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The Reviews are Coming! The Reviews are Coming!
I've been planning for a couple of weeks now to do something different for Sundays. Basically I want to do more in-depth reviews of comics. Not just my thoughts of the day or a quick glance at the comic, but a thorough look at the art, characterization, and story of the webcomic.
My only problem is figuring out just what I should put in these reviews.
Currently these are the categories I'm thinking of having:
Art (with Penciling/Inks and Coloring/Greyscaling when applicable)
Characters (with Development and Chemistry)
Story (with Continuity, Type (gag-a-day, composite, storyline, or epic), and Style (Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, Life, etc.)
Ratings (G, PG, PG13, R, Mature)
Punctuality (Update Schedule and how much they stick to that schedule)
I think that should suffice, but if anyone can think of other categories, feel free to let me know.
Scoring (in categories that can be scored) will be in ribbons.
And, with luck and my being on the ball, we'll have our first full review next Sunday! So enjoy! And in the meantime, here's a little something that caught my attention earlier today....
Robert A. Howard
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Because things are going to be okay.
 (From Count Your Sheep. Click on image to see full-sized image.)
I've known about Count Your Sheep for a bit. I'd heard of it on #crfh even before reading about it on review sites, and word was that it was good. But (as I've said before) I was resistant to starting up new strips, and while I awwed at Katie offering to sell her A+ instead of having the TV go, I just didn't feel inspired to read the comic.
Until today.
I don't know why today was so special. Today's strip (well, actually Friday's, the 300th for the series) wasn't Websnarked, it wasn't advertised, or anything like that. But I had an urge to check out the strip today... and was greeted along with Katie with the restoration of the TV.
The bug just hit me all at once. I was going to try and do one of my large reviews today. I was going to work on revamping the website (which I've been working on today, as many of you undoubtedly have seen). And I started with the very first strip and fell in love.
And then I fell in love again, with the introduction of Laurie. To be honest, I'm rather partial to the "flashback" strips when we see Katie's mom as a kid, with Ship the Sheep being her friend as well. I wonder about Marty and if we'll ever see him. (The closest we've come was the Valentine's day, which had me all teary-eyed, with her saying "no!" to each valentine he offered... and then standing over his grave and saying "at least I said 'I do,' didn't I?") (Well, and those strips with the muddy dress...)
If Katie and Ship help make this comic, Laurie shapes the comic. Indeed, there's something about a mother/daughter team where both share the same imaginary friend, that is inherently amusing. (Except of course, he's not imaginary. I mean, he eats their food, he can open doors and windows, answer phones, and on Halloween people could see him. Sounds more like a helpful member of the fae to me. *wry smile*)
But what's more, Laurie gives the comic an extra depth that it would lack if it were just about a girl and her imaginary sheep friend. It allows the story to touch upon subjects that would be lacking if Katie's mom had never been brought into the comic. And it gives the comic a third person, a third character, with which to interact with.
Because one of the scary things about CYS is that it consists of three characters alone. We've seen the occasional glimpse of someone or heard someone on the phone or off-screen... but we're always focused on Katie, Ship, and Laurie. Adrian Ramos hasn't brought in a plethora of secondary characters to help support the cast or to bounce stories off of. Instead, our two heroines and imaginary hero are our world here, and it says something about Adrian's skills as a storyteller and artist that we have read for 300 strips and enjoyed them, even when things got serious or a touch sad.
So go. Read. And then go to bed! (Read the comic and its commentary and you'll understand.)
Robert A. Howard
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