Bric -a- Brac #1 indie comic crowd funding review: Great art- disappointing story telling.
I backed Ryan Haack's Bric -a- Brac #1 on a whim after seeing him guest host on a stream with Mike Miller and Edwin Boyette a few months ago. I did so because I liked the young guys enthusiasm and passion that he showed for his project. The price on IndieGoGo wasn't bad either so it was a not a big investment for me to try out a new creator that I had not heard of before.
Yesterday Bric -a- Brac #1 arrived at my door on time and as advertised and in satisfactory condition, so the kid is ahead of the curve in that regard compared to most of crowd funding campaigns, and I think that actually means a lot.
Bric -a- Brac is a Christmas themed comic book told in a child friendly style and seems inspired by many of the old school, secular Christmas cartoons and specials of the past. There is a charming and commercial feel to the story.
First let us talk about the best part of the comic book and that is the art which is credited to an artist by the name of Rafael Sam. I am unfamiliar with the work of the artist before this book but he will clearly be one to keep an eye on.
His style is very professional and crisp and is actually better than most of the art you see in a lot of Indie crowd funded books right now. The style, colors and presentation fits in perfectly with the theme of the book and the artist has a great feel for story telling and the art flows well and never gets in the way. I am already a big fan.
Now I am forced to mention the weak side of this project and that is the story and the writing.
Bric -a- Brac is an original and unique take in the current community of crowd funded Indie comics but it is a major shame that the writing feels rushed and there seems to be little "world building" in the first issue. While there is lot of room for said "world building" in the universe of "Planet Christmas" and lots of potential for lore and history sadly we get little to none of it in the first issue.
This is of course a major problem for the first issue of a series because it is very important to properly introduce your readers to a fully formed, or at least a well written microcosm slice, of your new world and the vision you have for it.
Unfortunately, Bric -a- Brac does not do this at all, and I am afraid that is not the only short coming to the writing as a whole.
The scripting also feels rushed and often doesn't seem to flow with the art or sound like natural conversations the characters would be likely to have. The speech patterns for the characters feels off and if there is a story or world reason for the way that they speak it is not told to the reader or even hinted at in the world building.
The over all plot is over simplified and comes off as rushed in the 24ish or so pages that are shipped in the first issue. The book is almost completely devoid of character motivations and history and the pacing of the story feels "off" and often disjointed at times.
It was also very disappointing that in a tale about Christmas and a mystical land that should have been full of awe and wonder that none of the characters, even Father Christmas himself or any of the fantasy settings, were never given the time or the atmosphere to shine that a book like this desperately needed.
Over all I didn't get too invested in the plot, characters or even the cliff hanger the story ended on.
The problems with the story was very disappointing for me personally because I had recently started to develop high hopes for the writing and the author because of a digital E-book he had released to backers who were waiting for the book to ship.
The free digital comic he released was called 'Unspeakable Text' and was told in an anthology style comic book series like the 'Ray Bradbury Chronicles' or like the old TV show the 'Twilight Zone'.
While that book wasn't perfect I found it well written and very interesting, and the author found and worked with quite a few good artists in the book, and it greatly increased my expectations for the finished version of Bric -a- Brac and for Ryan as a creator and developer of talent.
Now for the coloring, lettering and other production aspects of the book...
The coloring was perfect and a beautiful compliment to the art. Everything about the coloring of the book fit in perfectly with everything else. The book is full of vibrant and wonderful colors that match the art style and the world's settings.
The lettering was hit or miss at times but mostly fine. There was the occasional "narrative box" that was just a little too small and hard to read but the dialog bubbles were fine. There was also one minor lettering mistake on the very first page that was a bit confusing and off putting until you realized that the letterer seemingly just put the word bubble on the wrong character.
The print quality for the actual book was mostly good. The only real complaint was the "board" cover which was probably too thick for the binding and the page count. This resulted in a constant bulge in the exact center of the comic, creating a "permanent state of opening of the book", giving it more of a greeting card feel than a floppy or any real kind of comic book. For a book with this few pages I think it would have actually benefited from being a total floppy.
To the best of my memory Bric -a- Brac was the cheapest Indie Comic crowd funded book that I have backed to date. The perk I backed was just 12$ and in the end the whole thing was just 17$ with shipping. Now relatively, that sounds pretty cheap as far as crowd funding tends to go, but in reality it would have probably benefited from having a higher price tag which would have added more pages and story and also could have benefited from having a longer development time allowing more pages to be drawn and the writer more time to flesh out his interesting world. Lower price points do not always equal more value, but I still think it was a fine product for a first time effort.
So that about does it with my quick blog review of Bric -a- Brac issue #1. I hope that my complaints about the story and the world building did not sound too negative because the over all experience of the comic book was pretty pleasant. Ryan Haack seems like a smart and industrial kid and I will be interested to see how he grows as a writer and as a producer of indie comic books. He is young and I believe the sky is the limit for him.
Bric -a- Brac is a Christmas themed comic book told in a child friendly style and seems inspired by many of the old school, secular Christmas cartoons and specials of the past. There is a charming and commercial feel to the story.
First let us talk about the best part of the comic book and that is the art which is credited to an artist by the name of Rafael Sam. I am unfamiliar with the work of the artist before this book but he will clearly be one to keep an eye on.
Now I am forced to mention the weak side of this project and that is the story and the writing.
Bric -a- Brac is an original and unique take in the current community of crowd funded Indie comics but it is a major shame that the writing feels rushed and there seems to be little "world building" in the first issue. While there is lot of room for said "world building" in the universe of "Planet Christmas" and lots of potential for lore and history sadly we get little to none of it in the first issue.
This is of course a major problem for the first issue of a series because it is very important to properly introduce your readers to a fully formed, or at least a well written microcosm slice, of your new world and the vision you have for it.
Unfortunately, Bric -a- Brac does not do this at all, and I am afraid that is not the only short coming to the writing as a whole.
The scripting also feels rushed and often doesn't seem to flow with the art or sound like natural conversations the characters would be likely to have. The speech patterns for the characters feels off and if there is a story or world reason for the way that they speak it is not told to the reader or even hinted at in the world building.
The over all plot is over simplified and comes off as rushed in the 24ish or so pages that are shipped in the first issue. The book is almost completely devoid of character motivations and history and the pacing of the story feels "off" and often disjointed at times.
It was also very disappointing that in a tale about Christmas and a mystical land that should have been full of awe and wonder that none of the characters, even Father Christmas himself or any of the fantasy settings, were never given the time or the atmosphere to shine that a book like this desperately needed.
Over all I didn't get too invested in the plot, characters or even the cliff hanger the story ended on.
The problems with the story was very disappointing for me personally because I had recently started to develop high hopes for the writing and the author because of a digital E-book he had released to backers who were waiting for the book to ship.
The free digital comic he released was called 'Unspeakable Text' and was told in an anthology style comic book series like the 'Ray Bradbury Chronicles' or like the old TV show the 'Twilight Zone'.
While that book wasn't perfect I found it well written and very interesting, and the author found and worked with quite a few good artists in the book, and it greatly increased my expectations for the finished version of Bric -a- Brac and for Ryan as a creator and developer of talent.
Now for the coloring, lettering and other production aspects of the book...
The coloring was perfect and a beautiful compliment to the art. Everything about the coloring of the book fit in perfectly with everything else. The book is full of vibrant and wonderful colors that match the art style and the world's settings.
The lettering was hit or miss at times but mostly fine. There was the occasional "narrative box" that was just a little too small and hard to read but the dialog bubbles were fine. There was also one minor lettering mistake on the very first page that was a bit confusing and off putting until you realized that the letterer seemingly just put the word bubble on the wrong character.
The print quality for the actual book was mostly good. The only real complaint was the "board" cover which was probably too thick for the binding and the page count. This resulted in a constant bulge in the exact center of the comic, creating a "permanent state of opening of the book", giving it more of a greeting card feel than a floppy or any real kind of comic book. For a book with this few pages I think it would have actually benefited from being a total floppy.
To the best of my memory Bric -a- Brac was the cheapest Indie Comic crowd funded book that I have backed to date. The perk I backed was just 12$ and in the end the whole thing was just 17$ with shipping. Now relatively, that sounds pretty cheap as far as crowd funding tends to go, but in reality it would have probably benefited from having a higher price tag which would have added more pages and story and also could have benefited from having a longer development time allowing more pages to be drawn and the writer more time to flesh out his interesting world. Lower price points do not always equal more value, but I still think it was a fine product for a first time effort.
So that about does it with my quick blog review of Bric -a- Brac issue #1. I hope that my complaints about the story and the world building did not sound too negative because the over all experience of the comic book was pretty pleasant. Ryan Haack seems like a smart and industrial kid and I will be interested to see how he grows as a writer and as a producer of indie comic books. He is young and I believe the sky is the limit for him.
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