TG Webcomic Review: Triquetra Cats by JessicaRaven Silverstone
Read Triquetra Cats here
Imagine this: You're a 14 year old boy who's wanted to be a girl all your life; you are ostracized by your schoolmates because of this and, by the way, your last name is Jorgensen (Christine, anyone?). Pretty suggestive huh? And if it so happens that you were actually born a girl and were transmogrified in a pod to look like a boy? Whoa! And what if you could not only regain your "real girl" status via the same machine, but were also enlisted in fighting some evil group in a tight fitting suit complete with ears and a tail? Sign me up! Add to that a cool sentai sounding name and you're all set!
Unfortunately, for all its premise, Triquetra Cats never lifts above regular anime fare and its conventions. There's a group of heroes where everyone has their place (the intelligent one, the strong one, etc), they are all asociated to a certain element and most of its main characters are of high school age. There's also plenty (plenty) of fighting with moves like "Fetish Kick" and "Hentai Fist" (no kidding) and the comic relies too much on it to move forward, which makes for whole sequences where the central happening is a fight, and we get two-paneled page after two-paneled page of minute fight developments.
I don't judge a comic's look by its author's drawing proficiency for I believe in style and effect and not merely academia, but the whole first part looks like it needs a lot more work. Take a look at the Period 1 cover where a smiling Michael poses with the comic's emblem behind. The drawing doesn't look like it's been cleaned enough (check out the erased lines over the shoes) and the blue in Michael's school uniform spills outside the lines. Sometimes the comics even look like sketched cutouts glued over various cgi backgrounds. Instead of looking stylish, it looks cheap. And blurring... cgi blurring everywhere. Some of those panels gave me a headache.
It does improve though, and JessicaRaven's style consolidates some more in later stages to something I could actually like. There is a page (arguably the best yet) where a character's last transmission detailing the enemy's plans has a gritty scratched look which delivers more atmosphere than the comic in its entirety.
There's more panel control and experimentation in perspective, much cleaner lines and obvious improvement in Photoshop use. Also, the girls look more like girls instead of muscular crossdressers (which helps, since all the transgender stuff is dropped after the origins for chao-style cuties a tad too big being girly).
Story-wise, there are very few highlights. The plot moves predictably along and this is the place where the comic needs the most work; everything smells stale and the "been there-seen that" feeling is something you can never shake off. It starts on a techno based environment with speeders and futuristic suspended highways and powerful guns and the spirit could be Otomo's 'Akira', but later the anime rules start kicking in and a magic users story is introduced in a Final Fantasy-ish way. And yes, you guessed it, there's a conflux of evil raising an army for the utter destruction of mankind.
Things start to look better after the third "origins" story, but marginally so. JessicaRaven seems eager to leave the first part and move on to the cool catsuit wearing and as such the three origins stories look very similar, boring and stuffed with fighting.
The tone is also way too serious for such little actual content. She should either inject more humor and have a lighter side resembling, say, the Totally Cool Spies or continue to be dead-serious but with a real story adding some ingredient of a Miller 'Batman' or said 'Akira'.
As for the transgender ingredient, it's mostly there in name only (being more like 'masked biological sex' than transgender). There is no treatment of issues but the facing of school bullies (which is not TG exclusive). We see a lot of the Triquetra gals after transformation being as girlish as they possibly could be (somehow they've forgotten their past, it seems) and enjoying themselves as they discover their place in the world. Transgenders are also cast as special magic people. All this is very nice and though seen it could stand on its own (think Escaflowne, stuff mostly seen but so excellently done it breaks new ground), alas it is so bluntly delivered in a matter-of-fact way the magic is all but lost.
Aside: Apparently from 2643 on they diagnose GID (Gender Identity Disorder) as an inherited trait. Next time I see my parents (not), I'll know which questions to ask ;)
Imagine this: You're a 14 year old boy who's wanted to be a girl all your life; you are ostracized by your schoolmates because of this and, by the way, your last name is Jorgensen (Christine, anyone?). Pretty suggestive huh? And if it so happens that you were actually born a girl and were transmogrified in a pod to look like a boy? Whoa! And what if you could not only regain your "real girl" status via the same machine, but were also enlisted in fighting some evil group in a tight fitting suit complete with ears and a tail? Sign me up! Add to that a cool sentai sounding name and you're all set!
Unfortunately, for all its premise, Triquetra Cats never lifts above regular anime fare and its conventions. There's a group of heroes where everyone has their place (the intelligent one, the strong one, etc), they are all asociated to a certain element and most of its main characters are of high school age. There's also plenty (plenty) of fighting with moves like "Fetish Kick" and "Hentai Fist" (no kidding) and the comic relies too much on it to move forward, which makes for whole sequences where the central happening is a fight, and we get two-paneled page after two-paneled page of minute fight developments.
I don't judge a comic's look by its author's drawing proficiency for I believe in style and effect and not merely academia, but the whole first part looks like it needs a lot more work. Take a look at the Period 1 cover where a smiling Michael poses with the comic's emblem behind. The drawing doesn't look like it's been cleaned enough (check out the erased lines over the shoes) and the blue in Michael's school uniform spills outside the lines. Sometimes the comics even look like sketched cutouts glued over various cgi backgrounds. Instead of looking stylish, it looks cheap. And blurring... cgi blurring everywhere. Some of those panels gave me a headache.
It does improve though, and JessicaRaven's style consolidates some more in later stages to something I could actually like. There is a page (arguably the best yet) where a character's last transmission detailing the enemy's plans has a gritty scratched look which delivers more atmosphere than the comic in its entirety.
There's more panel control and experimentation in perspective, much cleaner lines and obvious improvement in Photoshop use. Also, the girls look more like girls instead of muscular crossdressers (which helps, since all the transgender stuff is dropped after the origins for chao-style cuties a tad too big being girly).
Story-wise, there are very few highlights. The plot moves predictably along and this is the place where the comic needs the most work; everything smells stale and the "been there-seen that" feeling is something you can never shake off. It starts on a techno based environment with speeders and futuristic suspended highways and powerful guns and the spirit could be Otomo's 'Akira', but later the anime rules start kicking in and a magic users story is introduced in a Final Fantasy-ish way. And yes, you guessed it, there's a conflux of evil raising an army for the utter destruction of mankind.
Things start to look better after the third "origins" story, but marginally so. JessicaRaven seems eager to leave the first part and move on to the cool catsuit wearing and as such the three origins stories look very similar, boring and stuffed with fighting.
The tone is also way too serious for such little actual content. She should either inject more humor and have a lighter side resembling, say, the Totally Cool Spies or continue to be dead-serious but with a real story adding some ingredient of a Miller 'Batman' or said 'Akira'.
As for the transgender ingredient, it's mostly there in name only (being more like 'masked biological sex' than transgender). There is no treatment of issues but the facing of school bullies (which is not TG exclusive). We see a lot of the Triquetra gals after transformation being as girlish as they possibly could be (somehow they've forgotten their past, it seems) and enjoying themselves as they discover their place in the world. Transgenders are also cast as special magic people. All this is very nice and though seen it could stand on its own (think Escaflowne, stuff mostly seen but so excellently done it breaks new ground), alas it is so bluntly delivered in a matter-of-fact way the magic is all but lost.
Aside: Apparently from 2643 on they diagnose GID (Gender Identity Disorder) as an inherited trait. Next time I see my parents (not), I'll know which questions to ask ;)
posted by V. at 11:30 AM
6 Comments:
You are much too kind to Triquetra Cats. As soon as Jessica started trying to merchandise the webcomic, as soon as she thought a dollar value can be assigned to a poster, was the moment the amateur status no longer protects her.
I'm tolerant of art worse than Triquetra Cats's 'art', mostly because the artists are college students with a day job, oh, and they aren't trying to turn a profit.
If you think you're good enough to make a buck with it, then guess what, and this goes to ALL webcomic artists.. you better be damn good.
I review comics based solely on their artistic merit, mostly divorced from their authors (people that I don't know). All biographical notes I make are strictly anecdotal. JessicaRaven's business practices are not my concern, her comic is.
You write :
"I'm tolerant of art worse than Triquetra Cats's 'art', mostly because the artists are college students with a day job, oh, and they aren't trying to turn a profit."
Do you really enjoy a webcomic because it's made on a shoestring budget or the author is a struggling artist, even if it's a bore and the art is awful? If so, then what draws you to it is the author not the work of art itself. See what this guy/gal/being can come up with given his life circumstances. It's like liking Gauguin because he emigrated to Tahiti. That does a big disservice to the work itself which should be all that really matters.
I may be accused of being too kind on the comic as a reviewer though, criticism which I'd love for you to expand here in the comments section :)
Well, just recently, the readers of Triquetra Cats organized(with or without the approval of Jessicaraven is up to speculation) and openly attacked one reviewer continually for the course of three days. This reviewer, however, showed what was happening to his friends, who happened to also be webcomic artists. They all read it, and the artists that chose to, on their own volation, left feedback and criticism. Jessicaraven's response to criticism was the usual response. "I'm #38 on Top Webcomics!".
Later on, Triquetra Cats was listed on PoE, but not by any means or intentions of the reviewers. TC claimed a conspiracy and so the reviewer was forced to post and lay everything nice and neat infront of their faces: That how the mess started with Triquetra Cats readers acting abrasively and abusively, SEEKING fights. Jessicaraven came into the scene and subsequently deleted the reviewer's reply on their messageboard. They continue to bash anyone that is a 'nay-sayer' on their main page, effectively trashing the reviewer behind his back. These are the acts of a hypocrite
This post has been removed by a blog administrator.
Thanks for the news... seems like there's a whole thermo war going on with TC and its detractors...
I don't generally read or post at comics forums and even less if they look like they have an adolescent strain going on; regarding TC itself I check it out every once in a while, though nothing really new has arosen since my review in June.
Who wrote the "damning" review by the way, you? ;) Can you link me?
The review I speak of belongs to one ChaosBurnFlame and is available on his webcomic site, Point Guardian. http://www.pointguardian.com. His own art has its own quirks and is far from being professional, but he does update daily.
Post a Comment
<< Home