Take a photo of a barcode or cover
sucreslibrary's reviews
1109 reviews
The Chromatic Fantasy by H.A.
3.0
i feel like im being pretty generous giving this a 3.5 but 3 stars doesn't feel right either? maybe ill change it in the future (edit: yeah i lowered it. my feelings have cooled even more after a few days away from the comic)
i do love the trans joy that practically radiates off the pages of this comic but i couldn't help but feel big portions of it (especially in the middle) were just sketch dumps of the author's OCs that they felt like throwing in there to pad out the book. not sure how relatable this example is, but a lot of this reading experience felt like scrolling through someone's tumblr who is obsessed w/ these two dudes they've made and just want to draw them in pretty outfits and fucking all the time. and those accounts would have a lot of fans and get a lot of asks! people would fall in love with those ocs! so i know it has appeal. but when im reading a non-self-published comic im expecting more than just the experience of scrolling through somebody's tumblr.
i read an interview from the creator and he basically confirmed thats what it was - he made up two dudes he liked to draw together and then sorta came up with a plot much later so he could make comics about them. this is something ive seen happen time and time again from artists i follow on tumblr so it shouldn't be a surprise that i picked up on it while reading, but it meant i wasn't the most connected with it all. i think its also very off-putting to me when something that is so clearly self-indulgent and all about wish fulfillment has the two main dudes be white + skinny + able-bodied. it wants to be transgressive in its depiction of trans love but cant be bothered to draw fatness or disability and so i get a bit bored and alienated. the stupid meme humor didn't help either.
when the comic bothers to have more of a plot (beginning section and ending section) it can really be a work of beauty (even if the creator gives up on drawing backgrounds a lot so characters are just in voids of flat colors). the ending was very touching! you just kinda have to slog through a lot of online/tumblr humor to get to it.
also very silly but i hated that there was an iphone in one panel and one panel only. i get the anachronistic stuff, theres phones and cars and a long mention of starbucks (also very cringy to read im gonna be real) in this medieval time period but having the iphone only in one panel ended up driving me a little batty. at least use it to tell the time later or something, don't just show it once and never again! i get the visual the author is giving with that panel (a dude waking up in bed and immediately turning off his alarm) but it still ended up bothering me way more than it should have.
i do love the trans joy that practically radiates off the pages of this comic but i couldn't help but feel big portions of it (especially in the middle) were just sketch dumps of the author's OCs that they felt like throwing in there to pad out the book. not sure how relatable this example is, but a lot of this reading experience felt like scrolling through someone's tumblr who is obsessed w/ these two dudes they've made and just want to draw them in pretty outfits and fucking all the time. and those accounts would have a lot of fans and get a lot of asks! people would fall in love with those ocs! so i know it has appeal. but when im reading a non-self-published comic im expecting more than just the experience of scrolling through somebody's tumblr.
i read an interview from the creator and he basically confirmed thats what it was - he made up two dudes he liked to draw together and then sorta came up with a plot much later so he could make comics about them. this is something ive seen happen time and time again from artists i follow on tumblr so it shouldn't be a surprise that i picked up on it while reading, but it meant i wasn't the most connected with it all. i think its also very off-putting to me when something that is so clearly self-indulgent and all about wish fulfillment has the two main dudes be white + skinny + able-bodied. it wants to be transgressive in its depiction of trans love but cant be bothered to draw fatness or disability and so i get a bit bored and alienated. the stupid meme humor didn't help either.
when the comic bothers to have more of a plot (beginning section and ending section) it can really be a work of beauty (even if the creator gives up on drawing backgrounds a lot so characters are just in voids of flat colors). the ending was very touching! you just kinda have to slog through a lot of online/tumblr humor to get to it.
also very silly but i hated that there was an iphone in one panel and one panel only. i get the anachronistic stuff, theres phones and cars and a long mention of starbucks (also very cringy to read im gonna be real) in this medieval time period but having the iphone only in one panel ended up driving me a little batty. at least use it to tell the time later or something, don't just show it once and never again! i get the visual the author is giving with that panel (a dude waking up in bed and immediately turning off his alarm) but it still ended up bothering me way more than it should have.