look like. Also worth noting is the color and shading used throughout the story, ensuring that many of the characters fit perfectly into the background and scenery.
One aspect that readers may notice is that characters with more cartoony and exaggerated designs tend to look strange when detailed shading is applied, while at other times these same characters are rendered using mostly flat and simple units The shadows look great when tinted. So, in my opinion, there is a slight visual inconsistency, but I’m sure the artist Birdie Black This small detail will eventually be addressed as the comic progresses.
The action throughout the story also utilizes motion blur and effects, used in conjunction with shading and shading to add depth. So far, we’ve only learned a lot about the world and its lore, which makes me wonder how it will resolve as the story develops, since Magical Freelancers Guild has only just begun, consisting of multiple pages and panels in between Composed of four chapters.
Magical Freelancer Guild Can be used as snack, webcomic, comic wrath, even on Itch.io. You can also become one of Birdee’s patrons on Patreon. For me, this series captures what I love about webcomics: the freedom to tell a story, regardless of execution, and to make it with love and care and share it with the rest of the world. I look forward to what happens next in this series. — Justin Guerrero
Sexy voices and robots
Writer/Artist: Kuroda Yo
English adaptation: Kelly Sue DeConnick
translate: Ohki Yuji
Modification Art and Lettering: Huang Xiaomin
Publisher: Visualization area
She’s a teenage girl who uses her exceptional voice skills to work at a phone dating service. He’s an adult with an insatiable appetite for giant robot toys. Together they are Sexy Voice and Robot.
written and drawn Kuroda Yo, Sexy voices and robots It sounds like it should be weirder than it is. High school student Lin Nicole meets a senior gentleman who sends her to help him solve his problem. Most of the time, she woos Iichiro Sudo, an older man who frequently calls the phone dating service where she works.
Sexy voices and robots In other hands it might have been a creepy, exploitative comic. Instead, Kuroda makes Nico a teenage crime solver on the same level as Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown. She’s smart, level-headed, and knows how to push the buttons of a helpless redneck like Ichiro. Her ability to judge a person’s voice by its voice also proves useful throughout the series. Inspired by the stories of Haruhiko Kuroda’s friends, Nico is one of the most fascinating and complex characters in manga.
While other manga artists favor nibs and technical pens, Kuroda uses thick, smooth strokes. He depicts Tokyo and its inhabitants using bold lines and heavy shading. Kuroda was less interested in realism than in the expressive power his lines could offer. His numbers may have been crude, but they conveyed exactly the message he needed at the time. It’s a unique look for a unique comic. — D.Morris
Heading to Terra…
Writer/Artist: Takemiya Keiko
Translator: Dawn T. Labus
Production: Mizuno Yuko, Shinobu Sato
Publisher: vertical
In the distant future, humans are guided by machines. However, there are some situations that machines cannot predict or prepare for. Jowy Marcus Shin is such a boy. Freed from forced brainwashing by the mysterious soldier Blue, Joey learns that he is Mu: a mutant form of the human spirit that humans will not recognize or tolerate. He has experienced decades of growth, growing from an unlucky boy to the greatest leader of the Mu tribe. All this is to realize the Blue Soldier’s dream of returning to Terra, the planet where humans were first born and a place Mu can never go.
Heading to Terra… yes work Takemiya KeikoShe is a member of the “24th grade female cartoonists group” that changed comics in the 1970s. Bamboo Palace rose to fame with fiery tales of doomed romance, such as “Summer’s Gate” and her epic poem “The Song of the Wind and the Trees.” Heading to Terra… Romance is relegated to subtext in favor of massive space opera. In just five volumes (three in the English version), Bamboo Palace contains enough drama, tragedy, and life-or-death space battles to double or triple the length of the series.
Heading to Terra… Achieving the best balance between sci-fi details and shojo comics. The ship’s design and costumes are straight out of Star Wars or Logan’s Run. But the characters and their feelings are expressed through panel compositions that directly express joy or despair. This is perfect for a story about a psychic whose empathetic powers infect the pages around them. The abstract presentation of Bamboo Palace also makes the machines seem stranger and more sinister.
Just in case you thought Takemiya was taking Mu too far, she lavished the most care and attention on one of the humans. When we first meet Keith Anyan, he’s training for elite membership. He came to believe that humans must be disciplined in order to survive, and that the Mu posed an existential threat to this. But he also realizes that the machines he once trusted and the society they spawned are inherently flawed. If Joey is the staunchly idealistic hero, Keith is a fantastic foil: a self-hating, conflicted tactical genius who could just as easily destroy humanity as save it. — Adam Westcott
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