Psychic Solider Kai

Walter Simmons is a gifted young man with a troubled past, and a mysterious heritage. After a series of dramatic events, Walter's lost heritage came to light in the form of the Yellow Crescent Troika, a group of superhuman assassins bent on his destruction. Now embracing his birth name "Kai", and joining the troika of his parents, Walter is in a race against time to learn his new abilities as the fate of the very world hangs in the balance.

So... I'm the first? person to do a review on PSK? Surely it deserves better than this!

Anyway... Psychic Soldier Kai conveys (at least to me) a setting similar to Men in Black, whereby a organisation (the Troika) works in secret to protect ordinary, oblivious citizens of the world from the enemy currently known as the Byblos. As of the current development of the story, the extent of this secrecy is still unknown as very little of the story so far is dedicated to the 'normal' folk. The members of the Troika all appear to possess superpowers that seem to be a cross between magic and technology (very science-fictiony, and a bit too varied to specify at the moment).

The story begins with the death of Juno, an important figure in the white triangle group of the Troika, to set the mood. It quickly transitions to the main protagonist of the comic: a guy named Walter (wow...) whom, by a series of rapid and unexpected events, is forced into enlightenment of his heritage as Kai, a Devil Psion whose potential power may well be the only way to stop the Byblos, but yet may prove to be an equally great threat. The apparently necessary but desperate measures to train Kai naturally creates a frictional environment within the Troika itself, and it is in the environment that we see a team starting to form...

The idea behind the story (unknown heritage which is the only key to saving the world) is kinda done to the death. However, the comic is interesting in the way Kai reacts to the changes (instead of oohs and aahs, he reacts quite realistically)
See: http://www.drunkduck.com/Psychic_Solider_Kai/index.php?p=532583
for a good laugh. The idea behind the Monoliths is also fairly intriguing (they appear neither wholly benevelont nor sinister).
See: http://www.drunkduck.com/Psychic_Solider_Kai/index.php?p=466864

Now let's get to the praising bits:
Artwork: definitely professional. Anatomies are perfect as far as I am concerned, and a good use of ink and toning suits the seriousness of the comic. No flashy colours and massive textblocks of sound effects: just clear, precise action and delivery. Backgrounds in the comic serve to enhance or elaborate, rather than distract from the main points. (Probably more of a critique here, but) the style used by the artist is much to my liking (more realistic, as opposed to traditional overly buff guys and overly curvy girls).
Layout: Panelling is used clearly and in sequence. Dialogue bubbles are placed perfectly and thus it is easy to discern between different character conversations. No confusion here.
Perhaps the only other criticism here is that the comic took quite a few lengthy breaks (about a month each time) which made a stretch of the definition 'regularly updated'. Fortunately the artist appears to have sorted out issues and the recent strips are regular to date. No drop in quality, however.

Psychic Soldier Kai's main selling point is its intrigue, rather than cliff-hanging action (though there's no apparent shortage of action). One has to wonder: what's next? rather than being stuffed full of information. To sum it all, PSK is a sci-fi variety comic suitable for teens and above, with a promise of slick action, dramatic moments, suspense, with (I think, and look forward to) an epic conclusion.

Thanks for taking the time to review the comic Mt. I appreciate it very much.

Art: I say it's very consistent. The shading and anatomy are well done. It's pretty solid.
The parts I don't like are the page layouts and panels. The angles are rather close up most of the time. Even though the artist can draw full body figures that is usually what fills the page. There is lacking background that blends with the figures. For instance the first fight scene we have the monster villain holding the mustache man over a building ready to drop him. We don't see any exciting angles or dynamics.

I would also like to see some more just backgrounds panels to get a feel of the environment before/during the scene. I like to see a from above view of the whole area. That's something you see in action movies and comics.

The face style is.. American. Looks like the Batman animation. There isn't much expression in the faces, but that is not bad for the style. Even for the more realitic style it wouldn't hurt to add those "laugh lines" for when a person makes a snare or is opened mouthed, yelling angerly (example page 50 and page 40).

Minor thing too: The eye as a profile... the iris/pupal is viewed as a more skinnier oval or...it should be placed more to the front. (page 45)

I think though it would be a good idea to make up for the simple facial expressions by putting more emotional display in the hands and body language.

I didn't read enough to get a good enough gist to critique the story. So I'll leave it at that for now.

Art:
I was immediately pulled in by the art. I love the shading, muscle tone, and clothing folds, and I'm impressed and inspired at how in-motion the characters are. Nothing is ever completely still. Visual pacing is very well done. The character and surrounding designs are top-notch, mixing the conventional with the futuristic in a way that makes this story and future actually seem possible.

Story:
It reads as though I'm watching a movie! I got whirled up into the story by page three and read the archives straight The only thing that threw me off was an out-of-order page that was posted between pages 28 and 29. This page should definitely be moved to the proper place in order to avoid confusion and interruption of the story's flow.

There are definitely big things on the horizon for this story and for our hero Kai. I'm hooked and will gladly be pulled along for the ride!

I decided to read it and as said earlier the story pulled me in and before I knew it I had read all the archives. It moves fast and is solid story telling. I did feel the Juno being the other's father was a bit of a disappointing throw-away as nothing has been presented yet to expand on that relationship. The narrative is tight and immersed me in the world without overwhelming me. The art and panel design for the background information dump made that easier for me to take as even that moved quickly.

The greyscale artwork is professionally done and works well with the subject matter. However, it is not too dark and the tones are well done, not exaggerated nor are they too subtle. The anatomy is good and the figure movement is realistic but maintains a consistent comic look and all action scenes are well paced and in a nice layout. There a lot of close-ups but for me they were part of the necessary information dump that it takes to set up a world but as the scenes moved swiftly it was not distracting.

To me the character design is simple and presents archetypes for the minor characters as if each member of a Troika fulfill a specific funtion and therefore resemble each other. To me at times the character's appearances did shift ever so slightly from act to act as Kai's face seemed to get thinner and longer in certain shots. The backgrounds though sparse were so because they presented only what needed to be presented and didn't besiege me with unnecessary detail and maintained a steady tone.

Psychic Warrior Kai is an exciting and fast paced comic that draws you in and holds you. I look forward to what promises to be an exciting climax and I recommend it to readers.

Art
The Art is very consistent and the shading compliments the story. The characters are drawn fairly well although seem stiff at times. The layouts are not very interesting or dynamic. And the close-up angles become boring after awhile.


Writing
The story reads like a series. The transition from panel to panel is almost unnoticeable. The writing is fairly good and seems as very natural.



Overall
I would suggest you work on drawing from different angles to engage the audience more and make the story m ore dynamic. And also work on your figure forms.

Art is great, the story plot is better than mine.

So greatness at it's best. :)

Well... where do I start? The painting is superb! I love it! The pacing is good for the most part. I find myself keeping up rather well.

The artwork is very consistent and I want to mention the wonderful painting and toning again. The proportions could use some work... like here the arm in the bottom left panel http://www.drunkduck.com/Psychic_Solider_Kai/index.php?p=444816 Also posing is a little off in parts like here the woman's crossed leg http://www.drunkduck.com/Psychic_Solider_Kai/index.php?p=532583

I think the paneling is easy to follow and I like the selective use of colour in some of the pages http://www.drunkduck.com/Psychic_Solider_Kai/index.php?p=586210

Though I follow the story well as far as pacing goes, I still find that there is too much text on a lot of the pages. Drawing those conversations out into 2 or 3 pages might have been better use of the artwork to word ratio.

Overall Psychic Soldier Kai is a very captivating read with excellent artwork.

Ok,I start:

Script:

It is a little too long at the ultimate emblem,hey,it´s your comic,not Spiderman,ok?
Fast action,needs fast script,and this is slow.
The other was really good even I read the ultimate one.
Try to do it more better. ;)

Draw:

So much gray,so much shadow...Man,did you work on it at night,without light?
The faves are Ok to me,but the bodies...So rigids,try to do them more elastic.
The hands are just great,you must say me how you
do that. ^^
Anyway,it can see you work very hard on it,
but needs more.Don´t hesitate,you can!

I want to thank everyone for taking the time to review the comic. I'm glad that for the most part you enjoyed the read. Obviously this is still a work in progress, so you'll definitely be seeing some improvements in the future.

Once again, thank you. :)