Hello NANO

ART

Wow. The art is freaking awesome. Love this page.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Hello_NANO/index.php?p=171946

Pretty much every panel is interesting to look at. Either at a different angle or close up or just extrememly nutty.

Although the line art is great, it is that much better when the grey tones get thrown it. There was just so much going on with the lines that the greyscale helps to seperate objects.

sandwich master and mini unicorns. Which brings me to the...

STORY

Huh? It seems random but with a hint of direction. But it reads very easy. I read the whole in a sitting. And I want to read more.

OVERALL

Great art, weird story. It has enough character to keep you reading though. Can't wait to see where it goes if there is a plan to go anywhere at all, either way it will be a fun ride.

Nano deserves an award as one of the most surreal comics I have ever read.
If I had to sum it up in one word I would say "Weird".
Fortunately I actually get to sum it up in loads of words for this review!
The plot
As far as I can understand the comic is about Samuel, a guy whose video game playing and hot ass porn watching is interrupted by his narcolepsy (falling asleep at random) and various hallucinations, most commonly of a small, big eyed goblin that wants to learn lots of stuff.
His scary friend Tony shows up and becomes angry that Sam has not worked on their comic enough and starts trying to punch Sam in the face.
During the fight, Tony's hat flies up in the air and the two of them suddenly shrink very small.
They then meet a tiny woman (in an incredibly sleazy outfit, why do women in comics always dress like hookers?) who tells them they are in some sort of dream world. The a big scary biker climbs out the computer screen and tries to take their souls....
Yeah, weird!
If you understood any of that, well done! You've officially made more sense of Nano than I did!
But is weirdness a good thing or a bad thing? In this case, I tend to say bad, because whenever I thought I was starting to understand what was going on, something would happen that rendered all my previous opinions invalid and confused!
Sometimes this was exciting and interesting (Such as the sandwich master story, which really deserves to be a comic in its own right) but at other times it was just frustrating (his friend suddenly attempts to punch him in the face? Why would you write a comic with a guy like that?)

Art
The art of Nano is really interesting. Normally I don't like black and white (or in this case blue and white for much of it) but some of the attention to detail and realism of the drawings are so striking that they stand up on their own without any colours.
The empty, blue line style reminded me of Tom Goes to the Mayor on Adult Swim (only vastly better drawn, obviously).
The perspectives on the characters' bodies are especially impressive.
I was also very taken with the way the hero was drawn to be realistic, but his hallucination was ultra cartoony and exaggerated, making a clear divide between the two worlds.
Unfortunately, the second half of chapter 2 saw a big change in style, the weird blue lines replaced with a far more conventional grey scale. While this makes the shapes and characters clearer, for me it lost a lot of the charm and what made the comic unique.
Also the line between the strange, hallucination world and the realistic world seemed to collapse. His "friend" suddenly attacked him, getting manga style backgrounds and a snake tattoo springing out of his arm to attack.
The faces on the characters also switched from highly realistic, to typical manga exaggerated emotions.
This felt like a real shame, the comic seemed to suddenly lose all the elements I enjoyed most in chapter 1 and earlier chapter 2!

Characters
I know I keep going back to this, but your friends don't suddenly up and punch you!
Also, the way Tony constantly harks on about how trained he is in combat gets very lame very quickly. Why does he keep saying this to Sam, who obviously already knows? He seems to just repeat it again and again for the reader's benefit. He says it so much I started to wonder if he was actually a weedy nerd and it was all a bluff (but if hes a wimp, why does he randomly attack people around him?).
I much preffered chapter 1 and chapter 2 up to page 9, with just the strange hallucination imp and its quest for knowledge and Sam dropping off while looking at booty.
Sam himself does not really put me off, but I don't feel I got a very good feel for him and what he is like as a person.
So the Imp is the best character (much like Star Trek Voyager, the best character is the one who isn't real!)

Summary
The worst thing in web comics is when someone writes a boring, uninteresting story, that looks and feels just like everything else.
The good news is, Nano makes great efforts to avoid this trap! It is genuinely interesting and different.
My fear is that the great elements of chapter 1 are being replaced with a more conventional art style, stereotypical manga expressions, run of the mill comic book babes in sexist outfits and a plot that is just random events for their own sake.
I'm off now to eat a sandwich that tastes like unicorns!

Final score
4 out of 10

I immediately favorited this as soon as i saw the first page and then immediately removed it from my favorites when I was done.

ART:
good news
-sleek and clean as all hell at first.
-interesting page layouts.
-everything seems to be correctly drawn.

bad news
-while its technically good art, stylistically its not something I would buy at the comic book store. Its pretty, but easy to pass on for me.
-Im not a tone fan. Its just me. If you want to achieve depth, there are plenty of ways to achieve it with line.

STORY:
good news
-pretty decent concept, original.
-keeps you on your toes...you cant just skim through this or youll get lost.

bad news
-what the hell is going on?


OVERALL
pretty art mixes with a surreal plot and story. sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt.

5/10

So far, Hello Nano tells the story of Samuel, a computer addict and his virtual friend. Things get really interesting when Samuel finds himself absorbed into a world he never knew truly exist. lol! The rest of the review is sorted according to these category.

ART
My first reaction seeing this comic is wow... such an attention grabbing art. I am pretty amazed with the fantastic details the author put in every panel. B) The photo-realistic look makes the comic stand out. Though, it did made me wonder if the author use some sort of rotoscoping tecnhique. Coz that sure needs a lot of effort. The characters expressions are drawn well and totally fit the situation.

STORY
The story is another very strong point of the comic. I say it is weirdly mind-boggling. The part where the medication Samuel takes has some crazy side effect is truly astounding. >:) In my opinion, it is a unic plot to be turn into a movie. The writing is enjoyable & easily helps build up the characters. Quite amusing character personalities & interactions. Haha.. I assume a comic made by guys is never enough without a hot babe character. But she does draw attention to the comic. :kitty:

SUGGESTIONS
It would be really2 cool if the author could color the comic pages. Perhaps a full-colored page for a special happening/event in the comic? 8D And maybe we could have more characters in the future?

OVERALL
The comic is exceptionally has unpredictable storyline & I'm exited for the continuation. Overall I give the comic 4/5. :)

Regarding the art -

Nano features impeccable lineart, many angles, and richly detailed backgrounds. The later addition of grayscale tones provides contrast. There is very little to be said about the art that hasn't already been said; the quality is consistently high, from the beginning to the current page.

That is not to say that the style itself is entirely consistent, however; rather, it trends gradually toward manga. My preference tended toward the earlier pages featuring realism, but this is a matter of personal opinion, as both styles are well-executed.

That said, it would be great to see more updates. A great deal of the comment pages are littered with "woo, you're not really gone!" or things to that effect.

Regarding the characterization -

Interaction between Samuel and Tony is relaxed and fun, so it's great reading. Every time a manga trope is used (Sandwich Master and Black Mamba Punch) there's an element of satire, but also a sort of lighthearted affection - "It's been done before, but isn't it fun?" It's all quite dynamic, but still readable. It may be the schedule, but it seems that the story is slow-moving so far (probably due to the fact that characters need to be introduced). It's getting more surreal, so the actual plot is currently hard to discern. For this reason, it is also difficult to evaluate.

Conclusion -

What I'm saying is that with art and characterization this compelling, there's no real reason not to say hello to NANO - so long as you don't mind frequently saying goodbye.

ART: Well, it goes without saying that Hello NANO has some great art. An impressive amount of detail has been used into drawing the clothing, objects on Sam's desk, etc. However, I almost want to say that it has almost TOO much realism and details, considering how surreal the story is. On the other hand, I think the blockiness and "cartooniness" of the word bubbles help keep a balanced mesh between the realism and fantasy. They serve as a constant reminder that despite what the art generally presents, the comic is NOT real-life.

And regarding the switch to only lineart to grayscale shading, I'm personally glad you changed it. With just lineart, it's harder to tell things apart, especially on pages like this when there's a lot to look at in the first place. Shading, no matter how simple it is, always adds depth to objects, and that's a good thing when the panels are so crowded.

STORY: The comic definitely has a fresh and original story, and all the fantastical elements, from medication-induced imaginary friends to the "Dream World" make for a wild read. The only problem with all that is that it actually makes the story hard to follow from update-to-update, considering how sparse the updates are. Generally speaking, you don't want to make your readers have to go through the whole archive each time a new page is posted just so they can keep up with what's going on.

OVERALL: Although Hello NANO contains great art and a good story, the fact of the matter is that such a story is hard to follow when it's updated once every few weeks or so. One of the easiest ways to lose readers is to have rare updates.

3.5/5

One look at the page, and you'll love the sleek and neat lines of Nano. Not that the art is neat, the details delivered on every panels are...breathtaking. And Nano is simply too cute :)

A Narcoleptic (read=goes sleep when excited) man needs to take medicines, and those medicines make him see a little cute thing he called Nano. Nano seems to be his consciusness manifested, and the man is a geek comic creator and Nano is his muse. The story is delivered slow, but with such hilarious deliveries such as the hyperbolic history of sandwich and imaginary mini superhorse unicorns in clouds.

Nano is nice and delivers slow, but you'll be hooked :)