Namir Deiter
| Original review author: | Long Tom |
| Webcomic name: | Namir Deiter |
| Author: | Isabel Marks |
| Start Date: | November 29, 1999, though an "extra" one obviously drawn later was added to the calendar the day before. |
| End Date: | March 23, 2015 |
| Genre: | Furry Soap Opera |
| Defining Flaw: | Poor and inconsistent artwork, meandering storyline, unfunny humor. |
Rating Summary
| Art | 
Inconsistent, stiff, and poorly-proportioned animu style. Most characters, regardless of gender or species, have the same face and same body shape, with ears, hair, tails, and coloring being the major differences between them. The author is clearly a member of the Mr. Potato Head school of artwork. |
| Storyline: |
The webcomic does follow an overall general storyline, but it randomly jumps back and forth between the various characters to the point that the reader ends up confused. |
| Characters: |
Most characters are credible, with the exception of BoB who is presumably intended to provide comic relief to the story, but he is annoying rather than funny. |
| Miscellaneous Details: |
The author does try to put humor into her webcomic, but her jokes fall flat. |
| Overall: |
Mostly credible characters and a believable storyline, but bad art and botched humor bring things down. The author should have used an all-human cast and not bothered with the comedy. |
Background
Seeing ads for it, I followed the webcomic briefly, but unsurprisingly it didn't "catch" with me. (Long before I ever heard of the Bad Webcomics Wiki, BTW.)
Downfall
The webcomic always sucked.
Story and Plot
The webcomic 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, only temporarily. (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 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 dared her to leave like her older sister had done, and at the tender age of ten, she did. Fortunately it didn't take too long for her to find her sister. And life, at least initially, is happy. Yet counter-intuitively, 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 two of them break up.
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.
The story continues, but I've covered plenty of it already. At any rate, this webcomic ultimately concludes, with the author announcing she will come up with other webcomics. She has indeed, but none of them are very good either.
Art review
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 copy pasted types. Even now, the author still cannot draw hands properly, and 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. Holy Immelmann! If you're going to depict animal-type characters, at least get them to reasonably resemble their four-legged equivalents! Sameface syndrome is bad enough on humans, but worse on cartoon animals of differing species.
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 webcomic Isabel Marks.
Conclusion
On the plus side, this webcomic 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. 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 webcomic whose characters are barefoot funny animals, there are few laughs in it.
Other webcomics by this person reviewed on this site
Links
- A short biography of the author's husband Terrence Marks, who also does webcomics.
- The NDU, where Tipper is in college. Too short to warrant a review.
- Nicole and Derek, a "next generation" webcomic featuring Tipper's son Derek O'Donnell. Basically little different from Namir Deiter in form and content, so no point in a review for that one.
- Adult Supervision Required, a gag-a-day comedy about a male-female couple. Not wretched like Wonder Kittens, but simply insipid, and not worth a review either.
