Hoju #1 Now Available! $2
Random submissions are always a crapshoot, and this one started off a bit rough. If you look up at that top right corner you’ll see the issue number chopped off by the copier; a minor thing until you see that the first story (after an introduction of the characters, which is always a good thing) suffers from the same problem and is damned near unreadable because of it. Luckily you can still see most of it, as it turns out to be the origin story for a few of the regular characters. From there things pick up considerably, with the only noticeable errors being spelling and grammar. Seriously, if this website can do anything for the comics world, I hope it’s to relentlessly point out the difference between “your” and “you’re”, “their” and “they’re”, etc. Don’t just guess and throw one of them in there, take a half a second and find out which one is right! It’s probably just a pet peeve of mine, granted, but I always feel like the people who get it wrong just aren’t taking this seriously, which is quite possibly a legitimate position when you think about career opportunities in this field, but if you’re going to spend weeks (if not months) drawing something, can’t you at least fix the easy stuff like that? Yes, I am in fact always good for a rant on that subject, and Edgar didn’t have mistakes in every panel or anything like that. He just consistently got it wrong. As for the content, it got funnier as it went on, and he has a strange enough cast of characters that this could be the start of a very good thing. Stories in here include waiting to ambush the taco man, sadness about being fugly, turning down a date due to excessive cynicism, taking your creature for a walk in the park, the dangers of windows to a talking bird, finally confronting the real taco man, and finding out the real story of the lonely “taco man”. Finally there’s the one long piece of the comic, dealing with an accidental zombie outbreak that was oddly confined to only a few people… that they know of. All kinds of potential here if a few minor things are tweaked. Oh, and another tip to you youngsters: write your words before the word balloons. Crazy, I know, but it saves all that word cramming later. I bring these things up because I care, you know, and because there are enough things that can go wrong in making a comic that it’s good to at least have a firm grasp of the basics. Also, my lawn was doing just fine before you damned kids started walking all over it. My curmudgeonly nature aside, this is worth a look. $2
