Vita Di Vetro

Have you ever wondered what would happen if someone wrote a comic, and then brought in Tim Burton to draw it for them?
But Tim was suffering some sort of weird tropical fever at the time and so mixed his warped hallucinations into what he was putting down on paper?
That is about the closest I can come to explaining the remarkable, disturbing art of Vita Di Vetro.
I would bore you with the plot (a depressed boy inadvertently overdoses and goes to a world populated by large talking birds), but in Vita Di Vetro, that is mere window dressing, the plate on which the dinner rests, rather then the three course banquet of the bizarre that the art work conveys.
I am not saying it is the best drawing I have ever seen, though it is above average. But it is amongst the most unique.
Weird dreamlike landscapes, freakish creatures lunging out of the page, every corridor is a twisted, warped tunnel leading to....no in fact I will stop trying to describe what it looks like. It is a futile task, because nothing I can say will give you a sense of how utterly unsettling and warped it all is. Go and look at it (well, finish this review, then look at it), because it is genuinely interesting looking enough to warrant looking at purely on that basis.
But does it offer anything else to go look at it for? Anything to bring about repeat visits?
The answer is....somewhat.
Under this outer coating of strangeness, Vita Di Vetro is a bit of an ordinary story. Kid is transported to magical kingdom, where he has to stop an evil tyrant etc etc, you know the rest. I've seen this before (and so have you).
I found the greatest flaw the story suffers from is that the main characters is just...argh...I don't want to use cliches but I cant think of another way to explain him.....incredibly goth and incredibly emo.
How goth and emo?
This kid is so self absorbed with his naval gazing self pity that when he appears in the magical land of freakish talking birds and is told he has to restore freedom and their ability to fly, he responds with irritation and disinterest!
As if the battle to save the world is something annoying that distracts people from how jolly bad he feels even though (despite wearing a lot of black and eye shadow) he has no serious problems other then his girlfriend left him! Get over it! At least she didn't take over your country and turn you into a mindless slave (as the evil bird baddies have) There are ten feet tall freakin' birds talking to you! What the heck does it take to get this kids interest?
The really frustrating part of this is that the world he is in is genuinely really really interesting! Its a none stop roller coaster ride through the surreal and the fact that the main character cant seem to get motivated enough to care about any of it makes me wonder if I supposed to care about it?
Should I, like the hero, say I don't care and have a winge?
I want to see this world through the eyes of someone filled with wonder, horror and bewilderment at its strangeness(like I am!), not through the eyes of an eternally depressed teenager who can't get over himself.
Final score- 5/10
Something everyone should go take a look at, but not completely successful as a comic and story.

Warning - this review TL:DR

I will first cover art.

The degree of detail varies greatly on a piece-to-piece level; simple panels segue rapidly into heavily detailed pieces that are the products of obvious effort and skill. For example, seemingly quickly drawn figures suddenly become realistic and then turn into deftly inked, visually interesting caricatures with the same abruptness!

Though it is purposely done, it is difficult for this reason to reliably describe or "rate" the art style. It is unique enough that I wonder at the banner stating "web manga," which brings to mind a rather different tableau. The overall composition and main character design are reminiscent of a goth style. This is not to be mistaken as criticism, as the work is often striking and the inking, which is at times quite detailed, also provides tone and texture.

Minimalistic backgrounds are sometimes used to great effect, as in cases where there is something in the foreground that is intensely detailed; for example, the final panel of this page really pops, and the diagonal lines of the walls give it an engaging, dynamic feel. But I must confess that until I scrolled down, I momentarily thought that the birds that were lifting a house on this page were actually grabbing some long ponytails due to the lack of detail below the roof. Of course, this misconception was banished in the next panel.

Assorted short observations include that some people may find the occasional backward dialogue difficult to read, and while many of the misspellings are clearly puns or purposefully done, a few seem unintentional. The page formats are pleasantly dynamic and the speech bubbles unobtrusive, though sometimes with action scenes the tableau is busy to a nearly distracting extent.

I shall next deal with the plot, a bit more briefly.

To drastically oversimplify in the interest of relatively spoiler-free summarization, an emotional young man takes too many pills after depressing events occur and ends up in a world populated by sentient birds with political troubles, a young spy girl, a violent young girl, and myriad interestingly-designed fantasy creatures. By simplifying it, I intend to illustrate that it is not a particularly stereotyped romance or action story. In general it is readable and easy to follow.

There are certain endearing traits unique to the characters; Plobbins's frequent neologisms and Kale's weeping, for example. However, there is very little opportunity to get to know the characters. I often felt distanced from the story due to this: I am not invested in what is happening to them on a particularly emotional level because I do not know them. In the beginning there is an introduction of main character Kale, but even after reading the entirety of the work so far I know very little about Plobbins, Lady Dasa or the (admittedly recently introduced) Eilie. I hope that in future chapters the characters will be given backstories and chances to express their personalities.

In summary...

The most striking quality of the work has to be the art, which at times is amazingly detailed. The story is also unique, though there is a dearth of information about the characters, a situation that may in future be rectified. There is a great deal of material in the archives; I will be watching this comic in the future.

Thank you both for your reviews! They were both very well thought out, and I really appreciate you guys taking the time to read it (even though yeah, you just had to so you can get reviewed haha). One of my film teachers had some rule about never commenting on someone reviews of your work, if it's what you guys got from the series, it's what you guys got.

I would like to point out that anyone who reviews the series after this post has an additional 24 pages that I just posted that they'll be talking about. I post VdV in chapters, not weekly pages.

The only thing I'll say to Harkovast is that it's not eyeliner, it's sleep deprivation. The only thing I'll say to Ochitsukanai is that you're quite the linguist sir... Oh and if you guys enjoyed the series, read the new pages haha

well this sure is one weird comic, the art style is very surreal looking but in a good way, extremely well done.

story wise though could use some work, too much depression in the lead makes the comic bland and annoying at times rather then taking advantage and exploring the world more and having a wonderful adventure for both the characters and readers the main character just makes me want to punch him in the face.

great art bad writing 6/10

Overall

I thought it was great. Something a little different and with a touch of wacky WTF. Which is right up my alley.

Art

Love it. Stylised for sure, but not in such a way that the person is trying to hide any lack of drawing skills. You can tell that there is an understanding of composition, shading and anatomy. The panels are dynamic, not just box box box box. It is interesting to look at. Following the path of vomit was cool. The design on the white rabbit was freaking awesome.

Letters

It is a little hard to read once in a while. Nothing crazy bad, just have to squint a little.

Writing

The story for the first chapter was a little out there, nothing that hasn't been done before. but still a fun, fast read. No big blobs of text explaining stuff that doesn't need to be explained.

Summary

I am reading the rest of the chapters. I found it interesting enough for the story, but the art is just too fun to look up to pass it up.