WEBCOMIC WEDNESDAY REVIEW: Soul's Journey

Creator: Sophie PfrÃ¶tzschner
Webcomic: Soul’s Journey

Summary: Soul’s Journey is a fantasy webcomic by Sophie PfrÃ¶tzschner that tells the story of Anrak, a man looking for his brother. As Anrak goes to search for him, however, he stumbles across a peculiar necklace that changes him from man into beast. As a wolf, Anrak struggles to find acceptance and survive.

Story: With two chapters underneath its belt, Soul’s Journey has finally broken free of its own introductions. The cast has been characterized, and a great deal of information about the world has been introduced. Unfortunately, the story did not progress quite as far as I would have liked over these two chapters. This is to say, Soul’s Journey does have a bit of a problem with pacing.

As long as the focus remains on Anrak the wolf, it is barely noticeable. The panels are filled with great silent body language, and the dialogue between the characters seems very natural. However, when focusing on Anrak the human, Soul’s Journey begins to rely heavily on exposition. This bogs the story down, and some of the information I personally found out-of-place. It does tell quite a bit about the politics of the world around the characters, but in the end, this story is not Game of Thrones. Soul’s Journey does not seem to be about these politics, at its core, and it makes me wonder if they were truly needed.

The wolf characters are quite enjoyable, and have a complex dynamic that ties them together. On top of that, the lore in Soul’s Journey is interesting, expounded upon in “intermission” sequences that are drawn by hand. Overall, I found the story in this webcomic enjoyable. There were just moments where I wished it would move more quickly.

Art:Â Soul’s Journey has a very “typical” art style for a webcomic, I would say. It is colorful, and uses bold lines along with a coloring style that relies heavily on smudges. The characters sometimes stand out too much from their backgrounds (causing them to feel separated), but in general the wolves are drawn excellently. Humans, while still not drawn poorly, are not quite as refined as the wolves are. Their faces seem to draw inspiration from classic Disney movies, and occasionally, they come off as cumbersome or flat in their posing. However, it’s not so much that it really detracts from the story. The hand-drawn “intermission” sequences look incredible, and provide a nice palate cleanse between chapters.

The page layouts in Soul’s Journey are quite creative and flow nicely. The creator obviously knows how to draw the reader’s eyes fluidly across the page. The lettering itself is also done very well, to the point that it aids in creating this flow in reading.

Conclusion: All in all, Soul’s Journey has ways to go, but it is now ready to go there. With a bit more action and plot progression, I could see it easily becoming very popular. There is an audience established for stories based on animals like this, and they’re sure to get a kick out of it. The mileage of most other readers will vary. However, I still feel as though Soul’s Journey is a solidly good comic.