Sunday, June 7, 2015

Saturday June 6th: WYIHN

Ladies And Gentlemen! Hurry Hurry Hurry! Come See the Tale Of WYIHN!

In an interesting new take on the Prince and the Pauper tale, the white-bred suburbs darling and the boy from the wrong side of the tracks are thrown together, changing both lives. Wyihn is a tale driven by interpersonal challenges and internal struggles, a story about people in a very real sense.
The creation of a dreamer by the pen name of Bloomer, Wyihn can be found here.

The Rating

It's a beginner, but Wyihn stumbles along gamely.

The Raves



As a comic, Wyihn takes on a real challenge of exploring inter-cultural and interpersonal reactions. While it misses the mark, it's a noble goal to be going on with. And the art is quite lovely; a sweet, innocent style that puts me in mind of Mary Engelbreit. The art style is lovingly crafted, with attention to detail and a good grasp of many of the artistic aspects of comic art; texture, framing, visual narrative, anatomy, pose and the conveying of emotion. The style is rich and yet visually open and airy, lending a whimsical sense to the tale.
The style continues in the writing, with a gentle sense of humor and well-written dialogue, especially in family situations. The beginning of the comic really had me interested.

The Razzes

Unfortunately, the piece never did much with that early possibility. As I read, I found myself flipping between pages, thinking 'why am I reading this?' and then wondering why.
Finally, I pinned the reason for the emotional reaction down. None of the characters were holding my sympathy. To be frank, I had no reason to care about any of them.
Basically, Wyihn is Scalped done with pre-teen children in Suburbia. There's none of the violence, but there's all the moral ambiguity, self righteousness and lack of a hero. One of the heroes is, honestly, a whiny baby, and preachy on top of it. This makes him very hard to like. It's okay for a character to start that way, but they're supposed to grow through the story, and so far that isn't happening. At all.

To make a powerful character, you have to make one that has three things: a personality, a motivation, an emotional hook. You have to create a person, give them something to drive them, and then give readers a reason to identify with them. Get those three things, and people will read avidly. Now, that's nice to say your character has to be a nice person. 'Dexter's' emotional hook was the thrill of vigilante justice without consequences; the classic anti-hero. That can work. But many of the characters in this piece are missing either an emotional hook or a driving force, or both. And the personalities aren't always that interesting. Fix the writing, and I think this comic can go a long way.
To get better at character writing, do some research. Start reading about the craft of writing. Also, read a few books on psychology. Find out how people really act in given circumstances. I recommend the article 'How Do You Build A Strong Character' by Sophie Novak. And then, of course, there's people. Go to cafes and really watch people interact. Try it on the bus. Read a lot about other cultures and see how many masks human psychology can wear. Use what you learn to write people, not characters.

The Revue

It's not one I'll read obsessively, but in a few years this creator has real promise. Keep on trucking Bloomer!

4 comments :

  1. Dis is Bii0/Bloomer:

    Wow I didn't expect you to even be able to get through reading the thing, let alone review it, thank you!

    Totally agree the comic absolutely is a shitty shit-stain, I am in the process of reworking the first chapter, but lately I've been thinking it'd be better to scrap the thing altogether. I've only read this kind of critique once before 3 or so years ago, but you hit the nail on the head how it fails due to the bad story and character designs, and generally being uninteresting. Despite studying Psychology and directly working with over 100 people every day, my lack of comprehension and deep seeded disdain for our species are bad habits, and it does show with how all my characters are terrible "not heroes despite being mains".(Actually I always hated the term 'hero' being used to describe general main characters, it feels kinda impractical since not all people are heroes, and some mains don't even do anything that could be considered "heroic" to someone)
    I should stick to antagonist stories but my lack of talent would show no matter what the mains are, I'm glad to have made the decision to keep my future projects private thanks to this, I really don't want to continue to add to the public pile of shitty comics that are already out there. While Psychology and world Geography are huge hobbies, and I really do want to make better characters, I honest to god don't know how to improve them without replacing them with different characters who have different personalities entirely. Which would lead to changing the story and everything else about the comic since I made the mistake of having the story revolve around them, I may as well make something else, but unfortunately I've been having too much fun drawing the ones I have... so I've pretty much screwed myself with my own selfish-twatness. <_<'

    The only nit-picking I have is Julian and Apollo are 17 (Julian will be 18 according to the story when Ch.3 starts) so those two are a little past the preteen stage, and they aren't so much suburb kids as much as Julian being countryside orphanage soon to upgrade to ghettoside apartment owner, and Apollo being fancy house in gated community resident.

    Other than that, I'm golden, thank you so much for taking the time to acknowledge my stuff! Sorry if it was a painful read, I'll possibly make something worth reading someday, but until then I'm glad I transferred my feces to a more secluded corner of the internet where the public won't have to look upon it(except SJ, that place is a lost cause). :P Can't wait to read more reviews, you do an awesome job!

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  2. Thanks for these reviews, Olivia. As a creator I get a lot out of them, even if I don't comment much. Regarding characters, I strongly believe us writers have to find something to love about each and every one, even the most despicable antagonists. If you don't like your characters it shows up in the work.

    In terms of deciding to rework, reboot, or start on something new, the only right answer is don't stop making comics.

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  3. Glad you get some use out of them Andy! And Bloomer, don't take it too hard, really. Practice makes perfect; only by practicing do you learn!

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    1. Pff lol oh nah, if I were taking it hard I'd say so, reality is something that never really phased me. I mean, if something is shit, it's shit. There may be no such thing as perfection, but I'll keep drawing stuff and making peoples eyes bleed, something will come of it someday... If anything, I may reach terribad status, which I personally love that genre of media. :)

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