Review of Crowfeathers

D. Bethel's Review of Crowfeathers

Eben07's Review of Crowfeathers

Thumbs up. Though the manga style is kind of overdone
nowadays, by the current chapter of this series the
illustrator has really found her own style (a fantastic one at
that). The constants throughout the series that are
impressive are the strong use of blacks, great and creative
panel layouts, strong composition, and design flesh out
the world immensely. The chapter cover images alone are
very clever, appropriate, and original.

Thumbs up. The Native American twist has not really
been explored in this style before, though some other
series have mined "Wild West" imagery and themes (the
video game series Wild Arms immediately jumps to mind),
this is nice in that it's not afraid to actually be set there.
Bravo!

Thumbs down. The hardest part of a long-form webcomic
is to be able to hook readers immediately. By fault of the
form, I don't think it's possible to be successful with this
webcomic, but...

Thumbs up. ...the author has instituted an easy to follow
system to take the reader to the front of the chapter or of
the entire series with sidebars and easy-to-read fonts.
The site may not be the highest-tech or best looking
website ever, but it makes it easy to read the comic which
is more important than an animated glossy sheen.

Thumbs up. Clever premise, great art, and solid writing
can make a fan out of me.

Webcomics, like comics in general, have the unfortunate
requirement of needing to grab a new reader and make
them stay on the site. I know for me, one of the things
that sends me running as soon as a page comes up is
Manga/Anime illustration style. There may be a few great
comics done in this style, but most of them are poseurs
thinking they're creating an original story but really just
substituting themselves as the main characters in their
favorite manga/anime series. "Crowfeathers" does not
have this problem regarding story. It's an involving story
that is genuinely clever and unique. Thank goodness the
artistic style has improved by leaps and bounds because I
think the style of its early chapters are a bit off-putting
and only a few readers have the willpower to dig deeper.
The way the website is currently designed greatly focuses
on the wonderful aspects this comic has to offer, down to
the apropos color scheme. The banner image is very
non-manga and even though small things like line-quality
and page-design sense have qualities of Japanese
productions, the author has really taken the style to her
own world and I'm anxious to see how she develops as a
writer and artist as time moves along.

-D.Bethel
Ilustrator, Eben07.com

Art

Sense of Story

Ease of Story

Website Design

Neato Factor

Additional Thoughts

Thumbs up. While I certainly am not much of an artist --
see here -- I do really like the choice to do black and white
with this comic and I really enjoy how this style works for
the comic's premise. I definitely would give a big thumbs
up for a lot of the individual comics. I'm not terribly familiar
with the manga style, but I definitely have seen it quite a
lot on the internet since the ICA began declassifying. I do
like when people can own the style and Crowfeathers
definitely doesn't feel manga to me - it feels Crowfeathers.

Thumbs up. I quite like alternate reality westerns - it can
be such a heavy handed genre, but when a vivid
imagination takes a tired genre to a new place I am all for
it. I think that is why I so loved shows like Brisco County
Jr. - Crowfeathers succeeds because has reinvented the
wheel with it's refreshing twist on the Western story.

Thumbs up. While I don't think I could plug all 28
chapters in a sitting - I do feel Crowfeathers does a bang
up job of hooking in a reader and easily welcoming them
into a world that otherwise would have a large learning
curve and might put off people.

Thumbs up. But just enough to get the up. I really could
see this site delivering more. While the chapter archiving
system completely works and is exemplary. I would love to
see the great art on the cover pages laid out on a few
archive pages. I do feel a little more could be done with the
design to reflect the old west feel and give a little more
immersion to the genre - with subtle in mind to keep the
emphasis on the comic.

Thumbs up. I am a big fan of luck - and I think that
having Crowfeathers as our first review made our lives
easy this month. Crowfeathers simply deserves it WCCA's
nod for outstanding dramatic comic this year. Good luck!

Check Crowfeathers out for yourself!

Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

-Eben 07
Field Operative
Department of Intelligence and Espionage