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My Kukuburi review!
By Benor | March 8, 2008
Kukuburi is a beautifully drawn comic, with wonderfully surreal landscapes and characters. And even though there’s a serious tone to the whole comic, the art keeps it form becoming oppressive or stifling. However, the other elements of the comic aren’t quite as strong-and I worry that as we learn more about the story and the characters, the art alone won’t be enough to keep my interest.
As I’ve already mentioned, the art for Kukuburi is excellent. To me, it compares to some of the best art I’ve seen in printed comic, and in a good way. The colors are rich, but not overwhelming, and every panel seems well placed. So far, my only major concern is with the perspective, which can become quite dizzying. I understand the reason for it, since most of the comic is set in a very odd and alien place. But it doesn’t always work, and I have trouble enjoying the art when I have to decipher what the creator is trying to show. They also have a tendency to draw out scenes, showing more of the scenery and characters than they strictly need to. I wouldn’t call this a flaw, at least not yet….but if the trend continues and the pace slows down further, I’ll start to get worried.
Right now, the story is rather mysterious. We are introduced to the main character as she goes through an abbreviated version of her normal routine, The story picks up when her normal routine is disrupted, and it just goes off from there. And for 63 pages, quite a bit has happened so far, even if most of it is half-explained at this point. I do wonder where the story is heading, but at this point in Kukuburi, the only thing I can be sure of is some kind of battle between good and evil. Whether that battle will be interesting or cliched, I’m not sure of yet.
Right now, aside from the art, I think the characters of Kukuburi are the strongest point. This isn’t because of their great personalities-we haven’t had the time to develop most of those. But every character has a distinct visual look, and just enough traits to be memorable. My favorite so far would be the antagonist, unnamed but very interesting. He also has the most dialogue (and probably the most coherent, to boot) so far. I hope he turns out to be as rich as he seems so far, because I will be very disappointed if I’m proven wrong. Others are quite interesting so far-I’d love to find out more about the Brigade de Chapeau in particular. But we’ll see if these actually pay off, and when we’ll get some of the names for the characters.
The writing for Kukuburi is, so far, entertaining. The dialogue is snappy, the pace is nice, and I’m certainly interested in where it will go. But that is what worries me about Kukuburi. A lot of hints have been dropped so far, about both the overall nature of this new world, and about the protagonist and her enemy. Very little has been spelled out so far, such as the Brigade de Chapeau-what is their goal? What can all of their hats do (since it’s been shown that the hats are more than just a fashion statement)? And what special quality does the protagonist have that has brought her into this odd place? All of these are unexplained for now, but show a great deal of promise. I do hope that we don’t see too many cliches in the explanation-not that something familiar is automatically bad, but I would hate to see such interesting ideas come down to a by-the-numbers struggle between good and evil.
Kukuburi is a comic that has gotten off to a good start (especially with the art), and has a great deal of promise. Will that promise be fulfilled? I don’t know, and that’s my biggest worry about Kukuburi. But I think this is something I’ll closely watch, and I certainly hope it will continue to entertain. I give Kukuburi 8 out of 10.
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