The Process Forum - Flu Shots Part Five (Ready 12 16)

So I was waiting to write a review till we had a few issues out, so I could just make one long review addressing any of the issues I had with the comic series thus far. After this last one here, and after talking with Mirlinth/Janus for a while on gtalk about it. I felt compelled that now was the time to write a review. I'm going to go in chronological order of when each one released. I'll be showing some images. But they'll be single cell images, so it should be alright :p if not, someone can slap my hand for it.

Flu Shots One

Let's get the story part out of the way first. As a quick synopsys it looks like this comic book series takes place in the same universe as Yard Work. As we have the same doctor and nurse.

The family is going out on a vacation and rented a cabin for the week. This is when we start getting introduced to the characters. Michael, the annoying little brother whose 6, Zoe, the bitchy 13 yr old who thinks she's hot shit, Madison the 18 yr old typical big sister and Mom.

This is where my problems start to begin though, I already know whose going to be regressing, whose going to be progressing and I'm already starting to get irritated with Zoe. Generally speaking, I enjoy my regression process more when the person deserves it. The comic doesn't seem to lay out the family dynamic in that respect. Madison is honestly the typical big sister, she teases her brother and sister a little, but generally loves the hell out of them. Helps her mom when she needs a break and tries to push them to run harder and faster to get up the hill, even treats them to some ice cream afterwards as a reward.

We get to the part where we have the kiddos and Madison get there flu shots. Soon after, we get our first regression. At this point, I'm beginning to loath Zoe. She has a bratty come back every time Madison says ANYTHING. She's quickly coming to the point where she's just being a bitch, because she's a bitch.

That's just a quick synopsis though of the story line, without going to far indepth and ruining it for anyone. Now let's get into art errors, and boy was there a big continuity error in this comic. Honestly, it's something that bothered me, but probably not alot of other people.

Michael doesn't age regress or progress, but check out this cell comparison of before and after Zoe and Madison's processes.
http://puu.sh/q7yXj/1ebc0d0b6e.jpg http://puu.sh/q7xCU/7af74ce6d0.jpg

He is always as high as her shoulder. It doesn't matter what cell, I could have easily have taken the picture from multiple other cells. When she gets taller, it seems he does too. This is HUGE to me, as Michael would have been a great base line to see how tall Zoe had actually grown. Since Madison had shrank, we don't really get that comparison. From the viewpoint of that cell and many others, it looks like no one really shrank or grew all that much.

But to be honest, the rest of the cells in the comic seemed pretty spot on. That was the one huge error. There is a few cells I have issues with, but they're super super minor and not even really worth mentioning at this point. Let's get on to the next one.

Flu Shots 2

---Going to be posting these one at a time on the same post, but I'm taking a break between them---

Starting with the story, it's actually pretty well written at this point. We know who ALL of the characters are now, we can remember there names and each one has a distinct personality. Which is awesome, because it's been one of my chief complaints lately to DT. We get some small regression in this one and one larger progression. It almost seems like we're jumping ages really fast here. It's slower than most of DT's work, as it's spanning multiple comics, but the regression itself only lasts a panel or two at a time. Which is awesome if you own all three volumes and can just binge read it. Not so awesome if you only owned one. So it's kind of a trade off at that point, pretty much, what would you rather have. Personally, I like it.

But, we have a problem, I now hate Zoe even more. I honestly want to see her regress in the most inopportune time in the future series of this comic to embarrass the hell out of her. This panel kind of explains it all. To provide some context, Zoe just made fun of Madison's breasts being so small, mom has told her to appologize.
http://puu.sh/q7zTj/694460bc7d.jpg
Yeah.. I want to punch her in the face. Mom just kind of blows it off and just walks Madison away without any punishment for Zoe. Even as they're leaving, Zoe is still relentlessly teasing and making fun of Madison.

Not much else to really go into here now though. Let's get onto the artwork here

The artwork, is surprisingly pretty good here. Except for two major thing I want to point out.
This woman's horrifying face
http://puu.sh/q7AiC/5ab047cd5e.jpg

Dear lord, she'd give anyone a nightmare.

Zoe's nose has changed, from cell to cell.
http://puu.sh/q7AoP/2d3788d7a9.jpg

But besides that, yeah, artwork is pretty spot on. I actually like this dynamic that they did, that was probably really imperceptible to a lot of people.
http://puu.sh/q7Axp/2e5df4aa90.jpg http://puu.sh/q7ABR/ee7bdfb05c.jpg

That's because they don't mentioned they swapped dresses from the first issue. There's only a couple of panels in the first issue where Zoe is complaining that Madison bought the same kind of dress as her, just in a different color, Blue. While Zoe's is Red. I like this, I actually like this quite alot. As it provides a really great comparison. All in all, this issue wasn't that bad! Besides Zoe's ever changing nose and this horrifying waitress
http://puu.sh/q7AHt/b1e5a2d0d5.jpg
She'll steal your soul, and serve you your brains...

Flu Shots 3

So now we're getting onto the most recent edition. This is the one that prompted me to finally write a review, and it was because of a giant glaring continuity error that you can't even try and miss. I'm going to skip story for just a moment to share this.
http://puu.sh/q8uDp/52ffedfce7.jpg http://puu.sh/q8uI8/9b129c5c7e.jpg
Apparently Madison has a cool color changing swim suit. This was so jarring to me and Janus, it started a full blown, "what else is wrong?". I mean, we've had little problems before that we've found. Bust those can be easily ignored when your just enjoying the comics, but this error is so jarring you can't miss it. Or even attempt to really ignore it. Because of the bright colors, it draws your attention directly to it, almost as if it's intentional. These two panels aren't even like pages and pages apart. They're a single cell apart. Pretty much right next to eachother.

Another issue was on the entire page of 13 (sorry that's where I draw the lines of posting pictures of the comic). Cell 1 shows Zoe's right breast out of her towel, while the rest of the page it's neatly tucked away.

We also get yet again, Zoe's ever changing nose. This time, it's happening quite alot.
http://puu.sh/q8v8k/6cadbbe1d0.jpg http://puu.sh/q8va3/240ddc3bcf.jpg http://puu.sh/q8vbO/dcc625a862.jpg http://puu.sh/q8ved/55c1bbb929.jpg http://puu.sh/q8vft/7e48e4f68e.jpg http://puu.sh/q8vhk/50ac17f1a1.jpg

Does Zoe come equipped with a mood nose?

All in all, compared with the first two, this one had TONS of very glaring art errors. To the point where it had me and Janus laughing somewhat. I'm not going to get to much into the story at this point, because it's gotten to a point where I just wish Zoe would either fall into a pit of acid or get regressed an embarrassed.

Seriously, Zoe is the most unlikable character I think DT has ever written. I think the Zoe character was supposed to be written as bubbly/frustrated over her lot in life. But she turns out to be unrightfully vindictive/bitchy and I just wish she'd get her comeuppance. If this was the intention, I have to applaud DT, because that's glorious and I can't wait to see what happens to her. If not, it's a serious writing error.

I'm also going to re-mention Janus's complaint earlier that he made. I don't think anyone ever has said, "She's not even in puberty any more". There HAS to be a different phrase for that. It just doesn't make much sense to me.

All in all, as a series, story line wise. It's doing a pretty good job, it's enjoyable but only to a point because of Zoe. Unless of course it's the intention of DT to make Zoe unlikable for a future regression of her.

The artwork through the whole series, has steadily gone down hill since chapter 1. As we get through chapter 3 the artwork has become so bad in some parts, you can't even attempt to try and ignore it. But it's more continuity issues.

Would I recommend it as a good read though? Well, actually yeah, but only if we get a chapter 4 that begins to reverse the roles again. As it currently stands, the story actually irritates me because of Zoe. So we'll wait and see what happens with the story. If we get a good couple of final chapters here, then yes yes and yes. If Zoe's character is going to stay as she is, then absolutely not, pass on this.