I Kill Giants is an incredible comic written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by J. M. Ken Niimura. It is a tale of pain and redemption, loneliness, loss and connection. It's a tale of everyday magic hiding just under the skin of the mundane, and the power of myth to change a life. Barbara is a freak. A weird kid. A nutcase. From the outside. But inside, she is a hero with a sacred trust. She studies the lore. And she. Kills. Giants.
This comic is a must read. For sale at this link, it can be read here until you can buy a copy of your own. There will be no spoilers below, but I will repeat: Read. This.
The Rating
A gem.
The Raves
If you've not heard the term 'urban fantasy' before, welcome to the genre. This comic tells the tale of a girl with one foot in Faery and one foot in the principal's office. And she has something worth fighting for. Her quest consumes her. That sounds noble until it gets you sent to the school shrink.
The exploration of the intersection between these interior and exterior experiences is seamless, poignant and absolutely true. If you were ever the weird kid, this story will bring tears to your eyes and a grin to your lips. If you were ever the one trying to help the weird kid, you'll most likely feel the same. I love this work for its ability to gently explore the interface between fact and inner truth, the fault lines where the stories we live by rub up against the expectations laid on us by those around us.
At its heart, this work is a story about stories and their power. When life hands us the incomprehensible or the unbearable, we humans have a choice: we can become stone, bearing up under the weight at the cost of shutting down our emotions. We can become shattered by the pressure. Or we can become storytellers who force the narrative of events into a tool we can use in our fight for survival.
This comic's frank, realistic and humorous exploration of trauma and the places it can take the mind of a child is amazing. Relatable, empathic and painfully funny in equal measure, it is the story I'd most recommend to school counselors and anyone dealing with kids handling difficulties. The creators truly remember how children think, and they remember how sharp the edges on the world are when our hearts are new. In Barbara's utter focus on the rituals and lore she must abide by in order to slay giants, we understand humanity's desperate urge to have some control over our lives. In Taylor's urge to hurt others, we understand the need to feel we have power of some kind, any kind. And in Sophia's stubborn insistence on seeing the good in others, we can see that connection is what has kept humanity alive this long.
Most of all, this story reminds us why we tell stories: to make us something more than we were and give us the strength to take on our monsters. Gamian said it best: Fairy tales are more than true – not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten. That is why Barbara kills giants.
And now that I've gone on my poetic rant, let's talk about the art. Don't let this work fool you. It's kept loose and stylized to match the material, but this piece knows all the tricks and uses them to advantage. The simplicity of the ink drawings, without color or complex backgrounds to dazzle the eye, leads the reader to every detail.
The pacing is perfection, and all I can say is....*happy sigh*
The Razzes
Occasional, very occasional, reversals on word balloon reading direction can be irritating breaks in the flow. I would have liked to see those resolved. Other than that? I got nothing.
The Revue
Read. This. Today. Feed your child's heart and your inner geeky soul. Go on. I double dog dare you.
Be warned. The gods live. And they scheme. Beware of snaring yourself in their designs.
Here's a tale of one boy who did. It is the tale of
In the Far North, they tell tales of warrior gods and warrior men. And nobody tells them better than Sarah Schanze in Thistil Mistil Kistl, the tale of an accidental quest, a hero searching for the gift and a trickster's wily ways. Come and hear the tale of the North.
The Rating
An adventure without end.
The Raves
To begin with, I'll tell you how good this is: I sat still enough for long enough that I got an ache all the way up my spine.
That takes some serious sitting.
But this page should sum up the reasons well.
This story gorgeously balances stylization and craftsmanship in its art, giving the reader the feel of reading runes without sacrificing anatomy or giving any sense of artistic difficulty. The entire world is rendered with skill and wit as our young hero attempts to serve his gods and earn his place in the paradise of Valhalla, helped(?) by the Sly One, Loki. The texturing in these pages lends these pages a rich tangibility, while the color scheme reminiscent of Cartoon Saloon work (creators of the movies Song Of The Sea and Secret Of Kells) bring this ancient world to vibrant and bustling life. And at all times there is a faint hint of runes and patterns just out of sight, hinting at the otherworld a breath from ours.
The story matches the art exactly. While it is intimately tied up in the mythos of Scandanavia, this is no dusty tome. Our young hero Coal is a well rounded character, as is each of his companions. But Sarah outdoes herself in the personality she lends the old gods. She brings each of them sharply and brightly alive, lending them wonderfully dynamic personalities without once losing sight of their original natures in the Eddas. For instance, Loki is cocksure, playful, tricksome and juuuuust a bit of a showoff....juuuust a bit....
but he's also a dynamic character with a deep love of family and a complex thought process going on behind his smile in this tale. He's allowed to have moods, ideas, and feelings that make him into a person as well as a god.
The story shows the same tact in exploring the interaction between cultures as the Old Religion meets Christianity and Moors meet Danes. It all works in this story because each character is truly a person in their own right, all worked together with impeccably brisk plotting, a compassionate wit, and a nice thread of humor.
And again, the art's stunning. This piece is worthy of animation!
Anybody who is into the writing scene, and especially into fanfiction, has heard this term before. But what does it mean? And why it is
seen as a Bad Thing? How do you successfully identify a Mary Sue and what steps
do you take to fix the problem? Is it really a problem at all? Let's talk about it.
The Origins of Mary Sue
This misunderstood bit of fan-speak originated from a
satirical fanfiction called A Trekkie’s Tale,
written by Paula Smith. This very short story points out a number of common
traits that the author saw present in fan-made Star Trek characters. Namely, characters
who were blatantly created for authorial wish fulfillment. This Mary Sue was an inexplicably beloved cardboard cut-out with no meaningful personality and a
contrived role in the story that pushed all the other characters off to the side
to soak up as much of the spotlight as possible. She was a simple, concise image of how
flat and boring original characters like this really are stripped of all the
purple prose, fluff, and ego-primping of these
fanfictions.
The Evolution of Mary Sue
But odds are, most of you probably imagine somebody more like
this:
Yes, EnobyEgogyEvony Ebony Dark’ness
Dementia Raven Way was quite the odd creature, inhabiting Tara Gilesbie’s
infamous Harry Potter fanfiction, My Immortal,
a work so bizarrely awful that many people suspect it's a troll-fic. Not
only did the protagonist share the same signs of poor character writing as
Smith’s Mary Sue, multiplied a hundred-fold, but the story itself had an
incomprehensible plot, with spelling and grammar errors so absurd it seemed intentional. What’s more, the entire cast appeared to be of the same
caliber, either a pastiche of what the author liked, or
else an arbitrary antagonist representing everything the
author deemed uncool. Everything you need to know about this oddity can be found in this dramatic reading (NSFW for language).
No doubt about it, the characters represented here are Mary Sue
characters, all of them blatant self-inserts, or else canon characters warped beyond recognition to serve the author's fantasies. Whether genuine or stealth parody, the terribleness of the character-writing in this story became legendary. But with the infamy of this fanfiction came a number of stereotypes associated with the term.
Teenage characters. Characters who dress “cool.” Characters
with long or extravagant names. Characters who are half something other than
human. Characters who are “pretty.” Characters who are “angsty.” Characters who
are “overpowered.” Where is the fine line between a Mary Sue and a character who merely has these features? Sites like TV Tropes having over a dozen
variations on the term (and another page on the same site admitting the confusion surrounding the term) do nothing to clarify what a Mary Sue specifically is, beyond being
a Bad Thing.
Perhaps it’s time to simplify who Mary Sue really is...and is not.
Mary Sue Is…
...a character who panders to the author.
Does this character get to do or say whatever the author wishes they could do or say? Does the plot hinge around these things? Does this character constantly trumpet the author's views and agenda, and does everyone else either conform to these views or serve as the enemy for not conforming? And does the author get personally offended if a reader criticizes the character? These are usually strong signs of a Mary Sue.
...a character around whom the morality of the story revolves.
Mary Sue is more often than not the product
of ego. Even when they would clearly be in the wrong for something they say or
do, the story will bend over backwards to insist they are just the best person
who ever lived. They can do no wrong, and even when they do, there's always an excuse that makes it justified somehow.
...a character who is free from consequences.
This doesn't mean that the character never gets hurt or that nothing bad happens to them. It means that no matter what, that character will get to do whatever they please at whoever's expense and there will be no meaningful repercussions. If there are repercussions, the story will present them as an injustice to the character no matter how deserved they might be. Even if the character dies, they will always be right and the story will reward them. ...a character who has no faults.
It's commonly said that Mary Sues are characters who have no flaws. Even when they do have flaws, they'll be either cute quirks that never really impede the character or informed flaws that we know exist, but don't actually come into play. Because a Mary Sue is the idealized avatar of the author's wishes, they will be flat characters who have no significant failings. Putting all of that together, we can form this simple definition: Mary Sue (n.) [mair-ee. soo] 1. A character archetype centered around wish-fulfillment and/or personal gratification on behalf of the author. See also: soapbox
Mary Sue Is NOT…
...a protagonist.
Simply being the main character is
absolutely not a sign of Mary Sue. The plot usually revolves around the
protagonist to a large degree and that's not objectively bad. Most stories have a protagonist, so be wary of using the Mary Sue label on a main character.
...overpowered.
Being good at too many things isn’t good or
bad. It all depends on how you justify it. Did they work for their skills? Are
they ridiculously good at some things, but bad at others? Context is key. It's common to whip out this criticism when it comes to hyper-competent characters, yet being boringly competent is the only fault audiences can find about them. Hyper-competency can itself be a writing flaw, but it's not helpful to aspiring writers to call such characters Mary Sues when the problem with the story isn't author-pandering, but rather a lack of satisfying conflict.
...an escapist character.
Mary Sues serve to satisfy the author’s
fantasies. An escapist character identifies what the audience likes and lets
them live it out through the character. Video game protagonists often fall into this category, but virtue of a medium seeking to make the player to feel empowered. Pulp fiction (the genre, not the movie) also frequently features escapist characters. Being escapist doesn't automatically make them better than Mary Sues; like all archetypes, they can be handled poorly. Even so, it's best not to mistake the two.
...attractive, cool, or trendy.
These things are fluff, window-dressing
that has nothing to do with actual character development. Yes, Mary Sues are usually attractive and hip to whatever the author likes, but in comics especially, this isn't a good metric. Character designs tend to focus on things the author finds pleasing to look at and illustrate.
...a self-insert.
Mary Sues are usually self-inserts, but not all self-inserts are Mary Sues, and a character being similar to the author isn't a surefire Sue indicator. As they say, write what you know. Most writers put some of themselves into the characters they write, whether it be their interests, their habits, or their culture. Even direct author avatars aren't automatically bad; many webcomics feature the author as the main character, relating personal anecdotes about their daily life. A staggering number of gaming webcomics have the author frequently stand in for the game character, usually to poke fun at the game. Needless to say, this type of self-insertion is clearly distinct from Mary Sues.
This is a question many authors ask, especially as they start to
worry about appealing to an audience. And they will invariably turn
to one of many Mary Sue litmus tests on the internet. But tests can be cheated and they don’t get to the heart of the matter.
By all means, take the test if you wish, but if you find yourself finagling on some of the
points to manipulate the score—well, you’ve already got your answer. If you
think your character is a Mary Sue, chances are you’re right.
So now what?
Forgive Me Father, for I Have Sued!
One thing people often overlook is that just about every
writer starts out making characters like this. We all have stories we’ve made
up when we were less mature that we look on with fond cringing. But there’s no
reason to cringe! The wish-fulfillment and fun of making up a story where YOU
get to have everything you want is often what kick-starts your imagination and
makes you want to write stories. Just look at all the people out there who
started out writing fanfiction. Writing with a target audience is mind is the
big game-changer that gets writers to start caring about what people think and
how to improve. Now, you have to answer big “why” questions.
Why are you writing this story? Why should the audience read
it? Why did you make this or that character? These are the essential questions.
And they aren’t easy to answer! Good writing, of course, isn’t easy. A novice
author might insert a Mary Sue into their work because they just want to live
out a personal fantasy, and if it’s for their own amusement, there’s no real
harm in that. Certainly they might put their work out there and wonder why people don't care for it, but if they haven't answered the “why” questions, then they haven't reached the stage where they understand how to reach a target audience. It’s the author who is mindful of an audience that should take heed. Fortunately, mindfulness of an audience and a desire to
please and entertain readers is probably the first indication that Mary Sue is
probably not present here.
But all of that probably don't stop you wondering, right? So for your consideration, may we present...
Ten Simple Dos and Don’ts for the Sue-conscious Author.
DO evaluate
your character’s role in the story and consider their personal motivations.
DO NOT
take a reader’s dislike of your character as a personal attack against you.
DO NOT
load down a character with random flaws to make them seem “not too perfect.”
DO
listen to your readers' constructive criticism about your character.
DO
use your personal experiences as inspiration for your character.
DO NOT
use your character solely as a personal soapbox for your all views and interests.
DO allow
the character to make bad decisions or make mistakes.
DO
your research when it comes to things about your character that
you don’t have much personal experience with.
DO NOT
attempt to force an unpopular character down your audience’s throat by making
a popular character talk them up.
What if I Find a Mary Sue?
If you found a genuine Mary Sue in your own writing, odds
are good you’re going to have to fix more than just the character, because a
true Mary Sue dominates the entire story. But the first real step for fixing the
problem isn’t writing-related; you must be willing to put aside your own ego
and consider why you’re writing this story and what your target audience is.
Answering that is the first and pivotal step into good character writing. And
from there? We really can’t stress those 100 Character Questions enough.
And if you find a real, genuine Mary Sue in somebody else’s
work? Well, let us ask you this—did they want
your feedback to begin with? Remember, we all have to start someplace and not
every writer is mature enough to understand or care about what the audience
wants. Delivering feedback informing them about the nebulous world of Mary Sue
might not be as helpful as you intend.
Sometimes it’s better to just let Mary have their fun.
Imagine Avatar re-written in an intelligent, soul searching manner. Imagine Tarzan with a brain. That, dear readers, is Hominids. Created by Jordan Kotzebue, this is the adventure tale you always wanted and never got. All the adventure, all the beauty, all the raw living power of the jungle is here, but this time there's a heart and mind to match. This story will steal your heart and entrance your eyes. Prepare yourself for a trek into a tale.
The Rating
A True Tale Spinning Feat.
The Raves
This rave must begin with the art. Gods, the ART! Lush, rich, vibrant and viridian, the artwork of Hominids is stunning. The creator is truly a master of their craft, capturing body language, expression, lighting and atmosphere with a breathtakingly deft hand. The color of a flower, the light on a leaf, the gleam on a blade all draw the reader eyes-first into a living breathing ecosystem. You can almost smell the loam and leaves, breathe the humid fragrances of strange flowers and sweat and feel the grass between your toes. This art is exemplary.
But beautiful artwork is only the first strand of the web. Onto the storytelling, which is more than a match for the art!
Hominids is aptly named, for it is, in effect, a story about people: their loves, their hopes, their dreams, their motivations, and what circumstances and culture can make them into. Angel or monster, heathen or heretic or high priest, it has nothing to do with who you are and everything to do with who your culture THINKS you are. The best people can be twisted into beasts by a culture with a domineering mentality. And the angriest people can be eased by a culture that focuses on peace and cooperation. Hominids is a parable about interacting cultures on one level: what has in other places been called 'the dance of the givers and the takers' is portrayed here. Cultural interaction between cultures with entirely different priorities can very quickly get problematic.
On a creative level, you can't help but be impressed by the creative worldbuilding and scientific dedication that went into this work. For instance, the ecosystem is based on and in some cases drawn directly from anthropological research on what various branches of the human family tree might have been like, and exploring a time when we coexisted is FASCINATING. The subtle attention to plant and animal species appropriate to the setting really impressed me (being a horticulturist in my professional life, people who get plants right make me happy!) and there are many deft and subtle bits of ecological and evolutionary design: for instance, the tree dwellers are perfectly designed for their forest home. They even have dappled patterns on their skin that aids them in concealment. THAT impressed me. This creator did their homework!
On another level, this is a story about the interaction between individuals and the moral code of their culture. In Hominids, people ask eternal questions: do I believe what I was taught? Was I brought up with the right beliefs? What if there's another way? As the characters ask themselves, we're all encouraged to ask these questions along with them, and we all grow stronger for it.
But wait, there are still more layers! There is a spicing of sci-fi hidden under the fantasy of this tale, a hint of an older and far more technological civilization hidden under the vines and creepers, metal under the jungle loam. Now what happened here, the reader must ask. What indeed...
But that hint will remain, for now, just a hint. This vibrant ecosystem of story works holistically: none of these elements jar or push out the others. It's part of what makes such a complex story work.
Another key element is extremely strong writing. The dialogue is crisp, clean and believable, the story moves along at a perfect pace, and there's just the right amount of pleasant, sweet and amusing banter mixed in to keep the story upbeat in the face of deep, difficult and complex themes.
In a true master stroke, every single character is well-rounded, strong and believable in their motivations: serious homework having been done is evident again in the careful use of psychological motivators, but this story reads as a STORY, not as a text book, and that's what takes it from good to great. You can understand and sympathize with every single character, even the ones you despise. And that is true greatness in storytelling.
The Razzes
There's not a lot to be said against this comic: it's stunning. But a few little areas could use some polishing up.
First off, dearest creator, when you've made something as AMAZING as this it doesn't deserve the rookie mistake of missing a page favicon. I'd add one as soon as possible. As a reader I noticed this little detail when, flipping through the tabs on my taskbar, I couldn't find the one for Hominids at first. Because it had a blank favicon that looks like any other neglected waif of a page. Let's fix that!
Simply put this code into the header of your site's HTML:
and replace 'example' with the url where you store your image. Done and dusted. Your icon should be 160 by 160 and say something about your page....for Hominids, might I suggest a leaf? The only other thing I might suggest is a little work on tangent lines and dialogue layout. Occasionally the reader's eye is confused about the direction of speech in a conversation. The creator has color coded the speech, which helps enormously, but careful attention to word bubble placement is still essential.
Always remember that English readers read up to down, left to right. Throw that off even a little and you have confused eyeballs.
The Revue
A wonderous and enchanting MUST READ. Fern Gulley for adults, Avatar for intellectuals. Enjoy!
Kila Ilo, the creation of Cassie Thomas, is an offbeat jaunt through science fiction. Imagine Lilo and Stitch written for adults, and throw in a little Torchwood for good measure. Then remove all the human protagonists and replace them with truly inhuman characters. Now you're getting the picture.
Kila Ilo, the titular character, is not somebody you want to mess with. She's on the wanted list of quite a few planets and her past is...shall we say patchy? She is, after all, The Patchwork Queen. Oh, and she can and will bite. She's none too happy about ending up on a dead end contract to hunt up an ancient weapon on a dead end planet called Earth, but she's going to have to make the best of it.
The Rating
The ship's got a few dings, but she's spaceworthy all right!
The Raves
'Kila Ilo' has all the elements of a good sci-fi; a terrible ancient weapon, a motley crew of aliens, a doggedly determined law enforcement agent and a protagonist with enough skeletons in her closet to supply a Halloween fun fair. But for a snarky-sweet romp through sci-fi look no further!
I've been waiting to review Kila Ilo for some time, and it definitely met my expectations. There's a good sense of pacing to this work, with jokes at all the right moments and dialogue that keeps things moving along at a good clip. There's a dry wittiness to the work that keeps things endlessly charming and infuses old sci-fi cliches with new life. The creator's taken full advantage of their chance to comment on the absurdities of the human condition by giving inhuman characters the chance to comment on it, with delightful results.
But it's not all fun and games. A surprisingly introspective thread weaves through the snark and the silliness; in Kila Ilo the creator has explored the depths and complex meanings of friendship, loyalty, loneliness and the marks our past leaves on our personalities.
At its best, the art is stylistically interesting and eye catching, a nice stylistic balance between 90's cartoon and watercolor-inspired charm.
The vibrant color palette brings the world to life, and the slightly green tinge to the color scheme keeps strong the flavor of the odd and the otherworldly. At its best, the art is beautiful, especially in the case of singular vignettes with white backgrounds used for title pages. These pieces shine.
The Razzes
Unfortunately, the art doesn't always hit its best level. It tends to show when the creator is enjoying a piece, and when they're not, or when they've gotten out of their depth on a scene. When that happens, the art falls flat. Literally.
Despite attempts at shading, the creator often seems to forget-or grow lax on- issues of perspective and shading. The result is less than impressive compared to other areas of the comic. If the work was consistently hitting its high points, it'd be an automatic ten in my book, but pages like this example
drag the rest of the work down. I'd love to see the creator focus a little more on their perspective and contour shading and focus on creating a truly well rounded art style. Contour shading isn't easy, that's true. But remembering where shadows fall and putting them in proper place is what gives reality to a world.
I think the creator of Kila Ilo would to well to make a serious study of the way light and shadow falls on objects. Improving their shading in general will vastly improve the overall work. If I were the creator, I'd try studying something like this photographer's guide to lighting.
Even going back to the basics could be a good exercise. Remember 'draw shapes' and 'shade the egg' exercises from high school art class? Those exercises are still a good idea.
We've seen what they can do at their best and it's wonderful; now I want to see their best become their standard!
The Revue
A fun and funky romp through the space lanes. Give it a read!
Ladies and Gentlemen... Do you seek adventure? With Magic and Science abound? Then look no further!
164 Days is created by Kirsty Mordaunt and tells the story of Wil Andersen who is looking for his brother Jakob after he disappears late one evening. From there we meet Ysendra the Weather Witch, a bodyguard named Varik, and a young girl with no past named Sophia. They travel around on an airship and adventure ensues. It's a venerable start to a good ole fashioned jRPG.
Rating
Adventure, mystery, and science boys await.
Raves
I like how 164 Days reveals its fantasy world to us a piece at a time.
The story roots us first in a world that could be our own, but maybe set 50-60 years ago. Wil Andersen is looking for his brother Jakob who has been missing for a month. A young lady looking for an adventure offers to help him search for his brother, but as they have conversations it's revealed that she doesn't know much of the modern world. She's never been to a cafe, drank coffee, or even used a train.
We're introduced formally later on, her name is Ysendra. She's from a mountain village and she's a weather witch. From there we learn she can control the winds and pilot an airship using a staff. Further along we learn Jakob and his father build robots and study ancient artifacts. Ysendra reveals her other magical abilities through fights. Each page takes us a step further into this fantasy world. Never once did it feel like Kirsty was infodumping for the sake of getting the reader up to speed on her creation. The details are presented to flesh out the world and drive the story. As readers we're left to sort the details and accept them as apart of this world.
I like the characterization as well, because it's done through other character's points-of-view and visually through the artwork. When we first meet Wil, he tells us that his brother Jakob is a genius with a great deal of talent and many scientific degrees. Visually we get this when we visit Jakob's room (Ysendra wants to search for clues there as to where he could have gone). Jakob's room is a mess.
The room of a man with a busy mind.
There are books everywhere, loose papers with diagrams and notes all over. It's enough to sell me on the idea that he's got better things on his mind then keeping his room tidy. He's a man engaged in his research and compelled by his work. It never feels like the author is inflating this character's persona, but rather her character, Wil, is because he lives in Jakob's shadow and idolizes him, and through this, we get a bit of Wil's personality as well.
None of the characters in 164 Days comes off as "evil" in a traditional fantasy sense. Jakob and his father have their hidden agendas, and although Wil and Jakob are pitted against one another, they love each other as brothers. Jakob is willing to keep a life-threatening secret because he knows that if Wil ever learned about it, it would break him. Wil and Jakob's father comes off as the most antagonistic, but even he has his own agenda (as convoluted as it is).
Ysendra, despite acting as a foil for the reader, is the most mysterious. Through the four chapters we haven't learned anything about her past -- she doesn't like to talk about it. The current chapter seems to elude that we will finally learn something, but Kirsty has unfortunately put the comic on hiatus.
Artistically, the earlier pages of 164 Days seems fairly rough. The backgrounds are flat and very sketchy looking, but over time Kirsty's improved. For the comic so far, the art is consistent looking from first page to the present one.
Razzes
If there's any negative quality, it's that things seem to move really slowly. A lot of that is due to the lengthy and witty banter between the characters. Kirsty seems to favor having the characters talk and throw barbs at one another, which is fun to read, but it means that every chapter is 60 pages and the plot moves along slowly. The comic's been going since 2011 and as we learn more of the world through this story it seems like it'll be a long time until it's concluded.
As a comic creator myself, as much as I like the presentation, this is the downside of webcomics. A manga author can produce 40 pages a month, but a webcomic might have 4-8 pages a month meaning it moves slower. The issue here is how long can Kirsty (or anyone really) with a long comic continue to produce content for it?
The characters are great looking, but the backgrounds could use a little work. Over the years they have gotten better. My one issue is in Chapter 2, there's no frame establishing where Wil's airship is. It's over another airship's wreckage that they're trying to search through, but we're never shown it. Instead we see a silhouette and fire.
Pull the camera back and up so we can see the wreckage too.
As the chapters progress we have gotten better backgrounds -- a little more detail and a sense of the grand scale of things, but there's still a vagueness to it all. It's just enough for a setting. As much as I like how the world is presented to us, at times I wish Kirsty would pull the camera back (and she has a few times) and show us more of it in frame.
Show us more of this!
Revue
If you like old school Final Fantasy with mages and airships, then definitely check out 164 Days. It's got fun characters and intrigue to keep you coming back. Also, if you want to know why it's called 164 Days, you'll just have to read the comic... it's worth it.
If you've not heard the term 'urban fantasy' before, welcome to the genre. This comic tells the tale of a girl with one foot in Faery and one foot in the principal's office. And she has something worth fighting for. Her quest consumes her. That sounds noble until it gets you sent to the school shrink. 
At its heart, this work is a story about stories and their power. When life hands us the incomprehensible or the unbearable, we humans have a choice: we can become stone, bearing up under the weight at the cost of shutting down our emotions. We can become shattered by the pressure. Or we can become storytellers who force the narrative of events into a tool we can use in our fight for survival. 
