Namir Deiter

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Rating Summary

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Background
Seeing ads for it, I followed the comic briefly, but unsurprisingly it didn't "catch" with me.

Downfall
The comic always sucked.

Story and Plot
The strip originally concentrated around four high school girls: sisters Tipper and Snickers Namir, Joy Satu, and Blue Deiter. The first story arc starts with a romance between Tipper and a raccoon named Devlin, for which the others try to help, and as it turns out, Devlin had the same happen to him. The first date has a wild beginning and ending. (But this romantic story is pushed to the back burner and is only referred to a few times until, after two years, the relationship ends on a sour note. But Devlin would not go unpunished.)  Our heroines next take a community college course, Snickers to get into regular college more easily; Blue to meet guys. Then comes senior ditch day, though it ends anticlimactically. Then comes spring break, so our heroines go to a carnival with nothing better to do.

Then the main cast is expanded with the introduction of BoB Dorpe, a slug, whose main characteristic is always causing computers to break down (evidently via bad karma), as well as Blue's cousin once removed Mallory Duck, who has an alternate persona known as "Ducky" (more on this later). Then we take a break for some animal jokes, such as this, this, this, and these two. And we also have a Halloween party, plus a Chibi interlude.

So this review doesn't take over a decade to write, I'll just go over the major plot lines:

BoB has a cousin who is not a slug, but a cat named Twix. Twix and Snickers have a date, and later in the story they get married and have a baby.

As for BoB himself, he dates Joy for a time, but the relationship doesn't work out, so BoB ends up going on a sudden vacation (unfortunately not a permanent one). Later BoB returns and eventually gets engaged to Mallory, but both bride and groom have second thoughts, and the wedding falls through.

Mallory herself has an alter ego named "Ducky", which she produces by changing her hair and eye color (the latter by contact lenses obviously) to more closely resemble her cousin Blue. But Blue dislikes this alter ego and has Mallory sent off to boot camp to destroy it, which succeeds, but as it turns out, not forever. (Why it is called "boot camp" in a world where footwear doesn't exist is not questioned.) Mallory again encounters BoB, who is upset with her, but Mallory brings back her Ducky alter ego, and BoB is pleased to see her again, completely unaware that Ducky and Mallory are the same person.

And what of Tipper after the Devlin debacle? Her father comes back into her life and attempts to have her back, but neither Tipper nor Snickers like the idea, and they join forces to rebuff him. The father then abandons the idea and departs. Tipper then has a romance with a new boyfriend, namely Cedric van Helgen. But then comes a disastrous prom date, which serves to kill the relationship. Tipper's romantic life is put on hold when her mother is declared legally dead, and the family has to deal with that. Fortunately Tipper's love life takes a turn for the better when she meets Charles O'Donnell, and this relationship results in wedded bliss.

As for the character Blue, she grew up with an indifferent mother who dares her to leave like her older sister did, and at the tender age of ten, she does. Fortunately it doesn't take too long to find her sister. And life. at least initially, is happy. Yet counterintuitively, Blue would not become a very responsible person, and her romantic life consists of a series of short-lived affairs with numerous boyfriends. Her older sister gets contacted by their mother, and Blue learns her older sister legally adopted her. Blue later takes a job as a bartender, but a young patron enters the bar who turns out to be her previously unknown half-brother Isaac Telford, and Blue is thrown for a loop. Blue then starts dating Ian Rufus, her boss at the bar (who is older and divorced).

Joy has the most normal of all the major characters' backgrounds, being raised by both parents who stayed together. Yet it seems she has a big problem with the fact that her fur color is pink most of the year, but in winter changes to white. (Why this is a problem for her is inexplicable; it wouldn't be unique to her.) In any case, she deals with the problem by dyeing her fur pink during the winter. As for her love life, after her BoB debacle, she meets Dr. Ferdinand Fitzgerald. This relationship, however, is also problematic, and Ferdinand's mother disapproves of Joy, and ultimately the relationship is quickly destroyed. Joy abandons medical studies and rents a house together with Blue, and later takes the job of a kindergarten teacher. She then meets Isaac, with a possible future romance in store.

Art review
Artwork from a 1999 strip

Artwork from a 2012 strip. Thirteen years later and hardly better

The characters are animu style, badly done, and still is even after the same artist has done this comic for more than a decade. Proportions are bad and inconsistent, perspective is just as bad, and there are hardly any backgrounds other than copypasta types. Even now, the author still cannot draw hands properly, and also her characters are as stiff and inanimate as they had been at the beginning. On top of that, the characters have side mouths which hardly open, even when shouting.



But worst of all is that though the characters are supposed to represent a wide variety of species of animals, most of them clearly share the same basic template with only colors, ears, and tails distinguishing between them. Examples include a panda bear, a cat, and a red fox (I guess). All of these share the exact same pentagonal face shape instead of a variety of snout lengths. If you're going to depict animal-type characters, at least get them to reasonably resemble their four-legged equivalents.

Well, there are at least some that do not follow the templates of the mammal characters. Namely, some slug characters. Trouble is, the author is evidently unaware that slugs are hermaphrodites. (Or possibly she isn't?) And surprisingly, if the scenario includes slugs, why didn't the author include avian and reptilian characters as well, for the sake of variety?

Writing review
The author had a good basic idea in having the protagonists grow up into adulthood and then parenthood, rather than have them stay perpetual high schoolers a la Archie. But the storyline meanders from chapter to chapter, with one situation followed by an unrelated one followed by yet another unrelated one, resulting in confusion and loose ends. Situations start and stop erratically, so that the story involving Tipper and Devlin took two years to resolve, despite the fact that little happened in it.

Author biography
The author was originally named Isabel Gonzalez, but she has married Terrence Marks and she now signs her comic Isabel Marks.

Conclusion
On the plus side, this comic has the characters age and develop, and none of the characters are Mary Sues. Also, the topic of sex, when it is brought up, is done so honestly, not as a harmless pleasure, but one with potential bad consequences as well. But on the minus side, besides the horrid artwork, the story jumps randomly from one situation to another so that it is too confusing to follow. Also, for a comic whose characters are barefoot funny animals, there are few laughs in it.

Links

 * A short biography of the author's husband Terrence Marks, who also does webcomics.