Flying Tigers review by Antony Martin of Robot the Pirate

Starting out reviewing Flying Tigers by Rob O'Brien, not Harli Dust as the banner might imply. I don't know if anyone's ever made this mistake for real, but I already knew our Scooby wrote it.

Before I started to read through I thought “How long is this?” so I looked for an archive section, and while I like the “...Diary”, “...Yearbook”, “Photo Album”, “...Hangouts” menu it's a little confusing. Putting what they really are in brackets would help, but it's up to you if you think it would spoil the mood. I'll stop reviewing the website rather than the comic now.

First page. The font. I'm dyslexic so “T”s that look like “4”s aren't great, I don't know if that would actually stop anyone else who's dyslexic from continuing on with the comic (especially when they realise its just for the diary/internal monologue) but it might take a little from the enjoyment factor. It also seems too uniform. I know it is uniform, because its a font, but because it's trying to be a handwritten font the uniformity becomes obvious when it's in such large amounts, its not so big a problem in the smaller thought bubbles once the story starts. Last thought on this page, “I hope they don't wear those trousers often” because they're really crotch-centric.

First characters mentioned, Doc and Storm. I might not have noticed if they weren't the only characters named so far, but I feel like I've strayed into a X-Men fan-fic. Next the Cobras, to me that says Grease (and it's also the name of a joke gang formed by Joey and Rachel in an episode of Friends), it doesn't sound real.

The attempted rape scene. I read this bit when you first started the comic, and honestly that's why I haven't read any more until now. Whatever message you're trying to put across in this bit it's uncomfortable and not handled well. Five seconds later she's fine again, worrying instead about her friend and thankful her food is fine. So is this a regular thing that people have become desensitised to it? Unless you're planning on making a big deal out of this, you're risking belittling it and there are support groups that would happily pummel you for that. I'll read on...

Story wise you're still introducing Harli and her friends so I find it hard to judge what this comic is about. From the title, 'Ric's comments, the picture in the banner and Doc's house, and Harli and 'Ric's apparent martial arts skills it's surmisable that the Flying Tigers are a martial arts group so presumably the comic is about them. All we (the readers) can really do at the moment is presume things, which is fine as long we're not doing that for too much longer.

Art wise I much prefer FT to SH so you're growing. I'm not the best to review your art but I always feel you need to “loosen up (man)” and add some fluidity to your poses. Have you tried the exercise where you draw someone around you (while waiting for a bus or at a café or something) in just a minute or two, you don't have time to get any details down so all you can aim for is an expression of their movement and form. Actually, comparing you early fight stuff to the boat fight scene (which the forward navigation seems to skip, you should look into that) you've improved a lot with that. Other than that I'm impressed with your colouring and shading they have an appealing organic feel. The difference between the tall and short people is massive, that's not entirely unusual, especially for school age, but it feels a little odd.

There's a fair bit in the wave café that's quite obviously C&Ved (and others, this was just the first I noticed), I know it can be boring to draw people sitting talking in pretty much the same pose again and again but you can always flip to another point of view to keep this interesting. You don't get away with it though, it is obvious, and if I bought it in a book I'd feel cheated.

So my thoughts. It's moving slowly. You're still introducing, which is cool, but 60 odd pages in I feel while lots has happened that nothing at all has happened, at the same time. It's not so much a bad thing. Taking your time and setting the scene with lots of minor occasions can give us a nice background to your characters.

Unfortunately referring to minor occasions brings me back to an earlier point. The attempted rape scene. None of them seem bothered by it in the slightest, as though because it was a failed attempt it's nothing to worry about. What would they have done if 'Ric hadn't been there? Then the very next morning two of your main characters a caught being voyeurs and everyone makes jokes. It really doesn't make sense, people don't react like that in real life and I think you would probably offend a lot of people if they read it.

So while you're improving in your art and I'm curious where the story is going, I'm put of reading it or recommending it by that gaping emotional hole and the only thing I can really suggest is to cut the Cobras altogether from what has already gone by in the story and re-introduce them more tastefully (make them the slime they are by all means, but not the way you have done). When that's done Flying Tigers will have enough credibility to show promise.

The Flying Tigers is copyright © Rob O'Brien 2011-

Flying Tigers is hosted on ComicGenesis, a free webhosting and site automation service for webcomics.