So I’ve got something new and exciting for you folks this week. The digital comics platform Nanits has given Comic Crusaders access to their site and content for reviews. If you’ve been reading comics as pdfs via Comixology or other sources Nanits has takes things a step further. The comic is set up in layers so it gives a simulated 3-D effect while scrolling through the pages with text balloons and graphic elements moving in parallax with the panels below them. Also the comics have both music AND sound effect that play while you enjoy the book, though they can be muted if you prefer. It’s certainly a fun way to enjoy comics in the digital format.
So as a Kaiju fan I choose Kodoja to be my first review of the material offered on Nanits. Right off the bat Kodoja is a fun book. It hits all the beats you want out of a tale about a fifteen story tall monster rampaging through a city. The military created a gigantic synthetic monster monster as a weapon of course, at some point the project had been shut down but the beasties has awakened and is doing what giant monsters made for war do. Or protagonist Major General Cruz who headed up the project is tries desperately to figure out why Kigija is active and how to shut down this monster that was to be unstoppable. Both
Cruz and the supporting characters come across believably as people reacting to an unimaginable crisis, both those with knowledge of what they are facing and those who don’t. Each of them act out in ways that seem completely appropriate from war hero generals bet on destroying the creature, to politicians floundering to spin the disaster to Cruz having to deal with a monster and bureaucracy at the same time. The pacing is brisk with only once quiet scene playing out which I assume is a setup for the following issue in the midst of all the drama and carnage. This was also the most introspective moment in the story, as a professor at a university postulates about evolution, origins of life and similar themes. The comic concludes with a great cliffhanger, though not an unexpected one, that is the perfect punctuation to this excitingly grim story.
ART
This is my first exposure to this artist whose style is rather rough and stylized and I think this is purposely so. It certainly fits this story well. Smith avoids using rulers (or digital tools) to create any straight angles or perfect circles, preferring instead to draw everything in his own hand. The panels are nice and dynamic, characters are note clones of one another wearing different suits and hair, page flow is spot on. Though there are a couple of small hiccups in story telling, its nothing that breaks the immersion.
I have no idea if he works analogue or digitally but it is colored in a manner that looks like Copic markers where used with a gray scale palette. I rather like this touch because it harkens back to the first Kiaju films such as Godzilla and King Kong which were filmed in black and white. Its a good move in my book. If I was to express one other criticism of the art it would be that Smith seems to like drawing eyes without pupils or irises. Its an artistic choice I just cant agree with in this case for regular human characters, it just distracts whenever I see it.
MEDIA
The 3D effect is pretty nifty as you scroll through the pages and added a nice level of extra fun to the comic and the overall experience. The music is rather Matrixy techno and the volume dips in and out depending on the scene. The sound effects were particularly enjoyable with monster roats, crashes and booms and even murmurs, screams and the clicking photos being taken. Nice touched all!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Kodoja pays great homage to the Kaiju classics in both story and art and its appropriately apocalyptic feel. 4.5 out of 5!
[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
- Written by Keith Foster
Art by Rory Smith
Cover by Lance Pilgrim
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