If you go to ygallery, no doubt you've clicked the Today's Tops tab and seen E. K. Weaver's characters TJ and Amal a few times. If you watched her, you learned more and more about her characters through her sketches, comics, and illustrations. Her goal is to print the story of these two boys, but for now she's made them available to us through her website
So far there is about 57 pages of The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal up. I had wanted to wait until there was at least 100 pages before giving a small review, but currently there are a couple of things in Epic I find both interesting and problematic that I wanted to highlight here.
Today I'm going to focus on the two main characters and tomorrow I'll write about my thoughts on the art, layout, a dialogue. Beware, there are small spoilers ahead.
Epic opens with Amal (pictured above) storming out of a house followed by a woman. They talk, but Amal can't be consoled. He enters his car and drives around aimlessly before ending up at a bar where he gets plastered. I want to note this whole scene has no dialogue. While it does work stylistically, I feel we miss out on getting to know Amal. This detachment might have been done purposefully since Amal himself has become detached. She sets up a void between the reader and Amal that will slowly fill as the story develops. It can possibly work, but I won't know until there's more meat to this story.
Amal's character may be a skeleton that needs some fleshing out but TJ (above) will make you fall in love. He approaches Amal at the bar after over hearing a conversation he has with his sister where he declares he will drive cross-country to go see her. Obviously too drunk to drive, TJ escorts Amal home where the next day he updates him on a plan they had hashed out whilst he was drunk. TJ wants to tag along on Amal's cross-country drive, he even offers to cover all travel expenses. Why does TJ want to join Amal and why is he willing to pay for all expenses is a mystery Weaver sets up beautifully. TJ is a paradox. He seems very open and honest, yet he's shrouded in mystery. He's very charismatic, so as a reader you warm up to him instantly and you want to learn more about him. But can you trust him? Should Amal trust him? There are situations that transpire that makes TJ out to be a trustworthy individual, however, Weaver keeps throwing in these little tidbits that make you question TJ.
What we've had so far, up until chapter 7, is basically two people who share the same space but have no real interaction. When TJ speaks Amal hears him, but he's so far gone in his own little world he doesn't listen. I like this concept, but certain aspects of it can further alienate the readers. I believe the dialogue is working well, but there are places where the layout widens that gulf.
And I shall leave it there and pick up with layout tomorrow. See ya then!
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