User:ZenForce

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Just a comic enthusiast that also writes fiction when my brain is not a chaos of ideas, which is really strange that not happen.


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Original review author: ZenForce in February 2024
Forum Disccussion Threads Link
Webcomic name: Age of Animalism
Author: Artist: Babuls Aka Matthew/ Editors: Eponasuu, CuteEater
Start Date: Sep 15, 2021
End Date: Ongoing, but in an irregular update rate.
Genre: Action, Sci-fi, Comedy, Furry.
Defining Flaw: The pacing, because before you know it, the comic ended... in a cliffhanger.


Rating Summary

Art: Wiki.pngHalf.png

Is a little bad (especially when it comes with characters and objects in the distance) but definitely can be worst. Also, by how is formatted the pages, is a big contributor of why is so confusing to read.

Storyline: Wiki.png

It has an interesting premise, but since the comic is so short, it barely develops anything, if it isn't left in the air.

Characters: Wiki.pngHalf.png

The main cast it's composed of: the socially awkward main character, the gentle giant, the focused leader with a personal vendetta, and the glutton scout. Not much more personality from these bases.

Miscellaneous Details: Wiki.pngWiki.pngWiki.png

The cover of the first issue is a parody of the album cover of Demon Days by Gorillaz, so I believe that the author is was trying to attract attention because he didn't trust the content of his work... But that is a theory, though.

Overall: Wiki.pngHalf.png

It had potential, but it was completely wasted. This is not even an entire comic; it's a start of one.



Background

I found this comic in Reddit (though I don't remember where), then I left it in a list of "must read". When their turn came, I realized how neck-breaking was their pacing. So I applied it together with two other options and this one comes like the worst one, so here is the review.

Downfall

I would say it was always bad, but when you came to the third Issue you realize that you wasted your time.

Story and Plot

The story happens in a world where the animals evolved and become the dominant species of the world, where they have the same technology of our world. We will follow the misadventures of Salamandy, a salamander girl expert in technology and hacking that is really shy and nervous; and her militia's gang: Don, a big pink-bird guy that is the muscles of the group; Buster, a heavy smoker rabbit guy that his role is being both the mechanic and the leader of the group; and Keira, a food-fanatic fennec girl that is the scout of the group. The comic is divided in three issues, and since they are so short, I will resume them:

ISSUE 1: The comic is introduced by a fanart and an author's note where explains a little about his experience in drawing. Then the comic really starts with Mandy (I refuse to call her Salamandy

Mandy training how to be a cop.

every time) playing videogames (Hikikomori's style) until the doorbell rings. She surprised attend the door and gets scared the shit out because of Don's size. When the things clarify, the bird guy presents himself and asks for her expertise for a town's militia secret mission. She accepts nervously, takes her stuff and both walks to the headquarters.

Don presents her to Buster, and he decides that before to do anything, he will teach her to use guns. After a really short training sequence, both guys drive her to the operation's zone: a cave recently discovered where there is a secured door in the end. After a really WTF moment from Buster, Mandy faint out of the surprise (this is a barely disguised excuse to not have a travel talk sequence). She wakes up exactly when they arrive to the place, both guys tell her to stay still while they search for Kaine to present her, but the girl found Mandy first, or rather Mandy's sandwich. After all the introductions, the militia's gang guides her though the cave until the gate.

After a long, long trial and error of cracking the code (and a photo sequence), Mandy finally opens the door. The militia guys prepare their guns and the group enters the strange building. They encounter a computer, Buster orders to the amphibian girl to activate it, she press random keys until suddenly the room lights up and speakers communicates to them in a strange idiom. From nowhere, a pod descends from the ceiling and expulses a goo creature talking in the same unknown idiom. Kaine points it with her gun, but she was knocked out suddenly. The group discovers that the room is filled out of defense drones, so Buster orders the other two to carry Kaine out of the building while he keeps them at bay. Everyone gets out of the cave without incidents, and Kaine suddenly wakes up. 3 hours later, the militia makes a vigilance camp in a secure distance and Buster decides that he and Don will travel to the town to warn the Mayor of the danger. While this happens, inside the building, an automatic shower washes up the goo creature and we discover that that thing is actually... a human!


MILF material.

ISSUE 2: Buster and Don arrive to the city hall (that is conveniently close to the militia's base) and Buster meets with Mayor Badonka, a... hedgehog? girl that only exist for two things: being an inconvenience to Buster and being the fanservice of the comic, there is no doubt about the second one. Anyways, the Mayor was sunbathing until Buster arrives and trips with a rubber duck just to have excuse of a cheesy hentai dialogue. When he gets up, he asks for help to protect the town but the Mayor basically says "Fat Chance" because the last time he did this was a false alarm and will ruin her political career. So Buster now has to recollect evidence to convince her, so he comes back to the base and prepares a plan B with dynamite.

We come back with the girls, with Mandy feeling guilty because she awakened the drones. The conversation was interrupted with a massive swarm of drones getting out of the cave, so both girls hides in a bush. Mandy has a panic attack while pointing her gun, so before she shoots accidentally, Kaine puts her hand between the hammer and the cylinder, but her pain scream alerts one of the drones. Kaine pulls out her knife and destroys the machine before discovers Mandy. We discover that the human is controlling the drones, and she puts them in alert mode. When Kaine see a massive horde closing up, she decides to attract their attention and takes them away from the camp. While she fights the drones, Buster and Don arrives the place and helps her to shoot them. Buster discovers that the drones are going to the town, so his new plan is that Don and Kiera goes to save Mandy and him is going to search people to defend the city.

Buster runs over and shoots the drones to clear the way. He arrives to the house of his contact, Mlechko, a nerdy heterochromatic catguy. At the start, Mlechko tries to escape, but after a slap, he convinces him, gives him a rifle and drives him back to the drone zone. He hides Mlechko in a high place and ask his to be his cover while reduces the numbers of the enemy. After lots of kills, Buster orders him check if the town is safe while he will check the cave. While this happens, the other duo discovers that the drones are abducing an unconscious Mandy to the cave entrance. Kiera sees something strange in the cave's entrance, so she focuses her scope there and discovers the human's presence. We discover that the furries believed that the human was extinct millennia ago, and the fennec girl shoot accidentally to the human, luckily the human has a force field. This alerts all the drones and shoots their laser coordinately, killing Don (sincerely, I was expecting that the Nerd Cat was the first one to die because, you know, clichés).


AWOOGA!!!

ISSUE 3: Mandy gets awakens by a robot claw, inside of a test chamber. The human tries to determinate her intelligence by giving her some objects. She discovers that the amphibian's gibberish is actually a complex language, so after a little of trial and error, Mandy suddenly speaks English. While this happens, Buster is driving at full speed to the camp until Kiera crosses the road suddenly and makes him to hit the brakes. The rabbit guy tries to comfort her, but she reacts attacking him crying, so while defend himself he ask the whereabouts of Don, and this question completely breaks her down. So the night comes and he left the traumatized girl in the car while he searches for Mandy.

Coming back to the building, the human tries to communicate with the animal girl with her PDA. This works and Mandy updates her with all the technology and social evolution of her species, and all this is monitored by the building's AI, which concluded that the humans and furries can't coexist. We go back to Buster trying to infiltrate the cave, until suddenly there is an earthquake and the mountain gets destroyed: the building is actually a spaceship. The Bunny jumps the mountain's rubble and gets on the ship. We come back in time to the earthquake moment, with the human surprised by this, so she asks what is happening and the AI says that is the Furries are not safe for humans and will commit a mass genocide for human preservation. The human tries to abort this but is ignored because of the first and second law of robotic (not damage humans by inaction/obey the orders given by humans until it contradicts the first law), so she kicks the door's electric lock and liberates Mandy. The girl is shocked with the human's existence, but the human lose no time, gives her a bag, puts her inside an air duck and asks her to open the vigilance room's door. While she craws to the place she sees a tube pod with a really familiar body inside it.

We come back to the earthquake moment... again, this time to the Mayor's perspective. She gets angry and orders to her lieutenant to search Buster. Back again to the mountain, the bunny pulls out a Solid Snake and infiltrates the ship. He runs through the hallway until he hear a door knocking, he opens the door and encounters with the human. Before he does anything, Mandy comes to stop him, but he shoots the shoulder of the woman anyways. The amphibian girl persuades him to help the human. The Human explains the situation and that she needs their aid to stop the machine manually. The furries enter the computer room through the air duct and tries to sneak in, but the AI knows their presence and sends the drones to stop them. They surround them, until suddenly an explosion happens in one of the motors. Buster threads that he snuck out 41 explosives inside the airship, and the AI send all the drones to search the explosives.

It looks like an easy win, but the AI has an ace up their sleeve: a giant robot. Buster combats with the robot, and is about to lose, until Kiera appears out of nowhere and assist them with her sniper and her... Uuuuuh... Moving away, Buster orders to Mandy to get in the computer while they distracts the robot. She tries to get to it, but the brute detects that the slimy girl is closing up the computer and focus their attention in her, so the fennec girl shoot it like crazy to captive his attention. This works too well and grabs her, and the AI threats Mandy either she gives the PDA or it crushes the girl. The pink girl opted to give up and slide the PDA only with the condition of not hurt her, the AI accepts but backstabs her, destroys the PDA and continues with the plan of killing them. The things looks grim, until the human throws herself from a catwalk, making that the attention of the AI focus in saving the human. This gives time to connect Mandy's tools and hack the machine, but before she ends, the giant machine gives a last punch to Mandy and Buster saves her taking the hit. The AI was reprogrammed and after a trip to the infirmary, Kiera tries to kill the human in vengeance of Don's death, but the amphibian girl and Buster intervenes between both. The AI announces that the ship will departure in 5 minutes, so both of them drags out the fennec girl from the ship, and out the anger and spit, she runs away and abandon them. Later the Mayor arrives with the town's guards to the place and asks for a report to Buster, which causes to get arrested and...

Yeah, that is how it ends.

Art Review

What I can say about it is that can be better. Its looks really bad, is too simplistic for their own good, the colors are little too bright for the type of comic it want to be, and the pages are too jammed with way too much stuff happening, plus not enough visual space to let you take in what's going on; but at the same time isn't so eyesore to bother your reading. Maybe I'm simply so desensitized with all the webcomics I readied, but for me is nothing too bad to be pointed out. Well, except for the fact that the artist has difficulties with drawing scenarios and characters in the distance. Also by looking at the style, I believe that the author grew up reading Archie's Sonic comics, especially by looking to Mayor Badonka.

So this is what feels like to have astigmatism...

Writing Review

An example of the earthquake scene with a better pacing (Sorry for my shitty editing skills)

The things I said about the pacing in Parallax applies in here, but instead being in half of the comic, is the entire comic. The story is going too fast, neck-breaking fast actually, and you before you notice the issue ends. We going from the main character being a shut-in to be part of a militia, then going to a cave to hack a door, then being attacked by drones, and so and so, until suddenly Kiera resigned and Buster gets arrested without justification. Everything is too accelerated to understand at first or even second read, and the pages format doesn’t help, actually it makes it really claustrophobic. And all this happens in 70 pages, for a Sci-fi comic. My god.

Actually, is so fast that the characters are barely developed. Mandy is the shy and social awkward girl, and (except for a moment of bravery in the third issue) at the end of the comic she still the same; Buster is the cool and agile leader of the group, he still the same just now in jail; Kaire is a glutton Scout TF2, now with an emotional trauma; and Don was the gentle giant and the only character development he has is that he is dead now. And don't make start with Mlechko or the Mayor. They barely have two dimensions (pun intended). This also happens with setting of the Sci-Fi part and the world building. According to the human in this page, humanity disappeared from Earth exactly 5000 years ago. The comic acknowledges that is strange that animals evolved into an advanced civilization in only five millennia, but what not acknowledges is why the furry's technology resembles so much to our technology now days. When you start thinking, it has little sense. Why the hell a civilization of humanoid animals has buildings, vehicles, guns and even clothing so similar to our without a direct contact with the humans?

Because is confirmed that they thought that the humans were extinct, and when Mandy encounters with the human, is denoted that the furries are smaller than them, meaning that the houses of the town was not created by humans since they have the adequate size for them. I always thought that if there will be a civilization of human isolated furries, well, their technology at least will have some little BIG differences from the humans ones. You know, the forms of the weapons, how they build their buildings, how are their festivities. But no, they have the same exact technology of the 2000's, just adapted to their size. But sincerely, since the comic wants to put you from situation to situation, there is no time for world building or a deep dive of Sci-fi lore. I also believe that the earthquake moment shouldn't be separated like that because is simply pointless, it should have been one consecutive scene.

Author Biography

Babuls (Matthew) is an 2D/3D low-poly artist and game creator based in Poland. He is the author of Hermes Adventures, Sonichu, Murder in Mayor's Office, Sonichu Issue 100- End of Sonichu, The Train Track Over the Rainforest (yup, definitely a sonic fan), and HIGHWAY 256, a derby destruction game. In the author note he mentions that he started drawing in 2019 with Hermes Adventures, basing the main character with his cat. He also says that he fells pride of this first comic (even though not enough pride to have it in your Deviantart that uses like an archive). Not much more of him or the editors.






Conclusion

In the first paragraph of the author note, he mentions that this comic is done in his spare time, and it is very noticeable. I know that Matthew doesn't wants something too long or too complex, but you are writing SCI-FI, a genre that it needs planning, a solid base in the world building and a consistent update rating, things that can't be done if you aren't totally compromised to it. Look, I'm not asking an Evagelion, only something that doesn't feel like is trying to beat Usain Bolt in the 200 relay and go find out if it will continue updating or not. But in the bright side, in the author note has some good advice for the new artists. That doesn't make the comic better, but at least something good comes out from here.

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