Aliens Anonymous

Panda Jones is a "rescuer" with an x-boyfriend who has a problem. Charles Bar is a cupcake addict. And his bad choices get worse after he impersonates the star of "Aliens Anonymous" (lowest rated TV show) then hooks up with the show's cupcake sponsor. As a newly minted agent for an intergalactic secret government agency, it is Panda's job to save the world. But she just cannot resist trying to save Charles, too.

Art
The artwork in Aliens Anonymous is appealing because of the coloring-book style art paired with vibrant colors and clean linework. I really like the way the artist draws hair, and I also enjoy the fun little extras put into the panels (labels on boxes, brand names on products). As a reader, you understand what's going on based on the drawings, but if you take the time to re-read the page, you'll see the little extras in the work. That being said, many of the panels don't have actual backgrounds, relying instead on gradients to fill the space. This is MUCH better than leaving empty white space, however, so I can't complain too much about that.

Story
I like that, at the heart, this is a story about cupcakes that form crack-like addictions. The author's sense of humor comes out in the writing, and a lot of the humor in the story is situational more than dialogue (though the dialogue can be funny as well). K1at has developed a diverse cast in both appearance and personality. My favorite is Patti Cupcakes who is borderline insane but ever so much fun to read. Plot-wise, the story reads like a soap opera, so it's interesting that a lot of the story arcs revolve around television shows. A show within a show! While there are some bits of story that haven't been addressed (such as why Patti is creating addicting cupcakes in the first place), the story flows nicely but quickly.

One of the best things about the webcomics medium, I think, is the lack of constraints in time and length. My one suggestion to K1at is not to be in such a hurry to tell the story. There's so much potential for more within each story arc, and I'd like to see the level of detail in the writing go up a notch. I think AA is ready for it! ^.~

Art

I personally think that K1at's art is amazing. It's very colorful and enjoyable. K1at is also not afraid to take on odd angles, so every page is really fun for the reader. I especially enjoy the character designs, such as Panda's many transformations and the several talking animals. Each character has his/her own characteristics, both in terms of looks and personality, which make them very real even though the story is so extreme!

Story

I agree with Amanda completely. The story has both humor and drama (will Panda forgive Charles!?) at the same time, and leaves you entertained the whole time. I also like the randomness of the story, because from the beginning I had no idea what was going to happen to our protagonists. I do also agree with Amanda on the fact that you should slow down a bit. There seems to be a lot of text pushed into each panel, and I also think that sometimes there is a little bit too much. For example, when Panda broke into Patti Cupcakes' lair towards the beginning, the narrator was describing Panda's every action. Comics should be told using BOTH picture and words, so I think it wouldn't hurt to let the pictures tell the story at times (especially since you're so good at art), it will be easier for the reader.

That's about all I have to say. Will add more if I think about it!

A whimsical story featuring the madcap adventures of a group of characters as surreal as the setting they operate from, Aliens Anonymous is a peculiar addition to the Drunk Duck community.

Ultimately, I'd mostly recommend this comic to the artist's immediate peers- friends, acquaintances, etc. There are several moments that are amusing for the casual reader, but not enough to be very engaging in the face of some of the comic's challenges. If you're in the former category, you've probably already read it. If you're in the latter, you'll probably want to pass for now.

K1at, the creator of Aliens Anonymous, has developed a storyline with pacing best described as manic. At its worst, the constant changing or relationships between characters feels more like a long string of retcons than it does revelations. Dramatic changes happen nearly every other panel. Where most stories start out with a semi-iconic character and then develop them into nuanced figures, Aliens Anonymous manages to do the opposite- starting with premises complex enough to be fitting for a soap opera, things change at a rate manic enough that all nuances prove to be ephemeral until just a couple iconic traits per character remain.

The art is dicey. While exceptions pop up, both the figures and backgrounds tend to be loosely rendered. The tie-dye gradients in the background were distracting at first, but eventually seemed fitting for the tone of the comic.

If your mind is young and flexible enough to follow the contortions, you might find it to be a fun ride. If you want something steady to hold on to in the plot or character development, though, this won't be a good comic for you.

It's fair to say that Aliens Anonymous generally feels immature. That said, some of the techniques used might be interesting later on. I'd encourage the artist to keep working on it for as long as it's personally rewarding- if the aesthetic is refined, it might make for some cool work a few years down the line.

So the comic isn't for general audiences, but has some seeds of potential.

My first impression: This is a very strange comic. This is definitely a comic that doesn't take itself too seriously. It centers around a very, VERY strange cast of characters such as a washed-up, cupcake addicted (?) actor who lands a role as a stunt man on a low rated TV show, only to take the place of the star after he dies in an unfortunate accident on set, and his girlfriend who is turned into some sort of superhero after meeting a talking cat with a porta-potty office and an "optimizer" machine that makes people thinner, sexier, stronger, and possibly gives them super-powers (??).

The story in this comic is confusing, at best. While it is often funny, pokes fun at itself, or directly engages the reader (the pop quiz toward the beginning of the story comes to mind), it's just too random to really follow. Each page jumps through several events hurriedly, only to have the next page center around other characters. I couldn't help but feel that each page should have been separated into several to help develop the characters and their stories and relationships before sending the reader on to the next maniacal pairing of odd characters. I always got the feeling while reading Aliens Anonymous that the events depicted were probably the topic of some funny conversation among friends that somehow got lost in translation as it was presented to the webcomic world.

The art in Aliens Anonymous is vibrant and eye catching, but somewhat inconsistent. Some of the pages have wonderful panels where the characters are fairly detailed and are in poses that seem natural, but others fall flat with lineart that seems rushed and character poses and expressions that seem odd. The colors, on the other hand, seemed well done most of the time, with the only real issue being some very odd choices for gradients, especially when it came to the colors used in the gradients and the surfaces they are used on.

Personally, this is not my type of comic, but it might be great for casual readers who aren't very plot heavy and just want some cheap laughs and a funny cast of characters. This honestly seems to work more like a funny comic strip, but is presented like a regular comic book. I could see this becoming a comic that develops a very small group of readers, but very devoted, loyal readers who truly appreciate the wacky story and characters that are being depicted, but I don't think that it will appeal to a very wide audience. I wish the creator the best of luck and hope they do maintain that small group of loyal readers, but (sorry, K1at) I'm going to sit this one out.

First of all, to sum up my thought on this comic in a few words would be a little hard. I will try. This comic is: Extreme. It is a frenetic roller coaster ride from start to finish and you never know where you will end up.

Lets break it down into its component parts:

Dialogue:
The Dialog was interesting all the way through. Nothing seemed out of place as far as the characters' speaking parts.

There are lots of pop-culture references all through this comic. Yet even so the dialog is quite original. It never bored me. Though sometimes I did feel a little overwhelmed by the sheer randomness of it. I was sometimes a bit confused by how quickly the dialog would change directions though.The Grammar and spelling were decent, only a couple of errors in the whole comic.

Story:
The story is about as original as you can think of. I've never seen anything quite like it. When I said it was a roller coaster I was not kidding. I literally could not tell from one moment to the next where the story would end up (plot-wise or location). We traveled all over the world (New Zealand, Antarctica, Colorado, etc.) with very little notice. Not only did it change scenery frequently, but it was sometimes hard to tell good-guys from bad guys, who was really dead, who was who, and what everyone's motivation was.

The story is a fun ride. If you are looking for a zany ride through the subconscious this is just the ticket. The plot devices are not contrived. They are just incredibly fast. If I had one suggestion it would be to slow the pace of the comic a little. Enjoy a single scene a little longer, savor the moment. Draw somethings out and rush through others. Some foreshadowing now and again wouldn't be amiss.

Tone:
The tone was the most constant thing. It is Zany with a capital Zane. The comic does NOT take itself overly seriously. Convention is thrown out the window. This is a world of anything goes, and it certainly does.

Drawing:
The artist is a very talented person. Obviously there is high command of the human anatomy and the settings are handled very very well. However, one thing about the art is it lacks consistency. I am mostly talking here about the characters themselves. Everything else is pretty good. However, the proportions of the people change from frame to frame and page to page. Panda begins the story as a largish woman, though her size changes from huge, to medium, to svelte depending on the panel. Then when she becomes "thin and beautiful" she sometimes resorts largish.

Sometimes the characters are rendered with painstaking care and love, while other times it seems the artist was in a hurry to get them on the page.

The art is fabulous it its style and coloring, though. It truly lends that zany feeling to the whole comic. I love the detailed backgrounds. The only thing I'd ask here is consistency. Sometimes the background people are rendered with more detail and care than the foreground people.

Still, I was very impressed with the range of the artwork!

Formatting:
Over all the formatting of the pages worked well. There were the occasional panels that seemed to pop up out of nowhere and confuse the order, but on the whole it made sense.

Conclusion:

This was a wild and crazy jaunt. At times it seemed that this comic was a "Stream of Consciousness" romp through the imagination. I enjoyed the art and the sheer fun of the comic. If I sound overly critical about the art, it is because the artist is very talented, it SHOWS! Just needs more consistency. Truly an epic story!